My surroundings suddenly brightened. It was because the blanket that had covered my face was pulled back. At his touch, idle thoughts crumbled at once and I was helplessly dragged to cruel reality.
The Parallel World Ruvlian had moved at some point and was right next to me, propping his chin with one hand and staring at me. When I tried to increase the distance since his face was close, his other hand grabbed my waist. I was about to remove that hand when I hesitated at his blue eyes.
They were far more sinister than the gaze I’d seen before pulling the blanket up to the top of my head. It seemed like in a bit more time, he would tear someone to death. He wasn’t in his right mind. His eyes were half-rolled back.
What could have happened to make his eyes roll back like this? As someone who had only met him for a few days, it was hard to speculate, but recalling how he acted excessively toward me, I could roughly grasp it.
You don’t want me to die. Same with becoming endangered.
“You don’t like me getting hurt? You’d prefer I didn’t die?”
It was a monotonous question with no change in pitch. No voice came back. The atmosphere that had been incongruously peaceful just became precarious, like walking on thin ice.
This suited us. Constantly being on guard, suspicious, and grasping weaknesses. Just now, the aftereffect of Ruvlian appearing in my dream was large, so my guard had become blurry.
The entangled gazes that seemed to see through each other’s true nature had no intention of being released. He still had a smiling face, but subtle cracks could be seen in that smile.
“Why?”
“……”
“What kind of relationship do you and I have that you don’t want me to die?”
As if some button had been pressed at those words, the Parallel World Ruvlian raised the corner of his mouth crookedly. Between his red lips, an empty breath holding something back scattered out.
“Right. What kind of relationship do I have with you that I’m doing this? Hm?”
The hand holding my waist pulled me with all its might. Our bodies touched. An incongruously cozy scent mixed into his breath.
It subtly resembled Ruvlian’s body scent, making the discomfort from the skinship that acted intimate grow even more. Though not skin, I hated being in contact. Just as I was about to escape, I paused my actions at the following question.
“But is that important?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if it’s important, darling. As you said, I’m a crazy bastard, because this head has gone insane, so none of that matters at all.”
With the index finger of the hand that had been propping his chin, he tapped the side of my head. The corners of his eyes folded slenderly like a snake, and the pure white teeth visible between lips that seemed colored by soaking in blood stood out. The sight of him smiling brightly while saying such things made him look like someone who had completely gone insane.
I had thought he was crazy from the start, but the degree was severe. He’d gone so crazy that he’d easily passed 360 degrees and seemed to be spinning several more rounds.
“Darling. I know best that I’m a crazy bastard. Because I’m the bastard who ruined this place.”
It was a gentle voice that didn’t match the words spat out. Among his characteristic leisureliness, some other emotion was mixed in somewhere.
“So be careful. Do you think I’m letting you loose within the mansion because I can’t confine you? If it were up to me, here too, and here too…”
The hand that had been wrapping around my waist gently caressed the inside of my wrist over the blanket, and at the same time his waist moved slowly, creating friction between our pressed thighs. The thin blanket caught between made a rustling sound.
Fuck. A curse I rarely uttered came out. I immediately pulled my body away. As if he’d anticipated I would escape, he didn’t grab me. He just moved his lips without taking his gaze off me as I got off the bed.
“I’m holding back even though I want to cut everything off and lock you up so you only look at me. Hm? Don’t test my patience, and let’s be pretty, darling. Use that needlessly smart head of yours well.”
“Do you think I’ll use my head for you?”
“No. You wouldn’t do that.”
I didn’t understand why he deliberately said such things to dirty my mood when he didn’t even think I’d listen in the first place. The Parallel World Ruvlian was hard to fathom. He was too deep, and too many emotions were mixed, so a clear answer didn’t come out.
“You like me, don’t you?”
So I asked directly. It would be futile to try to figure it out by observing and gauging alone. Both because he concealed his expressions well, and as I just mentioned, there were no emotions that fell cleanly into place. I couldn’t clearly distinguish whether he liked or hated me. If anything, it seemed like a love-hate mix of both.
