Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Leonhard stared blankly at Celine, who was approaching him. His body stiffened like a piece of wood, and he couldn’t move. When they finally came into each other’s sight, her voice rang clear in the early morning air.

“Leonhard!”

“….”

He couldn’t answer. His throat was so tight that he couldn’t even get her name out of his mouth.

All he could do was follow Celine’s figure with his eyes like she would disappear if he took his eyes off her even for a moment. Even though her body was covered in mud and blood, her hair glistened in the sun, and her cheeks were rosy.

Leonhard muttered the name to himself.

‘Celine…’

He felt something warm on his cheek.

At that moment, he suddenly realized… that this sorrowful feeling that now fills up in his heart was the kind that he should not dare to harbor. Leonhard stood still, unable to move as Celine waded through all the mud until she reached in front of him.

He gazed down at her with blurred vision. There were so many things he wanted to say.

Was she okay? He was worried. He missed her. He thought he’d go crazy if he hadn’t found her… no, he would have really gone crazy…

Nonetheless, he couldn’t get any of it out of his mouth.

Celine’s steps through the mud quickened as soon as she spotted Leonhard.

‘As expected, it was Leonhard.’

There was no mud around him. The traces of the magical power she found in the mud must have been traces of him fighting the mud instead of her.

‘Then, it must not have been a dream…’

Celine recalled Leonhard’s face that she had seen just before she died. Even though she was obviously exhausted, she got a new energy from somewhere, and she was able to keep pushing through the mud.

Finally, she arrived in front of him.

Leonhard was covered in mud and her blood, but he didn’t look injured.

She called him. Even though she felt like she was going to burst into tears at any moment, strangely, the tears didn’t come out.

“Leonhard.”

“….”

He said nothing, gazing down at her with reddened eyes as his pale blue lips quivered.

Suddenly, Celine was seized by the urge to hug him tightly.

“….!”

His body, which had been rigid like a piece of wood, stiffened even more. She was holding him as tightly as she could.

Leonhard hugged Celine, ignoring the reasoning in his head. It was the last struggle of his mind to refrain from hugging her in a crushing force and to place his hand on her as softly as if handling a precious glass artifact.

“I’m sorry.”

“….?”

“Tonight…”

As she let her words trail off, he glanced down at Celine, feeling something tingle in his throat.

He had never seen her look so desperate lately. Wasn’t she leaning her body against him as if standing still was the limit for her now? Compared to what she had to go through yesterday, he was only having nightmares for one night.

“Don’t mind it.”

His voice was hoarse.

“Because it’s just a dream… a nightmare. It’s over if I make it through the night.”

“…I thought it was a dream.”

“….?”

“I assumed that Leonhard would be at the hotel… I thought it was a hallucination.”

“You called my name.”

“Even in my dreams, I was happy to see Leonhard.”

When a small smile appeared on Celine’s face, Leonhard’s heart began to vibrate violently.

…He couldn’t help but love this woman.

Moments later, Celine went away from Leonhard. She stared blankly at the empty swamp where he had cleared the mud.

“The other wizards…”

“They’re alive.”

He quickly cut off Celine, not wanting her to trouble her mind over trivial matters.

“Maybe everyone has woken up now, I can feel the magic getting stronger. It doesn’t look like much, so don’t worry.”

As Celine closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated, Leonhard was right. The refined magic unique to wizards was felt everywhere.

“We’ll just have to let them clean these up, too. It looks like normal mud.”

“About Rose…”

“You mean the wizard?”

Leonhardt frowned. He didn’t like that Celine cared so much about a wizard she’d only known for a day. Still, he didn’t show it.

“All right. After we meet, let’s go back to the hotel right away. This place… I’m sick of it.”

Celine nodded and walked with him towards the shore from which he might have started. The mud had been completely cleared, and walking was easy, but it was not an easy task for her, who was terribly exhausted.

Leonhard glanced down at her, who was walking half-clinging to him. Even though he had a sudden urge to hug her so she could rest, he managed to suppress it.

‘….’

He gulped.

The warlock’s curse, that he had ignored without much thought, came out from the other side of his memory and attacked him like a ghost.

Leonhard closed his eyes, trying to ignore the emotions that began to simmer in his chest and took over his whole body.

All he could do right now was to let Celine do what she wanted.

Celine stood on the shore of the swamp, collapsing.

