“I thought it was just a curse from a lower-level monster, but it gave me more trouble than expected. Still, since it’s the commander, he could endure for several days. If it had been ordinary people, they would have gone berserk within a few hours and died.”
“Th-then, is he al-alright n-now….”
Anya kept rubbing his sweaty palms against his pants in anxiety. To anyone watching, he looked so earnest and affectionate that they might mistake him for a spouse who had been separated for years and was reuniting. One corner of Riario’s mouth rose playfully.
“He’s fine. Very fine. The commander isn’t someone who dies easily, though he does need to rest for a few days… Who am I? Aren’t I the empire’s greatest death mage? Breaking a curse is nothing….”
Before Riario could even finish speaking, Anya slid down along the wall and let out the breath he’d been holding.
“Your Highness!”
“I-I’m not collapsing.”
Anya waved his hand.
“Good grief, the married couple is startling me in pairs! Not collapsing would be helping.”
When Riario shouted that, Karen hurriedly put his index finger to his lips, telling him to lower his voice. Anya shot up from his spot like an arrow.
“I kn-know. That’s why I was so ca-careful not to let ma-magic depletion happen. This is just, just because I was re-relieved, so re-relieved.”
“Good grief. Magic depletion? Don’t say such terrifying things. If you’re not careful, you really will die. Anyway, it’s good that you kept paying attention to that.”
Even though Riario had spread the detection magic formation widely, sending one’s magic power from the cave to near the Wall was an extremely difficult task even for capable mages. Each person had a different innate wellspring of magic power, and this fledgling mage seemed to have been born with that magic wellspring.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Riario’s gaze turned toward the area around Anya’s belly. Anya quickly shook his head. He’d been touching his belly without realizing it. His lower abdomen had been throbbing since earlier, but it was bearable enough.
“N-no. I haven’t eaten anything….”
Anya laughed as if embarrassed.
“Then let’s have a late meal together.”
* * *
After finishing the meal, Anya carefully headed to the bedroom where Evernight was sleeping. He had his eyes closed as if dead. Anya held his hand near his nose. The sound of breathing tickled the back of his hand.
With a sigh of relief, he first carefully examined the back of his hand. The black lines were definitely faded above the back of his hand wrapped tightly in white cotton cloth.
“Thank goodness.”
Anya couldn’t climb onto the bed for fear his rustling sounds might wake Evernight, so he sat on the floor and curled up his body.
‘Really, thank goodness….’
Anya buried his face between his knees and carefully organized the threads of his thoughts.
‘When Sir Evernight wakes up, I need to get his permission to apologize to Joel and Ronan’s families. And I need to beg forgiveness from them… and spend my whole life repaying that sin. When we return to Tildyen… to Master Sabelli….’
But the storm that had been driven in over the past few days had overworked the boy’s body and mind to their limits. His sensitive brown eyes tried not to lose consciousness, but after blinking several times, he was seized by drowsiness. The boy collapsed to the side as if fainting.
In his sleep, Anya heard the sound of water splashing.
‘Mm… what is this now….’
It felt not like a hard, cold stone slab but as if he’d fallen into a puddle. And someone was hugging him from behind. Warm energy was transmitted through his back.
‘It feels… good….’
Anya curled his body even more and burrowed into that embrace.
When Anya was born, they said his mother was already dead. Someone said she’d stolen treasures from the imperial palace and fled, someone said she disappeared without a trace, and someone else said she’d been killed by another concubine’s hand. There was much talk surrounding Anya, who was still just an infant, but in the end it all gathered to the conclusion that she was ‘dead.’
The woman who bore Anya was a very insignificant foreigner of slave origin, and it’s said she succeeded in seducing Emperor Luksus for one night and spent the night with him.
She was an existence that stood out to no one. Like worthless weeds blooming in a field, she held her breath in the lowest position where anyone could trample her, and then gave birth to Anya.
“Shh. Stay still.”
The Emperor recognized his own bloodline. He didn’t quite know how he was convinced that Anya had imperial blood flowing through him.
It would have been better if he hadn’t done that…. It would have been better if he’d just thrown him on the roadside…. Then he could have died without knowing anything.
Perhaps if he’d been lucky, a kind farmer might have picked him up and raised him… perhaps if he’d been unlucky, he might have grown up as a street beggar, but still, he would have at least had the freedom to walk this wide world as he pleased.
Thinking about it now, it’s all just futile wishes….
