Brukisel felt his heart beating frivolously. It felt like returning to a time before the Shadow power ran wild, when he was simply young. He roughly swept his face with the arm not caught by Rou.
It was true his heart had wavered for a moment, but befitting an emperor of a nation, he quickly found peace. He’d tried countless poisons during this time, but they couldn’t kill Brukisel. Thanks to that, his resistance had only increased, so ordinary poisons had no effect.
Dying together. The words were splendid. But that was only if he found a poison that could kill him. Brukisel was confident Rou couldn’t easily create such a poison. In reality, most of the poisonous plants in the greenhouse didn’t work on him either.
“Alright.”
Rou smiled happily at Brukisel’s answer. His smile seemed to emit a sweet fragrance like flowing honey. Brukisel quietly watched that smile, then turned his head like someone embarrassed at receiving an undeserved reward.
Rou carefully moved and stuck close to Brukisel’s side. He sat so close their touching shoulders grew damp and soaked, warmth transmitting between them.
“I’ll definitely be helpful. I’m knowledgeable about plants, so I’ll surely be of help.”
“Ah.”
At Rou’s confident words, Brukisel suddenly remembered. Hadn’t he survived a week in that greenhouse full of poisonous plants? Thinking back, Rou might really be helpful.
Shadow blood made Brukisel an immortal existence. That was the same even when eating poison that melted from the organs or neurotoxins said to completely destroy the mind. However, perhaps because it was blood at odds with Goddess Kaine, poisons from plants had relatively good effects.
If Rou was truly knowledgeable about plants, he might become a breakthrough to actually dying. Just as Brukisel was about to test how much Rou knew about poisons that could kill people, Rou stroked Brukisel’s shoulder once.
Brukisel flinched and stepped back. As always, Rou truly seemed like a human with no aversion to contact with others.
Rou spoke in that sweet, ticklish voice.
“Brukisel. Being wrapped in fog like this, it feels like only the two of us remain in the world.”
Rou spoke while smacking his lips in front of Brukisel’s face. His pale pink lips looked soft and moist. Every time he exhaled close by, something like a wonderful flower fragrance seemed to waft. Brukisel unconsciously held his breath.
Just as one unconsciously bows their head to smell the scent beside a fragrant flower, being beside this person who seduced with his whole body might make one’s head strange and cause incomprehensible actions.
Brukisel silently turned the prow. He headed straight for the lakeside. The boat that had moved so sluggishly and frustratingly when Rou rowed was refreshingly cutting through the water, passing precisely through the lake.
Those who saw Brukisel’s boat from afar cleared the way on their own, so the harp melody and the dizzying artistry of the female singers grew closer.
“Brukisel?”
Rou felt regretful about his emptied hand, then realized one beat late that he was heading to the lakeside. So much regret remained. They’d just grown one step closer, he’d finally found a way to help him, yet that moving time was ending this quickly.
“Let’s return now.”
“What? Why! Let’s stay longer. It’s a rare banquet!”
“Then you enjoy the banquet more. I’m returning.”
“What would I do without Brukisel!”
“……”
Brukisel was flustered. Because of that, the strength in his hands rowing loosened a bit, and the boat’s advancing speed gradually slowed. Well, he was a human who said he’d die together with him, so such words were nothing, he thought.
“You say such things so easily.”
“Really? I only say them to Brukisel.”
At this point, he was curious.
Rou was the High Priest. If he wanted, he could be promised a comfortable and pleasant life from the southern royal family who worshipped him. Why did such a person treat him so specially? He was slightly curious why he came to like him.
“Why?”
“Hm? What?”
“Ahem……”
Brukisel cleared his throat at the feeling of his throat tickling for no reason.
“Why am I so special?”
“Well.”
Rou’s tone was as plain as if answering that fact was easier than solving a problem with the answer written right next to it.
“Brukisel is a kind and affectionate person. How could I not like you?”
Kind and affectionate? Even he thought those were words far removed from himself. If he told how many he’d cut down with his sword on the battlefield after feeling inexplicable betrayal from Rou’s retreating back, would that emotion shatter? Would that soft smile break into pieces?
Brukisel thought Rou was greatly misunderstanding something. Anyone who truly knew him wouldn’t attach words like kind and affectionate when describing him.
