“If you want my attention that badly, you absolutely won’t let me die. Much more desperately than Rowen. So cooperate whenever I want from now on. You said you’d let me investigate your artifact if I participated in the eve festival.”
It was a judgment that this way he could appropriately receive help without getting caught up in the guy’s pace. At Nigel’s shameless change of topic, Veil let out a short hah and scoffed.
“Really?”
Keke. Veil Khalid kept bursting into laughter with his head lowered, then raised his head again.
“You plan to completely ignore my feelings but use me to the very end?”
The guy said with his bright yellow eyes gleaming fiercely. Nigel straightened his back and fully received that gaze. It was a rather arrogant posture as if asking what he could do if not that.
“……”
Instead of answering, Veil stared at Nigel silently.
‘Is it fortunate? Expectations that Nigel would be conscious of me just because he learned of my feelings. I didn’t have them from the beginning.’
The madness slowly lifted from the amber eyes that had been rippling as if about to explode any moment, and instead, terribly deep emptiness and resignation settled in.
The guy twisted his lips and muttered lowly.
“Ha, really…”
Veil raised his hand and roughly swept back his bangs. It was a sigh at Nigel who, even in this situation, covered for Rowen and treated him like a tool.
An ordinary man would have stormed out in humiliation, but Veil instead felt a thrilling tingle from the bottom of his chest.
Nigel Kaiserion was that kind of bastard.
A ruthless human who would use others’ sincerity as a foothold to stand up even when driven to a cliff’s edge by an unknown curse. And Veil had already pawned his soul to such a Nigel since two years ago.
“Fine. I like that it’s so like you, Nigel. No, Your Highness Nigel.”
Veil lightly raised both hands as if surrendering, then smiled bitterly and shifted his gaze to his left wrist.
Then he unhesitatingly unfastened the silver bracelet wrapped around his left wrist, ‘Guardian’s Eye.’
“I have no choice. They say the one who falls in love first loses… If you want it, I’ll hand it over entirely.”
Veil muttered that and caught Nigel’s wrist, fastening the bracelet onto it.
Click.
With the cool sound of metal locking together, the red jewel emitted an intense light on Nigel’s skin.
“…!”
He’s just giving this away? Veil Khalid had definitely said he couldn’t easily lend out a treasure of the Brion Kingdom. He’d even told him to come to the eve festival party in exchange for examining it.
As if reading Nigel’s confusion, Veil kissed Nigel’s hand and murmured lowly.
“It’s literally Guardian’s Eye. The eye of one who protects. Originally in the Brion Royal Family, generations have proposed by fastening this treasure on wrists.”
Veil followed up by muttering very quietly, “Though I didn’t know I’d be fastening this on you at such a timing.”
‘Proposal—an object with such great significance… Is he serious?’
Nigel glanced to confirm Veil’s face staring piercingly at his wrist.
But there was no trace of joking in Veil’s eyes.
The moment the artifact was fastened on his wrist, Nigel felt Veil’s magic power surging thrillingly through his wrist up to his brain.
“Ah, and there’s something I forgot.”
Veil added as if it were nothing.
“This bracelet’s lock can only be released by the magic power of the person who fastened it. In other words, I’m the only one on this continent who can remove it. Until you die.”
“…What?”
Nigel’s brows furrowed.
“Take this off right now.”
“Put it on, take it off. Why are you so fickle, Nigel?”
“Stop talking nonsense and take it off.”
“No. I can’t.”
Veil’s voice was now terribly low and heavy, with his usual brazenness gone.
“I told you. I’m different from that Rowen Ashfield guy. This is the only way. You’re feeling it too, aren’t you?”
“…Urgh.”
“If I take this off now, I’ll never lend you my things again. You won’t last even a few days before transforming into that pathetic green lump again. Are you really okay with that? At this point when Her Imperial Majesty the Emperor’s visit is only 3 days away?”
Nigel gritted his teeth. He couldn’t deny Veil’s words.
The beating transmitted through the artifact from Veil mixed with Nigel’s irregular pulse, creating a strange resonance.
In the silence, their gazes entangled.
Just then.
Boom—!
Outside the window, huge fireworks announcing the end of the eve festival were bursting, and brilliant lights flickered and illuminated the room. An oh of admiration flowed from between Veil Khalid’s lips.
“…The eve festival party must have ended.”
The tension tautly stretched between them snapped with the consecutive bursting firework sounds. Nigel, who had been meeting Veil’s eyes with an unconcerned face, finally frowned as usual.
Veil picked up one of his white shirts placed on the side table next to the sofa and threw it to Nigel.
“What’s this?”
Nigel, who caught the shirt that flew unexpectedly in midair, asked.
“Put it on. If you keep seducing me like that in front of me, I don’t know what I might do either. To maintain that dignity you speak of.”
…What? Seducing? Nigel looked down at the shirt that had fallen onto his lap. The blanket the guy had given him was still docilely placed on his legs. It meant that aside from his upper body being a bit cold, he wasn’t naked enough to be called seduction by Veil.
Honestly, there were often guys who walked around the Academy dormitory corridors shirtless. Of course, Nigel Kaiserion never did that.
As if asking if he was serious, he raised his head to check Veil Khalid’s face. Veil stood crookedly with his arms crossed and the corners of his mouth raised, but the amber eyes beyond the mask weren’t smiling at all. They were the eyes of a predator cornering its prey and leisurely observing it.
Only then did Nigel realize Veil Khalid was serious. Veil’s sweeping gaze felt like hot touch on his bare skin, raising goosebumps on his spine.
During all those moments of picking fights and clashing over the past two years, that guy was looking at me with these eyes?
Guardian’s Eye wrapped around his wrist keenly pulsed as if reading Nigel’s confusion. Veil’s heartbeat echoed through his wrist to his brain.
Thump, thump, thump. The guy’s pulse didn’t lie. For the first time in his life, Nigel felt overwhelmed by another’s emotions. A suffocating tension filled the room.
Nigel frowned to escape from this strange heat and to hide his wavering composure.
“…You’ve lost your mind.”
Nigel spat out as if chewing. But Veil shrugged as if not taking any damage.
“Right. They say you really do lose your mind when you fall in love.”
I should stop talking. After hearing Veil’s answer, Nigel frowned and waved his hand in the air.
“I’ll get dressed, so you leave.”
“You’re going to kick out the room’s owner like this?”
“Veil Khalid.”
Nigel’s voice trembled so faintly even he didn’t notice it. Veil stared at such a Nigel, then soon smiled bitterly as if satisfied and turned around.
“Alright. Alright. I’ll go out.”
Veil turned around surprisingly obediently. He walked to the door and added while releasing the magical lock.
“I’ll wait outside until you’re dressed. Your clothes are over there. Most things you need are on the shelf. Call me when you’re dressed, Prince.”
Click.
The door closed and Veil’s presence grew distant.
Nigel, left alone in the room, irritably threw the shirt Veil had tossed him onto the sofa. Then he abruptly stood up and walked toward the shelf on one side of the room.
The shelf Veil had pointed to before leaving contained all the supplies regularly issued by Kaiserion. Fortunately, Veil Khalid had brought all of Nigel’s clothing and cloak that he’d worn to the ballroom.
After putting on his clothes one by one, Nigel finally snatched up the pouch containing Headmaster Silvanus’s scales that Veil Khalid had arbitrarily placed on the side table, then opened the door.
The moment he came out, along with the cold night air, the silhouette of Veil leaning against the corridor wall entered his view. The guy stood crookedly with his arms crossed, quietly looking down at Nigel under the flickering magical lamp.
