Accepting The Truth
After being carried around like a bag of luggages for about 10 minutes straight, Iris had suddenly entered what seemed to look like a small but well kempt one story house remotely in the middle of a neighborhood, in which she had actually bought this morning, and quickly but gently placed Ronald down on a couch.
Afterwards, she pulled out what seemed to be a pill covered in blood out of her maid skirt and tried to put it in Ronald's mouth.
But before she could do that however...
"Stop stop STOP! I SAID STOP IT IRIS!" Ronald shouted loudly and swipped Iris's hand away from his mouth.
"Y-young Master! I-I know that it's covered in blood b-but I beg you, please swallow it right now! I'm willing to face any punishments you give to me afterwards!" Iris desperately cried out to Ronald and tried to put the pill in his mouth again.
However, Ronald's mouth was sealed so tightly that she couldn't force it into his mouth at all.
"Please Young Master! The smoke that you inhaled in 10 minutes ago contains a lot of chemical ingredients that are extremely harmful to the body, and I don't want you to die!" Iris continued pleading to Ronald.
Although Iris had made sure to throw a smoke bomb near Ronald moments before bringing him out of the masquerade party, meaning that Ronald didn't inhale as much fume, she was still heavily worried that the small amounts of deadly fumes Ronald had inhaled might actually harm his body and even possibly kill him.
Upon hearing what Iris had said, Ronald sigh in his heart, took the pill from Iris's hands, and put it in his mouth.
"There, now stop bothering me." Ronald announced in an annoyed tone.
Contrary to his annoyed tone however, he was currently extremely worried and nervous for Iris right now.
Why?
Because Iris looked absolutely mutilated, so mutilated in fact that Ronald was surprised that she was even breathing.
Hell, not even Ye Fan had looked this bad back when Ronald had been trying to kill him in his previous life.
Not only was her entire body besides her head covered in dozens of bullet holes, but she was oozing out so much blood that it had started to make a blood puddle on the floor.
Of course, Ronald could just make a pill for Iris and ensure that she doesn't die.
But the main problem was that he didn't have all of the supplies required in order to make the pill.
And even if he did, it would take at least an hour in order to make it, and Ronald was fairly positive that Iris wouldn't even be alive by then.
However, he couldn't just let Iris die like this.
So he racked up his brain and tried to figure out a way to somehow fully heal Iris without having to leave this house.
While he was thinking of a way to cure her however...
"Why do you look so happy right now?" Ronald asked with confusion in his voice when he had noticed Iris was smiling brightly at him.
That's right, despite the fact that Ronald had never seen Iris more mangled throughout his entire two lives he's been here in the novel, Iris had probably the brightest smile he had ever seen on her face.
"It's because you're alive, Young Master." Iris didn't elaborate any further and continued staring at Ronald with a bright smile on her face.
"Of course I'm alive, what do you even mean by- nevermind that. Listen, we need to cure your wounds immediately before you end up dying from blood loss, so let me see if there are any sewing stitc-" Before Ronald could finish his sentence however...
"I won't die, Young Master." Iris said in a determine tone.
"And how can you be so sure?" Seeing the absolute determination on her face, Ronald knew that she wasn't just sprouting out bullshit due to the huge amounts of blood she had lost and asked in a suspicious manner.
"Because I can't afford to, not while you're still with me, Young Master." Iris stared at Ronald dead in the eye with unwavering determination and announced in a powerful and firm tone.
When Ronald had heard what Iris had stated in the powerful yet somewhat quiet tone, he couldn't help but started to hyperventilate a little bit.
For some reason, he could tell that something about Iris had significantly changed in this life compared to the last life.
And not change as in Iris's personality completely collapsing and loving him in this life as suppose to the previous life.
Or change as in someone had transmigrated into her body and is now just pretending to be her, since Ronald had no doubt in his mind that the Iris in this life is the same Iris in the previous life.
But change as in the vibe that Iris had just given off was... significantly different.
A vibe that most people could never ever possess in this world.
And a vibe that had used to haunt him a lot back in his previous life.
Of course, it doesn't actually faze him anymore since he's gotten so used to it, however, that's besides the point.
The point is that he shouldn't be feeling this kind of vibe from Iris at all.
'Hmm.'
"Iris." After he had managed to calm himself down a little bit, Ronald decided to just forget about trying to treat Iris's wounds for now and called out to Iris.
