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Chapter 8
Ludwig pushed Argen aside and placed his hand on my body.
At that moment, I felt a warm energy flow into me.
This is… ?
The amount was on a completely different level from the energy Argen occasionally gave me with his abilities.
It felt like I was lying in a warm cradle.
Like I had finally been freed from endless pain.
The sensation erased every last trace of suffering.
“Huff… haa…”
My ragged breathing gradually became steady.
Through my tear-filled, blurry vision, I saw Ludwig desperately holding onto me.
He wasn’t even wearing his mask.
“Lud… wig…?”
The moment I called his name, it felt like I could finally breathe again.
With trembling hands, I grabbed his collar.
Ludwig spoke softly.
“It’s alright, my lady. Trust me.”
“…”
He had returned the same words I had once said to him that night.
Only now did I understand how much comfort those few words could bring.
Without realizing it, I nodded.
My trembling body slowly calmed down.
By the time the pain had completely disappeared, all my strength left me and I lost consciousness.
***
“Sierra!”
The moment Argen saw Sierra collapse, his mind went blank.
Calling her name was the only thing he could do.
Sierra lay on the ground, burning with fever.
No matter how much healing power he poured into her, she showed no signs of improving.
Instinctively, he knew the situation was far beyond what he could heal.
In the distance, Sercan Drenihan pushed through the crowd and ran toward them.
Normally, Sercan was so calm that people sometimes wondered whether he even had emotions.
But now, after seeing Sierra collapse, he looked completely devastated.
The elderly physician hurried over and examined Sierra.
Then he picked up the teacup she had been drinking from, smelled it, and his face turned pale.
“My goodness… This is Dragers tea!”
Argen couldn’t believe his ears.
Dragers tea?
How could either he or Sierra fail to notice its sharp scent?
He snatched the teacup from the physician and smelled it himself.
“…”
The physician was right.
The scent was extremely faint, almost impossible to notice.
But it was definitely Dragers.
It seemed to have been mixed with Hiaren tea.
At that moment, Argen felt as though the ground beneath him had collapsed.
Sierra had emptied the entire cup.
For someone like Sierra, who had absolutely no immunity to Dragers poison, death was now frighteningly close.
Sercan pulled Sierra into his arms.
His hands were trembling so badly that it looked as if he might lose control at any moment.
“No! No!”
Argen desperately used his ability again.
Crack—
But it failed once more.
The white healing light faded before it could even fully reach Sierra.
He didn’t want to believe she had become so critical that healing abilities no longer worked.
His vision blurred.
Despair threatened to swallow him whole.
Then—
“Move aside, Argen.”
Ludwig pushed him away and took hold of Sierra’s pale hand.
“What are you doing—”
He tore off his mask and threw it aside.
Argen stared blankly at the mask rolling across the ground before finally coming to his senses.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Even healing abilities weren’t working.
What could Ludwig possibly do?
And if Sierra was harmed because of it, Argen would never forgive him.
Then a brilliant light erupted from Ludwig’s hand.
“What…?”
An unbelievable amount of power poured from his body and flowed into Sierra.
Everyone present doubted their own eyes.
“Haa… haa…”
Sierra’s pale face gradually regained color.
As time passed, her eyelids finally trembled open.
“Lud… wig…?”
Ludwig brushed away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
For once, he looked genuinely anxious.
Even his breathing was uneven.
“It’s alright, my lady. Trust me.”
Yet his voice was firm.
The kind of voice that made people want to believe him.
Soon Sierra nodded weakly.
Then, as if all her tension had vanished, she lost consciousness.
After confirming she had simply fallen asleep, Ludwig let out a quiet sigh.
“I-Is our Sierra… alright?”
Even after witnessing everything, Sercan still couldn’t understand what had happened.
In truth, nobody there could.
“I’ve neutralized most of the poison. She’s sleeping now.”
Then Ludwig carefully lifted Sierra into his arms.
“Haah… Thank goodness…”
Only then did Sercan finally feel as though he could breathe again.
“I’ll take her to her room and remove the rest of the poison. Please show me the way.”
The moment Ludwig said that, Sercan hurried ahead without hesitation.
The guests immediately began whispering among themselves.
“He’s not a monster at all…”
“If someone told me he was an angel, I’d believe it.”
“Is that really the Young Lord of Carsian? Then why has he been hiding behind a mask all this time?”
“More importantly, who poisoned the young lady’s tea?”
“It was probably a servant’s mistake. They likely didn’t know she had no immunity to Dragers.”
As the crowd whispered among themselves—
“I believe it would be best to keep everyone here until the culprit is found.”
Ludwig slowly looked around.
The sharpness in his gaze was not an illusion.
His eyes were filled with overwhelming killing intent.
His golden eyes seemed even darker when filled with anger.
The atmosphere became heavy.
Unable to withstand the pressure he radiated, people instinctively stepped back.
For the first time, they truly sensed danger from him.
***
“Mmm…”
When I opened my eyes and held my aching head, the first thing I saw was Ludwig holding my hand.
“You’re awake?”
A faint energy was still flowing through our joined hands.
So the warm sensation I had felt while drifting in and out of consciousness really had been Ludwig’s power.
But why would someone who wasn’t a healing ability user possess such an ability?
“Ludwig, what exactly happened…?”
“First, how is your body feeling?”
I nodded.
The pain I had felt earlier seemed like a distant memory now.
I felt completely refreshed.
So it really was because of Ludwig…?
Perhaps noticing my confusion, Ludwig finally explained.
“It’s a Dragon Clan ability.”
My eyes widened.
“A Dragon ability…?”
Ludwig possessed the power of dragons inherited from his mother’s bloodline.
In the original story, his rampages happened because that dragon power eventually went out of control and allowed the evil dragon to take over his body.
But apparently that power wasn’t only capable of destruction.
“I used it to neutralize the poison. Dragers can hardly be called a poison under normal circumstances… but your body reacted to it as if it were deadly venom.”
“Ah…”
I remembered seeing Ludwig’s face just before I lost consciousness.
For once, he had looked truly desperate.
“Thank you, Ludwig.”
Ludwig had used the dragon power he hated so much for my sake.
He had said he wanted to repay me.
And now he had.
For some reason, my heart felt unsettled.
“When you held my hand earlier, I felt strangely reassured.”
It was true.
In the middle of all that chaos, the trust he gave me had been a much greater source of strength than I expected.
Perhaps because I had clung to him so desperately, Ludwig’s usually neat clothes were slightly disheveled.
Between the loosened buttons, I caught a glimpse of a red moon-shaped mark near his collarbone.
Was that there before…?
No.
It definitely hadn’t been there last time.
The Red Moon…
I was sure I had read about it somewhere in the original story.
A red moon-shaped mark was visible near Ludwig’s collarbone.
