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Chapter 7
The day before Davion was to leave the mansion.
It was around the same time Cecilia returned to her inn room.
Of course, there was nothing resembling a first-aid kit in the old inn room.
She took a blouse out of her travel bag and cut it into long strips with scissors. For disinfectant, she obtained some strong liquor from downstairs.
The gunshot wound in the man’s thigh was deep, but fortunately, it seemed that no major blood vessel had been hit.
The man lay there with his mouth hanging open, barely conscious. Using silverware borrowed from the kitchen, Cecilia removed the bullet and poured liquor over the wound.
Afterward, while Cecilia tied the strips of blouse around the wound, Nagi sniffed the smell of blood and checked whether the bleeding had been properly stopped.
His slightly curly, dark-brown hair spread softly across the blanket. Even the dark bluish bruise at his temple, apparently caused during his kidnapping, could not hide his handsome features.
Rather than being handsome in a traditionally masculine way, there was something almost androgynously beautiful about his face. He looked young enough that he had not even started growing a beard yet, and while checking his complexion, Cecilia unconsciously rubbed his chin.
Since he had gotten dirty from the rain and dust, there was no choice but to remove the satin dress he had been wearing.
The man was extremely thin. His body was slender and graceful, like that of a dancer. Perhaps because of that, Cecilia was convinced that anyone would mistake his gender if he put on the wig and dress.
「My goodness… You were lucky. If the bullet had hit a little higher, you might not have been able to lay eggs.」
A spark of interest appeared in Nagi’s eyes as she looked the man over.
While Cecilia wrapped a bedsheet around his body, Ruby waddled over and argued back.
「He’s a male, Nagi. And humans don’t lay eggs. Humans give birth to babies.」
「Oh. Is that right?」
To avoid hibernating, Nagi deliberately searched for warm places. Clinging to the man’s side, which was hot with sweat and body heat, she coiled herself up and said,
「I think this human is better than Cecilia’s old male. The old male made a scary face whenever I even came near him.」
「This human might do the same. Most humans hate snakes. They especially hate venomous ones like you.」
「Humans hate crows too!」
「Hmph. Even so, they’ll probably like me more than you.」
「Enough. Don’t fight over something so trivial.」
It was just as Cecilia covered Ruby’s field of vision with her palm.
A faint groan came from below.
「Oh. It looks like the new male is waking up.」
Are you all right?
The question reached the tip of Cecilia’s chin, but it scattered inside her mouth without becoming a voice.
Before the man even opened his eyes, he grabbed her slender neck.
Thud.
The back of her head struck the bed’s headboard, making her vision spin. While pinning Cecilia down, he felt around his injured thigh with his other hand and looked around the room.
“Where… am I…?”
“Ugh, kh…!”
“Where is this place?”
Unable to breathe properly, Cecilia kicked at him and struck his arm. Startled, Ruby belatedly let out a scream and flapped his wings frantically.
Only then did the man let out an “Ah,” as if he finally realized what he was doing, and released Cecilia, whose face had turned bright red from lack of air.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I thought I’d been kidnapped again.”
Cecilia coughed as she desperately gulped down fresh air.
Her neck stung. When she pressed the spot where the man’s hand had been, it hurt. Holding a pillow up like a shield, she stammered out an explanation.
“You were shot, so I had to give you emergency treatment right away. There weren’t any men’s clothes here, so I had to make do with that. I swear to God, I didn’t do anything.”
She then spread both hands in the air, as if to prove her innocence.
Only then did the man look at himself and widen his eyes.
It was an inappropriate thought for the situation, but at that moment, Cecilia thought that his clear amber eyes went remarkably well with his androgynous appearance.
The man pulled the sheet up to cover his lower body and sat on the bed. Apparently, moving so suddenly had made him dizzy as well.
Nagi, who had been glaring at the back of his head, hissed and approached Cecilia.
「I almost bit him. Your new male doesn’t seem to be very well-mannered.」
「Don’t call him my new male… You two keep teasing me, so this whole situation feels even stranger.」
「If a new male is a new male, then what else should I call him?」
The man’s gaze turned toward the two of them, who were talking.
Perhaps because he had already seen Nagi bite and tear into the attacker’s face for Cecilia, he did not look particularly surprised to see a viper in the room.
“A crow and a snake… Are you descended from witches?”
“Then are you a cross-dressing man?”
