“Shut up.”

Although his softly muttered words sounded pleasant in Kyrian’s voice, they were colder than frost.

“Before leaving the same wound on your arm.”

His slightly lifted mouth was too sarcastic to be pleasant and too chilling to be a smile.

“Because you might regret tearing apart and killing the demon.”
Esmeralda stood frozen in place, shedding tears and mumbling with a lost voice. I awkwardly tapped Kyrian’s shoulder.

“Shall we go back now?”

The superficial wound I had thought to be minor was becoming more irritating as time passed.

In response to my words, Kyrian turned without hesitation, still holding my hand.

“We should take Esmeralda too.”

No matter how annoyed I was, leaving her behind would render my efforts pointless.

Kyrian furrowed his eyebrows, but soon halted his steps.

I still shook my uninjured arm toward Esmeralda, who was limping and rubbing her eyes whenever she took a step, making it seem like we wouldn’t gain any speed due to her actions. So, I offered a few words of comfort.

“Don’t get hurt to the point of dragging it out. Kyrian got angry because of you, who showed the epitome of stupidity, and it was unintentional.”

It seemed like a failure.

“Heok…”

Esmeralda let out a sob loud enough to shake her shoulders.

“I’m really sorry, Lady Reyna.”

Esmeralda, with eyes still filled with guilt, breathed heavily.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t expect it to be like this…”

Esmeralda’s lips turned pale, and she looked tormented. Seeing her like that, I sighed and spoke.

“Okay. It’s fine. If you’re really sorry, let’s go home quickly.”

At that moment, someone emerged from the dense bushes.

It was Hys, holding a blood-stained sword. Startled by our presence, his eyes widened in amazement.

“Reyna! Why are you here…”

The gaze that fell on my arm soon turned from amazement to shock and an indescribable self-blame.

“It’s not that serious.”

I waved my hand, feeling sorry for myself, and instantly regretted it. My head spun, and I felt like my entire body was sinking into water.

“You’re late again.”

As Hys addressed me with a bitter smile, swallowing the bitterness as if he were swallowing the melancholy towards me.

“I’m always late.”

“What?”

I tried to ask again, but my body was responsive now, and Kyrian’s voice echoed above me.

“Let’s go back and treat Nuna, can both of you come?”

“Ah, I’m fine.”

I left them in the forest, thinking they might face some unpredictable situation.

But Hys readily agreed to Kyrian’s answer.

“Yes.”

It was a somewhat bitter voice.

“That would be the best.”

“You didn’t have to go this far.”

I looked down at my arm with a somewhat trembling face.

The Duke’s people might still be searching outside, but the Duke’s residence was still vacant. Thanks to that, I had to entrust Kyrian with the task of treating my wounds.
Kyrian, holding ointment and bandages confidently, turned out to be quite shocking in his results. Not because the treatment was sloppy, but because it was excessively meticulous.

Due to Kyrian wrapping an absurd amount of bandages, I couldn’t even bend my elbow. Consequently, all I could manage was to swing my transformed arm like a club.

Kyrian lowered his head.

“Since it’s a significant injury, we should securely wrap it.”

It was a strange logic, but upon further thought, all the Duke’s ointments, medicines, and supplements were for me alone. Since I was the only one in need, this was probably the best Kyrian could do from his perspective, someone who had never experienced being injured.

“For such a thing, you did quite well.”

I lay back on the bed, satisfied.

“Esmeralda was injured too.”

The hand of Esmeralda, covered with mysterious raw meat, suddenly came to mind.

Kyrian’s expression instantly hardened.

“Nuna’s arm is in this state, and you’re bothered by that?”

“No, it’s not that I’m bothered, but…”

I scanned Kyrian’s twisted eyes. I wondered if I could find any trace of compassion or concern for Esmeralda in them.

However, the revealed emotions were only a subdued anger and thinly veiled contempt.

‘If it were the original work…’

In the original novel, even if someone next to him was dying and bleeding profusely, Kyrian prioritized Esmeralda’s small wound as more important. Indeed, even during the novel’s development, there were instances where several people died because Esmeralda accidentally tripped and hurt her hand.

Although it wasn’t yet the beginning of the original work, it seemed typical.

“Dala…”

“What?”

With my words, the faint resentment that lingered in Kyrian’s eyes disappeared.

“I mean, you. You.”

Kyrian still had a puzzled expression, but with no more ways to explain, I closed my eyes.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I haven’t changed.”

Warmth covered my hand.

“I’ve always been like this, and I’ll always be like this.”