[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Can’t You Stay?

"Don’t hate it because it’s you."

Xion blinked at the words. His grip unconsciously tightened on the smaller hand littered with scars before he slowly pulled away.

Although the archduke did not say it, his fingers twitched as if resisting the absence of the soft touch.

Xion was the first to break the silence. "That sounds like something a person would say to their loved ones. Like family."

Darius raised a brow. "Does it?"

Xion nodded. "It does." His voice grew quieter, almost uncertain, as a heavy frown settled on his forehead. "You’re particular about who can touch you... but you don’t seem to mind me."

Darius didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he studied Xion, as if considering something. His gaze drifted to the pair of delicate hands.

It was not the first time Darius had noticed the size. They were small compared to his own ( when he was in his original size), and calloused in some places like the pads of the fingers. Yet still undeniably soft.

"...You’re different."

Xion exhaled a short laugh. "How so? Because I’m your friend?"

Friend... No. It was not that. Darius had never considered Xion his friend. At least not in a way Xion seemed to think of.

Because I can feel your touch. Not just the friction of skin against skin, but something real. A warm sensation that lingers.

"Others reach out to me with expectations, always wanting something, and I despise that. But you... you don’t even realize when you’ve already gotten close."

So close that I have started to worry about you.

Darius could not afford to make mistakes. And yet, allowing Xion this close felt like one. Another was letting anyone discover his ability to shrink his size.

The fact that he had suppressed his curse and found a healer was enough to make many uneasy.

That was why Xion had been disguised as his aide.

Darius had intended to tell him everything once they left Ferni. But time had a way of slipping through his fingers, and each moment that passed seemed to hold him back.

Perhaps it was a sign.

An indication that he should keep it a secret for a while longer. Maybe until Xion managed to cure him.

After all, what if Xion became so afraid of him that he refused to heal him? It wasn’t as if Darius could find another healer capable of what Xion could do.

Yes. It was better this way.

He would pretend—just until they returned to the North.

By then, even if the little healer discovered everything, there would be nowhere for him to run.

The North was nothing like Uzera or Ferni. His land was a vast expanse of ice and snow, unforgiving to those unprepared. Without proper heating equipment, one wouldn’t last long out there.

And Xion... Xion was soft, unused to such harshness. He wouldn’t survive alone..

The healer was an activist who loved his life. If not, he would not be struggling so hard to survive.

Darius chuckled softly. In that regard, they were alike. Both fighting, both surviving, both yearning for a peace that always seemed just out of reach.

Ah, I feel at peace when I am with you...

"So, that’s why you don’t hate me..." Xion was mumbling to himself but Darius heard it clearly.

"Yes, you have no ulterior motives for getting close to me."

Xion’s fingers curled over his lap. He hadn’t thought about it that way. He had never tried to get close to Rael but somehow, it had happened anyway.

Or maybe... he had.

Everyone was wearing such robes and pretending to be him. It would only make him stand out even more, and possibly as a scammer at that.