Chapter 98 - I Have Already Fallen For You
Damien remembered that Lily would stay in the inner courtyard during the night whenever she was feeling down or wanted to be alone with her thoughts.
Damien sighed as he slowly raised both of his hands. He didn't turn back and said in his normal voice, "I didn't expect that the usually gentle Lily would speak so coldly to me."
He felt the blade on his neck tremble as it slowly retracted backward, no longer pressing against his neck.
*CLANG*
The sound of a sword hitting the ground resounded as suddenly two arms embraced Damien from behind.
"Damien...you are still here…" Lily choked out her words in between sniffles as a set of tears streamed down her face.
Lily for the past few days had been spending her nights in the inner courtyard thinking about Damien and worrying where he had disappeared to.
Damien was surprised to see her break down, but he could understand why she was feeling down. After all, in her perspective, he suddenly disappeared without any news for more than three days.
He gently unfolded her arms around his body and turned back to look at her face.
She was too distracted to think why Damien was wearing a cloak or why he even sneaked into her courtyard.
"Lily...I am sorry." Damien said in a low voice as he saw her moist eyes and trembling chin. Seeing her eyes, he felt sad as he could see that she wasn't doing well for the past few days.
She clutched his chest as she said with her head rested on his chest, "Where...were you? Four days after you left, I scoured the entire palace in search of you. You were not even in your room nor did anyone see you around the palace. Why did you leave for so long without telling me? Do you know much I worried about whether something happened to you? I even asked Oswin to discreetly search for you...but you weren't anywhere to be found…I thought maybe it was because of the k-kiss–"
"Of course not...you silly girl...you think too much." Damien softly chuckled.
Lily heaved a sigh of relief inwardly hearing his words as that thought had tormented her mind these past few days.
Since even his chest was injured, his injuries stung when Lily clutched his chest but he remained still letting her pour out her pent-up worries.
Lily could only see Damien's features vaguely because of the moonlight as his hood shadowed the rest of his features. She looked up at him wondering why he was wearing a hood.
She slowly reached for his hood but suddenly Damien caught her hands.
"Don't...please…" Damien didn't want Lily to see his hideous injuries to not worry her. But he knew he couldn't probably hide it from her.
He felt his body suddenly faltering as he slumped over Lily.
'Damn…' Damien realized that his body was too tired than he thought and without taking any sustenance, it only made his condition worse.
Lily was surprised when Damien suddenly fell over her. But she caught him as his chin rested against her shoulder.
She instantly felt something was wrong and released her spiritual perception. Her eyes widened and her heart was shaken as she sensed the ghastly injuries all over his body.
"Damien...you!!"
She stopped herself from saying anything and quickly went towards a place where the moonlight reached the most.
She put out a long and soft mattress on the floor from her spatial ring. She held him gently while she sat down and placed his head over her lap while the rest of his body rested over the mattress.
She slowly removed the hood and saw his originally dazzling face riddled with horrendous injuries with skin missing on some parts of his face.
Seeing such a sight, tears again streamed down her cheeks in heavy succession.
She couldn't understand how he got hurt or who did this to him. Who would be so vicious to hurt and torture a cripple by peeling off their skin?
Damien's eyes were half-closed due to fatigue and faintly mumbled as he felt her warm tears dripping on his face, "L-Lily...don't cry...this...is nothing…I just look...a bit...scary hehe..." He tried to smile but felt his muscles were too stubborn to move.
He felt his senses slowly dimming along with his consciousness.
Lily saw Damien trying to reassure her by trying to force a smile but her heart was still pained seeing his condition. She quickly took out a Star Soothing Pill and put it in her mouth.
He could only vaguely see her putting something in her mouth since his vision was getting blurry.
Without much hesitation, Lily closed the distance between her and his lips and kissed him.
Damien was surprised when Lily suddenly kissed him, and felt a pill being forced into his mouth, which he involuntarily swallowed.
The pill quickly started being assimilated by his body as a soothing and relaxing sensation spread on his body. His skin cells started to regrow slowly and his blood cells were slowly regenerated.
Feeling the comforting and relaxing feeling from both the pill's effects and Lily's soft thighs, he immediately fell asleep.
"Everything will be alright...Damien." Lily whispered as she caressed his head gently. Thinking about how she just kissed him, a blush spread across her cheeks. She never expected that she would do something like that without any hesitation.
