Chapter 27: Waking Up On The Floor

Night passed quietly, and morning eventually arrived.

Monica slowly opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for several moments, her thoughts gradually returning as she remembered what had happened the previous night.

"It nearly reached me..." she mumbled, her voice quiet as she continued staring upward.

She sighed softly before adding, "Thankfully, that idiot husband of mine gave me the antidote in time."

A faint smile appeared on her face.

She was glad Elias had returned when he did. If he had arrived even a little later, she might have lost her life to the darkness residing within her.

"I need to thank him," Monica said.

She turned her head toward the door and stared at it.

It was still early morning, and Elias normally wouldn’t come to her room for another few hours. She wasn’t sure whether she could remain awake until then, especially after everything her body had gone through.

However, as her gaze shifted toward the side of the room, she suddenly noticed something that made her pause.

Elias was sprawled across the floor.

He was lying on his back with a peaceful smile on his face, his chest rising and falling rhythmically as he slept.

Monica stared at him for several seconds with a dumbfounded expression before finally asking, "What is he doing here...?"

Wasn’t he supposed to be sleeping with that woman named Natasha or whatever her name was?

Not that Monica cared.

She didn’t even know the woman. She had only met Elias’s red-haired wife once, and that woman had called Monica weird almost immediately.

Monica had wanted to throw a few spells at her in response, but unfortunately, her current condition made that impossible.

She shook her head before muttering, "Forget that. Why the hell is he on the floor?"

Her confusion deepened as she looked at Elias again.

"What the hell happened?" she asked.

Monica studied him more carefully, her eyes moving across his sleeping figure. She noticed his slender yet refined body, fair skin, and handsome face, all of which looked rather peaceful while he slept.

’He doesn’t look that bad...’ she remarked inwardly. ’Good enough for passing marks.’

She continued examining him with keen interest, partly out of curiosity and partly because she wanted to understand what had happened to him.

Then her gaze slowly moved lower.

Monica’s eyes widened slightly when she noticed a physical reaction that was quite common among men during sleep.

"W-What...?" she stuttered.

A faint blush immediately spread across her pale face.

Instead of looking away, however, Monica continued staring at the raised weapon with almost devoted interest.

She was a mage.

Studying strange phenomena was perfectly normal for mages, especially when something unfamiliar appeared in front of them.

At least, that was what she told herself.

’Yes. I am not a pervert,’ Monica comforted herself inwardly, her face becoming even redder.

She continued staring for another moment before slowly narrowing her eyes.

’But why is it so... big?’ she wondered.

A few minutes passed as Monica continued staring at Elias, her curiosity refusing to let her look away. The room remained quiet until a low groan suddenly escaped from the floor.

Her eyes widened slightly as she turned toward Elias.

He shifted where he lay, his brows furrowing as he slowly began waking up.

Monica immediately turned her head away and took several slow breaths, trying to calm herself.

The warmth on her face gradually faded, and by the time Elias opened his eyes, she had managed to regain her usual composure.

"Finally awake, huh?" Monica muttered.

Elias blinked several times before his gaze settled on her.

"You are fine..." he mumbled.

A mischievous smile appeared on Monica’s face as she looked down at herself and said, "If being paralysed from the neck down is what you call fine, then yeah, I am."

Elias chuckled softly before shaking his head.

"I didn’t mean it that way..." he said.

He placed one hand against the floor and pushed himself upright, his body still feeling somewhat heavy after spending the night there.

Monica watched him carefully before asking, "What happened the previous night?"

Elias remained silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, then explained everything that had happened after he returned to the manor.

He told her that he had checked on her shortly after arriving and found her in the middle of an unusually severe seizure, with the dark smoke pouring from her mouth and filling the entire room.

He explained how the magical formations had stopped functioning properly, how the antidote had frozen before he could give it to her normally, and how he had eventually found another way to get the medicine into her body.

He left out everything concerning the system, simply telling her that his resistance to the poison had allowed him to enter the room and survive the poisonous smoke long enough to help her.

Monica listened quietly until he finished.

"So the smoke was coming out of my mouth..." she said, her brows slightly furrowed.

"Yeah," Elias nodded.

Monica narrowed her eyes as she thought about his explanation before asking, "How did you feed me the antidote then?"

Elias froze for a moment.

"Ah... that..." he mumbled under his breath.

Monica narrowed her eyes further, her expression making it clear that she wasn’t going to accept a vague answer.

"How did you feed it to me?" she asked firmly.

Elias stared at her lips as yesterday’s events replayed in his mind. After a brief silence, he finally answered, "The smoke was unable to freeze me, so I placed the antidote in my mouth and then fed it to you."

"Oh..." Monica exhaled.

Her brows furrowed as she processed his words, and then her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Y-You!" she stammered.

Elias scratched his cheek and gave her a faint, sly smile.

"That was the only way," he said.

Monica stared at him for several seconds before her face flushed again.

"You took my first kiss! You bastard!" she spewed.

"Huh?"