If she cleared it normally, a small reward would have greeted her. But because the cheat key named Leonhard got involved, she opened the wooden box rolling in front of her eyes without much inspiration.

As expected, there was nothing.

She set the wooden box randomly at her feet and looked around. In the middle of a field of flowers, most of which have rotted away, a few flowers with still vivid petals glistened in the sunlight.

Celine approached them as if possessed.

—Rumble, bang!

As the ground unexpectedly shook violently, she fell to her knees in a moment of surprise, and Leonhard quickly held her.

“….!”

The ground started cracking apart, and through the cracks, wizards crawled out one by one.

Tears filled Celine’s eyes again.

“Didn’t I tell you? They are all alive.”

After a violent encounter with Rose, who was with her father, Celine and Leonhard returned to the hotel with movement magic. Celine sat down on the carpet made of expensive sea fox fur, covered in mud, and jumped up in a panic.

“Sit still. If anything, you can lie down.”

“Leonhard!”

Leonhard smiled and sat down next to her. He spoke to her slowly, not looking at Celine.

“If I knew it would end like this, I would never have let you go.”

“….”

“Celine. Can I ask you a favor?”

“…Favor?”

“Please, don’t leave my side in the future.”

“….”

She was silent.

However, he did not order her. Leonhard just begged her desperately.

Still, the answer was fixed. The answer Celine couldn’t bear to say came out of his mouth.

“…I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“Because I asked a question that is difficult to answer.”

Leonhard answered and inadvertently leaned towards her, then pulled her back in a startling motion. Seeing that, Celine half-grabbed him, who was trying to avoid her gaze, as she gazed him straight in the eyes.

“Leonhard, I promise you one thing. I will try to live… by all means, I will try.”

“….!”

He gazed in half wonder at the blue-gray eyes, unmoving even though she had suffered a terrible death the very previous night.

“…Thank you.”

Celine smiled softly.

“There is nothing to be sorry about, nothing to be thankful for. Rather, I am sorry and thankful. Always.”

Even though he wanted to return those words to her, he was aware enough to stay still. Celine sighed and looked down at the carpet, which was soiled all over.

“I’m going to fall asleep like this… I need to wash up.”

In an instant, Leonhard’s face heated up. He stuttered in reply.

“Then, so be it.”

Celine blinked her eyes.

‘Why am I suddenly so shy?’

She had said something similar to him the other day, but at that time, Leonhard showed no reaction.

Didn’t he come in even when she was bathing naked?

‘At that time, I died, so I didn’t seem to mind the shock…’

However, Celine didn’t have to question it, so she continued talking casually.

“Leonhard, too, wash up and get some rest.”

“….”

He did not answer.

After a while, Celine immersed herself in the bathtub and enjoyed the warm water. Of course, she fell asleep while being careful that she wouldn’t die.

She sang her favorite songs to keep her awake.

‘I have to get up soon.’

Seeing her eyelids keep closing, it seemed that she would make Leonhard more difficult if she weren’t careful. Soon, she quickly got out of the bathtub and climbed into the bed in a nightgown.

It was still morning, so she was going to sleep well, and at night she intended to visit Leonhard.

Leonhard let out a long sigh as he washed away the mud and blood clinging to his body with cold water. He felt pathetic of himself, embarrassed by Celine’s casually tossed-out words without much thinking.

‘…Let’s get ourselves together.’

He threw away a pile of expensive clothes that seemed to have no other end other than get thrown away.

…What the hell was this feeling?

It wasn’t the first time he was excited about a woman.

Still, they were all passers-by, and he easily forgot them in one of his missions.

Celine was different.

If the curse could not be lifted by any chance, he was the one who would be responsible for the rest of her life, and even if he lifted it, she was someone who could stay in the north as a guest in the north forever.

He had an intuition that even if Celine were to go forever out of his reach, he would never be able to forget her.

As expected… these emotions were different.

He had never been seized with such intense longing. Even at this moment, he missed Celine so much, who was in the room next door, and he wanted to touch her hair to confirm that she was by his side.

“Ha!”

Leonhard laughed loudly at himself. He couldn’t believe that he couldn’t control these urges.

At this rate, he had to consciously avoid her.

“….!”

The sudden realization made his whole body tense. Of course, Celine would say that she would be with him tonight as well.

A cold sweat formed on Leonhard’s forehead.

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