Chapter 38
Riina neither pushed him away nor unconsciously rubbed her cheek, she just stared at him blankly.
A blue pulse raced across the ash-colored wilderness.
That unwavering blue light finally crossed the wilderness and struck Einar’s chest with a thud.
And again, thud.
With the sound of heartbeats thundering in his ears, Einar unconsciously lowered his lips to Riina’s cheek again.
His vision had narrowed severely, so that he could see nothing but her.
Was it just his imagination?
Unlike before, her cheek, which had been just white, wasn’t cool this time.
It didn’t even look like a pale peach color…
“Is there more blood?”
At the clear and calm voice cutting through the loud pounding, Einar closed his eyes deeply and opened them again.
As his narrowed vision suddenly expanded, he slowly stepped back.
“Let’s say there was.”
Even at this ambiguous answer, Riina nodded without any particular objection.
Whether there was a blood stain or not, she knew why he had deliberately put his lips on her cheek in this situation.
Those watching them now were even more shocked than when the black tiger had burst in, if that was possible.
Hadn’t they already been surprised enough by the unexpected Second Prince and Bolshevik lady calling each other’s names, and even exchanging a handkerchief wishing for good fortune?
The emotion of ‘I was already surprised enough, but again?’ was clearly visible on people’s faces.
Riina’s eyes swept over them briefly and caught sight of Smith, his eyes bloodshot as if about to pounce on them, but she coldly ignored him.
“You performed splendidly, just as planned.”
To this, Einar smiled brightly and bowed politely, taking a step to the side.
“I present it to you.”
He made an exaggeratedly polite gesture, as if he were an actor in a play, and Riina received it with an equally exaggerated gesture.
“Gladly.”
Their best efforts at acting, along with the unexpected, or perhaps foreseen, dramatic danger and rescue…
People couldn’t take their eyes off the two.
And in their minds, the Third Prince who had been by the Bolshevik lady’s side until now had long been erased without a trace.
It was no wonder, for they had never seen such a scene even once when Riina and Smith were together.
All they had seen until now was Smith, who wouldn’t let go of her hand even with an unhappy face, and Riina, sticking uncomfortably close to him with sparkling eyes.
“This should be more than enough.”
“Indeed. It went much better than expected. What do they call this? Isn’t it in the Bolshevik history books? When bad things end up bringing good results?”
“Turning misfortune into blessing. More importantly, Einar, are you not hurt anywhere?”
“There are some scratches.”
“Where?”
“Here, and here too.”
Einar’s fingertips brushed Riina’s cheek, earlobe, and near her neck as he answered.
To this, Riina narrowed her eyes and asked again.
“I mean you, not me.”
“Nothing in particular. I got a bit dusty rushing through the forest. And some blood too.”
At his quick response, Riina, not believing him, grabbed Einar’s arm and examined it closely before pausing.
He was covered in blood from the black tiger, but the red stain on his side was a different color from the tiger’s blood.
Isn’t that his own blood?
She unconsciously lifted Einar’s arm and lowered her head to his side, examining the area closely.
Einar looked down at the small, round head that had come between his arms, then tilted his head once.
“Riina?”
“Stay still for a moment.”
Her voice was resolute but still as dry as gritty sand, yet in contrast, Riina’s hands were busily fidgeting.
Einar, who had been staring down at her, tilted his head once more.
Why does my chest feel so tight…
“Ugh.”
The next moment, a sudden pain surging from his side interrupted his thoughts.
Riina poked her head out from between his arms and clicked her tongue.
“It’s torn this long, and you’re not in pain?”
“Ah, this.”
Only then did Einar glance at the side Riina had been examining.
At his reaction, Riina narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”
“I was too busy rushing here.”
His gaze, accompanied by a nonchalant smile, turned towards the black tiger, now hidden by the surrounding people.
Riina reflexively followed his gaze before shaking her head.
“You’re certainly insensitive to pain.”
“No, I feel pain just like everyone else.”
At this, Riina suddenly reached out and brushed away the hair sticking to Einar’s forehead.
His hair was unpleasantly sticky with sweat and blood, but she didn’t mind at all as she carefully pushed it back, saying:
“Just like your forehead last time, and your side now.”
In that moment, the blue eyes meeting the ash-colored ones were filled solely with Einar.
