Chapter 31 - CHAPTER 29. THERE WAS NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER

When asked why he did it, Lucio was going to answer after a bit of thinking. Because he himself did not know the answer. Then, after thinking for a long time, he would finally choose from one of two answers. One of them would be ‘I just moved my body without my knowledge’, and the other one… It would be ‘to repay the debt of the heart.’ Lucio thought it would probably be one of the two.

To be honest, the two answers above barely fit as reasons, and they were not the exact reason. Even he couldn’t explain and know the exact reason for his actions.

Obviously, he always had a feeling of being sorry towards her. To leave her alone when she was his real wife, and to favor Rosemond the mistress, and the crime Rosemond committed when she had the meeting with the envoys’ wives, all of it. But for both reasons, there was nothing he could do about it anymore.

If so, was that the reason he had chosen to be hit by the poisoned arrow in her stead? Perhaps it had just been a conditional reflex, without the need for such complicated explanations. The only person who could answer this complex question was Lucio himself, but he definitely did not have any clear reason as to why he did it.

So, if someone asked him for the reason for his sacrifice, he would give the latter of the two reasons mentioned above, but it was only an external story, and internally, he would constantly look for answers.

He liked riddles after all. Especially, if it related to himself.

So that may have been why he had still not been able to awaken until now. Because he had not yet found the answer to the question he asked himself.

Why did he take an arrow and suffer possible death for the Empress Patrizia, whom he didn’t even love? Whether he would only wake up if he found the answer, or wake up without finding the answer, maybe even this was unknown.

“Right, you sure are eating well.”

Patrizia softly stroked through Sally’s mane as if she was dependable, and the horse trembled with a loud nicker as if she felt good. After Patrizia gave the horse enough water, she gathered together enough grass for the horse to eat. After feeding the horse plenty of the grass, Patrizia tied Sally back. Of course, she thought the horse was so loyal that it wouldn’t water off anywhere, but you never knew. Patrizia made the rope as long as possible, tied it near the cave, and went out to find the herbs she could use to feed Lucio.

Truthfully, she didn’t have much knowledge of herbs, and maybe it was closer to the opposite, but fortunately, she was able to make some basic herbal discrimination because of what she had learned during the Empress classes. Patrizia thought that the education she had received at that time was very useful, and she lit her eyes on fire to try to find herbs that could help. However, what was seen were plenty of poisonous plants disguised as herbs, and the desired herbs were not visible. When she had walked for about an hour, something caught her eye.

“Ah!”

Patrizia, discovering a small purple flower, gave an outburst of joy without her knowledge.

“Sculler.”

It was a sculler, a precious flower that bloomed and disappeared in the shortest period of time in Marvinus. Most people considered this sculler high only in terms of aesthetics, but it was different in the herbalist world. Sculler was a flower that had enormous medical value with its scarcity and had the ability to detoxify most of any poison.

It was a great fortune to find these flowers here. Patrizia gleefully ran over to where the sculler was. But she was soon hit with the wall of reality. The sculler was blooming on a fairly high cliff. Patrizia looked up and down alternately, measuring the height. If she went after it and then fell, she would fall to her death. Patrizia struggled with her thoughts for a short time. Should she go after them or not? However, her worries were over quickly. She had to go pick that flower unconditionally.

This was not a painful effort, or sacrifice, to save a lover. If she didn’t get that flower, Lucio would die today.

If that happened, then she would die as well. If she was going to die this way or that way, it was worth it to at least try and die. Patrizia grabbed the rock in front of her with a determined look. Her athletic ability wasn’t very good, and so she was going to believe in her luck. Anyways, it wasn’t just any good luck to see the sculler blooming right in front of her eyes anyway.

“Haa haa…”

Patrizia began to climb the cliff, exhaling rough breaths. Because she had a slight fear of heights, her toes seemed to be conducting electricity, and she could feel her whole body getting stiff, but survival was first. She really wanted to cry in her parents’ arms, but for that to happen, she had to overcome this fear first.

Patrizia bit her lips, put all her strength in her toes. She had to live. She had to live.

“A little bit… more!”

In a precarious position, Patrizia trembled as her fingers felt like they were going numb. She felt tears in her eyes, but this wasn’t the time to cry. Crying could happen after picking up this flower, or unfortunately just before falling off and dying.

Patrizia focused all her nerves on the sculler, reaching her arm out with all her might. Her arms and body were beyond trembling, but it didn’t matter. If she could just get that…!

“Ahh!”

At that moment, the rock she was stepping on broke off and rolled down. Patrizia felt her life was being threatened, and quickly stepped on to another rock. When she realized that she was almost going to the underworld, her heart filled with fear. Patrizia gave a sigh of relief and then reached out to pick the sculler again.

