Save Me

42. I Want To Kiss You.

 

“Sorry. I should have inspected the territory more closely, it was my mistake.”

Citizens were eaten by monsters.

The traces of the monsters led from the reservoir to the 7th Castle.

It seemed that the monsters came in through the collapsed Seventh Castle wall escaped the knights and left the castle.

It was something that could not be helped.

The castle wall collapsed and the knight was crushed under it.

At that time, the monsters pouring down the collapsed castle wall were simply too much to handle.

In the first place, the 7th Castle would have fallen, if Jillian didn’t bring it back to life.

It was thanks to his ability to stretch out his aura and swing it like a whip to sweep the monsters out of the castle.

The captains took advantage of the opportunity to search through the collapsed rubble and rescue the buried knights.

This was a miracle.

However, would the uninvolved people understand this situation?

Creta could not hide her sad expression.

“I will gladly accept any disposition.”

“Was that really your fault? If I had to point out whose fault it was, then it was mine for not noticing the monsters escaping.”

“Duke! How is that your fault? If you hadn’t been here, this empire would have been ruined a long time ago!”

“In that case, it should be said to be the fault of the monsters who didn’t understand that they weren’t welcome here even when I warned them every time to return.”

Jillian spoke to Creta, who was very angry, as if he was being generous.

He had a calm demeanor the whole time.

As soon as he cleaned up the wave and returned home at dawn, he was woken up by bad news just before dawn.

It was draining, but Jillian’s attitude was calmer than a deep lake.

“How was the extent of the damage identified and handled?”

“The people, who ran away quickly, called nearby guards and they responded. There were two monsters in total…”

“They must have eaten a lot.”

Jillian roughly rubbed his face with his hand and asked, ‘How many?’

“Eight.”

“Oh.”

The Duke’s bedroom became eerily quiet.

Creta was waiting for the Duke’s disposition, and Jillian, who had just woken up, needed time to organize his thoughts.

How long had it been?

When the warm sunlight began to take on a slightly more dense light, Jillian gave instructions to Creta.

“Pay appropriate compensation. Pay compensation equivalent to that of a knight regardless of gender or age, and promise to prevent recurrence as much as possible. And….”

“…….”

“And then move them to the fortress.”

She thought she would soon be met with a harsh reprimand, but what came out of Jillian was something unexpected.

Creta did not hide her surprise.

“Do you mean that fortress?”

“Move all permanent residents to the outer fortress.”

The Outer Fortress.

It was the name given to the fortress built towards the empire based on the Baloch main castle.

In fact, it could be called the safest fortress because it was the furthest from the ice wall.

However, the outer fortress was only made of walls with no internal structure, so it was not a place for people to live.

If the citizens were to live in the outer castle, construction had to be done.

“Duke, if you want to bring people into the outer castle, you have make some constructions.”

“So…”

“Construction will be impossible due to the heavy snow.”

“The snow will stop today. Send the birds first. As soon as the snow stops, bring in the workers and materials.”

The pitch-black sky seemed to have a hole in it, and snow was pouring down non-stop.

It seemed like it would never stop.

However, Creta answered ‘yes’ without hesitation to Jillian’s words and moved.

Jillian Baloch was not a God.

However, her master was never wrong.

So, he will definitely be right this time too.

Without even wasting time to go to her office, Creta dragged a chair straight to the nightstand next to the bed.

As soon as she picked up the pen and paper, she began calculating what would be needed to strengthen and restore the seventh fortresses and create housing in the outer fortress.

What are the types and quantities of materials needed? How much had to be brought in from outside?

How many workers should she hire?

How much can be covered with internal manpower?

There was more than one thing she needed to check, and trying to do it all on her own was suffocating.

If she had to take care of the household work during this time, she would have really gone crazy.

“Phew”

Creta, who let out a small sigh of relief, suddenly brightened up.

“Yes! Now, we can use the transportation circle!”

“…Is it that comforting during this time?”

Creta shouted in excitement at Jillian’s words.

“Have you forgotten? The butler is waiting on the other side, right? Now, when the butler comes, I can cut down on some of the manor budget!”

On a tragic day like today, she shouldn’t smile, but the corners of her mouth kept twitching.

Jillian remained expressionless the whole time.

“That would be great.”

“…Are you still tired?”

“Yeah.”

“Would you like a cup of tea? If you drink a strong cup of black tea, you will freshen up a little.”

Normally, she wouldn’t have offered tea to Jillian.

However, seeing his tired face, she ended up offering tea to Jillian, who never drinks anything

What surprised Crete the most was what happened next.

“Sure.”

Contrary to her thought that he would naturally refuse, Jillian so calmly agreed to her getting him tea.

Creta couldn’t believe it so she asked.

“Are you really drinking it?”

 

***

 

Jillian was in a bad shape.

He didn’t notice anything until Creta came in and woke him up.

Even when he woke up, his body felt heavy and the whole situation was out of his control.

He did push myself quite hard for this wave, but this was a bit strange.

Jillian gently clenched and unclenched his hand.

His long, straight fingers moved smoothly along his will.

The strength of his grip remained the same, and the sensations pouring in from all directions seemed to remain the same.

No thing was different, but his instincts were screaming that something was wrong.

What was it?

