Chapter 88 – 88
It was a soft and warm sensation. Feeling something both unfamiliar and yet intimate, Melione gently stroked Euro’s lips with his thumb, as if rubbing them.
“Mmm…”
As the touch shifted from light brushes to something more explicit, Euro furrowed his brow in his sleep and buried his face in the pillow.
Startled, Melione quickly pulled away and turned around. There, in the corner of the room, stood a mirror.
Inside it, a man with a profoundly stupid expression was staring back at him. Melione strode toward the mirror and faced the man.
It was himself. Melione was appalled by how ridiculously foolish he looked. Just as he was about to cover the mirror with the towel draped around his neck, he noticed something behind his slightly slanted shoulder.
Dropping the towel, he stepped closer to the mirror and half-turned his upper body. There, just below his shoulder blade, was an unfamiliar scar.
It was so faint that one might overlook it without looking closely. It seemed almost fully healed, but he had no idea where such a wound had come from.
At that moment, Euro’s sleeping face was reflected in the mirror. Melione turned his head with a strange expression and gazed at Euro.
“It can’t be.”
Melione murmured in a low voice, his brow furrowing.
“There’s no way…”
The idea that it wasn’t a dream was simply absurd.
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Everything was comfortable compared to the road from Norden to Silon. From the carriage they were riding in to the food and the places they slept, it was nearly perfect.
Of course, due to the sudden departure, they stayed in accommodations that nobles rarely used—much like the inn Elon had run—but since Euro wasn’t a noble anyway, it didn’t matter.
However, even in such circumstances, there was a problem. This time, it wasn’t motion sickness, but a brutal hangover that held him back.
Having failed to wake up until morning, Euro opened his eyes in the swaying carriage and bolted upright, startled by the sight of Melione sitting in front of him.
He had no idea how he had ended up in the same carriage as Melione. Not only that, he had drunk so heavily the previous night that he’d blacked out; he had no memory of anything past a certain point.
He hadn’t intended to drink that much, but it seemed the beer—the first he’d had in a long while—had been exceptionally delicious.
He hadn’t eaten properly for several days, filling his stomach with alcohol after only [unauthorized copy]a bit of stew and a few pieces of bread. Even a [unauthorized copy]healthy person’s stomach [unauthorized copy]would have turned; imagine how it felt for Euro.
The shock and absurdity lasted only a moment. Soon after, nausea surged so violently that he could no longer think straight, and just as he had on the way from Norden, he had to stop the carriage periodically to vomit.
Eventually, nothing came up but bitter bile, and his complexion grew increasingly pale. Melione let out a sigh with a stiff expression, but Euro was in no state to notice.
He didn’t give a damn about Melione’s expression. Whenever his stomach churned, he knocked on the door, and the moment the carriage stopped, he leaped out and crouched down.
Then, Dent, who was riding in the following carriage, would run over with a water canteen, pat Euro on the back, and hand him some water.
“Ugh, my head…”
Gulping down the water, Euro kept his head low and let out a long, strange groan before tilting his head back and blinking.
This was the problem with hangovers. You should either vomit or have a headache, but they always happened together, driving a person insane.
“I’m a dog if I ever drink like that again. A dog.”
Euro muttered while rinsing his mouth, prompting Dent to let out a deep sigh.
“…I knew this would happen. You were pouring it down your throat with such enthusiasm.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
“The atmosphere wasn’t exactly conducive to stopping you. We drank a lot too.”
“Then why am I the only one like this…?”
Euro felt it was unfair. No matter how he thought about it, this was the fault of the body. His original body didn’t suffer much from hangovers; a slight nausea could be fixed immediately by cooking a bowl of ramen.
But it seemed Euro Leches’ body was different. To have such a horrific hangover… it was mind-boggling that this man had lived his life dependent on medicine and alcohol with a body like this.
“Because you drank an unrivaled amount. Anyway, can you keep going?”
“I have to… This is all because I haven’t had a hangover cure. My stomach is empty, so it’s turning more.”
“Eating something here might be a bit…”
“No, I absolutely have to eat.”
“…”
“People always feel better after they eat.”
Euro stood up, spouting sophistry. He then visit our sitelooked at Dent, who [Read on Read BL Novels]was watching him with an incredulous expression, and asked.
“By the way, how did I get up there yesterday?”
“Pardon?”
