Thinking about how adventurers would someday remember me in front of a campfire saying, “That curly-haired kid always made us food….” made me let out an empty laugh.
But even if I said this, the Crown Prince wouldn’t understand, so I answered with a forced smile.
“I prefer a safe life over money.”
At those words, Lionel made a very subtle expression. ‘You?’ was written all over his face. No matter how I looked at it, in Lionel’s eyes, I seemed like someone who would lick toes for money.
Ah, is that right?
Still, I’m a law-abiding citizen through and through, you know?
I hate illegal money or get-rich-quick schemes. Black money chokes you eventually, and I’ve never seen anyone who keeps talking about hitting it big actually succeed.
As I shrugged my shoulders, Lionel looked at me with strange eyes and asked.
“Is that your belief?”
Even Lionel is going on about beliefs?
Somehow it feels like I’ve been hearing this a lot lately. Without realizing it, a sharp tone came out.
“Is belief that important in this Empire?”
At those words, Lionel tilted his head slightly. I scratched my head for no reason and mumbled.
“No, well… I’ve just been hearing it a lot lately.”
“It seems someone cares about you.”
“Pardon?”
Lionel lowered his eyes for a moment, then continued slowly.
“Usually when you climb up quickly, you can’t look after your surroundings. Your inn is quite famous within the Empire now, isn’t it? So it must be advice not to be chased by money or blinded by greed.”
“……”
“Of course, it’s not bad that you don’t forget that advice either.”
It was more serious and sincere words than I expected. Was that why? Whether it was embarrassing, or I was surprised to hear such words from Lionel, somehow it became awkward. So I waved my hands for no reason to change the atmosphere.
“Anyway! Even though I’m the incarnation of materialism, my body prioritizes safety. If I do end up going….”
At the thought that suddenly struck me, I raised my arm high and smiled brightly.
“I’ll write Your Highness’s name with my butt in front of everyone!”
At those words, clatter— the spoon fell from Lionel’s hand.
“…What?”
“I’ll gather everyone and write it spectacularly! With a heart at the end of the name!”
“Why on earth did the conversation from earlier flow to such… such an outrageous conclusion?”
“Don’t refuse! I even learned sports dance at the community center, so my hips rotate quite well!”
“I don’t need it! That’s an insult to the imperial family in the first place!”
Regardless, I wiggled my butt, pretending to write Lionel’s name. Lionel looked at me as if he was about to have a fit, then finally stuffed his mouth full of gukbap right there.
Then he immediately got up from his seat, slapped 1 Silver on the table, and turned around.
“Ah, stay a little longer! Art is only complete when it’s appreciated!”
“You’re crazy, you must be crazy!”
Without looking back, Lionel pressed his hood down deeper and left through the door.
In the space where one person’s warmth had left, only a brief silence descended like residual heat cooling down.
On the table sat a single ttukbaegi that had just been emptied. The empty bowl, its warmth already gone, stood lonely like a trace of someone who had passed through.
As if breaking that silence, Damian, who had watched the entire situation from the side, asked in a low voice.
“Is it not that humans are strange, but that you’re strange?”
“What? Where would you find a human as normal and sincere as me?”
At my question, one of Damian’s eyebrows slowly rose. His red eyes slowly scanned me up and down, then slowly fell.
“Lie.”
What, does this demon just call everything a lie?
“It’s not!”
“Or are they all as strange as you?”
“Strange?!”
It was unfair. Where in the world would you find a human as wholesome and sincere as me?
“There’s someone like that separately!”
“Who exactly?”
Who else. There’s one person who’s the strangest in this world, demanding the body of a curly-haired brat in exchange for just a few words of conversation.
“Who else. It’s someone Damian knows too.”
Right, tomorrow was the day Jeffrey was coming.
The next day, I sat Damian down at the table and cut his long nails one by one. Click, click— the regular sound spread gently through the quiet inn.
Damian, sitting across from me, was looking at his left hand that had already been groomed. Then tap, tap. Each time nail fragments bounced off from the hand I was holding, his red eyes followed the movement.
I was concentrating on grooming down to the last pinky finger, not even knowing Damian was watching.
“Done!”
The moment I finally put down the nail clippers, Damian suddenly grabbed the hand I had been holding while cutting his nails. Then with a rather serious face, he began kneading my palm.
“Small.”
