CH 75

Sarah's voice cracked bitterly. It all seemed to be her fault. 'Flower of Darkness', her students, and Dieline were all. She leaned into Ethan's arms for a moment and caught her breath. Her disappointed feelings were slowly disappearing in the arms of Ethan, who supported her firmly.

'But, who cares? I'm a person of Ambrosia, and Duke-nim is a scary man. Even the Emperor can't easily touch him.'

Sarah glanced at Ethan's face. She didn't know what he was thinking, but his face was a little stiff. However, she knew how softly that face changed when he smiled.

"Duke-nim."

"Yes."

"Will you give me a hug?"

At Sarah's question, Ethan's head tilted as if puzzled. He didn't seem to understand why she was asking, but Ethan reluctantly nodded his head.

"Of course."

"Does Duke-nim trust me only?"

"......What's that?"

Before Ethan could say anything, Sarah once again reached out toward the magic circle. Then, as if pouring out all the energy remaining in her body, she squeezed out her mana and focused it on her hand.

"......Sarah!"

Ethan realized what she was trying to do, and was furious, but it was already too late. Because the magic circle was broken with a loud noise along with a squeaking sound. As soon as the magic circle was broken, the bound limbs were released, and the three disciples plummeted to the floor with a heavy thumping sound. Claude, seeing this, frowned and muttered.

"It must hurt."

Sarah, who easily chewed up Ethan's words not to use mana, replied in a refreshing voice.

"That much is fine."

Although the 'Swamp of Eternal Sleep' was destroyed, Sarah still put her disciples to sleep. Maybe they would sleep tight until she woke them up. It would help them to sleep until everything was solved.

"I put them to sleep for a very long time. They don't have to wake up again and cause trouble, and they don't have to be punished in that painful magic circle, right?"

"However―."

"I have to punish those children. I'm the biggest victim."

"......"

"Look, because they made a mistake, their hands tremble like this even with small magic, and their whole body strength...…"

Sarah's body, who had been talking up to that point, suddenly fell backwards and drooped in Ethan's arms. With her weakened body, she forcibly used her mana, and thus was exhausted.

"Sarah, Sarah!"

Surprised, Ethan shook her body and called out, but Sarah couldn't answer. She just fluttered her long eyelashes.

"No can do. Let's go back to the room, Claude."

"Yes, Father."

Ethan narrowed his brow and strode out of the secret room. The woman named Sarah Millen was unpredictable. He decided to think once he lay Sarah on her bed and turned his back to Claude, who should follow him.

"......"

Claude was still lying on the floor, staring at Sarah's disciples, who had fallen asleep, not knowing when to wake up.

"Claude."

"Yes!"

But when Ethan urged him again, he took his eyes off them and hurriedly ran away.

* * *

Sarah came back to her senses only when she got out of the secret room and approached her room. She fainted very briefly. Noticed that she opened her eyes, Ethan asked in a low voice.

"Do you get a hold of yourself?"

"Yess……. What should I do if this is just too much?"

"You can recover slowly, so that's fine."

Sarah's body seemed to be fine now that she had recovered her energy. She felt that the price for receiving Ambrosia's power was small. Sarah whispered in a small voice to Ethan, concerned by Claude's power to heal her body to this extent.

"Duke-nim, you said Claude-nim healed me."

"Yes, that’s right."

"That's the power of Ambrosia……, it wasn't, right?"

"Um."

Ethan pondered for a moment at Sarah's question. Would it be correct to call it the power of Ambrosia? It didn’t take away life, but it gave life back. This had never happened in the history of Ambrosia.

"I don't know. However, what I felt from Claude at the time was clearly the power of Ambrosia."

"......"

At Ethan's answer, Sarah's face only grew more complicated. When she recovered her body, she knew what she had to do first. She had to check what was going on inside Claude.

'It's something that never happened, neither in the Flower of Darkness nor in the future.'

Gradually, things she didn't know increased. It was something she had to endure as she gradually changed the content of the novel, but she was both happy and anxious.

'Come to think of it, I definitely saw Park Hyeyeon before waking up, but why is my memory……'

Sarah felt a splitting headache every time she tried to recall what she had seen before waking up.

"Ugh."

She groaned softly, touching her head with her hands. Then Ethan held Sarah in his arms more tightly and walked faster. When the servants opened Sarah's door, he entered and winked quietly. Then they moved quickly, prepared bedding and medicine for Sarah, and disappeared.

"It's all here."

"Uh um."

As soon as Ethan put Sarah on the bed, she dug into the soft blanket. She was really aching all over her body and was drowsy. She wondered what kind of trouble this was because of her foolish disciples.

"You have to rest, Sarah."

"Yess……"

Sarah answered lazily and opened her arms toward Claude.

"I need to rest, so please give me a hug, Claude-nim."

"......!"

Claude, who was trying to leave the room behind Ethan so Sarah could rest, lifted his head. He looked up at Ethan, as if asking for permission, and his eyes lit up.

"Do that."

Ethan's permission had been granted. Claude jumped into Sarah's arms, dying his cheeks red beautifully.

"Kyah, Claude-nim is so warm and nice!"

Sarah hugged Claude tightly and rejoiced. The child's warm body temperature seemed to soften her stiff body. It was complicated and she had so much to think about, but for this moment, there were no thoughts in her mind.

"......"

Claude hugged Sarah tighter, listening to Sarah's clear laughter. Even if she held hands, hugged him, or talked to him, he keep thinking about Sarah lying down without saying anything as if she were dead. It was so nice to be in Sarah's arms, who was alive and moving like this.

"Nanny is a liar."

"What? Me?"

"Yeah."

Claude complained with a grumpy voice for no reason.

"You said you'd play with me once a week……"

"Ah, I’m sorry. We promised, right?"

Sarah stroked Claude's hair gently and patted him.

"Didn't you and Duke-nim play together?"

"That can't be possible."

Ethan answered in a bittersweet voice and sat down on the bed. Then his hand overlapped with Sarah's, who was stroking Claude. Warmth slowly circulated in her cold hands. As if alive.

"I acted as if you would disappear forever if I took my eyes off you. Claude and I."

During that month, Ethan saw all his duties here. He also kept his promise to have breakfast with Claude every morning here. While Ethan was working at one desk, Claude sat next to Sarah and studied. When Ethan had something to do outside, Claude guarded this place, and Ethan stood by Sarah when Claude had to go wash up. If they didn't do that, the miracle that came to Ambrosia's mansion seemed to disappear at any moment.

"What I said before, do you remember?"

"Which one?"

"I told you to take responsibility because I realized something thanks to you."

"Ah……!"

Sarah blushed for a moment as she recalled Ethan kissing the back of her hand. She felt a tremor that was close to the shock she had felt at that time rushing into her heart. A soft smile appeared on Ethan's lips, who was looking at Sarah's trembling eyelashes.

"I haven't forgotten."

He raised Sarah's hand as he did back then and kissed her on the back of her hand.

"Then I look forward to your kind cooperation."