“There are a lot of edible plants around.
We were lucky.”
Yasiris returned without taking long.
Although she was a lady who grew up in the palace, she skillfully collected edible items from the forest.
Small tree fruits, edible flowers and mushrooms.
Kazan concealed his relief when Yasiris returned and calmly watched the food she placed on the papers.
Most of them seemed plain in color and seemed unremarkable, but he couldn't confirm their safety just by looking at them.
“May be toxic”
“I recognize everything except one.
There is nothing harmful to humans, so you can eat it without worry.”
“One?”
Asking Kazan, Yasiris picked up a pale-coloured tree fruit.
They were a little larger than a thumb and looked ripe and tender.
“This.
I took a bite and so far, I haven’t felt any harmful effects.”
"You ate something you didn't even recognize?
Such reckless behavior!"
Kazan felt annoyed for a moment, then was immediately rebuked by his weak body.
Despite the sharp pain that brought him back to his senses, he scolded her and then sighed.
“I've seen traces of insects gnawing on the same type of fruit.
I thought this made it worth a try.
I didn't know I needed to report all the details to Your Majesty.”
“It's not enough.
Insects in the same forest... may have immunity.”
“So what should we do?”
“Instead, I should…”
Kazan stopped mid-sentence.
While it was a sound plan for him, with his high resistance to poison, to eat it first to test safety, it was impractical in their current situation.
It wasn't damaged and broken all over.
The attackers' swords had been poisoned, and ever since he had been scratched during the fight, his body had been working feverishly to neutralize the poison.
There were other reasons too.
“You can't suggest that a dying patient should have it tested instead.”
Kazan had nothing to say.
With both of his arms destroyed, all he could do was chew and swallow the food that Yasaris fed him.
Has he felt this helplessness in his life before?
Kazan looked at Yasiris with misty eyes.
He wondered what she was thinking as she now looked after the pathetic tyrant with such indifference.
It was surprising enough that she didn't abandon him, but he never expected her to care about him like this.
Wouldn't it be appropriate, in the extreme sense, for her to kill him now and escape, avenging her fiancé's death?
Empathy?
Sense of duty?
Kazan could only speculate on his own; He didn't ask.
Instead of scratching where it doesn't itch, quietly enjoy taking care of it.
Although her touch was dry, the fact that Yasiris was willingly doing something for him eased his intense pain.
After eating the meal, Yasiris went out again to collect more herbs.
The river they followed downstream was not the river leading to the village.
It was in the opposite direction, leading to a low mountain range, a place untouched by human feet.
Because of this, even a short search revealed rare herbs.
Although she had seen them in books, she had never collected them herself, which made it difficult to dig them up without damaging the roots.
Without proper tools, I used stones and branches to do the job.
Her palms were scratched, and her fingertips were cracked from digging into the ground.
But the pain in her hands was nothing compared to the pain in her shoulder.
A hastily treated wound from removing the arrowhead and applying a quick treatment screamed with every movement.
“Fu…”
Yasiris wiped her cold sweat and gathered the herbs in her arms.
If she had been in the Imperial Palace, she would have been bedridden for days due to a shoulder injury.
But with a patient more serious than her, she had no choice but to move forward.
Surviving such an injury was a miracle.
After she decided to help him recover, she had no time to complain.
“I'm back”
“You're late”
“Collecting herbs is not easy.”
Returning to the hideout, Yasiris sat down in front of Kazan and poured the collected herbs into her lap.
She selected just the necessary bit for each mixture, placed them on a flat stone and began grinding them.
“Where did you learn herbology?” ,
Kazan asked, watching her actions with interest.
When he was living undercover as Ken, he and she attended the same academy in Beren.
As far as he knew, Yasaris had never studied herbology, but her hands seemed very skilled at preparing medicine.
“I studied by myself”
“The Empress will have no reason to deal with herbs.”
Yasiris looked at Kazan and then focused back on making the medicine.
“There's no harm in learning.
No matter who I use it on.”
It's been a few years since I first thought about learning herbology.
When she was in a deep relationship with Ken, he had once been seriously injured.
A long wound extended from his right shoulder to the other side of his waist.
Although the situation was resolved safely, she thought about it while watching the doctor put medicine on him.
“I want to help Qin too.
What if I make the medicine and apply it myself?”
At that time, she couldn't do it.
