How To Choose A Knight (28 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 14
Even after eating her fill of warm soup, Jade fidgeted for a long while, but when Axel extinguished every last light inside, she had no choice left.
She finally shuffled off to her room, casting a pitiful glance back.
Though of course, she left behind a voice thick with reluctance.
“If you change your mind, just call me… I really only need one single candle lit…”
Yet somehow, seeing her violet eyes—usually sparkling—now dull and lifeless, it was clear that would never happen.
Long after Jade had gone in and her room had grown utterly silent, not even a rustle to be heard, Axel relit the candle. The crimson flame lazily spread its glow around him.
After briefly savoring the stillness, he felt oddly unaccustomed to such quiet and stood up to find something to do.
He opened the top cabinet in the kitchen and pulled out a thick stack of envelopes clasped tightly in his hand.
Ever since that wizard arrived, there’d been daily chaos—when would he have had time to read letters? Now, finally, he had a moment.
He muttered to himself like an excuse.
Sinking into the sofa, he examined the one on top. Seeing the name written on the envelope, he let out a sigh.
Childish, heavily pressed handwriting. Rainer.
“Still…”
In a situation where it wouldn’t even surprise him if Rainer came to kill him, the boy was still sending letters painstakingly bearing his name.
Moreover, the letter detailed Rainer’s various circumstances and the decisions he’d made—so thoroughly that even Axel, holed up in Athanase Forest, could grasp the general political climate.
Judging by the number of letters, Rainer had written at least one every month. How, amidst such a packed schedule?
Axel’s large hand slowly rubbed his tightly closed lips.
He couldn’t understand what his younger brother was thinking at all. If Axel himself had wanted it, after a long, grueling struggle he could have claimed that seat—and for stability’s sake, he might have had to deal with all his siblings first…
Just as he began to sink into thought, he heard a faint groan from the crack under the door.
“Ugh…!”
He dismissed it at first as sleep-talking—she always went to bed around the same time, and he had no idea whether she slept quietly or snored.
But the groaning continued, faltering yet persistent.
“Ah… Nya… Don’t… do it!”
Finally, a faint cry mingled in.
Axel rose and knocked on the door.
“Hey.”
No answer came. She must have been deep in dream.
On the battlefield, the best way to rouse injured knights was to call their names.
Axel naturally intended to call hers—but then hesitated. He realized he’d never once called her by name before.
After a long pause, an unfamiliar pronunciation awkwardly stumbled off his tongue.
“Jade.”
Calling her name at night felt oddly intimate. Axel silently justified it with some excuse and shook the door again. Rattle, rattle.
“Wizard.”
It was a step back in address. Still, she should have awakened from the noise by now—yet only intermittent gasps continued.
Axel finally turned the doorknob and opened the door.
Inside was dark. Yet even in the darkness, the large lump wrapped tightly in multiple blankets stood out like a sharp shadow. As he reached his arm toward her, an odd heat radiated from her—without even touching her yet.
Calmly, Axel peeled back the blankets and stroked Jade’s forehead, cheeks, and neck. She was running a fever.
Of course—he’d known it would happen after she’d rushed about so tirelessly.
She hadn’t lived like this just today; surely, long-accumulated exhaustion had suddenly surged when the weather turned cold.
But her fever didn’t seem extremely high—yet even shaking her gently failed to bring her fully conscious, and she kept whimpering weakly.
Axel frowned. He wasn’t confident in nursing at all.
But he couldn’t very well go fetch Oli in the middle of the night. In the end, Axel carried Jade—blankets and all—and laid her on the sofa.
He hastily dumped more firewood into the hearth to stoke the flames, not caring whether the magical potion in the pot hanging above burned or not. Then he fetched icy water from outside and soaked a cloth.
Placing it on her forehead softened her groans, though the faint, faltering whimpers persisted.
Clearly, she was trapped in a nightmare—so vivid it clouded her consciousness. However restorative sleep might be, this wasn’t the kind worth keeping. Better to wake her.
“Hey, snap out of it.”
Perhaps his firm tone displeased her—the groaning gasps suddenly intensified.
Axel wondered if her fever had worsened and reached to press the back of his hand against her cheek. But as he leaned closer, her small hand, flailing in the air, suddenly grasped his long, knuckled fingers.
Scorching heat and damp sweat soaked through.
“Don’t… do it…”
She wasn’t speaking to him, surely—just weakly resisting someone in her dream.
Yet somehow, he felt compelled to reply. Axel murmured softly to Jade, whose consciousness remained absent.
“What shouldn’t I do?”
“I said… no…”
Her fragmented words now mingled with sobs.
Axel sighed. He had no idea what this commotion was about at night. Yet he couldn’t just leave her to suffer with fever.
He soaked another cloth in cold water to replace the one on her forehead—but Jade showed no sign of releasing his fingers. If anything, her grip grew more desperate, as if clinging to her only lifeline.
“Mom…”
Hearing that, he finally gave up trying to pull his hand away. Instead, using only his right hand—since his left was trapped—he soaked the cloth again. Unable to wring it properly, water pooled heavily on Jade’s face, but there was nothing to be done.
