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Chapter 34
“Why are you even out and about like this right now!”
I grabbed the collar of Calix’s clothes with both hands, almost as if grabbing him by the scruff.
“You took poison and then wandered all the way here like it’s nothing? Why didn’t you get treated immediately? Don’t you know something really bad could happen if you try to endure it alone? Did you catch the culprit? Did you figure out who’s behind it?”
Calix, enduring my barrage of scolding disguised as questions, made a disgusted expression.
“Do you really not know who did it?”
His voice clearly showed how annoyed he was.
“How would I…?”
I started to say, How would I know?, but then I suddenly realized.
“It was Rushel, wasn’t it.”
That explained why Calix hadn’t received treatment at the Imperial Palace. If word got out that he’d been poisoned, it could lead to even worse consequences.
Ughhh…
A chill ran down my spine as I wrapped my arms around myself.
I already knew the two brothers didn’t get along, but seeing it with my own eyes was different than reading about it in a book.
“If you understand now, let’s go.”
With that urging, I obediently followed Calix. Since I now knew why he came to Ruben, I couldn’t whine any further.
At that moment, a crow flew up from the stone wall. The flapping sound of its wings drew my gaze upward.
The crow quickly landed on top of a nearby building and cawed loudly. Its black eyes looked down at me darkly.
Suddenly, a shiver ran through my whole body. The hairs on my arms stood on end.
At first, I thought it was just a cold wind blowing from somewhere. But it wasn’t that.
My body was reacting before my brain could even process it. I instinctively feared that day—one I hadn’t consciously recalled yet.
The invisible presence that attacked Calix’s carriage the night we returned from the Espan banquet.
The crow cawed sharply again. A jolt of pain shot through my head, and then my mind went hazy, like I was drunk.
My heart began to pound wildly. I took a deep breath—
But I couldn’t exhale. My body refused to breathe.
I yanked my hands free from his and collapsed to the ground, clutching my head.
The crow’s cries echoed loudly in my ears. Three fragments of memory began to churn violently in my mind.
One was debris from a collapsing building. Another was water surrounding me. And the last…
The alley faded from my sight, swallowed by darkness.
A pitch-black space where I couldn’t see even an inch ahead, with only the sound of grass brushing against my clothes.
A gray figure passed briefly before my eyes.
—An assassin.
Only then did I realize what this hallucination was.
My third possession—when I met my death in the Imperial Palace. That day.
Thump. With that sound, my heart plummeted to the bottom.
Please save me.
I screamed it over and over, but nothing reached my ears.
I knew this wasn’t reality. But I couldn’t easily escape.
The memory, once awakened, clung to me like a swamp.
“What did I just say?”
A voice, unfamiliar yet muffled, rang out. It sounded like I was hearing it from underwater.
I shook my head violently.
“This is Ruben.”
Strong arms pulled me up. Something hot streamed down my face. At some point, I had started crying.
“The person with you right now is me.”
A dark shadow clung to me just beyond my blurry vision.
“Where are we right now?”
I opened my mouth to answer. I shouted “Ruben,” just like I’d heard, but I wasn’t sure if the words came out properly.
The voice repeated the same phrase over and over. I echoed it, trying to follow along.
This is Ruben. Not the place where I died.
I kept picturing myself standing on an ordinary street. I struggled to push away the past, the feeling of death.
Through faint fragments of voice, I thought I heard someone asking who was with me now.
“Calix…”
The person in front of me wasn’t the assassin who had once killed me. Just a sharp-tongued prince with a bad attitude.
“That’s right. It’s me.”
His now-clear voice pulled me back to reality.
Finally, with my vision no longer foggy, I saw Calix desperately holding onto me.
After crying for a while, a wave of embarrassment followed.
But I didn’t even get the chance to hide my flushed face—because Calix was still hugging me tightly.
Come to think of it, this was already the second time I’d cried like this in front of him. Once after meeting Nox, and now.
He’s going to think there’s something wrong with me…
This time, it felt like someone had deliberately amplified my trauma. And the culprit was…
Oh, right. The crow!
