“I… I’m sure I told you not to come in no matter what happens!”
The boy’s steps stopped. Evernight turned his body with difficulty and faced upward. His labored breathing subsided a little, but as time passed, the heat seeped into the bones of his limbs and his head throbbed.
A woman’s whisper reached his ears.
*’Please survive, child.’*
This time, the voice of an old woman whose face he couldn’t even remember was also heard.
*’Andalr, the first knight who fought against the night.’*
The voices of all the people who existed in his past merged together and began to mercilessly split Evernight’s head. A few faint blood vessels bulged above his forehead.
*’Fuck, shut up.’*
He quietly closed both eyes and tried to compose his mind. His entire body became drenched in cold sweat. Even so, Evernight couldn’t feel the chill. Rather, his body, which had exceeded the limits of the five senses a human could feel, trembled madly at even the slightest stimulus.
“E-Evernight-kyung.”
In the midst of all this, an ignorant brat was loitering right nearby. Evernight raised his eyes soaked in heat and looked at Anya. Just capturing someone in his field of vision made madness boil up.
[You want to eat that child, don’t you?]
[Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.]
A low, murky voice muttered and burst into giggles.
“If you cross over….”
I don’t know what will happen to me either.
Evernight shook his head to regain his senses.
“How, how can I just st-stay still?”
[Eat, eat, eat. You want to tear that child’s clothes apart and spray your seed all over inside!]
A greedy voice covered over the novice’s stuttering voice. Evernight, whose impatience had reached its peak, half-raised his upper body, threw off his leather armor, and tore open the front of his clothes. He was exposed to the cold air through the gap that opened.
“You’re not the problem… I’m the problem.”
Evernight said as if admonishing in a completely hoarse voice.
“This isn’t poison. It’s a curse. Applying medicine won’t cure it.”
He gestured with his chin toward the shabby leaves Anya was holding.
“Don’t make a fuss. I can’t die even if I want to.”
His words were somehow filled with certainty. His attitude of being certain he wouldn’t die in this worst situation was somehow twisted to be called optimistic.
“Th-then….”
“Just leave me alone and worry about your own body.”
In fact, Anya’s condition wasn’t very good either. His tender body that had been attacked by the monster once was covered in wounds, and having just escaped the curse of enchantment, the mental shock was considerable. The boy had also hit his limit. Snot kept flowing down below Anya’s round nose. No matter how much he warmed his body near the bonfire, his jaw trembled in the cold.
“I won’t die. I promise.”
Evernight swore with a crooked smile. His eyes, strangely flushed with fever, were red.
“E-Evernight-kyung. Still… I, I will stay by your side.”
“Goddamn, you little bastard. It’s an order as commander. If you cross over, I’ll slit your throat.”
Anya flinched and trembled at the rough words. Unable to overcome Evernight’s stubbornness, Anya eventually had to return to his place again. Evernight’s pupils persistently scanned Anya’s back from top to bottom, then turned away with difficulty.
Beyond the wall, inside a cave no one visited. The night was deepening without being able to comfort anyone.
* * *
Anya heard a groan let out with difficulty in his sleep. The boy’s eyes, who had been curled up like a baby animal near the bonfire in a light sleep, immediately opened. Anya opened his eyes even in his sleep whenever Evernight made even the slightest sound. He didn’t know how many times this had been already.
He had no way of knowing when Riario or Karen would be able to find them.
*’If only I could at least cast detection magic… the situation would be much easier.’*
Evernight said not to worry much, but whenever he made sounds of suffering, fear rushed over Anya. From outside the cave, occasionally wolf howls and somehow eerie, unknown sounds could be heard intermittently. Each time, Anya got up, looked around, and checked if Evernight was alright.
“Keuuk….”
Finally, Evernight coughed up blood. His symptoms worsened, and he could no longer just watch idly.
*’I can’t just stare blankly like a fool!’*
Anya clenched his fist and carefully crawled on his knees up to Haebing.
Now, even if Evernight killed him, it wasn’t a stage where he could just sit still with his hands folded. Anya could easily recall the sight of his siblings dying while coughing up blood. They too had acted boldly and then suddenly died like that.
Haebing’s blade still seemed to have the monster’s sticky blood on it. Anya deliberately ignored that and carefully crossed over Haebing.
“You….”
Blue eyes that had opened at some point looked at him. His elegant eyes spread with heat, exactly like a blurred brushstroke.
“N-now no, no matter what you say, I wo-won’t go.”
The leaves he had applied to the back of Evernight’s hand had already dried up, having lost their function. Anya peeled them off and immediately pounded fresh ones and applied them to his wounds. It was a somehow resolute and determined gesture.
“……”
Every time their flesh touched, Evernight gritted his teeth painfully. Anya thought it was because of pain. But it wasn’t.
