Soon soft lips overlapped seamlessly, and lukewarm water flowed into his parched mouth. Elijah gulped down the water he offered like a person stranded in a desert. His throat, overworked from crying and screaming last night, stung.
Rose repeatedly poured water into Elijah’s mouth several times. Only after emptying one cup did Elijah exhale a long breath and droop his head. Rose affectionately stroked down his back.
“Do you know it’s already been four days? Time really passes well, right?”
Elijah, who had been slowly gathering his hazy consciousness, snapped his eyes open.
“Four days……?”
“Yes.”
He thought only one day had passed, yet he had no idea when so much time had flowed by. Elijah was shocked that he hadn’t come to his senses for as many as four days, and simultaneously recalled something like a bolt of lightning.
“Let……”
Letter. Elijah, who barely swallowed the words that had almost left his mouth, exhaled a helpless breath.
For the past 200 years, the routine he had never once skipped had crumbled so ridiculously. Since he had never lost consciousness for more than a day no matter how sick he was, Elijah was considerably flustered by this current situation.
A corner of his heart ached as if a hole had been punched through it. Everything was a complete mess. His body that ached everywhere as if prodded, his relationship with Rose that had completely changed from before, the bed sheets still stuck with dirty bodily fluids.
Just from skipping letters for a few days, he felt like the daily life he had desperately held onto had crumbled like a sandcastle.
“What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
Fingertips swept his eye area. Only then did Elijah recognize the tears that had moistened his cheeks. He felt so helpless and angry, yet having gone through this ordeal because of the letter, he couldn’t show it to Rose.
“……Elijah?”
His chin caught by him was forcibly lifted. Elijah turned his head back while making timid protests, not knowing himself whether he was being irritated or whining.
“It hurts, Rose. Don’t grip hard, it hurts……”
“Does it hurt? Where?”
“I don’t know. Everywhere you touch hurts!”
Elijah shook off his arm and struck his shoulder hard with his fist. The anger that surged up at the persistent questions full of concern burst out momentarily.
“Why do you always make it hurt? It hurts when you touch like that. It hurts when you bite!”
Elijah thought he had lost his senses. However, he couldn’t control it because anger boiled up. Rose, without releasing the arm embracing his waist, just obediently received the pouring fists.
The merciless face that had restrained his body and cruelly prodded below was nowhere to be found, replaced by a submissive face no different from usual.
A faint aura appeared on the fists wildly striking Rose’s shoulders and chest.
“Huk, mmph……”
Elijah, who had bitten his lips tightly, barely released the strength in his hands. A body he had cherished preciously, worried it would fly away if blown on or burst if grasped. Elijah would give his own blood before ever seeing Rose get hurt.
The forcibly suppressed anger surged up as tears. Eventually he became exhausted on his own. Belatedly his fists hurt. Though the opponent who was hit felt no impact, he was resentful that only his hands that had struck hard turned red.
“Why are you so angry, Elijah?”
Was he asking because he didn’t know? Not letting him go outside, not letting him write letters, making his body hurt like this just because he spoke with someone other than him—if he were to list the atrocities he had committed one by one, there would be no end.
“Hm?”
“……”
However, he hadn’t lost enough fear to say those words as they were. Elijah was now afraid of Rose. He was afraid of his unpredictable madness that would suddenly flip, acting spoiled with a normally clear and gentle face, then for reasons he couldn’t understand.
His body that had grown beyond control was also heartless. Until just a little while ago, everything about him from head to toe felt beautiful, but now his body seemed like a weapon.
Last night, the long act that started under the pretext of killing time was excessively cruel and indescribably sinister. At first, Elijah thought he had killed him. Skewered on a harpoon like a fish.
All the moments that followed after were a series of shocks and terrors. Nevertheless, Elijah couldn’t resist. It was because the fear that he might never see Rose again due to his terrible mana took precedence.
He didn’t kill me, so in the end he didn’t harm me either. Rose doesn’t harm me. Elijah constantly repeated to himself and tried hard to rebuild the half-collapsed wall of trust.
He clearly heard mocking laughter from beyond the darkness. It was Igrit’s. However, Elijah just wanted to lean on the comfort Rose offered.
