[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 203: A Last Letter

Human nature was fickle. Very, very fickle. And Darius had been aware of it. He had used it to his advantage more than just a few times.

Fickleness made them predictable.

Greed, guilt, fear, love... those were the winds people bent to, every time.

And Darius? He’d learned how to blow.

How to turn a whisper into a gale. How to twist a breeze into a storm. How to make the wind cut. He had learned it all.

Even when the wind refused to obey, he welcomed it with open arms.

It thrilled him. It gave him the excuse to summon a hurricane instead.

But this...

This wasn’t supposed to be one of those moments where he missed on purpose, just to feel the rush of the hunt again.

Because what racked his chest was not the thrill.

Rain lashed against the glass, and it strangely resembled the simmering rage pelting his ribs from the inside out.

It had been five long hours since they’d crossed the river. The lingering warmth of Xion’s presence was enough to lull his tired body to sleep.

When he woke up, it was already morning. The sky was covered with a dull grey blanket while streaks of silver flashed once in a while rumbling the entire ground.

Due to the heavy rain, they could not move faster, and they were still far away from their designated resting place.

There were no golden rays welcoming the new day. And worse, there was no familiar bright smile to greet him he had gotten used to seeing these past few days.

Darius thought he was going mad. If not, why else would the image of a kitten be the first thing to flicker into his mind when he woke?

His gaze landed on a bundle of books. They were meant for Allen, but Xion had never said he couldn’t read them first.

His long fingers moved, untying the knots with ease.

But instead of books, what attracted him was the dark paper stuck between the white pages. One of the corners was peeking out as if waiting for him to pull it out.

Confused, he pulled it.

The envelope was black with golden vines drawn at the edges. From the color to the thickness of the paper, everything about this envelope was strange.

At the front, only a few words adorned it, "To Darius Rael Darkhelm, from Xion."

The handwriting made him sit up straight. All the laziness from the sleep left his eyes.

Was Xion complaining about something?

He had been teasing him lately, maybe a little too much. Or perhaps this was about the reward?

Xion had said he’d claim it after curing Moonshade Affliction.

And now that it was done... perhaps he wanted gold? A title? A promise?

Darius entertained a dozen such thoughts as he opened the envelope.

But nothing — nothing — prepared him for the first line inside.

"By the time you read this, you’ll be far from the capital.

And I’ll be far from you, Your Grace."

The words shimmered in silver ink against the black page. And under any other circumstance, he might have admired the craftsmanship.

But now, they struck him as violently as the thunder outside.

Darius read the line again just to confirm that he was not reading it wrong. Then, with his dull gaze, he read further.

"You know, I could’ve said goodbye to you face to face...

But then I thought, you are scary. Very scary.

I didn’t want to see you cry. You’d be ugly when you cry. I’d rather remember you as that annoyingly handsome man than a snotty brat... Hahaha....

So yeah. I’m leaving just the way I came into your life. From your carriage... Pffttt."

The silence in the carriage grew heavier just like Darius’ grip.

"I’ve put that holy book back in your secret compartment.

Thanks for lending it to me.

And... also thanks for tolerating my stupidity.

I know my brain doesn’t work the way it should, and despite me getting in trouble, you were always there to shield me.

For that, I sincerely want to thank you."

Darius scoffed, exhaling harshly through his nose.

If Xion wanted to thank him, he should have just stayed with him. What was this bloody nonsense?

His pale green eyes had darkened into a deeper shade of green. His fingers tightened around the paper, then loosened.

Almost reverently, he smoothed out the crease he’d accidentally made.

As if doing so would erase what he was reading, as if the words would not matter anymore.

But they mattered. Terribly so at that. And the next lines made sure of it.

"I know you might be wondering why I am leaving. But you see, we are not the people from the same world.

You are like a storm, a beautifully magnificent one.

But I... I’ve been standing too close to the eye and almost got engulfed into it.

And now I want to take a step back into my world."

"My world? What is that Xion?" Darius muttered, displeased by the fact that he had no clue what that meant.

