Since When Were You The Villain?

Chapter 81.  

   

“How could you surprise me like this?!”  

A half-choked voice burst out, tinged with tears, as if blaming him.  

Sophia had a lot she wanted to say.  

When he entered with such a massive, unfamiliar wound, her heart felt like it was plummeting into hell. She didn’t know what to do or what would be helpful.  

“You appear out of nowhere without any warning; what do you expect me to do…?!”  

Sophia struck his chest.  

Since his leg was injured, hitting his chest was acceptable.  

Honestly, even if she hit him, it was nothing compared to the shock.  

She had tried to get angry when she heard him talking with the empress, but appearing like this with such a dramatic entrance was another surprise.  

She didn’t know how to treat the wound, didn’t know how to comfort him, and didn’t even know how to hide it. 

It felt like her lifespan had been reduced by at least ten years.  

“I’m sorry, Sophia…”  

Killian used his fingertips to gently wipe away the tears streaming down her cheek.  

“…I’m really not used to this kind of thing.”  

Sophia sniffled, trying to stop her tears.   

It was a novel, so it would probably be resolved nicely.   

She wanted to believe in cliches, but her fear and anxiety didn’t disappear.   

Killian eventually pulled his lips away, as if trying to say something.  

His lips hesitated, as if attempting to speak several times, but in the end, he released her cheek and sealed his lips.  

“I’m sorry, Sophia.”  

Once again, he apologized.  

Sophia met Killian’s red eyes.  

She didn’t know what had happened, but she felt like there was one thing she knew.  

He had a story, too. A story he couldn’t reveal to the readers. 

Perhaps it was a story from his perspective, not Mikhail and Estelle’s. 

It might be another cliche like ‘villain with a backstory.’  

No, maybe it wasn’t a cliche. Everyone has their own life story, after all.  

“At times like this, I don’t know what to do.”  

Because there are so many things I don’t know about you, I don’t know what I should do.  

Amidst the confusion, his gaze delved deep.  

“You just need to know one thing, Sophia.”  

His large hand gently enveloped her back.  

“You made me endure this.”  

His voice descended softly into Sophia’s ear, pressing heavily on her chest.  

Killian held her firmly with all his strength.  

To not crumble. To not run away.  

His eyes, which had always been as steadfast as a castle, now seemed empty, like a trampled wasteland. And in that wasteland, he was gazing at the last remaining wildflower.  

Sophia held him tightly.  

No more words were necessary.  

There was no language as intricate and perfect as the language of their eyes.  

Sophia realized.  

Yes, I can’t help but love you.  

Even if we try to keep our distance, we can’t overcome the clichés of romance novels.  

We can’t turn away from the tangled threads of fate.  

At that moment, the sound of knocking on the door shattered the silence.  

“Your Highness, Prince Mikhail, has sent this.”  

It was the servant who had brought the clothes.  

Sophia wiped her eyes with her sleeve and tidied up her face.  

“I’ll take it,” Sophia said as she got up from her seat and patted her dress.  

When she opened the door, there was a servant Mikhail had sent with clothes.   

The servant was shocked when he saw Sophia with smudged lipstick and dishevelled hair, but he then pretended not to notice and put on a calm face.  

“Well, His Highness the Crown Prince told me to deliver it to His Excellency Archduke Killian.” the servant said, presenting a neatly folded shirt and black trouser. The clothes were strikingly similar to what Kilian had been wearing before.  

It seemed that they had picked something similar from among the many clothes Crown Prince Mikhail had.  

“Thank you.”  

“Of course…”  

“And, um…”  

“Yes, Miss?”  

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?”  

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has given explicit instructions not to.”  

The servant nodded and promised to keep the secret before leaving.  

Sophia quietly closed the door and turned around.  

But then…   

“What are you doing, Killian?”  

Sophia stood frozen in front of the door.  

Killian was tearing off his bloodied pants and sterilizing a thin needle over the flame.  

“I can’t just leave and bleed all over the place,” Killian replied, cinching his thigh tightly with a belt and applying pressure to the wound.  

He intended to sew up the torn wound himself with a needle.  

“So you’re going to stitch it up?”  

Without anaesthesia, with a needle heated over a flame, right here, and by yourself?  

Sophia asked in surprise, but Killian looked at her as if to ask what was wrong.  

“As for disinfection?”  

“Just wash it with water.”  

He gestured to the water and drinks arranged in one corner of the lounge.  

He had experienced this kind of thing more than once before. He had prepared everything in advance, including hiding needles in his clothing pins.  

