The Male Lead’s Sickly Aide is My Type - Chapter 94.2
Chapter 94.2
However, when he’d heard Carinne’s words yesterday, he’d realized he could no longer pretend.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?”
Carinne had been angry, and rightfully so. He’d been pathetically feigning innocence. She’d looked at him with such longing in her eyes that he’d finally surrendered, to her and to himself.
“Have I been keeping you waiting?”
Regret had washed over him the moment the words left his lips, but there was no taking them back. Spoken words couldn’t be retrieved, and time spent together couldn’t be undone.
‘What’s done is done,’ he thought.
As he spent time with Carinne, kissing her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, and laughing like children, he repeated that phrase to himself over and over. Part of him, despite knowing it was absurd, wondered if his illness might have vanished on its own.
He hadn’t felt any pain since the day of the witch trial. He’d almost believed the affliction had forgotten him. Perhaps, like someone struck by lightning regaining lost memories, he too had experienced some inexplicable, miraculous phenomenon after the ordeal.
However, last night’s pain had shattered that illusion.
The affliction hadn’t forgotten him. It had merely granted him a reprieve, a moment of mercy before inflicting greater torment.
As the illusion crumbled, the cold reality crashed down upon him.
What was he to do? What if four pills, five pills, couldn’t quell the pain? What if, one day, the stabbing agony left him unable to rise from his bed, unable even to speak? How could he face Carinne then? And how would she look at him, knowing the truth?
The thought alone was agonizing, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Oh, if only I hadn’t revealed my feelings to Carinne. If only we hadn’t confessed our love for each other.’
Then, he could have faced his fate with a sense of relief, even joy.
But too much time had passed to regret his recklessness. What could he do now? A sense of helplessness, of utter powerlessness, consumed him. Tears wouldn’t come. He knew better than anyone that crying wouldn’t change anything.
Sitting on the bed in the dimly lit room, he sank further and further into despair. The relentless ache in his chest refused to release him.
* * *
Archen had overslept again.
Carinne gently stroked his unusually pale face. She couldn’t tell if he’d had a restless night or if it was the lingering effect of the magic he’d used a couple of days ago. Seeing him in fresh clothes, she thought perhaps he hadn’t slept well.
‘Had he gone for a walk in the middle of the night because he couldn’t sleep?’
She couldn’t imagine any other reason for him to have buttoned his shirt all the way to the top. His chest seemed a little constricted as it rose and fell, and Carinne reached out to undo a button but stopped. She didn’t want to wake him. Instead, she placed her fingers beneath his nose.
Feeling the warm breath, she was reassured and withdrew her hand.
Sometimes, when she watched him sleeping, she felt a strange compulsion to check if he was still alive. It was partly because his complexion was naturally paler than most but also because she knew he wasn’t well. He was like a vase teetering precariously on the edge of a table.
A single touch could send it crashing to the floor, shattering into pieces. And if she reached out to gather the fragments, they might dissolve into smoke before her very eyes.
He was that fragile.
If she told him this, he would laugh and tell her not to be silly. He’d insist he was fine, that there was nothing to worry about. But Carinne couldn’t bring herself to do that. She feared that the moment she was reassured, the moment she turned her back and allowed her thoughts to wander, he would vanish like mist.
He would leave her side, never to return.
And to lose Archen… that was something she couldn’t even bear to imagine, not even in her dreams. He was no longer just her favorite character from a novel.
He was a living, breathing, thinking human being, like her.
He was like family, someone who had shared life and death with her. He was her precious, indispensable companion, the one with whom she would share her future.
‘Just you wait and see. You and I are going to live happily ever after.’
She placed a light kiss on his cheek.
He remained deeply asleep, oblivious to the world.
‘He’ll probably wake up around lunchtime, just like yesterday.’
She wanted to stay by his side until he awoke, but there were things she needed to do before then. After smoothing his ruffled hair, she quietly closed the door behind her and left the room.
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