When Your Secret Crush Wizard Took a Love Potion - Chapter 35
The remainder of our voyage passed smoothly, and we successfully crossed Lake Martin. However, my condition was far from good.
I felt chills all over. Constant stress from the journey and long exposure to the cold winds on deck had taken their toll, leaving me with a nasty cold.
“You have a high fever.”
The hand on my forehead felt ice-cold. It was a chilling yet strangely comforting touch, coming from someone who had been both my companion and my only family for over a decade.
Struggling to lift my heavy eyelids, I saw a man with a profoundly worried look through my blurred vision. A weak smile crossed my lips inexplicably.
I recalled a similar incident from the past where I had caught a cold after gathering herbs in the rain. Edgar, usually composed, had been visibly flustered as he helped his drenched apprentice. He prepared a clean bed, helped me wash, and let me rest.
The thick green liquid in the cup emitted a strong herbal scent. For someone who usually resolved everything with a flick of his magical prowess, it was an unusually cumbersome choice.
The flickering light cast shadows across Edgar’s features. Even though I couldn’t see his face clearly, I remembered feeling oddly nervous.
He hadn’t said a word until I was able to get up, yet I felt as if he was reproaching me for catching a cold from doing something unnecessary.
After being abandoned by my parents, I had always lived with an invisible sense of anxiety, driven by a need to prove myself useful to Edgar, hoping that would make him keep me around.
It was a secret I could never share with anyone else.
“Chloe.”
Time seemed to have slipped by. My foggy mind, drifting between old memories and the present, barely managed to awaken.
“Just try to sit up.”
Despite my body being drenched in sweat, Edgar effortlessly supported me, half-holding me up. His strong forearms wrapped around my waist and his large hands supported my back, providing a reassuring stability like a deeply rooted tree, which made my whole body relax.
It seemed like a perfect moment to fall asleep, but Edgar had no intention of letting me rest just yet.
“It must be hard but you should take some medicine and then sleep.”
My body felt as heavy as a waterlogged sponge, and my mind was foggy. I wanted nothing more than to succumb to deep sleep, yet his insistent nudging was becoming bothersome.
“Come on.”
Contrary to his usual demeanor after ingesting the love potion, wagging his tail around me like a dog, Edgar was unexpectedly firm.
I didn’t have the energy to resist any further and did as he instructed. The liquid that passed down my throat was identical to the medicine I had tasted long ago.
“Why… have you never… used healing magic on me before?”
“You’re curious about that now?”
Edgar set the empty cup on the table and smiled calmly, just like his old self who always wanted to impart more knowledge to his eager student.
“Magic and medicine exist in different realms. While magic can heal injuries or ailments, healing spells are purely artificial interventions. They don’t harness the body’s natural vitality like medical treatments can. If we were to use magic for convenience all the time, your body would lose its immunity, making you susceptible to illnesses with just a slight breeze. That wouldn’t be good, would it?”
His cool fingers brushed through my disheveled hair and gently touched my feverishly hot ear. My heavy breathing, the warm sweat mingling with the heat radiating from my tender skin—it all seemed to draw a peculiar interest in his eyes.
“You’re already weakened as it is.”
“Weakened…”
I blurted out, feeling unfairly treated.
It was nonsense. I pride myself on having better stamina than many wizards who do nothing but sit and delve into research all day.
Having been sick only twice in my life and maintaining enough physical strength to regularly trek up and down the mountain near our cabin, I was far from frail!
“You are small and fragile.”
Edgar said gently, his lips curving into a smile. Despite the smile, the intensity in his gaze gave his face a more serious expression than cheerful.
When had Edgar started looking at me with such an expression? Even though his face was familiar, the flickering light made him seem distant, as if he was not quite the person I had known all this time.
Despite years of being together, there were moments when he seemed less like a man firmly grounded on earth and more like something else entirely.
“And infinitely ephemeral.”
