Rowen Ashfield’s brow furrowed deeply. But at that, Veil Khalid’s sneer only intensified. It was as if he found Rowen’s displeasure all the more satisfying.
“If you have business, it’d be better to come back later.”
“……”
Rowen couldn’t answer.
Regret filled his eyes as he gazed at Nigel, who lay defenseless in Veil’s arms. The words he had spat out earlier at the training grounds, and Nigel’s face looking at him with an expression of incomprehension, rose up like a brand. Rowen reached out his hand.
“I’ll take him. Hand him over.”
Thick veins stood out on the back of the knight’s hand, who had just been wielding a real sword. The cool sword energy and oppressive presence emanating from him weighed down the air in the corridor heavily. Veil let out a derisive laugh.
The way he acted as if he were the owner was absurd.
“I don’t want to? I went through the trouble of coming all the way here, so I’ll just take him all the way myself. If you really want to help, at least open the door or something.”
Despite Veil’s sarcasm, Rowen’s gaze remained fixed solely on Nigel. As if he couldn’t even hear Veil’s words, he approached another step closer, coldly ignoring Veil as if looking at a stone rolling on the roadside.
“You’re particularly slow on the uptake today. I told you to hand him over.”
Rowen’s low voice echoed through the corridor. Then, without waiting for Veil’s response, he roughly reached out to grab Nigel’s shoulder, who was cradled in Veil’s arms, as if to snatch him away.
Veil’s eyebrow twitched.
“Why are you acting like this? You should pick the time and place for playing knight.”
He twisted his body to avoid Rowen’s touch. That’s when it happened.
“Mm.” Nigel in his arms let out a small moan and his closed eyes trembled. For a moment, the two men’s confrontation paused briefly. It wasn’t that they shouldn’t wake him, but they didn’t want to disturb the sleeping Nigel.
Veil’s lips curved up triumphantly. He passed the frozen Rowen and lightly opened the door. The inside of Nigel’s room was perfectly identical to when he had secretly entered before.
A desk that was excessively neat, and a bed so orderly you couldn’t tell anyone was staying in the room.
Veil carefully laid Nigel down on the bed. The soft mattress sank low as it received Nigel’s weight. As Nigel’s head tilted to the side from the rebound, Veil gently moved the pillow to make him comfortable.
Rowen approached right beside the bed and stopped abruptly. He bent his knees to sit by the bedside, but then, feeling Veil’s gaze observing him with crossed arms from the side, straightened his body again stiffly.
“Besides, I know now too.”
Veil broke the silence and spoke. His voice was low enough not to wake Nigel, but sharp enough to tear through Rowen’s eardrums.
“…Know what?”
Rowen turned to look at Veil. His eyes, revealed between disheveled blond hair, glinted menacingly like a beast cornered at the edge of a cliff. The guy who usually only went around smiling looked like a completely different person making that face. Or maybe this was his real personality.
Veil leaned against Nigel’s bedpost and said,
“Well? That Nigel was a frog for those three days he disappeared?”
Rowen’s complexion turned pale white in an instant. Then he immediately let out short sighs, “Ha, ha.” At the same time, Rowen’s brightly glowing blue eyes could be seen wavering and sinking.
His gaze fell onto the cheek of the sleeping Nigel.
“……Did Nigel tell you that?”
It was a low, cracked voice. It was a tone as if he’d heard an answer that made no sense.
Of course, that great Nigel Kaiserion had never obediently told Veil about his physical condition. But Veil had absolutely no intention of correcting Rowen’s misunderstanding. Rather, he was somewhat annoyed at that face that insisted it absolutely couldn’t be true.
“Then how else would I have known this?”
“That can’t be……”
Rowen muttered weakly. Nigel had definitely asked him not to tell anyone else about that fact. He had wanted to hide the fact that he was under a curse, even using the Imperial Palace knights.
When Nigel first faced that curse and despaired, it was Rowen who stayed by his side, who protected him by covering him with his cloak.
