Sharti gritted her teeth.
She couldn’t bring herself to strike the man’s back, which was covered with scars and small wounds.
“I thought you’d be braver.”
His tongue-clicking voice carried a tone of rebuke.
The man changed his position and held her in his arms with one arm.
“Hold on tight.”
“…?”
Before Sharti could understand what he meant, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
For an instant, the muscles in his neck and shoulders twitched.
“…doing it.”
The man forcefully drove the shovel into the spot near the ceiling that Sharti had been targeting.
BANG!! The metallic sound echoed throughout the cave.
Rumble-. At that moment, the entire cave shook as if an earthquake had struck.
“…!”
He quickly ran toward the cave exit.
Crumble… BOOM! Rumble-BOOM-!
As the cave began to collapse in earnest, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.
CRASH!!!
The small cave completely collapsed.
“…ha, ah…”
“…”
The man who had been holding Sharti with both hands exhaled in relief.
Sharti opened her eyes at the feel of his warm breath. She turned her head and only released a deep breath after confirming that no trace of the cave remained.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“…!”
Realizing her position at the man’s question, Sharti quickly unwrapped her arms from his neck.
The man carefully put Sharti down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Sharti wrote letters on his palm, pressing firmly.
<I told you that you shouldn’t make intense movements. I told you to go out first, why didn’t you listen and move so recklessly?>
“…ha.”
The man let out a short breath. Sharti was still checking on him first, seemingly unaware of her own dangerous actions.
The man’s lips curved up crookedly, relieved that disaster had been averted. His eyes looked coldly at Sharti.
“Is that something to say when you were the one who recklessly tried to collapse the cave ceiling without warning? We both could have been seriously injured.”
Sharti frowned when he pointed out her recklessness.
<The bombs planted in the cave ceiling need an accumulation of steady force to explode. I was planning to send you out before the bombs exploded!>
“How can you be certain about the accumulated amount? If your calculations were wrong, we’d both be buried down there right now.”
<I was going to detonate it after confirming you had left! If it had exploded, I would have been the only one caught in it!>
Sharti understood his reaction.
‘I didn’t explain anything, and from his perspective, the bomb exploded from just one impact of his shovel. He has a right to be angry.’
Yet strangely, Sharti couldn’t control the emotion welling up inside her. With communication going awry in the urgent situation, emotions ran high and intensified.
The man felt the same way.
“Is that… what you should be saying right now?”
<You were the one who started with the sarcasm.>
They could only blame each other instead of speaking kindly.
Sharti and the man growled at each other.
“…..”
But the moment he saw the vermilion eyes shining from beneath the disheveled hood, the man couldn’t think of anything else. Sometime during their exchange, her long honey-colored hair had flowed out from her hood, revealing half of Sharti’s face.
Sharti was looking at him. She was facing him with clear eyes. The moment he encountered the emotions that had been hidden beneath her thick hood, his thoughts stopped.
A faint tremor arose within him.
The man’s lips moved slightly.
“…I was worried.”
The man hadn’t been scolding Sharti because she moved recklessly without explanation.
Both of them had been in danger.
But as soon as they escaped the cave, she checked his body first, putting her own well-being last.
“Just as you worried about my body, I equally worried about you getting hurt.”
When they had just escaped the collapsing cave, his heart had been pounding wildly.
No thoughts had come to his mind. He only saw Sharti before him.
Sharti, who neither wanted nor needed his help.
The man admitted that he had gotten upset because of that.
‘He… was worried about me…?’
Sharti’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly. She was at a loss for words at the man’s utterly honest confession.
“If a patient gets hurt, a doctor can treat them, but if a doctor gets hurt… the patient can’t do anything.”
“…”
“…I wasn’t being sarcastic. Really.”
Only then did Sharti begin to properly see the man’s face.
Seen from outside the cave, the man’s dark brown hair looked as if it had absorbed the darkness, and his blue-green eyes stood out even more distinctly.
He was a man whose atmosphere differed between day and night.
“…”
Sharti bit her lip firmly.
Sharti took something out of her bag. Among the simple items and herbs she had gathered in the cave, she pulled out a black robe.
“…Is that my clothes?”
The man received the robe. It was a short robe.
“…Hmm?”
The man, who was putting on the robe, slightly bent his waist at Sharti’s gesture.
After putting the hood on him, Sharti took his hand.
<From now on, I’ll explain properly.>
After hesitating several times, the letters she wrote on his palm were very small, conveying her embarrassment.
A ticklish sensation traveled up his palm, and the corner of the man’s mouth turned upward.
<Thank you for worrying about me.>
The words she added at the end were scribbled too quickly to be read properly, but the curve of the man’s lips deepened further.
His heart, which had been pounding along with the collapsing cave, now beat to a slightly different rhythm.
<And don’t speak informally to me.>
“…..”
The man, wiping the smile from his face, obediently nodded.
As the atmosphere eased, the emotions that had briefly surged subsided. Sharti, waiting for her rapidly beating heart to calm down, finally exhaled deeply.
She closed her eyes and listened to her surroundings.
‘Thankfully, I still don’t hear anything nearby.’
Only the sound of trees and grass swaying in the mountain wind filled the air.
Sharti suppressed the rising urgency she felt.
<We don’t know where the soldiers might come, so I want to move without attracting attention. Follow me carefully.>
She had to avoid the shortcuts she usually took.
Tough grass, mud, and dense trees.
