“I haven’t been calling you by your name all this time.”
“Is that so?”
Well, I’d only been calling him ‘you’ and ‘sir’ all along. Jeffrey glanced at Damian briefly, then spoke gently to me.
“It would be good to narrow the distance first. Please feel free to call me Jeffrey.”
“What? That’s a bit…”
No matter how much he looked like he was in his twenties, he was older than me, and he was even a Grand Mage, wasn’t he?
Besides, I’m from the Eastern Land of Courtesy. Our culture isn’t like the West where you say “hi” to your grandfather—we bow from the waist.
The core inside should be a grandfather, but somehow my mouth just wouldn’t cooperate with calling him by his first name informally.
When I awkwardly averted my eyes, Jeffrey tilted his head slightly. Then he naturally took a step closer.
“Come to think of it, we agreed to talk about each other, but we couldn’t do it today.”
…Did we?
Now that I thought about it, I did vaguely recall hearing something like that.
“Are you the type who takes time to get close?”
“……Yes. Quite a lot.”
Pushing back the desire to nod vigorously, I deliberately added emphasis as I spoke. I thought if I said it like this, he might be careful.
But Jeffrey either didn’t hear or deliberately ignored it as he raised his hand and brushed my cheek.
Hey, I just said it takes me a long time? Before I could even brush his hand away, Jeffrey smiled softly.
“I see.”
And as his words ended, something touched my lips. Very lightly, like a piece of wind.
…It was Jeffrey’s lips.
Just as I was about to scream reflexively, Jeffrey pulled away and quickly continued speaking.
“Since I have some age on me, I prefer relationships that progress quickly when hearts align rather than those that develop slowly.”
“……!”
“Human life is finite, after all. If it takes too long to get to know each other, isn’t that a loss?”
It’s not hearts that align but bodies!
I covered my lips with both hands and stepped back. But even at my reaction, Jeffrey bowed his head with an indifferent face.
“I’ll look forward to being called Jeffrey next week. Sion.”
Talking about having age, human life being finite, and he expects me to call him by name?
But that was just an echo that rang inside.
With the sound of the door closing as Jeffrey left, the inn became quiet, and I stood there blankly with a dazed face, pressing my lips.
…Why did I get caught off guard again?
The more I thought about it, the more absurd it was, and heat rushed to my face. But suddenly I felt my back getting hot too, so when I turned my head, Damian was staring holes through me.
“Why does that mage human keep trying to touch you?”
“I don’t know either.”
I shook my head with a tearful expression and lowered the hand that had been covering my lips.
“How would I know? He said it was his preference or whatever, so I refused, but then he said he wouldn’t do it and acts like this.”
It was just like those people who get rejected from a confession and then cling to you asking to be friends. Pretending to have an indifferent expression while watching for opportunities with lecherous eyes… Ah, but he’s a Grand Mage, so is that wrong? Of course, the meaning is different.
While having such useless thoughts, Damian tilted his head.
“Does he want to give you his seed?”
“…What?”
For a moment I stared blankly, not understanding what he meant, but Damian asked with a serious face.
“Sion, does that mage human want to mate with you?”
“……”
My mouth opened and closed. My lips twitched several times, but no words came out. Damian stared holes through me like that, then suddenly grabbed my butt.
“……!”
What, what? My butt?
That huge hand completely grasped my entire butt in one hand. Then with a pondering face, he pressed and kneaded it here and there like dough.
“He has no conscience.”
“Wh-wh-what… what?!”
“To think of mating with something this tiny.”
He shook his head disapprovingly. His face looked like he’d really heard something absurd.
Wait, but what does mating have to do with butts? And besides.
“Why are you touching my butt?!”
“I asked first. Why does he keep trying to touch you? Not just now. Last time too, and just now as well. Even while spouting useless words, he kept aiming for your hand.”
So that’s why he was quiet earlier?!
No wonder. He’d been ready to charge at Jeffrey immediately, but he was quiet, so he must have been feeling suspicious.
“I don’t know! He’s probably trying to seduce me in his own way!”
I pushed his hand away, forcibly suppressing my embarrassment. And this time I covered my butt tightly with both hands instead of my lips.
When I glanced at him, Damian’s expression was unexpected—I’d thought he would surely sneer or scoff. His red eyes were shaking aimlessly.
