The two men simultaneously turned their heads to look back at Ruslan. Sarka was expressionless, and Baigarten looked slightly taken aback.
Ruslan looked only at Sarka without looking back at Baigarten, staring intently as he spoke haltingly.
“You… can do whatever you want with my <body>.
So… use my body.”
Sarka hesitated. Baigarten raised one eyebrow.
Ruslan continued speaking while looking only at Sarka’s eyes.
“If I… cover my eyes, and you control my body with your supernatural power… then it’s basically the same as you doing it yourself.”
Sarka’s lips twitched as if to say something, then he stared intently at Ruslan and closed his mouth. Baigarten also looked at Ruslan with a slightly speechless expression. It seemed to be an unexpected proposal for both of them.
Ruslan hesitated while reading Baigarten and Sarka’s moods, then asked as if to confirm.
“…Can’t you do that?”
Sarka was silent. Baigarten glanced down at Sarka with a slightly ambiguous expression, then spoke lowly as if explaining instead.
“Ruslan, that kind of… way of handing over <dominion> of the body is what the ‘lowliest class’ in vampire society does when attending to their ‘master’…”
Ruslan’s eyes widened, then he made a pleased expression.
“Really? Then that method is originally used? That’s good. I’m a commoner anyway so it doesn’t matter. If I can help, I want to help.”
At the unhesitating proposal, Baigarten looked at Ruslan with a subtle face, then glanced down to gauge Sarka’s reaction.
Sarka was silently staring at Ruslan’s face. Sarka, who was looking into Ruslan’s dark blue eyes as if observing an unfamiliar creature, didn’t look displeased, dumbfounded, or reluctant. Rather, it was an expression filled with strange doubt and questions.
Baigarten carefully observed Sarka’s expression, then made a strange expression seeing no aversion dwelling there. Baigarten soon seemed to have made up his mind.
If Sarka was semi-forcibly made to receive Baigarten’s help now, what little pride Sarka had left would be completely shattered. At the end of a punishment already full of humiliation and pain, if he was made to taste the humiliation of showing his weakened naked body before his watcher and being bathed, it would clearly remain as an irreversible wound forever.
Having made a firm decision, Baigarten looked back at Ruslan and asked as if to make sure.
“…Right. This is… ‘voluntary help.’ Right?”
“Yes.”
Ruslan quickly nodded.
Baigarten slowly looked down at Sarka and spoke in a very careful tone.
“Sarka. If you need it… you may accept Ruslan’s ‘goodwill.’ My body has a <mental defense tattoo>, so that method is impossible.”
Finishing his words, Baigarten watched Sarka’s reaction with meticulous eyes.
Sarka looked so focused elsewhere that he almost didn’t seem to notice Baigarten’s gaze. Sarka, staring intently at Ruslan’s face, didn’t even seem to be listening to Baigarten’s words. Sarka was just staring blankly up at only Ruslan’s face with a strange expression.
At the faint suspicion dwelling in that gaze, Ruslan looked straight into the green eyes and said emphatically.
“I’m really okay with it. Do whatever’s comfortable for you.”
Sarka looked at Ruslan’s dark blue eyes with a strange gaze and was silent for a moment.
After a while, Sarka seemed to have made a strange decision.
Looking straight at Ruslan, Sarka declared lowly in a strangely sunken voice.
“…I’ll enter inside you.”
Ruslan swallowed dry saliva. Sarka took a breath, then added as if warning.
“…Don’t try to resist.”
Ruslan nodded. Sarka’s green eyes that had been quietly gazing at Ruslan slowly turned red.
At the same time, Ruslan’s dark blue eyes also began to be dyed the exact same red color.
He felt a tickling sensation spread through his body. It was a familiar sensation. Just as when blocking Ruslan’s mouth, suppressing him from breathing, and when torturing him, a strange feeling spread throughout Ruslan’s body.
Not long after, Ruslan felt that his body was completely captured under Sarka’s domination, unable to move a single finger. The only things that could move were a few organs on his face like his eyes or lips.
Ruslan’s feet stretched forward regardless of Ruslan’s will. Unconsciously tensing and trying to stiffen his body, Ruslan soon remembered Sarka’s words telling him not to resist and deliberately relaxed his body.
When the resistance disappeared, Ruslan’s body began to move smoothly.
