The Attachment Blanket

“There wasn’t any space because the room was too small.”

No matter how she looked at it, the place was spacious enough, so she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Then we can make it a bunk bed and I’ll take the top—”

“The bed is wide enough that we don’t really need to sleep pressed together like before… but still, sleeping close would be better, right?”

“No! Summer’s coming soon, it’ll be hot, so why would we—!”

“I’ll cast a cooling spell every night so it stays nice and cool.”

Lucian said cheerfully, his voice full of amusement.

“Just cast the spell and sleep on the other end! Don’t cross over here, not even once!”

***

Shana found herself thinking.

Could it be that Lucian had mistaken this place for a newlywed home, and this entire period for their honeymoon?

After they arrived in the capital, she’d assumed he would immediately start going to work.

Instead, he’d begun dragging his feet even more blatantly than before.

He kept making excuses, like saying he needed to fill up the remaining space in the apothecary and dragging her to furniture shops.

One day, as Shana ate the breakfast Lucian had prepared as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she suddenly noticed something odd.

“…Come to think of it, when are you going to work anyway? Didn’t you come all the way to the capital to do your job?”

She’d thought it was just taking him some time to get settled.

But it looked more like he had no intention of working at all.

In response to her words, Lucian calmly spread jam on a piece of bread and answered.

“Work? I’m not going today.”

“Why not?”

Lucian brought the bread up to Shana’s mouth as he continued speaking.

“Instead of going in regularly, I told them to report to me only if something urgent comes up. Otherwise, I’d have less time with our Shasha.”

‘You came all this way, and I thought you’d obviously go to work!’

Turns out Lucian had pulled another trick.

Shana chewed on the jam-covered bread as she thought.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

‘Shasha, the herb display shelf looks a bit old. Let’s go get a new one made.’

‘Don’t you need new experimental tools? They say a new high-precision mana scale just came out. Want to go take a look?’

‘I heard there’s a new dessert shop in front of the imperial palace. Their tiramisu is supposed to be amazing. Want to go today?’

Dazzled by all the free gifts, she ended up wandering all over the capital with Lucian like a puppy with its leash firmly in hand.

‘But the latest experimental equipment, for free. I really couldn’t help it.’

Replacing old tools alone would cost several gold.

And he was offering to take care of all of it.

She’d mostly bought medicinal ingredients and tools from traveling merchants, so coming to the capital after graduating felt like a rare occasion.

The real problem was that, to other people’s eyes, the two of them looked unmistakably like a couple.

‘Oh my, are you here to look at furniture? Are you newlyweds? What a lovely pair.’

‘Ah, thank—’

‘No.’

Just as Lucian was about to agree with a satisfied smile, Shana would cut in sharply and answer instead.

This happened more times than she could count.

‘What if rumors start spreading at this rate?’

[War Hero Lucian Rithardt, Cohabiting with a Mysterious Beauty After Returning to the Capital!]

[(Breaking) The Identity of the Beauty Who Stole the Hero’s Heart: A Genius Apothecary?!]

It wouldn’t be strange at all if the social papers splashed headlines like that across their pages.

‘I need to find a way to separate us and move around on my own somehow.’

‘Shasha… you know my body hurts when I’m not with you.’

Using that line as a shield to cling to her nonstop was really too much.

In the end, the fundamental solution was to create an antidote that would cure his illness.

The problem was that there had been no progress at all.

‘…I’ve tested dozens of combinations of medicinal ingredients, but nothing works.’

Ever since the awakening agent failed the first time, Shana had repeated experiment after experiment.

But Mana Rejection Syndrome showed not the slightest sign of improvement.

“…How is it that none of them work?”

‘Was my theory wrong from the start? Is this really an incurable disease?’

“Shasha, don’t rush yourself too much. As long as I can stay stuck to you for the rest of my life, I’m fine.”

“I’m fine with anything except that……”

Left with no other choice, Shana began searching through new materials and ancient texts.

The origins of Mana Rejection Syndrome.

And the treatment methods that might have existed in ancient times.

《Charge Your Mana Three Times a Day and Become a Grand Mage Too!》

《Your Mana Is Leaking》

《Mana Is Ultimately a Matter of the Heart》

After excluding the empty self-help books clearly chasing bestseller status, there were very few cases that seemed to genuinely help stabilize mana.

Only one thing caught her eye.

A single passage from a very old ancient manuscript.

‘A heretical sect—specifically, the purification rituals of the Kallis Order—had a significant effect on mana stabilization…?’

The Kallis faith was a heretical religion with doctrines completely opposed to the empire’s state religion that worshipped the chief god.

However, rumors spread that participating in their rituals could cure illnesses, and their followers had been quietly increasing.

‘I thought it was just a baseless rumor. To think there’d be a document with such solid evidence, left behind by a scholar from the empire’s early days.’

Shana glanced sideways at Lucian.

The problem was how on earth she could suggest trying a heretical ritual to Lucian, who was both the closest confidant of the imperial family and a devout follower of the state religion.

