May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 56.2
She gasped for rough breaths with her back hunched over. Cold sweat poured down like rain, and she could no longer move.
No matter how much she struggled, she could not stand on her own power. She did not know why that fact felt so sorrowful.
She slowly opened the eyes she had squeezed shut. Through a vision blurred by gathering tears, she saw her ruined leg.
“With such a terrible scar remaining…”
Reyna realized that returning to the way she was before was impossible from the start.
At that moment, the hope that everything would eventually be alright shattered into pieces. The tears she had been desperately suppressing since facing her leg earlier that day burst forth without restraint.
“Ugh…”
Crushed by her own helplessness, Reyna dropped her face and her shoulders trembled. Heavy tears fell incessantly to the floor.
She did not want to show her miserable state to anyone. She struggled to stifle her gasping breaths, fearing her sobbing might be heard outside. However, the tears poured out uncontrollably, and sobs leaked out intermittently despite her efforts.
She felt like letting everything go right then and there. She felt as though she could not go on living in this state.
It was then.
“…Reyna.”
Reyna raised her head with a start at the low voice calling her out of nowhere.
At some point, the bedroom door had opened. The faint light from the corridor sparkled through the gap of the double doors, and the King stood in the doorway with his back to it.
“Why is that man there?”
Reyna gaped blankly.
She could not understand the situation before her for a moment. The sun had not been down for long. Furthermore, he always sought the room where she lay only after everyone else had fallen asleep.
But why? Had that much time passed? Or had Allin perhaps told the King that her condition was not good? That seemed likely. What a tactless maid she was.
In a brief moment, her confused mind raced. Then, she belatedly realized what she must look like.
“No.”
Reyna froze just as she was. It was a vague terror that if he saw her leg, which had changed so hideously, he might leave her or abandon her.
Reyna hurriedly tried to hide her leg beneath the covers. However, her completely exhausted body did not move as her heart desired.
Her mind went blank, and the cold sweat that had momentarily stopped began to pour down like rain again. She wanted to scream at him not to come closer, but she was momentarily unable to make a sound.
“Reyna…”
Sensing that something was wrong, he ran to her in a single bound, knelt at her feet, and met her eyes with a hardened face.
“Reyna, what is the matter? Does your leg hurt?”
Reyna, who managed to pull the hem of her gown down to her toes, desperately turned her head away to hide her face. It was because she only then remembered that her face was a mess of tears.
Ah. Everything was a disaster.
Reyna murmured in despair.
“Do not look, please…”
She did not want to cry in front of him of all people, but the moment she opened her mouth, she could not overcome the surging sorrow. Even amidst this, she was concerned about the spreading hem of her gown and twitched her fingertips involuntarily.
Elizer, who had reflexively lowered his gaze, realized what she was trying to hide and what she feared. Reyna, with her head bowed, did not see his face distort with deep sadness.
“…Wait here.”
He whispered softly and rose to his feet.
Reyna, gripped by sudden fear, glanced at his retreating back.
He wouldn’t be leaving like this, would he? But with a leg like this, she wouldn’t be able to catch him even if he did leave.
She did not want to watch him go. Reyna forced herself to look away from his back and stared at the floor, struggling to stop the streaming tears.
How long had she been like that? After speaking to someone through the slightly open door, he turned back without warning and strode toward her again.
Reyna raised her head in surprise. In his hands, he held a hot towel and a basin.
A sudden thought crossed her mind, and Elizer set down the items he had brought on the narrow nightstand next to the bed.
“First, I will wipe your body, Reyna.”
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