CH 37

A faint, characteristic scent of Yulif came from his cold lips.

She breathed out warm breaths. Soon, her breath dissipated and her lips, which were tightly engaged with his, fell off.

Canaren immediately moved on to the next step. She spread her right hand out, and her left hand clasped tightly over it. She then put her weight on him, pressing at regular intervals against the center of Yulif’s chest. One, two, three……. She repeated ten times, then paused, and looked at Yulif.

She was terrified to see him still lying there like a corpse.

What if Yulif dies?

She was upset with him and hated him, but she didn’t want him to die. The thought made Canaren, without hesitation, overlap her lips with his again.

She was unaware that she was kissing Yulif. It was not an act with such intentions. All she did was desperately act to save Yulif.

She pushed her breath in and pressed his chest down. She didn’t know how many times she repeated it. Almost like a madman, she moved his body silently. Because of that, Canaren did not see the shadow of a man running out of the grass.

By the time her arm started to ache, Yuliff’s face was slightly distorted. Canaren lifted her hand from his chest.

「Yulif?」

“Keuk……!”

Yulif let out his cough and vomited up the water he had swallowed. Canaren tried to get his upper body up, but it wasn’t easy because she was weak. She eventually had to be content with rolling his body and laying him on the side.

Yulif coughed and continued to spit out water for a while, then became quiet again.

Canaren was not shocked to see him become limp. From her experience, she knew that if one drank too much water, one would not return to consciousness even if one vomitted it.

What was needed at this time was her ability.

‘I need something sharp.’

Canaren looked around her. She soon found a tree branch. The broken edge was pointed like an awl.

‘If it was this much, it was enough to hurt.’ She picked up the branch and thought for a moment.

The ability she would use on Yulif now was a special ability given only to a few members of the Hwira tribe. When she heard that she was born with an ability that appeared once every few hundred years, she was delighted at first. She felt like a special person.

But as time went on, Canaren wanted to get rid of her powers if she could. It was because of her abilities that her mother and the chieftain, Anera, overprotected her.

‘My sweetheart, no matter what happens, you must not reveal your powers to humans. They will covet your powers and kill you. Don’t use your abilities even in town. Do you understand?’

The village was a safe place. That’s why Canaren saved the villagers from drowning, and secretly used her powers. Each time, she was bitterly scolded by her mother, but she couldn’t let the villagers die.

However, this was not the village, and Yulif was a human.

Was it right for her to use her powers?

No. Considering the future, it should never be used. It was right to hope that Yulif would miraculously regain his consciousness.

However, Yulif’s pale blue lips kept coming into her eyes. His bloodless face was unfamiliar.

He might not be able to open his closed eyes again.

Her heart ached as if constricted when she remembered his smiling eyes that resembled the night sky.

She wanted to save him. She wanted to save. She didn’t want him to die.

‘You can do it without Yulif knowing it. It’s okay because he hasn’t come to his senses yet.’

Using a lame excuse, Canaren stabbed her finger with a branch. Her skin was pierced and broken. Blood dripped with stinging pain.

Grasping his chin down, she opened Yulif’s mouth.

「Don’t die, Yulif.」

As soon as an incantation was finished, the drops of blood on the tips of her fingers turned golden. Canaren dripped golden blood into his mouth.

Even just a small amount of her blood healed wounds and energized. She could heal any ailment, any wound, if she so desired. But it’s nothing compared to her mother and her true abilities that frightened her.

As the wound she made was not deep and her blood quickly stopped dripping, she poked another finger, inflicting another wound. Some drops touched Yulif’s tongue, others passed over his neck.

It wasn’t until his neck was wet that she pulled away her hand.

She did all she could. All that remained was to wait for Yulif to open his eyes.

Canaren looked at Yulif with complicated eyes, and then she touched his lips. It was cold.

「Cold…….」

She curled up next to Yulif and hugged him with her knees up. Her whole body was soaked with water and cold sweat. She didn’t realize it earlier because her only thought was to save him.

Every time the cool night wind blew, a chill permeated. Canaren was trembling, but still worried about Yulif.

