At the same time that voice echoed, a strong headache surged in. Ray groaned as he furrowed his brow. In his vision, only Naro’s face, covered in tears and looking at him with worry, was caught.
The strength gradually left Ray’s hand. Noah’s body fell to the floor with a thud. Having gone almost to the brink of death, he violently coughed out and scratched the floor painfully.
Ray still clutched his aching forehead and lightly lifted Naro, who was clinging to his arm, with one hand.
“…I’ll spare your life.”
Noah’s body flinched.
“If you don’t want to experience something like this again, keep your mouth shut and leave this place.”
Naro heard it. Noah muttering repeatedly in a voice as small as a mosquito that he would do so. Ray came outside with Naro.
Only after coming outside could he tell that the place where he’d been kidnapped and dragged to was a small cabin in some mountain. There was no such place in Rodelus Village, so it was probably Hines Village. Noah had been living in that village to begin with anyway.
“Ray.”
Naro examined Ray’s face first.
“Yeah, Naro.”
Ray rubbed his nose against the bridge of Naro’s nose. His voice, actions, and even his expression and atmosphere had all returned to the original Ray that Naro knew. Only then did the tension release and the fear melt away as relief came.
Naro eventually shed more tears and embraced Ray.
“I was wrong. Don’t cry.”
Ray licked and drank Naro’s tears with his tongue, standing there for a while to comfort Naro as he poured out his emotions.
The two returned home only after the time had passed well beyond midnight. As soon as they arrived, Naro moved to treat the wounds on his hands.
“I’ll do it. Tell me how.”
The two entered the pharmacy together. Ray prepared the medicinal herbs as Naro told him.
“Ray, did you really do that to Anton?”
“Yeah.”
“Earlier, were you trying to kill that noble young master?”
“Yeah.”
The pharmacy interior became quiet. Since only one candle was lit, the surroundings were dark. As the flame on the candle flickered, the shadows cast on Naro’s face also swayed precariously here and there.
“No matter how much it’s because of me, I don’t want you to carelessly harm people. I know those people are bad. But you can’t just carelessly take someone’s life.”
If Ray had killed Noah today and it had reached the security force’s ears and he was caught like that, Naro might have lost Ray instead. Along with the moral consciousness that one shouldn’t carelessly take someone’s life, Naro was terribly afraid that something might happen to him.
“Honestly, I don’t really understand. Because those bastards harmed Naro.”
Ray added a small amount of water to the finely ground medicinal herbs to make it like a thick dough.
“But if Naro wants it, I’ll do that. And the voice that rang in my head said so too.”
“Voice?”
“That I mustn’t harm humans, someone told me that.”
Ray spread Naro’s palms and applied the medicinal herbs, which had become like an ointment, broadly. Naro endured the pain while recalling the scene of Ray clutching his forehead and groaning earlier.
“Somehow I feel like I have to obey those words.”
“A voice… That’s strange. Who could have said such a thing to you?”
“I haven’t thought deeply about it since coming back to this world, but I think I’ve lost my previous memories. And my complete power too.”
“Memories?”
Ray wrapped bandages around both of Naro’s hands, winding them round and round.
“Yeah.”
Naro was a bit flustered. Ray had hatched directly from an egg, so could ‘previous memories’ even exist? But thinking about it, when Ray was a dragon—that is, in his true form—he was still a baby, but when he transformed into a human, he was an adult. He had thought that part was strange too, so then it wouldn’t be odd for previous memories to exist, would it?
“Then those memories, you can’t remember them now?”
“Right. I realized I’d lost my memories after hearing that voice earlier.”
So Ray had a previous life too, and after experiencing something during that time, he became an egg again and then hatched? It seemed like that was as much as could be speculated for now.
“As long as Naro is safe, I’m fine with everything. I promise I won’t lay a hand on humans from now on. So don’t cry anymore.”
Ray looked at the wounds on Naro’s hands with a gloomy expression.
“Ray, there’s one more thing I’m curious about—earlier, were you really going to cut off your arm like that person said?”
“Yeah. Because he said if I did that, he’d release Naro safely. One arm or so doesn’t matter if it’s gone.”
Those words sounded somewhat chilling while also hurting his feelings.
