When I Finished Playing the Terminally-Ill Villainous Omega C5

Chapter 5

It’s not time for my medicine yet. What is this?

Whenever it was about time for Locke to arrive, I usually fled to the garden or the bath. But today, he appeared earlier than expected, and I failed to slip away in time. For someone who kept his routines with knife-like precision, why had he suddenly changed his schedule?

“I have brought your medicine.”

While I hesitated, he opened the door and entered. A bluish bruise still lingered on his face.

Bowing as he approached, Locke placed a glass of water and a small plate with two pills on the table.

I sat stiffly, tense in case a mission window appeared, when my gaze happened to fall on his hands. They were covered with thin, small scratches.

“Have you been using the ointment I gave you?”

Only after confirming no system window appeared did I dare to speak.

“Thanks to you, I am much better.”

“But your bruises and cuts haven’t healed at all.”

Locke hesitated, then bowed deeply.

“I only used it on the deeper wounds… I did not wish to waste it.”

“Use it generously. If you finish it, I’ll bring you more.”

Still unaccustomed to my kindness, Locke only bowed his head again. His gaze briefly flicked to the rose on the table.

…Surely not.

Even so, the scratches that looked eerily like thorn pricks bothered me.

“By any chance—”

His long lashes lifted, curling upward like feathers. Two golden suns burned beneath them, staring directly at me.

My own gaze dropped at once. Even though I told myself not to, every time I faced Locke, fear struck first.

It’s still so hard…

No matter how much I tried to forget, the image of the tyrant dragging me to the depths and killing me with merciless cruelty remained vivid. My body remembered, even if my head tried not to.

Every tiny movement he made made my instinctive fear flare.

Could I ever truly forget this? Of course not.

After struggling to move my lips, I finally whispered,

“Um… can you maybe… lower your gaze when we talk?”

It was simply too frightening when he looked at me like that.

Locke lowered his head. For some reason, he looked… disappointed.

Disappointed? Why?

“Ask anything you wish, young master.”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I just wondered… did you put that rose there?”

Disappointment? Ridiculous. Must have been my imagination.

Yet again, those two golden suns lifted, shining with a cryptic glimmer.

“Why do you suspect me?”

So it WAS him?

Unsure but choosing honesty, I replied,

“I complained to you that day, remember? So I wondered if maybe… it was you. Is it really you?”

Locke slowly shook his head. This time, disappointment clearly shadowed his face.

“It was not me.”

“Truly?”

I asked again, suspicious, and again he denied it firmly.

Of course.

“And here I thought you felt sympathy for me.”

“How could I dare harbor such thoughts toward you, young master.”

“You don’t have to put it like that…”

Muttering, I tossed the pills into my mouth.

“Ugh!”

No matter how many years I took them, I never got used to the bitterness. Gagging, I quickly grabbed the tin Éclat gifted me and put a candy in my mouth.

Crunch. Crunch.

Sweet grape flavor spread across my tongue, chasing away the bitterness.

Locke stared at my lips as I ate.

Did he want one?

It wouldn’t hurt to build goodwill. If I must commit acts later under a mission, I want enough trust to wave it off as misunderstanding.

With that thought, I grabbed his wrist just as he turned to take the tray away.

“Wait.”

He looked back at me wide-eyed.

Perhaps trauma— as if he wondered how a count’s son dared to touch the future emperor. He didn’t budge at all against my pull.

Flustered, I let go.

“N-nothing weird. I just wanted to give you this.”

I quickly grabbed the largest candy in the tin and popped it straight into his slightly parted lips. Since he was holding a tray, I did it for him.

My fingers brushed his mouth— soft yet slightly rough to the touch. His eyes widened even further, like the first time I’d seen his whites that winter night. My fingers trembled again; cold crept down my spine.

“S-sorry. I just— thought it’d be awkward for you to hold it yourself.”

Even after explaining, Locke only stared down at me the same way. Had I misjudged? Had I made things worse?

“Do you… not like grapes? Allergic, maybe?”

Only then did he blink and reply,

“No. I have no allergies. If I did, I would not be able to serve you.”

“What do you mean? What does that have to do with serving me?”

“If I disliked grapes, simply entering this room would have been agony.”

My eyes widened.

No way!

Before regression, my pheromone scent had been grape-like.

There were no grapes here. So the only logical conclusion was— pheromones. Yet neither of us had awakened. There should be no scent to sense, and Locke shouldn’t know mine.

Even if Locke had secretly awakened, I certainly had not. So how could he identify my scent so precisely?

Was I misreading him?

I stared, stunned. Locke’s shoulders moved slightly— he exhaled slowly before speaking.

“The candy. The scent is strong. Even just being in this room makes the air smell of grapes.”

Relief flooded me. Right— the candy tin.

I nodded. Locke watched me quietly, then bowed and left the room.

❖ ❖ ❖

Avoiding Locke consumed so much attention that summer arrived before I knew it. When we had spoken about roses, the weather had been mild; now, a few minutes outdoors made sweat bead on my skin.

The mornings were still tolerable, so I rose before breakfast to read beneath a shady tree in the garden. Soon, a handsome brown horse stopped before me.

“Cedric!”

“Aiden?”

A brown-haired man smiled brightly as he dismounted. Aiden— Éclat’s brother, Cassian’s hunting companion, and newly awakened Alpha.

We walked toward the manor together. His gaze kept flickering toward me.

Unable to bear it, I looked back. Aiden brushed the ends of my hair gently between his fingers.

“It’s gotten long.”

“I’ve been too sick to get it cut. Does it look strange?”

“Not strange. You do seem thinner though. Are you taking your medicine? I heard you got caught throwing it away by the countess.”

“Thanks to Éclat’s candy, I don’t throw them out anymore.”

Medicine wouldn’t heal my illness. Cedric’s condition was dictated by the system— sometimes mildly sick, sometimes healthy, and sometimes on the brink of death if a mission failed. My mother, unaware, made me take medicine in desperate hope.

And so, I lied calmly— because I fully intended to ditch it again later.

“Candy? Ah, so that’s where it went? No wonder. Father wouldn’t let me touch it at all after buying it. Oh— wait.”

Aiden suddenly leaned closer, eyes on my face. Then, with his thumb, he brushed beneath my eye. I flinched instinctively, making him chuckle.

“A lash fell under your eye, that’s all. If you jump like that, I really do look like a villain.”

Aiden was a naturally gentle type. His kindness was never suspicious. Truly, how he and Cassian became friends was a mystery.

“Thank you.”

“No need. Raising younger siblings teaches you nothing, hm? That candy was famous— I wanted to try one too.”

He said it jokingly, but guilt pricked me. Éclat’s “We have plenty at home” must have been a lie for my sake.

Then I remembered— I had brought some.

“Wait a moment.”

I took out the handkerchief bundle from my robe and carefully unwrapped a single purple candy. Aiden’s eyes widened; then, without hesitation, he stopped walking, leaned in, and opened his mouth toward me.

“Aaah—”