Neither an angel nor a goddess
“Your majesty…!”
Riella hurriedly ran into the study room.
Herhan was struggling on the messy floor with only his upper body leaning against the desk. Judging from the fact that he frowned slightly, he was not completely unconscious, but he seemed to be in such a serious condition that he couldn’t even stand on his own.
“your majesty! Are you okay? your majesty!”
Riella’s mind went blank. Of course, she forgot the words and promises that she had trained to deliver to the emperor.
‘What should I do?’
The way to deal with it was clear.
There were attendants and knights outside the door, so of course, calling them was the priority.
“Hey! Help! His Majesty has fallen! here…”
However, no matter how many times she called, it seemed that the call from the study inside the inner room was not enough to reach the outer corridor.
‘Why does my throat hurt at a time like this, so it’s hard to make a louder sound.’
‘I can’t, I have to go out and call someone…!’
Riella turned to face outside.
Just then, Herhan winced hard and let out a low groan.
“Ugh…”
“Your majesty!”
Riella discouraged wanting to leave.
Herhan’s face was distorted and he twisted his head slightly. As if struggling to wake up from a nightmare.
“your majesty. I’ll bring people right away….”
Riella stopped talking and stopped talking with a feeling of regret.
Herhan’s hand, limp on the floor, looked lonely and painful. The moment she saw that, and for some reason, she knew she couldn’t leave his side, even for a few seconds.
Herhan’s continuous moans were painful to hear.
Riella knew better than anyone the horror of being trapped in a nightmare and unable to escape.
She could never leave him alone. She couldn’t stand to look at his hand, which stretched out with difficulty as if to ask for help.
“Your majesty.”
So Riella, unaware of fear, knelt down in front of the emperor and took his hand. It was a big, hard hand. And it was shockingly cold.
“Your majesty. I’m here. Can you hear me? Please let me know if you need anything. Or I’ll call people to help. Calm down.”
It was then. The time when Riella held Herhan’s hand tightly and gave her kind words of reassurance.
Herhan’s eyelids, which didn’t seem to open easily, slowly opened. His hand that Riella was holding also started to have a weak power.
“your majesty! Are you awake?”
At Riella’s call, the emperor murmured something.
Riella put her ear close to his lips to hear him. The emperor’s words flowed straight into his ears, mixed with hot breath.
“Riella…”
“…..”
“Riella Blinite.”
It was the name ‘Riella Blinite’ that Herhan scratched his dry vocal cords with difficulty. She wondered why the harsh voice sounded so mournful and languid.
“Yes,” she answered, pushing through the feeling of her heart clenching with pity.
She was the first to hold his hand, but now the Emperor was holding her hand with more strength.
His forehead was covered with sweat.
She had already committed a tremendous offense by holding his hand, much less touching the Emperor’s forehead.
Even so, she felt the urge to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
Riella hesitated before she raised a hand cautiously. It was then people burst into the study room.
“What happened here…your majesty! Your Majesty, are you alright!? Someone call Sir Carnell right now!”
“your majesty, what’s going on!”
“Riella Blinite! Get away from His Majesty now!”
Along with an urgent shout, the countless sounds of footsteps flew in.
The attendants were shocked and could not bear to approach, and the knights divided into two groups and moved. The side that lifted the emperor, and the side that separated Riella from the emperor and restrained it roughly.
Seeing that, Herhan frowned.
Even though it was difficult to control his body, he hurriedly pushed off the support of the knights and spoke in a low voice.
“Riella….get out…”
“yes. Your majesty. Get Riella Blinite out now.…”
“No.”
Herhan’s complexion was pale. His lips were dry and his voice rough, but his eyes were the same as usual with a cold, murderous look.
“Keep your hands off Riella Blinite. And you get out…”
Although it was low, it was a command that contained a clear meaning in every word.
Herhan’s expression as he dismissed all the fuss was terrifying. Silence fell for a moment.
It was Asion’s job today to settle the tense atmosphere. He opened his mouth heavily, supporting his master’s arm, which was still staggering.
“Everyone follows His Majesty’s orders. I’ll sort this out.”
* * *
After a storm passed, the emperor’s chambers returned to silence.
The knights and servants were all kicked out of the inner room, and Herhan moved to the bedroom and lay down.
Carnell hurriedly ran over and examined Herhan, and Asion’s legs trembled the whole time, wondering what was wrong with him.
And while the situation calmed down, Riella was stuck in the corner of Herhan’s bedroom like a criminal.
“It is a symptom of a seizure.”
After a while, Carnell, who had been meticulously examining Herhan, made a diagnosis in a terrifying voice.
‘Seizure symptoms?’
Riella looked up in surprise and met Herhan’s eyes, who were staring at her. Herhan was lying on his side with his pillow raised. He seemed quite tired, but his gaze was intense and straight.
As If to say, ‘Yeah, you’ve discovered my secret, so what are you gonna do now?’ Like provocation her.
It was then that Asion stopped his trembling legs and suddenly approached with a terrifying expression and began to question Riella.
“Have you touched His Majesty?”
“What…?”
“So, when His Majesty fell, you touched his body!”
“ah…yes that is…”
As a sinner…she knew that touching the Emperor’s body was a serious crime, So she will calmly confess and pay for the crime because she knew it.
But her mouth did not open easily. Not because she was afraid of the punishment she would receive, but because the attitude of Asion, who had completely lost his composure, was unfamiliar and scary.
Anyway, she couldn’t keep my mouth shut, so Riella took a deep breath as much as possible and answered cautiously.
