Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 142
“Because it seemed like you couldn’t sleep, Lysian. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
“No. It’s just… my thoughts are a bit tangled up.”
Kyle looked down at me with a smile, then quietly reached out. Maybe he was trying to brush aside my fallen hair, because his fingers brushed against my forehead.
In that instant, I startled without realizing it and grabbed his wrist as if snatching it. Kyle also paused, then stopped moving.
In the quiet darkness, our gazes became thickly entangled. His transparent eyes, impossible to know what he was thinking through, held me within them.
I could feel my heart fluttering beneath my ribs. The pounding sound was so loud that I worried Kyle might hear it too.
It seemed certain that I had heart failure. Seeing how my heart thrashed like this regardless of time or place.
“…Lysian.”
Kyle softly murmured my name, almost like a whisper. My name, breathed out with a faint breath, tickled my lips. I grew anxious, as if my mouth had gone completely dry.
In that instant, the same intense collision I had felt in the underground cave prison beneath the snow mountains wrapped around my entire body.
I wanted to touch him. I wanted to offer up my most vulnerable place, indulge in each other’s depths, and share breath as if we had become one.
Before long, as if he had read my thoughts, he slowly lowered his head. As his face gradually drew closer, his reddish lips filled my vision.
Still gripping his wrist, I squeezed my eyes shut. Holding my breath, I waited for the hot tidal wave that would soon cover me.
But out of nowhere, with a loud rumble, I felt a vibration run up my back.
The moment I felt everything around us grow bright, my eyes flew open. At the same time, a deafening boom rang out, and the old glass windows rattled noisily as if they might shatter.
“W…What was that!”
I was so startled that I nearly spat my pounding heart out through my mouth. Kyle saw my startled face and suddenly burst into laughter.
“It’s thunder. Were you scared?”
“Scared? Who was…!”
Even though I had been so startled that my hands and feet had gone cold, I flared up and pretended otherwise. Kyle, still unable to wipe the laughter from his face, lay down with his head on the floor as if collapsing.
Then, out of nowhere, he placed his palm right on my chest.
“It looks like it’ll be a long night. Let’s hurry and sleep.”
I tried to push away Kyle’s hand, which was resting in a rather unpleasant spot, but he lifted his hand and began patting me.
My heart, which had still been beating quickly, slowly found its calm.
“Good night, Lysian.”
Was it thanks to Kyle’s reliably low voice, or was it thanks to his hand patting my chest with steady force and rhythm?
As if I had fallen under hypnosis, I soon sank into a deep slumber.
* * *
‘Lend me your breath. Become my wings, and become my voice. Then I shall grant your wish as well.’
At the sound of a faint voice, I struggled to lift my sleep-drunk eyelids.
I was confused for a moment by the unfamiliar ceiling, but then the memory of falling asleep in the old monastery came back to me, and only then did I wake fully.
With newly alert eyes, I looked around the room sunk in the dim darkness of dawn. Right beside me, I could see Kyle deeply asleep with his eyes closed.
Whenever a strong wind occasionally blew in and rattled the glass windows, his eyelashes trembled slightly.
“Lysian.”
But then, suddenly, I heard a voice calling me from somewhere. I checked to see if Kyle had called me, but he was deeply asleep, oblivious to the world.
Had I heard wrong? In a way, that was only natural. Being in such an eerie space, I couldn’t help imagining things like that.
I carefully covered Kyle’s body with the cloak in case he was cold, but then I suddenly felt a chill on the nape of my neck.
“Come here.”
This time, I heard it more clearly. I quickly lifted my head and checked the direction the voice had come from.
The unfamiliar voice was coming from the darkness, where the faint light of the brazier did not reach. I wondered if it might be a ghost, and goosebumps rose all over me. The background just had to be an old monastery too, which made it even scarier.
I wondered if I should wake Kyle and go with him, but then I remembered that I had many secrets he must not discover, so I carefully got up.
“Lysian.”
Alright, I’m coming. Grumbling only inwardly, I stepped toward the direction the voice was coming from.
