The System Gave Me A Yandere Husband

Chapter 38: Her Heartbeat

The moment Eveyr fell on the ground, he coughed and spat a thick spatter of blood onto the ground.

Esme immediately ran towards him and sat on her knees beside him. She grabbed his shoulders, using all her energy to keep him upright.

"Eveyr! Look at me!" Esme shouted.

He lifted his head. His eyes filled with blinding pain, the sudden severing of his magic had sent his body into shock. But still, he raised his hand and grabbed her hand tightly.

"They... poisoned the earth," Eveyr stammered.

Then he pushed her away softly.

"Run, Esme. They want... to kill me... Leave."

The Esme from the real world would have done exactly that. She would have analyzed the situation and left him on the ground to save herself. Because staying with him at that time meant death, and failing the system quest.

But looking at the deadliest man in the empire, completely broken because he had rushed in to save her, she shook her head.

"I didn’t kill those Imperial guards to leave you to die here, Eveyr," Esme said as she grabbed his arm and put it on her shoulder. "Get up. Get on your feet."

"Esme, you cannot fight them all..."

"I said get up!" she grunted, bearing his weight as she forced him to stand. "We are going to survive and make Julian pay."

As they stumbled forward, a notification immediately appeared in her vision.

[QUEST UPDATE: THE WARLORD’S SHIELD]

[Objective: Protect the Target]

[Reward: +500 Points per assassin killed]

Esme half-carried Eveyr away from the clearing. Her whole body ached, but she dragged him towards a narrow cave that she had spotted earlier.

She pushed Eveyr inside. Before she followed him in, she gathered tree branches and spread them at the cave entrance as their shield.

Inside, Eveyr slumped against one of the walls. He was shivering badly as his body struggled without his magic. But despite that, he kept looking at her.

Esme crouched beside him and put her hand on his chest to check his heartbeat.

"If they find us..." Eveyr rasped. "Let them kill me. Tell them I kidnapped you. Save yourself."

"Shut up," Esme almost shouted, wiping the dirt from his cheek. "No one is going to kill you."

Then suddenly they heard the sound of boots marching towards the cave. The assassins had finally reached them. Esme moved, and peered out through the tiny gaps in the branches.

There were eight of them and where checking the spot in the clearing where Eveyr had collapsed.

"He crossed the array," one of the men muttered, pointing at the blood on the ground. "Find him immediately."

Esme turned and found Eveyr trying to stand up. But his body didn’t obey him. She immediately rushed towards him and stopped him, gently pushing his shoulder back against the wall.

"Rest!" she said.

She opened her system interface and bought an audio projection skill for 500 points. Outside the cave, a hyper realistic auditory illusion of snapping branches and stumbling footsteps echoed from a few miles away.

"There!" the lead assassin shouted, pointing his blade towards the noise. "He is running towards the river! Move!"

Esme sighed in relief as six of them immediately turned and ran in the other direction. But two of them were still there.

One of them knelt and inspected the ground.

"Wait," the man said. "The drag marks don’t go towards the river."

He slowly stood up and drew his sword. His eyes followed their faint footprints that led him to the cave.

Inside, Esme pulled out the dagger from her boot. She looked back at Eveyr. He was burning in fury as he had to sit and watch his wife fight his battles.

Esme leaned down and kissed his forehead softly.

"Close your eyes," Esme said. "I’m finally going to make a mess."

As soon as the first assassin tossed the branch aside, a silver light lit the cave. Before the man could even adjust his eyes to the light, Esme picked up a fistful of dirt from the ground and threw it in his eyes.

The assassin grunted and began to remove the dirt from his eyes. Taking advantage of the situation, Esme drove the dagger under his jaw. The man’s eyes rolled back, and he fell on the ground, dead.

The second assassin was right behind him. Seeing his comrade fall, he shouted and lunged forward with his sword ready to attack her.

Esme tried to dodge, but the sword grazed her shoulder, tearing her tunic. She hissed in pain but used his momentum against him. As he stumbled, Esme moved, grabbed one of his arms, and struck her dagger into his armpit.

The assassin gasped and collapsed on the ground.

Moving on adrenaline, Esme dragged their bodies outside and shoved them into a group of thick ferns. She hurried back and erased their footprints immediately.

Then she entered the cave and sat beside Eveyr. She was breathing heavily. Eveyr on the other hand was looking at her bloodstained hands, her torn clothes and her shoulder wound.

"They touched you," Eveyr whispered, his voice filled with helpless rage.

"It’s just a scratch, Eveyr," Esme replied. "I’m fine. They’re dead."

Eveyr didn’t seem to hear her. Ignoring his body’s protests, he grabbed her uninjured arm and pulled her against his chest. Esme collapsed against him, her ear resting on his pounding heart.

"You stayed. When you had the options to run."

"I told you," Esme smiled faintly and wrapped her arms around him. "I’m not leaving you to die."

As time passed, Eveyr’s condition worsened. The Iron-Blood Array had begun to poison his blood now. He was burning with fever, shivering uncontrollably. Esme immediately pressed her body against his to keep him stable.

"The array is temporary, Eveyr," Esme murmured as she stroked his hair to soothe him. "Julian’s mages won’t be able to last long. You just have to survive the night."

"I have felt the world humming around me for decades, Esme," Eveyr confessed. "But now... there is nothing...except for the cold silence."

He moved slightly and buried his forehead in her neck.

"But your heartbeat...it’s the only thing I can hear. It is the only thing keeping me connected to this world."

"Then listen to it," Esme said softly. "Listen to it until the sun comes up."

They spent the entire night in each other’s arms. Esme did not sleep even for a second. Every few minutes she checked his breathing, afraid it would stop before dawn.

Eveyr drifted in and out of painful consciousness. But even in this condition, he held her like a drowning man holding his only lifeline.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the sun rose. The Iron Blood Array that had drained Eveyr’s magic eventually began to crack.

Eveyr’s eyes snapped open. His fever disappeared immediately. The shadows that appeared to be dead earlier now surged forward.

Eveyr finally stood up, pulling Esme with him. He looked down at Esme’s hands, covered in the dried blood of the men she had killed. He turned his head, his gaze piercing through the trees toward the direction of the Imperial hunting pavilion.

"Julian wanted to see me bleed," Eveyr said, a demonic smile appeared on his face. "Let’s show him what happens when a monster learns how to hunt in the dark."