Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 138

Lilliana tilted her head slightly and asked, “Then can I learn to do that too?”

“Lily, you’re not very good at reading the flow of magic power. You won’t be able to do it now.”

“But now I have the natural law modifier, so shouldn’t I be able to read it better than before?”

Casey glanced at the ring on Lilliana’s right index finger and made a ‘hmph’ sound.

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before.”

“I’ll have to ask Soliel later.”

As Lilliana was mentally listing all the things she wanted to ask Soliel, Casey said to her with a worried look, “Anyway, if a Dorothy type appears, stay close to Damian. Okay?”

The Dorothy type was created to counter Casey, so in case of an emergency, it was highly likely that he wouldn’t be of much help.

It was thanks to the raid on Seidel’s workshop that they learned Damian was capable of dealing with the Dorothy type.

“But I’m not sure if I can handle two or more of them alone without any proper weapons. They’re quite strong… Of course, it would be manageable with proper preparation,” Damian interjected with a troubled look.

The Carnell siblings welcomed Damian’s appearance.

“Ah, Damian, you’re up now?”

“Did you sleep well?”

Although their tone wasn’t accusatory, Damian, who had committed a serious dereliction of duty, rubbed his eyes.

“Why didn’t anyone wake me up?”

“But Asher said you weren’t feeling well, that you took medicine and went to sleep at dawn, so he told us not to wake you up.”

Asher Olon, that blabbermouth…

As Damian grumbled inwardly, Lilliana looked at his complexion and said, “It’s a relief you don’t seem sick anymore.”

“I wasn’t sick. I was just tired. Did you go to class?”

“Brother took me.”

“Yes, I took her and brought her back.”

“I apologize.”

“No, no. We intentionally didn’t wake you up. It’s good that you got some sleep.”

“Do you want something to eat? You slept all the way through lunch, right?”

At Casey’s words, Damian rummaged through the refrigerator, found an apple, and came back with it in his mouth.

“Were you talking about last night’s incident?”

Casey and Lilliana nodded simultaneously.

“Yes, I’ve heard most of it from brother. He was just about to tell me about your amazing performance.”

“That’s right. Lily, you know, Damian is really strong. You see, I managed to defeat that troublesome golem by…”

“Can we skip that? It doesn’t sound very pleasant.”

He was quite hesitant to tell Lilliana about how they had shot out the golem’s eyes and stabbed her in the chest.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I watch gore movies all the time,” Lilliana said, and Casey excitedly began to recount Damian’s heroic tale.

“If Knight Stern was a real person, he would have been like Damian.”

At Casey’s high praise, Lilliana’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Damian.

“Damian, you’re amazing, aren’t you? Just like a war hero with two medals!”

Damian frowned at those words. The phrase “war hero with two medals” felt like swallowing a blade, not soft apple flesh.

The screams and cries of the civilians that had filled his mind all night seemed to resurface.

“…I’m not a war hero.”

“Don’t be so modest.”

Lilliana, who had been chuckling, noticed Damian’s expression and slowly wiped the smile off her face.

“If I were a war hero, I would have been able to save those civilians.”

His self-deprecating remark would have been difficult to understand without knowing the details, but Lilliana intentionally didn’t pry.

Casey blinked and was about to ask what he meant, but Lilliana quickly moved to cover his mouth.

“Hmm…”

Lilliana watched Damian throw the core of the apple into the trash and said, “Let’s go to the hospital after you finish eating that.”

Damian looked up, gauging the date, then frowned.

“Ah, is it Lilliana’s checkup day today? I didn’t know. I must have forgotten.”

Lilliana smiled gently and said, “No, it’s not that you forgot, Damian.”

“Huh?”

As Damian tilted his head in confusion, Lilliana’s smile deepened.

***

Asher Olon, that blabbermouth with a loose tongue…

Damian, sitting in the waiting room of the psychiatric hospital, buried his face in his hands.

“It’s okay. I’m also getting counseling for memory loss, remember? The doctor said it’s very relieving to talk about things you’ve been keeping inside. It’s helpful, not harmful, so don’t be like that. There, there.”

Lilliana was patting Damian’s back and comforting him.

What had happened was that Lilliana, who woke up earlier than Damian, ran into Asher, who had a more irritable expression than usual. As soon as he saw Lilliana, he told her everything about Damian’s visit to his room at dawn.

Lilliana, realizing the gravity of the situation, succeeded in getting Damian to willingly enter the psychiatric hospital under the pretense of accompanying her for a checkup.

Of course, Damian, realizing he had been tricked, tried to run away. But the problem was that he had left Casey behind, who was lying on the sofa, too lazy to move.

That meant Lilliana would be left alone if Damian ran away.

Having witnessed firsthand the kind of golems that were lurking around, Damian couldn’t leave Lilliana alone.

So he was sitting next to Lilliana, who had settled down, fuming with displeasure and silently cursing under his breath.

“I understand your aversion to psychiatric hospitals, but you have to go to the hospital to get treatment if you’re sick, right? Damian, your mind is sick, so you’ve come to a hospital to heal your mind.”

“I’m not sick.”

“I don’t know much, but are you just going to leave your war trauma untreated?”

Lilliana snatched off Damian’s hat. She frowned, seeing his pale face hidden beneath the brim.

“I heard from Mr. Asher that you took those strong pills again yesterday and slept? Don’t do that and get a proper prescription!”

“I’m not mentally…!”

Damian stopped mid-sentence and sighed deeply. It was true that he often felt mentally driven to a corner.

But it wasn’t frequent enough to warrant a hospital visit. If he just endured those moments, they would eventually pass. He didn’t think it was necessary to get medication from the hospital.

Even if it was a narcotic painkiller, wouldn’t it be fine as long as he controlled the dosage and didn’t get addicted?

He was truly fine. The more he thought about Asher reporting his condition to Lilliana, the more indignant he felt.

“Not everyone who goes to a psychiatric hospital is crazy, Damian. Look at me. Do I seem crazy?”

“I’ve never thought that.”

“See? So let’s get counseling and get proper medication. Okay?”

Damian’s head was pounding from Lilliana’s nagging. It didn’t seem like the situation would change even if he blamed Asher now.

He closed his eyes tightly and nodded. Lilliana, satisfied with his response, patted Damian’s head.

Damian was tempted to lean into her touch and seek more praise. But as he had told Lilliana before, he didn’t want to appear childish in front of her.

He was also a year younger, and he could feel Lilliana subtly treating him like a younger brother. Ironically, she was the one who should be relying on him.

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