Chapter 35. My Body Is Always Hot
*****
"My business is done, so I'll leave you to it."
Ihedia made the first move to leave the room.
But this was not the Kayan who would let her go so easily.
He tugged one corner of his mouth upward.
"I didn't say you were free to go."
At that, Ihedia felt a little panicked.
She felt like a fish caught in a net.
He shifted his position to face Ihedia, and she half-turned almost simultaneously.
This time, Kayan draped his arms over the tub and looked at Ihedia more squarely.
Her face was flushed a little.
"It's a bit ridiculous that in Elmir, you barged into my room in the middle of the night, all dressed up, and now you're just leaving."
"Things are different now than they were then. I am a slave of the Bayate, not a princess of Elmir here. Whatever happened in Elmir in the past has nothing to do with who I am now."
This time, Ihedia didn't let Kayan intentionally try to intimidate her, and she fought back.
But still, she couldn't look Kayan in the eye.
Kayan snorted, almost audibly, at her expression, slave and yet somehow defiant.
He asked.
"You seem quite well educated in that regard. Did you want to be a doctor rather than a princess?"
"It's true that I've been studying medicine since I was young to help the poor, but it's not something I'm particularly good at in Elmir, just that I know more than the average person."
"Your healing skills are exceptional, aren't they? If the Anut doctors were half as good as you, they'd be making a fortune with patients coming in like clouds."
Kayan rested his chin on the arm across the tub.
"If you know anything about the plague, why don't you come over here and examine me?"
At those words, Ihedia's eyes, which had been roaming the air, finally landed on Kayan.
"As the leader of the Black Wolf, it's a nuisance for me to be seen in a bad way. I'm afraid I'm not so sure about calling the doctors."
Ihedia's wary demeanor softened a bit at the seriousness in Kayan's tone.
She nodded, genuinely worried that he might be suffering from some sort of illness.
"Is there something bothering you?"
"I've been getting some headaches and insomnia for a few days now."
In fact, it was the kind of thing that happens to anyone after a few days of severe fatigue or overwork.
But Kayan was watching Ihedia's reaction with considerable interest, as she took her care more seriously than she should have.
In his experience, the chances of contracting the disease were slim.
When he lived in Elmir, there were always plagues in the slums, but he never got sick.
It's all thanks to his unique physical condition.
Ihedia's eyebrows furrowed slightly and her eyes rolled back and forth in thought.
She tilted her head with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
She bit her lip slightly and returned to her deep thoughts.
Kayan swallowed hard as he watched Ihedia's face change colorful expressions in short bursts.
It also made her look a little............... cute.
‘Damn.’
What an insane idea, in the presence of a woman who could be his enemy.
While Kayan was deeply disillusioned with himself, Ihedia's question broke through.
"Do you have a fever?"
Kayan pushed the pathetic thought from his mind and answered her question honestly.
"Well, I don't know. My body is always hotter than everyone else's, and you know that, don't you?"
Suddenly, a shy expression passed over Ihedia’s face.
Unwittingly, she had experienced Kayan's temperature quite a few times, both in Elmir and in Anut. The embarrassing memory of the past made Ihedia's ears red.
The symptoms Kayan had described were too mild to be a sign of the plague, but they needed to be checked anyway.
It was true that Kayan Bayate, no matter who he was, had helped her many times when he could have just pretended not to notice.
She didn't want to cause any trouble for him.
Besides, if it was a plague, something had to be done before it spread to others.
It's called caring for the sick.
Just like when she had helped the poor in Elmir so many years ago.
Ihedia put aside her personal prejudices against Kayan and spoke with an impassive face.
"Do you mind if I take a closer look, then?"
Kayan raised an eyebrow at the woman's unexpectedly proactive attitude and nodded slightly.
Ihedia stepped closer and extended her hand.
Her cold hand covered Kayan's forehead.
She was always cold, whereas he was always hot.
The tactile sensation of flesh against flesh was exceptionally tingling.
Their gazes collided soundlessly across the narrow gap.
"...."
Kayan stopped breathing without realizing it.
The woman's clear eyes shone back at him like dazzling sunlight.
He felt his whole body stiffen for some reason.
"Your temperature seems to be about the same as normal, Lord Kayan, although it's quite different from that of a normal human."
Ihedia then looked into Kayan's eyes.
"I don't think you're infected, seeing as how your eyes are clear.................Do you ever get blurry vision sometimes, to the point where you can't see very well, or your eyelids are hard to lift?"
"...."
Kayan's gaze flicked over the woman's long lashes, up the sculpted bridge of her nose, and down to the underside of her red lips, which were strangely inviting.
“Lord Kayan?"
The questioning, high-pitched voice shook Kayan out of his momentary blur.
"No, I haven't."
"Have you ever had muscle pain so severe that you can barely stand?"
Kayan shook his head briefly in response.
"Thank goodness, it doesn't seem to be caused by an infection, and..................."
"..."
"Your insomnia will only get worse as long as you continue to use itesol. I'm sure you've already thrown away the Aloche sachets I gave you, so if you're in a dire need, try using some Elda leaves, which are also common in the north, once a day. Not as much as Aloche, but it will help you sleep better."
Kayan thought of the sachet he kept in his bedroom dresser drawer.
It's junk, but he didn’t like the idea of throwing it away, so he put it away out of sight.
Ihedia seemed to assume that Kayan would have thrown the item away long ago, but he chose not to add a useless excuse.
"Then may I leave now?"
Kayan gave her an approving glance, and Ihedia bowed politely as if she had been waiting, then quickly left the bathroom.
He wondered if she hated being in the same room with him so much.
A bitter smile tugged at the corners of Kayan's mouth as he watched Ihedia scurry away like a deer from a hunter.
His gaze lingered on the spot where she'd disappeared for a long moment, as if a faint afterimage lingered in the air.
He didn't know why.
***
For the next few days, Kayan focused his attention on inquiring about Lantol, just as Ihedia had told him.
Unfortunately, there were few records of the South in Anut.
His only hope was to seek out slaves from the south who knew of Lantol.
Finally, he was informed that an old woman from the Kingdom of Zelrod knew of Lantol.
Kayan couldn't wait to get the old woman to meet with Ihedia.
While he was preoccupied with thoughts of the plague, his servant came urgently to his office.
"Lord Kayan, the Emperor has issued a blockade that prevents all people from entering the Bayate."
Kayan's eyes turned cold.
Just when he thought he had a clue, a blockade.
What was the intention of the emperor, who had been ignorant of the situation when he notified him first, to do this so belatedly?
"If we don't let them in, they'll be stuck in here and die................"
The servant's mouth fell open in dismay at the unspoken words.
Hashad would have a good excuse, that it was to control the plague, but to lock down the mansion without a single doctor was to send everyone in it out on a limb.
Of course, it was unlikely that Kayan would be stuck here, handcuffed to the Emperor's will, but the moment he stepped outside in defiance of the imperial decree, there was room for a rebellion that could escalate in the future.
For political reasons, his relationship with the emperor had become irreparably strained, but he had no desire to pretend with the Anut imperial family.
What he wanted was stability.
He didn't want to sacrifice the Black Wolf in a power struggle with the Emperor.
Hashad was willing to relinquish some of his power, as long as it didn't cross the line of what he could tolerate.
Despite his blatant provocations, Kayan always took a step back, avoiding unnecessary friction.
But perhaps Kayan's compliant demeanor only fueled Hashad's sordid desires.
‘Is this the end of the road?’
Kayan's patience with the man's increasingly shady maneuverings had been sorely tested.
****
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