To Rowen, that secret wasn’t just simple information, but a sacred territory shared only between Nigel and himself that no one could invade. That sacred territory was crumbling from the ground up.
Rowen had lived his entire life as Nigel’s closest companion, his only friend. It felt like the emotions he had hidden behind the fine-sounding label of friend were welling up all at once.
He had believed it was enough to just stay by his side as a knight. Rowen hadn’t been greedy for anything more, and until entering the academy, he had been sufficiently satisfied.
‘Does this mean he willingly revealed to Veil Khalid the secret he didn’t even want to show me?’
Rowen’s clenched fist trembled slightly.
Though he had never possessed it, paradoxically he felt a sense of loss as if he had lost Nigel.
The afterimage from last night wouldn’t leave Rowen’s mind.
The scene of the masked Nigel and Veil dancing among the crowds at the eve festival. Nigel had even changed his hair color, as if thinking he wouldn’t be caught by anyone.
Had Nigel wanted to attend the eve festival alone with Veil Khalid so badly that he would even lie?
The sense of betrayal he felt then was indescribable. Watching Veil Khalid blatantly embracing Nigel’s waist while talking and smiling as if happy was even harder.
At one moment, he felt like he made eye contact with Nigel, but that must have been an illusion created by his own desire for it to be so.
That night, even though Rowen had immediately returned to his own dormitory, Nigel didn’t follow after him. Even on the night after the eve festival ended, Nigel didn’t give Rowen any other explanation. The presence of someone who had walked up to his door that day… that presence was probably also due to his own greed for wanting it to be Nigel.
Rowen was confused.
Half of him wanted to hear Nigel’s explanation, half of him felt repulsed and didn’t want to hear it at all—these feelings filled his heart completely.
That’s why he had devoted himself to training, trying to organize his thoughts alone and focus only on his sword, but even that was thwarted when Nigel came to talk to him.
The question of why he had come all the way here was actually a self-flagellation toward himself for not being able to say anything even after seeing that scene last night. He couldn’t control his boiling emotions.
If he had stayed together even a little longer, he probably would have said unnecessary things to Nigel.
“……I didn’t know Nigel trusted you that much.”
“Of course. You know too, Rowen, that when it comes to artifacts and magic, I’m the best at the academy.”
Veil said nonchalantly while sitting on the edge of Nigel’s bed. It was an arrogant and leisurely attitude, as if Nigel had chosen him.
Rowen didn’t react immediately. After looking down at the sleeping Nigel’s face for a moment, he finally opened his mouth.
“Right, you would be helpful to Nigel.”
It was a dry voice. Rowen slowly released the strength from the hand he had been clenching without realizing it. He now understood everything—Nigel deceiving him to dance with Veil, and ultimately not knocking on his door.
The fact that what Nigel needed wasn’t him, but Veil Khalid.
“……Don’t tell him I came.”
After saying that, Rowen bit the inside of his mouth. He felt like a soldier defeated in a duel. Veil savored the bitter taste of victory while looking at Rowen’s face.
“I was going to do that anyway even if you didn’t say so. This guy is busy enough as it is.”
“……”
Rowen left the room without a moment’s hesitation.
“How cold.”
Leaving without even a greeting— Veil, who remained in the room, shrugged his shoulders while sitting on the bed.
Click, the sound of the door closing echoed heavily through the dormitory corridor.
“Right, Nigel?”
Veil’s playful voice fell upon the sleeping Nigel. The tightly closed, strong jaw of Nigel, who lay there with his eyes quietly shut, looked particularly more stubborn.
***
As he pushed up his terribly heavy eyelids, the familiar pattern of the ceiling came into view. With the stiff sensation from the back of his neck down to his spine, Nigel groaned and raised his upper body.
The first thing he felt was the cool air touching his cheek, and the blatant gaze felt from behind him.
“You’re awake? You woke up earlier than I thought.”