Ruslan felt strange realizing that gait was different from his usual walk. Ruslan was moving gracefully like a feline animal, just as Sarka often did when walking. Even though it was his own body, it was an unfamiliar movement as if it were someone else’s body.
Sarka was staring intently into the eyes of the approaching Ruslan. Baigarten had a subtle expression.
When Ruslan’s body approached and stopped before him, Sarka slowly raised and extended both arms.
Ruslan felt his body bend forward and wait for Sarka to wrap his arms around his shoulders.
When Sarka pulled Ruslan’s neck into an embrace, Ruslan’s body slowly stood up bearing Sarka’s weight and began supporting him.
It was a strange feeling. Usually when a stranger supports someone’s body, people don’t completely relax their body. Unconsciously preparing for the case where the other person can’t balance the center of gravity well, they put strength in their own body too and resist completely handing over their weight.
However, Sarka completely placed all his body’s weight on Ruslan, just like a very young child being held by a trusted guardian. And Ruslan’s body smoothly supported Sarka’s weight while flexibly dealing with the changing center of gravity as his body moved.
Rather than supporting someone, it was closer to the feeling of two bodies connected as one body, giving and receiving weight as if water flowing, moving like an organism.
Sarka finally stood up straight with his body leaning on Ruslan. Baigarten walked ahead and opened the bathroom door, then said he would bring clothes to change into and walked toward the wardrobe.
Ruslan felt his body take slow steps while supporting Sarka. Having walked only a few steps, Ruslan realized that what had revived in Sarka was only pride and coldness.
Just from moving a few steps, Sarka’s breathing became quickly rough. The muscles of the arm placed over Ruslan stiffened hard, and faint pain tinged Sarka’s breathing with each movement.
He could feel the ankle shaking unstably each time it touched the floor. As he’d felt yesterday too, Sarka had clearly weakened enough that he couldn’t walk on his own strength.
Ruslan’s body began to help those steps while stably supporting Sarka’s staggering body.
Ruslan soon noticed that Sarka was very accustomed to moving other people’s bodies. Sarka knew exactly how to control another’s body to make it perfectly assist his own body, like someone who had done it countless times. As Baigarten had said, in vampire society it seemed common for high-class vampires to use others’ bodies when being attended to.
The two bodies’ muscles assisted each other, giving and receiving the center of gravity, supporting without the slightest shake and helping each other.
Ruslan thought it was a movement similar to someone who had known each other for a very long time and completely grasped even all the balance of each other’s bodies, precisely filling the other’s needs without any words.
Thinking that way made him feel strange. Ruslan felt as if he had become someone close to Sarka, who had lived in close contact with him for a long time.
Ruslan’s body, having arrived at the bathroom, seated Sarka on the couch placed in front of the mirror. Sarka, who had become somewhat exhausted in the meantime, placed his hand on the couch backrest and steadied his breathing for a moment as if settling dizziness.
As Baigarten had said, Sarka’s stamina had dropped remarkably. If he went into the water alone like this and lost consciousness, it might really be dangerous.
Ruslan rolled his eyes stealing glances at Sarka’s back reflected in the three-sided mirror, quietly waiting until the shoulders that had been heaving with rough breathing settled down.
When his breathing stabilized a bit, Sarka began moving Ruslan’s body again.
It was quite strange that his steps moved without hesitation even though he didn’t know the destination. Ruslan moved his eyes somewhat anxiously guessing where he was going.
The special dormitory’s bathroom was spacious. The space where a bathtub, a symbol of luxury, was placed was usually wide and splendid to show off wealth.
Though it didn’t have the atmosphere of a salon decorated with ribbons and lace like noblewomen’s bathrooms, the colored tiles were decorated with elaborate mosaics and the area around the mirror was elegantly arranged with cabinets and high-quality furniture.
Ruslan’s body stopped in front of the cabinet. His hand moved to open the cabinet drawer and took out a towel. Ruslan’s hand moved to fold the towel lengthwise, then soon brought it up toward his face. Ruslan realized his own hand was moving to blindfold himself.
His vision darkened as it was covered by the soft cloth. As his sight was blocked, he felt his other senses instinctively become more sensitive. Ruslan unconsciously tensed his body when he began to hear the slow sound of cloth rustling behind him.
Sarka was taking off his nightshirt.
