Guiding the Male Lead out of His Trauma - Chapter 24.2
When I came to, my heart was pounding wildly.
The sound was so loud it wouldn’t have been strange if it burst at any moment.
Who would’ve thought I’d ever attempt such a bold kiss of my own accord.
As soon as I returned, a headache hit, but I forced my eyes wide open, unwilling to miss the moment.
‘As expected.’
More than mere physical contact, emotionally charged touch was even more effective.
Acteon’s heart, which had been dragging in mana indiscriminately, was finally starting to slow down, becoming a little more stable.
His shoulders jerked with surprise at the unfamiliar contact, different from a hug.
But I couldn’t let go out of sympathy.
Bracing myself to have my tongue bitten, I pressed in to the feverish, damp heat of his mouth, and at last, his resisting movements stopped.
In that moment, I tightened my grip on his collar.
Just a moment ago, there was no time to dwell on what I’d seen.
Fortunately, the guiding mana I sent into his body was doing its job, just as it should.
With Acteon’s resistance finally ceasing, it became much easier to calm him down.
‘It’s still not safe enough to say we’re out of danger.’
At this rate, unless I exhaust every last bit of strength and turn into a mummy, it probably won’t escalate into a disaster.
Maybe because I let out a sigh of relief, I allowed myself a bit of hope. I thought maybe I could relax so I tried to catch my breath, but then I accidentally touched something wrong.
It was Acteon’s stiff tongue.
In that instant, our eyes met, his silver-gray irises snapping into focus.
Startled, I tried to pull away.
“Wait—mmph.”
But his hot hand wrapped around the back of my neck as if to say, not yet.
Then, with the desperation of someone parched, he hungrily tangled his tongue with mine. I was left breathless by the searing heat.
He was relentless.
So relentless that little by little, embarrassed sounds escaped, and my face flushed hotly.
Even though my mind kept drifting in and out, the subtle stimulation that brushed against some primal human desire made my tired body melt helplessly.
I was supposed to be the one helping him, but before I could even finish my task, I was about to forget my original purpose altogether.
No, not any more. I can’t.
The instant I turned my head to get away, his lips chased after mine. Panicking, I started pounding his shoulder.
Only after my frantic struggle did his eyes finally clear and he hurried to pull away.
Unable to break free due to sheer exhaustion, I simply leaned against him, and for the first time today, Acteon’s face looked truly shaken.
“…Senior.”
I wanted to snap something back, but the words caught in my throat and came out as nothing more than a feeble groan.
The look on his face as he regained his senses was a total mess.
Now that the manifestation had ended and stability returned, there was still fever left, and cold sweat was dripping down his face from the aftermath.
Acteon looked like he’d just received a death sentence and couldn’t get any words out.
“I…”
“Before you apologize, just… help me stand up.”
It wasn’t just the aftereffects of the kiss.
I’d never felt this kind of extreme fatigue before. It was enough to make me believe that all the gravity in the world had settled on me.
If he let go of me now, I’d probably just collapse to the ground.
When I reached out, instead of just letting me lean on his shoulder, he awkwardly lifted me up. I steadied my breath and explained the situation to him.
“By now, the people outside have probably noticed.”
“……”
But he seemed much more concerned about my exhaustion than anything else.
As if unwilling to allow even the slightest jostling, he held me with the care reserved for a priceless treasure.
As if holding something unreal in his arms, I felt his hands begin to tremble.
Was it because my life was in danger?
Something felt off about that, but I thought these words might be what he needed to hear right now.
“…It’s not your fault.”
And right after I said those words, it finally hit me.
‘I’m not dead.’
I didn’t die.
Even though I’d gone into this expecting I might die in the end…
Instead, here I was, alive and being carried out in the arms of Acteon Brondearn, the very person who the entire world said would kill me.
It felt strange.
So strange, my stomach churned, but it wasn’t an unpleasant sensation.
At the same time, a question sprang up: How?
‘Is it really because I have a high resonance rate with him?’
Maybe if Acteon were just one rank lower, an A-Class, this could make sense.
I’d taken my chances on a slim probability, but now that I’d actually succeeded, I felt more suspicious than happy.
I didn’t know exactly what had happened…
‘I’ll just have to figure it out later.’
For now, I should take care of the wounded and head outside.
Calming the tension in Acteon’s clenched jaw, I made my way out into the corridor outside the auditorium.
I could sense several presences approaching from afar.
But.
“Cadet Liliope Ortis.”
Every pair of eyes was fixed on me rather than Acteon.
The faces of the professors and several students I faced were a tangled mix of shock and astonishment.
Among them was my own advisor, obviously out of breath from running here.
“You— Just now… Can you explain what you just did?”
“…Huh?”
…What?
Did I cause some other accident? Startled, I looked up at Acteon.
But even if I wanted to interrogate him, I couldn’t.
In his eyes were countless emotions I couldn’t quite place.
They looked like the kind of hope you think shouldn’t exist, or maybe the thrill of finally finding something you’d desperately searched for.
There was anxiety and fear, but more than anything, it seemed like he wanted to confirm the miracle he’d just witnessed.
Someone reached out to me and asked to be guided.
Sensing something strange, I went along with it, and a moment later that person said,
“It’s not a mistake.”
Stepping outside, I was confronted with an outcome I never imagined.
“You’re S-Class.”
S-Class.
My rank has changed.
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