NOVEL WEB Chapter 99
099.
There must be no denying that Laris’s eyes had grown clearer.
As she gazed fixedly at the necklace extended to her, Laris carefully accepted it and smiled with visible delight. The dull gray eyes of the girl who then met her gaze seemed to have regained some of their original color.
Seeing the gray eyes brighten stirred a thought in Kalen.
Surveying the mirror-like stones surrounding him, Kalen then turned his gaze back to Laris’s eyes.
“Uh… Why are you looking at me like that…”
Had his look been too obvious?
Laris awkwardly diverted her gaze and timidly voiced her objection.
“Because it reminds me of the shimmering stones around here.”
“…Huh?”
“Your eyes. They’re gleaming favorably.”
“Ah…”
They say there’s nothing better for lightening the mood than a compliment. This was something already proven to Kalen, whether by Sinat, Eliana, or Serasie.
“…”
But that didn’t seem to apply to Laris.
After hearing Kalen’s words, the young lady of the Plache family slightly bowed her head.
“…Turn… around, please.”
Taking hold of Kalen, she struggled to twist his body around with her small hands.
Kalen thought Laris must have disliked the compliment. After all, the normal response to being praised would be to reciprocate or express gratitude.
Moreover, there was something strangely authoritarian about Laris’s altered attitude, as if she didn’t approve.
Kalen decided to comply with her slight strength, turning politely.
And then…
Shudder.
“…It hurts…”
A prickling sensation came from his back.
The burn injury sustained from the event atop the cliff. Knowing it wouldn’t heal without attention, Kalen immediately grasped that Laris had touched his back.
It felt a bit different from when she’d traced his scars before.
If she was being cautious lest she cause him pain, it was now rather like a deliberate stroking of the wound.
Naturally, it hurt more to be touched so tenderly than carefully, and Kalen was about to flinch and pull away…
But Laris’s hand clung to the wound, as if glued to it.
Unable to bear it, Kalen slightly turned his head and asked with puzzlement.
“My lady.”
“Haa… haa…”
“…My lady?”
“…It hurts. Let me take care of it for you…”
Her unusually labored breathing touched his back.
Her voice, trembling somewhat, seemed unstable.
Just as Kalen was about to turn around and question her strangeness,
Laris moved closer, even more quickly.
And then…
Hoo…
It wasn’t a light snuff, but a purposeful warm breath that hit his back.
“Uh…”
Taken aback by that unexpected move, Kalen felt Laris gently caressing his wound while blowing warm air on it.
Kalen froze completely,
whereas Laris continued blowing on his wound without hesitation.
The warm breath, though hot, felt strangely cold upon contact.
Kalen’s back had already become tensed, yet paradoxically his stiffness was alleviated by Laris’s breath.
Hoo… Hoo…
Kalen, experiencing an unprecedented situation and losing all track of time, was nonetheless aware it was an exceptionally prolonged moment. Finally, Laris stopped blowing.
“Now… does it not hurt?”
“…”
Only after Laris stopped blowing did Kalen finally turn around.
There Laris was waiting, her hands clasped forward, for a reply.
However unable to vocally respond,
Kalen simply nodded.
“…I’m relieved.”
Seeing that, Laris’s expression brightened, as clear as her now-gleaming eyes.
*
“Umm…”
Perhaps it was this cave that had rapidly closed the gap between them.
With everything that had happened, and Laris being a fragile young girl in an unfamiliar place where her only support was the knight beside her,
That was why Laren had not only caressed his wound but also treated it in such a manner.
Kalen decided it must have been out of that anxious feeling.
Looking at Laris sleeping with his thigh as her pillow, Kalen thought,
Regaining consciousness from fainting doesn’t mean recovering strength. It merely means the body is out of danger; it’s not equivalent to having rested.
After tenderly covering his wound, Laris soon became drowsy.
Unable to lay the weary woman on the hard rock once again, Kalen offered his thigh.
Unlike the initial moment when their hands touched,
Laris neither rejected nor showed any shame, instead gratefully laying down on Kalen’s thigh immediately.
It was like getting accustomed to holding hands in the water had made her less resistant to embracing him.
As Kalen gazed at the sleeping Laris, he kept brushing the silver-gray hair that kept slipping down.
And he tried hard not to let his gaze wander towards her lips.
No matter how awkward Kalen was with expressions, Laris’s actions managed to make his thoughts confused.