As soon as that thought hit me, I looked around—but it was already too late.
…Could a crow really have done that?
Even I found the idea of an animal using magic kind of ridiculous.
Should I tell Calix?
He did say he caught the culprit from the carriage incident. But the energy I felt just now was very similar to that attacker’s.
But… would he even believe me?
I already knew he didn’t trust me. So…
I gave up on the idea quickly.
I tried to sneak away, but Calix pulled me tighter, leaving me completely stuck.
He might be comfortable, but because of our height difference, my feet were barely touching the ground, almost standing on tiptoes.
Instead, I rolled my eyes around, observing our surroundings. Luckily, we were in a deserted alley. If we’d been on a main street, I’d have kicked him on the spot.
“Calix.”
Even when I called his name, all I heard was the sound of steady breathing.
“Calix?”
I called again, and finally, he let go.
But even with some distance between us, his sharp gaze pierced down at me.
Ugh…
Desperate to change the subject, I reached out and touched his forehead.
It was even hotter than before. All that heat seemed to be radiating from his body.
“You really don’t look well.”
“You’re the one who’s not well.”
His hoarse voice growled low.
His feverish eyes, once dull and sickly, now burned again with heat.
“It was that bastard Tain again, wasn’t it?”
He asked, voice thick with anger.
“Ah, no?”
I quickly denied it—I had nothing to do with that guy in this life.
“Then, why…”
Calix’s face twisted in pain.
“Why would you say ‘please save me’? What on earth made you say that?”
I could feel the strength in his hands tightening around my arms.
I had a clear reason, but I couldn’t tell him.
That I was on my fourth possession in this world, that I suddenly remembered a memory of dying, and that the assassin was…
If I said all that, he’d definitely think I’d lost my mind.
“It’s just… it’s simply my own issue.”
“There’s no such thing.”
Even as I tried to dodge the question, he was firm.
“If something pushes you to cry out for your life, how can that be just your fault?”
Unable to respond, I turned my gaze away.
“Fine, let’s drop it.”
He let go of me, ruffling his own hair in frustration.
“But if you didn’t come here to buy a potion, why did you come here?”
“I was heading to Rose Tower.”
Afraid he’d press further, I gave up my destination willingly.
“Shouldn’t you be detoxifying first, though?”
“I was just going to drop you off, but never mind.”
He completely ignored my suggestion and mumbled whatever he wanted.
“I’ll make sure you get home safely.”
“…What?”
Before I could even process his words, the world tilted—he had lifted me into his arms and was walking out of the alley.
He’s going to walk out onto the main road like this?! He’s insane!
Forget walking me home, this was even more shocking.
“Put me down, now!”
I frantically grabbed his hair, trying to pull it, but he didn’t budge.
“This is overprotection, you jerk!”
My screams echoed through the alley.
Had Lilith ever looked that shaken before?
In over ten years, he couldn’t recall a single instance.
He could’ve left her alone, but for some reason, he hadn’t been able to ignore it.
Was it because she’d shown such an uncharacteristically vulnerable side? Or because the poison was clouding his judgment?
“Let’s take care of business first.”
After dropping Lilith off at Rose Tower and buying the antidote, Calix returned to the alley.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary street.
Something still feels off.
He stayed alert, his senses prickling with the same unpleasant energy.
Lilith had said those people tailing her were her guards. At first, Calix had been suspicious too when he saw them following her—but eventually accepted her explanation.
But even afterward, the uneasy feeling hadn’t disappeared. It continued to gnaw at him.
He was highly sensitive to danger. A skill he’d honed after enduring countless threats since childhood.
There was no way this gut instinct—practically a sixth sense—could be wrong.
But no matter how thoroughly he searched the dark alley corners and trash bins, he couldn’t find even a shadow of a suspicious person.
Just when he started to doubt himself, he saw it: a crow sitting on top of a pillar.
If it’s not a person…
A shadow shaped like a black snake slithered quietly across the empty space.
