Chapter 6

“Are you alright?” I asked.

Having rested for a brief moment, a fraction of strength had finally returned to my legs. I tottered unsteadily over to Karon, my joints clicking with every uneven step.

He remained heavily leaned against the tree trunk, keeping his face obscured behind the back of his hand.

“Go away,” he rasped.

His voice carried a much sharper edge than before. Through the slight gaps between his fingers, I could see his eyes squeezed tightly shut. His breathing was shallow and thoroughly erratic.

Is it a headache?

As if his legs could no longer support his weight, his tall frame suddenly slid down the bark until he collapsed onto the dirt. He gripped his forehead with a violent intensity, his fingers clenching intermittently as though he were enduring agonizing waves of pain. The man who had looked entirely bored while monsters and knights screamed and slaughtered each other was reduced to complete vulnerability in a matter of seconds.

This symptom…

To an ordinary observer, it might have looked like a standard migraine. But having read The Adventures of the Sword God, my mind immediately jumped to a different conclusion. This specific affliction was the entire reason I had ventured into these dangerous woods in the first place.

I hurriedly began rummaging through the cloth pouch tied to my waist. Despite being chased by a monster and crashing hard into the dirt, the vast majority of my wild herbs had miraculously survived the ordeal intact. Pulling one out, I used a scrap of fabric to hastily brush away the clinging soil.

“Your head is splitting, isn’t it?” I murmured, kneeling beside him. “If you chew this thoroughly and swallow it, the pain will ease a bit.”

Slap!

The moment I extended my hand, he violently slapped it away. He ground his teeth, offering a low, vicious warning. “If you don’t want to witness something truly horrific, get the hell away from—ugh.”

Honestly, I felt like I had already witnessed plenty of horrific things today. As the sheer absurdity of the day’s events flashed through my mind in chronological order, a wave of mental exhaustion washed over me.

Karon’s face grew increasingly pallid, a succession of short, ragged breaths escaping his lips. Yet, despite his obvious agony, he still showed absolutely no intention of tamely accepting the herb from a stranger.

His complete lack of trust in me certainly played a part in his resistance. But with time rapidly ticking away in an emergency like this, I lacked the leisure to slowly build a foundational rapport with him. Frankly, I didn’t even know how to properly navigate someone like him.

I simply relied on the basic instincts born from a lifetime of trying to save sick people. Even if leaving him alone wouldn’t outright kill him, I knew the prolonged suffering would be immense.

Without further hesitation, I shoved the rejected herb straight into my own mouth and began chewing vigorously. The signature, overpowering bitterness immediately flooded every corner of my taste buds. If I had the proper tools to brew a liquid medicine or extract the juices, it would have been much easier to administer, but there simply wasn’t time.

“Take your hand away for just a second,” I said.

Reaching out, I carefully tried to pry his fingers away from his forehead.

“I told you to get lost—!” Karon snarled.

He sharply yanked his hand away from his face to properly vent his temper at me. I didn’t waste the split-second window. Lunging forward, I pressed my lips firmly against his.

Karon froze mid-sentence, his brows knitting tight as his entire body went rigid. Our pressed lips felt surprisingly warm and remarkably soft.

To pass the chewed medicine over to him, I needed him to actually open up, but Karon’s tightly closed lips refused to budge an inch. The herb needed to be swallowed to take effect quickly; simply smearing it on the surface of his mouth wouldn’t suffice. Growing increasingly anxious, I kept my lips pressed against his and urgently murmured against his mouth. “Open up.”

I felt his lips twitch slightly at the command. Seizing the moment, I gently nudged the tip of my tongue past his teeth, sliding the bitter, crushed herbs inward until the surface touched his own tongue.

This particular herb was one I had encountered frequently in my past life. In this world, the text in the Count’s study labeled it Chebern, though I recognized the drawing instantly as the plant known as Turat from my previous existence.

Ingesting it would successfully dampen the worst of a severe headache. However, it was merely a temporary band-aid; it was entirely incapable of curing the underlying, chronic curse that plagued this man. To truly cure him, I needed to locate entirely different variations of rare herbs, none of which I had managed to find today.

As my tongue pushed the chewed mass into his mouth, Karon initially remained perfectly still, as if experiencing a wave of sheer revulsion. Eventually, however, he began to slowly swallow the crushed leaves. Since I had already done the grueling work of masticating it for him, it was easy enough to down.

…It’s all gone.

Having been entirely consumed by the frantic task of medicating the man, a wave of profound relief washed over me. I immediately attempted to pull my body backward to break the contact.

Suddenly, a powerful hand clamped around my waist, violently yanking me back forward.

“Mph—!”

