[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke
Chapter 303: Xion Is Dead

Chapter 303: Xion Is Dead

Darius didn’t remember anything. He simply couldn’t.

The only thing he knew deep in his bones was that he wasn’t in the right place. This place, wherever it was, wasn’t where he belonged.

He should be by Xion’s side. To watch Xion bathe in the moonlight, to watch him smile, to feel him rushing into his arms, to hear him softly scold.

But instead, all he felt was a gnawing emptiness. The more he thought, the tighter the pain in his chest grew. Each beat of his heart thudded out a rhythm of disbelief.

He watched the person on the sofa sleeping peacefully but dared not step closer to him.

"He is dead."

Knight’s words hit him like a million needles piercing straight into his heart. It started off slow before the realization slammed him with full force.

Dead.

How could that be? His thoughts recoiled from the truth. His brow furrowed as if his mind refused to grasp the finality of it.

The great Archduke of the north looked utterly confused.

Ray was standing near the corpse, his fist clenched at his side. The nails dug into his palm but the pain was nowhere near the shock he felt just a few minutes ago.

He had checked three times. Three long, unbearable times to be certain. But there was no breath to be felt, no pulse to be detected.

Xion was sprawled on the couch with his silky black hair framing his pale face. If not for the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, smearing the clean sheet beneath, they would have assumed Xion was simply sleeping.

But no, the reality was much more brutal.

After what felt like an eternity, Darius walked forward. His legs were wobbling as if he were just a newborn kid learning to take his first step.

He stumbled and then fell to his knees beside the sofa, right next to Xion’s head.

He reached forward, his trembling fingers wiping the eyesore of the paint at the corner of Xion’s lips. Paint, yes. It had to be paint.

However, the slight warmth of it scalded him like hundreds of suns. It seared through his reason and melted what little remnants of humanity he had left.

It was so viscerally red he could hardly bear to look at it, and yet his eyes refused to move.

A quivering breath escaped his chapped lips. Xion was here with him. He was safe. His beloved was just resting his eyes.

There was no way anything could happen to him.

After all, Xion was his heart and he was still alive, so Xion was too.

Xion had long since wormed his way into every corner of his heart, slipped into each valve, and filled every hollow space with that soft laugh and those brilliant oceanic eyes.

Yes, Xion was here. The young healer was present in his very soul.

Darius moved his arms slowly, bitterly, as if his joints had rusted. It hurt, everything ached, but still, he moved.

He didn’t know how he did it, but somehow, Xion was now lying in his embrace. The chill of the floor crept into his every pore, but he didn’t care. He cradled the small frame gently.

Xion was here.

No. Xion is here.

Xion is here.

Xion is here.

Xion is...

Xion is dead.

The words echoed inside his skull like a curse. Over and over. Until all that left was a hollow echo where his soul used to be.

The room was still. Even the air didn’t swish with its usual flair. There was no wind, no fluttering curtains, no soft hum of the world outside.

And the two people felt their lungs being constricted.

Suddenly, even something as simple as breathing became an arduous chore.

Despite every inhale scraping like sandpaper against his lungs, despite the tremor swaying his entire body, Darius rocked his beloved in his arms with utter gentleness. Softly, reverently.

Xion was his very being and if he lost Xion, he would become heartless.

I love you, Xion, Darius thought desperately. I love you. I love you...

There was no heartbeat to be felt and the voices in his mind rose louder, stronger. It became blaring as the person in his arms grew colder.

Darius rocked Xion, patting the thin back even when the only response he got was the cruel deafening silence. There was the faintest hint of warmth lingering at the tips of Xion’s blood-coated fingers.

He clung to them, coddling them in his palm before nestling them closer to his lips, and pressing kisses.

The blood ended up smearing on his face, but what did it matter?

He was desperately trying to keep them warm as if that would somehow make Xion open his eyes.

"You can’t leave me, Xion. You promised. You said you would always wait for me,"Darius murmured desperately, still rocking the sleeping young man again and again. "You said you would stay with me."

Holding him closer, he tried to send the heat into the frozen nerves.

The pale green eyes were so dull, so void of light that they appeared hopeless. Ray thought that it wasn’t just Xion they lost, but His Grace’s soul too.

The rage in his blue eyes seemed to overflow as he recalled what happened just a few minutes ago.

He had been taking care of the four-winged snow wolf until now. Finally commanding another soldier to take his place, he had rushed to Xion’s side.

However, before he knocked on the door, His Grace was already there.

And so, together, they had waited outside that door for a response that would never come.

In the end, Ray had forced the door open. Even now as the Archduke held Xion, the door was still wide open, allowing him to see Allen’s figure disappearing down the hallway.

Ray’s eyes finally had a flicker of life. If there was anyone who could save Xion, it was Allen.

The knight commander didn’t wait for His Grace’s command as he rushed outside to bring the unsuspecting Alchemist.

Darius didn’t notice a thing. All of his world had narrowed down to the cold, breathless body in his arms.