The Emperor’s Daily Nitpicking - CH 45

Actually, when he held Oswald’s hand just now, he felt a slightly higher temperature in his palm but didn’t take it to heart. After all, many young men had a bit of a fire in their bodies, and it was pretty standard for their palms to burn like a moving furnace all day.

It was not uncommon to see people like this in the army, and Kevin was almost used to it.

But a hot forehead was not a simple case of high body fire. It was clear that something was wrong with his body.

“You’re running a fever!” Kevin concluded firmly after a few more moments of resting the back of his hand.

“How can that be?” Oswald replied without thinking. “What kind of fever is that if you don’t have a cold or an infection?”

“Overexertion could also lead to this result, so don’t be too quick to deny it.” Kevin replied, “Aren’t you the one who has been blacking out at every turn today? Don’t forget what the physician said.”

Oswald said casually, “That’s bullshit! We’ve been up all night, and the guys with half grey hair are fine, but I’m having such a reaction? And a fever ……” he snorted fiercely, “I’ve never been sick more than a few times in my life. I’m not that prone to it.”

Kevin: “……”

The younger emperor’s face darkened as he spoke, clearly having been poked in the G-spot. Unfortunately, as soon as he finished speaking, his feet felt shaky again, and his head was getting even dizzier.

Kevin quickly lent him a hand and said unpleasantly, “Can you die from admitting to being sick?”

Oswald nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

Kevin: “……”

For the first time, the former great god of light had a “conscience” and felt like giving the emperor a good kick in the teeth for being such a stubborn bastard. But he thought that, as an elder, he had to show understanding and tolerance to the younger generation once in a while–let them be difficult. He wouldn’t be the one to faint in the end anyway.

“Fine, fine, you’re not sick. Just a fire in your heart, all right?” Kevin slightly let go of his hand without good grace. “Take two steps and try to see if you can still stay in a straight line. If you can, we’ll keep going. If not, we’ll rest here for a while.”

Oswald: “…… Are you unable to distinguish between drunkenness and dizziness?”

The emperor finished the sentence and walked off with a cold face and chin up, looking very proud. However, just a few steps away, Kevin grabbed his wrist and said, “Come on, let’s rest here for a while.” If he walked any further, he would probably hit the wall with his head tilted.

“No!” Oswald rejected the offer with a wave of his hand.

Kevin couldn’t help but laugh. “Who was the one who said he wasn’t in a hurry? Now, I tell you to rest, and you don’t want to. You still haven’t gotten over your reverse psychology after all these years, have you? Do you want me to cure you again?”

Oswald grunted.

“Well, my legs are so tired that I can’t walk a step. So, would you, Your Majesty the handsome Emperor, please condescend to sit down where you are and rest for a while?” Kevin held his arms and squinted at him, saying nonchalantly. Secretly, he said this in his heart: Seeing as you are sick, boy……

Oswald knew in his heart that this bastard had offered a way off for him. If he didn’t get on with it, he might have to do something about it later. So, he didn’t hold back, gave a deep “hmm,” and grunted. “Okay then.”

Kevin: “……” You’re putting your nose on your face1one party gives face to the other and does not care about the other’s behaviour, but the other party does not appreciate it and becomes more arrogant.. I said you’re fat, and you really gasped2Literally, it means: you are not fat at all but when I say you are, you start gasping as you are actually fat; saying “Don’t take their words seriously and be so narcissistic.”.

The two of them stopped talking and sat down directly against the wall.

Oswald hadn’t felt too bad when he was holding on, but when he loosened up, all the symptoms returned with a bang. Dizziness, swirling and spinning. His heart and all the blood vessels connected to it felt abnormally full, as if they had been inflated and threatened to burst at any moment.

Kevin was worried, even though he kept mouthing off. Funny enough, he was concerned for the same reason Oswald was uncompromising – it had only been a long night. How could someone with Oswald’s physique and fitness have such a reaction? This was clearly not some overexertion, nor would it have been a simple fever.

The tunnel was not too narrow to facilitate travelling and was barely wide enough for a hippogriff with a half-open wing to pass through. Kevin sat opposite Oswald, his elbows resting on his bent knees, and caressed the lines on the hilt of his short blade as he stared at Oswald.

He saw the emperor’s head drooping with his eyes closed, his brow furrowed, and one thumb slowly pressed against his temple, no longer having the energy to speak.

What could it be that was affecting him……

Kevin went over the people who had appeared and the events that had taken place during the day and night in his head – it was not like he had developed this condition over a long period, and being so ill so rapidly could only be the result of some factor that had suddenly appeared. What could it be ……

Was it the hidden mystery of the water platform in the Priest Monastery? Or was it some minister or commanding officer in the Council of Twelve who had secretly made a move? Or perhaps it was-

Angel?

