Chapter 12

chapter 12

She repeated the exact same words he proudly said right after his bath. She was clearly telling him not to worry about how he smelled but, he has a more shocked expression as he avoided her gaze than when he heard her comment about how awful he smelled.

Yurina tilted her head to the side and he flinched then slipped out of her arms.

“I’m going to sleep. You go to bed, too.” (Ray)

“Don’t you feel cold?”

“I’m alright now.”

“Really?”

Yurina reached to touch his forehead and it was hot. She took the extra clothes that had been placed in the corner of the room and put them on the bed.

“If you sleep with your clothes drenched in sweat, you’ll feel colder, so go on and change them.”

“Mhm.”

“You’re not afraid to be by yourself, are you?”

“I’m not a kid.”

“When an adult is sick, even they feel alone and sad. So….”

When Yurina was sick, she felt such depressing loneliness. The moment she was about to blurt those words out, she remembered the day she died and it was one of the many many painful days she had.

The extreme agony as if her limbs were on fire; the excruciating pain of not being able to breathe properly yet she kept forcing herself to breathe hard just to live; Her eyesight that was gradually blurring and slowly being dyed in red as time passes by…

However, what was harder to bear than all of that was the psychological torment it brought her. The loneliness and fear of dying alone in a place in the middle of nowhere.

If only there was someone, anyone, who came along that would have rushed to her side and have told her she would be alright and warm her cold hands. She had always hoped that that happened instead, but all she remembers was that horrible cold night.

“Yurina.”

Raynard saw Yurina’s distorted face. He slipped out of his blanket then clutched her cold hands in his for a moment.

The warmth from his hands brought Yurina to her senses. She looked down at those tiny hands that were enveloping hers.

She had fine and smooth hands, and in contrast to that, his white hands were rough and scarred. She stared at her hands while being held by his then shrugged her shoulders as if shaking off her past.

“You’re such a kid.” (Yurina)

Raynard who was seriously scrutinizing her face lifted his eyebrows.

“Oh, give me a break. If you’re going to be like that, then just leave and go to sleep.”

“Are you sure? You’re not afraid?”

“I’m not a child.”

“Shall I call a maid?”

“No, I don’t want you to. Just go already.”

Raynard who had just come out of bed was pushing Yurina’s back.

Yurina was headed to the door because of his insistence and turned her head to glance back at him.

Normally, she would not have made such a fuss at all but his crouched tiny figure in front of her flashed in her mind.

From the way things are, she thought that it was unlikely to happen again, however, what if something happens to him during the night?

While Yurina was being kicked out of his room, Raynard held onto the doorknob and she promised quietly to herself that she would have someone guard in front of the door.

She could hear Raynard’s sigh of relief from behind.

‘Why are you so nervous? Did you seriously think I was going to eat you?’

Somehow, she felt strange. She turned around and laughed at such nonsense.

“Are you not going to cry without me?” (Yurina)

“Ah, seriously! Get out!” (Ray)

Raynard quickly opened the door and shoved her out of the room. She was kicked out of the hallway, then Yurina looked at him as he slammed the door with a grim face.

Bang, and the sound of the reverberated out loudly through the dark corridor.

“Yurina, what in the world are you looking at?”

Raynard asked her curiously. He was practicing writing letters with a quill pen in his hand, meanwhile, Yurina, who was reading her book, was wearing a frown. Yurina showed him the book and he compared his handwriting with that of the book and shook his head.

“I can’t read anything, even though I’ve been studying so much.”

He sighed lamentably as he looked at the scribbles on the paper.

A few days ago, he got a tutor and began his education learning his few words. Although his writing was only up to the level of looking and copying, his reading has developed enough that he could recognize simple words.

The well-known strict tutor called Raynard a ‘smart and good hard-working student.’

“I think I’m still lacking a lot.”

“That’s alright. You just started studying, so you don’t have to worry so much about it, Ray. The reason why you can’t read this is because it’s in ancient text.”

“Ancient? You can read it?”

Raynard’s eyes grew wide.

“I can’t,” Yurina said as she shook her head in reply.

Usually, in an another world fantasy romance novel, when the heroine hears a foreign language for the first time, it’s as if it’s their mother tongue and only a few people would be able to read and write it. Unfortunately, Yurina did not have that cheat.

Just like Raynard, in her eyes, they were nothing but squiggly lines like scribbles made by a baby.

“Ah, then, are you just looking at it? Why are you looking at something you can’t even read?”

“I’m searching for something.”

“You can’t even read it so how can you find it?”

“I’ll find the record.”

“What record?”

“The record that your eyes are indeed a blessing from the Goddess.”

Talking about the eyes that had not been mentioned for a while, Raynard’s eyes held a visibly stiff expression as he touched the corners of his. There was no violent reaction like before, instead, he suddenly reached out his hands to grab hers and squeezed it tightly.

“You don’t have to find something like that.”

“I’ll find it.”

Yurina turned the pages over again since she made a promise to herself. to the book was a parchment with several ancient words written on it.

‘I should’ve done this a long time ago.’

Yurina should’ve looked for an objective record about his scarlet eyes, the symbol of the Goddess, from the start.