Because it was more familiar to him to just comply and be embraced rather than push away and reject the embrace that held him. Elijah burrowed into Rose’s embrace and whined like a child.
“I’m tired…… I want to lie down.”
“You’ll vomit if you lie down right after drinking water.”
Elijah, who barely raised his aching arm to embrace Rose’s neck, rubbed his cheek against his nape.
“I want to lie down, Rose.”
“Wait just a bit more.”
“……”
Why won’t you even let me lie down as I please…… Grief rushed over him, but he had neither the energy nor courage to argue. Elijah had no choice but to let his body hang comfortably in Rose’s arms.
The embrace wrapping his body was cozy and sweet like a cradle.
* * *
Clatter, Elijah, who had awakened at the sound of wind shaking the window, opened his eyes. The daytime sunlight he had glimpsed in his drowsy consciousness was brightly illuminating the inside of the house for once.
Elijah, who groggily raised his body, looked around with hazy eyes.
“……Rose.”
The voice calling the other party was still deeply sunken, buried in sleep. Elijah, who had thrown off the blanket, lowered his feet below the bed.
Jangle, a familiar sound was heard from below his feet. Elijah, who hadn’t recognized that sound at first, unconsciously looked down at his feet and froze as is.
He lifted his foot into the air. The chain connected from the restraint clanked as it was pulled up.
“……”
Elijah, who already had experience breaking a restraint once, wasn’t surprised or flustered like before. He was just puzzled by Rose’s action of fastening it even though he knew he could break it anytime.
Should he have gotten angry when the restraint was first fastened? No, then Rose would have revealed his true colors a bit earlier.
‘Igrit was right.’
The warning signs he had tried hard to ignore, considering them just overprotectiveness, accumulated and piled up, eventually becoming complete confinement. Beyond just hiding shoes or preciously carrying him around in his arms, it had now reached the point of openly fastening restraints.
Elijah gripped the chain and hesitated for a moment. He didn’t know whether it would be better to break this again or just wait quietly.
If he made the same mess as before again, there was no telling how Rose’s eyes would flip. His body, not yet fully recovered, ached at every joint as if rusted. He didn’t want to experience the same ordeal as a few days ago with this body.
However, even if he didn’t break it, it didn’t seem like Rose would release it. When he had the method and strength to break it, he couldn’t foolishly wait for his permission like an idiot.
Break it first, then make good excuses. Like before, saying he tried to find him because he disappeared…… Then surely Rose wouldn’t be able to get angry either.
Eventually, Elijah, who took a deep breath, tightly gripped the chain. A green aura slowly bloomed in his hand. Elijah, who reflexively squeezed his eyes shut, shrank his body while waiting for the explosion about to burst.
“……”
However, unbelievably, nothing happened at all. The mana that had been hotly building momentum as if to melt the chain soon dissipated.
Elijah doubted his eyes. His heart became impatient. He exerted strength and struggled desperately to somehow release it. Clank, clank. As he pulled the chain here and there, the sound of metal colliding and friction was made. The new bed Rose had changed was solid as if attached to the floor.
The mana that burst out from desperation increasingly thickened in concentration and wound around the chain. Zing, ziing, the mana vibrating along the chain neither exploded with the same strange power as before nor melted the chain.
Elijah could instinctively tell the cause wasn’t with him. The restraint absorbed the mana that flowed from his body.
In other words, it meant it was a material impervious to mana.
Goosebumps rose on his nape. Rose seemed to have learned one thing from the past failure. Where on earth had he obtained such a special restraint?
Elijah obediently sat in front of the dining table and picked up a cup. The hand that had strained just from gripping and pulling the chain a moment ago trembled, making it difficult to even tilt the kettle to pour water.
Elijah, who had been quietly drinking water and slowly blinking, raised his head hearing footsteps from the terrace direction. The footsteps soon stopped in front of the entrance after going around the wall.
“Are you up?”
Elijah, who swallowed water with a gulp while looking at Rose entering through the open door, nodded. Affectionate hands checked for fever, touching his forehead and cheeks. Elijah was momentarily confused by the disparity between the situation he was in and the ordinary daily life visible to his eyes.
