Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 80

“That’s an old story! I don’t usually talk about it. Please forget it. Really, please forget it, Healer. Okay?”

“Yes. I’ll forget it. But thank you for telling me.”

I made a firm promise to forget it, then saw Ridel off to the door of the infirmary as she waved her hand with a forced smile.

So something like that had happened. As expected, there were countless things in this world I didn’t know, beyond what was written in the original story.

“The wound is large, so please be careful using your arm for a while. Come back again in three days.”

“Yes. Thanks to you, even though it hurts, I had a pleasant time.”

Just as Ridel was leaving the infirmary, she turned back and pointed toward the garden in front.

“Over there—would it be okay if I sat for a moment?”

“It’s fine, but aren’t you going straight back to the naval base?”

“I came by carriage. One of my subordinates will pick me up once he’s done with his work.”

Ridel smiled lightly, said goodbye, and stepped outside. I returned to the treatment room and looked out the window.

I could see Ridel walking to the sunlit tree and leaning against it.

She stood there with her eyes closed, lost in thought. Watching her, I wondered who that subordinate might be.

A moment later, a carriage stopped in front of the infirmary. At the sound of hooves, Ridel opened her eyes.

My gaze also turned toward the carriage.

‘Could that subordinate be…….’

When you have a “maybe” thought like that, it rarely turns out to be wrong.

A man in a black ceremonial uniform stepped down from the carriage.

Ehit—still wearing his uniform cap—walked toward Ridel.

The two talked briefly under the tree. Ridel brushed back her long hair with her uninjured arm and said something, and Ehit nodded.

What held my gaze for so long was Ehit’s expression as he spoke with Ridel.

Clear goodwill. Eyes shining so brightly that it wouldn’t be strange to call it fondness.

‘That’s completely different from the look he gives me.’

After all, Ehit usually only showed me cold, sharp, rigid eyes.

Ehit said something with his cheeks slightly flushed.

‘So he can make that kind of face too.’

Ridel blinked in surprise.

At that moment, both of their gazes turned this way.

“……!”

“Dapflen? What are you staring at?”

At the same time, Oliver’s voice came from behind me.

Startled, I turned away from the window.

“Huh?”

“That’s your great fiancé and…… the famous admiral everyone’s talking about, right?”

Oliver, who had been looking at Ehit and Ridel with grand titles, glanced at me.

“Why are you looking like that?”

“Like… what?”

“Like that.”

Oliver narrowed his eyes.

“When did I ever do that!”

“If you say so. Hahaha.”

Laughing, Oliver pointed out the window again and left the treatment room.

But Ehit was no longer there. Only Ridel remained, standing alone.

‘Where did Ehit go?’

And then, through the door Oliver had left open, someone else came in.

I’d seen him in uniform countless times, but today’s uniform felt new. Maybe because late autumn was approaching—the jacket looked thicker.

Wearing his cap and neatly brushing his hair back from his forehead, he quickly walked up to me.

Why is my heart racing?

Feeling oddly flustered, I quickly asked as casually as I could,

“Did you have a good trip to the capital?”

“Yes.”

“You brought back the new admiral too.”

I turned my head slightly away from Ehit and glanced out the window.

But it was very easy for Ehit to pull my gaze back to him. Just calling my name once—“Dapflen”—was enough.

Come to think of it, Ehit now always called me by my name. Unlike before, when he used distant titles like “Lady Aileta” or “you.”

That was definitely something that had changed.

Was that all that had changed?

“It seems the admiral enjoyed her time with you very much.”

“I probably enjoyed it even more.”

Ridel had met me for the first time today, but I hadn’t.

So if we were choosing who enjoyed it more, it was clearly me.

“She’ll likely visit the infirmary often. She’s the type who doesn’t shy away from reckless things.”

“It did seem that way…….”

“I spend a lot of time with Admiral Trustia, so I’ll probably come to the infirmary more often too. There’s no other reason or intention. The admiral comes often, so it’s only natural.”

Ehit seemed to be deliberately emphasizing his connection with Ridel—how close he was to her.

Saying this to me, his current fiancée, meant maybe……

‘Is he telling me to take a hint?’

He won’t even break off the engagement, and yet. A strangely resentful thought popped up.

Maybe my expression twisted a little, because Ehit tilted his head and stared at me.

