Chapter 18
Lumina collapsed limply.
Karayan, who had accidentally become her support, froze on the spot.
Only after a long moment did he regain his senses enough to speak.
“Hey.”
“……”
“Hey…!”
Of course, there was no answer.
Karayan awkwardly raised his hands, like someone being punished and not knowing what to do.
Soft, steady breaths brushed against his neck. The faint breathing tickled the spot where it touched, as if it might stop at any moment.
Startled, Karayan quickly adjusted his hold and properly lifted the girl.
Her body hung loosely in his arms. She was unnaturally light—so light he felt he could lift her with one hand.
Judging by her clothes, she seemed like a noble just like him. Did her family starve her at home?
She looked so frail, as if only bones were left.
“What the hell? She’s covered in injuries. In this condition, who was she planning to treat?”
As he shifted her position, he noticed wounds on her body that he hadn’t seen before.
Even the small glimpse visible through the collar of her dress looked serious.
He had thought she was just underfed, but it seemed they had not only starved her—they had abused her as well.
Karayan frowned deeply.
“She calls herself a Legion, yet she’s such an absurdly fragile lifeform.”
Why were ordinary people afraid of Legions?
Because they were beings who naturally crushed others with overwhelming power. They should never be the ones who were overpowered.
‘Even if her ability is different from ordinary Legions, she’s worse than a useless one.’
The very existence of such a weak Legion made no sense.
Even compared to a normal human, this girl was nothing more than a fluffy little potato.
Right now, she was a potato that had rolled around and gotten bruised.
He wanted to completely deny that such a pitiful being was the same kind of Legion as himself.
But the afterimage of the butterfly wings that had spread from her back still lingered in his mind.
And…
“What kind of magic did she use?”
From the moment Lumina used what seemed to be her unique ability, he no longer felt pain.
The agony that felt like it would snap his sanity at any moment, the destructive urge that demanded blood to be satisfied—both had vanished completely.
Even the constant throbbing in his head was gone.
All the pain he had thought was normal had disappeared, like fog clearing instantly when sunlight poured in.
But his distrust did not disappear.
She had said she came here because of Father’s summons. And with that face, of all things.
Karayan gently pressed Lumina’s nose with his finger. Her small nose squished slightly.
But she showed no sign of waking. She did not move at all.
Only then did the seriousness of the situation sink in.
If it were an ordinary Legion, that would be one thing. But this tiny potato that looked like it would roll away with a gust of wind not opening her eyes—that was very serious.
“Ha, seriously.”
He couldn’t just leave her like this.
But he also did not want to see his father, the Duke of House Hart.
Karayan found himself caught in intense inner conflict, unable to stop thinking about Lumina.
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“……”
“I know you’re just pretending to be unconscious, so get up already.”
Only his voice echoed emptily in the room.
Her face, white and soft like plain dough, did not move in the slightest.
“This is driving me crazy.”
Karayan roughly ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
He was forced to choose, stuck like a sandwich between something small and troublesome, and something big that he hated.
“Of all things, you had to look like that.”
Muttering in a much softer tone than before, Karayan laid Lumina down on the bed.
And a moment later—
Bang!
The door to Lucius’s office burst open violently.
Lumina slept.
Very deeply.
There were moments when her mind became briefly clear and she slowly opened her eyes.
‘Flower petals?’
Perhaps the wind had blown while she slept, because flower petals were scattered over the bed.
She brushed them away roughly with her hand and closed her eyes again.
Her body and mind felt unbearably heavy. Even moving a single finger felt bothersome.
After drifting like that several times, she finally thought she had slept enough and opened her eyes.
She found herself in an unfamiliar room.
‘Ah, I collapsed while treating the Young Master of House Hart. Then this must be the ducal residence.’
Once she realized that, her tension melted away and her body relaxed completely.
At least here, Joseph or Teresa would not be able to harm her.
That fact alone was a great comfort.
‘I slept deeply without even dreaming.’
Assuming she had slept for maybe ten hours at most, she rolled around lazily when a maid entered.