“If you don’t want to have a stomachache the whole way back, you’d better stay still, Anya.”
Anya’s eyes snapped open at the foreign sensation he suddenly felt from behind.
“…E-El, Sir Evernight…?”
Anya was being held by Evernight, sitting in a large wooden bathtub.
“Euh, j-just a moment…!”
Moreover, Evernight had inserted his finger into Anya’s sensitive area and was gently rubbing the inside. The skin that was swollen and puffy from not having settled down yet stung. Furthermore, that place, which had already had its path opened several times, easily became sensitive even to one or two fingers, and moaning sounds naturally flowed out.
“Sir… ah, sir!”
Anya buried his face in one of his shoulders and let out a pitiful moan. The drowsy energy still hadn’t dissipated, so he was confused whether this was a dream or reality.
“Shh, relax. I’m not trying to do anything.”
Evernight spoke as if soothing him. Anya felt just like a child who couldn’t do anything.
Anya gritted his teeth. He’d said he wiped it clean, but Evernight’s things were still there. Evernight scraped it out gently a few times with quite a soft touch, then washed Anya, who couldn’t move a finger. And then he soon carried Anya and got out of the bathtub.
“Uuh….”
No matter how much the indoor air was heated by the brazier, winter was winter, and Northernmost was Northernmost. His naked body trembled finely in the chilly air. Evernight skillfully wrapped Anya tightly in white cloth and then sat him on the bed.
“We’ll be returning to Tildyen soon.”
So take good care of yourself.
He faced Anya while kneeling. His long hair, wet with water, clung to his young cheeks. The man’s hand, whose black lines had faded, stretched out to right in front of Anya’s nose. Remembering the man’s touch from last night, Anya unconsciously closed his eyes and pulled his upper body back. Evernight’s hand stopped in midair. He clenched his fist and soon rose to his feet without lingering.
“E-El, Sir Evernight, is your b-body al-alright….”
Before Anya could hurriedly attach his words, Evernight closed the door and left.
It was still dark outside the window. Having just finished bathing, his body felt chilly. More than anything, he was very embarrassed by the fact that a private place he wouldn’t normally even dare think about touching had been prodded by another person’s hands. Anya pulled the blanket over his head.
‘Why does it always turn out like I’m acting spoiled toward him.’
Anya learned for the first time that this kind of cleanup had to be done after intercourse. No one in the imperial palace had taught Anya such things. He was a fool who didn’t even know table manners, so there was no way he’d know about such intimate sexual matters. It was obvious how much of a fool Evernight must think he was. Anya tried to go back to sleep.
‘When I return to the castle… who should I ask about such things?’
This might be the end, and Evernight might never seek him out again. That night, he too had done it unavoidably because of the monster’s curse. Still, he should make some effort to not be treated like a fool anymore. The Claicer princesses used to chatter that bedding with one’s husband was very important, so perhaps he, who was far more lacking than them, should work harder to learn.
“El….”
Anya tried calling his husband’s name.
“El….”
He repeated it once more. It was a name he could never forget. His toes buried under the blanket wriggled several times.
“Commander, are you awake? How is Your Highness? Even without saying anything, he used quite a bit of magic power, so he’s probably extremely tired.”
Outside the inn. Riario was crouching and sitting, while Karen was leaning against the wall next to him with a pipe in his mouth. White smoke puffed out from their mouths.
“He’s fine. There are no particular symptoms.”
Evernight refused Karen’s offer to pass him the pipe. For someone with an unfortunate past, he stayed away from alcohol and tobacco. Perhaps it was because he’d seen such scenes to the point of disgust at the Red Coast brothel.
“That’s a relief.”
They gazed at the sun that had only risen a quarter of the way behind the Beriela Mountain Range. Puff puff, Riario sucked on the pipe and exhaled smoke.
“It’s so cold I feel like I need to smoke to survive. The innkeeper happened to have good tobacco leaves.”
The darkness was receding and dawn was breaking. Evernight tossed out words while playing with a dagger in his hand.
“Riario. As soon as we return to Tildyen, make sure to secretly give Anya medicine.”
“Pardon?”
“Medicine to dry up the seed in his belly.”
The light of the rising sun drove away the morning fog. A ray of light struck the dagger that was spinning round and round in the air and scattered. Soon his old dagger landed precisely in his hand. Before long, Evernight’s blue eyes had grown coldly sunken.