Given that they should soon leave the cave and the Latia Waterfall, it was time to steady his emotions.
As Kalen gazed quietly at Laris, using his shirt as a blanket, he did this.
The moment came when Kalen, without removing his eyes from Laris, picked up a small pebble and flicked it towards a mirror-like stone in front.
Tic, Tic, Tic…
The sound of the stones clattering.
Simultaneously, more was heard than just the sound of the stone rolling.
“You have keen senses.”
Even if it were a deliberate act.
Kalen carefully lifted his head, ensuring not to wake Laris.
There, where he looked, stood someone other than himself and Laris.
A grotesque face.
A twisted expression as if crying.
It was that mysterious entity that had caused an explosion on the cliff.
Kalen cautiously examined the being.
There was no immediate response because there wasn’t the same dangerous vibe as during the previous explosion.
Yet, it wasn’t possible to completely relax, so he maintained the minimal readiness while observing the bizarre entity.
The being appeared to be a woman.
Although her face couldn’t be classified as human, her figure clearly was.
Human, was it?
That, too, was impossible to determine.
As Kalen, with a deep sigh, prepared to execute a preemptive attack…
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
Calculating the third-tier combat attribute ice spear magic.
Ready to summon two elementals if necessary.
However, an unexpected answer returned.
A situation far removed from when the entity suddenly appeared causing explosions, Kalen paused thoughtfully and waited for her words, since she had uttered an apology.
“There was no other way but to bring you here.”
“…Induce?”
“Yes, and this is the only place I can speak.”
The woman glanced at the mirror-like stones around her.
Kalen followed her gaze and surveyed the surroundings.
Three figures were reflected in the crystal-like stones.
However, that didn’t mean he was trusting her words.
Maintaining the magic was proof of that.
“Then wasn’t it enough to wave or signal for us to follow instead of attacking?”
“As you know, this is my hidden spot beyond the waterfall. Would you have easily hurled yourself into the Latia Waterfall, following someone as unknown as me?”
Her words held undeniable truth.
Exactly as she said, it would be unreasonable to jump into the Latia Waterfall after an untrustworthy being.
Kalen silently stared at the woman.
The woman, in turn, silently met his gaze.
After that brief exchange,
Kalen canceled the magic he was sustaining, after weighing his calculations appropriately.
It might not be wise in the state of not fully trusting, but
given that the previous explosion was the extreme of an attack, it didn’t make sense to keep the third-tier magic, which required a lot of power, as a deterrent.
Once the woman noticed Kalen had dispelled his magic, she slowly approached him and sat down in an almost aristocratic manner.
Kalen attentively observed the woman who seemed awkward with her noble etiquette.
The woman spoke first.
“You must have many questions.”
“…”
“Let me answer first.”
With those words, ready,
Kalen covered Laris’s ears to prevent her from waking and inquired.
“Why have you led us here?”
“As I just said, to have a conversation.”
She mentioned this place as the only one where communication could happen,
and hence resorted to such aggressive methods, making Kalen and Laris drop down the waterfall.
“What if we had died that way?”
“I know you wouldn’t have.”
The woman pointed at Kalen.
“You climbed up from the Latia Waterfall’s cliff, carrying someone with no help. And if I made a wrong judgment, I would have helped you.”
She hadn’t intended to kill.
That alone considerably reduced Kalen’s tension.
Kalen then asked a few more questions,
which the woman answered without refusal.
As the situation evolved, the woman began asking as well.
Since there was much Kalen needed to learn from her, he also answered her questions candidly.
After a few more rounds of questions,
when it was the woman’s turn to ask, she pointed not at Kalen, but at Laris sleeping with her head on his knee.
More precisely, at the tightly clenched necklace in Laris’s hand.
“That… how did you come to have it?”
Following the woman’s finger to Laris,
“An heirloom left by my lady’s mother.”
“…”
Her breath caught.
At that response, the woman’s body shuddered.
“…My lady…”
Hearing her murmur, Kalen didn’t miss that small tremor.
“It’s my turn to ask now.”
“…”
“Plache.”
“…”
Again, her body quivered.
From the prior conversation, Kalen had guessed as much, and now he confirmed it.
As Kalen continued covering Laris’s ears,
he looked straight at the woman and asked.
“Are you the original owner of the necklace that my Lady holds?”
The woman’s eyes were fixed on the pearl necklace clutched in Laris’s hand.
…