Until the Substitute Saintess is Loved: The Sister Sent to the Convent as the Villainess Heals Everyone's Hearts with Her Healing Powers - Chapter 29

I was careless.

The Cockatrice, king of magical beasts, breathed its final breath as its head was pierced.

I twisted my body at the last moment, but couldn’t fully evade the breath attack.

(Damn, the poison’s effect!)

The beast king bit my arm with its manticore tail and flung me with all its might.

My paralyzed body was sent flying into the river.

“Lord Landrick!”

I could hear Lupina’s scream, but my consciousness was fading and I could no longer move my body at will.

Then someone desperately clung to my drifting form.

Even as I realized we were being swept away by the muddy current, I couldn’t even manage to push away the person holding onto me.

(Am I going to die here…?)

Half my body was already beyond my conscious control.

This was my first time experiencing petrification, and it seemed to begin with the loss of sensation.

—And so.

I must have lost consciousness.

But then warmth filled my body, and the sensation returned to my numb limbs.

Feeling someone embracing me, I struggled to force open my impossibly heavy eyelids.

“Lu…pina…? Stop… don’t use any more… magic…”

I realized this warmth came from Lupina’s healing magic. I understood, but I couldn’t let her continue like this.

Lupina’s magical power should have already reached its limit.

Back in that cursed forest, she had generously used healing magic not just on the royal knights, but even on Forthner who had treated her so harshly.

The magical energy that had enveloped all the knights felt exactly like the warmth I was receiving now.

Lupina had healed everyone without discrimination.

If she continued using magic like this, I knew what would happen to her.

I wanted to stop her, but neither my mouth nor body would obey me.

My blurred vision gradually regained focus and clarity.

Lupina’s face looking down at me had no veil.

The revealed face was exactly the Lupina I was familiar with from the palace, yet her eye color was a softer, clearer blue than Lupina’s.

A subtle color difference that only someone like me, who saw that woman’s face nearly every day, would have noticed. Seeing her desperately healing me with tears in her eyes made my chest ache.

(What had I been seeing all this time…?)

She had been different from the start.

Despite being interrogated, beaten, and dragged to this place—she never should have had to come here.

I wanted to apologize from the bottom of my heart.

Forcing my immobile body to move, I reached out to gently touch her tear-streaked cheek.

If only I could be of some help to her.

Even if I tried to stop her, she would probably continue using her healing power.

The power healing me intensified suddenly, and freedom returned to my body.

The moment my gray fingertips returned to their normal skin color was the same moment the woman who had been called Lupina lost consciousness.

(I will never let you go)

I held her tightly in my arms.