Brukisel and Rou rode a horse together, galloping along the forest path. Charles was a strong and fast horse, but being a war horse, the riding experience wasn’t very good. Moreover, the fact that he was carrying the Goddess’s representative seemed to excite Charles even more, as he galloped unusually fast.
The wet ground deep in the forest became deeply hollowed, and black mud splattered everywhere.
“Charles!”
Brukisel pulled on Charles’s reins to stop him. It wasn’t because he was worried Rou might roll off the horse. In the first place, Rou was easy enough to hold with one arm, so there was no chance of missing him if he fell from the horse.
That wasn’t the part where Charles made things difficult. Every time the horse leaped up, Rou was pushed back slightly, and each time, he became firmly pressed against him. Both that soft fragrance and the ticklish hair were problems, but… the biggest problem was that Rou’s buttocks kept rubbing against his thigh.
Especially every time Rou’s soft buttocks touched and separated from his right thigh, his whole body grew hot and his face heated up. It was a very troublesome and awkward feeling. Because Rou had an innocent face as if knowing nothing, Brukisel felt like he alone had become a strange person.
Charles was a very disciplined horse and had perfect rhythm. Because of that, the frequency of friction was also very constant. This kind of stimulation was improper. In the worst case, Rou might notice his condition. That’s why Brukisel stopped Charles when he could no longer endure it.
“What’s wrong?”
Rou, who had been fully enjoying the wind brushing his hair and both cheeks, was puzzled by his sudden action of stopping the horse. Charles also seemed dissatisfied that his exciting gallop was suddenly stopped, as he snorted and stamped his front legs again.
“……”
“Brukisel?”
“It’s nothing. Go.”
Rou had a bewildered face, not understanding, but Brukisel didn’t resolve his question.
Brukisel put more strength into the hand gripping the reins than before to prevent Charles from speeding up. Charles seemed disappointed he couldn’t pick up speed, but according to his master’s will, he walked slowly. Rou was also disappointed he couldn’t feel the cool wind for a moment, but the gentle breeze became just as good. Unlike the cool wind from before, it held an armful of the forest’s fresh fragrance.
Rou occasionally hummed, and judging by his peaceful expression, he didn’t seem to realize his own humming. At the faint lullaby that seemed familiar from somewhere, strength entered Brukisel’s hand gripping the reins. Brukisel suddenly broke the silence and spoke his name.
“Rou.”
“Mm?”
Rou turned around with a bright smile. Brukisel spread his right thigh a bit more so it wouldn’t touch Rou’s body, then asked with difficulty.
“Earlier… weren’t you afraid?”
Now he knew that Rou, unlike ordinary nobles, possessed mental strength of a different dimension. That he wouldn’t run away or turn his back on most things. But he was also human. There was no way he didn’t feel fear in that space where blood flowed to form a small stream.
Brukisel wanted to hear Rou’s honest feelings. He wanted to know what he was thinking, whether he was really okay, or whether he was just pretending to be okay because he had no choice.
Rou didn’t answer Brukisel’s sudden question right away and took his time.
‘How was I.’
As one who serves the Goddess and is her creation, Rou instinctively rejected the scent of death. But at the same time, Rou was also a small bumblebee who greatly longed for strength.
Among the animal carcasses lying behind Brukisel, there were some with fangs long enough to drag on the ground, and there were animals whose skin had an armor-like color to adapt to the cold northern wind. No matter how much of a spiritual creature Rou was, if he had encountered those beasts in nature, he would have fled without looking back.
But instead of running away, Brukisel had hunted down all those beasts. Looking at the bloodstain marks and positions, leaving bloodstains was Brukisel’s will. There wasn’t a single drop of blood that he had shed from being wounded.
So when he saw Brukisel standing valiantly, rather than being afraid, Rou was busy looking at Brukisel’s handsome forehead. Below his angular brow bone and smooth nose bridge, his masculine chin and that beautiful face, was the strong body Rou longed for so much.
Even if a few drops of blood splattered on that face and body, his beauty wouldn’t fade.
Under Rou’s gaze, Brukisel somehow felt parched. He was needlessly nervous about what words would come from him. Rou, as if to ease Brukisel’s anxiety, blurted out the words that came to mind.
“You were cool… just like a wasp!”
“Ha…”
Brukisel let out a laugh because it was so absurd. Rou had the talent to lighten such a serious atmosphere with just one word. A wasp, of all things. He’d heard plenty of nicknames like monster, living curse, and such, but wasp was a first.
“Really?”
“Y-yes.”
Rou, who answered carefully, uncharacteristically glanced at Brukisel’s mood. It was because he had unknowingly mentioned wasps. Round and fluffy-haired but without any strength in his childhood. To Rou, who was a bumblebee, the strongest and fastest thing in the world was a wasp.
That majestic sound they made when flying, and their fierceness that made even birds several times their size flee. Wasps possessed exactly the strength Rou longed for.
Now, having become a spiritual creature and spent hundreds of years by the Goddess’s side, he knew there were plenty of things stronger than wasps, but words spoken unconsciously inevitably carried thoughts from childhood.
‘He didn’t notice I’m a bumblebee, did he?’
Rou’s heart sank for a moment. He had finally gotten a bit closer to Brukisel, was having pleasant conversations with him and spending happy time riding horses together—he didn’t want to ruin everything by being found out as a bumblebee.
“Hahaha! Really?”
But contrary to his worries, Brukisel was very pleased with Rou’s answer. Even the out-of-the-blue wasp talk resembled Rou. Rou was truly different from others. He liked how he always charged in unexpected ways. So Brukisel just smiled.
‘Thank goodness. He doesn’t seem particularly suspicious.’
Fortunately, Brukisel didn’t probe into Rou’s identity or ask if he was actually a bumblebee. He just laughed out loud, his eyes folding like a crescent moon and his mouth smiling refreshingly. It wasn’t a sneer or a scoff of disbelief, but a smile simply from being happy.
This was the first time Brukisel had laughed out loud like that. Rou watched the moment Brukisel laughed in a daze. Brukisel laughing beside him looked happy.
For the first time, Rou thought Brukisel looked like a young man of that age. Because Brukisel wasn’t very emotional, he always seemed stern, but his bright smile looked so innocent. So much so that it was hard to believe he was someone who had experienced such painful things.
Rou had promised Brukisel death, but quite contradictorily, he thought he wished Brukisel wouldn’t die. He wished he would live and keep smiling like this. He ended up thinking that.
‘To think Brukisel could make such an expression.’
Rou had been getting to know Brukisel and thought he knew quite a lot, but after seeing that smile, his thoughts completely changed. He felt like he knew nothing about Brukisel. Only now did Rou realize how pleasant his laughter was to hear, how beautiful his folded eye corners and curled-up lips were.
The smile overflowing with vitality lifted some of the shadow cast over his face. Rou could dare to take pride that even the Goddess would say it was beautiful.
Brukisel, in a good mood, kicked Charles’s flank. Charles began galloping as if he’d been waiting, and like before, cool wind brushed Rou’s face. Perhaps worried he might roll off, Brukisel firmly secured Rou’s waist so there was no shaking at all.
The wind was cool, but his chest felt stuffy. It also seemed to tingle. He didn’t want Brukisel like that to disappear from the world forever. That thought suddenly came to him.
