I looked at Anne-Marie and gave an apologetic smile.
"I'm afraid I ate before coming back."
"Oh…is that so?"
She looked sad about it but quickly gave me a smile.
"Then I'm glad you're not eating too late."
"Thanks for the offer. If there's another chance, let's eat together then."
Right that instant, the sound of something breaking came through her open window. Anne-Marie turned around in surprise.
I promptly told her.
"I think something broke inside. You should go take a look."
"I think I'll do that. Have a good evening then."
"You too, Anne-Marie."
A few moments later, her open window was closed with a click before my eyes. The warm light leaking from her house disappeared completely. I lowered my head with a smile on my face. The man was probably still unconscious seeing as there wasn't even the slightest movement in the flower beds.
"Haa…"
A small sigh escaped my lips.
Should I just let him die…
I agonized before a very tempting option. Most than anything else, this guy was the enemy of my favorite character. I was conflicted for a while, then I thought back to my last day at the research institute and I made up my mind.
Anyway, it was indeed thanks to this guy that I was able to escape from the research institute faster than I expected. And it was also true that the bottom ladder had become a little cleaner since this guy became king of the underworld.
Plus, my whole shtick was one act of good per request.
It just so happens that after finishing a request at dawn this morning, I had been so busy at the coffee house all day, that I was unable to do anything I could call a good deed.
Of course, it wasn't like someone ordered me to do it or I had to do it, but I felt strangely uncomfortable to just let it pass like this.
Mmm. Guess it can't be helped. I'll pick you up, Mr. sub-villain.
I dragged him and went into my house.
Certainly, moving an unconscious, limp, grown man alone was not an easy task. But for me, it was simple.
I attached thin threads that were hard to see with the naked eyes to the man's body, and while I was taking him into the house, there was virtually no weight I had to bear.
Like that, I entered my house, pulled down the curtains, extended out much more thread than before, and laid the man down on the couch. Then I touched the back of the couch and turned on the light.
Moments later, the face of Lakis Avalon taking in calm, shallow breaths, came into view.
Hmm. Even though he was lying down half-dead, he still looked handsome.
After a bored thought went by, I removed the man's cloth to look at the wound. An unrealistic sculpture-like body was revealed underneath but this time, I didn't feel particularly inspired. My gaze merely stayed on the deep wound carved across his chest.
Not that I was looking down on the heroine, but this was definitely not something ordinary treatment could fix. However, I knew just how the heroine had treated Lakis.
Like me, she had the power of the ruin's fragment. Of course, even if that was the case, it didn't mean that Anne-Marie was experimented in a lab like me.
When the ruins first appeared in a desert in the middle of the continent, it was already partially broken. I remember that it wasn't broken on purpose by someone but simple due to natural causes. However, the problem was that crushed powder fragments of the broken ruins were carried away by air and spread around.
People were totally clueless as it seeped into them. Some people likely died from the side effects. But since it wasn't known that it was due to the ruin fragments, the cause of death remained unknown. And in most cases, they only inhaled a small amount so there wasn't a significant effect on their body. However, there were some who manifested the fragment's power themselves, and one of those people was none other than the heroine, Anne-Marie.
The power to heal was sleeping inside her and she unconsciously used it to treat patients. It was because of this that the clinic Anne-Marie worked at was gaining more patients than before. Word of mouth had spread. This was also one of the reasons why Lakis was initially interested in Anne-Marie.
But since I didn't have such healing power…
I moved my threads to prepare everything I needed, including medicine, disinfectants, clean water and towels. All this might not be enough but that didn't mean I could bring Anne-Marie over. Of course, considering the wounded man, it does seem like I'm being cold-hearted.
But there's this saying, 'the crawfish is always on the crab's side' and 'the skin is nearer than the shirt'. Considering the future of Anne Marie that I had seen, I was reluctant to let him be treated by her hands.
The heroine had not committed any crime. What if she got stuck with another bloody love and war?
