The Man Who Came Back

[ He Came ]

Softly, softly.

Shana did her best to slip out of the room without making a sound.

She had no idea what kind of scene she might walk into if she got caught by the man sleeping on the bed.

It didn’t matter how impressively defined his abs were.

It didn’t matter that his dark blue hair fell over his eyes, giving him an almost mystical air.

None of that was enough to stop her.

If she stayed here any longer, she might end up unemployed.

‘Shana, do you want to leave me behind?’

All she had done was step away briefly to read some documents.

And yet this was the same man who had burst into tears over just that.

Yeah.

She absolutely did not want to get caught.

‘This time, I’m escaping for real.’

She carefully placed her hand on the doorknob.

Just one more step, she thought.

“Shasha.”

At the low voice behind her, Shana froze.

“Where are you going? Why are you leaving without saying anything?”

‘Ah. So I did get caught.’

“…I, I’m just going out to get some bread.”

“Bread?”

Lucian sat up, revealing his bare body.

Then he pulled Shana back toward the bed.

Not with strength, but with magic.

He didn’t even bother using his hands.

At that point, it wasn’t a skill, it was a curse.

Lucian wrapped his arms around Shana tightly, so tightly her breath hitched.

As he stroked her hair, he spoke in a sorrowful voice.

“I’d prepare bread myself, Shasha…

Don’t leave over something like that. When you go, my heart hurts too much. Did you forget about the side effects?”

As he spoke, Lucian kept pressing kisses along her neck.

“Hey, stop that! It tickles!”

Shana struggled to break free.

But there was no way an apothecary’s resistance would work on a knight like him.

Lucian only let her go after ruffling her hair, biting and sucking at the back of her neck.

He looked satisfied, like a well-fed cat.

“Sorry, Shasha. You said bread, right?”

Lucian snapped his fingers once.

A plate appeared, holding perfectly golden toast.

On top sat a soft-boiled egg, just the way Shana liked it.

She sighed and picked up her fork.

“Lucian. If this keeps up, we can’t continue our relationship.”

“I’ll hold back, Shana.”

The reply came fast. Too fast. But his eyes were already red, and his lips trembled as if expecting something.

Shana narrowed her eyes. She had noticed it earlier. That massive thing standing far too upright.

Hold back, my ass.

“Then at least calm that thing down.”

“Ugh… that’s not easy……”

Lucian gave an awkward smile and tried, clumsily, to push it down with his hand.

After struggling for a moment, he ended up begging her again.

“Just one more time. Then I’ll hold back after that, okay……?”

“No.”

Shana let out a sigh.

At this point, Lucian would bark if she told him to bark, crawl if she told him to crawl, cry if she told him to cry.

The moment he was separated from her, he’d start trembling with inexplicable separation anxiety.

If it meant staying by her side, he’d use any excuse, heart pain included.

How did the dignified heir of a grand ducal house end up like this?

If only she hadn’t taken that commission!

To an outsider, they looked like deeply devoted lovers.

But that wasn’t it.

They were just an apothecary and her test subject.

And before that, childhood friends who’d even lost contact.

“…When am I supposed to work? If you act like this after just one potion, what am I supposed to do!”

***

One month earlier.

Shana Crowell closed the ledger of her apothecary and sighed.

The slogans pasted on the wall caught her eye.

[Let’s make money!]

[No tabs allowed]

Those resolutions were useless today too.

“We’re in the red.”

At her muttering, someone replied.

“Weren’t we in the red yesterday too?”

It was her only friend, Erilot.

Leaning against the counter, Erilot listened with a bored expression.

“Yeah. We were in the red yesterday, and today too. How is that even possible?”

She had opened the apothecary right after graduating from the academy.

It wasn’t like she’d made no profit at all.

But it was nowhere near enough to erase the debts of House Crowell.

“I think your problem is…Your medicine’s too expensive.”

“Erilot.

