Elijah, utterly exhausted and limp, looked at Rose who was carefully wiping his body. Through the small window, bluish dawn light was already dyeing the sky. His wrist that Rose had lifted drooped limply and swayed feebly.
Rose looked closely at his wrist with a serious face.
“Elijah, you have bruises here.”
“Really?”
Elijah, who opened his eyes narrowly, looked up at his wrist. Rose’s handprints remained intact as reddish and greenish bruises. Rose’s voice became quite low.
“You should have said it hurt.”
“I didn’t know while we were doing it…… I guess it was because it felt too good.”
Elijah said that and pulled Rose’s arm. Rose, obediently drawn by that touch that had no strength at all, draped over him. His face burying his lips on the wrist was faintly furrowed.
“No matter how good it felt, how could you not know this? You should have said something even if it was just a little uncomfortable.”
Elijah grinned and wrapped his arms around his waist.
“I’ll definitely tell you next time. Hold me, Rose…… I’m cold.”
Whether it was because he sweated too much or because Rose stole his body heat, his body was chilly. Soon firm arms supported his head and wrapped around his shoulders.
Elijah, who had been rubbing over his collarbone with his fingertips as if tracing it, lightly bit his skin. His own body had many colorful marks left on it, but Rose’s body was clean. He definitely didn’t think he lost in biting and sucking either, but he felt pointlessly regretful that not even a very small mark remained.
However, Rose’s body, suffering from a special illness, was only firm in appearance but fragile like a cotton doll inside, so he didn’t want to carelessly make things like bruises.
“I wonder if there are other people who do this.”
Elijah, who had been quietly resting his cheek in his embrace, asked.
“What kind of thing?”
“What we did today.”
“……”
Watching Rose blink his eyes as if not understanding, Elijah continued.
“If everyone knew you could pass time this way, everyone might not work and only do this.”
Only then did laughter burst out from Rose. It wasn’t something he said to make him laugh…… Elijah looked up at him with lukewarm eyes.
“Why are you laughing?”
“All adults do it, Elijah.”
“We’re adults too.”
“Right. That’s why we did it.”
“Then all adults have been doing this all along from the beginning?”
“……If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been born either.”
A few seconds of silence flowed between them. For Elijah, it was a moment of thunderous realization. Elijah, who had opened his eyes to the profound truth of life that he hadn’t known until now, suddenly sat up.
“Ah, ahh……”
Tingling pain spread along his tailbone. Startled, Rose quickly supported his back.
“What are you doing suddenly sitting up? If possible, don’t move today.”
However, Elijah, who leaned his body in his arms, couldn’t quite calm his excitement.
“Then, will a baby be born in my belly now? Like the people I saw outside……, will my belly become this big?”
He anxiously waited for an answer while looking at Rose who was making a strange expression. Rose, who had been moving his lips as if dumbfounded for a moment, replied a beat late.
“……No, Elijah.”
“What do you mean no?”
“Men don’t get pregnant.”
“Really? ……But, there are more men with big bellies in the world than women with big bellies.”
“……”
A long sigh flowed from Rose. A question like a murmur circled softly in his mouth.
“What on earth did you learn in class……?”
He laid Elijah back down on the bed and pulled his thin body into his embrace.
“It seems Master doesn’t teach you everything……”
Blank muttering continued.
“……Really you guys, education is urgent.”
For Elijah, it was incomprehensible. Master had taught them all the magical knowledge they needed. That’s why they had become such upright adults now. If other things were lacking, he had nothing to say, but he couldn’t admit that education was lacking.
“How do you know so well then?”
If you’re talking about lacking education, Rose would be more so. Unlike them, he didn’t even attend classes. Elijah rested his cheek on his chest in a slightly grumpy mood. After a long while, an answer came back from Rose.
“……Long ago, I saw it. Outside.”
“How?”
“The blacksmith ahjussi and the noona who worked at the tavern next door doing it.”
Blacksmith ahjussi. Elijah knew well about him from hearing stories. In the end, Rose had known about such acts from a very young age. Even from when he first entered the monastery.
“……Then why didn’t you teach me earlier? Knowing it alone.”
Rose laughed as if absurd. He’s laughing again when it’s not something to laugh about…… Elijah asked seriously.
