<h4>Chapter 603: I Have to Live With That</h4>


    Agony tore through Nnenna’s body, but she refused to let it end here. Her legs felt like dead weight, but her upper body still obeyed her will. Cynthia raised the knife again, wild eyed, but Nnenna’s hand shot up with lightning speed.


    With a sharp twist of her wrist, she trapped Cynthia’s arm, yanked it forward, and mmed her palm into the base of Cynthia’s chin, a precise martial art strike meant to overload the brain with shock. Cynthia’s eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to the floor unconscious, the knife ttering away.


    Finally Nnenna thought. By now, her breathing was ragged, her vision blurring at the edges. The stabbing pain in her lower back spread like fire, draining her strength with every second. She bit down hard on her tongue, coppery blood filling her mouth, forcing herself to stay awake.


    Her hand fumbled for her phone, slick with sweat. She unlocked it, the screen glowing faintly in the dim room. No time to think, she tapped the first number on her recent contacts list.


    The call connected after a single ring.


    "Hello?" A smooth, deep male voice flowed through the speaker, steady and calm, like silk over steel.


    But Nnenna couldn’t answer. Her body finally gave in, her hand slipping as the phone fell onto the sheets. Darkness swallowed her whole as she fainted, blood still pooling beneath her.


    -----------------


    A weekter.


    "I thought it was just an injury to her spinal cord. Why is she still in aa?" the man’s voice was sharp,ced with worry but wrapped in authority that made everyone around him uneasy.


    "Y-yes." A woman hesitated before answering, her tone careful, almost timid. "Y-yes... the knife missed her heart, but it pierced dangerously close to the lower spinal cord. We managed to stop the internal bleeding, but the trauma caused severe shock to her nervous system. Her body is... conserving energy. That’s why she hasn’t woken yet. She’s stable, but we cannot say how long thea willst."


    Oppressive silence pressed heavy for a moment.


    The door opened, and someone stepped in with unhurried grace. His movements were slower than usual, but it didn’t take away from the natural authority he carried.


    Carl’s frame looked leaner than before, the sharpness of his cheekbones more defined from the toll of chtion therapy. His skin still carried a faint pallor, and the veins along his forearms hinted at recent treatments.


    Yet, despite all this, his posture was steady, his shoulders squared. Strength clung to him, not the raw kind of a man in perfect health, but the resilient kind of someone who refused to be broken.


    "Stop scaring Alice," Carl’s voice cut through the heavy air, gentle but firm. His eyes softened briefly on the person lying on the bed. "She’s one of the best doctors in Riverum. If not, why would I hire her?"


    Alice, clearly shaken by the earlier exchange, lowered her head in relief.


    Carl turned his gaze toward the man seated not far from the bed. Arthur sat rigid, his arms crossed, eyes dark, lips sealed.


    Carl let out a small, almost yful but sad smile, one that carried a touch of familiarity. It was the kind of smile that seemed to say, ah, I remember, you’re still not speaking to me.


    "I’ll finish up here, Alice. You can go," Carl said gently.


    Alice nodded quickly, as though she had just been released from a prison sentence, and half walked, half ran out of the room.


    "We should take her back to my kingdom," Arthur said stiffly, still refusing to look Carl’s way. "I’m sure I have better doctors than Alice."


    Carl didn’t flinch. He reached for the clipboard at the foot of the bed, eyes scanning Nnenna’s vitals with practiced calm. "First of all, no. She’s too unstable. Second, your doctors aren’t better than mine. Most importantly..." He set the clipboard down with a quiet thud. "...I’m better than them all. She has a better chance here with me than anywhere else. You can be mad at me all you want, Arthur, but you can’t gamble with her life."


    Arthur’s lips curled into a scoff. "Fine. But I would like to know what exactly is going on instead of sitting here like a spectator. But I’m guessing you won’t tell me that either."


    Carl’s jaw tightened.


    He knew it wasn’t about the treatment. He had made sure to keep Arthur in the loop every step of the way.


    And so, he decided to once again address the real problem. His voice stayed even. "For the hundredth time, I thought I could protect her myself. If I had known the culprit was so well connected, I would have told you."


    Arthur finally snapped his gaze to him, eyes hard with doubt. "Would you?" he cut in, sharp as a de.


    "Yes." Carl didn’t hesitate. His gaze held Arthur’s unflinchingly. "Yes, I would."


    The silence stretched, thick and heavy, before Carl’s voice lowered, steady but weighed with guilt. "This isn’t easy on me either. I have to live with the fact that I failed her. And even if she recovers... I’ll still carry that."


    "I should have sent her back to Prigrian, kicking and screaming if I had to," Carl said after a long pause, his voice low but steady. "I never nned to bring her here until I had settled everything on my side. Her visit... it was not supposed to happen."


    Arthur’s head snapped toward him. "Oh, now you are ming me?" The words came sharp, though a careful ear could catch the faint tremor beneath, the guilt he couldn’t shake.


    "I’m the one who gave her the choice, right? I should have forced her to stay in Prigrian, is that it? Instead, I gave her a way out of her death wish, running off to capture Athena. You seem to forget it was her decision toe to Riverum, and a far better one than the alternative. This... this is not on me."