Meanwhile, Gillie, who stood in a position directly facing Rose, gaped with his mouth open, forgetting even the current situation. He could tell immediately. That man was Rose, whom Elijah-ssi in the letters had praised as so beautiful.
The words modifying Rose in the letters could be condensed into a few:
White and graceful, lovely like a fairy, like an angel fallen from heaven, dazzlingly beautiful.
Gillie realized all those descriptions were not exaggerations. Those mysterious eyes……, skin as white as a plaster statue, hair dazzling as if glowing alone…….
A person couldn’t look like that. His appearance was far from beauty that simply evoked pleasant admiration. It was a beauty that provoked chilling and sharp goosebumps. Not an angel, but definitely a demon determined to bewitch humans.
Gillie didn’t believe all the stories in the letters, but if it were that man before his eyes, he felt he could believe it even if told he was really a vampire.
“Hand.”
Lips red like pomegranate seeds rounded. Gillie recognized his voice a beat late. He released Elijah’s hand as if entranced.
Gillie’s gaze was nailed to Rose, who was slowly approaching them. He hadn’t known when viewing from afar, but the closer he came, the more evident the difference in physique became.
Red eyes quietly looked down at Gillie.
“Who are you?”
Though he was looking at Gillie, it didn’t seem like a question directed at him. As soon as his hand was released, Elijah stood next to Rose and grabbed his collar as if clutching a lifeline.
“I don’t know, just seems to be a passerby.”
Elijah hoped this young man would no longer have other curiosities and would retreat as is. However, the young man seemed to have already sensed something from Rose. His gaze wouldn’t leave Rose’s face.
Around then, anxiety became more dominant than relief. The anxiety that this young man might know Rose’s identity, and…….
“Let’s go now, Rose. ……You too, please return now. There is no one you’re looking for here.”
An ominous premonition that Rose might kill him.
Vampires devour people. Moreover, that vampire was currently very starved. Elijah realized anew what kind of being Rose was to humans.
“Thi-, this place is dangerous with many beasts, so it would be better if you returned……”
“Go back.”
Elijah felt the illusion that the surroundings had suddenly frozen. Coldness dripped from Rose’s voice. It was a chilling and lofty voice like the deep howl of a wolf that had swallowed the moon.
His eyes were clearly telling the young man. Get out of my territory. There arose the illusion that a clear order to leave was flowing between silent lips.
At that moment, the young man who had suddenly closed his mouth stepped backward. Elijah noticed the disharmony felt in that dramatic change. His dazed expression seemed as if bewitched by something.
Soon the young man who had completely turned his body crossed the river with splashing steps, not caring that his pants got completely wet. It was quite different from how he had come to him earlier, nimbly stepping on the protruding stones without getting a single drop of water on him.
Elijah turned his head and looked up at Rose. The eyes that had been staring at the young man moving away smoothly fell to the paper boat held in Elijah’s hand. Ferocity that seemed to tear everything the gaze touched to shreds glinted quietly on his red irises.
“……Ro, Rose.”
Elijah quickly hoped this strange atmosphere would disappear. Fear for unknown reasons crept up, crawling up his neck. Though he had done nothing wrong, it felt like he would be scolded.
“Letter.”
Rose, who had been motionless like an inanimate object, finally opened his mouth.
“I only allowed you that one thing and this problem arises……”
He didn’t know what it meant. Elijah tightly gripped Rose’s sleeve with sweaty hands. Suddenly Rose bent his upper body toward Elijah.
“Is that person the Master?”
“No……, no, Rose. Just, a passerby……”
The hand holding the paper boat was suddenly yanked up. Rose, who had raised Elijah’s hand to his eye level, frowned fiercely.
“Ah.”
He let out an irritated sigh. Elijah could tell his gaze was stuck on the red mark on his wrist. It was because the mark caused by the young man’s grip strength still remained without being erased.
“……Filthy.”
He rubbed with his fingertip as if tracing the reddish mark. As if trying to erase that mark, or rather as if trying to gouge out the skin itself, his fingernail dug in painfully and persistently scratched at that mark.
“It hurts, ah, it hurts……, Rose.”
“How did that bastard get here?”
“……Huh?”
