I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend - Chapter 40

“Oh, you’ve grown a lot, Rudrick. You’ve made other friends beside me.”

“Yes?”

“But I’m still your best friend, right?”

I asked playfully, and Rudrick blankly stared at me and then burst into laughter. Then he answered firmly.

“Yeah, the best…”

We looked down at the capital without a word for a moment.

I’m not sure what Rudrick was thinking right now.

As if he was more excited and brought me here, he was just staring in the air calmly.

I suddenly wanted to ask him what he was looking at and ‘what are you thinking?’ But I didn’t ask.

I thought it would be okay to maintain this comfortable silence, which would sometimes be understandable.

“If you stand here, you will see.”

“Huh?”

“All the worries would disappear.”

“…”

“A depressed and a sad heart. All the negative emotions seem to be pushed away by the wind and disappear…”

Rudrick muttered looking into the distance.

Listening to the story, I casually spoke.

“Do you think so?”

Rudrick answered in a somewhat lonely tone.

“I don’t know.”

Dahlia didn’t ask any more. Instead, she secretly wished for the place where Rudrick was staring, looking at the empty space together.

As you said, I hope that those negative feelings will disappear from here.

And it wasn’t long after that that Rudrick’s awkward voice came.

“Just… I thought it would be nice to come here with you.”

The slightly hoarse voice seemed embarrassed by what he said.

Shifting my gaze toward Rudrick, I said brightly.

“That’s too bad. You’re supposed to spread out a mat and eat sandwiches when you come to places like this.”

“Wasn’t that a picnic?”

“What if it’s not a picnic?”

When I asked back, Rudrick looked blankly. Rudrick’s expression, soon saying, “That’s right,” looked somehow happy.

I sat down and looked straight ahead.

Rudrick was embarrassed by my behavior of sitting on the bare floor without a rug and belatedly tried to take out his handkerchief, but I shook my hand and stopped him.

While hugging my knees, I rested my chin and looked down at the peaceful-looking capital.

“Still, I didn’t even know such a place existed.”

And then I continued with a smile.

“It’s really cool. Thanks for bringing me here.”

Rudrick didn’t answer for a long time.

I wasn’t looking at Rudrick either, so I couldn’t tell what expression he was making.

It wasn’t until some time later that Rudrick spoke.

“Dahlia.”

His voice somehow sounds gloomy.

“Why?”

“That’s…”

It was when I turned my head, puzzled by his trembling breath.

“If I were to leave…”

“Huh?”

“…”

Maybe it’s because I’m looking up at Rudrick, or maybe it’s because he turned his back against the sunlight.

The backlight made it difficult to see Rudrick’s face. All I knew was that he was biting his lips tightly.

“…It’s nothing.”

Then he soon turned his head, and I was trying to reach out after him, but then he stiffened.

In fact, I knew what Rudrick was trying to say.

‘Rudrick was leaving.’

The arrival of the Duchess of Bouser to the capital was unplanned. So, it was expected that Rudrick would return to the North someday.

But I must have gotten closer to Rudrick than expected.

It’s not even been a year since we were together, but I didn’t want to think about breaking up already.

No matter how soon it was. As much as possible, I wanted to postpone facing the breakup until later.

So I tried to pretend to not know Rudrick’s expression of holding back his tears.

I thought it would be a good idea to calm down and soothe Rudrick properly after making up my mind later.

But, I shouldn’t have done that.

✿

We sat on the floor and chatted until sunset.

At first, Rudrick, who only listened, gradually began to tell his story little by little as time passed.

Most of them were just stories about being alone in the North, but Rudrick, but Rudrick sometimes laughed while talking about whether he had only very bad memories.

As we talked like that, the surroundings had gotten dark.

“Should we go now?”

The escort knights, who had been waiting from afar for a while, were giving us a signal that we had to go.

Because darkness comes early in the forest.

Now we had to stand up slowly and leave so that we could return at the right time.

As I got up from my seat and shook off my dress, I found the horse that Rudrick had tied up.

Then Rudrick skillfully climbed on it and reached out his hand towards me.

I stared at the little hand for a moment, then clasped it and said as if passing by.

“Let’s come back here again later.”

“…”

Rudrick, who had been silent for a moment, soon nodded.

“Yes.”

With the help of Rudrick, I got on his horse. And as before, I wrapped my hand around Rudrick’s waist.

But my mistake was that I’ve forgotten to hold on to him tightly ‘as before‘.

Having little experience riding a horse, I didn’t know how dangerous the steep slope was and how fast the resilient horse was running.

It also means that my body would bounce even more.

Even Rudrick wouldn’t have known that. We came all the way here without any problems. He thought I’d be holding on well on my own.

But it didn’t take me long to realize that it was my mistake.

The horse jumped over a stone beak and a problem arose.

‘Ahh!‘

The slope down the mountain was steeper than I thought, and I was embarrassed to realize that the speed of the horse had become faster than before.

Rudrick also seemed to be distracted by controlling the speed of the horse as it got faster.

I thought the horse would stop when I saw the stone beak, but the horse didn’t slow down and jumped over the stone beak.

Without any notice, my body shook violently, and my hand, which held Rudrick’s waist, loosened.

“Dahlia!!”

The last scene I saw was the scene where Rudrick reached for me.

It was like a panorama. My body slowly leaning in the air, his hands reaching out towards me, and my vision getting dark.

It was a total blackout.

And when I opened my eyes.

I was in someone’s arms.

It was strange. The warmth surrounding me was strangely foreign.

Tinnitus rang in my ear. I opened my trembling eyes. I felt something damp behind my back.

Black hair was mixed next to my hair.

Vehemently denied it. No, it won’t. It must be someone else with the same hair color.

Brainwashing myself like that, I slowly turned my head.

And seeing the person who fell next to me.

“Rudrick…”

I completely lost my consciousness.

✿

When I woke up, I was being carried in the arms of the knight.

Even in my faint consciousness, I looked for Rudrick.

My whole body was throbbing, and especially my feet were numb, but at that time I was obsessed with knowing Rudrick’s condition.

And when I finally saw Rudrick’s figure, I collapsed.

Rudrick lay unconscious and blood was dripping from his head.

The cold body and bloodless face resembled a corpse, and his eyes were hazy.

‘Rudrick…’

Really, I cried like a child for the first time in my life.

As if a dam built up solidly collapsed in an instant.

My tears wouldn’t stop easily. I wailed even as I saw my shocked parents, and I wept while I was being treated by the doctor.

Finally, my broken tear glands reached their peak when Duchess Bouser arrived.

“Sorry… I’m sorry. Because of me… Rudrick…”

I couldn’t bear to face the Duchess.

I was so sorry that the Duchess, who came in a hurry, was watching over Rudrick with a tired worried pale face, so I had no choice but to apologize over and over in tears.

The Duchess looked at me like that, and smiled warmly and held my hand tightly.

“It’s okay. Rudrick won’t regret saving you either.”

At that moment, I could see who Rudrick’s habit of saying ‘it’s okay’ had come from.

Rudrick was unconscious for a full day.

My parents scolded me to death after…