However, when she focused her spiritual perception on his body, her brows knit together.
Not soon after, Damien still felt his head resting on something soft. His consciousness slowly roused as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Ah...you woke up." Lily smiled seeing that Damien was not in pain anymore. She also saw that his injuries weren't serious anymore and were slowly healing.
Damien's eyes were greeted by Lily's angelic face smiling at him. He slowly smiled back and tried to raise his body.
But Lily held him back and said in a concerned tone, "Don't get up now. You need to rest now and let your body completely absorb the pill. You can sleep on my lap as much as you want. But tell me what's going on and who did this to you?"
Damien sighed as he slowly took out the Rank 6 Heaven Healing Pill and put it in Lily's hands.
He faintly smiled as he said, "Now your Ancestor can be saved with this Rank 6 Heaven Healing pill."
Lily's eyes trembled seeing an exceptional Rank 6 Pill in her hand. She had only heard about the rumors of a stellar healing pill known as the Heaven Healing Pill, which even the Star Soothing Pill cannot compare to.
"H-How??" She asked incredulously. Not even in her dreams could she imagine Damien getting his hands on such a pill when even she couldn't get one.
She could feel the rich medical aura emanating from it and knew it was a genuine one even without being an alchemist herself. The medical aura after all was way stronger than a Rank 5 pill.
"I am sorry Lily, I had to lie to you." Damien said as he looked away feeling guilty.
Lily's heart heaved as she asked, "Wh-What do you mean by saying that you lied to me?"
Damien sighed as he slowly let out his ethereal aura. Since Luna was always present in him, unless Damien wanted to, his cultivation would always remain hidden.
Luna thought that it would be the best way, at least till she woke up, and she wouldn't even be spending any soul essence to mask his cultivation since their soul was connected.
Lily's eyes widened as her senses picked up his ethereal aura including his cultivation at the First Level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm and even his soul cultivation.
"Impossible...this can't be...how??" She mumbled in disbelief as her brows creased.
"I am not a cripple anymore, Lily. I was indeed crippled when I came here with you. But after that my ethereal core points were fixed mysteriously. I can't tell you for your own safety, do you believe me?" Damien asked in a concerned tone.
It was not that he didn't trust Lily but because he genuinely cared for her safety. If she knows his secrets, his enemies might try to get her to tell them and she would only suffer in such a case. Not that he would let anything like that happen but he wanted to be on the safe side.
Nor can he tell Lily about Luna without her permission. Since it is not exactly his secret to tell and he also felt that Luna wouldn't want him to blurt out about her existence.
Lily looked at him with a shocked expression for a few moments.
"This...seems so...I...no...it doesn't matter how your ethereal core points got fixed...but all that matters is that you can cultivate now." Lily said with an elated expression as her eyes sparkled.
She was curious how Damien's destroyed ethereal core points were healed but hearing him say that it was not safe for her to know, she let it go. She trusted his words as she knew Damien wouldn't want anything bad happening to her.
Her curiosity didn't mean anything compared to knowing that Damien could cultivate like every other cultivator. She had always been worried about his condition, but now it was like a huge weight was lifted off from her heart.
Now everything made sense to her...why Damien didn't hesitate to take the oath to help her and seeing the cloak, she figured out who the mysterious Alchemist Azrael was.
But she wondered how Damien was able to concoct a Rank 6 Pill when he could only concoct Rank 4 Pills. Even the fact that he can concoct Rank 4 Pills with his cultivation seemed shocking to her.
However, she decided to leave those questions for later and focus on her prince charming lying on her lap, looking at her with a smile.
Right now she was moved thinking how Damien was trying his best to help her out and was glad that her only friend was the only genius alchemist who could concoct the legendary Supreme Tier Pills.
"All this while...you were out there helping me...getting hurt...I don't know how I can ever repay you while I couldn't even help you out much." Lily said as she started sobbing again. Her heart writhed seeing how she was the reason he ended up like this.
She speculated that he must have ventured to the dangerous regions in search of precious herbs.
Damien softly smiled as he raised his hand and cupped her face, staring at her with a deep and intense gaze.
Lily's heart throbbed feeling his gentle touch and seeing him staring at her intently.
"Why a-are you looking at me like that?" She asked as she shyly glanced away.
"Because I finally realized I have already fallen for you...Lily.." Damien said in an impassioned tone.