I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 37
Adelio, watching Yeshion, suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace, making sure his bare skin wouldn’t be seen by anyone else. He glanced at the servant and ordered him to bring fresh clothes before shutting the door behind him.
“You seem to be walking around just fine, so I guess you’re all better.”
Adelio lifted Yeshion and set him down on the bed. Then, without hesitation, he started removing Yeshion’s pajamas.
Yeshion, startled, tried to cover himself with his arms, but it was only for a moment. Adelio grabbed Yeshion’s arms first.
“Stay still.”
Adelio’s expression as he examined Yeshion’s body was unusually serious.
“The traces of the rash are all gone. It seems the poison has left your system, but it was an extremely deadly toxin. If your condition worsens, it might attack your body again at any time.”
After finishing his inspection, Adelio exhaled in relief and looked up. As their gazes met, words burst out of him in frustration.
“I’m sure I clearly…!”
He cut himself off, gritting his teeth. There were many things he wanted to say, but he struggled to find the right words, clearly frustrated.
“Still, we both survived, so isn’t that all that matters?”
“…What?”
“I survived, and so did Your Highness. In the end, everything worked out, didn’t it?”
Yeshion replied casually, shrugging his shoulders.
Adelio silently stared at Yeshion’s face.
Despite having narrowly escaped death, Yeshion’s expression showed no major change. It was as if he wasn’t afraid of death at all.
“…I have something to ask.”
“What is it?”
“That day… if I hadn’t listened to you and charged at you, were you really planning to jump out of the window?”
Yeshion nodded without hesitation. Falling from the third floor would hurt, sure, but it wouldn’t be fatal.
Of course, he knew it was an extreme reaction.
But dealing with people like Adelio or Eldis required that kind of resolve. The more fear and hesitation he showed, the more they would swallow him whole.
“With the poison in your arms?”
“…Ah.”
It was only then that Yeshion understood the true intention behind Adelio’s question.
He wasn’t asking if Yeshion intended to escape him—he was asking if Yeshion was planning to jump and die alone while holding onto the poison.
“Wait, that wasn’t my intent…”
“What kind of person…!”
Adelio couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted. Yeshion’s eyes widened in surprise, and his body trembled at the outburst.
Adelio, not stopping even as he saw Yeshion’s startled reaction, continued to rant. How could someone be so reckless? What would he have done if things had gone terribly wrong?
“But in the end…”
“What if the result had been bad?”
“…..”
“Even if I survived, what if you had died?”
Yeshion couldn’t find any words to reply. Normally, he would have made a joke, saying, ‘Well, I’d be dead, wouldn’t I?’
But right now, Adelio seemed genuinely shaken, his hands trembling as if Yeshion’s near-death experience had truly affected him.
Yeshion parted his lips to speak, but his thoughts were filled with only one question.
‘Why do you even care about me?’
The questions flooded his mind.
The Adelio he knew wasn’t this kind of person. Even if someone died trying to save him, Adelio would normally dismiss it as an honorable sacrifice.
“I don’t understand Your Highness’s behavior more than anything.”
“…..”
“Why does Your Highness care about a mere priest? We have no connection or relationship.”
At Yeshion’s words, Adelio’s face twisted. It was a reaction Yeshion hadn’t expected—he thought Adelio would just brush it off as he usually did.
Yeshion had merely repeated the same line Adelio used to say to people in the original story—those who worried about his health and safety.
Adelio would tell them, drawing a clear line between them.
Even with Rosaline, who tried to help him after understanding his circumstances, Adelio had said the same thing.
But now, Adelio’s expression looked as though he had been wounded.
“No connection at all?”
“…..”
“You risked your life to save me, and yet we have no connection?”
Adelio growled, grabbing Yeshion by the wrist and pushing him onto the bed.
Yeshion squeezed his eyes shut as his back hit the soft mattress, and when he opened them, Adelio was leaning over him, his fiery red eyes staring down.
“Then I suppose we should make a connection now.”
“…What?”
“I’ll take you. That should at least make us… more acquainted.”
