Read Novel Full Chapter 496: Small Luxuries
Chapter 496: Small Luxuries
Casey stared at the bowl, lips parting and closing a few times. If her mouth wasn’t so dry, she’d be salivating.
She wanted to dig in already, but first she wanted to understand what was going on — a task her groggy mind refused to work on. “You…”
Ivan immediately leaned forward. “Don’t talk too much. Your throat sounds pretty bad.”
Woah… Too close. He was too close!
Casey snapped her gaze down back to the bowl of chicken soup. If she felt heat in her cheeks, she blamed it on the cloud of steam rising from the hot meal.
She was beginning to find her bearings when Ivan touched her forehead, probably just to check her temperature. But it still startled her enough to make her jump.
He stepped back, nodding to himself. “I found you passed out in the middle of the hallway. You had a very high fever. It’s rare to see an Awakened suffering from fever. Our enhanced immune system makes us pretty resistant to mundane illnesses.”
“Oh… right,” Casey managed. Hesitantly, she then took a sip of the broth. The warmth melted on her tongue and she nearly let out an embarrassing noise.
Ridiculous! All this was so ridiculous!
A boy she barely knew — a boy with the most number of eliminations in the Mock War, a boy who betrayed her and single-handedly pushed the Ivory faction on the back foot — had barged into her home, used her kitchen, and cooked her a soup that tasted like absolute heaven.
Ah! And he also carried her to bed. Wow, she could just die from shame right now.
“Is it good?” Ivan asked, pulling up a chair and sinking into it with a weary sigh. “I’m not much of a chef, but my mother always made chicken soup whenever I caught a cold back home. I just tried to replicate what she did.”
Casey swallowed hard, feeling the warmth spread down her aching throat and into her cold chest. It was the best thing she had in months.
If she had money to burn, she’d have given this brilliant boy a blank cheque.
“It’s… alright. Could use more salt,” she muttered, her voice slightly clearer now. She took another spoonful, then paused, her gaze shifting to him. “Wait, why didn’t you just call the medics?”
Did he not know about her condition? She thought Samael must’ve told him.
Ivan shrugged. “I figured you didn’t want them involved. You know, considering your condition.”
Nevermind.
“You shouldn’t have pushed yourself so hard during the Mock War. Was it really that important?”
“I…” it was Casey’s turn to shrug. “It was a matter of pride, I guess. I promised someone I’d be strong. If I had failed to prove myself, I’d have broken that promise.”
“I see,” Ivan nodded. If anyone knew the need to prove oneself, it was him. So how could he question her conviction? He didn’t say it out loud, but a small look of understanding glinted in his eyes. “Hey… if you want, I can concoct a cure for you.”
Casey stilled, slowly dropping the spoon back into the bowl. “What?”
“Yeah, I mean…” Ivan fidgeted a little, pushing his glasses up his nose. He seemed nervous about being here too. “I’m not bragging or anything but I’m a very good alchemist.”
She responded by narrowing her eyes at him.
The boy cleared his throat. “Okay, maybe I am bragging a little. But my dissertation scored the highest marks in the entire first year. Even the seniors in the Alchemy Society admitted they couldn’t find any flaws in my research.”
Casey kept on staring.
“I’ve studied a lot of poisons and antidotes. Especially poisons.” He adjusted his glasses again. “Frost-bite antidote is tricky. But if you get me the right ingredients, I’m fairly confident that I can cure you.”
He was done talking, but she was still just staring, wordless and unmoving.
Ivan waited a few seconds, then started fidgeting a little harder when he received no response. At last, he started getting up. “Okay, my bad. I presumed too much. Sorry.”
“No, wait!” But Casey quickly reached out to grab his sleeve. “I appreciate the offer, Ivan. I really do. But I… It’s just that after buying the ingredients, I wouldn’t have enough money left to pay you.”
“What?” Ivan made a face, settling back down. “I wasn’t asking you to pay me.”
“…Huh?”
“Yeah. I don’t need money. I mean, more money never hurts, but I’ve never really been materialistic,” he chuckled, then remembered the pile of clothes currently lying in Casey’s drawing room. “Actually, forget I said that.”
Casey frowned, confused for more than one reason now. “Ivan, even one dose of the antidote to Frost-bite takes months to prepare. You’d be spending hours upon hours in the lab.”
“Probably.”
“…Probably?”
“Yeah. It’s a complicated poison. I wouldn’t want to rush it and accidentally make things worse.”
Okay, Casey was really speechless now. “You can’t do all that work for free. You shouldn’t. Why would you go that far for me anyway?”