“Did I walk to the bedroom on my own feet? From what I remember, everyone was drunk and out of their minds, but my clothes have been changed and I seem to have been washed.”
At Euro’s question, Dent replied with a slightly odd expression.
“His Excellency…”
“What?”
“His Excellency took the Madam to the room, and that is how you came out this morning.”
“…I’m going crazy. Is that why we’re in the same carriage?”
“Yes.”
He truly was an incomprehensible fellow. Euro stared blankly at the stationary carriage and brushed back his hair.
“The hangover isn’t the problem; the fact that His visit our siteExcellency is sitting in front of me is the bigger problem.”
“…”
“He hasn’t said a single word…”
Of course, even if Melione had asked if he was okay, Euro wouldn’t have been in a state to answer. However, some time had passed now, and he was feeling relatively better.
The problem was that he was now in a state where he could actually think. If he tried to start a conversation, Melione would likely cut him off and tell him not to say anything useless; yet, going the rest of the long journey in silence was unbearable.
He felt like he’d be better off just lying down and sleeping, but he couldn’t do that with Melione sitting right there in front of him.
While the carriage was spacious, it wasn’t enough for a grown adult man to lie down comfortably. In his heart, he wanted to just crawl onto the roof of the carriage and sleep.
“He even washed me…?”
Euro muttered as he headed toward the carriage, and hearing this, Dent spoke as if there were no issue.
“It’s not the first time.”
“What do you mean, not the first time?”
Euro’s eyes widened at Dent’s [Read on Read BL Novels]words, and Dent continued, appearing more surprised than Euro.
“Well, I mean, he nursed you before.”
“What does nursing have to do with washing me?”
“Well, you were sweating so much, wouldn’t he wipe you down?”
“…”
“The antipyretics didn’t work last time, either. When a person’s fever is boiling like that, there’s only one thing you can do.”
“…”
“You strip them naked and keep wiping them down with lukewarm water. I told you this.”
“Wh-when? You never told me that.”
“Because it’s obvious…”
It was something that didn’t need to be explained from A to Z. If Melione had sent the servants away and stayed by his side nursing him until he woke up, there was only one answer.
If his clothes got wet, he would have changed them; if his body was [unauthorized copy]sweaty, he [Read on Read BL Novels]would have wiped it. Dent seemed indifferent, as if wondering why he had to explain every little detail, but Euro did not.
Is that how people usually nurse a grown adult? Isn’t that something you do for a young child whose fever won’t break? No, if the fever didn’t go down even with medicine, it was possible.
But the fact that Melione had done it himself was something Euro couldn’t even imagine, leaving him speechless. At most, he had imagined a wet towel being placed on his forehead…
“Everyone does that when there’s a fever. I can accept that since you were sick, but the problem is washing and dressing a drunk person.”
“…”
“Still, isn’t it quite kind? He’s been taking care of you. Compared to my mother and father, this is nothing. Washing a husband who’s unconscious, dressing him, putting him to bed, and then carrying him out in the morning to put him in a carriage—do you think that’s done with ordinary devotion?”
“You’re being very sharp today, huh?”
“Anyway, I’m saying it’s no big deal. Though it depends on how you interpret it.”
As Dent spoke, he opened the closed carriage door, and Euro gave him a brief glare before climbing in and taking his seat.
Before long, the carriage started moving again, and Euro found himself stealing glances at Melione.
He was a man who had remained still in his seat, far removed from the others, even while the drinking party erupted and everyone was laughing and chatting.
He hadn’t even touched the wine Linden had gifted, keeping stolen contenthis place with an expression that made it visit our siteimpossible to tell what he was thinking.
That had been part of the reason Euro drank more—because it kept bothering him. Normally, he would have approached affectionately and forced His Excellency to join in, but he couldn’t do that.
At the same time, not wanting to care about him, he had conspicuously mingled with the others and gulped down beer. The more the intoxication rose, the more Melione’s presence faded.
He didn’t know what Melione had been thinking while staying in his seat. He didn’t know for what purpose he had gone through the trouble of simply watching the others get wasted.
‘I should be glad he didn’t suddenly burst into song because he was excited.’
Euro thought this, then suddenly furrowed his brow. Wait, did he sing? He had no memory of the middle part.
‘No, if I did anything, Dent would have told me.’
Surely Dent had remained somewhat lucid. Rationalizing this, Euro cautiously spoke to Melione.
“About yesterday… thank you.”
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