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Chapter 5: The second letter

Chapter 5: The second letter

Leviana woke after nearly twenty hours submerged in sleep.

The first thing she felt wasn’t pain, but panic.

The chair beside the bed was empty.

In that instant, memories from her previous life nearly devoured every shred of her reason. Leviana remembered also waking in a room without Lathel, remembered thinking he had only stepped away for a moment, remembered telling herself that once her body recovered she would find him and bring him back.

But the next time she saw Lathel, he was lying cold and still in the snow.

Leviana pressed both hands against the bed, trying to push her body up. The moment her arms bore weight they shook violently, her vision went dark, but she still clenched her teeth and tried to get down.

Right then, the door opened.

Lathel walked in carrying a tray of medicinal fluid. Seeing Leviana leaning off the edge of the bed, he immediately set the tray down and rushed over, one hand supporting her from behind the shoulder while the other caught her waist.

Leviana’s body went limp, nearly collapsing entirely against his chest.

Lathel showed no sign of awkwardness. He eased her back to the center of the bed, adjusted the pillow behind her, and checked her forehead, breathing, and wrist in just a few practiced motions. His care was thorough to an almost unbelievable degree, as though he had memorized every small change in her body over the course of three years.

After confirming Leviana was in no danger, Lathel stepped back two paces.

The sudden distance that appeared between them made her brow crease slightly.

He raised his hands and slowly signed.

"You shouldn’t get out of bed on your own."

Leviana watched those hands.

She understood every gesture perfectly, but deliberately waited a few seconds in silence before asking:

"You want to hold me?"

Lathel’s hands froze in midair.

Leviana kept a perfectly serious expression.

"I’ve only just woken up, so I may not be reading your signs correctly. You just said you want to hold me, right?"

Lathel immediately shook his head, his hands moving faster.

"No."

"I only said you shouldn’t get out of bed on your own."

Leviana blinked.

"So you want to carry me?"

Lathel: "..."

He turned and walked to the table beside the bed, picked up the small board and a piece of chalk, then wrote very clearly.

You slept for nearly twenty hours. Your body is still very weak. Do not get out of bed on your own.

Leviana finished reading, then slowly shifted her gaze to his face.

"I see."

Lathel nodded.

She spoke again:

"But just now you really did hold me."

The hand holding the chalk went still.

"And touched my waist."

Lathel lowered his head and wrote another line.

If I hadn’t caught you, you would have fallen.

"It’s just the two of us in this room."

He looked up.

The corner of Leviana’s lips finally curved.

"If I were to say you took advantage of me while I was weak, how would you explain yourself?"

Lathel immediately raised the board.

Leviana looked at him, her smile growing clearer.

"You can’t speak."

She tilted her head, her black hair sliding down one shoulder.

"Who’s going to believe you?"

Lathel stood motionless for a few seconds, then silently set the board down and turned toward the door.

Leviana called out at once:

"Where are you going?"

He signed without turning around.

"To find a maid."

"No need."

Lathel stopped.

"I was only teasing you."

He slowly turned his head, a trace of helplessness in his eyes that Leviana had never seen from him before.

The smile on her lips softened as well.

In the previous life, she had never teased Lathel like this.

Most of the time, Leviana had always felt he showed up at the wrong moment. Because Lathel couldn’t speak and she hadn’t yet learned sign language, every attempt he made to explain something turned into a string of incomprehensible gestures.

Once, Lathel blocked her carriage before she could attend a banquet. He kept pointing at the wheels and tried to pull her out, but Leviana thought he was using the betrothal as an excuse to bother her.

She had coldly ordered her guards to push him aside.

Not long after, a wheel was destroyed in the middle of a mountain road. If not for the escort mage, the entire convoy would have gone over the cliff.

Another time, Lathel suddenly grabbed her wrist in front of a crowd. Leviana assumed he was being deliberately disrespectful, slapped him across the face, and walked away.

That night, she discovered a curse seal on her wrist.

Lathel hadn’t been trying to take liberties.

He had simply seen the warning sign and tried to stop the curse from spreading.

There were many other times as well.

Lathel had once appeared outside her study to warn her about a traitorous steward, but Leviana thought he was begging for money. He had once brought a tampered medicine bottle to her, but she assumed he was deliberately ruining a gift from Aldric.

Every time Lathel tried to explain, she never had enough patience to watch those clumsy hand gestures through to the end.

By the time she understood the full truth, she no longer had the chance to say she was sorry.