“Then you…… Have you done this with someone else before? With another friend as close as me……”
Flick, a light flick fell on his forehead.
“Ow.”
Elijah rubbed his ticklish forehead and looked up at Rose.
“Elijah……, say something that makes sense.”
What doesn’t make sense again…… Really incomprehensible. Elijah looked at Rose who kept sighing deeply. Suddenly, Rose frowned.
“……Friends don’t do this, Elijah.”
He, who had been silent, said abruptly. Elijah blinked with a puzzled face. Rose stared at him as if entrusting something very important.
“This is something only you and I can do.”
“Yeah…… I know that too.”
“Why? Why can I only do it with you?”
“……”
“Tell me, Elijah.”
Answering Rose’s question wasn’t such a difficult thing. The act they had just done was a sensation that could only be shared when it went beyond intimacy to something more.
He didn’t even want to imagine doing such things with others. Not only discharging bodily fluids on each other’s bodies, but Rose would be the only person who wouldn’t feel dirty even if he thoroughly soaked his insides.
Elijah, who already knew the model answer, gave back the words Rose had repeated several times during the act.
“Because I’m yours and you’re mine.”
A long sigh scattered from Rose again. He wrapped the back of Elijah’s head and pulled him into his embrace.
“That’s right…… Elijah. That’s right.”
Elijah quietly pressed his cheek to his chest and listened to the calmly beating heart.
“So we’re not friends, not lovers, and not blood relatives.”
“……Then what are we?”
“A relationship deeper than that.”
“……”
“A relationship that can never be separated, and can never betray each other.”
Strength went into the arms that tightened around his body. It felt like his ribs might be crushed a bit, but Elijah endured it anyway.
“Okay, Rose. I don’t want to be apart from you either.”
Kisses fell on his forehead and around his eyes with smooches. Only when the blue morning was brightening did Elijah finally fall into a light sleep. It had been a truly languid day.
* * *
Ilisian’s disciples moved north along the northwestern coast.
“Daisy, secure the tent this way.”
Five cargo wagons stopped on a deserted beach. While they busily prepared to camp for the night, Elijah and Rose, who had hidden in the cargo hold of a wagon, were absorbed in kissing.
The narrow space filled with miscellaneous belongings was a perfect place to hide their bodies. Of course, they couldn’t engage in any acts other than kissing because there was the danger of someone barging in at any time.
“I hope we find that necklace quickly and return to the monastery.”
Elijah complained while curling up his body in Rose’s embrace. As they say, a thief who learns late doesn’t know night has passed—a body that has once awakened to pleasure can never return to before. Now Elijah searched for places where he could be alone with Rose whenever there was an opportunity, and Rose also pressed his lips to various parts of his body whenever there was a gap.
However, the problem was that there were few opportunities to be cozy with Rose during camping.
“It’s frustrating not being able to do what I want.”
His genitals, which had been repeatedly standing erect and subsiding for days, felt stifled. When he didn’t know, he lived just fine, but once he knew, it felt like he had to discharge periodically.
“I’m happy even now, Elijah.”
Rose, who brushed away the hair stuck to his sweat-soaked forehead, affectionately kissed it.
“From long ago, always…… I was always happy like this.”
Then, suddenly the curtain covering the cargo hold was swept aside. Clover looked at the two people crumpled inside.
“What are you guys doing in there?”
“We were just about to come out.”
Elijah answered grumpily and stealthily separated his body from Rose. Clover turned his head and shouted outside.
“Master! Look at these guys! They’re not working and stuck in here!”
“Master’s not here right now.”
Igrit’s voice was heard nearby. In the meantime, Rose and Elijah, who slowly came out of the cargo hold, pulled out the remaining luggage.
“Meal preparation is all done. Eat first and then do it.”
Clover tapped Elijah’s shoulder and pointed somewhere. On a campfire with smoke rising in wisps, fish skewered on sticks were being grilled in a row.
“Fish again……”
Elijah frowned. The sweet taste of Rose remaining in his mouth vanished all at once, and a fishy smell circulated inside. It seemed sea people really didn’t eat meat at all. Even if there was any, it was too expensive to buy.
As they moved along the coast, the only thing they could obtain cheaply was fish, and thanks to that, they had been filling their meals with fishy grilled fish for several days.
