Nurturing the Hero to Avoid Death
chapter-20-1

“…Huh?”

Upon waking up, I find myself in an unfamiliar room. Neither my own or one of the church’s.

The room only contains the essential types of furniture: a small wooden closet against the stucco-plastered wall, a table of the same material with chairs surrounding it, as well as some unbleached curtains hanging above the double windows. The curtains are currently drawn, allowing the bright sunlight to enter the room.

Crammed on the small desk are two small bottles of orange fruit-infused water, two jugs of water, a few towels, and some porcelain cups and plates.

A set of seemingly large folded clothes is also placed on the chair.

Why am I here?

Yesterday, what did I do──

As I’m thinking this, a wave of memories rush through my brain like a tide. It wasn’t a dream.

It’s just too much. I immediately bury my head underneath the quilt, eyes squeezed shut.

I have finally figured out my predicament here. My current state is, well…

Even without looking down, I can feel that I don’t have any clothes on.

As for why I slept naked… my thought process shuts down from another rush of memories.

“Ehh!?”

Wait a minute.

How could something like that happen between us? What should I do now?

I can still hear a sweet phantom voice calling out my name. I duck, covering my ears. Still feel his large and warm hands caressing my skin, so gentle and yet sometimes so able to fuel my desire. And together with his heavy breaths and melting heat… I hurriedly chase those memories out of my head.

Alfred said that he will overwrite everything. And now─

My heart starts to pound.

Calm down!

He meant it differently. What happened last night was… inevitable. I was drugged, and ended up being touched by a disgusting guy. He must have felt sorry for me, and looked after me out of pity.

Yes, that is how I will think of it.

I take a deep breath and press my hand on my chest to calm my heavily pounding heart.

The palpitations eventually turn slightly less violent.

I stay in this position for a while more, before realizing that the chirps of the small birds outside are all I can hear. Even if I strain my ears, it is completely silent within this room. Awfully silent.

I tilt my head. I currently seem to be the only person in the room.

But what if… he comes in?

What kind of face should I make? What should I say?

I wrack my brain to its limits, simulating dozens of possible scenarios in my head. In the end, I decide to act clueless. I’ll pretend that nothing happened yesterday.

Alright. Let’s go with that. It’s best to go with the flow and act normal. If I expose the slightest bit of distress, it’s over.

I try to motivate myself, even just a little, as I prepare for the worst. Slowly, I peak my head out of the quilt. Only half of it, though.

I scan the entire room.

The figure of a certain conspicuous blonde… is nowhere in sight.

“Oh…” I feel a little disappointed, squirming my way out of the quilt and looking around the room. Alfred really isn’t here.

Where would he go so early in the morning?

Then by the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed something above the quilt in my hands.

It’s a coat. A top coat, to be exact. Dark brown, large in size, and slightly heavy. Made with thick cloth, impermeable to air.

And it’s currently draped over me.

“Ah, this is…”

I remember seeing this coat before. Alfred always wears it when he gets cold.

The coat looks very sturdy and has lots of pockets. Its design focuses on practicality rather than aesthetics. Definitely within Alfred’s taste.

Speaking of which, he did mention that there was no heating in this room. Which is probably why he covered me with his coat.

I grab onto the stiff fabric of the coat, and pull it close to my face. Undoubtedly Alfred’s.

But its owner is nowhere to be found.

Is that good or bad? I slowly let out the breath that I didn’t realize I’ve been holding.

Since he’s not here, he could be downstairs on the first floor. But I have no way of confirming it in my current situation.

While he’s not here, what I should first do is…

Put on some clothes!

I wrap myself with the quilt after some rolling around. Then I sit up.

“Ah…”

Surprisingly, I’m completely dry underneath it.

There’s no feeling of wetness anywhere on my body. On the contrary, I feel very… clean and dry.

I tilt my head to the side again.

How weird. We did it so much yesterday, so why─

No, stop! You’ve decided to forget about it already, remember?!

Then I get a glimpse of my wrists, the first since I woke up. And I’m once again speechless.

The swelling blackish-red bruises that were prominent on my wrists yesterday have totally disappeared.

Did Alfred apply something on them? But… I think only the recovery medicine that I’ve been giving him would be this effective. I’m not sure how to feel about that. He used the medicine I gave him on me.

But I suddenly recall another matter, after which my slowly calming heart goes back to its previously wild state.

Conflicting thoughts start to crowd my mind.

I don’t want to verify it. I want to just leave it alone and keep it out of my sight. But the curiosity is killing me. At the same time, I also want to know.

I dawdle about, feeling lost as to which side of my brain I should follow. Eventually, I explode from my own indecisiveness, and decide to just push through with it. After a few deep breaths to calm my mind, I slightly raise the quilt and peep inside.

It’s as I’ve expected. The large round bruise on my inner thigh has also already faded. As if it were never there in the first place.

I feel like crying. I want to jump off a cliff just to escape the embarrassment.

Damn it. He’s seen practically every inch of my body! Even my private parts that even I rarely touched!

Heart full of grievances, I reach out to grab the set of folded clothes on the chair.

The clothes that the pub owner’s wife lent to me are quite big. To the extent of having to fold the shirt sleeves and trouser legs four times. Why are they so large? Unbelievable.

Even though I’m already partly dressed, because there’s no heater around, the room still feels very chilly. I can’t help but rub my arms.

Left with no other option, I take Alfred’s coat from the bed and put it on.

The coat’s sleeves are too long for me. I can’t even see my fingertips. Damn it. I know that there’s a huge difference between our figures, but now that the evidence is right in front of me, I’ll be lying to say I don’t feel complicated. That brat is growing so fast.

There’s a small sink in the bathroom, so I wash my face and brush my mouth, after which I start straightening my clothes.

As I wait in the room, I sip some of the fruit-infused water. But Alfred doesn’t show up no matter how long I waited.

Really, though. Where did he go?

I feel uneasy just waiting here. I’m also getting very bored. There’s not even a book or a magazine to pass time.

I slowly rise from the bed. Feeling some slight pangs of hunger, I decide to go down to the first floor.

Slipping on my damp leather shoes, I make my way out of the door.

Thank you FrostyMoka-san, Lenette-san, Erina-san, Invi-chan, MsLori-san, Anon-san, and Lalorena-san for the ko-fi! *deep bow*

Am I typing everything right? My eyes are still full of tears, I even almost forgot that I have to release NHAD today…

May we all cry together at this perfection.