Sharti knew the geography of this mountain as well as any villager.
‘Still, just in case.’
Sharti clutched the herbs in her bag tightly.
In the darkness that had descended on the mountain, Sharti had often lost her way and been isolated many times. Each time, she had somehow survived and found her way.
The last time Sharti had been helplessly cornered was five years ago.
“…..”
The man watched Sharti as she resolutely gripped her bag strap.
He realized when he saw Sharti collapse the cave.
Right now, the man was a burden to Sharti.
<Let’s go.>
“Yes.”
Nevertheless, he had no choice but to take the hand Sharti extended.
Shamelessly, brazenly, he had to follow behind Sharti. He had to cling and follow as best he could to avoid being abandoned or left behind.
The man firmly grasped Sharti’s hand.
‘She’s very tense.’
The hand he held tingled.
‘Well, we could be caught by soldiers after all.’
Sharti patted the back of his hand to signify not to worry, then moved behind the cave.
<We’ll have to take quite a detour. Follow me carefully so your wounds don’t open. Step only where I step.>
The man nodded deeply.
The two climbed the mountain, keeping their bodies as low as possible.
Because of the dense trees, even if they looked up, they could hardly see the sky, let alone the moonlight.
‘He’s following well? Even though it must be hard to see.’
The man never faltered as he held Sharti’s hand and followed behind her. He seemed to have good night vision.
‘Maybe it’s because we’re near the stream. It feels cool.’
Combined with the cool and eerie mountain atmosphere, her body shivered. The man tightened his grip on her hand.
His body heat was transmitted through his large hand.
It was warm.
<We’ll rest for a bit around there and then move again, so hang in there a little longer even if your body feels stiff.>
In the darkness, her written words weren’t clear, but the intent behind her actions was what mattered.
<If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, don’t hold back and tell me right away. We can do some basic first aid since no soldiers are visible yet.>
“…..”
<I don’t hear anything yet, but if you see anything, let me know immediately.>
“…..”
“…..?”
There was no response from the man.
Sharti stopped walking and turned to look at him.
Whoosh—. The wind blew strongly, making the man’s hood flutter as if it would come off.
“I think it would be better to let go of hands as we walk, in preparation for encountering soldiers. …Ma’am.”
As if he had never held it tightly, the man released Sharti’s hand without hesitation.
Sharti blinked in surprise.
‘Why is he suddenly acting like this?’
They hadn’t even encountered soldiers yet, and there was no sound of anyone approaching.
Sharti frowned at his inexplicable behavior.
“The soldiers will have weapons, and we don’t. …Ma’am. Then it’s either flee or surrender…neither choice benefits the doctor….Ma’am.”
Strangely, there was no strength in his voice.
Sharti stared at him blankly.
‘Is he saying he wants to minimize the harm I’ll suffer if we encounter soldiers?’
Her chest stung for no reason.
Again, his negative assumptions contained concern for her.
‘After asking for help…’
He was truly a strange person.
Sharti relaxed her expression and pulled the man by his wrist. Fortunately, he didn’t shake off her hand.
‘He must be anxious since he’s lost his memory.’
That’s why his imagination inevitably flowed in a negative direction.
After walking quietly for a while, they came upon a small pool of spring water.
‘Hmm, good, no one’s here.’
After checking the surroundings, Sharti released his wrist and quickly approached the spring.
The man stood still without moving.
Suddenly, a lump of mud came flying and hit the man.
“What is this…”
Splat! Splat splat! Even as the man staggered backward, the mud projectiles showed perfect accuracy.
Eventually, the mud-covered man looked at Sharti with a somewhat disgruntled face.
Sharti, holding mud lumps, shrugged at his gaze.
She had also smeared mud all over her robe.
“…What’s the purpose of applying that? No, then why to me…”
The man approached cautiously, wary of more flying mud.
Sharti wiggled her fingers, and the man extended his palm.
“…Idiot?”
The man’s eyebrows rose at the first word written.
Sharti suppressed her laughter with a cough.
<I wrote ‘smell,’ you must have misread it.>
“Let’s say that’s true. …Ma’am.”
<We need to mask our scent, that’s why I’m applying mud.>
“Are the soldiers’ sense of smell that good? …Ma’am?”
<It’s not just soldiers we need to be wary of in this mountain.>
The man tilted his head at Sharti’s words. Then, realizing they had come quite deep into the mountain, he frowned.
“Don’t tell me…”
<By the way, did you understand what I said? The soldiers are clearly looking for someone. At this hour of night. That means either the soldiers are incredibly stupid, or they’re incredibly smart.>
Interrupting the man, Sharti wrote deliberately on his palm, emphasizing with her index finger.
<Even on the frontier, they’re Imperial soldiers. They’re very frightening people.>
“So if we confirm that we’re not involved…”
Sharti lightly punched the man’s palm.
<Anyone can tell you’ve received treatment just by looking at your wounds. Then they’ll suspect me, the only doctor who lives in the mountains, just as you did. It makes me an accomplice.>
Perhaps it was because she had already decided to help the man.
Sharti wrote the word “accomplice” without hesitation.
‘Even if I’m truly an accomplice, I can’t deny it.’
Sharti still regretted, felt burdened by, and worried about her choice, but there was nothing she could do.
What could she do about something she had already done?
‘Frankly speaking, I even showed him my face.’
Perhaps because she had even collapsed the cave, she felt bolder.
