The Knight Commander of the Second Male Lead [Novel] Chapter 11

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 11

Chapter Title: Memories of the Poisoned Tea

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The fortress was quiet at night.

Adrian sat by the bed, listening to Nina's feverish breathing.

Quack, quack.

Her rough breaths and flushed cheeks made his chest feel heavy.

He soaked a new wet cloth and placed it on her forehead.

The first time he met her was when he was nine years old.

By then, he had already given up on most of his life.

Even as a child, he knew he didn't have much time left to live.

When the young kitchen hand who entered then smiled brightly at him and said, "Hello, Young Master," he was perplexed but thought it was just a mistake.

No one in that mansion called him "Young Master."

Everyone was watching the new Duchess's moods and the Duke's indifference.

The title of Young Master wasn't for a bastard like him. It belonged only to the Duchess's firstborn son.

Yet Nina persistently called him "Young Master." She took his side.

It was so strange that he even wondered if she was a new type of assassin sent by the Duchess to kill him.

But she wasn't.

Strange, but not.

Since Nina was the only one who called him Young Master, she was the only one he had to protect.

Then, the shock and sense of liberation when she started calling him "Adrian." That moment.

Adrian exhaled and carefully removed the hair stuck to Nina's face.

Every time she was in pain, his chest tightened. His mouth went dry, and breathing became difficult.

"...Young Master...?"

Her mumbling voice was terribly hoarse. Adrian gently placed a straw made from a reed to her lips.

After a few sips, Nina let out a sigh, closed her eyes, and murmured.

"Reminds me of the old days..."

Adrian narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what she was thinking of. That incident that should never happen again in his life.

The incident where he prayed all night for Nina not to die.

It was when Nina drank the tea the Duchess had given him instead.

The tea from the Duchess was clear and transparent. A beautiful golden-red hue of black tea.

He could tell it was poisoned without drinking it, but there was no hesitation in the hand lifting the cup.

He had some resistance to poison, and he calculated that drinking it here to firmly establish himself as the victim wouldn't be bad.

But when Nina snatched the cup from his hand and drank it in one gulp, everything changed.

"Nina...!!"

That was the first time he called her name like that.

Seeing scarlet blood flowing from between her hands covering her mouth, he looked up, pleading for help.

That was when he realized it anew.

That he had no one on his side.

The assembled servants stood silently with composed faces as if nothing had happened. The maid picked up the fallen cup from the floor and placed it back.

The Duchess smiled warmly and refilled the cup.

An elegant smile befitting nobility.

Just as he always smiled, she smiled the same way.

He hugged the cooling Nina and ran out of the mansion. He pulled out a horse, mounted it, and galloped to the Knight Order.

In the dark night, he called his spirit. The darkness opened a quick path for him, and through its deep shadows, he leaped across the distance to reach his comrades.

That was the first time he was truly grateful for being a spirit contractor.

'I didn't even have the leisure to reflect on it then.'

Nina in his arms was sporadically vomiting blood, and now even that movement had completely stopped. Her rough breathing had become small and weak, leaving him no choice but to beg her.

When he arrived at the Knight Order and laid Nina before Kiril, she said with a grim expression that she couldn't guarantee her life.

For days, he prayed.

Fortunately, Nina recovered, and Kiril said it was thanks to the spirits.

'And now again.'

Again, something like this.

He swallowed a sigh.

It felt like Nina got hurt because she was with him. He knew he should keep her far away, but selfishness prevented him from doing so.

Of course, Nina wasn't the type to stay away even if he tried.

Childhood friends.

Nina casually referred to their relationship that way. Adrian didn't particularly deny it.

It wasn't wrong.

It wasn't wrong, but it felt insufficient.

Adrian changed the wet cloth again and whispered to Nina.

"Go back to sleep."

At his words, she smiled broadly. He unwittingly smiled back. Like a good child, Nina soon fell into a deep sleep again.

Adrian leaned back in his chair.

'A magic circle.'

He rubbed his temples.

Troublesome things were happening both inside and out.

The Rubaenu Duke had three sons.

Himself, the bastard, and the two from the Duchess.

Three years ago, the eldest died, and Adrian survived a poisoning attempt. The Duchess probably didn't like that he had taken control of the Ebony Knight Order, a group of martial force.

He thought she had been quiet since then.

'Trying to break the barrier.'

He couldn't even imagine how much Belak would pour out if the barrier was broken and the contamination spilled.

'I should inform the temple.'

It would be better to inform the temple that managed the barrier rather than the ducal family.

Adrian thought so and closed his eyes.

-You can definitely meet once more. If you... do it.

The voice said it like a vow. A gentle and soft voice.

Nina opened her eyes.

Tears welled up because the gentle voice was still vivid. But...

'I can't remember what the dream was.'

Only that last line remained in her memory. The continuous tears suggested it was a sad dream?

'But it was a gentle voice.'

Was it because of the fever?

She touched her forehead; the fever was gone. Though muscle aches remained.

Nina opened her mouth.

"My whole body hurts."

"If you can say it hurts, you're alive."

Kiril said, exhaling pipe smoke.

Turning her gaze, Kiril sat in a chair wearing her usual white robe.

She sometimes wore a monocle, but she said her eyesight was excellent even without it.

Fitting the rough Ebony Knight Order, Kiril was very rough too.

Both her healing touch and words.

"Kiril, don't you think patients sometimes need warm words of comfort or a gentle touch?"

"Am I a doctor?"

"Aren't you?"

"No. I'm a researcher."

Kiril tapped her pipe against the window outside with a what-nonsense face.

"I can't believe it. I had ironclad faith that Kiril was a doctor all this time. To think I was examined by someone who's not even a doctor."

As Nina muttered in disbelief, Kiril smirked and said, "I'm better than most quacks."

She shoved her hands in her pockets and continued.

"Anyway, you're lucky to be resistant to poison. Anyone else would've been buried over there long ago."

Pointing toward the cemetery, Nina nodded in agreement.

She agreed.

Kiril considered telling her that the Captain had stayed by her side nursing her all night but held back.

Instead, she advised.

"Still, you need at least two weeks of observation. Don't move unnecessarily. You just woke up after three days."

"Three days? Oh my god."

Nina blinked in surprise and suddenly lifted her head.

It was a rabbit-like movement sensing presence. So wild animal-like that Kiril flinched involuntarily.

"It's quiet."

Nina said lowly, and Kiril nodded.

"The fortress is mostly empty today."

"No way, did they abandon me and move? Without even taking you, Kiril?"

Carefully lowering her firmly secured ankle to the floor, Nina clutched her side and let out a groan.

"No, most of the knights are out on barrier reconnaissance today."

"What?"

"That magic circle you reported. People from the temple came, so they took the elite for escort."

"People from the temple?"

"Yeah, with outsiders, they took the full elite guard."

"..."

Nina swallowed.

Knight Order annihilation.

She knew it in her head, but something felt off.

The Young Master was always cautious and dispersed personnel.

'This is it?!'

And it's the temple, the temple.

Isn't the final boss from the temple in the story?