BPCV 21

Chapter 21

It took an hour to climb up to the vegetable garden.

Strangely enough, unlike the ascent, the way down was far more treacherous.

By the time the sunlight filtering through the trees faded and darkness began to settle in, the two still hadn’t been able to find the carriage.

Alina looked up at the sky with mounting anxiety.

“I told Greta we’d be back before sunset.”

“We’ll get there soon,”

Richard said, walking beside her as if to reassure her. But anxiety seeped into his voice as well.

Alina looked away from him and touched the tree beside her.

“Did we have trees like this when we came up earlier?”

“Earlier we— ah!”

Richard cried out as he lost his footing. Startled, Alina hurried to steady him.

Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt; it seemed he had only stumbled lightly.

“Are you okay?”

Instead of answering, Richard checked the basket first. Since he’d been holding it carefully, it hadn’t even touched the ground.

Wiping cold sweat from his brow, Richard let out a sigh of relief.

“Whew. That scared me. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry, Richard. This must be hard, right? You’re having such a tough time because of me.”

“It’s nothing. Really, I’m fine.”

He spoke awkwardly, brushing the dirt off his backside.

Still, he must have been tired—he clapped his fingers together, and Till vanished from sight.

Till, who had been flitting around Richard’s head just moments ago, disappeared in an instant, making Alina blink.

“You made Till disappear?”

“I didn’t get rid of him. I just made it so only I can see him. This is how it usually is.”

“I see.”

As Alina looked around the empty air near Richard, as if searching for Till, a cold drop of water fell onto the crown of her head.

“…Huh?”

Plop.

Drip.

Shaaah—

The raindrops that had been falling one by one suddenly turned into a downpour.

The moment Alina and Richard’s startled gazes met, lightning flashed across the sky.

The rain came without warning, pouring down like rapid gunfire. The drops were so heavy that just being hit by them made their skin sting.

Unable to keep her eyes open against the driving rain, Alina shouted,

“Richard, are you okay?”

“Follow me!”

Richard urgently grabbed Alina’s rain-soaked hand and pulled her along. Led by the boy who was even shorter than she was, she ran through the rain.

Richard quickly searched for somewhere they could take shelter.

“Let’s wait it out here. It’s a sudden shower—it’ll stop soon.”

“Mm. Hah… huh….”

They arrived at a small cave at the foot of the mountain.

Answering him, Alina wrapped her arms around herself. She was freezing, as if she’d just climbed out of icy water.

Alina hadn’t fully recovered from the cold she’d caught last time.

Richard had healed her with a magic stone, but a slight fever still lingered.

And now that she was drenched in rain, her whole body trembled uncontrollably.

‘Of all days, why did it have to rain today?’

She knew Malekhark’s weather was fickle, but experiencing it like this was troubling.

“Achoo!”

Alina sneezed, her teeth chattering. Being suddenly soaked in cold rain during the heat of midsummer made her feel as though she might freeze solid.

At the sound of her sneeze, Richard approached with a worried expression.

“Alina, what’s wrong? Are you really cold?”

“No, just a little. What about you, Richard?”

“I’m fine. But you don’t look fine at all.”

Richard frowned as he examined her. Feeling his gaze, Alina tightened her arms around herself and said,

“I mean, I am strangely cold… but it’s not unbearable.”

She tried to lift the corners of her mouth to reassure him, but her teeth kept clacking together, making it impossible to smile properly.

In the end, she gave up and spoke weakly.

“My stamina is really terrible. I’m supposed to be looking after you, and here I am like this.”

“Who’s looking after whom? I’m not a kid.”

“Yeah, I know. Ri—Richard isn’t… a kid….”

Alina’s lips trembled as she answered him. Struggling, she barely managed to finish her sentence.

“…You’re a prince.”

“That’s right. I’m the prince of the Great Malekhark Empire.”

Richard took off his jacket, spread it on the ground, and helped Alina sit on it. The moment she sat down, she leaned against the cave wall and closed her eyes.

Once she settled into a sheltered spot, fatigue crashed over her all at once.

As the chill faded, a throbbing fever began to plague her head.

“Yeah… Richard is… amazing.”

Even as fever clouded her mind, Alina spoke haltingly, trying to cling to her fading consciousness.

Leaving her be, Richard checked the weather outside the cave.

“That’s right.”

Puffing up at her praise, he grinned and turned back to her.

“So Alina can lean on me— Alina?”

“……”

“Alina?”

Richard’s pupils widened when he saw her condition.

