The Substitute Healer (BL)-Chapter 82: I didn’t know…”

Ever since Soren escaped his master, the same man who had abused and harassed him, he started sharing his burden more openly with Elias.

Talking to him felt easier and natural, like he didn’t have to choose his words carefully.

They were only a year apart, Soren being the younger one, and even though they weren’t related by blood, Elias felt like a real brother to him.

Elias made it feel safe for Soren to lean on someone again.

Both of them were orphans, and for a long time, they’d been inseparable.

They depended on each other to get through things, but Elias was usually the stronger one, the one who stood first when things got hard. With Elias around, Soren could relax. He could be himself as quiet, honest, even weak at times because Elias had a way of bringing that side of him out without trying.

With Elias around, Soren usually let himself act more emotional than he ever would with anyone else. If he didn’t, Elias would keep pestering him about it anyway, poking and prodding until Soren finally cracked and spoke his mind.

It was annoying, but familiar and strangely comforting.

Despite everything they’d been through, Elias kept a mostly happy-go-lucky attitude. He didn’t like dwelling on the past, didn’t believe in letting old wounds define who he was. If someone wronged him, he wouldn’t stay quiet about it, and if he knew he was in the right, he wouldn’t hesitate to fight back.

That was where he differed most from Soren.

Elias had a strong sense of justice, the kind that pulled him into trouble more often than not, especially when nobles were involved. He couldn’t stand abuse of power and never learned how to look the other way.

Soren, on the other hand, had learned caution the hard way. He knew when to stay silent, when survival mattered more than being right.

In the end, that difference was one of the reasons they chose the slums over the capital.

The capital was full of titles, eyes, and rules that bent in favor of the powerful, things Elias would never tolerate and things Soren didn’t want to face again.

The slums were harsh and unforgiving, but at least there, they could live by their own rules, away from nobles who thought themselves untouchable and a world that had already taken too much from them.

Elias was never a pushover.

Even as a child, he had a stubborn strength in him that refused to bend, and it was the very thing that made his kidnappers target him more than the others.

Because of his larger build, he was always the first one to step forward, to put himself between the weak and those who wanted to hurt them. Every act of defiance earned him harsher blows, but it never stopped him from trying.

He was the one who whispered plans in the dark, who counted guards and memorized routes and who talked about escape even when hope felt thin.

Elias took the risks so others wouldn’t have to, drawing attention to himself while the younger and smaller children hid behind him. And when things inevitably went wrong, when his body finally gave in under the beating, it was Soren who pulled him back, dragging him away, covering for him, saving him in ways Elias never spoke of but never forgot.

That was the reason Elias stayed by Soren’s side even after they were freed from their kidnappers.

To him, Soren was someone who needed protecting, not just because of his past, but because Elias saw him as fragile in ways the world would easily exploit.

Soren was too gentle, too pretty in a way that leaned almost feminine, and far too kind for someone who had already suffered so much.

In Elias’s eyes, that made him vulnerable, and Elias had long decided that vulnerability was something he would stand in front of.

Protecting Soren became his first instinct and his first priority.

He guarded him fiercely, watched over him constantly, and put Soren’s safety above his own without a second thought.

The only time Elias ever stepped back was when Soren himself spoke up, when he said he wanted something, or chose a path on his own.

Elias knew he didn’t have the right to cage him, no matter how strong the urge to shield him was.

He understood his place, understood that protecting someone didn’t mean controlling them.

Still, when time passed and Elias stopped hearing from him, unease settled in his chest.

Silence from Soren was never a good sign so when an order came for reinforcement to be sent north under the command of the Davenmore knights, Elias didn’t hesitate.

He joined them without question, following the summons issued by their lord, Duke Davenmore which is Alaric himself, knowing that whatever awaited him in the north, Soren would be there.

And that was reason enough.

"I knew it... I knew you’d be like this. Soren, it must’ve been so hard..." Elias knelt in front of him while his eyes were wet, wiping Soren’s tears with his thumbs like it was something he’d done a hundred times before. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

They were inside Soren’s tent, quiet and shut away from everything else.

Caelius had left them alone without being told while Soren sat on a chair near the table, close to the tent flap and his bed just a short distance behind him.

"I’m sorry... I didn’t know..." Elias sobbed again with his hands resting on Soren’s cheeks as he stayed crouched there.

But Soren didn’t say anything and just let it happen while continuing on crying silently.

Elias already knew what this week did to him.

Every year, around his mother’s death anniversary, Soren would break down on his own, cry until he fell asleep and shut the world out.

Elias never tried to stop it. He just never pushed him to talk but he stayed close, letting Soren lean on him or cry in silence.

That was always how Elias comforted him.

He didn’t say much but for Soren, that was enough.

A moment after...