That can’t be helped. I’m drowning in debt, for one. And my medicine works way better than anyone else’s.”

“True. Nothing beats your stuff.

Remember that skin-improving potion you gave me last time?

Couldn’t you sell it for, like, three silver coins?

You just apply it and the acne disappears. It’s amazing.”

“I’m not selling that. It’s a prototype made with rare ingredients.”

“Ah, then I guess there’s no helping—”

“But if there’s a problem money can’t solve, maybe the issue is that there isn’t enough money in the first place, Eril.”

“…Just ask for more.”

Erilot placed two more silver coins into Shana’s hand.

In exchange, the so-called prototype potion bottle ended up in Erilot’s grasp.

As if something had just occurred to her, Erilot spoke again.

“…Oh, right. I heard Lucian’s coming back.”

“What?”

“Lucian Rithardt.”

Shana’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit.

Lucian.

The imperial court’s chief mage and captain of the royal guard.

It had already been two years since he’d left to guard the borders.

In recent years, countless dungeons had appeared across the Empire.

With them came a surge of monsters.

They’d even begun appearing in neighboring kingdoms like Eckhart.

There was only one person capable of stopping them.
Lucian.

“But he finished monster suppression in just two years?”

“A genius is a genius. You could’ve guessed back when he never once lost first place at the academy.”

At that, Shana frowned.

Noticing her expression, Erilot quickly continued.

“They say he’ll be back soon, and there’ll be a victory ceremony.

Are you going? Most of the nobles in the capital seem to be attending.”

“Who knows. I’m busy running the apothecary.”

Shana replied flatly.

Erilot stuck her lips out.

“Busy with what? You don’t even have customers. You just don’t want to go, right?”

“I don’t feel anything.”

“Then what do you think when you hear about his victory?”

“That he survived the battles against monsters.

That’s a relief. Please continue working hard for the Empire’s safety?”

“…Wow, you’re really sulking.

Lucian used to stick to you nonstop, you know.

All through the academy. He took care of you like a baby bird. I honestly thought you two were dating.”

That hadn’t been entirely wrong.

But now, she was completely out of contact with Lucian.

It had probably been not long after graduation.

At some point, he’d stopped responding altogether. And just like that, they drifted apart.

Shana let out a dry laugh.

“If anyone was the baby bird, it was him. He followed me around like he’d imprinted on his mother.”

“For someone like that, he sure took good care of you. Anyone would think you weren’t magicless, but physically frail instead.”

“……”

That wasn’t the whole story.

The nobles believed the two had met at the academy.

But in truth, they’d been friends long before that. Not ordinary childhood friends, either. They were inseparable.

Of course, no one imagined it.

Lucian Rithardt was the Empire’s pride, a prodigy mage. Shana was just the daughter of a fallen baronial house.

Shana spoke indifferently.

“Our statuses were different from the start. It was strange that we stuck together at all.”

After all, Lucian was the heir to a grand ducal house revered by everyone.

Shana popped a fried rice cracker into her mouth and chewed as she spoke.

“So it’s only natural we lost contact.”

“Sure, sure. But you were really upset, weren’t you? How old were you when you first met again?”

“Ten.”

The reason their paths crossed was simple.

Lucian was the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Rithardt. The emperor’s nephew.

So it wasn’t strange that he suffered from the royal family’s hereditary illness.

From a young age, he had severe mana rejection.

It wasn’t just hypersensitivity to his own mana. Even others’ mana triggered allergic reactions.

Because of that, young Lucian’s body was covered in rashes.

He couldn’t go outside. Naturally, he couldn’t make friends.

That was why Shana was introduced to him.

Among nobles, she was extremely rare. A person with no mana at all.

The Grand Duke pitied his son, isolated within the ducal estate.

So he assigned him a playmate.

The only one who could safely be near him.

That was how they met, at the age of ten.

Shana remembered that day clearly.