In the brief moment he’d looked away, Alina’s face had turned deathly pale.

Her lips, once a vivid red, had shifted toward a purplish hue.

“Alina!”

Panicked, Richard rushed to her side. He pressed a hand to her forehead, then pulled it back with a grave expression.

“She’s burning up….”

He bit his lip.

How stupid—letting it get this bad without even checking her condition. He was angry at himself.

Clenching his teeth, Richard looked down at Alina. She was soaked, whether from rain or sweat, he couldn’t tell.

If he left her like this, something terrible would happen.

No—something terrible was already happening.

Outside, the rain poured down like machine-gun fire, making it impossible to see even a step ahead. There was no way he could go fetch the coachman in this situation.

Getting lost while searching for him would be one thing—but he couldn’t leave Alina alone in the cave, sick and helpless.

With no other choice, Richard hurriedly gathered fallen branches from the cave floor.

Piling them near Alina as if to light a campfire, he placed his hand over them.

Richard squeezed his eyes shut and began to chant a spell with all his heart.

At the end of the incantation, he added a desperate plea.

“Please work. Please….”

A faint blue light flickered beneath his palm. Tick, tick—sparks jumped between the branches.

At the sound, Richard slowly opened his eyes.

“It worked—!”

Before hope could fully bloom on his face, the light cruelly vanished again. Disappointment twisted his clear eyes.

“Idiot. Why can’t I even do something this easy?!”

Choking up, Richard blamed himself and began chanting again.

His trembling voice made it hard to recite the spell perfectly, but he swallowed his tears again and again, stubbornly continuing.

As he chanted, eyes like a blend of gold and amber gems grew moist.

Despite his efforts, the firewood refused to catch.

“Why… why won’t it work?”

Richard suffered under the weight of his own helplessness. He felt pathetic—unable even to light a single fire.

“Am I really worse than a spare magic stone, just like Rician said?”

The tears welling in Richard’s eyes spilled down his cheeks.

Quietly crying, his gaze shifted to Alina. He roughly wiped his tears away with the back of his hand and bit his lip hard.

“Just watch. I’ll keep going until it works.”

Clearing his throat, Richard began chanting again. He repeated the same spell over and over, until it worked. Even when he failed, he didn’t give up—he immediately started the incantation again.

The rain grew heavier, and by the time he’d chanted dozens of times—

Whoosh!

At last, flames burst from the damp firewood.

Crackle, pop—the sound of burning wood echoed softly through the cave.

“It worked….”

Richard murmured blankly as he stared at the magically burning fire.

As he gazed at the flickering flames, joy slowly rose on his face.

“It worked, Alina!”

He turned toward her and shouted brightly—but she only lay there, eyes closed, shivering.

Even unconscious, her jaw trembled as if the cold had seeped into her very bones.

Seeing her like that, Richard said anxiously,

“Maybe fire won’t help much after all. What should I do?”

What Alina needed now wasn’t fire, but healing magic. Richard knew that well.

But it had taken him so long just to light a basic fire spell. There was no way he could pull off the high-level magic of healing.

When it came to magic, there was a clear difference between what could be accomplished through sheer persistence and what couldn’t.

And for Richard, who had never even learned how to control mana, healing magic was the most difficult of all.

If he at least had a magic stone, he might barely manage—but he didn’t even have that now.

With no other option, Richard took off his shirt and wrung the water out of it.

Once bare-chested, goosebumps spread across his skin from the raindrops clinging to him.

But compared to Alina being sick, this cold was nothing.

Folding the shirt, Richard placed it gently on Alina’s forehead.

“Don’t be sick. You’re on my side, Alina, so you have to stay by me.”

Saying this stubbornly, Richard wrapped his arms around her.

The fire didn’t seem capable of quickly warming her.

Richard was smaller than most kids his age. When he hugged Alina’s limp body, he fit neatly into her embrace.

With their upper bodies pressed closely together, Richard’s heart began to race.

Whether from fever or something else, his body suddenly grew hot. His face flushed all the way to his ears.

“Alina….”

Just saying her name made his heart pound loudly. Ignoring the racket of his heartbeat, he held her even tighter.

“I’ll get stronger. For my Alina, I’ll get stronger.”

Until now, Richard had never wished for anything, never made a prayer or a vow.

But now, for the first time in his life, a powerful desire took root.

He wanted to become someone so great that healing magic would be nothing to him.

“I swear, I’ll become that person.”

For my Alina.

On a night of burning firewood, a night when the rain would not cease, Richard made a vow for Alina—

The vow she feared most.