Chapter 44.1

Thank you raw provider: jarry.

The pain impaling his stomach was horrifying.

He never wanted to taste it again.

A scorching breath came out of his mouth.

The man, Pien, grabbed his stomach and crawled across the ground using his arm.

It was the first time he had ever been stabbed in his abdomen.

'Why the hell did I let my guard down?'

He laughed out loud.

He didn't know why, but it was amusing.

'Next time we meet, I'd like to cut off those pretty hands and talk.—No, it's better to appreciate pretty things for a long time, so let's just cut the tendons so that you can't move.'

"Cough .....! Cough cough!"

'Of course, if I don't die and survive this.'

He liked encountering the woman, but disappointingly, he did not achieve his purpose.

His purpose was to procure her skin and blood.

He lay down on the dirt floor and burst into laughter as he looked at the bright round moon.

- Hey, you idiot! Stop it! Stop!

The urgent cry of the hot-tempered boy, Charron, echoed in his ears.

At first, he thought of experimenting by splitting his skin, but he gave up.

Blinded by curiosity, he had momentarily forgotten that the hostage boy was [magically] barren. He ended up not harming him.

"Hahaha······."

It had been fun and interesting, but he didn't get what he needed. The moon was so bright that his eyes burned.

The man no longer looked up at the sky and turned his head.

A blood-stained leaf entered his vision.

This blood was not his own.

It was from a direction opposite to the orientation he had crawled while bleeding out.

The man raised his hand holding a leaf to the sky to take a closer look as the leaf was illuminated by the round moon.

"Should I be satisfied with this...?"

* * *

The warm sunlight pierced my skin.

I opened my eyes, regretting not closing the curtains before I went to bed.

Dark black hair gently tickled my face.

Did you crawl into my bed while I was sleeping?

Alastair was asleep holding me tight as if I was a jewel.

My body ached from sleeping in his arms all night.

I slept uncomfortable, but I was relieved that I didn't wake up in the middle of the night.

I moved his arms and pushed him away, and flinched.

My injured arm hurts.

Only then did I remember what happened last night.

I quietly looked down at my arm.

Maybe someone treated my arm while I was asleep. There was a white bandage neatly wrapped around my arm.

When I get up I have to thank Igelto.

I pushed against Alastair's chest with the other uninjured arm, but he didn't move.

Instead he let out a light growl and hugged me tightly.

I felt his weight against my body and felt pressed against his hard body.

I lifted my head to appreciate his face.

Seeing his sleeping countenance, I didn't want to wake him up.

I reached out and touched his face.

When I caressed his long black eyelashes, he trembled.

It was oddly amusing.

I stroked the high bridge of his nose and gently touched his lips.

"······· You're so handsome."

I sighed. I see his face all the time, but it's still so outstanding, even I'm not used to it.

It was as if God made a glass sculpture with great effort that became even more striking after it was shattered and illuminated.

"I'm glad if you like it, Serina."

"······Did you wake up?"

I was surprised, but pretended not to be and tried to be brazen as if I had said nothing just moments before.

I tried to withdraw my hand, but Alastair placed his hand over the back of my hand so I could not remove it.

I could clearly feel his warm, smooth skin against the palm of my hand.

"Wouldn't it be weird if I didn't wake up when you touch me like that?"

He let out a sigh.

"You didn't keep your promise again.

You had promised me you wouldn't sleep until you were healed."

"Sorry. I was so exhausted that I couldn't help it."

I pulled out my hand from his. I twisted my body and signaled to the hand hugging me against him to loosen up. Alastair continued to inquire, not distracted:

"Why in the world did you come back like that yesterday?"

Alastair frowned as he recalled my wounded form and suffering yesterday. His eyes were filled with concern and distress.

"I did a search last night, do you know what was found?"

"What did you find?"

"The body of the coachman who drove your carriage and the carriage abandoned in the forest. There was blood surrounding it."

"........"

"Do you have anything to say to me?"

The thing that jumped out at me was Alastair not mentioning the body of 'the man.' It must have not been found in the search operation he mentioned.

I had no way of knowing if his body was there or not.

"...were there any other bodies around the wagon?"

"A corpse?"

"There was nothing but the body of the coachman."

"........"

Isn't he dead?

The man I killed yesterday.

I had stabbed his stomach twice, so I had assumed he was dead.

However, my abductor's body wasn't found during the investigation.

Only the horseman's body was found.

I was sure he had stopped breathing.

"Why do you think there should be another corpse besides the coachman? What the hell happened last night?"

"It is complicated. It's a long story."

"It doesn't matter."

I organized what happened last night in my head.

"I fell asleep on the way home in the wagon. When I opened my eyes, the carriage was going up a mountain."

"......."

"I realized after waking up that someone intentionally put me to sleep with incense."

"........So then what happened?"

The sharp hostility of a bloodthirsty aura drenched his eyes.