<Chapter 46>
#5. The Throb of Excitement
Melty’s tightly closed eyelids trembled. Calix, who had already unleashed his anger in the laboratory and prison before coming back, keenly noticed his fluttering eyelids. With the intention of having those brown eyes focus solely on him when they first opened, Calix’s eyes gleamed as he took the spot next to Melty on the bed with a pounding heart.
Unaware of Calix’s excitement, the eyelids fluttered upward a few times before becoming still again. Simultaneously, expressions of incredulity and disappointment swept across Calix’s face.
“…Huh?”
The words “What is this?” kept trying to escape his lips. The eyelids, swollen from crying so much in the evening, were naturally heavier than usual. But no matter how much he understood that, he couldn’t forgive those eyelids for giving up on showing those beautiful brown eyes to the world after just a bit of struggle.
“Melty Crosel.”
Unlike the “unforgivable” he was shouting inside, Calix’s voice calling Melty was as gentle as a spring breeze. At the touch of fingers softly stroking his hair, Melty’s body turned toward him with a sleepy protest.
Last evening, Calix had carefully bathed him while he was unconscious and even applied medicine, but one of his cheeks was still slightly red and swollen. Looking at it intently, Calix’s expression crumpled. He felt like he should make the captured men wish they’d never been born.
“Are you going to keep sleeping and not get up?”
“…Mmhmm.”
His squirming body moved in search of a more comfortable spot. Naturally burying his head into Calix’s chest, Melty rubbed his face against it. Calix’s lips became wobbly as his body initially stiffened at how actively Melty was snuggling into him.
Calix had planned to scold him when he woke up, demanding why he hadn’t come to him at that hour and instead went to the garden, and why he had left Naru behind when Calix had always told him to keep the snake with him. Well, before that, he’d need to comfort the startled Melty and make sure he ate a hearty meal.
After crumpling and tossing away the mental “to-do list” for the day, Calix reached out and held Melty in his arms. Carefully resting his chin on Melty’s fluffy hair, Calix had a satisfied expression.
Around the time Calix’s sharp mood had transformed into something as soft and fluffy as a cloud, Melty woke up. Upon opening his eyes and seeing the flat wall before him, Melty had a blank expression as the previous day’s events belatedly crossed his mind. First, trying to escape the darkness, Melty hurriedly raised his head.
“Augh!”
A loud “thud” accompanied a scream filled with pain. Before finding the cause, Melty raised both hands to his head from the pain he felt there. With tears welling in his eyes, Melty groaned and looked at the person sharing his pain.
Suddenly embraced and fully enjoying the moment, Calix was now trembling, holding his jaw after the violent attack.
“C-Calix-ssi…?”
“……”
With pain resonating all the way to his bones, Calix couldn’t respond to Melty’s call. He stared at Melty with eyes full of indignation. Still rubbing his aching head vigorously and looking around, Melty asked with a blank expression.
“Why are you here, Calix-ssi?”
“…Because it’s my room.”
Calix finally managed to speak. He still couldn’t remove his hand from his painful jaw. At his unusually slurred pronunciation, Melty cautiously observed him. Thanks to the collision with Calix, his sleep had fled, and memories of yesterday returned clearly.
“Um… well…”
Calix’s gaze fell on Melty as he gently touched around the area of his temporomandibular joint, slowly opening his mouth to test it. Under his gaze, Melty lowered his head further and was finally able to speak the words he couldn’t say yesterday.
“Thank you for saving me yesterday.”
“…Ah.”
Thankfully, his jaw was intact.
After briefly checking his own condition, Calix barely managed to gather his scattered senses. Glancing at Melty from the corner of his eye, Calix felt somewhat relieved. He had already confirmed through a doctor that Melty hadn’t sustained any serious injuries after bringing him to the room and giving him a thorough wash the night before. Still, a slight worry remained.
Seeing Melty’s lively and energetic appearance, Calix’s slight anxiety instantly disappeared. Slowly reaching out, he grabbed Melty’s hand and laid him back down on the bed. Poking the uninjured cheek of Melty, who looked dazed, Calix smiled bitterly and answered.
“I should be the one apologizing for letting you go through such an experience.”
“…It wasn’t your fault, Calix-ssi.”
“It wasn’t yours either.”
At Calix’s firm statement, Melty looked at him with a blank expression, unlike before. Grinning at his gaze, Calix raised his hand to examine the head that had definitely collided with his. Grimacing at the slightly raised bump, Calix opened his mouth with a sigh.
“Are your sleeping habits always this bad?”
“They’re not bad. Today, it’s just… I was surprised.”
Calix’s lips curled into a smile at the way Melty mumbled while meekly making excuses. Usually, he would have teased him endlessly, but this time, he concluded with a brief “I see.” After rolling his eyes around to gauge Calix’s mood, Melty carefully opened his mouth.
