Selene sighed, placing the potion on the bedside table with all the patience of someone tending to a self-destructive idiot.
"You really must start taking better care of yourself," she murmured, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"How did you even end up this broken?"
Kael gave her a sheepish grin — the kind that usually preceded questionable decisions — and collapsed back onto the bed with a groan.
'Let's just say I had a minor disagreement… with an undead,' he thought wryly.
'It disagreed with my existence.'
Selene moved toward the stool, but Kael reached out and gently caught her hand.
No words — just a soft tug.
She blinked as he guided her onto the bed beside him, stiff with uncertainty.
Then, slowly, he wrapped his arms around her.
Careful.
Hesitant.
Selene froze like she'd been drafted into an emotional moment without prior warning.
Her cheeks lit up with color.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked, voice pitched somewhere between panic and protocol violation.
Kael didn't look at her.
His voice was low, nearly lost under the hush of rain on glass.
"Just… making sure you're real.
And warm.
Mostly the second one."
She didn't pull away.
But her back stayed straight, fingers twitching nervously in her lap like they were trying to type a resignation letter.
"…I-I see," she said softly.
Kael looked at her — really looked.
The way her hair curled near her neck.
The worry in her eyes she didn't know how to hide.
The quiet stubbornness in the way she stayed.
Something had bloomed in his chest when he wasn't looking — quiet and dangerous.
The kind of feeling people in stories called love, right before everything exploded.....
Maybe it made him a fool.
Maybe it made him human.
But with her beside him, warm and painfully real, the system finally quiet, and no one trying to kill him for five whole minutes....
He let himself feel it.
He was happy.
And that was probably a warning sign.
He glanced at her again, voice softer now.
"Thanks… for taking care of me."
Selene met his gaze.
Her lips parted — not to speak, but just to breathe.
Then she smiled.
Small. Gentle.
"That's my duty," she said.
But her voice carried something else beneath the words — something tender and unspoken.
Their eyes lingered.
The space between them grew quiet, slow, fragile.
His fingers brushed hers.
Her breathing hitched.
His heart thudded once — loud, almost defiant.
He leaned in slightly.
She didn't move away.
Their faces were just inches apart.
And then—
A cough.
A deliberate cough.
Soft.
And absolutely unwelcome.
Kael jolted, sucking in a sharp breath — and instantly regretted it as pain shot through his ribs like a warning shot from his own lungs.
Selene blinked, startled by the movement.
"Kael?"
Kael's eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
Or rather… just above it.
Hovering lazily above the bed, arms crossed midair, was Yue — spectral, smug, and very much enjoying herself.
Her grin tugged at the corners of her mouth like it had all the time in the world.
"Well," she said, voice dripping with faux innocence,
"Did I interrupt something tender?"
Kael stared at her, stunned.
Shit.
Selene followed his gaze to the empty air above.
"What's wrong? Who are you looking at?"
Kael coughed awkwardly — too quickly — and yanked the blanket up as if it might shield him from further embarrassment.
"N-nothing. Just… thought I heard something.
Probably the wind."
"The wind?" Selene echoed, raising a brow. "Inside?"
Kael refused to answer.
Yue drifted lower, resting her chin in her hand, expression far too pleased.
"You were really gonna do it, huh?
Your first kiss. How sweet."
Kael's eye twitched.
He muttered under his breath, low and venomous,
'You stalking wraith.'
Yue placed a hand to her chest, feigning shock.
"Excuse me? I saved your bony little life in that crypt.
Twice.
I hover silently for five minutes and I'm suddenly a stalker?"
'A guardian spirit doesn't sneak into my room during moments like this.'
"You were about to do something deeply regrettable.
Again.
It's practically a full-time job keeping you alive and only mildly pathetic."
Selene frowned slightly, watching him — not the spirit, not the fight, just Kael… talking to absolutely no one.
His eyes flared with quiet frustration.
The kind that came from fighting things only he could see.
She didn't ask.
She just waited.
Kael ran a hand down his face, dragging the exhaustion with it.
Then Kael turned to her — slow, deliberate — his gaze cutting through the fog of fatigue like a blade dulled by too many sleepless nights.
"Selene," he said, voice low and level,
"Have you found out?"
The faint hint of warmth vanished from her face like a candle snuffed in wind.
She nodded once. "Yes."
The air shifted.
Kael leaned forward slightly, pain ignored, his full attention fixed on her.
"What did you learn?"
Before slipping into a fever-drenched sleep two days ago, he had only managed one clear order — rasped between clenched teeth and gritted bones:
"Learn everything. About the duchy. My brothers.
Their alliances. The rebellion. Soldiers. Numbers. Loyalties.
I need to know who's playing this game…"
Selene had bowed her head at the time without a word.
Now, she sat beside him again — no longer just his caretaker, but a messenger bearing news wrapped in daggers.
"I did as you asked," she said softly.
"I spoke to retainers, old guards, a few loose-tongued servants from the outer provinces.
Whisper brokers in the guilds.
Even a drunk bard with better memory than manners."
Kael raised a brow.
"How drunk?"
"Mostly upright," she replied.
"Still remembered every rank insignia he ever scrubbed off a wall."
"…Go on."
She exhaled slowly.
Her voice dropped, her tone shifting — each word placed before him like stepping stones across a battlefield.
"Your eldest brother, Veyran… is now a Rank 3 magician."
Kael's lips pressed into a thin, humorless line.
No comment.
"That would already be bad," Selene continued,
"But he's also recruited a hundred Rank 2 magicians.
Quietly.
From outside the duchy. I confirmed it with three different sources."
Kael blinked once.
Slowly.
"That's not a faction," he muttered. "That's an army."
"And Father?" he asked after a beat.
Selene hesitated.
"I don't think he's unaware.
But… he hasn't acted.
Not publicly.
It's like he's waiting to see which son eats the others."
Kael snorted faintly.
"Of course he is. Classic Dad."
"Your second brother, Aerik," Selene said, ignoring the comment,
"Is studying at the Royal Academy. Blood magic.
Rank 2 already."
Kael nodded once.
He had expected that.
The family sadist had always been a quick learner.
"He doesn't command soldiers," she went on.
"But he's somehow convinced General Morien to back him."
Kael's head jerked up.
"Morien?" he echoed, stunned.
She nodded grimly.
"Veteran of the Eastern Wars.
Rank 3. Body count probably requires a second scroll.
He's loyal to Aerik now.
Quietly, but fully."
A long silence followed.
Thunder muttered outside like an old god clearing its throat.
Kael stared into the dark beyond the window, jaw clenched.
His brothers weren't waiting.
They were already sharpening knives.
And here he was — bandaged, bruised, and flirting with ghosts.
"Great," he muttered.
"All I need now is a prophecy and a terminal illness."
###
Author's Note:
Guys, while writing this chapter, there were so many lines I imagined Yue saying — stuff like:
"Well," she purred, "Did I interrupt your healing session, or should I return after you've exchanged bodily fluids?"
"Is this the part where you confess your feelings, or just hope she accidentally straddles you?"
"Wow. Two days out of the crypt and you're already trying to get under her robe. I'm proud of you."
"Careful with that hug — one slip and you'll be poking her with more than just affection."
"Is this a tender moment, or are you hoping she checks your 'lower injuries' next?"
But, as a civilized author, I heroically deleted them all !!!
😤😤😤
You're welcome.
No one will ever see these.
🤐🤐🤐
If you're enjoying the story, please leave a review — it helps more than Yue's commentary ever will. 😉