Only then did a deep crease appear between the man’s eyebrows. He answered in an offended tone.
“There were circumstances. Those bastards only kidnapped women and children, so there was no way for me to infiltrate them without dressing like that. I didn’t expect those idiots to actually fall for it, though… Anyway, my entire plan was ruined because of you.”
“What?”
Cecilia abruptly sat upright, breathing hotly through her nose.
The women’s battered faces flashed through her mind one after another. As she remembered them huddled together in a corner, trembling in fear, uncontrollable anger surged inside her.
But she did not want to argue with the person who had saved her life, so Cecilia firmly shut her mouth.
Besides, a shootout…
Maybe I really did make the whole incident bigger than it needed to be, just like he said.
That thought made her lose even more of her momentum.
“I thought undercover police work had become illegal.”
With both knees drawn against her chest, Cecilia muttered gloomily, and the man snorted.
“You have quite an imagination. I’m just an unemployed bum chasing members of the criminal underworld. Speaking of which, did you report that there were victims?”
His eyes seemed to desperately hope that she hadn’t.
Cecilia hesitated before shaking her head.
“No. I’m in the middle of running away from home, so it would be troublesome if I attracted attention. It’s nothing serious. I just couldn’t stand living under the same roof as my husband anymore.”
He was a man whose identity she did not know, and they had not even properly introduced themselves yet. But perhaps because this was the first time she had ever complained about her circumstances to someone, once she started talking, she could not stop, even though a feeling that it might be dangerous briefly crossed her mind.
“I haven’t been gone from home for long. My husband holds a fairly high position, so if I report this and have to undergo an investigation, he’ll definitely realize that I’m alive. Rather than letting him find out that I’m here, I’d rather get kidnapped again and be sold.”
“Oh dear…”
Pity flashed across the man’s face.
In his mind, Davion had already become a vicious domestic abuser who beat his wife.
Cecilia got up from the bed, took two banknotes from the money pouch she had hidden beneath the floorboards, and handed them to him.
“Anyway, thank you for saving me. Please go to a hospital as soon as possible. I’ve given you emergency treatment, but the wound is deep. If you leave it untreated, it could become infected.”
“Then what about you?”
He asked in confusion after seeing Cecilia stuffing her belongings into her travel bag.
“After changing accommodations, I’m going to look for a way to get a train ticket to the south and a forged identity card. I’m planning to leave this city soon.”
That was all the information Cecilia could tell him.
While Cecilia glanced at the man, Nagi quietly slithered over and coiled herself inside the bag. Cecilia wrapped her in thick clothes and closed the bag.
However, after thinking over Cecilia’s answer, the man belatedly frowned and objected.
“Wait a moment. Do you know how many con artists there are in this city? It won’t be easy for a young woman alone to get a forged identity card. And you said you can’t report anything that happens because of your husband.”
“There isn’t any other way. I’ve already left home, and I have to leave the city.”
“Hmm…”
The man stared into empty space as he thought. Then, as though he had come up with a good idea, his eyes lit up.
“Then how about we do this?”
Cecilia slowly turned toward him.
He was smiling confidently.
“I’m penniless and need someone to take care of me for a while, while you need to go into the back alleys. So, according to our mutual interests, we could pretend to be a married couple. If we do that, we’ll probably be stopped less often for random inspections on the streets. It isn’t easy for the authorities to stop a couple who are having a conversation just to check their identities.”
After finishing, he raised both hands into the air, just as Cecilia had done earlier.
It was a vow that they would live together without ever doing anything improper.
“I have a younger sister about your age, so I can’t just ignore you. She had quite a hard time because of her husband too.”
Cecilia fell into a brief dilemma.
The more she listened, the better the man’s idea seemed.
Just as he said, it would be difficult for her to obtain a forged identity card on her own. If they traveled together, she could probably avoid random inspections as well. And since he had suffered a serious gunshot wound, even if he had some ulterior motive, she would likely be able to overpower him easily.
Cecilia opened the bag again and took Nagi out.
Seeing her action as an answer, a satisfied smile blossomed at the corners of the man’s mouth.
However, only a few seconds later, he wrinkled the bridge of his nose and pointed at Cecilia’s face.
“But can witches normally change their appearance too?”
Cecilia blinked in confusion, unable to understand what he meant.
Then she touched her own face.
Only then did she let out a quiet “Ah.”
Oh no.
She had forgotten to apply the medicine again.