What did I do? What does he know about me? To think he was obsessed with me because of the Parallel World Baek Sihyeon, those eyes that seemed to swallow me didn’t see another person in me.
“I like you.”
The slow voice was plain without much change. It was heterogenous enough to make me wonder if he was acknowledging his own feelings, and numb. Precisely, it appeared so. Like black appearing in a watercolor painting where splendid colors harmonized, not matching at all.
“But I also hate you.”
This time too, it was heterogenous because not even a bit of the emotion of hating was revealed. That’s how I could tell. That he was definitely controlling his emotions on purpose. Just how much had he hidden his emotions? He was quite adept. If I hadn’t felt the sense of heterogeneity, I wouldn’t have noticed.
As if he still had more to say, he let out a sound through his red lips that had risen languidly.
“I don’t want you to die… but I also want you to die.”
It was contradictory enough for someone to question what he was even saying. However, I empathized. I understood. Those vague and obscure words.
Blue eyes sparkling in artificial light contained me. Eyes that seemed like they would sweep over me once and submerge me. But that ocean floor, that cold deep sea seemed rather cozy and comfortable. It couldn’t help but be a strange impression.
“Now lie down again, darling. It’s still far until morning.”
As if not allowing any more questions, the Parallel World Ruvlian lifted one side of the blanket. I knew instinctively. That was a line. A line to prevent the accident of spilling everything out, from the anxiety that continuing to talk would reveal his insides.
To escape from here, I had to win the psychological battle. I didn’t know the Parallel World Ruvlian, but he acted like he knew me well. What that lunatic was thinking, why he was acting this way toward me. It would be advantageous to resolve these unsolved questions. If I crossed the line, I would know everything. Why he acted like this, what kind of connection he had with me.
However, despite that, I had no intention of crossing the line. Because I had no intention whatsoever of taking responsibility for his thoughts and his emotions that I would learn by crossing the line.
Having finished my thoughts, I tore my gaze away and took a step, then momentarily hesitated at the squeak sound I’d forgotten about. …The sound had been there. Since I hadn’t had occasion to get up and walk, I’d completely forgotten.
A laugh sounded from behind me. Annoying bastard. I ignored him and went near the window, pulling back the drawn curtain. Outside was completely dark. It was night. How long had I lost consciousness this time?
I was worried about Ruvlian. Without even being able to break the curse, by now Ruvlian seemed like he would have reached this Parallel World.
“Not coming?”
An empty laugh flowed out at the sight of him urging me when I hadn’t even entrusted anything to him. When I turned my head to look at the Parallel World Ruvlian, he was gazing at me in an extremely comfortable posture. I was exasperated and annoyed at the same time. That leisureliness that remained constant even after causing this situation.
That’s why. That’s why I deliberately twisted the nuance strangely in words that I would normally dismiss as nonsense and pass over.
“If I sleep with you, will you at least break the curse?”
The entangled gazes didn’t release. Rather, they interlocked, entangled and intertwined even harder to release. The atmosphere that had loosened rapidly turned frigid.
“Darling, it hasn’t even been a few minutes since I told you to be pretty… What the hell is this about? Hm?”
The Parallel World Ruvlian who let out a laugh like a sigh asked slowly. The corners of his red mouth were drawing an arc, but his eyes held a fierce light. His face was twisted from hearing words he absolutely didn’t like.
I walked softly without making a squeak sound and arrived right in front of the bed. Then in a bent posture, I reached out my hand, placed it on the Parallel World Ruvlian’s cheek, and lifted his head further up.
“Why, you don’t like it? When I’m saying I’ll sleep with you in exchange for breaking the curse, isn’t this a gain for you?”
At that moment, my collar was grabbed with strong force and I was pulled down. My face was at a distance where about two finger joints could fit. And a face where the leisureliness had been removed, albeit minutely.
