Shadow
“The movement of mana felt from the Prince’s room was different from usual.”
Though Rosetta didn’t give any particular response, the shadow continued the report.
“I felt signs of someone other than her in the Holy Maiden’s room. Judging from the traces of mana, I suspect the Prince may have used spatial movement.”
Rosetta asked back without even turning to look at the shadow.
“Is that Aris’s opinion?”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“They’re staying separately in their respective rooms.”
“I see. You may go.”
Aris, whom he had made a member of the shadows without much thought due to the circumstances, had better skills than expected. He also had good enough memory to remember all the conversations between Seoho and the Prince.
Having sent the shadow away, Rosetta quietly looked down at Seoho’s face illuminated by the soft firelight. Did Seoho, who was deeply asleep, know that he watched his sleeping face every night?
As always, Rosetta’s gaze, which had been looking down at the ever-beautiful face for a while, slowly moved downward. And soon he carefully lifted the edge of the blanket and looked at Seoho’s ankle that had been hidden underneath.
‘He really does care about me, it seems.’
Rosetta stared at the red thread that had suddenly become visible and raised the corners of his mouth pointedly. The red threads tied abundantly around Seoho’s ankle were tangled messily as if visualizing Rosetta’s pitch-black heart, firmly holding his entire ankle.
‘It’s fortunate that you can’t see it.’
Rosetta looked with satisfaction at the threads tied so firmly that they wouldn’t come undone no matter how hard one tried to untie them with their hands, then reached out and touched Seoho’s left ankle.
But unlike what was visible, he couldn’t actually touch the thread. Well, if he could touch this, life would have become inconvenient because of all these threads tangled between them.
“It’s good that I can see the thread, but it’s regrettable that I can’t see your ankle.”
The pretty pink-tinted ankle bone and slender ankle that occasionally showed below the pants were among the many elements of Seoho that Rosetta loved.
As he clicked his tongue in regret, the red thread slowly disappeared from Rosetta’s view. The smile disappeared from Rosetta’s lips.
‘Should I pray to let me have you?’
If God truly loved him, wouldn’t He grant this wish too? The only thing he truly wanted was that.
But Rosetta didn’t voice that wish aloud. Seoho had to be obtained by Rosetta’s own power, not someone else’s.
Rosetta carefully stroked Seoho’s thin ankle, which was no longer visible but where his threads had been tangled abundantly.
‘I know you have no particular feelings for the Prince.’
He had known from the report Puti handed him after lunch that the Prince and Seoho had become close enough to drop formal speech. And along with that, he had also heard that Seoho hadn’t truly opened his heart to the Prince.
But seeing the Prince chattering familiarly with his own eyes was more unpleasant than he had imagined.
‘Seoho.’
He didn’t like that there were letters only the two of them knew, nor that Seoho accepted it so casually.
But then he became able to see this thread.
‘The thread connected only to me.’
No matter how close and friendly the two seemed, he was the only one connected to Seoho like this. Once he confirmed that, the anxiety that had been rising with the thought of “what if” subsided, and the craving for this relationship that always left him hungry also improved.
‘My fate.’
As if his exposed toes were cold, Seoho made a small sound and curled his toes. The toes with strength in them were cute. When he gently caressed the toes, perhaps because it tickled, Seoho curled up his body.
Looking at Seoho who had completely curled up, Rosetta giggled. And suppressing the desire to kiss his ankle bone, he carefully covered Seoho’s body with the blanket and lay down beside him.
Then Seoho turned his body toward him as if he had been waiting. The rustling breathing sounds, the scent permeating the bed, and Seoho sleeping comfortably.
Taking Seoho fully into his eyes, Rosetta closed his eyes comfortably.
***
Three days had passed since the day the four of them had dinner together, and today, after finishing his lessons and sending Aris off, Seoho turned to Rosetta.
‘He’s working hard.’
His words about wanting to learn the letters that day weren’t a lie—Rosetta had really started learning writing from Seoho.
Seoho, who had been wondering how to teach him, ultimately decided to use the same method Aris had used. He decided to teach him one by one, starting from what Aris had begun teaching.
‘I’m glad I kept notes.’
As Seoho stopped in front of Rosetta and examined the Hangul he had written, Rosetta looked up at him.
“How is it?”
“You wrote it well. You can write greetings easily now.”
“Really?”
