Blair spread the torn cloth flat on the ground, piled the water plant on top, and crushed it with the stones. A sharp, bitter scent stung the tip of her nose.

Is this even the right way to do it.

She had only been roughly copying what she remembered watching Allen do as a child, so she wasn’t very confident. But there was even less time to hesitate.

Blair carefully gathered the cloth around the mashed plant so none would fall out and carried it over to Kalintz. He was still drawing labored, feverish breaths.

“Kalintz, can you hear me? Try to swallow this.”

Even at the trembling voice, Kalintz did not answer.

Blair gently parted his lips and squeezed the cloth wrapped around the plant. The juice from the crushed leaves dripped into his mouth a drop at a time.

The bitter liquid trickled down his throat, and Kalintz unconsciously furrowed his brow. Blair tilted his head up slightly to help him swallow more easily.

After repeating this several times, his breathing began to steady, little by little.

It’s working!

Seeing the eased expression on Kalintz’s face, Blair let out her first real breath of relief.

She dripped the last drop into his mouth, then laid the spent water plant over the wound on his abdomen. She had a vague memory that the leaves themselves had some mild soothing and antiseptic effect.

She wiped the sweat from Kalintz’s brow and smoothed his hair back. Running her fingers through the black strands, a wave of regret washed over her.

“If I’d known it would come to this, I would have told you everything yesterday.”

When he said he wanted to end the contract, or even this morning, she should have grabbed him and said it all. That she wanted to keep staying by his side. That she had never once thought about leaving him.

“Kalintz. I think I might……”

Really like you. The words caught in her throat and wouldn’t come out.

Blair quickly wiped away the tears that kept rising and picked up the cloth that had gone lukewarm.

“I’ll go rinse this in the cold water. Wait just a moment.”

She dutifully reported her destination to him even without an answer, then slowly got to her feet.

But she had barely taken two steps.

“……lair.”

Blair froze in place, not even turning around, wondering if she had heard wrong.

“Bl……lair.”

“……!”

She spun around and ran back to Kalintz.

“Kalintz! Are you coming around?”

His eyelids moved, very slowly. The moment she saw those gold eyes, darker than usual, Blair’s throat tightened all at once.

“Are you all right? Do you recognize me? Say something, anything—hff……!”

The tears finally broke through and she couldn’t finish. Then a familiar hand touched her cheek with a soft thud.

“……I’m conscious. Not feeling great, though.”

Kalintz spoke in a slow, labored voice.

“But I can recognize you.”

He gave a faint smile. The anxiety and tension that had been strangling her chest released all at once.

“You said you wouldn’t die in a place like this! Then why did you fall off a cliff, and what’s this wound on your stomach!”

Blair couldn’t even think to wipe the tears streaming down her face as she poured out everything she had been holding back.

“Do you have any idea how worried I was? How terrified I was that something might happen to you, that I might lose you forever—”

“……I said I wouldn’t leave you alone.”

Kalintz slowly wiped the tear-stained cheeks as he spoke.

“So stop crying. You’ll get a headache.”

“You’re the one with a hole in your stomach and you’re worried about someone else.”

Blair scolded him through still-glistening eyes as she checked his wound. Kalintz slowly pushed himself upright.

“Wait, you shouldn’t sit up yet!”

“I’m all right. Thanks to someone, the bleeding stopped and the pain eased up a bit.”

He looked down at his abdomen and murmured.

“You couldn’t have learned alchemy.”

“I got lucky. I happened to find a water plant in the stream that can be used as an herbal remedy.”

At that, Kalintz glanced over at the strips of torn cloak and crushed plant remains scattered nearby.

“Seems I’m the lucky one. Without you, things would have been quite bad.”

“And yet you were so furious at me for coming out here.”

“You’re right. I have no excuse.”

Blair was sniffling and giving him a sideways glare, and Kalintz let out a quiet, amused laugh.

“How are you feeling. The fever’s come down from before.”