"Yes, Young Master?"
"Why do you go so far just for me?" Ronald asked.
Even though Ronald had been meaning to ask this question for awhile now, he had never really found the right time to do so, and to be completely honest, he never really wanted to ask the question at all to begin with.
And it wasn't because he didn't wanted to know why the heroines loved him.
No, he wanted to know very much.
The real reason why he never wanted to ask any of the heroines this question however was mainly because he never wanted to accept the truth.
Accept the truth that the heroines actually love him.
He wanted to continue being in denial about the fact that the heroines actually loved him from the bottom of their hearts and only wanted to believe that they were only pretending to love him on the surface in order to get monetary gains out of it.
However, no matter how far one wants to run, hide, and avoid the truth, they can never destroy the truth.
The most one can do is cover the truth with lies in order to make themselves feel better.
But even so, truths can never disappear.
And Ronald knew that he had to start accepting the truth, whether he likes it or not.
"Do you believe me if I told you that I was willing to do everything for you just so I can see you smile for an extra second longer, Young Master?" Iris said with a meaningful look on her face.
"I mean, I wouldn't doubt it, but that's not really what I had asked, right?"
"You're right Young Master, it's just that I want to continue seeing that smile, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to continue doing so if I do end up tell you." Iris replied.
Since Iris was well aware that Luna, one of the girls that had gone absolutely crazy after Ronald's death, had regressed back as well but still had to keep it a secret away from Ronald in this life clearly means that Iris should most likely do the same as well.
After all, with how obsessed Luna had been with Ronald, as seen from the previous life especially after Ronald's death, Iris knew for a fact that Luna wouldn't be able to have the guts to hide anything from Ronald and would've definitely told him that she was a regressor the moment she had regressed back.
But the fact that Luna is still hiding that she was a regressor away from Ronald proved to Iris that there was something after she had commited suicide that would definitely pose a threat to Ronald in the future, and telling him about regressors now might hasten his demise.
"Is that a threat I hear?"
"No Young Master! I didn't really mean it like that! I just can't tell you right now because it poses a threat to you!" Despite the fact that Iris was agonizing in pain because of her wounds and her exhausting all of her energy during the fights back at the masquerade party, she still did a 90 degree bow to Ronald anyways.
"Alright, well whatever, just go take a rest for now and I'll call someone to bring you to a private hospital as soon as possible." Noticing that Iris was clearly exhausted, coupled with the fact that she was still leaking out massives amounts of blood, Ronald decided to persue the matter later and tried to convince Iris to get some rest.
"Thank you for your concern Young Master, but it's still dangerous out there, and nobody else is protecting you right now besides me." Iris declined Ronald's offer.
Since Iris had actually gotten in cahoots with Luna's subordinate prior to entering the masquerade party, she knew that the whole reason why the masquerade party had gotten completely hectic to begin with was because Luna's subordinates were trying to infiltrate the party and secretly get some of the guards to hide in Ronald's shadow and ensure his safety.
However, the fact that not even a single one of them had sent a text back to Iris's untraceable phone and keeping her updated on the current situation and the amount of guards hidden at Ronald's side after she had brought Ronald out of the masquerade party clearly meant that nobody else was currently protecting Ronald right now besides herself.
"Iris."
"Yes, Young Master?"
"This isn't a request, it's an order. Go take a rest." Ronald stated in tone so cold that it definitely didn't fit his original personality at all.
And seeing that Ronald was clearly not having it right now, Iris didn't try to refute any further.
"Young Master, if you promise me you'll not do anything that'll endanger your life while I'm resting, then I'll follow your orders."
"I promise." Ronald casually stated.
"Pinkie promise me." Iris lifted up her hand and raised up her pinkie finger.
"Pinkie promise." Ronald also lifted up his hand, raised out his pinkie finger, and locked his pinkie finger with Iris's pinkie finger, signifying that he won't break the promise.
Then immediately right after Ronald had locked his pinkie finger with Iris's pinkie finger, Iris immediately collapsed onto the ground.
But before she could fully hit the ground however, Ronald quickly picked up Iris and then placed her onto the couch that was in the living room.
Afterwards, he went to a different couch that was also in the living room and plopped down on it with an expressionless look on his face.
'...'
'I'm tired.'