Seeing Lumina awake, the maid looked startled for some reason, then quickly returned with several doctors.
‘…Why? There’s more than one doctor. I only fainted for a moment, didn’t I?’
The doctors examined her one by one as if making rounds.
After the long examination ended, the door opened again.
She tensed, thinking it might be another doctor.
But it wasn’t.
Instead of a doctor in a white coat, it was Lucius, dressed in a black suit.
“Everyone, leave.”
At his commanding voice, the servants left like a receding tide.
Lucius sat down on the chair beside the bed and asked calmly,
“How is your condition?”
“It’s great! I’m sorry for making you worry for nothing.”
Her body felt light. She felt as if she could even do push-ups right now.
Lumina smiled brightly.
But something had been bothering her for a while.
‘How much did I toss and turn in my sleep? I finally wore such expensive clothes, and now they’re all wrinkled.’
At some point, someone had changed her clothes. She was now wearing the pale pink pajamas she had brought from home.
All the clothes Lucius had given her were excellent. The only problem was that they were too excellent.
Including her current outfit, even her outerwear had never been worn before. She had deliberately avoided wearing them and even refrained from touching them.
‘Because I’m afraid of being controlled by the demon called greed.’
She had accepted them because she couldn’t resist the temptation.
But after receiving them, she became afraid that she might sell her soul entirely to the devil.
‘Habits are scary. Habits.’
There was always the possibility that she might return to the reckless lifestyle of her past life, so she had to stay cautious.
Lumina secretly glared at the wrinkles in her pajamas. At that moment, Lucius spoke.
“You slept well for four days.”
“…What? Four days? It’s been four days since I fell asleep?”
“Yes. You slept like the dead, so I kept checking in case you were actually dead. It would be inconvenient if you died just yet.”
Lucius spoke in a cold tone.
It should have been chilling, but Lumina only realized the reason her pajamas were wrinkled.
‘Well, if I slept that long, it makes sense. It would be strange if they weren’t wrinkled…’
Knowing it was entirely her own fault, she felt solemn and smoothed out her pajamas stiffly.
As she fidgeted, his voice came again.
“And despite saying you were fine, I heard your leg is in quite bad condition.”
“Really? I thought it was fine. It was only slightly uncomfortable, but I could move properly.”
Smile, smile.
Lumina replied cheerfully, not losing her smile.
But Lucius, who already knew everything about her and those around her, asked sharply,
“Who did you treat this time?”
Did he think she would share such private matters?
Unfortunately, since she had been the one to suggest keeping it a secret from Endymion first, Lumina did not speak lightly.
“The wounds were too deep to be from a simple fall. The doctors all agreed it looked like the kind of injury one would get from a carriage accident and need months to recover.”
“My younger brother.”
Lumina answered promptly.
The description had been so precise that one might think the ducal doctors were extraordinarily skilled—but quick-witted Lumina understood.
‘He’s already certain.’
He had completed his investigation of Lumina and knew that her healing ability transferred wounds.
The rest would have been easy to deduce.
‘So I answered honestly to gain the Duke’s trust. It’s part of building mutual trust.’
Someone might mock it as petty self-justification, but she had no choice.
If she lied about being tight-lipped, she might never get to open her mouth again.
“From now on, refrain from treating anyone other than my son.”
He meant to monopolize her ability.
Just as Lumina had approached him to use his status as Duke, Lucius likely saw her merely as a tool to treat his son.
Since Lumina had no one else close enough to her to want to use her power on, she nodded obediently.
“Oh, right. The Young Master didn’t seem to know anything about me. Didn’t you tell him beforehand?”
“He was outside for some time. I didn’t have the opportunity to explain.”
‘Even so! How could you not tell him something that important?! I was almost thrown out as a fraud!’
Her scream of protest echoed only inside her head.
After giving what seemed like a shameless excuse, Lucius stared at Lumina and then spoke.
“Six years ago, there was a massacre in which numerous Legions were killed. Do you know about it?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must also know that the mad killer who slaughtered an unprecedented number of Legions was me.”
It felt as though the temperature in the room suddenly dropped.
