I Thought I Healed the Villain's Sickly Younger Brother - Chapter 16

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(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 3/4 🎉)

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Merrien felt her face grow cold at the emotionless “woof” sound.

“If you want to pretend to be Whitey, you should do it properly. It’s not ‘woof,’ it’s ‘ang!'”

“Do it again.”

Suddenly Ariel seemed to freeze, then instantly brought his face close to Merrien’s.

Unconsciously backing away, Merrien asked.

“…What?”

“The puppy sound. You just made it.”

“Ah, no way.”

Merrien waved her hands in disgust. Even so, seeing his desperate look, she took another step back uneasily.

“You’re Whitey, not me.”

At that, one corner of Ariel’s mouth curved upward.

“That’s right.”

Then tilting his head.

“Ang?”

He imitated Whitey’s sound as he had been taught.

Merrien’s eyes widened.

She stared blankly for a while, as if forgetting that her eyes would hurt if she kept them like that.

‘Despite having black hair.’

She had wondered why he had transformed into Whitey.

Staring at his pale white face and blue eyes, she could now see the overlap with that cotton-like Whitey.

“Looking at you like this, you do look like Whitey.”

“Why? Am I cute?”

“Yes, you’re cute.”

“Now you realize it.”

“Oh geez.”

Her honest answer was met with an even more confident response.

That wasn’t the end of it.

“Then, want to touch here?”

Ariel suddenly pointed to his heart.

“No, why there?”

“Why not? You touched it a lot when I was Whitey.”

“…That was, because you were Whitey! Why would I touch there? You’re a person, I…”

Please say something that makes sense.

Merrien continued to nag with an expression of utter disgust.

But she had to close her mouth when she heard his bitter voice.

“It’s where the magic is most concentrated, so it hurts a lot right now.”

“….”

“The butler said that when something hurts, it gets better if you touch it.”

‘I’m canceling being best friends with you starting today, butler.’

Where did they keep picking up such stories?

Both Ariel and the butler. The more you got to know the people in this mansion, the stranger they seemed.

Even though she thought that way, it was always Merrien who weakened when they spoke like this.

“Want to touch it?”

Not missing this opportunity, Ariel pressed further.

Moreover, those blue eyes facing her were so empty that she couldn’t help but weaken more.

‘…Really weak.’

Yes, this was a calculated action, knowing that Merrien would give in to his requests whenever he acted like this.

Still, she couldn’t help but place her hand on Ariel’s chest.

As if he had been waiting for this, Ariel placed his hand on top of hers and pressed down firmly.

“!!!”

Though she didn’t know what it was, it wasn’t a lie – as he said, she could clearly feel something like thin threads tangled together in clumps inside his body.

“Is this… magic power?”

“Yes. It’s tangled up from going berserk.”

‘What’s there to grin about?’

In stark contrast to his earlier whining about pain, Ariel was beaming.

Unlike his expression, what he said was terrifying.

‘Though I don’t know much, having tangled magic power must be extremely painful.’

Even with daily healing, even after today’s healing was done, it meant it would always be like this unless completely cured.

‘…Wouldn’t it heal faster if I applied healing directly to his heart?’

Merrien pushed in holy power with that thought in mind.

When she immediately felt the holy power rushing out of her body.

Ariel’s mouth corners trembled slightly as he closed his eyes.

“Mmm…”

‘…Why are you making such strange sounds?’

Merrien’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Yet somehow, her toes curled inward as his voice made her body tingle.

Ariel’s face had already turned bright red.

Although the sight was embarrassing, Merrien couldn’t stop and continued to push in holy power.

Because she could feel something writhing in his heart beneath her hand gradually becoming ordered.

A moment later, Ariel’s eyes narrowed until they were barely visible.

“It feels so good, Merri. It feels so incredibly good.”

He said this with a bright smile.

[Healing Amount 3000/10000]

It was the first time the healing amount had increased so noticeably.

“Haa, haa…”

Merrien exhaled heated breaths.

She hadn’t expected the holy power to drain from her body like this. It felt like she had used up her entire day’s quota of holy power.

“W-well… we could do this once a week.”

When she met Ariel’s gaze, his expression was so peculiar that she had to look away.

But having done this healing once, it seemed she wouldn’t be able to not do it again.

Ariel, who was in such a good mood, took the lead.

He didn’t seem to have any other impure intentions. Merrien, feeling embarrassed on her own, pretended to dust off her dress as she followed behind him.

***

“Merri, this way leads to the outer garden.”

“…Oh really?”

‘That’s the first I’ve heard of it.’

Well, she had been staying only inside the Hartez mansion, so this was her first time going outside in months.

The greenhouse garden was so large that it took quite a while to reach the outer garden.

The outside was also well-decorated according to her instructions.

“When I get a bit better, let’s have our next date outside.”

“Sure, sure.”

Perhaps it was fortunate.

It seemed it was just her imagination that there was some strange energy lingering while healing Ariel’s heart area.

Just as always, while they were having their pointless conversation.

“…Merri!”

Though it was an unfamiliar voice, a sound drenched with emotion, as if it had been waiting only for her, rang out from far away.

Unconsciously turning her head, Merrien spotted a man facing off against the Hartez household people at the main gate at the edge of her vision.

Even though the man was blurry from the distance, he seemed to be staring intently in this direction.

“Ah.”

She knew instinctively.

It was Forcite de Vergne.

The outer garden where Merrien and Ariel were walking was quite far from the mansion’s main gate.

What came into their view was the Hartez household servants and a lone man in a standoff at the large main gate.

Even though the Hartez house knights who had been training had come out, for some reason, they were struggling against this single man.

The butler, who realized that Merrien and Ariel had come to this area after hearing the man shout “Merri,” immediately turned toward them.

“Duke Hartez… His Highness… without notice… visit…”

The butler shouted something to explain the current situation, but due to the distance, nothing could be heard properly.

Meanwhile, the man outside the firmly closed main gate kept staring intently at Merrien.

Even though it would have been difficult to even make out a silhouette properly at that distance.

“…”

Ariel, who had been silent until then, suddenly grabbed Merrien’s hand.

Merrien looked up in surprise.

The man who had been smiling until they reached the outer garden was now staring ahead coldly, all expression wiped from his face.

And before Merrien could even move her lips, her vision shifted completely.

“!!!”

With a slight dizziness, their location changed instantly, and Merrien immediately scolded him while letting go of his hand.

“Ariel! How can you use magic so recklessly?”

She had heard that teleportation was high-level magic that required a lot of magical power, what if he collapsed!

Despite her rapid-fire words hitting his ears, Ariel just smiled slightly while gazing at her hand.

“Well, you just healed my heart, even putting your hand on it. This much is fine.”

He answered nonchalantly, even pointing to his heart with his index finger.

It was somewhat unnatural behavior, as if he was conscious of something.

“…Merri.”

As if that had grated on someone’s nerves as he had hoped, a choked voice penetrated Merrien’s ears from right in front of them.

‘Oh no.’

If they had teleported, they would naturally be at the mansion’s front gate.

Merrien finally realized that Ariel’s condition wasn’t what she should be worried about right now.

The numerous servants and knights standing guard right beside them made that clear.

Suppressing the urge to squeeze her eyes shut, Merrien slowly turned her head toward where the voice had come from.

The man standing on the other side of the mansion’s main gate.

He was a beautiful man with black hair similar to Ariel’s and sharp red eyes that gave off a cold impression.