Do you like water? Would you have enjoyed seeing the sea instead of the lake? But what does that have to do with me?
His mind became tangled.
And then, a wolf appeared by the lakeside.
‘D-don’t, don’t, don’t worry. J,just calm down.’
Laila seemed to have not expected the wolf’s appearance at all.
With a face as pale as a sheet, she trembled as she reassured Sion to calm down.
Sion looked at Laila’s hand.
A trembling hand.
With that hand, Laila grabbed Sion’s clothes and pulled him behind her.
It was ridiculous. Acting as if she could protect him when she had no strength at all.
Who was protecting whom?
Who is it that seems like they would die immediately if they brushed against the wolf’s front paw…?
Sion laughed at Laila.
He tried to mock her.
He intended to.
But strangely, he couldn’t laugh. His lips remained sealed, not even twitching.
Was he not in the mood to laugh? Yeah, maybe that was it.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t a situation where he could laugh or mock her.
Sion knew just how weak his body was without the power of the gods.
Of course, he was much stronger than an ordinary person, but he wasn’t capable of easily defeating a wolf with his bare hands.
He needed to focus. He couldn’t afford to be taken down by the wolf. It would put Laila in danger.
If Laila were to die, then… time would turn back.
Sion wanted to put an end to anything related to going back to the past. That’s why he had the thought of wanting to save Laila.
There was no doubt about it.
Without further ado, Sion lunged at the wolf. He clenched his fists and relentlessly aimed for the wolf’s forehead.
As he stubbornly struck the same spot repeatedly, the wolf finally backed off. Sion quietly exhaled a breath of relief.
His broken wrist throbbed, but he didn’t pay much attention to it.
After confirming that the wolf had disappeared, Sion approached Laila.
‘Are you hurt?’
And then he experienced a surprising moment when words came out differently from his thoughts.
As soon as Sion realized the words he had uttered, his face stiffened.
Sion’s original intention was never to say something like that to Laila.
As he approached Laila, who was sitting down, there was a phrase like “get up” or “stand up” in Sion’s mind.
But the moment he opened his mouth, he noticed Laila’s face.
Pale complexion.
A transparent, dried tear on her left cheek.
Lips faintly bleeding from biting too hard.
… And her hand is still trembling slightly.
As Sion’s gaze shifted from her face to her hand, his mouth moved involuntarily. He blurted out such an absurd question.
Sion couldn’t fathom why he had asked such a question. It was utterly unnecessary and pointless.
First of all, there was no reason for Laila to be hurt. It was Sion who had put himself in harm’s way. While Sion engaged the wolf with his bare fists, Laila simply sat back in a safe place, watching the scene unfold.
Asking someone who obviously wasn’t hurt where they were hurt was just nonsensical.
And besides, even if she were hurt, so what? Whether Laila had any injuries or not, what did that have to do with him?
Sion was confused. What he wanted was for Laila not to die, not for her to avoid even the slightest injury.
Time would only turn back if Laila died. If Laila is badly injured, as long as she’s still breathing, time doesn’t move a single needle.
So, whether Laila got hurt or not wasn’t Sion’s concern.
Obviously, but.
‘Oh, Sion. I’m not hurt. I’m fine.’
Was he going crazy?
Why did he feel relieved after hearing such an answer?
His anxiety became even clearer. Something was wrong.
As soon as they returned from the lake to the mansion, he was practically dragged to the doctor’s office.
After Elvin skillfully treated Sion’s wrist, he looked at Sion, whose expression hadn’t changed, and clicked his tongue.
‘Aren’t you in pain?’
Well, he did feel the pain, of course. He wasn’t numb to sensation. If anything, he was quite sensitive to it.
However, the physical pain he perceived didn’t trigger any emotional turmoil.
At first, he thought the pain he experienced while fighting the demon was so intense that anything less than it felt insignificant.
But as time went on, it became more ambiguous.
Maybe the magnitude of the pain wasn’t such an important issue for him right now.
Sion thought that even if he were to fight a demon right now, he wouldn’t be as emotionally shaken by the pain as before.
…Not that he wanted to fight the evil god at all.
After hearing the advice to rest, he returned to his bedroom.
The fatigue from fighting the wolf hit him belatedly. Sion lay down, fell asleep, and dreamed.
In his dream, Laila appeared. She was an adult.
She looked exactly as she did when they first met in the bedroom, before time turned back again and again.
And next to her was his ten-year-old self. It was a strange combination.
But then, in the dream, Laila hugged Sion tightly.
Laila’s whispered words to his dream self, observed from a third-person perspective, were crystal clear.
‘Sion, you didn’t do anything wrong.’
He woke up.
As he pushed his eyelids open, a familiar figure came into view. Laila? He blurted out the name unconsciously before realizing it and scrunching his face in disgust.
He had a nightmare. Yes, this was a nightmare.
To dream of Laila Hildegarde, and as an adult too…
It’s so horrible…
As Sion continued to ponder over the dream, he suddenly froze.
Laila smiled.
With a face that seemed entirely unfamiliar.
Sion’s gaze was inexorably drawn. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Laila’s smiling face.
Emotional turmoil, which he couldn’t feel even with his broken wrist, arose at this moment.
Something…….
Was wrong.
And it was terribly, terribly wrong.
Sion realized this fact, but there was nothing he could do about it.
4: The Swordsman and the Marquis’ Daughter
“Miss.”
Marie, who was brushing Laila’s hair as she sat in front of the dressing table, asked,
“What’s been going on with you lately?”
“What?”
“Something pleasant?”
Upon hearing Marie’s response, Laila paused.
Her gaze, which had been fixed on her reflection in the mirror, shifted slightly towards Marie’s reflection.
“Do I look like someone who has something pleasant going on?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She wasn’t particularly smiling, was she?
As Laila thought about her face reflected in the mirror a moment ago, Marie replied,
“You were humming a tune just now.”
“……?”
Humming? Me?
“It’s not just today; you’ve been doing that a lot lately.”
“…….”
“Is something really going on?”
With Marie’s curious question, Laila took a moment to choose her words.
What should she say? Well, there was something going on. She hadn’t realized she was humming because she was excited about something, but…
After some deliberation, Laila managed to get the right words out.
“The meals have been more to my liking lately.”
“Meals?”
“Yeah. I guess the chef changed the recipes. Or maybe my taste buds have changed.”
Laila shrugged casually.
“As the meals suit my taste, I eat more than before, and eating more gives me strength.”
“Ah, so that’s why you’re in a good mood?”
“I guess so.”
“Well, it makes sense. Meals are really important. On days when the food is really bad… In one mansion, the maids… together…”
As Laila listened with one ear to the story of maids in some noble household causing a riot because of bad and inadequate meals, she stared into the mirror.
What she’d told Marie was only partially true.
Feeling good about the meal?
That’s only half of the story.
These days, Laila was in a light-hearted state precisely because “Sion is less scary than before.”
