By Zephyria 
My vision was blurry, so I closed my eyes and calmly thought.
When I return to the castle, the first thing I need to do is seal the border and send people out to find Aska. Make wanted posters too… After that, I need to get examined to find out what kind of poison it is, and if it’s serious, I’ll have to take an antidote.
And tell Asella to prepare a secret room in the basement…
“Ah.”
A groan escaped my lips as my chest and stomach throbbed painfully. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve been poisoned, so I wasn’t particularly worried about dying, but I couldn’t do anything about the pain.
I don’t think it hurt this much even when I was branded with hot iron. What kind of poison is this? The way my stamina is dropping so rapidly… I’ve ingested quite a few things, but there wasn’t anything that exactly matched my current symptoms.
Is it a foreign poison?
Maybe the dizziness is because of the pain.
I felt like I needed to take an antidote or a painkiller or something quickly, so I put strength into my legs. They wobbled like the legs of a newborn animal, but I managed to raise my body. Then, I heard a sound.
I could feel that my face and back were soaked with cold sweat. I frowned deeply because I had chills and couldn’t focus, and turned my head toward the sound.
“Hey!”
It looked blurry, but I was sure.
“…”
I couldn’t help but doubt my eyes. Aska was running toward me.
Am I dead? Am I seeing things because I’m dead? I was so dazed that I couldn’t say a word until Aska knelt down beside me and took off his hood.
“Are you okay?”
“…”
“No, suddenly… No, what. What…”
“Cough.”
I blankly stared at Aska, who was rambling in a flustered manner, and then I coughed again. It wasn’t as bad as before, but a small amount of blood splattered.
“Hey!”
Aska called out to me as if screaming, startled. He grabbed my shoulders with trembling hands, and his pale face and horrified eyes seemed to be genuinely worried about me.
“Why are you suddenly like this? Did someone hit you?”
What are the chances that he ran away, felt like he was going to fail, and came back? Or did he use the poison and then get scared that I was really going to die?
With a coldly rational mind, I looked at Aska and opened my mouth.
“Where did you go?”
Maybe it was because of the pain, but my voice was severely damaged. Every time I made a sound, I felt like my esophagus was tearing. As I frowned and exhaled a trembling breath, Aska, who was about to say something, moved his lips.
Then, he suddenly sat me up straight, had me lean against the wall, and then climbed onto my thighs and raised his knees. Looking at him up close, I could see a faint scratch on his chin, as if he had been scratched somewhere.
When did he get hurt? Before I could ask, Aska’s lips touched mine.
“…”
“…”
Up close, I could see his closed eyelids and long eyelashes trembling. I was flustered by this bizarre behavior, and then I suddenly realized.
Even in this situation, did he want to drink because he saw blood?
“Ha.”
I chuckled with my lips still touching his, and Aska, who had been closing his eyes, frowned and looked at me. Then, he grabbed the back of my neck, forced me to lift my head, and pressed his lips even deeper.
Something entered my opened mouth and strongly pressed down on the root of my tongue. As soon as I unknowingly swallowed what had flowed into my mouth, I reached out and grabbed Aska’s hair.
“What are you doing?”
“It hurts!”
“It hurts me more. What did you feed me?”
I was just dumbfounded that I had eaten the poison and then swallowed it again. Is there really something wrong with my intelligence? I had definitely vowed to cut off his legs first thing when I saw him, but seeing his worried face, the rising anger began to subside.
“Doesn’t it not hurt anymore now?”
“What?”
At those words, my eyes widened. Now that I think about it, the pain was slowly disappearing. Just a moment ago, it hurt so much that I couldn’t even come to my senses, but now it didn’t.
As the pain disappeared and my mind became a little clearer, I became curious.
“Why did you come?”
“No, I suddenly smelled your blood and was surprised, so I came. Why are you hurt? Did someone hit you? Did you fight?”
“…”
His expression was full of bewilderment and worry. If that was acting, it felt so genuine that I could understand being deceived. I blankly looked at Aska, then turned my head and looked at the chicken skewer that was still in my hand.
And I showed it to Aska.
“Did you put poison on this?”
“What?”
“Weren’t you trying to kill me?”
“…”
Even I thought it was a stupid question that only a complete idiot would ask. But I couldn’t bear not asking. It wasn’t just that he ran away, but I couldn’t understand why he tried to kill me.
Aska must have thought I had lost my mind, because he looked at me with a dumbfounded expression and then placed his hand on my forehead.
“You have a bad fever…”
“Where did you go? Why did you disappear without saying anything? I told you not to go around alone, didn’t I? You broke your promise, so from now on, you absolutely…”
“There!”
I was getting heated and spitting out words without breathing, when I heard a shout nearby. At the sound of approaching footsteps, I reflexively reached out and hugged Aska’s shoulders.
If Aska wasn’t trying to kill me, then it was obvious that there was someone else targeting me. The pain had subsided, but I couldn’t even stand properly because my stamina was severely depleted.
“Asella kept nagging me to bring some escorts.”
I should have listened earlier. I muttered in belated regret, but Aska pushed my shoulder and struggled to get out of my arms.
“Let go of this!”
“Stay still.”
“No, those guys are here because of me!”
Even though he’s so strong, maybe it’s because he knows I’m hurt, but Aska was unusually whimpering. Still, I didn’t loosen my grip, so he couldn’t shake me off completely and eventually gave up.
“Do you know them?”
“Catch that bastard! How dare you touch the Black Scorpion? I’ll tear you apart alive!”
Three large men with huge scimitars ran toward us, shouting loudly.
“Those bastards were grabbing little kids and hitting them and kicking them…”
I listened to Aska’s words and took out the dagger I had brought in case of an emergency. I threw the dagger at the head of the large man, who was full of openings because he was running with his scimitar raised high. The dagger shot out quickly and was embedded in the center of his forehead.
The man made a choking sound and collapsed, and the two men who had been running like bulls stopped.
“They were chasing you?”
“I beat up a few people earlier, and smashed up something like a prison. And then I suddenly smelled your blood, so I left them behind, and I guess they followed me.”
“What on earth did you do…”
What’s with the prison, and what’s with hitting the kids? Then Aska, who had been mumbling hesitantly, stood up from his spot and stood in front of me.
“Anyway, you’re hurt, so just stay still.”
“How dare you touch the Black Scorpion, you’re dead…!”
The voices of the two men were heard at the same time. I sighed and was about to grab Aska’s wrist when Aska disappeared from in front of me in an instant.
When I blinked, I saw Aska standing in front of the large man, swinging his arm greatly.
Puhwak—!
And the moment his fist struck the upper body, the man burst like a balloon filled with air.
“…”
Blood, flesh, and organs scattered in all directions, soaring into the sky and then falling to the ground with a thud.
I stopped breathing at the hellish sight and then came to my senses. Aska looked at his blood-stained hands and then turned his head to look at me. As soon as I saw his face, which was full of confusion and fear, as if he hadn’t intended for this to happen, I stood up from my spot.
“Come here…”
I reached out my arm to tell him to come here quickly, but then something hot welled up in my throat again.
“Keuk!”
No, it was an exaggeration to say that something just welled up. Blood that had exploded from the inside burst out of my mouth along my throat.
At the same time as I felt a terrible pain engulfing my entire body, I realized that I had lost consciousness for a moment. My legs buckled and I fell to the floor, and I blinked my eyes, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Kyle!”
I heard Aska’s voice from a distant place. In the midst of pain that I couldn’t find a way to deal with, I was suddenly surprised.
Isn’t this the first time he’s called my name?