Crack, the cold grip slowly strangled Elijah’s wrist.
“How dare he, how did he think to set foot here?”
“I, I don’t know either…… Just by chance……”
“By chance?”
“……”
His caught wrist felt like it would be crushed. Elijah couldn’t even protest that it hurt and hesitated, trembling his lips.
“I didn’t know people lived nearby. I was surprised too, flustered……”
He felt like he had to make excuses somehow even though he had committed no crime. He was truly innocent. Clearly until 200 years ago, no one lived on this mountain…….
“Is that so?”
Rose tilted his head and narrowed the distance. Suddenly a soft arc was drawn at the corners of his mouth. It was a face full of warmth as if it had swallowed spring sunshine, with no trace of the cold and fierce energy from just before.
Elijah unconsciously held his breath and looked at the face looming over him.
“Then shall I go kill him?”
The green eyes looking up at him trembled. Elijah tried hard to shake his stiff head.
“No, don’t do that. Th-, there’s no need to go that far……”
“Why?”
It was a question as purely innocent as a child. On the other hand, he also seemed displeased with his answer. However, Elijah couldn’t give the answer he wanted, nor did he want to know what answer he wanted.
“He’s a stranger. If you kill for no reason……, you shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“……I don’t wish for that person to die, Rose.”
Vampires devour people. In other words, they don’t feel guilt about killing people.
Why had he thought that obvious truth would be an exception only for Rose?
Rose’s face, which had quietly closed his mouth, felt exactly like an inanimate object. Elijah tried to find a trace of kindness in that face. However, the wax-like face with no warmth just stared at him blankly as if it would never move forever.
“Elijah.”
The precarious silence broke. Elijah’s two feet that had been stepping on grass full of warmth were suddenly lifted into the air. In that spot, the crumpled paper boat dropped with a thud.
“It’ll be hard to even take walks now, right?”
Rose, who had lightly lifted his thin body like a feather, whispered affectionately.
* * *
As soon as they entered the house, Elijah’s back was pressed against the old table. Lips that collided fiercely were thoroughly sucked. The tongue that roughly thrust into the mouth tightly shut in bewilderment recklessly ravaged the mucous membranes here and there.
“Mmh, hup……, Rose!”
Rose, who had bitten down on his lips seamlessly as if to block his words, sucked up saliva without leaving any like a parched person. Words of protest became meaningless moans and scattered between wet friction sounds.
“Mmph……!”
His lower lip was bitten hard enough to make tears well up. The fishy taste of blood spread in his mouth. Rose, who had sucked and pulled the bitten lip, finally opened his mouth.
“I asked who reads the letter.”
“Haah……, huk……”
“What did you say then?”
“It’s a misunderstanding, Rose, I really……”
Cold hands suddenly dug into his clothes. Each time clothes were stripped off one by one by merciless hands, ominous premonitions struck in layers.
“Rose……?”
Though it wasn’t such a cold season, faint chills arose as his bare skin was exposed to the air. Elijah stopped the touch stripping off his clothes. It was resistance quite useless against Rose.
“I, I’m not feeling well……, Rose.”
“I know. You’re never well.”
He heard the sound of buttons being undone one by one around his lower abdomen. Rose, who hooked his fingers on the front of his pants, affectionately kissed his forehead and cheeks in various places.
“Elijah……, if a stranger spoke to you.”
The pants, large around his thin waist, easily slid down without hindrance.
“You should have called me.”
Gripping the waistband of the pants that had gone down emptily below his thighs, Elijah shook his head and made excuses.
“I was going to, call……”
“How far did that bastard touch you?”
“……Huh?”
“If I had come later, you would have given him other places besides your wrist, wouldn’t you?”
“……”
Only then did Elijah meet Rose’s eyes. In the red eyes he hadn’t been able to see properly due to the confusion, vicious madness he had never seen before glinted. The dark red pupils sharply constricted.
The pants that had smoothly slid down stopped at the ankles dangling below the table. Rose, who grabbed his ankles and lifted them, easily stripped off the pants.
Elijah, who hurriedly covered his widely spread crotch with his hands, struggled to raise his upper body. Rose, who lightly pressed down on his thin shoulders to restrain him, licked the blood formed on Elijah’s lips.