At this point, Ivan’s face was mirroring Casey’s confusion. “Because you’re sick and I can help? If I don’t interfere and your condition gets worse like it did today, it would weigh on my conscience.”
Wow.
This guy just couldn’t stop surprising Casey. “That is very noble of you. But if I take unfair advantage of your kindness, it’ll weigh on my conscience.”
Silence blanketed the room.
From what he had seen of her, Ivan knew the heiress of Snowrite was a proud and stubborn young woman.
But this…?
She was refusing help because she felt guilty about accepting it.
He wasn’t sure what to make of that. “You know, you’re allowed to let people help you sometimes.”
Casey looked away, her fingers tightening slightly around the spoon. “I know.”
“Do you? Because you’re making a pretty convincing argument otherwise.”
She glared at him.
Ivan held up his hands. “I’m just saying.”
Casey lowered her gaze to the bowl again. The steam had begun to fade, but the soup was still warm. “I don’t like owing people.”
“But you won’t,” Ivan pressed on, folding his arms. “If I cure you, you won’t owe me anything. It’s not like you’re asking me to build you a house. You’re sick. I know how to make medicine. You need medicine. Seems pretty straightforward to me.”
“Ivan, it’s months of work. Six months, at least. All your free time would go toward concocting those doses. I can’t ask you—”
“Oh Monarchs,” Ivan sighed. “Look, if you really want to pay me back, you can let me crash on your couch.”
Out of everything that happened today, Casey was taken aback the most by… this. “M-My couch?”
“Yes. I’m sort of homeless right now,” he gave a self-deprecating laugh, scratching the back of his head. “I was living with Irina and Viktor, but they kicked me out after… you know.”
“Oh. Oh, yes. Punching your girlfriend in the face would do it, I guess,” Casey stifled a chortle, but upon seeing Ivan wither down, she quickly pursed her lips. “Sure, you can stay here. But can I ask why you haven’t gone to Samael? He would help you out, right?”
Ivan looked visibly uncomfortable at the notion. “I spent most of my life trying to catch up to Viktor. He was always stronger than me. More confident and more popular. People naturally gravitated toward him even when we were kids. Samael is the same. Don’t get me wrong. Unlike Viktor, I respect him a lot. What he did in the Night Sanctuary alone makes him more of a man than any man I know. If I go to him, he will help me out. Yes. But that’s exactly the problem. If I go to him now, I’ll probably end up doing the same thing again.”
“Which is?”
“…Follow someone,” answered Ivan. “I don’t want that. I want to figure out who I am when I’m not in someone’s shadow.”
Casey appeared to be deep in thought before calmly shaking her head. “I think you’re thinking too much. You just needed better friends who treated you right. And a better girlfriend. As great as Irina might be, she didn’t deserve you. Good riddance, I say. You have already proved who you are. People cannot stop talking about how phenomenal you were in the Mock War. Even most of the Cadets you hospitalized are your fan.”
Ivan snorted. “You think so?”
Casey nodded enthusiastically even as her neck ached. “Definitely! I’m one of them, honestly. I like to think I’m sharp, but I never saw your betrayal coming. Oh, and the switch-up you did was the cherry on the cake! There I was, warning you to step away from the water. And you went like—” She mimed taking off her non-existent glasses and deepened her voice in a terrible impression of him. “—’Or… what?'”
“Ahhhh!” Ivan screamed, hiding his face behind his palms. “Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it! I’m cringing!”
“Why? It was so good! I lost my damn mind.”
“Stop it!”
“Or… what?”
Ivan’s scream had dissolved into a screech now. He shot up and snatched the bowl of chicken soup from the sick girl’s lap before she could protest. “That’s it! No more soup for you!”
“No!” grinning and giggling, Casey tried grabbing it back but Ivan lifted it out of her reach. “Okay, sorry, sorry, give it back!”
“Why? Wasn’t it just alright? Lacked salt, didn’t it?”
“I lied, it’s perfect! Give it back! Give it baaaack!”
“Or… what?”
Casey lost it. She burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, falling to her side.
It hurt like hell. Her ribs, especially, were in so much agony that she was wheezing before she knew it and Ivan was bringing her water. Yet, she couldn’t stop laughing. She didn’t want to stop.
At night, when she was alone, she would be thinking back to this moment with tears in her eyes. Melancholic, because she had forgotten such small luxuries of life.
Luxuries that people don’t remember are actually luxuries until they lose them. Like being able to call your mom. Having a full fridge and not having to worry about your health.
Sleeping through the night undisturbed on clean sheets. Coming home to your people and feeling at peace.
Doing nothing on a slow Sunday morning… and laughing until your stomach hurts.
She had rediscovered some of those luxuries tonight.