21: Reality

“Julius-sama!? Julius-sama! Please hang in there!” Emiline rushed over to Julius who had fallen to the ground. She was reeling from the attack of the hooded man.

She kneeled down on the ground next to Julius, examined her wound and checked her condition.

Her breathing…… Was pretty rugged, but he was still breathing.

Her pulse…… Was beating like an alarm clock.

The wound…… Her left shoulder had been slashed quite deeply and even now, blood was still gushing out from the wound. The blood quickly dyed her shirt red.

“If I don’t stop her bleeding soon…… Huh?”

Emilinne looked at the blood flowing out from Julius’ wound. She thought that she should stop the bleeding for the time being and put pressure onto the wound, but she felt something was wrong with Julius’ condition.

Julius started sweating profusely and her breathing was heavy and hard. At first she had thought that it was due to the deep wound, but it wasn’t normal for her to be in this much pain.

“Julius-sama! What’s wrong……… Aahh?!”

She suddenly thought of something and looked at the dagger that had fallen near her. It was the dagger that the hooded man had used, and the one that had injured Julius.

The dagger had been dyed in Julius’s blood so it was hard to tell, but if she looked at it carefully, she could tell that there was another liquid on the blade.

“That’s…… Don’t tell me, poison?!”

Emilinne had deduced this from Julius who was suffering from the poison, her breathing was heavy and she was pale.

If she was correct and poison had entered her body, then it wouldn’t be enough just to stop the bleeding.

It was also unlikely that the poison wasn’t fatal. Since it was a poison used by assassins meant to take Julius’s life. It was most certainly a lethal poison.

“I have to hurry or else……”

If she knew the type of poison then she could give him the antidote. However, Emilinne didn’t know anything about poison types and the men in black, who knew about the poison, had all died. Still, nothing could be done since there was no medicine here.

The only thing she could do now at this place, was to suck the poison out of her body from her wound so that she could get the poison out, even if it was just a little. There was nothing else she could do since the poison had already entered her body; she could only rely on her willpower.

“Julius-sama, I’m sorry!” Emilinne muttered and took off the shirt that had been dirtied with blood.

She had a hard time taking of Julius’ shirt because she had already lost conciousness. She put Julius’ head on her knees and managed to take off her shirt somehow by slightly raising her body.

“…… Huh?”

Emilinne undid the shirt’s buttons and was greeted by an unexpected sight. She had expected Julius to wear a corset or binding under her shirt, but that wasn’t the case. Direct skin was reflected in her eyes. Furthermore, she didn’t have any sign of breasts. Yes, absolutely none. There were woman with small breasts in this world, but it was different from that.

“Eh? What? W-why……?

Why didn’t Julius, who was a woman, have any breasts?

Emilinne was faced with an unimaginable situation; she lost her head and her mind stopped working. However, she quickly returned to her senses because of Julius, who was having a hard time breathing. She decided to think about it afterwards and quickly began his treatment.

“I’ll think about it afterwards, I have to save Julius-sama now……”

Emilinne, who had pulled herself together, exposed Julius’ shoulder and took it out of the shirt. She then took out a handkerchief to wipe away the blood in the area around the wound. After that, she put her mouth onto the wound and sucked strongly. She was careful not to swallow the blood she’d sucked up and turned to the side to spit the blood out.

She did that several times and then decided that she’d sucked out a considerable amount of poison. She put the handkerchief onto the wound once again and tried to stop the bleeding.

She didn’t have time to think while she was desperately sucking out the poison, but now that she was applying pressure to the wound, there was time to think.

The thing that was on her mind was, of course, the sight that she saw under Julius’ shirt when .she took it off. Even now, if she were to turn to the side she’d see it again so she didn’t have to recall much.

Before Emilinnes’s eyes was Julius’ chest, uncovered and unhidden. No matter how many times she’d looked at it, no matter how many times she’d blinked, it remained flat. At a glimpse, his chest was gorgeous, it had been well trained and tight. Emilinne instinctively blushed.

“…… So it’s like that after all?”

Too many things happened at once and her mind was in chaos, but she was finally able to accept reality.

“Julius-sama is…… A man?” She muttered to herself and the uncomfortable feeling inside of her grew intense.

The idea she had held as fact for all these years had turned out to be false. She didn’t know how she should express these feelings.

Her mental state was as if the world has collapsed.

“Such a thing, such a thing……”

However, no matter how much she tried to deny it, the body in front of her couldn’t be that of a woman’s. This was the grim face and it wasn’t likely to be false.

Even though Emilinne was shocked by this truth, she still moved her hands properly. She tore off the hem of her dress to use as a substitute bandage and tied it above the handkerchief. In a sense, this could be an action to escape from reality.

This was the best she could do without tools or medical knowledge.

She wanted to believe that the effects of the poison had decreased because she had sucked a lot out, but it was definitely better for him to be examined by a doctor.

However, Emilinne became anxious because she wasn’t sure if she should ride the horse with the unconscious Julius on it. First of all, lifting Julius onto the horse, itself, was difficult.

She also thought about leaving him here and going to call for help. If she went for help, however, it would take time and leaving Julius unattended made her anxious.

After worrying for a while, Emilinne took Julius’ head off her lap and then headed towards the white horse that was tied to the tree.

“Please lend me your power to save Julius-sama.” She said and untied the horse’s reins from the tree.

Emilinne concluded that it was too dangerous to leave him here and that she had to bring him back with her to the Royal Capital somehow.

She didn’t know if the horse understood her or not, but it obediently followed after Emilinne to where Julius laid and bent down as low as it could.

“You’re really smart, aren’t you? Thank you.”

It was difficult to put an unconscious person onto a standing horse, but if it was this high then she could manage somehow. Emilinne concluded this and thanked the intelligent white horse who performed the actions she wished for. She crouched down and lifted Julius’ body.

It was impossible for Emilinne, with her small stature and lack of strength, to lift Julius’ whole body up, so she lifted his upper body while pulling on his undamaged right arm. She put his right arm onto the horse and went to the other side of the horse. From there, she pulled his arm and lifted him onto the horse.

“Stand up.” She made sure that Julius’ body wouldn’t fall off and commanded the horse. The horse carefully stood up with as little movement as possible.

She nodded in satisfaction as the horse stood up with Julius on its back and got onto the horse as well.

“I want to return to the Royal Capital, please.”

Emilinne held onto Julius, who was sitting in front of the saddle, and informed the horse in a pleading voice as she lightly touched its head.

Then, the horse began running as if he was gliding.

◊♦◊♦◊♦◊

Emilinne returned to the Royal Capital and desperately sought help. She managed to find somewhere and Julius was able to quickly receive medical attention.

As Emilinne had expected, Julius had been poisoned, but because Emilinne performed first aid she was able to counteract the poison and save Julius’s life.

 The doctor, who had treated Julius, diagnosed that if she hadn’t sucked the poison out then he probably would have lost his life.

The fact that Julius, who was regarded as a hero because of the previous war, had been targeted by someone shocked the Royal Capital. Everyone in the capital had been celebrating the victory in the war but now were in an uproar over Julius

The Royal Palace viewed the situation gravely and dispatched some knights to investigate this, but they couldn’t obtain any significant clues from the corpses of the men in black, who they collected based on Emilinne’s testimony.

Judging from the timing, they could conjecture that someone from the Kingdom of Lakshurusu, who had waged war against them, had instigated this, but it was difficult for them to protest this without any clear evidence, and the case remained unsolved.

Translator: Blushy

Bonus chapter ~

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