Ever Ever After

Chapter 10: His Sacrifice

Was it… was it his time to die for his country?

Clint predicted what would happen. It was obvious. Take over Geneva, take over Sutton.

“When you recapture Geneva, you capture Sutton.”

It was similar to the words the emperor said to Ron Elgar Ilyanna, the former leader of the Knights Order.

“…I think you’ll do well.”

Sighing inwardly, Clint bowed down in a manner befitting a knight.

“I’ll be there, Your Highness.”

 

“Be careful,” Lawrence said, voice full of worries as he smiled contentedly in victory at Clint.

***

Clint scratched his head in front of a tightly closed iron gate belonging to Ailea at the corner of the Outer Castle.

‘Was he angry?’

He thought the Crown Prince was angered because he had somehow unwittingly touched his fiance and thus why he was sent to the battlefield.  But he didn’t come here to blame Ailea. It was him, after all, who used the castle as a means to fearlessly engage in pleasurable throes with women.

And besides… he had somehow kissed a woman who didn’t want to be kissed. It was obvious that she’d be angered.

What a complicated situation.

 

Clint called Cassie the maid to deliver a message of apology to Ailea, but she was nowhere to be found. Odd. There was no one present at the Outer Castle other than Ailea and the maid.

Left in wonders, Clint wandered inside the castle in search of Ailea. The lights were dead. Walking towards the garden, he flinched at the sight of a white figure moving.

“Oh, you surprised me,” he mumbled, sweeping down his chest.

A woman in white pajamas walked barefoot in the garden. It would be a disgrace for anyone to find her in that attire at this time of the hour, and if it were anyone else, they’d have long ran away thinking the woman was a ghost.

Ailea came close to the iron gate, passing Clint as if she hadn’t seen him.

‘Is she sleepwalking?’

Clint looked at her and the iron gate in wonder, and Ailea, who was veering towards her room in a dress-type pajamas whose sleeves reached her knees and elbows, tripped on the stairs and slowly fell to the floor.

Clint’s expression slowly hardened as he looked at her in surprise.

She didn’t get up. Rather, she fell deeper into a state of sleep despite falling so hard that a thundering thud could be heard.

Clint grabbed on the iron door gate without a moment of thought and jump over to approach her.

The night was still chilly.

Clint raised Ailea’s upper body laying on the stairs. Her body was cold. It was a given. She was wandering around in the garden with only thin layers of pajamas. He saw black spots on the side of her sleeping face. It slowly spread, vividly twisting.

Clint held her in his arms for a moment, frowning at what he saw. It was small right now, but he knew it’d continue to grow if left untreated.

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Putting her on the bed, Clint had forgotten that he’d broken inside the woman’s bedroom—the woman engaged to Lawrence, Teniac Empire’s Crown Prince. Clint’s gaze was focused on the black poisonous spots spreading on her face as if trying to devour her.

Clint cupped her cheek with his hands, recalling the basic detoxification magic he learned at a very young age.  It was a detoxification spell, but it was enough to use on an ordinary man. It meant that the caster would share the pain or poison of the afflicted when the spell is cast.

Clint found the only available item in the room. He lit a candle alight, and soon, a magic circle formed around him. He tapped the magic circle and fire blazed. With the candle placed on the table, he began his work.

A little above Ailea’s face, Clint wrote deciphering magic letters with his fingers in the air. The letters shone brightly and the poison began to spread to his hand. His left hand turned black and the black, mangled spot spreading to Ailea’s face stopped spreading any further.

“Who knew this spell would come in handy,” said Clint, proudly. But that proud face didn’t last long.