Chapter 08
The reason Lucy hadn’t noticed properly was that the man’s face was just overwhelmingly handsome.
Between his slightly wavy silver hair, his blue-gray eyes trembled ever so slightly. Following the ridge of his sharp nose, his red lips let out a faint groan.
He was, quite literally, a jaw-droppingly handsome man. Frowning slightly, his gaze met Lucy’s.
“Ugh…”
“B-Blood… are y-you… okay?”
More blood was flowing from the man’s shoulder than before, from where he had drawn his bow. Lucy, flustered and unsure of what to do, looked around helplessly, stammering.
“Y-Yes… hemostasis! W-we need to stop the bleeding!”
First, she needed to stop the blood somehow. The wound seemed fairly deep; red blood was seeping incessantly between the fingers of the hand clutching his shoulder.
Lucy hurriedly tried to tear a corner of her dress. But the fabric was too sturdy and refused to rip.
“Oh, right! The handkerchief!”
She remembered the handkerchief she had hidden in her pocket all this time because she didn’t want to give it to the duke.
“Let’s at least use this for now…”
She pressed it firmly against his shoulder, tying it tightly. For the first time, the man spoke.
“Ah… thank you, milady.”
His voice was soft and gentle. Lucy paused, knotting the handkerchief more tightly, staring blankly at his face.
“Milady?”
Hearing him speak with a puzzled tone, Lucy finally averted her gaze, which had been almost hypnotically fixed on his beautiful face.
“Ah… there, that should do it. We should get you to a doctor quickly…”
“Milady, thank you. First, let’s get out of here safely.”
He stood and looked around. The sun had already begun to set.
Lucy and the man were now wandering through the forest as the sun set.
“Perfect. We’re completely lost…”
He had confidently taken the lead, but it turned out he didn’t know the way either.
“I’m sorry, milady…”
Lucy could faintly see him scratching his head awkwardly in the dark.
“Watch your step.”
It was still early evening, but the visibility was already poor. Lucy, wearing high heels, stumbled slightly as she carefully stepped forward.
“Has the bleeding slowed at least? You lost a lot of blood.”
“I’m fine. Rather than worrying about the blood, we should find a suitable place before it gets any darker and wait for someone to come looking for us.”
Lucy nodded, agreeing that his suggestion seemed wiser.
‘In novels, usually a cave conveniently appears in situations like this…’
Lucy glanced around, hoping for some shelter.
“We should make a fire here. That way, anyone looking for us can see the light.”
He pointed to a spot near a large rock.
“Won’t a fire attract wild animals?”
“It should be fine. Animals are afraid of fire. By now, my men would have already started searching for me.”
Soon, Lucy and the man began gathering dry leaves to start a fire.
But soon they encountered another problem.
“Uh… have you ever started a fire before?”
He was repeatedly striking two stones together, trying to make sparks. But instead of flames, the stones kept breaking with no result.
“It looked so easy when I watched my men do it…”
Lucy sighed as she saw him trailing off awkwardly. Then she glanced around and picked up a broken branch nearby.
“Do you happen to have a dagger? We can flatten this branch if we carve it a bit.”
Relying on the dim moonlight, she showed him the branch and explained.
A moment later:
“Like this?”
In the darkness, he presented the carved branch to her.
“Can you sharpen the tip just a little more?”
Because both were using their injured hands, Lucy held the wood steady while he cut. Without asking why, he silently refined the branch and handed it back to her.
Without a word, Lucy untied the string holding her hair, wrapped the sharpened branch a couple of times around a flattened piece of wood, then bent a thin branch like a bow, tying both ends with string, and began moving it back and forth.
“This friction will create sparks.”
“Let me try. Like this?”
He began rapidly moving the branch-bow back and forth.
“Wow! It’s working! Faster!”
Lucy, forgetting for the moment that his shoulder was injured, urged him on. When sparks finally appeared, she quickly brought dry leaves and blew on them.
It took longer than expected, but they eventually managed to start a campfire.
“This is amazing! Milady, how do you know all these methods?”
He gazed at her in genuine admiration.
“I read it in a book a long time ago. I didn’t expect to actually use it.”
When she smiled brightly, he smiled back gently. Bathed in the flickering firelight, his beautiful features left Lucy staring again, utterly captivated.
“I am Lucas Cretain. If you don’t mind, may I know your name?”
Duke Cretain. This was the man whom everyone had been talking about as the empire’s most handsome man.
“Ah! The empire’s most handsome man!”
Lucy blurted it out before she could stop herself and quickly covered her mouth.
He widened his eyes, then let out a small laugh. Lucy’s face flushed with embarrassment.
“My name is Lucy…”
It seemed he had indeed met her for the first time today.
“Lucy… Lucy, huh…”
Lucas quietly repeated her name.
“Lucy… it means ‘light.’ It suits you perfectly, milady.”
‘Ah, so that’s what my name means. I thought it was just a common name the author picked randomly.’
Thanks to Lucas, today she learned the meaning of her name without even realizing it before. Hearing her own name from his mouth somehow made it feel special.
“Did you know? My name, Lucas, also means light. It’s strange—we have names with the same meaning.”
He smiled brightly, gazing into Lucy’s eyes.
‘He really has no idea who I am,’ she thought. Judging by his expression, he had no clue that the famous socialite Lucy Diallo in the capital was the same person.
A fleeting bitterness crept into her chest, and she lowered her head.
“Ah! Blood!”
Glancing down, Lucy realized that blood was again dripping from Lucas’ shoulder onto the ground.
‘Ah, the bandages!’
She hurriedly began to unwrap the bandages from her own hands.
“Come here. Wrapping this should help.”
“But milady, your hands…”
Before he could finish, Lucy began wrapping the bandage around his shoulder.
Lucas silently watched her clumsy attempts, his gaze fixed on her. He didn’t quite understand why she looked so distressed at his wound, as if she were the one injured.
‘Perhaps because she’s experienced injury herself, she empathizes so deeply.’
A pleasant scent drifted to him. Lucas realized the strange tangent of his thoughts and let out a small chuckle.
“All done. I hope the bleeding stops quickly…”
Did I stare too much? Lucy quickly averted her gaze, embarrassed, as their eyes met. Then she suddenly froze, noticing something, and pressed herself close to Lucas.
“Th-there! Something is moving in the bushes!”
Lucy’s trembling voice made Lucas shield her behind him and draw his sword.
“Step back behind me—it’s dangerous.”
As Lucas cautiously approached the direction she indicated, Lucy grabbed a thick branch from the fire and positioned herself behind him, tensing up and swallowing hard.
In a blur of agile motion, impossible to imagine for someone injured, Lucas leapt into the bushes.
Frozen in place, Lucy still holding a flaming stick and aiming at the bush, tightly closed her eyes in fear.
“You can relax now. It seems what you saw was just this little rabbit.”
Lucas returned, holding a small rabbit in his hand.