Still, the gathered droplets trickled slowly down and lingered at the corner of her eye—like tears.
It seemed an unnatural adornment. That spot usually held only smiles.
Axel’s gaze lingered there a long while.
Just then, Jade whispered in surprisingly clear diction.
“Stop tormenting me.”
The wizard who’d fallen into Athanase Forest—he remembered the heavy worry that had covered her face when she first arrived.
But as time passed, those burdens had slowly faded. Jade now smiled brightly in the sunlight, as if she’d shed everything—as brilliantly as one might describe a pure white smile belonging to someone who clearly hadn’t suffered much.
Yet the fatigue now staining the corners of her eyes must have been hiding all along in the darkness of night.
He’d been curious about this even that morning—what on earth had happened? What could possibly make her indifferent to assassination attempts against her, yet leave her alone with nightmares at night?
He didn’t want to ask while she was conscious—it would demand too much emotional strength. If it was troubling enough to haunt her dreams, it deserved equal attention.
But Axel didn’t want to get that entangled with Jade. It was just a small curiosity, after all.
So, somewhat cowardly, he chose to ask now—while she knew nothing.
“Who’s tormenting you?”
Her fever-cracked lips twitched at his quiet whisper.
“Gr… Grandmother… and… Fel… ix…”
She’d never mentioned these names while awake, yet asleep, she answered almost obediently—though with faint groans. Clearly, her tormentors were family.
“Why are they tormenting you?”
“Greed…”
The more he spoke, the more her whimpering and sniffling subsided. She seemed to hover somewhere between waking and sleeping.
That was fine—less taxing for her, after all.
Axel replaced the now-warm cloth with a fresh one and asked again.
“Because they covet what you have?”
Piecing together her fragmented clues, he couldn’t know for certain—but he could guess roughly.
Deceased parents. A greedy uncle eyeing the young orphan’s inheritance. A grandmother who disapproved of everything. A child struggling just to survive.
He was genuinely surprised.
Watching her delicate features endure the fever, Axel found himself murmuring without realizing.
“To smile like that…”
Smiling so purely—without a single blemish—was actually the result of effort.
He decided to admit his prejudice.
He’d assumed this wizard, apart from being bright and positive, simply yearned for the glamorous world outside—and that she could forget her worries so easily because that was all there was to it.
But if this awaited her out there, then the effort she must exert to live an ordinary life here must be immense.
After all, expressing worry and anger is far simpler than suppressing them.
If stepping outside in just three months meant facing utter chaos, then smiling here certainly wouldn’t be easy.
“Amazing.”
He offered the quiet, genuine admiration.
Unlike him—who’d entered this forest willingly, lacking both greed and ambition—her life was likely filled with goals.
As a child, she’d fought to survive; as she grew, she’d worked to escape her relatives’ oppression.
Even here, she strove to leave—and now, she was working to forget the outside world and focus on the present.
How could he not admire that? So unlike his own aimless existence.
Axel knew someone who’d lived similarly.
The young man now sitting in the golden chair. He’d been able to help him in the most critical moment—but failed to offer comfort when it was most needed.
That had been his last lingering regret in the outside world.
But now, right before him, was someone who needed comfort.
So, just a little—
“No need to rush.”
He spoke slowly, as if sharing a secret.
“Just being alive and healthy is enough. That alone will be enough to strike a blow against that Felix fellow. Maybe in your dreams he’s smiling—but the moment you actually meet him, despair will be etched onto his face.”
Because the future he’d dreamed of—happily claiming your inheritance—would crumble into ruin.
There was no greater revenge than that. This wizard only needed to stay healthy.
“So just keep walking. You’ll make it out… Jade.”
The second time, her name rolled off his tongue more easily—no longer awkward.
Though her fingers still clung to his in the scorching heat, the tension around her furrowed eyes seemed to ease, if only slightly.
“It hurts…”
“That’s why I told you not to run around in the cold wind.”
“Thirsty…”
“Stop squirming and lie still.”
Even to her unconscious grumbles, he replied with persistent nagging.
Despite his words, Axel didn’t pull his fingers away. He stayed through the night, letting her hold on. The cloth on her forehead never had a chance to dry—it stayed cool and wet the entire time.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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Chapter Comments (13)
Inline Comments (64)
If only I’d had the chance to say a proper goodbye—to tidy things up—would it ha
I have a feeling in this chapter, he too will realize his feelings- or come to be mad at Jade
Before those behind could stop him, the young man gulped down the plain water fr
Hhahahah your brother must love you a lot~~ he’s probably gonna reunite you with Jade
“A handsome man with a good body.”
Hahah looks like someone is getting an entertaining sister in law hehheh
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I feel like Axel must of royal bloodline. Jade is so cute! They are gonna be so cute together
How come the comments are showing up every chapter? I thought the comment would only show up on the chapter you commented on?
How come the comments are showing up every chapter? I thought the comment would only show up on the chapter you commented on?