Blair pressed her hand to his forehead as she spoke. His color was better than before, but his injuries were still serious.

“I won’t lose consciousness again. Still, I’ll need proper treatment soon.”

“Sir Werner or Ariela must have seen that red smoke. If we just wait a little—oh?”

Blair stopped mid-sentence at a drop of water landing on the back of her hand and looked up at the sky. The overcast sky that had been grey since morning had finally decided to pour.

“Of all the times—!”

“We need to move.”

Kalintz pushed himself up as the rain thickened rapidly. Blair quickly helped steady him and looked around.

“But there doesn’t seem to be anywhere suitable nearby……”

“There’s a cave close by. It shouldn’t be far from here.”

He looked around briefly to get his bearings, then continued.

“That way. The sun looks like it’ll set soon, so we should hurry.”

Blair nodded and helped Kalintz over to where the horse was tied. The water plant seemed to have worked quite well; Kalintz managed to get into the saddle with reasonable ease.

Blair had given the horse enough rest, and it carried them both steadily through the mountain path.

They followed the stream for a while.

Just as Kalintz said, a small cave appeared. The entrance was narrow, but the ceiling was high and the space inside was quite generous.

“This is more than enough to shelter from the rain.”

Blair squeezed the water from her damp hair as she spoke. The rain had grown heavier on the way, leaving her clothes and hair thoroughly soaked.

“Sit here and rest for a moment.”

“Pardon? Where are you going with that wound?”

“I’m not going anywhere, so don’t worry and just wait a moment.”

Kalintz disappeared into the back of the cave, leaving Blair with a skeptical look.

A short while later, he returned carrying an armful of branches, dry moss, and feathers.

“What’s all that?”

“You’ll see.”

Kalintz layered everything he had brought on the ground. Then he took a thin piece of metal and a flint from his pocket and began building a fire with practiced ease.

Clack, clack. Small sparks flew, and a flickering flame sprang up in moments.

“It’ll get cold at night. Keeping your body temperature up is important in the forest.”

“How do you know how to do all this?”

“I did it until I was sick of it dealing with the northern barbarian tribes. I spent months in the Karl Mountains.”

“Oh, right. During the last invasion, you went yourself—!”

Blair was nodding along when Kalintz’s next action stopped her cold.

“What, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly taking off your—”

He removed the battered leather armor and guards one by one, then pulled off the tunic shirt beneath as well.

Then he looked at her with a perfectly matter-of-fact expression.

“What are you waiting for. Go ahead and take yours off.”

Blair stared at Kalintz and blinked in bewilderment.

“Take off…… what?”

“What else is there to take off besides clothes.”

“Why my clothes!?”

Blair asked in alarm. But Kalintz only looked at her steadily.

Under that gaze, Blair crossed her arms over her chest.

“What exactly are you thinking right now?”

Kalintz stared at her in silence for a moment longer, then let out a breath and laughed quietly.

“Isn’t it a little late to be covering up.”

“!”

Blair shrank further and glared at him without a word.

“And. I think you’re the one with something on your mind.”

“Me? What?”

He tilted his head slightly and continued.

“You can’t dry clothes while you’re wearing them. Your body temperature drops fast in wet clothes. Take them off and wrap yourself in my cloak.”

With that, Kalintz went to retrieve the cloak he had shaken out and draped over the saddle earlier.

“……So. You meant to dry the clothes?”

Blair’s embarrassment rose all the way to the top of her head.

She stood there with a red face, opening and closing her mouth without a sound, when Kalintz returned and held out the black cloak with a teasing look.

“You were expecting something else.”

“I, I wasn’t expecting anything! You left out the beginning and the end of what you were saying!”

Blair snapped and snatched the cloak from him.

Kalintz laughed out loud, clearly finding it very funny, then winced sharply. The wound on his abdomen had pulled.

“Are you all right?”

Blair’s expression hardened immediately and she moved toward him.