Thinking of all the times she had coldly turned her back, Leviana’s heart ached as though a hand had clenched around it.

Seeing her expression change suddenly, Lathel immediately stepped back over. He was about to check her pulse, but remembering the teasing from moments ago, his hand froze in midair.

Leviana noticed the hesitation and held out her wrist on her own.

"You have my permission."

Lathel was slightly taken aback.

"Go ahead and check."

Only then did he place his fingers on her pulse.

After a few seconds, Lathel confirmed that Leviana’s condition was still stable and was about to withdraw his hand, but she turned her wrist and caught his.

"Help me sit up."

Lathel shook his head.

"I’ll only sit on the edge of the bed. I won’t get down."

He still didn’t agree right away, using signs to remind her she had almost fallen just moments ago.

Leviana watched for a moment, then translated with a straight face:

"You said you’ll hold me tight so I won’t fall?"

Lathel immediately snatched up the board and chalk.

I did not say that.

"Then will you help me or not?"

Lathel looked at her, and in the end could only let out a hoarse breath before walking over.

He adjusted the pillows first, then slipped one hand behind Leviana’s shoulders. His other hand held her waist through the fabric of her dress, applying force very slowly so she could adjust. Despite simplifying many of the steps, Leviana still noticed that Lathel was careful to the point where he barely let her suffer any additional pain at all.

When she sat upright, her body lost its balance and she instinctively leaned into his chest.

Lathel immediately steadied her waist.

The distance between them became very close.

Leviana could feel his steady heartbeat, while Lathel’s breath brushed over her hair. He was entirely focused on checking whether she was dizzy, completely unaware that the arm holding the young woman’s waist had drawn their bodies nearly flush against each other.

Leviana tilted her head up to look at him.

"You can let go now."

Lathel released his hold at once.

The moment her body tilted slightly, he quickly caught her again.

Leviana laughed softly.

"It seems you can’t let go just yet."

Lathel knew she was teasing him, but this time he couldn’t argue back. He simply pulled the chair closer to the bed, letting Leviana lean against his shoulder while he readjusted the pillows.

After a while, she spoke:

"I need you to help me with something."

Lathel looked at her.

"The head of the family already sent someone with a letter to my family, didn’t he?"

He nodded.

"Has the messenger left yet?"

Lathel thought for a moment, then answered in signs that the head of the family’s man had departed early that morning.

Leviana closed her eyes briefly.

Just as she had predicted.

In the previous life, after waking, she had also believed her father would receive the news quickly. But the letter had been held back for several days. By the time her father set out, the secret route had already been leaked, and his escort was ambushed.

Aldric appeared at the most critical moment, drove off the attackers, and became her family’s savior.

It was only later that Leviana learned the ambush had been arranged by him all along.

He had made her father indebted to him while simultaneously gaining a justification to send his own people into the territory under the guise of protection.

Given Aldric’s character, he would certainly repeat a similar plan.

A person who always believed himself the protagonist would never pass up the chance to play the hero.

"That letter won’t arrive on time."

Lathel’s brow creased slightly.

Leviana turned to look at him.

"Aldric may delay it. Or he’ll let the letter arrive, then arrange an ambush on my father’s route here."

Lathel immediately picked up the board.

Why would he do that?

"To rescue my father."

He looked at her, confused.

Leviana explained calmly: "He arranges the ambush, then shows up himself to drive off the attackers. My father ends up owing him a debt, and he gains legitimate grounds to place his people inside my family."

Lathel fell silent.

The plan sounded exceedingly ruthless, but Leviana’s expression didn’t look like she was speculating idly.

She had witnessed it happen.

She simply couldn’t tell him that.

"I need to send a second letter."

Leviana pointed at the wardrobe near the window. "In the bottom drawer, there’s a black wooden box."

Lathel walked over, took the box out, and placed it beside the bed. Inside were a few old pieces of jewelry, a small knife, and a silver badge bearing the image of an eagle with folded wings.

Leviana picked up the badge.

"I have a guard inside this household."

Lathel looked mildly surprised.

"My status isn’t so low that I would be sent to a strange place without a single protector. After I fell into the coma, most of my guards were forced to return, but one stayed behind in secret."

She took out a piece of paper and wrote a name.

Gareth.

"He’s disguised as an assistant manager at the western stables. Bring this badge and the letter to him."

Lathel pointed at himself.

"Yes, you."

He picked up the writing board:

You could have the steward deliver it.

