[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47: I Like Kids

"Oh lord," Xion gasped. His eyes were wide with worry. "You... were you hurt?"

The distress in those deep blue eyes was so real that for a fleeting moment, Darius found himself baffled. Speechless even.

"Not really," he replied after thinking back to the incident. "Just got a broken arm."

Xion pursed his lips. How old was Rael at that time? Maybe six? Seven?

Gently, he leaned forward, taking two small hands in his own, "It must have been so painful," his voice brimmed with admiration. "Yet you endured it. Your Grace, you have courage and strength that even adults envy."

The child’s hands were cold. Not the biting chill of winter but a soft, lingering coolness, like the surface of a marble stone that had been sitting in the shade for far too long.

No matter how the sun kissed the world around it, it remained untouched. Some shadows refused to let their prisoners bask in the light.

Over time, everyone would move toward sunrays, leaving behind the stone covered with dust and withered autumn leaves.

"All that matters is that you are here, and you are safe." Xion continued in a soothing voice.

Then, as if recalling something, he awkwardly added, "Err, my condolences to those who suffered, but you must have been terrified by that explosion."

Darius, to his amusement, realized that Xion was sympathetic toward him.

The healer had seen him butchering that thief, and now he had clearly told him everyone called him the devil, yet the silly boy had a genuine worry in his words.

He, a mass murderer, found Xion’s tender emotions almost laughable.

But sympathy... it felt rather nice.

Even if Darius was cold-blooded and had long since lost his humanity, at that moment, he oddly felt human.

But Xion was not done yet.

Still rubbing Rael’s cold hands in his own, he mused aloud, "I mean... I would be scared and might’ve cried really hard."

Then he leaned closer. His warm breath brushed against Rael’s ear as he whispered, "I might still do."

He pulled back. His eyes twinkled with mischief. He placed one of his fingers on his quirking lips and winked at Rael, "Let’s keep that as our little secret, shall we?"

Darius’s lashes trembled slightly as his gaze shifted down to their joined hands. That hand, soft and warm, was desperately trying to pour the heat into his skin.

"Did anyone tell you being stupidly kind can be deadly?"

Darius took his hand back from the gentle grasp. Looking at Xion’s palm moving away, a sudden impulse surged within him. He wanted to reach out, to pull that touch back into his hold.

The irrational thought startled him, leaving him with a frown etched across his little face.

"Ah, that. Minato sensei used to say that." Xion laughed, recalling how the old man would smack his head whenever he did something ’unreasonable’. Well, he did fell ill after saving a puppy from the pouring rain.

Looking at the frowning Rael, Xion changed his words, "I mean, my teacher did." No one will understand my old language here.

Yet the name Minato sparked no recollection. Darius, a man who had tested countless healers, found this blank unsettling.

If Ray were there, the knight would have instantly shut his mouth. Especially, if he did not have a better way to pacify his master’s bad mood. The Archduke in a bad mood only meant misery for all around him. _{freēwebnovel.com}

Cute... the word and the implication of that sight made his lips twitch. Darius chuckled. The sound of laughter easily hid the irony in its softness.

He had committed a murder, and this person had brushed it off.

Darius had technically admitted that he took pleasure when people died and that he enjoyed their silence, still Xion had not cared even a bit.

Oh, no. Xion did care. He was worried about him.

The boy had asked if he was hurt. Darius had learnt that along with sympathy and naiveness, Xion was kind. But his niceness would only cause others to exploit it.

Not now, though. Not ever. Xion was his healer. A little sunshine for him to exploit.

"Kids, huh, I see."

The carriage fell silent after that. The faint clatter of wheels against stoned path was the only sound accompanying the thoughts of two people.

The air blew, flying the curtain to the side, and Xion could see the familiar inn. The distance was not that long to begin with.

The moment the wooden wheels stopped spinning, Xion jumped out of the carriage.

He slid his hands under the armpits and then directly picked Darius up. Gently placing the kid on the ground, Xion waved goodbye.

"Rest well," he grinned before rushing to his room.

He needed to change his clothes, which were still dirtied from the earlier tussle with Allen and perhaps take a quick bath to wash off the remnants of the chaos.