“Shasha, why do you keep glancing at me like that?”

“Huh?”

Before she could even finish answering, Lucian, who had been reading by candlelight, closed his book and lightly scooped Shana up into his arms.

Startled by the sudden movement, the book she’d been reading slipped from her hands and thudded onto the floor.

“Is it because you want to?”

His low, laughing whisper brushed against her earlobe.

“If Shasha doesn’t sleep, I can’t sleep either.”

His gaze slowly, obsessively drifted down to her lips.

“Or… should I put you to sleep myself?”

“Stop talking nonsense……”

At that moment, Shana froze.

Tap, tap.

Someone was knocking on the apothecary door.

‘…Who would come at this hour?’

They hadn’t officially opened the shop yet, so it couldn’t be a customer.

Then a polite yet firm voice followed.

“Captain, are you inside?”

‘Captain?’

If someone was calling for the captain…

The imperial knights!

Shana whispered urgently to Lucian.

“…Lucian, you didn’t seriously tell the knights to come here directly when you said they’d report to you, did you?”

“Yeah, I did. This is my home now, after all.”

“…Then they’ll find out we’re living together!”

“Well… if they find out… hmm, I guess I’ll have to take responsibility and marry you?”

Seeing the faintly blissful expression on Lucian’s face, Shana was just about to explode.

“But I didn’t think a report would come in already. I only just gave them the address. How annoying.”

“…What?”

No!

Just as Shana hurriedly tried to slip out of his arms and hide inside the room—

“Are you inside? Please excuse me for a moment.”

They were already trying to open the apothecary door from outside.

Click.

The sound of the doorknob turning echoed through the room.

Of all times, it was before they’d properly installed a lock.

In the split second the word ‘We’re doomed’ flashed through Shana’s mind, Lucian used magic to lift a nearby blanket and swiftly wrapped Shana up in it like a strip of bacon.

‘W-What are you doing right now?!’

Her vision was completely blocked by the tightly wrapped blanket.

The moment Lucian casually tucked the massive bundle under his arm, a knight finally opened the door and stepped inside.

“Greetings! Captain of the Imperial Guard! I am Jake, commander of the Black Ram Knights! I’ve come to deliver a report…… But, if I may ask, what is that you’re holding there?”

“An attachment blanket.”

“An… attachment blanket?!”

He alternated his gaze between the enormous blanket bundle in the hands of the officer he revered, and the calm expression on that officer’s face as he cradled it like the most precious treasure in the world.

His fiercely loyal brain desperately spun its circuits, trying to process the scene.

‘An attachment blanket… As expected, the horrific three years on the battlefield must have left deep scars on our empire’s hero’s mind. He probably can’t sleep without that blanket. How pitiful.’

“Is there a problem?”

Jake instinctively bent at the waist to a full ninety degrees and shouted.

“N-No! Not at all! There’s absolutely no problem! I only regret intruding on your private time!”

At that moment, the blanket bundle under Lucian’s arm wriggled.

Something sharp jabbed into his side from within.

‘An attachment blanket?! Saying it like that just makes it sound even weirder!’

It was Shana’s silent pressure.

Lucian cleared his throat and adjusted his voice.

“No. I’ve been sleeping poorly lately, so I was a bit on edge.”

“Of course, Captain of the Guard! That’s completely understandable!”

Jake tried his best to keep his expression under control as he thought,

‘He really should settle down and meet someone nice soon. Would it help if I introduced him to someone?’

“I apologize for disturbing your rest. I’ve come to report a sudden surge in monsters near the nearby border.”

“A surge? Isn’t that something the guards stationed in that area should handle? I’m pretty sure I told you not to report every trivial matter to me.”

“The land around the rift is already rotting black, and if we don’t stop it immediately, the surrounding farmland will become completely barren. Unfortunately, it’s a border region adjacent to the Kingdom of Phthalin. To avoid diplomatic friction, deploying a large force would be difficult, so we believe it best to send only a small number of elite personnel. That’s why I came to report.”

Lucian frowned at that.

“Phthalin? The region adjacent to those Kallis cultists?”

“Yes. Near the Forest of Tears, which they call their holy land. And it coincides with the period when large-scale heretical rituals are being performed… To prevent this from escalating into an international dispute, His Majesty has ordered that only top-tier knights capable of swiftly destroying the source of the monsters be dispatched. All the details are in this report.”

Jake held out the report, visibly tense.

“Understood. You may go. I’ll assign personnel shortly.”

Lucian waved his hand dismissively.

He had a bad feeling that if he didn’t get Shana out of the blanket soon, the aftermath would be disastrous.

However, Jake didn’t leave.

He continued looking at Lucian.

“C-Captain. I know this may be an impertinent question, but I must ask. You haven’t been coming to the order lately… Is it possible that the injuries you sustained on the battlefield are still quite severe?”

At those words, Shana’s heart dropped with a thud inside the blanket.

His injuries were severe?

…Really?