“I don’t like it when you get hurt either, Ray. So I hope you won’t do reckless things.”
Ray looked at the air for a moment. He probably didn’t quite understand what Naro was saying. Nevertheless, Ray answered obediently.
“I’ll do everything as Naro says.”
Naro stroked Ray’s hair. Perhaps because that felt quite reassuring, Ray rested his head on Naro’s shoulder with a thud.
Either way, for having experienced such a dangerous incident, it was fortunate they got through it without any damage. Naro thought he’d just savor that sense of relief for now as he felt Ray’s warmth together.
* * *
“Ray, I’m going to go home for a bit!”
“I’ll go with you.”
Today too, Ray, who had been helping with Naro’s work at the pharmacy, came running out from inside in a hurry.
“I’m just going to get something, so I’ll be right back.”
“Still, no.”
The house from the pharmacy was, to exaggerate, close enough that you’d touch your nose if you fell over. Even though it wouldn’t take long to go and come back, Ray stuck to Naro’s back and followed.
There was something he’d heard from people after that day. That the noble young master had left Hines Village as if fleeing.
Hearing about it later, Noah’s family, the Keily Viscount family, was apparently a family with no prestige or power, a household that had been virtually driven out of the capital. Noah too seemed to have been practically abandoned in Hines Village, branded as a child who only caused trouble in the family. People were busy cursing him these days, saying how dare he act so haughty with such circumstances.
Noah didn’t disappoint expectations even when fleeing. He abandoned all those he’d used as lackeys like Anton and ran away.
With the noble young master’s connection severed, Anton returned to his previous lifestyle. A life with nothing, barely scraping by earning and eating day by day. Because of what he’d done while swaggering around relying only on Noah, the villagers didn’t help him, let alone look his way.
Naro had worried that Anton, who knew what Ray had done, might spread talk about what happened that day, but fortunately he was quiet.
Whether Noah had properly silenced him before leaving, or whether Anton too was scared by the primal fear he’d felt from Ray, either way it was fortunate.
“Ray, I’ve got everything, so let’s go back to the pharmacy.”
“Okay.”
Ray naturally approached and took the load from Naro’s hands.
After that incident, Ray’s tendency to protect Naro had grown stronger. When commuting to the pharmacy, he wouldn’t leave his side for even a moment, and it was the same when he had to go out to the square for business.
Well, up to this point it could be seen as no different from usual, but now even when he had to occasionally go back and forth between the pharmacy and home like this, he kept following, and he was even wary of customers who came to the pharmacy. Still, perhaps because of his promise with Naro, he didn’t act so hostile toward humans, but when Naro was dealing with customers, he would stick close behind him to the point where some people were flustered.
No matter how much he said it was okay, Ray would only say he understood at that moment but there wasn’t much real change. For Ray, the incident of Naro being kidnapped while he briefly left his side had been quite shocking.
When sleeping, Ray embraced Naro even tighter than usual as he fell asleep. Today too, looking at Ray hugging him so tightly it was suffocating, Naro had no choice but to close his eyes in that state.
It was the early dawn when night had deepened. Naro woke up from sleep and got up from the bed to go to the bathroom. And after covering the soundly sleeping Ray more thoroughly with the blanket, he headed to the bathroom.
Just as he was about to come out after finishing his business, he heard a clattering sound from outside along with Ray’s voice calling “Naro!” Startled, Naro hurried out of the bathroom.
Looking now, Ray, who had been lying in bed sleeping until just moments ago, had suddenly gotten up and was trying to open the door to go out.
“Ray, what are you doing there?”
Ray, who discovered Naro coming out of the bathroom, let out a deep sigh and ran over to embrace Naro tightly in his arms.
“I was surprised because Naro was gone.”
“I went to the bathroom.”
“Yeah.”
Did he get this startled because when he woke up while Naro was in the bathroom, there was no one beside him? Naro stroked Ray’s head several times and then fell into thought for a moment. Then he took his hand and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Ray, listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
“Yeah, I’ll listen to anything Naro says.”
Honestly speaking, it was nice that Ray looked after him and cared for him. Having lived lonely all this time, such an existence that shared warm attention and blind warmth was precious. But Naro was more worried about Ray. Ray, who had been continuously harboring anxious feelings since that kidnapping incident.
