IBSBV Ch 23

Chapter 23

Louis’s face was deathly pale. Eddie wanted to tell him to stop before he got seriously hurt—he could feel the words rising to his throat—but for some reason, they never made it out.

And in that moment of hesitation, Louis lost his balance again. Flailing his limbs, he barely managed to get back up, looking an absolute mess.

At some point, his scarf had come loose and was swept away by the wind, disappearing into the distance. Normally, he would’ve noticed right away, but this time he didn’t. Instead, he gritted his teeth and forced his legs to move faster.

The closer Louis got, the more Eddie could feel how wrong something was. His pupils, already dilated, had darkened to pure black, and soon enough, a shadowy aura began to swirl violently around his body. Eddie found it hard to breathe.

It wasn’t just threatening—it was feral.

Suddenly, a scene from the original novel flashed through his mind. The part where ‘Eddie’ raised a white sword to kill Louis, only to be consumed by a curse. The exact page where ‘Eddie’ exited the story blurred into the present.

And just when it felt like his vision would be swallowed up by a sea of cramped letters, Louis crashed into him—wild and unrelenting like a beast untamed.

—Eddie…!

Panting heavily, Louis trembled in Eddie’s arms. One hand gripped Eddie’s back, the other cradled the back of his head, as if trying to shield him from something.

—What is this? What’s going on? I could’ve sworn… it smelled like him. Like my brother Sover. The way he smells when he’s angry—furious…

His body trembled with a storm of tangled emotions: shock, fear, deep resentment, and the frantic desperation of someone who might lose something irreplaceable. It surged within him like a hurricane.

And of course, Eddie wasn’t unaffected. The tidal wave of emotion pouring out of Louis hit him like a flood, scattering his thoughts. The intensity of Louis’s rage and anguish was on an entirely different scale than anything Eddie had felt before.

To keep himself from being swept away, Eddie bit down hard on his tongue and waited—waited for Louis to calm down.

The longer it took, the more it felt like hell. A nameless trauma, buried somewhere deep, slithered up his spine. His body began to tremble.

For a moment, it felt like the familiar weight of being chained to his family and money—something he thought he’d escaped—was slipping back into him through his fingertips.

It didn’t make any sense.

This wasn’t the broken world Jung Suhyun used to live in. And he was in Eddie’s body now—something like that shouldn’t be happening. And yet, a strange, creeping sensation kept wrapping around his body, suffocating him.

‘Damn it… Get a grip…!’

It felt like being trapped in a dream—or maybe a nightmare. If he let go now, he might actually lose consciousness. He clenched his jaw, forcing his eyes open to look at Louis.

Magic messenger birds could only be sensed or heard by those they were meant for. Without special training, everyone else would just see them as regular birds.

And Sover, of all people… someone so meticulous wouldn’t use just any old magical creature. His messenger was bound to be different.

The fact that Louis had noticed something at all was shocking in itself. It meant that he’d been acutely aware of Sover all this time—had been on high alert.

Judging by his muttering, he hadn’t heard the actual message, only sensed the energy. But still.

‘Urgh!’

Louis’s arms tightened even more. Eddie, hoping to calm him down, gently placed a hand on his chest, which was heaving with ragged breaths, and gave it a few reassuring pats. Just when it felt like something in his body might actually break from the pressure, the suffocating grip finally loosened.

As his own thoughts cleared, the black aura that had engulfed Louis began to fade.

“…Your Highness.”

Only then did Louis lift his head, his eyes finally back to normal.

“Eddie… Are—are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine. Are you okay, Your Highness? What about your leg? Are you hurt?”

“I… I’m okay. I’m sorry. I promised I wouldn’t fall again, but I… I just fell before I even realized it…”

His eyes started to tremble. Lost in the confusion that had come crashing down too late, he looked completely helpless.

Without being able to see, Louis kept turning his head this way and that, trying desperately to sense Sover’s presence. And then, finally—he broke down in tears.

Just moments ago, his face had been filled with joy and anticipation. Now, that expression was gone, replaced by an overwhelming sadness.