"No."

A personal maid?

"No."

Lathel looked at her.

Leviana answered very simply:

"I trust you."

The hand holding the chalk went still.

"The first letter only serves to make Aldric think I don’t suspect anything. The second letter is the real order. Gareth will find a different route to send word, and at the same time warn my father not to leave the territory on a whim."

Leviana wrote very quickly. Though her hand was still weak, every stroke was clear and decisive.

The letter’s contents weren’t long.

She simply informed them that she was awake, ordered her parents to hold their position, and told them under no circumstances to come here before receiving a third signal. Gareth was to examine everyone who had ever had contact with the medicine supply route and secretly investigate anyone connected to Aldric.

At the end of the letter, Leviana paused for a moment before adding one more line.

The person carrying this letter is my most important ally. His orders may be treated as my own.

Lathel didn’t read the contents, but after she folded the letter, he still signed a question:

"Why give this task to me?"

Leviana looked at him.

Because in the previous life, when everyone else had betrayed her, only Lathel had still tried to help.

Because even when she misunderstood him, drove him away, and hurt him, he had never truly abandoned her.

Because she had already lost him once.

But those words couldn’t be spoken right now.

"Because nobody pays attention to you."

Lathel stiffened.

Leviana immediately realized that might make him misunderstand, and added:

"That’s an advantage."

She looked him straight in the eye.

"Aldric thinks you’re an insignificant character who can’t affect anything. He’d never suspect I’d entrust the most important task to you."

Lathel looked at the letter in her hand, then slowly nodded.

Leviana handed him the letter and the badge. When their fingertips touched, lines of pale golden text immediately appeared before her eyes.

[Absolute trust has been established.]

[Fortune Star Halo is protecting Leviana.]

[A portion of lost power is being restored.]

A current of warm mana spread outward from deep within her body. The magic veins that had weakened over five years of coma began to stir, tiny threads of power slowly converging toward her mana core.

Leviana closed her eyes and felt it.

At her peak, she had once stepped into the Sage tier, a genius among geniuses known throughout the entire kingdom. After being sabotaged and falling into a coma, her power had steadily declined, most of her mana had dissipated, and even her foundation had begun to show signs of collapse.

But under the protection of Lathel’s halo, the strength returning to her was neither feeble nor chaotic as she had expected.

Each layer of power restored became more solid than before.

Her magic veins expanded.

Her mana grew purer.

Even the old damage within her mana core was being repaired in a manner so perfect it was almost beyond belief.

It wasn’t just recovery.

She was being rebuilt from the ground up on a stronger foundation.

Leviana opened her eyes and watched Lathel tuck the letter inside his shirt.

This man still had no idea what kind of miracle he had just created.

He was only checking whether the letter was properly hidden, then signed to ask if she needed anything else.

Leviana looked at him for a while, then said:

"Yes."

Lathel waited.

"Before you go, hold me once."

He went completely still.

Leviana continued, her tone perfectly composed:

"I’ve just woken after five years. My body is weak, my mind uneasy. One embrace from the person who’s been caring for me is hardly unreasonable."

Lathel immediately reached for the board.

Leviana caught his wrist.

"You can’t speak."

The corner of her lips curved.

"If I say you held me of your own accord, who’s going to believe you?"

Lathel: "..."

She had only meant to tease him, but looking at the helplessness on that face, her heart ached again from old memories.

Leviana didn’t wait for his consent any longer. She leaned forward, wrapped her arms around Lathel’s waist, and rested her forehead against his chest.

Lathel’s body stiffened slightly.

After a few seconds, he still raised his hand and gently supported her shoulder so she wouldn’t lose her balance.

Leviana closed her eyes.

In the previous life, she had pushed these hands away far too many times.

This time, she would not keep driving him away.

"Go on."

She let go before she no longer wanted to.

"Deliver the letter to Gareth, then come back."

Lathel nodded.

Before leaving the room, he used the chalk to write a line on the board.

I’ll be back before you fall asleep.

Leviana looked at those words, and the smile on her lips slowly faded, replaced by something cold.

She knew Aldric would not sit idle.

The first letter was a trap set for him.

The second letter was her true opening move.

In the previous life, Aldric had used her family’s trust to devour everything from within.

This time, before he could even set foot on the board, Leviana had already begun severing every path he was preparing to use.

And the first piece she placed on the board...

Was none other than the person Aldric had never once deemed worthy of a second glance.