Brukisel felt such doubt, but didn’t reveal that fact. When he heard the words saying he liked him, his chest felt stuffy as if his throat was blocked, and his face grew hot as blood rushed around. This had never happened even in the middle of a battlefield. That emotion was unfamiliar and strange, but he didn’t want to disturb it midway.
“Huh?”
Rou immediately noticed Brukisel’s change.
“Your ears turned red.”
Rou naturally reached his hand toward Brukisel’s ear. Brukisel blankly watched the pure white hand approach, then belatedly hastily retreated. It would have been better if he’d swatted the hand away, but because he moved suddenly, the entire boat rocked and the water surface rippled.
Rou was already soaked through so there was little difference, but Brukisel’s dress uniform and black hair got completely wet from the splashing water.
“Brukisel. Are you okay?”
Rou wiped the moisture on his cheek while checking on Brukisel. He was fine, but Brukisel was a child who feared water. The water surface had rippled greatly and he’d even gotten wet, so how great must that fear be?
As Rou worried, Brukisel had frozen stiff. His jaw was so tense that tendons bulged. Before Rou could worry further, Brukisel quickly rowed toward the lakeside.
Since the prow had already turned toward the lakeside, the boat touching land was instantaneous. Rou felt regretful but could only look forward to next time. He wanted to see Brukisel quickly set foot on land and feel relieved.
Brukisel climbed onto the shore first, then began walking away. Rou sat on the boat and waved his hand toward his departing back.
“See you again.”
At Rou’s greeting, Brukisel suddenly stopped abruptly. He retraced his steps and stood in front of the boat Rou was on. Then he firmly grasped the prow with one hand and extended his other empty hand.
“Get off.”
“Ah!”
Rou looked at the extended hand and smiled brightly. He grasped the hand without hesitation. Once Rou’s two feet touched the ground, the hand naturally fell away, but the sensation of that large hand remained on Rou’s palm for a long time.
“Thank you.”
At Rou’s thanks, Brukisel’s ears flushed red again.
‘How could I not call you kind and affectionate for this?’
Even though he himself feared water and hurriedly climbed onto land. Even though he’d walked quite far away. To not forget and return to grasp his hand. Did he know he himself feared water? Rou found Brukisel, who knew how to consider others, endlessly adorable.
Brukisel quietly watched Rou’s round eyes, his upturned mouth corners, and his cheeks that rose accordingly, then soon turned his back and walked away. He didn’t look back this time, but Rou was satisfied with just that.
Rou’s heart was filled with satisfaction. Though he regretted parting with Brukisel, he was satisfied with this. Rou watched Brukisel’s retreating back with a benevolent smile like a quiet lake embracing countless lives.
And before long, one person’s scream rang out, breaking the peaceful scene.
“Wh-what… wh-what?”
Like an old man facing a strange scene, he alternately looked toward where Rou and the emperor had disappeared, unable to continue speaking. Rou had long forgotten him since he couldn’t easily remember vague impressions, but it was the man whose prow had bumped into Rou’s earlier.
“Hm?”
Only then did Rou notice there were more people at this lakeside than expected. All his senses and vision had been filled with Brukisel, so he hadn’t even noticed other people were there. Rou felt a bit awkward and only then looked around.
But something was a bit strange. The one who’d been playing the harp, the two female singers who’d been singing the song Rou had touched up, the nobles he was seeing for the first time (actually, among them were some who had already greeted Rou), all had faces full of shock.
Rou hesitated a little.
Since the goddess had bestowed a perfectly sculpted, flawless appearance, humans had always approached with dreamy faces as if intoxicated by something, endlessly kind. Not facing him as if seeing something strange like this.
Rou glanced at his reflection on the lakeside, wondering if his expression was odd, but he still had features like the goddess’s masterpiece.
‘What’s going on?’
The only differences from usual were that he was a bit wet from water, that he’d disembarked from the same boat as Brukisel together, and that Brukisel had personally helped him off the boat.
‘Ah! People don’t know Brukisel is a kind and affectionate child, right?’
Just as he thought they might be a bit surprised at that, Rosaria, wearing a dress the color of blazing red, approached and asked.
“High Priest. If I didn’t see wrong, did you perhaps go boating continuously with His Majesty?”
Her question represented everyone’s curiosity.