His eyes widened slightly, and confusion, shock, and incomprehensible chaos mixed in his red pupils.
For a demon, he sure has a variety of expressions. Just as that absurd impression passed through my mind, Damian asked with a very serious face.
“Wasn’t human seduction about giving food?”
“…What?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
As I looked at him with a bewildered face, Damian’s words flashed through my mind like a panorama.
‘A mere human daring to seduce me.’
‘Because you gave me food when I was hurt.’
Come to think of it, this guy had been mistaking food for seduction, hadn’t he?
When that bastard was Happy and I ladled soup for him, he thought I was ladling out my heart, and when I handed him a bowl of rice, he took it as a marriage proposal signal.
So when he said he’d stay at the inn in human form, I went along with it thinking I’d at least use him as manpower…. But now his gaze had changed.
Eyes suspiciously half-narrowed. He’d listened to Jeffrey’s words for no reason, and now Damian seemed to be doubting his own belief that food was seduction.
“Well… there is that famous meme ‘Want to come in for ramyeon?’ so seducing with food isn’t exactly wrong….”
Even I found the words coming out of my mouth absurd.
There’s no ramyeon here in the first place, is there?
What should I do, tell him honestly?
But if I tell him honestly and he tries to kill me saying ‘How dare a mere human deceive me’? Or if I keep lying and get caught?
My mouth went dry, but I continued speaking vaguely.
“There are various types of seduction… so that’s a sexual…”
The best words I could come up with were types of love like agape or platonic that I learned in middle school, but those concepts had already evaporated along with my part-time job life.
“So… if agape is parental love, then I also… a bit of affection from giving food? Some kind of paternal love wells up, so when someone eats my food deliciously, I feel strangely proud… I’m kind of, moved by that.”
I could feel myself getting more tangled up in my words. Damian must have noticed that it didn’t add up either, as he watched me ramble and slightly raised his eyebrow.
“So you feel that emotion toward those who eat your gukbap?”
“No! That’s business! It’s providing labor in exchange for compensation! Love, that’s too expensive a word! I mean, it’s not like I don’t have sexual desire… but it’s not like I get aroused from giving gukbap….”
In the end, my words went completely off track.
My mouth couldn’t beat my words and ran ahead, while my brain had already fallen behind. Even while I was rambling, I wondered why am I even talking about this?
But Damian’s red eyes gradually began to glow as they followed my lips. Because of that, I got even more flustered, my voice getting louder, and my words completely lost their way.
“So, gukbap isn’t just food but affection, and affection is, how should I say, the taste of human life, and while that’s not quite love, no, if humanity is also love then it could be love…!”
Damian suddenly cut in.
“What about me?”
“…What?”
“If you were trying to seduce me, why don’t you do it to me?”
……What?
As I just stood there with my mouth open, Damian raised his hand and tapped his own lips.
“I’ll accept this much.”
“……”
Gulp, saliva went down on its own.
Damian slowly lifted his chin. It was a gesture as if to say, try it if you dare.
What should I do? If I insist I can’t do it now, will he really tear me apart saying ‘A human dared to deceive a demon’? Or will he bite me to death since I cut his nails so he can’t use them?
Survival instinct gripped my head. After wracking my brain tensely, I finally swallowed my saliva and nodded.
“…Just touching.”
I steeled myself resolutely and took a step toward Damian. Damian, who had been holding his chin up, slowly bent his upper body. Since he was two spans taller than me, he had to bend his body almost folding it.
Soon our eye levels matched, and as our gazes intertwined, I swallowed saliva for no reason. Thoughts kept circling in my head—is this right, wasn’t there a better way than this—but when I met those red eyes, the miscellaneous thoughts disappeared in an instant.
“Um….”
“……?”
“Please close your eyes.”
Damian obediently closed his eyes.
Damn it, at least snort like usual.
Whether I was embarrassed or flustered, I hesitated several times before finally reaching out to wrap around Damian’s waist. But it was too thick to grasp with one hand. If I used both hands, I’d obviously end up looking like a cicada clinging to an old tree.
Having no choice, I raised my hand and placed it on his shoulder. Normally it would be a distance I could barely reach even on tiptoes, but since Damian was bending down, I could easily reach it by just slightly raising my toes.