It would’ve made it easier to convince the Marquis and Dave. Not only that, if she would’ve done it before, then Raynard would never have felt terrible about his eyes nor would he be feared by people.

She was not attempting to make any excuses. She went and found Raynard in the orphanage and looked for records of mages who were considered historic like The Great Mage William.

It’s not easy though. Even if you can read the text naturally, there are too many books to search through. It’s not like there’s internet here like Korea that you could find things like this with just a few taps of your finger.

In the first place, there was nothing that described the appearance of mages.

After a month of scouring the book in her hand, she finally came to a conclusion.

‘It’s also not in this book.’

If it’s easy for her to find such information, then Dave, as well as other mages, would have found out about it already.

So how and where did De Flon get those facts and information from?

Looking through her memories, Yurina thought of an ancient book written in an ancient language. Then she asked Dave to search for old books that might contain any clues.

Obviously, Yurina could not decipher the old book so she asked Dave to write ‘Eyes, pupil, red, crimson, Goddess, blessing’ in an ancient language.

The magic language could be traced from the ancient language so some mages could read and write it. It’s the same with Dave and he gave a puzzled look as he wrote down the words on the parchment.

‘I don’t have to read it all anyway. I just need to find the part I need.’

She continued to compare the ancient words as she searched for any records regarding red eyes.

‘No.’

Yurina rubbed her exhausted eyes and closed the book. She had been nodding off these past few days and reading the books Dave brought her but she hadn’t had any luck. Ah, she’d thought of following Dave to the library and take a look at the books herself.

A few days later, Yurina persuaded the Marquis and Dave to head directly to the Imperial Library with Dave.

However, after they hurriedly came to the library, she became dizzy with the number of ancient books which was more than what she expected. She already felt terrified of the thought of having to read all those books until she found the book she wanted.

‘I think looking for research materials for my graduation thesis was way easier than this.’

Yurina sighed and when Dave saw this, he patted her shoulders.

“Young lady, you don’t have to do this. It’s more likely that those rumors are not true.”

“It might be actually out there. I’m definitely going to find it and show it to Ray.”

Yurina once again firmly established her resolve.

As long as it’s for Raynard’s sake, as long as he wouldn’t get hurt anymore, she wouldn’t mind searching through all the books inside, she would even search the whole empire for it.

She took one deep breath and then pointed at the book Dave was holding. Just as she asked, Dave read the titles of the ancient books one by one.

After Yurina picked out a book that seemed like it might help, Dave took it out from the bookshelf instead of her since he was taller.

“Young lady seems to care for Mr. Raynard a lot.”

Dave muttered as he took out the third book. Yurina nodded as she looked at the book cover that he took out.

“Of course. I’m the one who brought him here.”

“No matter how much you care for him, it won’t be that easy.”

“I think that because of my carelessness, Ray had to go through all those experiences, so I have to take responsibility.”

“Is that really all?”

Yurina sifted through the next bookcase and turned her head to look at Dave. Dave gave a mischievous smile that didn’t fit his age.

“Are you not interested in Mr. Raynard? You haven’t spent much time with other boys around your age other than your brothers, you know.”

“Stop talking nonsense and read the title of those books to me.”

Yurina pointed at the bookcase without a moment’s hesitation.

Dave maintained his mischievous smile as if saying ‘I know what you feel.’ Yurina raised her eyebrow and snorted at it.

“That’s not it.”

In the 30-year-old Dave’s eyes, Yurina and Raynard, who were around the same age, looked cute, but she thought otherwise.

‘This is Bomoya’

That’s a nanny who soothes children who cries all day long.

If Yurina was really a 10-year-old kid, after spending her time around with the charming Raynard all day long, she might have had a rational attraction towards him however, she was already mentally twenty-two years old.

It was impossible for her to have any attraction.

‘If you continue that behavior, you’ll get in huge trouble.’

Dave smiled at Yurina. Yurina ignored his gaze and pointed at another book at the top of the bookshelf.

“Don’t just sit around and go read the title of that book.”

“Alright.”

Dave continued smiling as he read all the books Yurina pointed at one by one.

Yurina listened to his explanation and took out the books that might contain what they desired and placed them in Dave’s hands. After collecting the books, they left the library.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to read all of these?”

Dave anxiously asked Yurina as he looked at the books in his arms while following her from behind.

Yurina picked five books. Considering the thickness of the books, it equals seven or eight regular books.

This was nothing to him who was buried in books everyday but, Yurina was only 10 years old. And obviously, it was harder to find the words you’re looking for than simply reading it.

“I’ll try as much as I can.”

Yurina promised to herself. Dave hugged the books tighter as they were slowly slipping from his arms.

Now her biggest worries are ‘how to finish this book?’ and ‘how can I prevent the nanny form taking them?’.

She had little sleep the past few days and this made her skin a little rough and gave her back pains, so the nanny tried to take them away and told her she shouldn’t do that.

The nanny couldn’t get the book since Yurina desperately held the book in her arms. Maybe if her nanny were to see the books she is bringing with her today, she would sigh at the sight and attempt to take them away immediately.

‘Should I put it in Dave’s lab?’

As she wondered how she could be able to read the books this time. While walking, she suddenly saw a boy heading to the library with several escorts.