“Why are you acting so cheap, darling? You’re really making me want to kill that brat… Darling, I’ll break the curse for you, so will you sleep with me? If I tell that brat that you slept with me thanks to him, that brat’s expression will be worth seeing. Right?”
The moment the Parallel World Ruvlian mentioned Ruvlian, my head froze. I truly hadn’t been serious. It was words said impulsively from the thought of wanting to get one over on him because it was absurd and the pressure that I had to break the curse, but thinking of the expression Ruvlian would make if he knew this, my mouth clamped shut.
As if he’d known it would be like this, he let out a helpless breath and released my collar. Then he firmly grabbed the back of my head and slowly stroked it while continuing in a warning tone.
“Darling, don’t provoke my anger for no reason and go quietly sleep. Because I really want to cut everything off. Tomorrow, be good and just tell me what happened before you fainted.”
After that, the Parallel World Ruvlian got up from the bed, pushed me into the corridor, and closed the door. The eyes that didn’t leave me until the gap was tightly closed truly wanted to confine me. It was visible that he was holding back that impulse.
I didn’t know the reason he was holding back that impulse, but once I escaped from the room, the taut atmosphere loosened. I could breathe. It seemed I should never say such words in front of that lunatic again. Then I would truly be confined.
Standing in the corridor, I let out a sigh once and was about to familiarize myself with the structure but stopped. If my Mana hadn’t been controlled, I would have used Light Magic and Detection Magic and wandered around here and there, but now it was impossible. There were methods like pulling the bell rope to call a servant or using a lamp, but if I was going to do that, I had to return to the room anyway. Moreover, since no one was around, the squeak squeak sound rang out even louder.
I opened the door to the assigned room and entered, then opened the window. The dawn air cleared my mind. A cool breeze blew pleasantly. I faced the wind without arranging my disheveled bangs.
The Parallel World Baek Sihyeon. The relationship between the Parallel World Ruvlian and me. Up to thoughts about the sound that had made me faint, belatedly continuing. With nothing clearly concluded, my head was just chaotic.
Besides that, there was the curse I couldn’t break, the method to escape from here, the method to keep the Parallel World Ruvlian from following me. There were too many things to resolve.
Even God, who alone would know the answers to all questions, wasn’t by my side. If He’d been by my side, He would have immediately chattered while making my head dizzy. Seeing how quiet it was inside my head, it was right that He hadn’t come yet.
My head had been turning ceaselessly. A presence was felt beyond the open window. …It didn’t seem to be an assassin. Though the movement was nimble and careful, it was a bit different from the ghost-like gait characteristic of assassins.
The destination is… my room? Even if I closed the window, if they wanted to enter, there was nothing that could prevent entry. I leaned my body against the wall right next to the window and killed my presence. Thanks to my developed hearing, a strangely familiar voice was heard. There seemed to be at least three people.
“Are you really planning to enter like this? I knew this wasn’t right—”
“Montrio. A person should have flexibility too.”
…Deadrian, Montrio.
“No, isn’t this not a matter of flexibility! That bastard Ruvlian can’t not know we’ve infiltrated, do you think he’ll just let us be!”
“Oh my, my ears. At this rate my ears will fall off~ Even sleeping people will all wake up~.”
“Ugh.”
“Right, Montrio. Be quiet and let’s just check!”
Even Alli. An empty laugh came out. I thought it was familiar, and it was the comrades of this world? They didn’t seem to be in league with the Parallel World Ruvlian though… As Deadrian said, that lunatic couldn’t not know they’d infiltrated. What on earth is he aiming for? My head became even more complicated.
“Huh? The window is open, but they’re not here! The sylph says… Oh! They’re stuck to the wall… Looks like they already noticed we’re here.”
The voice that became more awkward toward the end was exactly the same as the Alli I knew. A rough hand suddenly appeared on the windowsill. Soon after, dark red hair swaying below the ears entered the room, and my gaze met bright red eyes.
“Uh… Hello?”
It almost perfectly matched the Alli I knew. Down to the point of being ridiculously bright and cheerful.
erm