“Huk!”
Seoho gasped for breath roughly. When he opened his eyes, what he saw was a ceiling that was still a bit unfamiliar but would soon become familiar.
The moment he realized that, Seoho turned his head this way and that. Looking around made it even more certain. This was Rosetta’s room.
Seoho put strength into his waist and lifted his upper body. It had been a truly unpleasant dream.
‘Right, it was a dream.’
A really strange dream that felt incredibly realistic.
Seoho was caressing his ears that still seemed to be ringing when he noticed his body was soaked through. Not just his hair but all his clothes were wet too, so it seemed he’d broken out in quite a cold sweat. Seoho wiped the sweat that had run down the back of his neck and threw off the blanket.
Just then, Puti’s voice was heard from outside the room.
“Seoho-nim, are you awake?”
Hearing Puti’s voice made him feel even more reassured.
“I’m awake.”
Puti carefully opened the door and entered the room.
“His Majesty went to the office for a moment. You seemed very tired, Seoho-nim…, Seoho-nim?”
Puti, who confirmed Seoho’s disheveled state, approached Seoho in surprise. Seoho smiled faintly as if he was fine and answered.
“Ah, I had a strange dream.”
“Oh my, I should have come in to check on you.”
Seoho shook his head and got down from the bed.
“It’s okay. I’d like to wash up…”
“Yes, I’ll prepare it for you… Seoho-nim? What’s that on your ankle?”
At Puti’s shocked reaction, Seoho looked back at him questioningly.
“What?”
Puti asked haltingly with a face that had gone pale.
“Did, did His Majesty do that?”
He had no idea what he was talking about. Seoho looked down at his ankle and answered.
“What are you talking about? What’s on my ankle…”
Seoho, who discovered his ankle bruised pitch black, shut his mouth tight. He’d definitely had a dream. But there was really a bruise on his ankle?
“Seoho-nim.”
Since what he’d experienced in the dream had carried over into reality, he felt anxious and scared. Seoho couldn’t take his eyes off his pitch-black ankle and asked Puti.
“Please call Rosetta.”
The voice coming out of his mouth was trembling finely.
He felt like he’d only be reassured if Rosetta was by his side. Because Rosetta was the person Seoho could trust most in this place.
Puti supported Seoho and said.
“…First, please wash up and I’ll send someone.”
Seoho grabbed Puti’s hand and opened his mouth.
“Tell him to come as quickly as possible…”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
“Thank you.”
Seoho headed to the bathroom with Puti’s help. Puti comforted Seoho that Rosetta would be back by the time he finished bathing, but it wasn’t much consolation.
Seoho tried his best to become calm and submerged his body in the warm water.
***
“Your Majesty!”
Rosetta’s eyes snapped open. It seemed he’d lost consciousness for a moment.
“Your Majesty, are you alright? You suddenly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut…”
Rosetta ignored the aides’ words and checked his body. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly wrong with his body.
No matter how much he hadn’t been sleeping properly lately while watching over Seoho, for himself who possessed the power of the gods to collapse—it was absolutely impossible.
“Your Majesty, is something wrong with your body?”
“How, how could that be?”
The aides were making a fuss beside him, but Rosetta ignored their words and examined his body once more.
‘Certainly there’s nothing wrong with my body…’
There was something wrong. Part of his divine power, no, half of his power had disappeared.
“Should we call the physician?”
At the bizarre phenomenon, Rosetta frowned. Since it was power he didn’t normally use, it didn’t particularly matter, but even so, strange was strange.
‘Are they giving and then taking away?’
Even if it was power he didn’t use, to take it back again? Rosetta, who was only thinking about that much, dismissed the aides who had gathered around him.
“You’re noisy.”
At Rosetta’s tone, which seemed displeased, the aides flinched and stepped back. Rosetta looked down at the documents placed in front of him. Thanks to working hard on work lately, after finishing these documents there would be no work for a while.
‘I’ll be able to rest until the meeting.’
Knowing there wasn’t much work left, he had deliberately come to the office to finish quickly while Seoho was asleep.
‘I should tell Seoho I got time off.’
Rosetta, who nodded satisfactorily and finished the last signature, was about to leave the office when someone knocked on the office door.
“Your Majesty.”
Rosetta looked at the servant who had come looking for him. Then the servant bowed deeply and said.
“Puti asked that Your Majesty please return to the room quickly.”
“Puti did?”
“Yes, he said it was urgent.”
There was only one reason for Puti to call Rosetta saying it was urgent. Seoho.
Rosetta sprang up from his seat and left the room while saying to the aides.
“I won’t be coming out for a while.”
Half-listening to the aides responding behind him, Rosetta ran straight to the room.