How long had Yulif been submerged in the lake? If he stayed on the floor like this, his body temperature would drop. He had to change wet clothes. If not, she must warm him up.

「I really…… I must be crazy.」

Canaren, who spoke with a sigh, spread her wings. After shifting to sit with her legs stretched out, she placed Yulif’s head on her thighs. One of her wings covered his body like a blanket, and the other wrapped around her own body.

If he died without being able to open his eyes like this, then her efforts in jumping into the lake and using her ability would be in vain. She didn’t like that thought, that was why she was doing something like this.

Canaren kept giving reasons to her own actions.

She knew it herself. That she didn’t have to do this. No, she knew she wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Yulif always did his best for Canaren. He gave her everything she wanted. Except for one thing.

It was the one thing that Canaren desperately wanted the most, but that didn’t mean his efforts were lost in an instant. What Yulif had done piled up inside Canaren one by one.

Could she call these fragmentary, flimsy, yet shiny things memories? Maybe she could. Because Canaren was happy with him, and he was happy too.

Her stomach turned as she looked at Yulif, who was barely able to come to his senses.

Should she inflict more wounds on herself and use her powers a little more? But when she exceeds the standard, her ability becomes a curse rather than a blessing. And she would reveal her powers to Yulif.

While hesitating, Canaren could not abandon the idea. It was better for her ability to be discovered by Yulif than to watch him die like this.

Canaren hummed a little song. It was a song played by Yulif. She couldn’t remember the lyrics, but she didn’t intend to sing it out loud, so it was okay.

A small humming to help Yulif recover quietly embraced the two of them.

‘If you don’t open your eyes until the end of this song, I’ll have to use my powers more.’

After a while, Yulif’s brow furrowed slightly. His fingers twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes.

*******

Why does my brother hate me so much?

(PR/N: Yulif is thinking/dreaming of the past while he’s unconscious.)

Yulif looked at the increasingly distant surface of the water and thought vacantly.

The brothers did not get along well. To be precise, Deltinus unilaterally hated Yulif, while Yulif had no particular feelings for his brother.

Yulif, who was young, but smart and quick-witted, was vaguely aware of it. The demon called inferiority and the monster called jealousy were swallowing up his brother.

Knowing it didn’t change anything, but Yulif treated his older brother cautiously in his own way. He didn’t say anything to offend his brother. He didn’t show his skills in front of his brother. He didn’t get ahead of his brother. He even pretended to do what his brother tells him to do.

‘Is that why you hate me?’

Yulif stopped thinking.

The mouth longing for air opened spontaneously. His last breath became a bubble and went up.

The 11-year-old felt helpless for the first time in the lake. He had done everything skillfully, but the fact that he had to die for nothing was hurting his self-esteem.

The child was a genius wizard who will go down in history.

He suppressed himself in front of the Deltinus, but he had pride and confidence in his own abilities.

‘Am I going to die?’

Yulif desperately opened his eyes before he lost consciousness. He should break the iron ball first. He came to that conclusion as he struggled to roll his stiff brain. Yulif grabbed the shackles on his ankles and unleashed his magical powers. He felt a burning pain running up his ankle.

Fortunately, the shackles came off. His legs moved properly.

The sense of liberation was short-lived.

It was too late.

Yulif bit his lips. His head went hazy as if he was sleepy, and his body started to feel heavy again. He didn’t feel like all he had was a metal ball. He couldn’t move, like his whole body had been crushed by something.

The 11-year-old used to imagine many futures.

The future of leaving the Imperial Palace behind and becoming an adventurer wandering the continent. The future who got along well with his older brother who became emperor and who became a wizard who worked for the empire. A future of researching magic in a tower that no one knew about.

Countless futures awaited him, but he never imagined he would drown in a lake.

No matter how talented a wizard was, the future was unknown.

He remembered the words of a teacher who once taught him magic.

The young Yulif prayed one last time in his dying consciousness.

He would give the person anything they wanted if they saved him.

He would become the strongest wizard in this world, and he would grant any wishes.

‘Please save me.’

Credits goes to Anon for raw providing + translating, and Ame for proofreading.