I Became a Barbarian's Bride - Chapter 179

There was so much he needed to do, yet he could not figure out where to begin. Nisha would not open her eyes again until midnight.

When she woke, he wanted to ask her what had made her so happy. He wanted to ask if death had truly felt that peaceful.

“…Not that she would ever tell me.”

Kagan blinked slowly, then exhaled.

‘Time is moving slowly.’

When she was awake, time passed faster than he expected, almost absurdly so.

This must be what it felt like to simply wait for someone. Even before, when he had waited for her, he had felt as though the wait were long.

‘It’s the same now.’

No, it felt even worse now.

He stared down at her for a long time without a word, then slowly closed his eyes.

Time crawled unbearably slowly.

***

Twitch-.

Nisha’s fingertips twitched slightly.

After that, her mind felt as if it were wrapped in a hazy fog, then slowly began to clear.

She almost shivered instinctively from the cold, but stopped. Strangely, it wasn’t cold at all. It was a little warm.

‘Warm?’

Surely he hadn’t assumed she was dead and thrown her into a furnace.

At the sudden anxious thought, Nisha’s body trembled faintly. She tried to open her heavy eyelids quickly, putting strength into them, but it was not easy.

Her stiffened body refused to relax.

But as time passed, although she felt uncomfortably warm, she did not feel anything hot or burning, so she let out a small sigh of relief and waited for her body to loosen.

It was ridiculous.

Waiting for a body that had died to relax again.

She tried to rub her face in disbelief, but her limbs would not obey, and she let out a long sigh inwardly.

Only after quite some time did her body begin to move little by little.

When Nisha slowly opened her eyes, Kagan was looking at her.

She quietly closed them again.

“…What is this, opening your eyes only to see someone and then closing them right away, Princess.”

At the low, heavy voice, Nisha cautiously opened her eyes again.

Kagan was still staring at her without blinking.

‘Since when?’

She was afraid to even ask.

Because knowing him, he might have been sitting like that ever since the moment she swallowed the medicine at midnight.

“I was worried because you didn’t wake even after midnight passed.”

“…Ah.”

She wanted to say something, but the muscles in her face would not move the way she wanted.

As she rolled her still-stiff eyes slowly, she finally noticed the morning sun beginning to rise beyond Kagan’s window.

‘…The morning sun is rising?’

She had never opened her eyes this late before. It was strange.

Nisha’s lips tightened faintly as she shifted her gaze. The man who somehow looked more worn down after a single night had golden eyes tinged with red.

“…I thought you were dead.”

At Kagan’s voice, Nisha’s eyes widened and she hurriedly moved her lips, trying to speak.

“I… am not… dead.”

When she finally whispered in a barely audible voice, Kagan nodded with a smile that looked as if he might cry.

He did not look as though he believed her.

‘I really do not die.’

It was something she knew well because she had died dozens of times.

Nisha did not die.

She could not die, no matter how much she wished for it.

She was only stating a fact, yet Kagan still held her with a face that clearly did not believe her.

Only when she felt the heat of his skin against hers did she realize how cold her body was.

Crackling sounds reached her ears at last, the sound of logs burning in the fire.

“…It’s hot.”

“I raised the temperature because I thought you would feel cold when you woke.”

At this point, it felt like she was being steamed.

Nisha shifted her eyes to the side, but after seeing the heaviness in Kagan’s gaze, she decided to remain quiet.

Saying anything unnecessary would only unsettle him.

Besides, he had probably stayed by her side all night. So she awkwardly moved her stiff arm and pulled him into a clumsy embrace.