His mind was swimming with so many thoughts. Nonetheless, he forcefully halted them. Even as something inside him began to unravel, he needed to keep reading.

However, the next words made his dark eyes even more scary.

"You said only you had the right over me.

But I don’t want that.

I am not your pet, Your Grace, nor am I your servant. I can protect you out of my free will, but if you force me, it’ll only make me angry and hate you.

I don’t want to hate you, your grace.

And I don’t want anyone to be my master, or lord, or whatever fancy title you can come up with.

I’m just... a simple person. And I want to live simply, too.

I hope you live a long and happy life. And don’t stop to look for me. Think of it as my payment.

And... I am taking Noxian with me as a payment for cooking for you."

There, at the end, a little figure with long silver hair was drawn with bread in his hand.

"Just to let you know, you were the very first friend I made in this world.

And also, the one I cherish the most. But I don’t like it when you scare me, you bad guy."

His finger brushed over the ’Bad Guy’, rough calloused pads tracing the familiar slant of Xion’s handwriting.

His kitten had written it so casually. Even from the words he could sense Xion laughing, being infuriatingly cheerful.

"Rael... Take care of yourself.

Bye-bye."

Bad guy... The words danced at the tip of his tongue.

"I have been very patient with you, Xion. Especially with you," Darius murmured as he folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope.

He wanted to crumple the letter. Tear it. Burn it. Anything but see more of it. But his traitorous hands wouldn’t obey, too eager to hold onto the last piece of that fool.

Just as he opened the small drawer under his seat, his attention was taken away by a new bundle.

It was not just the holy book, but the five pieces of melon bread packed with other sweets Xion used to make for him.

His pale lips curled up at the corners into a beautiful smile and yet it looked hauntingly dangerous.

He placed the holy book and the letter in the wooden box. Beside it, half-hidden among little trinkets, lay a single blue flower, perfectly preserved by mana.

The same flower Xion once tucked into the archduke’s hair.

Darius’ smile widened, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Oh, no. Rather than a smile it was a smirk. The one Ray had often seen before the archduke went feral.

"I won’t stop for you, Xion. I’ll let you go as I promised, but... " His eyes flicked to the window as if though rain he could see the runaway kitten.

"But when we meet again..."

He leaned back, fingers drumming against the wooden box that now held pieces of a boy far too brave for his own good— pieces of the only healer who had dared to disobey him.

"I’ll show you what a real bad guy means."

He sat there in silence for a long time. The rain didn’t stop and neither did the storm inside his chest.

He wanted to spiral into a rage right then and there. But first, there were debts to collect. And people to punish.

"Stop."

His one word cracked through the air like a whip and all the moving carts in the convoy shuddered to a halt.

Ray was the first to approach the carriage.

He didn’t need to look inside to know it. His Grace was furious.

He drew in a breath and knocked, as one might on the den of a sleeping beast.

"Your Grace?"

"Where is Xion?" The words scraped against his throat like broken glass making his already heavy voice even rougher.

Ray bowed his head low. Rain slicked his blonde hair to his skull and drenched his cloak. The wetness reduced the towering knight to a soaked, miserable shadow of himself. Like an overly grown dog who knew it had failed.

"I... I apologize, Your Grace."

Admitting fault was better than defiance. Stubborn Ray had learned that lesson the very hard way.

Just as his brain was running thousands of miles per second, he heard Darius laugh.

A low, cold sound that made Ray’s heart thud like a drum of war.

He clenched his eyes shut. This was what I always worried about...

For that laugh that made him shiver meant blood.

And the only person who had the magic to calm his grace down was nowhere in sight.

"Make preparations. They want me to go to war, don’t they?"

He tilted his head, and for a moment, his face was almost serene.

"Then I’ll give them one."

Ray hastily looked up. Through the glass, he saw it. Those venomous green eyes gleamed like emeralds dipped in poison.

They were bright, utterly cold, and ... merciless.

He didn’t speak again. He bowed lowly and fled toward Allen without a single breath of hesitation.