Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? – Chapter 76

Author: Asternkm

After that day, Ehit never once looked into a personal future again.

He used his power only for matters without private involvement—only for work, and only for the country.

And so, more than ten years passed.

After that long span of time, Ehit was finally taking out those memories again.

Memories that had tormented him through countless nights, memories he had sometimes wanted to forget.
Memories of the person who had been both his greatest strength and his greatest pain.

“……If you ask me about the moment I regret the most, it’s that time.”

He was telling those memories now to the person right in front of him.

To Dapflen, the fiancée who would someday leave him—his fiancée with an expiration date.

As if he had opened his heart to her.

After hearing the story, Dapflen blinked once. In that brief moment, a single drop of moisture rolled down.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

She hurriedly wiped away her tears. She brushed the moisture away with her fingertips, but her eyes quickly filled again.

“Why am I like this… I’m sorry…….”

Dapflen forced an awkward smile.

Ehit took a purple handkerchief out of his arms and handed it to her.
It was the one Renia had given him that day.

He watched Dapflen wipe the corners of her eyes.

She was similar.

In truth, he thought he had vaguely felt that way from the moment they first met.

If Renia had grown up alongside him—if he could have seen her as an adult—she might have resembled Dapflen, just a little.

It wasn’t simply about appearance.

Sometimes, Dapflen’s actions reminded him of Renia.

The way she seemed greedy but gave up her own things first at critical moments.
The way she always looked bright and innocent, yet acted bravely and maturely without fear.

Still, he had deliberately kept those thoughts from surfacing.

Thinking about Renia was painful, and he didn’t want to project that child onto another person.

Yet in the end, he thought of Renia again—and told Dapflen that story.

He wanted to.

Strangely enough, telling Dapflen didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

Was it simply because she resembled Renia?

Then was he pouring out the words he had wanted to say to Renia, the feelings he had wanted to confess, onto this person instead?

Just because Dapflen looked like that child?

‘If not that, then…….’

What was it?

Why did he want to tell Dapflen everything?

“What about you, Dapflen?”

Why did he want to hear everything about her, too?

“Have you ever had a moment you regretted something?”

“Well…… there are too many to choose just one.”

Dapflen smiled with eyes that were still damp.

“But I’ve decided not to regret things anymore.”

As she carefully folded the handkerchief again, Dapflen continued,

“No matter which way you go, you gain something and you lose something, right? Lately, I’ve been thinking… that I should just do my best at what I can do now, the things I can decide by my own will.”

“And if you do your best, but the result still becomes something you regret?”

“That can’t be helped.”

She answered calmly.

“In the end, it’s all the result of choices I made myself. If I truly did my best, then even if I went back, I think I’d probably make the same choice again.”

Ehit couldn’t know all of Dapflen’s thoughts.

But there was one thing he realized.

He no longer saw her the way he had at first.

He no longer saw her as someone two-faced, someone who schemed behind others for power.

In fact, thinking that he had once seen her that way made him feel foolish.

“Get some sleep now, Ehit.”

Dapflen stood up from her seat and reached out her hand to him.

Then what was she?

What did his fiancée—who would only stay in his life for a short while—mean to him now?

He still couldn’t find a clear answer.

For now, the only thing he could do was reach out and take her warm hand.

****

“Thank you very much!”

“No, Healer. We should be the ones thanking you!”

After returning to my normal routine for the first time in several days, I was on my way back from a small city near Bellachen.

Returning to my routine meant restarting my daily grind of earning money for the annulment fund.

“That’s a pretty good amount.”

Now that Ridel had appeared, there was no more time to delay. Before I got too comfortable and something terrible happened, I had to do everything I possibly could.

What I told Ehit yesterday was sincere.

Instead of blaming the future or saying things were always meant to be this way, I wanted to do my best at what I could do now.

To fully take responsibility for my own choices. That was my task right now.

While riding the tram back toward the Cloyden estate, I briefly read the newspaper placed inside the carriage.

‘Let’s see how the world’s been turning…….’

I’d been so busy just surviving lately that I hadn’t paid attention to things like this at all.

「Diela Palace Lake Opens—A Stunning Sight Leaves Crowds Speechless……」

It was talking about the lake the Crown Prince had said would open soon, the one he had taken Ehit and me to see.