Unlike the minimal, strictly clinical contact I had initiated to deliver the medicine, his body slammed flush against mine. Before I could even process the shift, his tongue swept into my mouth, fiercely and hotly wrapping around mine. Startled out of my wits, I frantically tried to pull away, but the iron arm locked around my waist refused to budge even a fraction of an inch.

“Ah, stop…!” I gasped against his mouth.

His tongue swept relentlessly across the sensitive lining of my mouth, ruthlessly trapping and tangling with my own whenever I tried to retreat. It felt as though a sudden fire had been ignited along our connected lips, leaving me burning and completely starved for oxygen.

“Mph, haah!”

Bringing my hands up, I desperately pounded against his chest and shoulders, trying to push him away. But the knight remained completely unyielding, acting like the most immovable boulder I had ever encountered in the woods.

Through my blurring vision, his dark, crimson-tinted eyes stared directly down into mine. They were cold, entirely devoid of any discernible emotion. Yet, his tongue continued to dominate mine with an aggressive, almost punishing intensity.

Every time a wet, slick sound leaked out from the small gaps between our lips, my mind drifted closer to a state of total vertigo. I had only pressed my mouth to his for the sole purpose of delivering a medical remedy. Even with my limited experience, I knew a reaction like this went far beyond the boundaries of normal behavior.

Unable to endure the suffocating pressure any longer, I sharply brought my teeth down on his tongue. I made sure not to bite hard enough to cause actual injury, but the slight pinch was enough to make the corners of his eyes crinkle. Rather than pulling away, however, Karon flipped our positions entirely—pinning me flat against the dirt floor and looming over me.

“Ngh, mph!”

The sudden realization that a man’s heavy frame was positioned squarely between my parted thighs struck me as profoundly bizarre and terrifying. The sensation only worsened as he kept my mouth completely sealed with his own lips, while his free hand began to slowly, deliberately slide down the curve of my waist toward my thigh.

Whether it was from the sheer lack of oxygen or the creeping terror of the escalating situation, physiological tears began to stream uncontrollably down my face. The moment the wet tracks spilled across my cheeks, the frantic, tempestuous movement of his mouth came to an abrupt, complete halt.

The moment Karon finally pulled his face away, I began greedily hoarding the fresh air, my chest heaving violently. My tongue was trembling from the contact, and my lips were thoroughly slick with saliva.

His eyes, still entirely impossible to read, silently observed the pathetic display I was making. As his gaze raked over my tear-stained, ruined face, a strange, fleeting glint seemed to flash deep within his pupils. Though it could have easily been a trick of my own frantic imagination.

“Why on earth…” Karon finally spoke, breaking the heavy silence.

Remaining pinned between my legs, he pushed his upper body up, looking down at me with an expression of total indifference.

“…are you acting so brazenly when you’re such a coward?” he finished.

Hearing those mocking words, the truth clicked instantly in my mind. He had been intentionally tormenting me. My throbbing tongue and bruised lips were nothing more than the direct consequence of his twisted amusement.

I was only trying to help you, I thought, a wave of bitter resentment swirling in my chest. Yet, when I finally managed to force words past my aching throat, the sentence that emerged was entirely different.

“Does your head… still hurt?” I asked softly.

His default expression was naturally icy, but his complexion looked remarkably better than it had minutes ago. Since the actual patient might feel differently, I wanted to verify the results.

At the question, Karon’s eyebrows twitched, and his brow furrowed into another deep scowl. Despite the utter inappropriate nature of the thought, I couldn’t help but note that even an expression that highlighted his foul temperament looked devastatingly beautiful. Before crossing paths with him, I had never realized a man’s physical appearance could possess such sheer, overwhelming gravity.

Without offering a single word of response, Karon rose to his feet. The moment his looming, intimidating presence completely retreated from my personal space, a long, ragged sigh of relief slipped past my teeth.

“Get up,” he commanded.

“What?” I blinked.

“I have to deliver you back to the castle, so stop wasting time and move,” he muttered.

He actually intends to walk me back?

Startled by the unexpected compliance, I awkwardly scrambled to my feet, brushing the loose dirt from my clothes. My skirt was heavily ruined, stained with a messy combination of dry soil and dark green Orc blood. While I was occupied with a futile attempt to clean myself up, Karon had already strode a considerable distance ahead.

“W-Wait a moment…” I called out.

I tried my absolute best to quicken my pace, but unfortunately, my legs remained incredibly slow. In my current state of physical exhaustion, this was the absolute maximum speed I could muster.

Karon glanced back, looking thoroughly displeased by the agonizingly slow pace of my approach. Letting out a sharp click of his tongue, he turned on his heel, closed the distance between us in two strides, and swept my body cleanly off the ground.

