Guiding the Male Lead out of His Trauma - Chapter 50.1
The male lead needs the extra
There wasn’t anything particularly grand in Mervaille beyond the plains.
They said it was land reclaimed after nearly a year of grueling attritional warfare, but I wasn’t especially interested.
Half a day after entering Mervaille, from which Uskal had withdrawn, we saw the Barmos army approaching from a distance.
‘Now we can finally rest.’
I sat on a low rock and rubbed my dry eyes.
Unlike me, Acteon looked spotless, as if he hadn’t just gone three nights without sleep. Despite the retaliatory nature of this mission, clearly a trick by the Crown Prince to punish him, he didn’t seem to have taken any damage at all.
That was likely because no unnecessary blood had been spilled in this battle. I tapped the spot next to me to call him over.
“Aren’t you tired? Setting up a command post or barracks is going to take some time, so try to get some sleep.”
He didn’t hesitate as he came to sit beside me and stretched out slowly.
“I’m not tired, but after focusing so hard, I’m craving something sweet. I’m also hungry for some guiding from you, Senior.”
“There’s probably at least a piece of chocolate in the platoon’s supplies. I’ll find one for you later.”
“Hm, I’ll look forward to it. But more than chocolate, I prefer the stabilizing you do.”
Guiding doesn’t require intense physical contact. Just holding hands is enough.
But what Acteon implied by ‘guiding’ wasn’t anything so mild, it suggested something far beyond that.
‘Why do I keep becoming conscious of this?’
Still, he was asking so earnestly that I couldn’t ignore him. I took his hand.
And then I paused.
“Oh, right. I haven’t removed the restriction.”
Mitchel had temporarily taken over authority for the control bracelet within the platoon.
It had previously belonged to the former platoon leader, Enelly, but she had died.
After disabling the bracelet, I had hidden that fact as much as possible.
Even from Acteon.
I wasn’t foolish enough to let it leak to the royal family or the military that I could remove the bracelet on my own. Who knew what chaos that might bring.
And for now, this was the only real weapon I had.
But Acteon kept drawing my attention away from such important matters.
“That’s unfortunate. I don’t like it when there are other people around.”
“What? Why, why not?”
Just what was he trying to say this time?
As expected, he didn’t stray from my suspicions.
“Because then you’ll do something better for me.”
At those words, I reflexively shut my eyes tight.
‘What am I supposed to do with you…’
He had no way of knowing what I was thinking, and just shamelessly smiled.
Last night, the operation to reclaim Mervaille had gone smoothly and swiftly.
Whatever conclusions Uskal had drawn about Acteon, they clearly hadn’t expected Barmos to launch a full-scale push to take back Mervaille.
Of the enemy combatants we faced directly, only the necromancer was A-Class or higher.
And Acteon had an exceptional ability to neutralize their specialty of waves of advancing corpses.
Ordinary soldiers had eventually joined the defense of Mervaille, but even they were forced to abandon their positions and retreat after three days.
Their withdrawal had largely been thanks to Acteon inflicting a critical wound on the necromancer’s shoulder.
Had that not happened, things would have taken much longer.
We hadn’t intentionally caused casualties, but I didn’t want to imagine what might have happened in the worst-case scenario.
Once my mind settled, I glanced sideways at Acteon.
He was now watching Mitchel and the platoon leader speaking, his face calm and expressionless.
Bansi strolled over, unable to hide her sarcasm at the relaxed pace of the reinforcements, as if we were on some kind of picnic.
“Took them long enough. I guess they didn’t care whether we failed or not.”
“They probably figured there was no way we’d fail since they had an S-Class.”
She let out a small laugh.
Shaking out her dirtied uniform jacket, her face screamed of wanting nothing more than to curl up in a sleeping bag or blanket and pass out.
“If the Crown Prince sent you two, I guess he’ll give you a reward. Whether he likes the rookie or not, he’ll have to at least acknowledge you formally.”
“I’m not really expecting anything. Honestly, I’d rather he do nothing at all.”
She gave Acteon’s emotionless head a few gentle pats.
“My, our rookie’s sulking hard. But you know, the Brondearn family isn’t going to stay quiet about this. Sometimes you have to send a gesture, even if it’s just for show. At most, they’ll probably throw you some pocket money and a toy or two.”
Though he didn’t look thrilled by her touch, Acteon didn’t shake her off right away.
Of course, that just prompted Bansi to ruffle his hair even more aggressively.
As I held back a laugh watching Acteon get picked on, Mitchel approached us after reporting to the platoon leader.
His expression wasn’t exactly bright.
He brushed Bansi’s hand off Acteon’s head and spoke.
“Liliope. Acteon. Come with me.”
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