She lived every day without free time, and only began studying herbs after Qin's death due to residual attachment and remorse.
After arriving at Osivia, her distrust of the royal doctors also played a role.
“It's done.
This time, I'll put in a painkiller as well, so it should be more bearable than before.”
“Cloth...”
“Yes, Your Majesty”
Just as she had done when applying the herbs for the first time, Yasiris wrapped Kazan's clothes into a bundle and placed them in his mouth.
This was to prevent him from moaning loudly or biting his inner mouth too hard.
Then I started putting the medicine on.
“Oh...!”
His body trembled intermittently, making it difficult to apply the medicine.
Fortunately, he tolerated the pain well; If he was an ordinary person, she would have had to bind his limbs to continue.
It's been a long time.
Yasiris meticulously applied the medicine to his entire body, then sighed tiredly and withdrew her hands.
“It's over”
There was no response.
Kazan, who was drenched in sweat and breathing hard, had no clear focus in his eyes.
Yasiris removed the cloth from his half-stunned mouth.
Only then did his reddened eyes slowly turn towards her.
“I...I might die.”
“But you are alive”
“Isn't that… a strange thing to say?”
It was a pointless conversation.
As Kazan gradually calmed down, Yasiris calmly looked at him before suddenly speaking.
“Forgive me for the intrusive question, Your Majesty.”
Her eyes moved to his body.
Since she had hurriedly taken care of his wounds after taking him to the cave, she had vaguely thought that there was something strange going on.
She had let him go then, but upon closer inspection this time, she was sure.
“How are you still alive?”
Kazan was supposed to be dead.
Not that he deserved to die, but there was no point in him still being alive.
The injuries she could diagnose by sight alone were already severe.
If he was an ordinary person, he would have died from shock long ago, having lost a lot of blood.
What about his constantly feverish body?
Yasaris thought, somewhat jokingly, that her hands might burn while applying the medicine.
However, look at him.
Kazan was surprisingly composed for someone in his condition.
The inability to move was to be expected, but it is unbelievable that he remained mentally alert.
He was eating and talking… He looked more like someone suffering from a temporary disability than one teetering on the brink of death.
While she was thinking about this anomaly, Kazan came up with an answer.
“I am Tinilath”
...That wasn't particularly helpful.
“Tenilat are not immortal.”
“No, they are not”
“…Is that all?”
When no further explanation followed, Yasiris frowned slightly.
What she did know was that the Tenilath family was the only race capable of using Covenant magic.
That was widely known.
Weren't all the members of the Tinilath family, except Kazan, dead?
Because he killed them himself.
So, Kazan must be mortal too...
As Yasiris's doubts grew, Kazan, who turned his eyes to the ceiling, sighed.
After thinking about how much he was going to reveal, he suppressed his pain and spoke slowly, breaking his sentence.
“The magic in the Tenilath family's blood affects living beings.
Especially themselves.”
It was the opposite of what ordinary magicians, who could only manipulate items and concepts, could do.
The Tinilath family could not use traditional magic but instead used their unique form of magic.
Kazan offered no other explanation.
He could not reveal anything that could become a crucial weak point for the royal family.
It wasn't a matter of whether he trusted Yasaris or not.
This limitation has been there from the beginning.
Kazan's expression darkened as he fell silent, allowing the calm to extend.
Only the faint sound of the wind passing through the leaves covering the entrance filled the place.
“…then”
It was Yasiris who broke the silence first.
She didn't quite understand what Tinilath was or the exact meaning of his words.
However, she could form a new hypothesis.
“You followed me off the cliff because you knew you would survive.”
It wasn't about risking his life.
Kazan slowly looked at Yasiris, realizing the hidden connotation in her words.
She was still staring at him with an unreadable expression.
For a moment, Kazan felt like they were the only two people left in the world.
His heart began to race inexplicably, a tense pulse that he could not understand.
If he was going to answer honestly, he didn't know.
How can anyone expect to survive while diving into a dark, hidden abyss?
At that moment, there wasn't even enough time to calculate the odds of survival.
Even if there had been time, it would have been impossible to predict the outcome of such a dive.
At the time, it was not a rational decision; His body moved before his mind could think.
Instead of witnessing the death of Yasiris before his eyes, he felt that it was better to die together.
At the very least, he wanted to try to save her.
But…