Rosetta, who had run to the room as if flying, was about to fling the door open but quietly opened it instead, thinking Seoho might be startled. However, it wasn’t Seoho who was in the room. Puti hurriedly approached him.
“Your Majesty, you came quickly.”
Rosetta looked around the room and asked.
“What’s going on? Where’s Seoho?”
Puti answered in a small voice.
“Seoho-nim is washing up right now.”
Now that he mentioned it, it seemed like he could hear the sound of water from the bathroom direction. Rosetta, who confirmed where Seoho was, asked Puti.
“Did Seoho call for me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Puti took a small deep breath and began to speak.
“Your Majesty, please don’t get excited or angry.”
It was an out-of-the-blue statement.
“What?”
“Seoho-nim is frightened, so please calmly and composedly soothe him.”
Frightened—an ominous and chilly wind cut through the air.
“What are you talking about? Why is Seoho frightened?”
Pitch-black smoke poured out from Rosetta, but even as Puti’s body trembled, he glanced at the bathroom and said pleadingly.
“Your Majesty, please. Lower your voice.”
Rosetta gathered his energy and answered.
“…What happened?”
“It seemed Seoho-nim had woken up, so when I entered the room, Seoho-nim’s body was soaked with sweat. He said he had a dream, so I was going to help him prepare a bath.”
Puti let out a deep sigh and continued.
“Seoho-nim’s ankle had turned pitch black. So, there was a bruise.”
Rosetta frowned.
“On his ankle?”
Puti nodded, then looked at Rosetta with eyes full of suspicion and asked.
“It wasn’t Your Majesty’s doing, was it?”
Rosetta looked down at Puti with eyes full of contempt. Then Puti flinched and trembled.
“Yes, I knew it wasn’t. Seoho-nim will come out soon. But Your Majesty.”
Puti warned once more with a serious face.
“As I said earlier, please don’t get angry or make a scary expression. Because Seoho-nim is anxious.”
“Alright.”
As soon as Rosetta answered, the bathroom door opened. Seoho, wet from the water, came out of the bathroom along with steam. As soon as Seoho left the bathroom, he looked for Rosetta.
“Puti, has Rosetta arrived?”
Rosetta approached Seoho, whose complexion still didn’t look good even after bathing, and asked worriedly.
“Seoho, you called for me?”
“Ah, Rosetta.”
Seoho, who discovered Rosetta, approached him with a relieved face. But even so, his complexion still didn’t look very good, making Rosetta’s heart anxious.
“What’s wrong?”
Did someone approach Seoho while I didn’t know? Or did he suddenly miss his original world?
His head was getting complicated when Seoho, who had been hesitating, asked carefully.
“Um… could you hold me for just a moment?”
“Huh?”
Rosetta looked at Seoho, doubting his ears. But Seoho was just looking at him with a desperate face.
When Rosetta’s lips quivered, Seoho opened his mouth again.
“Or if you could just hold my hand…”
He hadn’t heard wrong. Rosetta hurriedly pulled Seoho into his arms. Then a warmly wet body hugged Rosetta tightly.
Rosetta lost his senses to Seoho’s body touching his own and his scent entering his nostrils. Even though he knew they used the same shower gel, his scent was different from Rosetta’s.
The warm body temperature and the hands hugging him tightly. Rosetta naturally began to get excited.
It was a change he couldn’t help. But Rosetta knew.
‘Not now.’
Seoho, held in Rosetta’s arms, was clearly frightened. Rosetta tried his best to calm his excitement at Seoho’s trembling body and slowly raised his hands to wrap around Seoho’s back.
Rosetta held back the desire to crush Seoho in his embrace right now and soothed him as gently as possible.
“Seoho, are you okay?”
Rosetta’s voice was a bit hoarse but not much different from usual. Seoho answered in a trembling voice.
“I had a strange dream…”
He felt warm and slightly wet breath on his neck.
“I see, I heard from Puti. Will you show me your ankle?”
Seoho hesitantly pulled away.
“…Yes.”
It was truly regrettable, but it seemed better to be a bit apart for now. Rosetta smiled at Seoho, who still looked at him anxiously, and supported him to the bed.
“It’s okay. Sit on the bed for a moment.”
Seoho sat on the bed as Rosetta led him and raised his legs. Rosetta stared intently at Seoho’s ankle visible beneath the long robe. Even without being conscious of it, his gaze naturally went to the pretty ankle.
Being captivated by the slender ankle and pale pink ankle bone was only momentary. The moment he saw the opposite ankle Seoho was showing, Rosetta unconsciously hardened his expression.
His jaw clenched tightly and strength entered his hands. Heat shot through his body in a different sense than before. Just as his divine power was about to start seeping out, Puti poked Rosetta. Rosetta restrained the divine power that was about to attack Puti.