“Ah!”

With one solid arm hooked firmly beneath my knees and the other supporting my back, I found myself hoisted into a textbook bridal carry.

“I—I can walk on my own if you just let me down…” I stammered, my face burning.

“The entire day will be over by the time you manage to cross the treeline,” Karon replied flatly.

Finding absolutely no logical counterargument, my mouth snapped shut. For the remainder of the journey, I remained perfectly quiet, riding silently in his arms until the dense forest finally gave way to open terrain.

The real issue, however, presented itself the moment we cleared the woods.

“I can definitely walk from here…” I murmured in a tiny, crawling voice, attempting to assert my independence once more.

Recognizing the statement as utter nonsense, Karon ignored me entirely.

As we entered the populated areas, the collective gazes of the village locals pinned directly onto us. Back when my mother and I had been cruelly driven out into the woods in my past life, the villagers had stared at us then, too—but never with this specific brand of rapt, fascinated interest. It was my very first time serving as a public spectacle without being subjected to waves of overt contempt and disgust.

“What exactly are you?” Karon asked suddenly, his voice cutting through the ambient noise.

“…Excuse me?” I blinked.

“A physician? A healer?” he pressed.

The fact that he was asking such a targeted question meant the herb had delivered undeniable results. The reality that he was currently walking perfectly fine without a trace of a migraine was proof enough.

“I simply know a fair amount about wild herbs,” I replied softly.

In truth, I was neither a certified physician nor a professional healer. I had simply spent years poring over herbalism texts out of sheer necessity, and the knowledge from my past life had luckily proven effective in this world.

“Sir Knight… and a maid of the inner castle, I see. We shall open the gates immediately.”

Recognizing the Red-Haired Knight, the castle guards offered respectful bows and quickly cleared the path. Even though Karon was openly carrying a disheveled housemaid in his arms, the guards didn’t dare press for an explanation, operating under the assumption that he must have a valid reason. Or, more likely, they simply knew his volatile temper well enough to avoid asking unnecessary questions.

“Ouch!”

The very moment we crossed the threshold into the main courtyard, Karon dropped me unceremoniously onto the hard stone floor. He brushed his hands off as if he were finally discarding an incredibly bothersome piece of luggage.

Having landed squarely on my backside, I silently cursed his entire lineage, wondering if it would have truly killed him to lower me with a modicum of gentleness.

Suddenly, a hand materialized directly in front of my face.

Lifting my head, I found Karon staring down at me, a faint smile gracing his features. For some inexplicable reason, my eyes locked onto his deep crimson lips first—the very same lips that had been violently pressed against mine moments prior.

Jolting myself out of the sudden daze, I looked back down at the extended palm. Is he offering to help me up? If he possessed that shred of manners, it would have made far more sense to simply set me down carefully in the first place.

Despite the critical thought, I slowly reached out to place my hand in his—only for him to sharply yank his arm back out of reach.

“The things you fed me earlier,” Karon demanded coldly. “Hand them over.”

Ah. He was simply demanding the remainder of the medicine. How on earth had he even deduced that I was carrying more?

Reaching back into my waist pouch, I sorted through the contents and picked out a few remaining stalks of the herb, placing them into his waiting palm. I wasn’t strictly obligated to follow his every whim, but the lingering memory of his agonizing suffering under the headache left a small trace of pity in my heart. The fact that his unnaturally beautiful face kept blurring my focus certainly didn’t help matters either.

“You must chew them thoroughly before swallowing,” I instructed carefully. “Alternatively, you can crush them into a fine paste before consuming…”

Karon remained perfectly still, staring quietly down at the green stalks resting in his palm as he listened to the explanation. “What is your name?” he asked abruptly.

“It’s Turat… no, it’s Chebern,” I corrected quickly, tripping over the terminology. “I managed to harvest them in the forest earlier.”

The beautiful, pleasant smile instantly vanished from his face, replaced by a deep, dark scowl. Had he not been asking for the name of the herb?

“Forget it, you little rat,” Karon muttered.

Looking thoroughly exhausted by the mere prospect of continuing the conversation, he turned his back on me and walked away.

Whether it was due to the vibrant intensity of his crimson hair or his god-like, unreal physical appearance, the gazes of everyone in the courtyard naturally followed his retreating form. I stood there staring blankly at his back for several seconds before finally shaking myself out of the stupor.

By the time I finally managed to drag my battered body back to my quarters within the Count’s castle, the sun had entirely dipped below the horizon. Ephel took one look at my thoroughly ruined, blood-stained appearance and let out a horrified shriek, frantically demanding to know what had transpired. But I simply lacked the physical energy to offer her a proper explanation.