‘That happened too. Back then, it was really nerve-wracking.’

The scenery of the lake had been beautiful, but at the time I was more worried about my hair before it had even started growing properly.

‘Though it’s already been found out now.’

Even after learning my secret, Ehit hadn’t tried to use it against me or corner me with it.

Thinking about the Ehit from around the time we went to Diela Palace, he probably would have snapped at me for something.

‘But the recent Ehit…… maybe he wouldn’t.’

Had the Ehit I thought I knew changed?

Or was it my view of him that had changed?

With those thoughts, I read the headline of the second article.

「Hel×ke Marquis’s Son Suspected of Poisoning Academy Classmates with Toxic Mushrooms……」

‘Helbike?’

It was that marquis’s son—the one Enric had sent to prison.

The article said the reckless Helbike heir had fed poisonous mushrooms to his classmates to improve his academy grades.

He claimed it was a joke, but since the poison was extremely strong, the issue was serious enough to threaten even the Helbike family’s standing.

‘Poisonous mushrooms? What a disaster of a person.’

Shaking my head, I looked out the window and saw the Cloyden estate drawing closer.

I put the newspaper back and got off the tram.

I saw a delivery man heading away from the estate. Head butler Archers was holding a basket.

‘Is that for Ehit?’

It was a basket full of food ingredients—packed with mushrooms.

“Miss Dapflen!”

Just as I was about to go inside after greeting him, Archers called out to me.

“This was sent by Lord Enric!”

“Oh, really?”

Why would Enric send something now?

There was a note placed on top of the basket. I unfolded it first.

「Dapflen, your big brother has repented!

Seeing you, who always worried about me, reach the point of an engagement made me feel many things.

As a wish for you and your fiancé to live well, I’m sending you a collection of delicious mushrooms.

In the south, mushrooms symbolize happiness.

I bought these at a mushroom dealer for an absurd price. I can’t tell you how much, but it was really expensive.

May you always be happy with these mushrooms……」

‘Just how much did he pay for these…….’

I shoved the note into my handbag and took the basket from Archers.

“I’ll take it. I’ll bring it to the kitchen myself.”

“Pardon? But—”

“I was just getting hungry anyway.”

I headed toward the estate kitchen.

Since we’d received them, I figured I’d store them properly and later tell Ehit to make mushroom sandwiches for breakfast.

‘Maybe I’ll grill one and try it first.’

I lit the fire. After washing my hands, I picked up one mushroom from the basket.

‘Huh? Why does my hand feel itchy……?’

I skewered the mushroom and grilled it over the fire.

Just as I was about to blow on the nicely browned mushroom and take a bite—

‘Why does my hand keep itching?’

A sudden, unpleasant feeling washed over me.

I looked again at the hand that had touched the mushroom.

“……!”

Blisters were forming on my hand, which had turned purplish red.

I froze for a moment, then turned my eyes back to the mushroom. Looking again, it felt strangely familiar.

‘This mushroom is…….’

It didn’t take long before nausea and dizziness followed.

Only then did I remember seeing this mushroom before—in an herbal medicine textbook at the medical academy.

This was a poisonous mushroom.

‘Enric! You idiot of a brother!’

For about five seconds, I seriously thought it might have been better if Enric had stayed in prison a few more days.

But I didn’t have time to think even that much.

In a rush, I used self-healing to slow the circulation of blood in my body. Thankfully, since this was my profession, I could manage basic emergency treatment.

But this alone wasn’t enough.

‘Poisonous mushrooms need an antidote.’

I dragged myself toward the study.

I started searching for herbal medicine books.

Ehit’s vast study had all kinds of books, and herbal medicine texts were among them.

‘Here it is. Poisonous mushroom: Redlant……. A highly toxic mushroom that causes poisoning even through bare-handed contact.’

As I read on, a sentence caught my eye.

It can be treated with Bazan, a grass that grows in caves.

‘Bazan?’

Of all things, Bazan?

Bazan was a herb that even medical centers constantly lacked.

It was difficult to cultivate, so no one grew it professionally. The only supply came from herb gatherers picking it in forests.