Chapter 66 - 65: Reunion

Chapter 66: Chapter 65: Reunion

Agony. Intense pain threatened to paralyze his mind. Frei tried to focus, but after killing that beast, he was already at the end of his rope. Now, with his heart pierced, his perpetually tense nerves seemed to snap. He couldn’t organize a single coherent thought.

He only felt his body growing heavier. Every drop of rain that fell on him felt like a stone pressing against his back, accumulating and weighing him down more and more.

THUD.

The man’s tall figure collapsed onto the ground.

He struggled to lift his head, letting the freezing rain fall into his eyes, sending ripples across his already blurred vision. He saw the girl standing right in front of him. She wore a light-colored, high-necked dress. Standing in the pitch-black woods, she was so pale she seemed to glow. Using every last ounce of his strength, Frei reached out toward her.

In a daze, he suddenly realized that she had actually given him many chances. When they first left the wooden cabin, she said that as long as she survived, Williams wouldn’t pursue him for kidnapping her. Right before leaving the cave, she said that as long as he handed her over to the search party, she could guarantee Lucian wouldn’t kill him.

She even told him that if he survived today, he wouldn’t have to be a mercenary anymore. He could go to the Beaumont Earl Mansion to be a guard, a gardener, or whatever he wanted. A person who knew Magic could thrive anywhere. He remembered every single word she had said.

Unfortunately, he ultimately hadn’t chosen the path she offered him. That was why she had killed him. It was him... He had snuffed out his own hope of survival with his own hands. If he could just have one more chance... If he could choose again... Would the ending be different? Frei didn’t know.

Right now, his muddled thoughts no longer allowed for such complex reasoning. He could only force his eyes wide open, watching the increasingly blurry silhouette before him. His bloodstained hand crept forward over the muddy ground and damp fallen leaves, inching toward the hem of the dress draped by her legs.

Two inches, one inch... until he was just a hair’s breadth away. Frei tried to clench his fingers to grasp the fabric fluttering in the wind, but at that exact moment, she took a step back.

The silky-smooth fabric brushed past his fingers and slipped away from his grasp. Nothingness. Until the very end... he still had absolutely nothing.

CRUNCH... CRUNCH...

Without a shred of hesitation, the figure turned and walked away from him.

The nighttime woods could hide no secrets. When Frei fought the beast moments ago, he had had no energy left to conceal his movements or tracks. The team led by Lucian hadn’t gone far, so they almost immediately detected that intense fluctuation of Magic Power. Lucian promptly changed direction and rushed toward that area.

The closer they got, the more anxious Lucian became.

The kidnapper had killed the informant he was supposed to meet and dragged Lilia deep into the forest. Their whereabouts had been meticulously hidden up until now, so this sudden exposure meant they had either encountered pursuers or run into a wild beast. Neither possibility boded well for Lilia. He both hoped to see her there and feared that he would find her gravely injured—or even dead.

On the path ahead illuminated by torchlight, a hazy human silhouette appeared in the woods. Furthermore, it seemed to be walking right toward them.

"Mr. Lucian!" The butler’s nerves instantly went taut. "Please be careful. It might be an enemy..."

Before he could even finish speaking, Lucian darted forward, leaving the butler staring in astonishment.

Leaning against the tree trunks, the girl in the light-colored dress stumbled toward him. By this point, Lilia was also nearing her limit. Having barely eaten all day and having trekked through the mountains behind the man for hours, her stamina had long since been depleted.

Not to mention, even though her actions moments ago had seemed to go flawlessly, Lilia’s nerves had been strung tight the entire time. The man was an experienced mercenary, after all; even after piercing his heart with a knife, Lilia had still worried whether he would fight back. Fortunately, things hadn’t spiraled too far out of control.

Lilia gasped for breath. The freezing air rushed into her lungs, making her head spin dizzily. She barely managed to lift her head, making out the familiar silhouette of Lucian sprinting toward her.

"Lili!"

The familiar call reached her ears. Lilia released her grip on the tree trunk and forced herself to take a step forward. But her legs gave way. Completely unable to support her own weight, she collapsed forward uncontrollably.

A pulse of Magic Power flashed by, and Lucian was instantly at her side, catching the girl in his arms.

"Lili! Are you alright? Are you..."

His urgent questions came to a sudden halt, interrupted by the sound of long, slow breathing. After a moment of stunned silence, Lucian felt both amused and overwhelmingly relieved.

She was asleep. She was alive. As long as she was alive... that was all that mattered.

At that moment, the search party led by the butler arrived behind him. Lucian made a gesture signaling them to be quiet. Then, placing one hand behind her back and the other under her knees, he scooped her up into his arms. He shifted his hand to cradle the back of her head, gently pressing her face into his warm chest.

This way, she wouldn’t catch too much rain.

"Mr. Lucian..." The butler stepped forward to ask for their next orders. He kept his voice as low as possible, terrified of waking the sleeping girl in his master’s arms.

"Send a squad to continue searching ahead," Lucian said softly. They needed to investigate the cause of the Magic Power fluctuation from earlier—and find the man who had kidnapped Lilia.

As for himself... He looked down at Lilia in his arms. The girl was snuggled tightly against his chest, fast asleep, her delicate face bearing traces of exhaustion that could not be concealed.

"I’ll take her down the mountain first," Lucian’s tone softened. "She needs rest."

At the foot of the mountain, the carriage from the Duke Williams Mansion was already waiting. Lucian had no intention of sending Lilia back to the Beaumont family. He gave the driver an address—his own property in the East District.

After getting into the carriage, Lucian sat down on the plush cushions and slightly loosened his grip, letting Lilia rest comfortably in the crook of his arm. He looked her up and down, carefully examining the girl in his embrace. It had been too dark in the woods to see clearly, but now he noticed several bloodstains on her clothes, washed into a translucent red by the rain.

Lucian’s heart instantly clenched. Taking a deep breath, he fought to control the trembling in his fingers as he carefully pinched the button at the collar of her dress.

"Mng..."

Lilia furrowed her brows and slowly opened her eyes, immediately meeting a pair of lake-green eyes brimming with tension and worry.