In addition, he had brought a white cloth handkerchief instead of gauze, and he had also prepared thread in advance.  

Inside one of his pockets, there was a flat container with a small amount of hemostatic agent.  

He had read many medical books and studied extensively since he was young, so he had skills in injury treatment that were no less than those of any other doctor.  

No, when it came to treating his own body, there was no doctor as skilled as Kilian.  

“If you find it too gruesome, you can turn away, Sophia.”  

He calmly wiped the wound clean as he spoke.  

Even just looking at the wound being touched by water made her feel pain on his behalf, but he didn’t utter a single groan.  

As he wiped away the blood, the deep wound revealed a glimpse of white bone inside.  

“So, did you treat your back injury the same way last time…?”  

When Sophia asked, Killian nodded.  

He took out a small tube of ointment from his pocket and applied it thinly to the wound.  

The amount was woefully insufficient to treat such a deep and large wound.  

“I’ll go and get more medicine…!”  

The infirmary at the palace was well equipped with emergency medications. If necessary, he could also get some from the royal…   

“It’s okay.”  

You needed a valid reason to obtain medicine. Especially in the palace, the control was even stricter.  

Killian didn’t want to create unnecessary complications.  

After applying the ointment, he naturally picked up the needle.  

“Ouch!”  

With her eyes tightly closed, Sophia turned her head away as she felt the needle penetrate her skin.   

She couldn’t bear to watch his actions, even though it wasn’t her wound. It felt like her blood was draining away, and she was afraid her legs would give way at any moment.  

“Otherwise, inflammation might develop or something like that.” 

Sophia said that, but she thought she was worrying too much. There were no male leads dying from inflammation. In novels, Killian had lived perfectly well until the end… 

‘But it’s still gross!’  

Sophia peeked with half-open eyes and saw Killian, who had just finished sewing the wound, smiling faintly at her.   

In his eyes, Sophia probably looked like a coward.  

“Anyway, if a war breaks out, we’ll treat it in a less hygienic environment than this.”  

“Still, anaesthesia… Ugh.”  

She shivered as she felt the needle pricking her skin, despite it not being her wound.   

Even though blood was spreading from the wound, he seemed unconcerned. He skillfully finished sewing up the wound without a single groan.   

Although blood still oozed out, it was better than reopening the wound. After completing the sutures, he covered the wound with a white handkerchief as if he were familiar with the process. Killian got up from the sofa with a calm expression and moved his leg a few times.  

“Even so, it’s better for you to go back home quickly.”  

“Then people will come looking for me.”  

He gestured to her as if asking for clothes, but Sophia didn’t want to give him clothes as if she were sacrificing herself.  

“It’s okay. It’s not a big wound.”  

“…”  

She knew it wasn’t okay, but she couldn’t refuse to give him clothes just because of that.   

In the end, Sophia handed over the clothes she had received from Mikhail.  

Killian accepted the clothes and then headed behind a curtain on one side.  

Even though he couldn’t be seen behind the curtain, Sophia went to a corner of the room, turned around, and buried her head in the corner.  

“Tell me when you’re done changing.”  

As Sophia mumbled against the wall, she soon heard the rustling sound from behind as he changed.   

She couldn’t see him, but just knowing they were in the same space made her feel a bit embarrassed.  

The sound of fabric rustling and the friction between the clothes tantalized her imagination.   

Sophia tried to focus on the slow-moving needle to distract herself from having any other thoughts.  

“It’s done, Sophia.”  

At Kilian’s words, Sophia turned around sneakily, like someone stealing a glance.   

He was standing there casually, buttoning the cuffs of his new shirt as if he had never been injured.   

The clothes that Mikhail had brought were slightly tight on Kilian, highlighting the contours of his chest and biceps more distinctly. His bloodstained clothes, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen.  

It seemed like he had already prepared a place or a way to hide them. Sophia was about to ask where he had put his clothes, but decided not to press further.  

“Can you walk alright?”  

Sophia shifted her gaze to his injured leg.  

“It’s nothing serious, so don’t worry,” he replied casually, as if it had always been this way.  

If it had been Sophia with that injury, she would have hobbled in pain or perhaps couldn’t even walk at all.  

It was an injury that should have made walking difficult, if not impossible. Yet, he walked as if nothing had happened.  

Just like when he injured his waist the last time, he was skilled at hiding his injuries. It couldn’t have been like that from the beginning.  

Sophia couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of life he had lived up until now. 

 

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