Chapter 11 – The Weakest, Frailest Human Race (And the Surprisingly Gentle Emperor Eckardt?)
My body felt hot.
Ah, my fever must be rising, writhing under the sensation of heat and lethargy I hadn’t felt in a long time.
In fact, it was so hot I couldn’t stand it, so I shouted “Hiyah!” and kicked the blanket covering me, sending it flying across the room.
“Katia.”
Instantly, a beautiful voice rang out, forcibly pulling me from the edge of sleep.
I opened my eyes reflexively to find a man with beauty straight out of a painting sitting on the edge of the bed.
My, the only person I know this beautiful is Emperor Eckardt, but there’s no way he would call my name like that, so this must be a dream.
Just as I thought this, the Emperor reached out and touched my forehead with a careful hand. An incredibly pleasant scent wafted from Emperor Eckardt, and I wondered why I could feel his touch and smell him if this was a dream.
Hmm, this is bad. No matter how severe my injuries were in the past, my dreams and reality never got mixed up like this. But today, they’re all jumbled.
Is the wound on my arm worse than I thought? Is my consciousness muddled?
As I furrowed my brow in thought, Emperor Eckardt leaned over me. He stared at me from point-blank range.
My, a handsome man is handsome even up close, I marveled. Then, strangely, flecks of gold began to appear in Emperor Eckardt’s black eyes. It was such a mystical sight that I stared, captivated, until his eyes completely transformed into gold before I realized it.
“…They look like stars. How beautiful.”
When I muttered this, Emperor Eckardt’s eyes went wide in surprise.
“Stars, you say?”
True, comparing eyes to stars is a bit strange, isn’t it?
Thinking this, I stared blankly at the Emperor. Perhaps seeing such a handsome man up close excited me, because my body felt even warmer, as if radiating heat.
Noticing my face flushing red, Emperor Eckardt touched my forehead again and sighed.
“Haa… Still no change? If anything, your fever seems to have risen. Just how frail are you?”
I know that without you telling me. My frailty is certified by every single knight in my homeland.
While I was thinking this, the Emperor spoke in a tone meant to reason with me.
“Lutz confirmed firsthand that healing magic doesn’t work on you. We called a doctor to treat you afterward, but he says it will take a month to fully heal. It’s been a few hours since he stitched you up, so you should take some painkillers.”
My, Emperor Eckardt explains things in such detail, even in a dream, I thought with admiration as I looked down at my right arm.
It was wrapped heavily in bandages. Perhaps because I became aware of it, the pain returned, and I began to feel a dull, throbbing ache.
As I stared at my arm, the Emperor asked, checking on me.
“Drink the medicine. Can you sit up?”
Of course I can sit up, but I don’t want to. It’s too much trouble; I want to stay lying down. When I just stared at him blankly, he seemed to decide something and picked up what looked like a medicine bottle from the side table. Then, without hesitation, he took the contents of the bottle into his own mouth, leaned over, and pressed his lips against mine.
“Eh?”
Even for a dream, this is too shocking. Through the gap in my parted lips, a thick liquid flowed in.
“Ngh…”
Contrary to my imagination, the medicine he fed me was bitter. I tried to pull away from the Emperor, but he held me down with exquisite control, preventing me from moving.
So, while staring resentfully at the Emperor, I gulped down the medicine.
Once he confirmed I had swallowed the medicine, Emperor Eckardt pulled away. Then, reaching for the side table again, he picked up a jar filled with colorful candies.
“These candies have different flavors depending on the color. Which one would you like?”
The jar contained orange, grape, strawberry, and various other flavors; choosing which one to eat was usually part of the fun. However, the difference in taste probably didn’t matter to Emperor Eckardt.
At least, it’s not something the Emperor of a great empire would be interested in. Yet, watching my expression, Emperor Eckardt accurately selected the candy I wanted to eat and brought it to my lips.
“I see. My future consort desires strawberry.”
The red candy I tasted was sweet, wiping away the bitterness in my mouth.
Perhaps due to the medicine I just took, or simply because I had woken up from sleep, my eyelids began to feel heavy and droop.
Just as I started to drift off, Emperor Eckardt pulled the blanket I had kicked away back over me. It’s hot, and once again, I kicked the blanket off.
“Katia… you are quite the tomboy, despite appearances.”
Emperor Eckardt’s exasperated voice drifted down to me. The blanket was pulled over me once more, and then something lay down beside me, a part of it wrapping around my waist.
My, he’s put a weight on me so I can’t kick the blanket off.
My mind understood that the person lying next to me was Emperor Eckardt and that it was his arm wrapped around my waist. I wondered why the Emperor would do such a thing, but since this was a dream, I decided not to worry about the details and abandoned the thought.
Ah, but smelling Emperor Eckardt’s wonderful scent is so soothing.
Even though it was hot with the blanket on me, thanks to that pleasant scent, I no longer felt the urge to kick it away.
And so, I drifted off to sleep… but that night, for some reason, a young Emperor appeared in my dream.
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