His face smiling proudly was pretty, so he was praising him once more when Rosetta asked while organizing the papers he had been studying on.
“Seoho, you said you’re meeting the Prince today, right?”
It was the first time meeting again since the dinner that day.
“Yes.”
“I’ll come out with you.”
“Alright.”
He briefly wondered if it was okay for Rosetta to suddenly join a meeting that was supposed to be just the two of them, but he also thought Rosetta would handle it well on his own.
“But why all of a sudden?”
“Just, I feel like I should see him once.”
Well, the Prince’s behavior that day had been quite strange, so Rosetta would be concerned about him too. Seoho, who had been nodding slightly, pointed at Rosetta’s wrist and smiled.
“Going out together is fine, but you should erase that before going.”
His wrist was a mess, as if he had been quite absorbed. Rosetta, who had been examining his wrist following Seoho’s fingertip, hid his hand behind his back.
“This is…”
“Rosetta isn’t always perfect either.”
Looking now, beneath the papers Rosetta had hastily gathered were Hangul written in awkward shapes. Seoho giggled and dragged Rosetta, who kept trying to make excuses, and pushed him into the bathroom.
“I didn’t hide it on purpose…!”
“I said I know, so hurry up and wash it off cleanly.”
“Th-that, Seoho?”
Seoho closed the door behind Rosetta and quickly examined the papers he had hidden.
His face flushed from embarrassment and the way he had tried to appear perfect were cute. After tracing over each letter for a while, Seoho discovered his own name written here and there on the papers.
Seeing the letters pressed down firmly to write them prettily warmed a corner of his heart.
‘I have no time to be lonely.’
It was to the point where the homesickness that had begun to slowly raise its head when he received the letter in Hangul from Grace felt ridiculous.
Seoho was tracing over Rosetta’s name written alongside his own name with his hand when, at the sound of the water turning off, he pulled out one paper where the two names were written best and hid it among his notes.
‘He’ll be embarrassed if he knows I took it.’
Having neatly organized Rosetta’s papers again, Seoho, dreaming of the perfect crime, welcomed Rosetta as he came out of the bathroom with his cheeks flushed red.
“Did you wash it off cleanly?”
“Yeah.”
Rosetta showed his wrist as if to prove it, then quickly came to the side and Seoho could see him subtly pushing the papers aside, but Seoho pretended not to notice and picked up his outdoor clothes.
***
Yun straightened his clothes as he left his room. He had been preoccupied with conversations with Angel for the past few days, but he knew what was important right now.
‘The red thread isn’t that important.’
Although he had learned new information related to the Mirror called the red thread, even when they didn’t know about the existence of that thread, outsiders had returned well to their own world through the Mirror, and there were no records of them returning again.
Angel had also informed him that she hadn’t seen records of outsiders who had returned to their original world coming back again.
‘After the outsider returns, the thread of fate that remained would also decay and crumble without exception.’
It was also words that turned the guess that they couldn’t bring back someone who had returned to their original world into certainty.
“There might be more that they’re hiding.”
Just like they had hidden about the red thread, there might be other information he didn’t know about. Once the accuracy of the information he had was broken, suspicion only grew.
Therefore, the conversation that day naturally became long but had no substance.
The more the conversation between those who were hiding many things went on, the more it spun its wheels. It might have been a natural result since neither tried to reveal what they were hiding.
In the end, the two couldn’t obtain anything more from each other beyond the information they had initially sought to gain.
“Unless I tell them something else first, they’ll keep their mouths shut.”
So matters related to Angel needed to be put aside for a while. Since she was quite interested in the Mirror, if he needed her, he could just offer another piece of information and demand an exchange.
Yun composed his expression at Seoho’s voice heard faintly from afar.
He seemed to be talking with the mage who always moved with him about something, as his voice sounded brighter than usual. Hearing that bright voice, along with a feeling of his mood clearing up, came a sense of regret.
‘There aren’t many opportunities to meet.’
Unlike his thought that they could become close easily, Seoho was someone with clear boundaries. Looking at how they dropped formal speech and conversed familiarly, it wasn’t that he had no favorable feelings toward him, but that didn’t mean he had accepted him either.
‘But…’
They still couldn’t be called close enough to share the stories deep in their hearts. It was natural. Who would open their heart to someone they had only met two or three times? Even at the previous dinner, they couldn’t have much conversation because he was preoccupied with the red thread.
