ERTHMB Chapter 94

Sweet Dreams Only

“I can endure it alone.”

“If this gets worse, it’ll be my responsibility.”

“How could that possibly be your responsibility… Ah.”

Ian grabbed Helena’s jaw and opened it. As soon as he positioned his shoulder between them, Ian set the dislocated bone back in place.

“…!”

Helena let out a soundless scream through her teeth. Tears reflexively welled up in her eyes. Her exhaled breath warmed Ian’s shoulder. Ian gladly received that sensation.

A moment later, Helena lifted her head while panting. Embarrassingly, saliva had drooled down. Ian didn’t mind and gently wiped her lips clean with his thumb.

“You endured well.”

“…Th-ank you.”

Her shoulder had returned to normal. Ian carefully checked by pressing the swollen area with his fingers.

Then, like following a set procedure, he reached for the medicinal herbs. Helena gathered herself from the lingering pain and asked.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a plant that reduces swelling. I brought various types just in case, fortunately.”

Ian crushed the herbs and applied them to Helena’s bare shoulder. His movements were simple and efficient. As the treatment neared its end, Helena’s gaze traveled up Ian’s arm.

“How do you know about things like this?”

“I once lived in a house with the sky as my roof.”

“You describe being a wanderer quite romantically.”

“That’s why I’m a wanderer.”

Ian finished the treatment and met her eyes with a harmless expression. He laid out the remaining herbs in a line on the ground and changed the subject.

“Anyway, watch carefully, Helen.”

His skill at slipping away from topics was excellent. But just as Ian had found Helena Owen, the person Helena had met was Kamel.

A gentleman using a fake name, always vaguely deflecting questions about his past, leading a considerably large merchant group while being completely mad.

Helena cherished that gentleman, so she simply focused on the herbs. Ian pointed to each one from the front, explaining thoroughly.

“If you chew the tip of this one until juice comes out and swallow it, it reduces inflammation. This one brings down fever, and if you hold this one in your mouth for about ten minutes, it numbs the nerves. And this one…”

When his long explanation ended, Helena pointed in the order he had indicated and repeated.

“So if pus forms, I apply this one, if I have a fever, this one, and if the pain is severe, I take this one.”

Ian lightly patted Helena’s head as if she were praiseworthy.

“As expected. You’re like my beloved disciple.”

Helena tilted her head to avoid his hand.

“Who’s a disciple?”

“Well, fine. Just beloved then. Let’s go with my love.”

“…”

Ian poked at the silent Helena with a mischievous smile.

“Why are you just letting this one slide?”

“You should let it slide too. Before you change your mind and object.”

Ian tilted his head and slowly lay down. He spread his arm to the side and gestured to Helena as if telling her to lie down. Helena pointed at his arm with a dubious expression, as if it were some strange object.

“So… right now this… arm… is supposed to be a pillow.”

“Once you try it, you won’t be able to use any other pillow.”

“No-“

Before she could object, her body tilted. Ian grabbed Helena’s good arm and pulled her down, finally laying her beside him.

“Don’t be too surprised if I embrace you in the middle of the night. I have rather bad sleeping habits.”

“You didn’t just make up that habit, did you?”

“It’s always this kind of spontaneity that makes life colorful.”

Helena reached toward his face with a soft sigh. She swept down his two eyes that twinkled well even in the darkness.

“Go to sleep quickly.”

—–

Sleeping close together was a wise decision. When dawn came, the temperature dropped sharply, and the only warmth to rely on was each other’s body heat.

Moreover, his claim about having bad sleeping habits was true. Helena opened her eyes to the subtle scratching noise at her ear. However, after a few minutes, she realized it wasn’t sleep talking but sounds of pain.

“…Kamel?”

Helena forced her curled-up body to stretch and sat up. She added more dead wood to the campfire and stirred it with kindling, making the fire grow larger.

Ian’s condition became clearly visible. Contrary to his carefree laughter before sleep, his lips were now blue. His hunched body was trembling, whether from cold or fever.

Most of all, the thick smell of blood stung her nose. Helena hurriedly followed the scent and stripped off Ian’s upper clothing.

“Oh no.”

Hot blood was seeping from the exposed abdomen. Even her sharp intake of breath carried the sticky scent of blood.

Where in the world could there be such a fool who could detect someone else’s shoulder injury just by voice, yet not know his own belly was pierced?

“Kamel, Kamel. Please wake up.”

Helena lightly tapped Ian’s cheek while calling to him. He only breathed feverishly without consciousness, showing no response. Every inch of skin she touched was burning hot.

“Please, just open your eyes…!”

The more desperately she called, the louder his pained moans became. Helena’s face turned pale. Unlike his body, her own body temperature began to peel away layer by layer.