“I don’t mean that I’ll always intrude when you talk with the admiral.”

“I never thought that.”

“If you enjoyed your conversations with the admiral, then the fact that she’ll likely stay in Bellachen for several years must be welcome.”

Several years—probably. Unlike the former overall commander who lasted only three months, Ridel was flawless.

Ehit leaned closer, resting his arm on the window as he looked at me. The distance shortened, and his voice echoed closer as it hit the glass.

“It means you’ll be having a pleasant time from now on as well.”

But why was it? The moment I heard that, I felt a little sad.

After learning about my engagement to Ehit, I had never really imagined the future.

If I stayed with him, the ending was death.

So all my thoughts had been focused on avoiding that ending.

But the reason I felt sad wasn’t because I might die.

For a brief moment, I imagined it—the future people often picture with their fiancé, the person standing beside them as they smile on Bellachen’s dazzling shore.

That’s why I felt sad. Because that tomorrow would never be given to me.

Ehit was destined to die within a few years, and I was destined to leave him within a few months.

Ehit’s fingers brushed my hair. My long hair slid over his hand.

“Dapflen.”

He toyed with my hair using his fingers. Leaning lightly against the window, he looked up at me, and once again my gaze was stolen.

It was strange. He was someone I wouldn’t share a tomorrow with, and I knew that—yet when he called me, spoke to me, and looked at me like this, I gave him my gaze without resistance.

“About what I said before. If a few months pass, and more time goes by.”

“Yes.”

“What do you think we’ll be like then?”

His close gaze waited for my answer. Right now, it felt strangely hard to pretend to dream of a happy future.

“Well… who knows? We don’t know what’ll happen. Maybe—just maybe—we’ll break off the engagement? Haha.”

So I covered it up with a joke.

‘Though for me, it’s not really a joke.’

At that moment, Ehit’s eyes sharpened.

It clearly wasn’t a joke suitable for him. He was serious and valued principles above all.

“……I was joking!”

“That kind of joke isn’t pleasant, Dapflen.”

His gaze looked almost like a warning—but also like an anxious request.

“Okay. I won’t do it again.”

Ehit’s neat features showed a faintly sulky look. As I leaned against the window and gently fixed his slightly messy hair, I thought—

Family honor.

Yes. That was what Ehit valued most in his relationship with me.

‘Probably the only reason he maintains this relationship too.’

The Cloyden and Aileta families were already engaged, and he didn’t want to stain the family’s honor by breaking it off without a special reason.

But if that’s the reason, and if he’s taking responsibility for this relationship without breaking it off, then looking at me like that was unfair.

Because when he looks at me like that, it makes me mistakenly think that Ehit doesn’t want to lose me—not Lady Aileta, but me, Dapflen.

Every time I tried to look away, Ehit called my name and pulled my gaze back to him.

Then he looked at me for a long, quiet moment.

“Dapflen, I should be going now.”

“……Yes. The admiral is waiting.”

“What are you doing for dinner?”

When he looked at me like that, sometimes my thoughts became overwhelming, and sometimes they vanished completely.

I stared blankly at Ehit for a few seconds before realizing what he’d asked.

‘Oh. He’s asking what I’m doing today.’

Today……

“There’s a restaurant I like—”

“Ah, I’m eating with Dellers.”

“…….”

“A restaurant you like? Where is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What? You just said there was one.”

“I forgot.”

Forgot? Just like that?

“Are you joking?”

“No. I really forgot. I don’t remember.”

“Really? You really forgot that quickly?”

“I forget things like that easily.”

If that were true, it wasn’t something to just laugh off. If side effects of my foresight affected even this, it would be pretty serious……

“Why are you making that face?”

Ehit slowly released my hair from his hand. Then he put his cap back on and straightened up.

“Enjoy your meal. Since you’re eating anyway, make it the most delicious food on this street.”

It took only a few long strides for his long legs to carry him out of the infirmary.

Before leaving, he turned back to look at me once.

I remembered the first time Ehit came to the infirmary—standing in the treatment room, looking at me. Back then, his eyes had been sharp and hostile.

I wouldn’t say his eyes now were gentle. But they were definitely different from before.

Something—something I couldn’t quite name—was different.

Maybe I was the one who had changed.