“That person… what happened to him…?”
“He’ll never face you again, and there won’t be any reason for him to. Don’t worry or think about it.”
At Calix’s firm words, Melty quietly nodded. Perhaps because his startled feelings had calmed, Melty became curious about other things and carefully watched Calix. Unsure if he should ask, his fingers fidgeted.
“Why are you being so uncharacteristically cautious? If you have something to ask, just ask.”
“Will you tell me if I ask?”
“Haven’t I always answered you?”
At Calix’s response, Melty looked blank for a moment before slowly nodding. Come to think of it, Calix had always diligently answered his questions.
“Did you know that person?”
“I know his name.”
Melty stared intently at Calix, who had answered indifferently. At his attentive gaze, Calix let out a low sigh and opened his mouth.
“His name is Bain Spangky, a member of a branch of the Padrian family. He’s someone I chased away, not allowing him to set foot in our mansion. You don’t need to be interested or know about him. You won’t meet or have any dealings with him in the future.”
At his firm answer, Melty obediently blinked. Though he had certainly been greatly shocked just yesterday, strangely, he felt fine now. Looking blankly at Calix’s face, which was full of irritation and speaking abruptly as usual, all of yesterday’s events felt distant, as if they had only happened in a dream.
Glancing sideways at Melty, who was staring at him with his mouth slightly open, Calix cleared his throat and reached out to ruffle his hair. Looking up at Calix’s hand messing with his hair, Melty took the opportunity to ask one more thing he was curious about.
“What exactly is ‘Tonka’?”
“Ah. That…”
At Melty’s question, Calix slowly raised his upper body. Reaching to the bedside table, he picked up the flower ring he had removed from Melty’s hand the previous evening. Unconsciously sitting up along with Calix, Melty only then realized that the ring that had been on his hand was gone.
Melty cupped his hands to receive the approaching ring. Calix placed the still-fresh flower ring on his palm and tapped the red flower with black-tinged petals nestled among the Dolmaui flowers.
“That’s its name.”
“…This flower…?”
While he had no intention of undervaluing plants, it was shocking in many ways that he had nearly been killed over such a flower. Looking at Melty, whose face was written all over with “I don’t understand,” Calix grinned and decided to provide a more detailed explanation.
“It’s one of those that’s difficult to cultivate, like Dolmaui flowers. It looks pretty but it’s poisonous, so it’s dangerous. But that family had been requesting to purchase it in bulk for a while.”
“Purchase in bulk? How much?”
“They were trying to buy more than three times the usual amount. Needless to say, there was no reason to grant such a request, so I refused.”
Melty’s eyes widened as he listened attentively to Calix’s explanation. Though he didn’t know exactly how much that quantity was, Melty, who had been in charge of paperwork in Calix’s office under the title of assistant, could roughly estimate the amount.
“So that’s why he came looking for it?”
“He’s been coming repeatedly for a long time. I kept chasing him away each time, and I thought things had finally quieted down… tsk.”
Calix clicked his tongue, expressing his displeasure. At the sound, Melty, who had been lowering his gaze with a thoughtful expression, examined the flower ring in his hand and quickly looked up.
“W-wait a minute. Did you say poisonous?”
“Yeah. Well…”
“So you’re saying you gave me a poisonous plant?”
With a “Eek!” and a face turning pale blue, Melty flicked the flower ring that had been sitting obediently in his hand. The flower ring, flung from his comfortable hand in a curved arc, hit Calix’s forehead and fell down.
“…In all my life, I never thought I’d be hit by a flower.”
He also stroked his still aching jaw, feeling like the near-breaking of his jawbone earlier hadn’t been enough. Unlike the dumbfounded Calix, Melty looked at his hand with a serious expression. Calix could clearly see what useless thoughts were flowing from that small head just by looking at him.
“Even if it’s poisonous, it’s still pretty.”
At Calix’s blunt remark, Melty’s long eyelashes trembled. Calix grinned at the gaze that contained so many emotions, then picked up the flower ring lying on the bed sheet.
“Dolmaui flowers are famous not only for restoring vitality but also for neutralizing toxins. Did you forget where this flower was growing?”
“…The Dolmaui flower garden?”
“Right. When woven together like this, it helps the flower maintain its vitality for longer.”
Taking Melty’s hand, Calix put the ring back on his finger. Despite having been plucked for quite some time, the flower looked as fresh as if it had just been picked. As Melty marveled at the ring on his finger, he drew back his finger when Calix kissed the tip of it. Raising only his eyes to look at him, Calix spoke softly with gentle eye corners.
“And logically, I wouldn’t give something dangerous to someone I like.”