Jillian quietly closed his eyes and thought, but he couldn’t figure it out for a long time.

As he drank the strong black tea that Creta gave him, he felt like his tangled head was getting a little more organized.

As his mind became clearer, Jillian realized what was wrong.

‘Then, shall we meet after you wake up?’

He promised her last night, but he forgot!

“Is she still sleeping?”

“She is probably up. She wakes up pretty early.”

“I see.”

Jillian stood up quickly as Creta finished speaking.

The time it took for him to get ready neatly and leave the bedroom was literally the blink of an eye.

If Creta knew that his body was strange and was quite fatigued, she would have been even more shocked.

 

***

 

Knock knock.

Jillian made himself known by knocking politely.

But for some reason there was no response.

“…….”

While he was contemplating whether to knock on the door one more time, the knight who was standing guard in the hallway sneakily approached him and whispered.

“She said she wanted to sleep in today, so you should probably return later.”

Jillian’s gaze turned fierce at that.

“Is she sick? Why didn’t you call a doctor?”

“The doctor was called yesterday.”

What?

Jillian slightly raised an eyebrow at the knight’s words.

He had never heard of her being sick.…?

The reason he left Creta in this castle was not only to ‘protect’ it in case of an emergency, but also because she was always sure to get things done correctly.

But why didn’t she tell him that she called the doctor?

“The Duchess……!”

“It’s not that she is sick, but it looks like she has been working too hard looking at documents for the past few days. Julie and Mr. Benson insisted that she gets some bed rest because she was feeling listless.”

“…….”

“She isn’t sick.”

Only after the knight spoke once again, did Jillian erase his ugly expression.

“Thanks for letting me know.”

Jillian lightly dismissed the knight and went straight into Bianca’s bedroom instead of knocking.

When he opened the door, warm, sweet smell hit him as if it had been waiting.

It was a scent that could not be removed no matter what kind of flower perfume she sprayed.

Jillian walked quietly, feeling Bianca’s scent filling the room.

Just as she said, Bianca was curled up alone in bed without a maid, sleeping in.

However, she wasn’t sleeping.

Although her eyes were tightly closed, her breathing was not as calm as that of a sleeping person.

Jillian, who was looking at her eyelids fluttering intermittently, quietly opened his mouth.

“Bianca.”

Unlike his intention to just glance at her face and leave, the reason he called her out loud was because he wanted to tell her not to push her self too hard.

However.

“That’s it, finally.”

Bianca looked really happy, her cheeks flushed.

“Bianca?”

“Jillian.”

Bianca’s eyes shone like stars as she stood up and approached him without giving him any time to stop her.

Jillian had to grit his teeth to keep from moaning at the sight.

The Beautifully colored cheeks and sparkling eyes.

Bianca, who was looking at him and smiling, was so pretty.

“I missed you.”

He was already at his limit, but wasn’t this too much to say?

Jillian couldn’t hold on any longer.

He stretched out his hand and swept Bianca into his arms.

Her slender figure barely filled one of his arm.

He wanted to squeeze her while hugging her, but it felt like every bone of hers would break if he applied even a little bit of force.

Jillian had to let out a long sigh, regretful that he couldn’t hug her as hard as he could.

“Ah…….”

“It’s so good.”

Why on earth was she doing this?

If she was trying to seduce him, she was very successful.

He felt like the blood in his whole body was boiling.

“I had a hard time ever since I woke up in the morning.”

“What?”

“I wanted to go back to sleep.”

There was a lot of pride in her voice that she couldn’t hide.

“So that I could see you again.”

“Ah.”

Jillian, who was suffering because of his overflowing emotions, suddenly came to his senses as if he had been doused with cold water.

He couldn’t believe Bianca at this moment!

“Bianca.”

“Yes.”

Jillian regretted lying to Bianca during their earlier conversation.

Bianca was clinging to his foolish lie, unable to distinguish between reality and a dream.

How pitiful and lovely it was.

“I’m sorry for lying.”

“Yes?”

The small shoulders in his arms rose sharply.

He could clearly feel that her heartbeat was rising uncontrollably due to anxiety.

However, instead of letting go of Bianca, who was trembling, Jillian lowered his head and spoke each word in Bianca’s ear.

“I’m sorry for acting like it was a dream last night.”

“That….”

Jillian slowly rubbed her rigid back as if comforting her.

“I was just going to leave after seeing your sleeping face for a moment.”

Haa.

A hot breath came out of his chest with a small sound.

“I didn’t know you would open your eyes.”

Jillian gently buried his lips on the top of Bianca’s trembling head.

“You believed it was a dream, so I wanted to help you fall back asleep.”

He was afraid she would be ashamed of what she revealed in her ‘dream’.

He wanted to be polite and pretend not to know.

The chest area of his shirt was quickly becoming wet due to his soft confession.

Something hot and humid soaked it and seeped into him.

All the way to the depths.

Making his heart swell.

“Sorry.”

“I am okay with being embarrassed. I would have been happier if I had found out sooner that you were okay.”

“I was short-sighted.”

“……..”

“I was wrong. Don’t cry, huh?”

Jillian gently lifted Bianca’s chin from his arms where she buried her head.

The blue, wet eyes were lovelier than he remembered.

“I want to kiss you, will you allow me?”