Kevin couldn’t help but think of the young man he had met in the early morning in the corridor of the Wujinxuan Palace, holding a bouquet of Dorothea flowers, which he said he sought to show Cynthia. Was there something wrong with the flowers?

When he thought about it, Oswald had first felt his eyes go black just after that.

But he, who was also present, appeared to have no abnormalities, and Cynthia seemed alive and well ……

In fact, Kevin’s thoughts on Angel had always been somewhat mixed. On the one hand, he felt that the teenager’s origins weren’t obvious and seemed too polite and reserved compared to Ben’s straightforwardness, so it wasn’t easy to trust him wholeheartedly. But subconsciously, like the young girl Cynthia, he felt that Angel was gentle and harmless, making it challenging to be wary of him.

That was why he kept Angel in the barracks, keeping him under his nose as much as possible so that he would not be so obviously distant and wary and could keep tabs on his movements.

But so far, the boy really had not appeared to be in any situation worthy of suspicion.

If not Angel, then only the Sand Ghost, who had entered the Wujinxuan Palace under the skin of “Theodore”. Could it be that Oswald was accidentally injured in the process of capturing the Sand Ghost and didn’t notice it at the time, but now it started to flare up?

It didn’t look like that either ……

Kevin secretly mulled it over in his mind, suggesting several possibilities and debunking them one by one, not really finding the most plausible explanation for a while.

He lowered his eyes and scanned around, the ground showing noticeable hoof prints in the glow of the fluorite, the trampled indentations almost connected in two dark lines, disorderly in the middle. It was probably the two teams that Oswald dispatched early afternoon to the Old Rose Fortress.

The speed of the march was bound to be no slower with the hippogriffs present. The time between the army’s departure and the two of them hiding in the cave was almost long enough for the army to have crossed half of the Jinshi Empire, and it would be difficult enough to chase them.

Only if Oswald recovered sooner could they catch up with the army as quickly as possible.

However, the two had nothing on them but their weapons and the leather bag Kevin had been carrying around all day with the flintstone and sand messenger. Most of the physicians were in the next secret passage. By now, they might have taken an unknown number of turns.

“It’s really up to your physique to push through this time,” Kevin said with slight concern as he looked up at Oswald.

Oswald didn’t answer, his thumbs had stopped pressing on his temples at some point, and because of his hanging head, Kevin could only see his two furrowed brows and a thin layer of sweat covering his forehead from his perspective.

“Asleep?” Kevin lowered his voice and asked again softly, but no reply came.

After a moment’s hesitation, he simply crawled stiffly to his feet, turned in a different direction and sat down next to Oswald.

The young emperor’s side profile fell clearly into his eyes, with Oswald’s eyes closed and his brows furrowed, his angular profile hiding his brow in deep shadows, giving him an unmistakable look of fatigue.

The roots of his hair were slightly moist at the corners of his forehead, clearly in distress, and he was restless even as he slept, his breathing ragged and somewhat disordered.

Kevin touched his hanging palm, which was still slightly hot and even more so than before. He could even feel a burst of heat coming from the man beside him just by sitting here.

This isn’t going to go too well at this rate…… Kevin muttered in his mind.

However, the hot sensation did not last as long as he thought it would. It was hard to estimate the time in the dark space, but Kevin felt that the hot sensation emanating from Oswald’s body was much weaker after less than half an hour at most.

He lifted his hand again and touched Oswald’s palm, and it was almost back to normal.

“Better?” He was amazed at the speed of Oswald’s recovery and uneasily pressed the back of his hand against Oswald’s forehead again. “It really doesn’t burn anymore ……”

But the emperor showed no sign of being about to wake up immediately.

Thinking that he had stayed up all night yesterday and had to deal with so many things, Kevin did not wake him up immediately and planned to let him sleep a little longer.

Figuring that Oswald’s temperature had dropped, Kevin stopped staring. He leaned his head against the stone wall and closed his eyes to recuperate.

But the peace didn’t last long, and soon Kevin’s eyes snapped open again.

He turned his head in surprise to look at Oswald and saw that the tips of his hanging fingers were slightly blue-white, his brow was furrowed even more, and his body seemed to be trembling slightly in an almost invisible way. A coldness at odds with the season seemed to emanate from his body, and it cooled even Kevin’s temperature a little with it.

“Oswald?” Kevin raised a hand to his face and found it frighteningly cold. Sleeping any longer in this temperature would only make him more unconscious, and nothing in here would protect him from the cold.

The emperor, who was usually not a heavy sleeper, seemed to be in some kind of nightmare, unable to wake up at all, and only instinctively moved his fingers in an attempt to grasp the only source of heat, Kevin.

“Hey…..” Kevin was about to wake him up when he frowned and moved his lips, mumbling a few words in an odd and peculiar tone that Kevin didn’t understand at first.

A moment later, he suddenly realised that this was not Euna’s ordinary language but the beasts’ language.