“It’s on the small side since I didn’t eat well growing up.”
Looking at his large hand that completely covered mine, I soon asked back, unable to hide my bewilderment.
“But isn’t it natural that I’m smaller than Damian compared to anyone? Your forearm is thicker than my thigh.”
If what I said to a customer before was an exaggerated compliment, this was sincere.
Well, isn’t there at least a two-span difference in height alone?
Of course, if you take off the hood and include those horns… well, the difference would be even greater. Anyway.
Instead of answering my question, Damian slowly turned over my hand.
He swept across my palm once, then pressed each finger joint. As my pulse beat thump thump beneath the skin, Damian’s red eyes also moved slowly as if following that movement.
The funny thing was that his expression was serious again.
Like dissecting a dead frog, the face of a young student purely curious. Eyes filled with harmless curiosity without even a speck of the unique malice of a child.
The problem was… he was fondling it for too long.
My palm and fingers, warmed by his body heat, began to damply sweat.
If it had really been a frog, by now it might have gone past being warmly heated to rigor mortis.
“Not as soft as I thought.”
“Well, I’m also a hairy adult male…?”
Isn’t it already an adult with calluses to expect the softness of a newborn?
At those words, Damian raised his head and stared at my bushy curly hair for a while. Then his gaze slowly moved down.
I became awkwardly embarrassed and drew my legs together in my seat.
Unfortunately, down there was completely blown away when I once modeled for Brazilian waxing. I originally had sparse body hair, but for some reason after that, it doesn’t grow at all.
It was permanent shame exchanged for a whopping 200,000 won.
Of course, this body now is the body of inn owner Sion, but seeing as this guy is in the exact same situation as me, he must have definitely blown away all his hair in some accident too.
Anyway.
Just as I was about to subtly pull my hand away from the continuous fondling, ding-a-ling— the door opened.
“Ah, hello!”
It was Jeffrey, whom I now met every holiday.
Unlike usual when he would greet me before I could greet him, today was different. Jeffrey stopped at the threshold and slowly removed his hood. Then he didn’t take his eyes off me.
Just as I was beginning to feel puzzled, Damian suddenly squeezed my hand tight.
“Ah!”
The moment I reflexively turned my head to Damian, Jeffrey’s voice was heard.
“I wondered where the stench of a beast was coming from, and it was this place.”
What? Beast?
I immediately scanned Damian’s head. The hood was still firmly pressed down.
Could it be… Jeffrey is a mage so he recognized that Damian is a demon? But then Lionel had no reaction at all?
As I just rolled my eyes silently, Jeffrey, as if reading my thoughts directly, took a step closer and said.
“Because traces of my magic remain.”
“Ah…..”
Because of that sealing charm?
Well, the original work also had the setting that traces of mana remain when magic is used. Just as I was about to nod, my body suddenly stiffened at a thought that struck me.
Wait a minute.
Then that means Jeffrey now knows that Damian is… Happy.
“……”
Cold sweat ran down my spine. They say you shouldn’t live a life of sin. From yesterday to today, I’d been dripping with sweat.
Yesterday, sweat from the nail topping accident in front of the Crown Prince.
Now, sweat as the price for hiding a demon.
Surely I won’t have to sweat tomorrow too, right?
By the time the nape of my neck was soaked and my shirt was sticking, Damian’s red eyes, which had been fondling my hand, aimed precisely at Jeffrey.
As if confronting that gaze, Jeffrey’s violet eyes also held an eerie light. In that instant, as the two men’s gazes clashed, the air inside the inn froze coldly.
And what broke that chilly silence was Damian’s provocation.
“At that age, shouldn’t a human be getting into a coffin?”
“Huk.”
A groan escaped me without realizing it, and my face turned white in an instant as I looked between the two alternately. My heart was shrinking in real-time, but strangely, Jeffrey was smiling.
“Generally, beasts distinguish their opponents by smell.”
Since when did demons become general beasts?!
But I wasn’t so bad at reading the atmosphere as to voice that question out loud.
“Usually, whether the one in front is strong or not, a son of a bitch with developed instincts would notice well….”
He tilted his head lightly. His glossy black hair also tilted along with it, naturally drawing attention.
Following that, his curled-up lips and excessively gentle tone were flawlessly perfect.
But the undertone embedded at the end of those words was clear.
“It seems even those instincts are worse than a son of a bitch’s.”