“No, no…!”

When he was beside her, it always seemed like everything would work out somehow. No matter how impossible things appeared, when placed in a space together with him, it seemed like anything could be resolved.

And it always turned out that way. That’s how she had created this situation.

Helena cursed her own complacency. He was, after all, the man who had embraced her and rolled down a cliff of sheer height. There was no way he could be fine.

[Everything you love will die.]

Her mother’s false apparition appeared and spoke. It was a voice like the tension felt before a storm.

In a world that had suddenly dimmed, Helena was sinking.

—-

No. No.

Helena slapped both her cheeks hard. The stinging pain drove away the absurd despair.

‘Get it together. What changes right now by thinking such thoughts?’

Think only of what you can do right now. What you must do and what you can do.

Helena took out a water bottle from the holder beside them. The heavy sloshing sound gave her small comfort. Still, her hands kept trembling.

Helena poured water on the wound area as calmly as possible.

“Mmm…”

Ian furrowed his brow. Helena also threw off her upper clothing and bit into her relatively clean undergarment with her teeth. While continuing to pour water on the affected area, she wiped away the magical beast’s bodily fluids and blood with torn cloth pieces.

“Ugh…!”

Ian’s body flinched. Even while unconscious, it must have been considerable pain. His breathing from his half-open lips became rough.

Helena pushed a nerve-numbing leaf between Ian’s lips. His breathing sounds subsided somewhat compared to before. Meanwhile, she carefully applied the crushed herbs to the tattered flesh.

She felt both guilt that this was all she could do, and relief that at least she had this much.

Helena stayed up all night, changing the herbs every hour or two. It was an unbearably long night. She didn’t know to how many gods she had prayed while holding his limp, drooping hand.

‘Please, please save him. I’ll pay any price. Please…’

The groaning sounds continued throughout the night until dawn. His fever was rising sharply. While it was also proof that the wound was healing, excessive high fever was dangerous. Helena hurriedly searched for other herbs.

[If you chew the tip of this one until juice comes out and swallow it, it reduces inflammation. This one brings down fever…]

Recalling his words, she chewed thoroughly until enough juice came out. The considerably bitter taste made her frown involuntarily, but she wasn’t in a position to be picky. Nor was she in a position to hesitate.

Helena leaned her head over his face. She gently pressed her upper and lower lips together, then transferred all the juice into his mouth.

Once, twice, three times.

‘…What is this?’

The more she repeated it, the more a strange sense of déjà vu arose. She had felt this sensation not too long ago. It might have been an absurd thought, but it really was so.

Was it because of the aura flowing uncontrollably and weakly?

Despite his fever, only his lips remained cool. Cool, soft, slippery, constantly pulling her in, clinging… and tasted of mint.

‘Ah.’

Helena suddenly recalled that day. The day he confessed. The night she had wandered between life and death.

That day too, there had been this pleasantly cool sensation. She had felt exactly this texture and mint taste.

She also remembered a passage she had read recently in an aura manipulation book. It said that intimate physical contact was one method to reduce overload.

‘Cunning person.’

Helena transferred the last mouthful and then pulled her lips away. Beads of sweat had formed on the cunning man’s straight forehead. Staring at his sleeping face felt strange.

‘Did you feel like this that night too?’

Helena gently separated the wet strands of hair one by one. Each time her fingertips brushed against him, his eyelashes trembled faintly. Ian, who had only been breathing faintly, suddenly murmured.

“Don’t leave me alone. Please stay by my side. Please, please…”

It was a pitiful sound, whimpering like a baby animal caught in a trap. His fingers kept curling repeatedly, as if desperately wanting to grasp something.

Helena paused the hand that had been stroking his forehead. It was because the earnestness emanating from his voice was familiar.

When he had pulled her out after she had thrown herself into the sea of Futuo.

[Don’t leave me alone. Stay by my side. Please, please…]

He had said the exact same thing then.

Now he told her not to run away. That sounded like a plea not to abandon him. He was saying what she should be saying.

‘What kind of dream are you having?’

Are you in that time when you made me care for you, during my lowest period?

Helena gently wiped his lips with her water-moistened finger. His panting moans gradually subsided. Then she pressed and smoothed his furrowed brow, and once again leaned her face over his head.

‘I don’t know what darkness you’re hiding… but please don’t be in pain either.’

A light kiss briefly rested on his moisture-laden forehead. Helena slowly raised her upper body like a saint who had performed a sacred ritual.

Her hands, stained green from crushing so many herbs, came to cup Ian’s cheek.

Helena looked down at his now more peaceful face and prayed.

“Sweet dreams only.”