“Ah… a little bit…!”

It really was on the verge. Patrizia squeezed with all the power she had from the time of her nursing, and desperately moved her fingers. Finally, the sculler was caught by her finger, and Patrizia ripped it off without hesitation. She shouted with a smile drowned in victory.

“Done!”

Now that she pulled out the sculler, the only thing left was to go down carefully. Patrizia held onto the sculler tightly in her hand, in case she lost it, and began to descend down the rocky cliff with caution. Fortunately, there was less anxiety and fear than when she had gone up, because of the satisfaction of achieving her goal.

When she finally set her feet on the ground, Patrizia was grateful that she was still alive. She hurriedly ran towards the cave where Lucio would be, without giving herself enough time to be intoxicated by happiness.

Meanwhile, Rafaella was shooting her bow like a fish that had met water. She made a satisfied expression only after replacing the quiver two more times, and the other knights who had followed her were looking at that with an exasperated expression.

They had heard that her skills were getting better these days, but they didn’t know it was to this point. She looked pleased with a satisfied face at the amount of the prey piled up behind her.

Ah, this would be enough for the winning prize, right? Rafaella, who counted the number of prey with an excited look, soon remembered something, and her face became a little serious.

“I wonder if Her Majesty is doing well.”

She had told her she would follow, but Patrizia had rejected her request. Although it wasn’t that she didn’t know Patrizia’s desire to enjoy her own time freely… she just felt a little uneasy. Rafaella asked another knight that was behind her.

“Sir Rasil, do you know where Her Majesty is?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Honestly, it was a pretty stupid question. How could Sir Rasil know the answer to that? It’s not like there was a tracker on Patrizia. Rafaella rebuked herself.

It was too easy.

She shouldn’t have just listened and sent Her Majesty off alone. Moreover, at this time!

Rafaella turned her reins around with a look of frustration. The horse she was on top of began to roughly gallop. She hoped everything was just useless worries. She hoped everything was her own delusion.

Brewing the herb into herbal medicine was actually the best way to consume it, but currently, in a cave, she was without anything right now. Patrizia returned to the cave and wondered how to feed him this herb. There was no right way. The best way would be for Lucio to chew it up all on his own, but she couldn’t expect an unconscious person to do even the smallest exercise. But that didn’t mean there were any tools to brew the herbs either.

So how in the world would she feed him this? Patrizia was at a loss. In order to make it even more effective, she had to feed him this herb as quickly as possible. While trying to figure out a way, Patrizia burst into laughter without realizing, as an absurd thought momentarily came to mind. No, she could try all other methods besides that. How can she, with this man…

Patrizia shook her head as if that could never happen. That was just never going to happen. Patrizia stared at Lucio, who was still unconscious and laid out, with a disgusted expression.

He still had his eyes closed as if he were dead, and he really seemed to be dead, if it wasn’t for the slightest breath that could be heard.

Patrizia bit her lips while alternately looking at Lucio and the sculler that was in her hands. She muttered to herself momentarily.

“What are you doing, Patrizia?”

She must have gone crazy. She was not in a situation to be weighing in on her feelings right now. She must have gone crazy. After suffering through all that trouble, she was trying to kick away the most obvious and beneficial method for both of them, because of her feelings that she didn’t want to. She had gone crazy.

Patrizia soon put the sculler in her mouth with a decided look, showing she had no choice. The method she chose was to chew the sculler into pulp herself, squeeze out the juice, and pour it into his mouth. It really wasn’t what she wanted to do, but for now, this was the most reliable and efficient thing to do.

Moreover, if she squeezed it into a pulp in her mouth, a small amount of juice could be absorbed in her own body, and both could see a therapeutic effect. For now, this was definitely the best.

Patrizia constantly hypnotized herself as she continued to chew on the sculler again and again. Being careful to not let any juice leak out, Patrizia did her best to chew up as much juice as possible.

Eventually, a good amount was in her mouth, and Patrizia carefully placed her face close to Lucio’s face. She slowly used her hand to open Lucio’s mouth. His mouth opened easily because he was unconscious. Carefully overlapping her lips with his, the juice in her mouth passed on into his mouth.

Only then did the reassured Patrizia sigh out with relief. The important thing was that this all passed through his throat, so Patrizia did not take her lips off his until he had completely swallowed everything in his mouth.

Finally, when the sculler’s bitter scent became one between his and her lips, Patrizia finally lifted her lips away from him. Patrizia, licked off everything on her lips, without leaving a drop of sculler juice, and sighed as she shook her head. Now she had done everything she could. The rest was left to heaven.

“…”

Patrizia looked at Lucio, who was still without consciousness, with a blank expression.