Chapter 149: Chapter 149

TRISTAN:

“Don’t you remember, Dahlly? When I chased you inside a cave one time, we were able to do it. You loaned me your powers. We could do that again. I could help heal you.”

That’s right. We didn’t need any doctors. If I could channel Dahlia’s powers and use it towards her, she would definitely feel better in no time.

I thought it would make Dahlia light up with excitement. I knew she was suffering a lot too.

But why did she tremble and look as if I just gave her a horrible idea?...

“Dahlly, I know what I’m trying to suggest must be scary for you… Maybe it’s because you haven’t remembered it well, but I assure you, it would work.”

“Ahhh,” she shook her head vehemently.

“Why not? Don’t you want it?… Don’t you want to use your leg once again,” I asked, trying to swallow the lump that had formed on my throat. “Once you get better, Eva and us could run again. I know your wolf would want that… You can run freely again, away from here, away from me… So, please Dahlly, won’t you consider it? Won’t you try, at least for Eva’s sake?...”

Again she shook her head, her eyes watering up.

“Why not, hmm? Don’t you trust me, Dahlly?... Do you detest me that much?”

I knew the answer even before she began shaking her head more violently.

Before the tragedy had stuck, Dahlia and I had fought. She also didn’t want to see a doctor back then, and I wasn’t able to convince her to run away with me…

I could see she had totally lost all her trust the moment she had learned who I was again.

“Alright, alright… I won’t ask you about it again… Please calm down now, hmm? Don’t cry, Dahlia,” I said as I patted her head.

Even if she would push me away and hate me for the rest of my life, as long as she gets better, I swear to the Moon Goddess I would give her everything she’d ask of me, even something as dreadful as a bond rejection…

For now, I needed to make sure she makes it into the nearest town as soon as possible.

After a few more minutes, Prince Kaist returned with a filled water bottle. Dahlia however has already been soundly sleeping by that time.

“How is she?”

“She’s alright… For now.”

He gently put the water skin beside Dahlly and sat down to look at her sleeping form.

“How bad is it,” I asked Kaist softly as to not wake Dahlia up.

“Her hands had completely charred off, but her legs might still function well if we take her to a healer.”

A long agonizing moment of silence passed by between the two of us.

“Your father – King Maurus – he’s gone,” I finally said.

“I see,” he answered meekly. “Can you tell me what happened?”

I recounted to him what had happened in the cave after the rogue had pierced my heart with a spear.

I remembered how the inside of the cave rumbled as I bled. I looked up to see Dahlia being dragged away by that blasted vampire away towards the opening. I heard her pleas. It made me feel anguished inside.

I thought that that was it. Death has finally taken hold of me…

The next thing I knew, however, I was hearing a voice and feeling someone tap me by the cheeks.

“Hey kid… Can you hear me?”

I opened my eyes, but I cannot see anything. It was so dark and stuffy. I coughed a bit as soon as I opened my mouth in an attempt to speak.

“The ceiling has caved in. Be careful.” It wasn’t until the wolf ‘s face was inches away from my own when I saw him - his dark gray eyes shining fiercely like a beacon in the darkness.

I could only nod. If he was the grim reaper, I would have gladly welcomed him. Never in a million years did I dream that he was King Maurus, Kaist’s father and the killer of my pack.

“Listen, I’ll get us out of here, so make sure you hang on tight, alright?”

I was only half-conscious as he said all of this. I felt a pair of hands heave me very gently away from the earth. I heard a few words of encouragement asking me not to sleep despite really wanting to.

I didn’t know how many minutes or hours had passed before I saw the light of day once again.

The wolf staggered into the earth, exhausted after bringing the two of us back into safety under the night sky. I breathed in as much of the fresh air as I could.

Too full on getting my own freedom, I failed to realize that my rescuer had prostrated himself down on the ground, too exhausted to move even an inch.

“Hey, hey!”

I tapped at his face when I realized he was barely breathing.

“Wake up, old man! Wake up!”

I groaned as I tried to move around him. Luckily, my pierced wound had started to heal. I felt his pulse. It was very weak.

He started to shift back into his human form, which meant that he was losing his life force fast.

“Wait here, sire. I will look for help.” I was thinking of running to his son in our promised meeting place, but then, an arm had stopped me from turning around and fleeing for help.

“No, no… Don’t leave, kid…”

It was painful to see him take a few labored breathing after the lengths he had gone through just to rescue me.

“Sire, don’t say anything else. I will come fetch your son. I will come back here as promised.”

“Kid, we’ve got no time… The end is near for me.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“I have a chronic illness to begin with. I won’t last long, not even with medicines…”

I can’t believe it! The man I wanted to see fall down, the man I wanted to rot in hell for murdering my own kin would die soon?...

After all those years that Samalah and I had spent on plotting our vengeance, how can he just die a death like this? He deserved something more brutal!

“Don’t worry, kid… I am good at hiding it, but rest assured that I am dying in a cruel manner… You see, I am dying from a curse…”

“A-A curse?”

“Have you heard of the Shadow Rune Pack, kid?”

When I didn’t answer back, the old man chuckled. “Of course you did… I can recognize you even from far away, my boy…”

My jaw tightened as I heard his next words.

“Aren’t you the final Shadow heir tasked to kill me, kid?...”