The sub-villain was so obsessed with Anne-Marie that he even planned to get rid of everyone around her, kidnap her and lock her up in his kingdom. That means, he even tried to kill Anne-Marie's sister, Hestia.
Even when I saw him in the novel, I clicked my tongue at his viciousness but if that became a reality…
Well, that would really suck.
I had gotten close with the little sister next door so I couldn't let them get on such a destructive route in this reality where I currently existed.
That said, this man's condition was such that I wanted to take him to the clinic and throw him in. I don't know why the timing was pushed forward but seeing how the peerless Lakis was in such a state, this was obviously that event in the novel, wasn't it?
The incident where he was betrayed by his subordinate and fatally wounded then chased from the throne with his body like this. Hence why he crawled into some remote alley instead of looking for treatment despite his huge injury.
Anyway, I was going to just do what I could, to whatever extent was possible. Lakis was someone who was called the sub-villain, so he wouldn't fall for me just because I gave him some help and I wasn't even the heroine, so it would be fine for me to treat him.
As I looked at the man lying on the couch, I drew out a bunch of threads from my fingertips. Honestly, this was my first time doing this kind of thing but I'm the type to be pretty good when it comes to the actual thing so…
"Phew."
Well then, let's start stitching.
* * *
"Haa…"
The small sigh that came from a certain set of moist red lips pricked up the ears of the people in the coffeehouse.
It was midday, with the bright sun up in the sky and amidst the time that flew by, it was now a time with a relatively small number of customers.
Yuri stared somewhere in the distance as she cleaned up an empty table. Her long, black lashes soon fell, casting a soft shadow on her pearly cheeks. The dark circles under her lashes seemed to be seeped with unfathomable concerns.
'Is she worried about something?'
Today's Yuri was a little strange. The customers of the coffeehouse kept glancing at her because she looked like she was worried about something serious but couldn't speak about it.
But contrary to what people thought, Yuri was currently just suffering from mental fatigue. Last night, she eventually didn't get a wink of sleep. Naturally, this was because of the man who was fainted in front of her house.
Of course, her body wasn't so weak that it would protest merely because she had stayed up all night. But what she did last night had required an enormous amount of concentration.
Lakis' condition was more critical than she thought.
It wouldn't end with just suturing the outer wound, she had to reconnect the ruptured organs, blood vessels and even nerves with fine thread so her enormous task had continued till dawn. If she didn't have the power from the ruin's fragment, perhaps she wouldn't even have dreamt of doing such a thing.
From what she saw last before she left home, the man was stable and breathing evenly. If the person living next to the heroine wasn't Yuri, there was a 9 out of 10 chance he would have died before daybreak. In that sense, Lakis Avalon could be called a very lucky man.
"Ms. Yuri, you look quite tired today. Must be because you worked late yesterday because of me. I feel awful, how can I make it up to you?"
Gilbert, the owner of the coffeehouse was shaken to see Yuri's face and apologized.
"It's fine. I'm not like this because of that, I just couldn't sleep well due to personal reasons."
"Really?"
"Yes. And speaking of you, Mr. Gilbert, you still don't look very well. There aren't many customers right now, so you should stop by the clinic."
Gilbert was feeling ill yesterday so he went back early, leaving the store to Yuri and today, his complexion didn't look good either. Eventually, he left the store for a brief visit to the clinic across the street.
"Ms. Yuri!"
Sometime later, Yuri saw a familiar figure running in from the front. The approaching person, whose complexion was gushing with radiance, was none other than Yuri's next-door neighbor, Anne-Marie.
People's gazes were instantly drawn to the woman, whose crystalline silver hair fluttered as she dashed over. This image of hers was so much like a child's, and every time Yuri saw it, she thought it was quite a funny sight.
"Hello, Anne-Marie."
"Ms. Yuri, Mr. Gilbert said you were currently working alone, so I came here. Thankfully, it's my break time."
Just like the coffeehouse's Yuri was famous on Ferret Street, the clinic's Anne-Marie was famous throughout the whole region. If Yuri was like a quiet starry night, Anne-Marie was like a radiant dawning sky.