“You told me… to stay still. And you were coming to me… and then something happened. I swear I smelled him—my brother, when he’s angry. I don’t know what happened. I can’t see… and because I can’t see, I don’t know anything. I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m sorry, Eddie…”

I’m sorry. I messed up. His apologies came out in a jumbled rush, completely incoherent, and self-blame followed right behind. The hands holding onto Eddie trembled uncontrollably.

He had thrown away a cane—a cane more precious than life itself, chosen for Eddie’s sake—without hesitation. And all while blind.

What if it had hit Eddie? What if it had seriously hurt him? The thought crushed him with guilt and helplessness.

—I wish I could see. I want to see again…

He had someone precious now. But he had no way to protect him. Instead of keeping him safe, he’d almost put him in danger. That made him furious with himself.

“Your Highness.”

Eddie gently tugged at his sleeve, wiping away the tears on Louis’s face.

“First of all, I’m really okay. I’m not hurt anywhere. I’m perfectly fine.”

His voice was low and steady—so calm it was cold. He could have used a kinder tone, spoken more gently. But now wasn’t the time for half-measures. Right now, what Louis needed wasn’t comfort.

‘He wouldn’t want that either.’

Eddie cupped both of Louis’s cheeks with his hands and met his gaze. There was no presence nearby. Still, just in case, he brought his lips close to Louis’s ear and whispered.

“What Your Highness just dealt with was a magical carrier bird. It’s a spell usually used to send secret messages. That bird carried a command from Prince Sover.”

—My brother’s command….

“…To kill me. To kill me quickly?”

“Yes.”

“What… What were you planning to do?”

“I was going to ignore it.”

Ignore it… As Louis echoed Eddie’s words, the color drained from his face. In the past, he might’ve pushed Eddie away and accused him of lying, but now, he didn’t.

—I… What have I done?

Louis had already started to suspect. That someone among the knights was reporting to Sover about what was happening in the north. Perhaps it wasn’t just one—maybe all of them were acting as Sover’s eyes. Knowing his brother’s meticulous nature, if such a report included Louis’s recent behavior, it made sense he would try to push Eddie into action.

In other words, the gentle and warm way Louis had treated Eddie must have caught Sover’s attention. And Eddie’s decision to ignore the message meant he was choosing not to provoke Sover—at least, not on the surface.

But Louis, unaware of that, had gone and destroyed the carrier bird just because he’d caught the scent of his brother’s anger. It was easy to imagine the difficult position Eddie was now in.

His heart sank.

—I put Eddie in danger.

All because he couldn’t control his emotions. His poor judgment had ended up pushing away the very person who had pulled him out of the depths.

“Your Highness, pull yourself together. This is no time for self-pity.”

“I… I’ve only dragged you down. How could I… How could I do that to you…?”

“Your Highness!”

Startled, Louis flinched.

“You have never dragged me down. Listen carefully. It was just a magical bird. If I were the kind of person to get scared and worked up over something like that, I would’ve never come to the north in the first place. I ignored it because it wasn’t worth acknowledging. Nothing more.”

Eddie slipped out of Louis’s now-slack embrace. As the warmth faded, Louis’s eyes went blank again.

“Come on, that’s enough moping. Take my hand and get up. How long are you going to stay sitting there?”

“I—”

The words I’m sorry kept pricking at his tongue like thorns, but Louis forced them back down. He’d realized something—pointless apologies, said over and over with no strength to back them, only served to highlight his weakness.

Eddie was right. This wasn’t the time to sit around blaming himself. He grabbed the hand that had been extended to him and stood up.

“Wait here for a moment.”

The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow spread through the still air. A few minutes passed. Then Louis returned, holding the cane in his hand.

“I’ll never carelessly throw away something you gave me again.”

“Okay. But this cane? It’s okay to treat it roughly. That’s what I got it for. If you ever feel in danger, don’t cling to it just because it’s precious. That’s reckless. I’d rather the cane break than see Your Highness hurt even a little. Understand? Remember that.”

“I hate it too… when you get hurt. More than anything in the world. That’s why I did it.”

He knew it was a flimsy excuse, but he couldn’t not say it.

Because it was the truth. Still, the moment it left his lips, he felt a wave of shame wash over him, his face burning red—because deep down, it sounded cowardly and unmanly.