“I held His Majesty’s hand.”
At those words, Asion’s complexion became as pale as that of a sick person.
He was always calm and relaxed. He was Asion, who didn’t let out a ridiculous sigh even after knowing that she had spent one night with the emperor. He soon lost his temper and began to agitate.
“Hold his hand…! Why, why did you do that? Do you know what you have done?”
“That’s it, I…”
Riela couldn’t say anything in response as the panicked Asion grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
‘I thought it was a problem that a lowly person dared to put her hand on the emperor’s body, but it seems that I had committed more than that. I don’t know what it was..’
“Are you planning to eat that woman, Asion?”
Literally, that time when Riella almost got eaten by Asion. Herhan called for Asion with a cracked voice.
Asion let go of Riella at once and turned his attention to him.
After urgently checking the emperor’s condition, asking if he was okay or properly conscious, he showed his panic that still could not calm down.
“This is not something to be taken lightly, Your Majesty. I need to know exactly what the circumstances were before I can make a diagnosis…”
“It’s good to diagnose. Asion, you’re catching the wrong person.”
“… ”
“Calm down. I’m not dead yet”
Herhan’s words were stinging and kind at the same time.
That seems to have awakened Asion. Asion lowered his head and suppressed his emotions, then turned back to Liella and said.
“I’m sorry. I just panicked.”
“ah…, No. I am okay.”
Riela replied in a small voice.
Actually, behind Riella’s words, she wanted to ask more questions. She wondered if she had made a big mistake or whether the condition of Her Majesty the Emperor was serious. and what it meant to have a “seizure” or whatever.
However, there was no way she could have heard such an explanation.
Herhan was none other than the emperor of the Elshweig Empire. It was only natural that such a person’s personal problems would be a secret shared only by those closest to him.
The reason why she ended up in this bedroom was because she got caught up in the scene by accident, so it must have been nothing more or less. If there are any other reasons…
“Anyway, you must never divulge what you have seen, experienced, and heard about His Majesty today. Do you understand?”
It’s Just to keep her mouth shut.
So Riella quietly nodded her head.
“Riella Blinite. You must have come because you had something to talk to me about. Sorry, but we’ll have to talk later. Asion. take Riella out.”
She assumed that the Emperor’s order meant she had to leave.
Riella did not expect that the emperor’s words to talk later were really promises to come next.
* * *
It was only after sending Riella Blinite to her room that Herrhan asked to be alone. Of course, the doctor, Carnell, did not step down easily.
“Before that, you need to take a sedative. your majesty.”
“I’m fully awake.”
“But, you’ve been in contact with others during your seizures, there is a risk that your power will go out of control again.”
“….”
“This is the first time you’ve regained your power so quickly, Your Majesty, we need to be careful in case there are any after-effects.”
“…..”
“For a while, it was quiet without a seizure. I’m worried that you suddenly collapsed after half a year like this.….”
“Stop. Carnell. I will collapse again because of your concern.”
When Herhan raised his hands, saying, “Okay, stop it,” Dr. Carnell kept his mouth shut.
He bowed his head politely and stepped back only after he had put all the water and medicine on the nightstand next to Herhan’s bed.
In the silence, Herhan remembered what had happened earlier.
What he was looking at in his study room earlier was a letter from Taran. Perhaps they still thought they could cover up the mistakes they had made, the letter was covered with all sorts of excuses and poor evasions from the Riota royal family.
What a waste of time, thought Herhan. Just as he was about to close the letter, his vision went black and his mind went blank. Herhan fell under the desk like that. Soon his breathing became labored as if he were underwater.
He couldn’t see the front. Instead, all kinds of hallucinations covered all his senses.
The sound of many people crying and struggling. There were scenes that Herhan had seen and heard, but there were more that he hadn’t.
It was like reading other people’s minds.
That ability was a gift from God that exceeded the power of ordinary humans, and at the same time, it was also a curse that forced him to suffer all the pain in the world as if it were his own.
Every time that power ran out of control, Herhan lost consciousness and had to suffer from hallucinations for days and days. Just like today.
That was the ‘seizure’.
Seizures were terribly painful, but he’d had them often enough that they were nothing new. Just like normal people get a cold from time to time. Herhan has been suffering from his curse all his life.
But today was the first time something like this happened.
‘Your majesty. I’m here. Can you hear me?’
A voice like sunlight penetrating through the thick fog.
It was a warm, clear, yet powerful voice. Enough to drive away the pain that gripped all his senses at once.
‘Calm down… your majesty. Are you awake?’
Another voice, and the terrible visions and hallucinations blurred together like a cloud.
As he regained his vision, he saw a figure embracing him in the flames. An angel. A goddess who had come to save him.
At that moment, Herhan thought so.
He doesn’t even treat childish romance like a child’s fairy tale, and he’s all under the illusion that he’s not even like that. He thought it was really something a passing dog would laugh at. Perhaps it was because he was distracted.
‘Riella Blinite.’
‘yes.’
Riella Blinite had answered his call.
It was Riella Blinite. It was the woman who drove out the seizure, which could only be subsided by taking sedatives, with just a few words of call.
Not an angel or a goddess, that insignificant woman. Riella Blinite.
‘Who the hell are you?’ Now, Herhan asked inwardly.
Then it occurred to him that he had asked her the same question before. That night at Le Der where he first met her.
Even though the illness had subsided, Herhan felt dizzy.
He was confused because he couldn’t figure out the identity of the woman, and he was confused every time he saw her face.
* * *