A castle so magnificent she’d never even imagined it.

A boy whose dark blue hair covered his eyes. A face beautiful like an angel, obvious even then.

And yet, in stark contrast, a prickly, wary attitude like a wild animal.

‘…Do you want some herb candy?’

It was Shana who’d said that. Like an old woman offering cinnamon candy.

Contrary to expectations, Lucian didn’t chase her away like the other playmates.

After a certain incident, he even began to welcome her.

Each time they met, he seemed to like her more. Naturally, they started spending time together.

Strangely enough, Lucian’s mana rejection eased as time passed.

It was unprecedented. People assumed his condition had simply been an unusual mutation.

Because of the curse-like mana rejection, most royals struggled to wield mana properly.

Despite being born with enormous magical reserves.

But Lucian was different.

He was an untouchable genius.

At the academy, he placed first in practical magic as easily as breathing.

Before long, he surpassed even the professors.

The moment he graduated, he became the Empire’s most valuable talent.

And maybe that was the problem.

From then on, Lucian began to ignore Shana.

More precisely, from the moment she became a provincial apothecary.

He didn’t harass her. He wasn’t rude in public.

He simply ignored her existence.

He refused to meet her. He never replied to her letters.

‘Why?’

She couldn’t understand it. Shana kept writing to him. Even recently.

But not a single reply ever came back.

Erilot spoke, baffled.

“You’re childhood friends. Why would he do that?”

“Who knows…Maybe I was the only one who thought we were close?”

Her tone was calm. But deep down, she felt wronged.

Why ignore only her?

There were plenty of academy classmates far more annoying than she was.

Shana shook her head.

“Lucian’s not the issue right now. The real problem is that I have no money.”

“Oh, right.”

With unfocused eyes, like a mad scientist, Shana muttered.

“Isn’t there some revolutionary medicine that’ll sell nationwide and make me rich?”

Erilot, missing the warning signs, replied.

“Why not sell the skin-improving potion?”

“I told you, the ingredients are too expensive. There’s no profit.

And I’d need approval from the Apothecaries’ Association. Which I won’t get because of those ingredients.”

“What exactly did you put in it……?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Erilot sighed in resignation.

“Well, as long as it works…….Anyway, Shana, I should get going.

If I’m late to the victory ceremony, my parents will kill me.”

“Yeah. I have to watch the shop anyway. See you later.”

***

But after Erilot left, no customers came.

‘Ugh. Not even a fly shows up.’

As she waited, Shana’s eyelids grew heavy.

She’d been pulling all-nighters for days trying to develop a new drug.

‘This is all because I can’t make a breakthrough.’

The potion she was developing was revolutionary. A treatment for erectile dysfunction.

‘If it works, it’ll sell nationwide…And I can charge nobles extra.’

Still, progress was slow. The side effect was hair loss.

Maybe male dysfunction really was a long-standing unsolved problem. It wasn’t easy.

The sound of water dripping echoed softly. Rain had begun to fall outside. The gentle noise made her drowsier by the second.

Her head drooped as she nodded off at her desk.

Knock.

Knock.

Someone was knocking on the door.

‘A customer!’

Shana’s eyes flew open.

It was already night.

“It’s open! Come in!”

No response. Maybe the rain drowned her out.

Or maybe it was Erilot again.

Shana went to open the door herself. But the figure standing there wasn’t Erilot.

Someone far taller greeted her.

Judging by the refined clothing, definitely a noble.

‘A big spender!’

“What brings you—”

Shana lifted her head, triumphant. Then froze the moment her eyes met his face.

Lucian Rithardt.

Water dripped from his hair, as if he’d been standing in the rain.

With one hand on the doorframe, he looked down at the stiff Shana.

His body, larger than she remembered, filled the doorway.

Today.

On the very day he was supposed to be holding a grand victory ceremony.

“…Long time no see, Shasha.”

He smiled brightly.

As if nothing had ever happened.