“The same?”
It wasn’t praise, nor was it a whisper of love or a shy confession of true feelings.
If anything, it was closer to a reproach.
Yet Einar’s lips crumbled into a smile on their own.
His eyes crinkling as he smiled, he whispered:
“Shall I say I only become insensitive to pain when it’s related to you?”
“Stop talking nonsense. There might be a problem, so we need to have you properly examined.”
His quite plausible words didn’t penetrate at all.
However, despite her indifferent expression and dry voice, her genuine concern for him wasn’t buried.
She didn’t even say ‘you should get examined’, but ‘we need to have you examined’…
Einar nodded heavily, suppressing the laughter that threatened to burst out.
“Yes, we must definitely do that.”
“What’s with that expression?”
As Riina furrowed her brow, Einar waved his hand and took a step back.
“Nothing.”
“Einar.”
“No, I was just thinking I should listen to your words well…”
While Riina and Einar were having a conversation that anyone would call frivolous,
The faces of those lingering around them, far enough not to hear their conversation, were incredibly complex.
Their eyes, filled with curiosity, doubt, and even a bit of excitement, rolled about, but no one dared approach Riina and Einar.
They were incredibly curious about what was being said, but the space between the two was impenetrable to anyone.
Even the guard captain, who was spinning in place like a puppy needing to relieve itself out of worry for Riina’s well-being, couldn’t even open his mouth.
Someone among those staring blankly at the two opened their mouth with a dazed expression, massaging their legs that had gone weak from tension:
“Still, it’s fortunate that it ended with just this much.”
“We were lucky.”
And the words that followed from someone nodding in agreement.
Yes, as someone said, wasn’t it an incredibly lucky event?
The moment the black tiger charged at Riina.
At that very moment, Einar was able to reach this place and block its path.
It was a coincidence, at first.
After all, Einar didn’t know that Riina had encountered the black tiger, and that even after she had gone to the safe zone to avoid it, she had met it again.
He had just felt an ominous premonition.
No, rather than a premonition, it was a sense of discomfort born from years of accumulated experience.
Around the time Riina first faced off against the black tiger.
‘It’s strange how the prey is all gathered here.’
As Einar, who had been letting small prey go without touching them, brought it up, the surrounding hunters nodded.
‘Yes. Even those that shouldn’t mix are mixed together.’
They had already discovered several times that beasts that instinctively keep their territories separate were within claw’s reach of each other.
Einar’s gaze turned towards the direction Smith had disappeared.
Clearly, there had been an oddly lack of animal presence in that direction…
‘What did they say was the largest of the beasts brought out as prey?’
Not long after asking this, Einar saw birds taking flight en masse and beasts fleeing from one side of the forest, the direction from which the black tiger had burst out after rampaging.
‘We’re going back!’
‘What?’
‘Your Highness? Your Highness!’
He rode his horse like a madman, without any explanation to those who were floundering in confusion.
The largest, fiercest, and most dangerous beast among the prey.
From the moment he had brought up what such a beast might be, it should have appeared before Einar’s eyes.
His luck would have led either Einar or the beast, or both, to the same place.
However, even after clear signs that something had happened, he couldn’t find the beast.
Then…
‘Riina.’
Blue veins bulged on the back of his hand gripping the reins.
The only one with enough influence to override his luck was Riina.
And Riina was terribly unlucky, wasn’t she?
Thus, Einar rode desperately, his horse’s mouth foaming, and barely managed to arrive just before the black tiger lunged at Riina.
While getting there might have depended on his experience-based intuition, arriving at the exact moment the black tiger was about to pounce on Riina could only be explained as luck.
And what happened after that…
People clearly saw it with their own eyes, yet they looked back and forth between the two of them and the sprawled black tiger with expressions that suggested they might have been dreaming.
How much time passed like this?
Riina’s gaze, which had been fixed on Einar, slowly turned towards the guard captain.
At her eye signal, the guard captain brightened and approached in one breath.
“Are you alright?”
He too had seen Einar block the black tiger and subdue it in one breath, but he had to confirm.
In this world, there are plenty of ‘what if’ or ‘surely not’ situations, aren’t there?
Riina waved her hand lightly.
“I’m fine. More importantly, we should head back. Becky…”
