I Ended Up Saving the Duke Who Was Meant to Die - Chapter 5.1
I opened my eyes in a soft bed.
My whole body ached as if someone had beaten me. I struggled to sit up and looked for him as if it were natural.
Where is Severus? Is he alright?
I had fainted while healing. I didn’t even have time to check if his wounds had healed properly.
“Are you awake?”
“Severus!”
I instinctively fell into his arms and felt his body. I noticed more wounds than when I first saw him. I hope no one bothered him while I was unconscious.
“Irene, I’m fine. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
In truth, I was exhausted, but I’d be okay after some rest. I didn’t want to complain in front of him. He looked better, perhaps because he had changed into clean clothes.
“I’m sorry, while I was healing you…”
He took my hand and placed it on his cheek as he continued speaking.
“I’m perfectly fine. Thanks to your healing, I have no pain anywhere.”
He let me touch his face, chest, and all over his body. Only after checking with my own hands did I feel relieved.
“Don’t overexert yourself in the future. I was worried you might not wake up.”
“I’ll be fine after a good sleep. Actually, it’s not the healing that’s overwhelming, it’s that Severus is too big.”
“….”
“When you push in, my mind goes blank. You probably don’t realize.”
“Irene.”
“And your touch feels so good. I lose myself without even realizing it while healing.”
“Irene, stop.”
He covered his face with his hands as he spoke. I tilted my head to the side and blinked. His face had turned red.
“Severus, are you in pain? You’re not running a fever, are you?”
Why is his face so red? He must not have fully recovered yet. Seeing my sparkling eyes, he waved his hand and turned his face away.
“Th-that’s not it.”
“Then what? Look at me. Your face is so red.”
“It’s nothing. I’m fine, please calm down.”
“Really?”
He nodded. Did he go somewhere without me? His unfamiliar attire was strange.
“Where did you go?”
“I was about to leave. But I couldn’t go alone, so I waited.”
Severus smiled as he brushed my hair.
“Do I need to go with you?”
There should have been time left before we had to appear before people. I looked at him with a puzzled expression. Where does he need to go again, having just returned alive from the battlefield?
I clutched his shirt’s hem tightly. If he had to go to the battlefield again, I had to stop him. The Imperial Palace might try to send him out before he’s fully recovered.
‘There are things I need to ask too.’
I couldn’t run away cowardly. I called us a married couple with my own mouth, but I couldn’t actually lighten his burden. So this time, I had to ask, even if the truth might be uncomfortable.
“Severus, if there’s somewhere you need to go, I’ll go with you. But before that, there’s something I want to ask.”
“Ask me anything.”
“Are there secrets about the temple that I don’t know?”
“Irene, do you want to know about the temple? I’m asking if it’s okay even if it’s different from what you knew.”
“I need to know. I want to know what I don’t know, what kind of deals are going on between the temple and the imperial family.”
“How much do you trust the High Priest?”
I remained silent at Severus’s question about how much I trusted Michaelo. He was the person who pulled me out of the mud. I owed him a debt and repaid it again. What remained between Michaelo and me was something inexplicable. Michaelo was my only family and the person I admired.
I couldn’t define it clearly.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seriously thought about our relationship. I’ve just thought of him as the only person who reached out to me, a person I’m grateful to.”
I don’t know if Michaelo thought of me as family too. But at least that’s how I’ve thought of it. Because I longed for the shelter of a family. So I didn’t disobey, repaid my debts, and worked hard to be useful. And after being given a mission, I left that place. I felt relieved, but also a lingering longing.
Life at the temple wasn’t that bad until I was confined in the tower. The range wasn’t narrow, so it was livable. If it weren’t for Michaelo’s suddenly changed attitude, I might have stayed there quietly. But maybe I knew deep down that this wasn’t right.
“Was there anything difficult while staying there?”
“Nothing except feeling stifled. The High Priest treated me specially.”
But I immediately took Severus’s outstretched hand. Seeing his power and ability to act, I thought he was someone who could protect me, so maybe the temple wasn’t that comfortable. I’ve been constantly thinking about wanting to escape.
“The High Priest and I have been together like family for a very long time.”
“For a very long time?”
“I think I was about ten… I thought an angel had appeared before me as I wandered the streets, starving.”
I couldn’t remember how I ended up wandering the streets or why I was alone. I just knew I had been alone for a long time, and that loneliness was familiar. Michaelo’s face, smiling brightly and reaching out his hand, was vivid. You don’t know how warm that hand was.
I clenched and unclenched my fist, smiling faintly. How important that warm touch was to the young me. Maybe that’s why I tried my best not to be hated.
“So you thought it was okay to be confined in the temple?”
“I thought it was natural. People would surely point fingers at me, calling me a witch with my red hair, and try to kill me. As I grew up, I vaguely felt something was strange, but everyone there lived that way.”
“Other priests weren’t completely unable to live outside, were they? They were afraid your ability would be exposed, so they tried to hide it.”
I know. He was concerned that people would exploit me for my ability. Even those who went outside often told ominous stories about people with red hair. With the same worried look as Michaelo, they said the temple was safe.
Everyone said so, so I believed it. I wasn’t given the opportunity to talk with anyone other than the priests.
“I thought they were protecting me. Because we were family.”
It was a community we shared. We ate together, slept together, and spent most of our daily lives with those in the temple. I didn’t think they were doing anything bad to me. Until I was confined in the tower, I believed that place was safe for me.
“…And such a person did that to you then?”