The monster’s curse was much more persistent and bothersome than expected. The monster, who had once been human, had become a cursed being with only vile instincts remaining. And that damn existence passed the curse to Evernight at the last moment.
The fortunate thing was… Evernight had a much stronger curse embedded in him. It was a more desperate and powerful curse. That’s why he could endure it. If Anya had been afflicted with this curse instead of him from the start, the walls of this cave would already be plastered with blood.
“E-Evernight-kyung. My ma-magic power might be able to help.”
But he hadn’t anticipated this. He could somehow endure it alone. However, if someone was nearby, it was a different story.
Evernight’s body trembled finely at the warm blue light placed on his forehead. Something surged up from deep in his stomach. It was a tremendous excitement that made him shudder.
“Hand, remove it.”
Evernight took down Anya’s touch while gritting his teeth. The moment he covered that small hand under his own, a terribly intense desire rippled.
[What are you holding back? You want to push it inside that child right now!]
[Filthy Andalr reproduction!]
A voice clearly full of mockery whispered with giggles.
“Shut up. The Andalr line has already been severed.”
Evernight roughly opened his mouth toward someone.
“What? E-Evernight-kyung. Wa-wait a moment.”
Anya hurriedly got up from his seat and shot out of the cave like an arrow. Evernight bit his lip hard enough to draw blood at the small sensation slipping away between his grip. What he felt at that moment was a damn tremendous obsession and destructive desire.
Anya gathered snow right in front of the cave and brought it in the hem of his robe. Then he brought Evernight’s cloak that had been covering him like a blanket, covered his body with it, and rubbed Evernight’s forehead with the tightly packed snowball.
“Are, are you alright?”
He felt much better with the cool snow touching him.
[I know your sordid desires. You want to live more than anyone else, yet you put on airs.]
[If you leave seed, we’ll come find it and chew it up thoroughly.]
[Tender baby meat is more delicious than anything.]
The ridicule in his ears grew stronger. Now it was the limit. He had no more means to endure. He grabbed Anya’s wrist. The thin wrist like a dry branch seemed like it would snap if he applied even a little force. Evernight said in an almost submerged voice while suppressing the surging madness.
“Go back… to your place again….”
Because he couldn’t sleep properly, Anya also answered in a cracked voice.
“I, I don’t want to. Even if kyung, kyung kills me, I wo-won’t go now.”
His young partner was stubborn in strange places. It was a bad habit. Evernight thought he should fix that habit as soon as they returned to Tildyen.
“Then.”
A scent that stirred up Evernight’s desire spread from Anya. Evernight took a deep breath and inhaled that scent. A tingling, ecstatic pleasure swept through every corner of his body, easily toppling the patience he had built up while desperately resisting until now.
He finally took out the dagger he always carried at his waist. The blade of the dagger passed precariously by Anya’s nose. While appreciating the boy’s face gradually tinted with horror, Evernight cut his own forearm with the blade of the dagger without hesitation.
“I have no choice but to do this.”
Red blood immediately seeped out from Evernight’s forearm. He felt his head clear up, though it was only for a moment. Sexual desire and murderous desire are fundamentally desires with similar roots. Since he couldn’t violate that boy, Evernight decided to cut himself. Cutting himself was also, in a way, close to murderous desire and destructive desire.
Anya’s docile eyes widened round.
*’Why, why go this far….’*
To the boy who thought this man was simply suffering from being injured, Evernight’s actions were completely incomprehensible. When Evernight let out a thin groan, the boy took one step deeper and grabbed his forearm.
“Wh-why on earth are, are you doing this?”
Anya sobbed while pressing down on the spurting wound on his arm. Evernight roughly brushed away that small hand and snarled fiercely.
“Anya, I’m sure I clearly told you before not to meddle unnecessarily.”
Anya couldn’t understand what on earth Evernight was talking about. Then, when he met his cold eyes full of rejection, a sudden realization rushed over him.
He was in agony from terrible wounds, yet he absolutely didn’t want to receive his help. Moreover, as a threat for Anya not to come closer, he put a knife to his own body.
*’It’s natural… because I ruined things. Because we fell beyond this wall….’*
A more explicit attitude than expected brought bitterness.
Even so, Anya couldn’t back down. The boy stuttered severely from guilt.
“How, how can you say su-such things? Who could sleep co-comfortably in front of a pe-person who’s dying? For kyung’s sake, I can do an-anything.”
A taut tension flowed between the two. Evernight let out a low curse. At the profanity he spat out, the boy’s tender throat shrank. The sight of him gauging the mood yet never backing down was exactly like a puppy looking only at its owner. He didn’t even have ears, yet it was as if his ears drooped… Evernight let out a sneer, finding himself absurd for having such an imagination.
