“Ugh, it’s so cold…”
Elian’s lips were trembling. A chill that made his teeth clack together had wrapped around his entire body. He was currently curled up on the narrow single sofa in the break room, held in the arms of Calix — who was essentially a giant block of ice.
“Stay still.”
Calix’s low voice rumbled near his ear. He had his face buried in Elian’s nape, drawing in deep, slow breaths. Every time that cold nose grazed the skin near his carotid artery, Elian’s body gave an involuntary twitch.
He’s treating me like a body pillow.
Elian grumbled inwardly, but he couldn’t push Calix away. To be more honest about it… he didn’t want to.
[Charging… 450 BP… 480 BP…]
[Close Contact Bonus active!]
That was because of the crisp, clear sound of Points accumulating in his ear. Calix burrowed into Elian’s warmth with single-minded persistence, as though addicted to it. Each time the warmth of Elian’s skin and the scent of him filled his lungs, it felt as though the thin layer of ice packed into Calix’s veins was quietly melting away.
It was a comfort that felt almost like a dream. Calix’s arms tightened. The instinct to go deeper, to get closer, was overtaking reason.
“S-sir. Are you feeling better now? We’ve been like this for a while…”
Elian ventured carefully. Calix’s body, which had been cold as stone, had warmed up considerably by now. On top of that, staying in the same position for so long was starting to cut off his circulation.
“Be quiet. Not thawed out yet.”
Calix shot back shamelessly and pulled Elian’s waist even tighter against him.
A lie. His body had thawed out plenty, and his Mana had settled well within stable range. But he didn’t want to let go of this warm, soft furnace. He wanted to savor this feeling just a little longer. It was only after another ten minutes had passed that Calix finally released him.
“…Go.”
“Yes! Please rest well, sir!”
Elian bolted out of the break room without looking back once. His lips had turned faintly blue — but his expression was brighter than it had been at any point before.
Ding―!
[Unexpected Quest Complete!]
[Reward: Grade S Domain Defense Wall Blueprint x1]
[Saved to inventory.]
“Yes!”
Elian pumped his fist. At last, what he’d been waiting for had arrived. The ultimate shield against the Monster Wave. And it wasn’t just any blueprint — it was a full structural design. The blood of a ten-year veteran civil engineer began to boil.
“Time to get started right away!”
* * *
2 PM. The outer wall construction site at the edge of the domain.
“My lord! Is — is this real?”
Hans’s eyes went wide as saucers. In his hands was a blueprint covered in intricate geometric patterns and detailed structural drawings.
The moment Elian unrolled the Grade S Defense Wall Blueprint he’d pulled from his inventory, the lines drawn on the paper began to glow gold and rise off the surface. It was a magic blueprint — a premium item that displayed the structure in a 3D hologram for easy comprehension by those doing the construction.
“Yes, Hans. Build it exactly like this and it won’t budge even if an ogre runs headfirst into it.”
Elian rolled up his sleeves.
“Alright, everyone listen up! We’re scrapping the old method of just stacking stones. The ground is frozen right now and unstable. We’re redoing everything from the foundation!”
“F-from the foundation?”
The workers murmured among themselves. They had assumed he’d simply conjure up a wall with magic.
“This ground is permafrost. If you put up a wall as-is, it’ll crumble the moment the ground thaws in spring. We need to dig down, lay gravel, and build a drainage layer first. Then we’ll drive steel cores — think of them as iron rods — into it and set up the frame.”
The look in Elian’s eyes had gone sharp. Not the look of a lord trembling over every Point — this was the gaze of a ten-year veteran civil engineer.
“Hold on! Stop right there!”
Elian shouted and broke into a run. An older worker was pouring water straight into the cement mix. The cement, too, had been sourced from the Points Shop.
“Hey! What’s your water-to-mix ratio? If you put in that much water, it’ll freeze solid before it even cures!”
“Well, it’s so cold the mix keeps setting up on me…”
“That’s exactly why I told you to blend in heat-stone powder! Strip all of this out. Do it again.”
“What? A-all of it?”
“The foundation has to be solid or the wall will collapse. Do you want to watch the wall crumble when the monsters come and have your families get hurt?”
Elian’s sharp reprimand snapped the workers to attention. They’d assumed he was just some carefree young lord — but watching him work, he was anything but an amateur. From the way he handled a shovel to his eye for materials, it was enough to leave them speechless.
“Over there! Why is the mortar ratio off? There’s nowhere near enough cement!”
“The drainage slope is wrong! Water will pool and rot everything!”
Elian grabbed a shovel himself and climbed up onto the mound of earth. Dust flew everywhere and sweat poured off him in sheets, but he didn’t care.
The smell of a worksite — something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Soil and sweat, and the noise of people pushing their hardest in their own corners of the work. Elian moved through the site like a fish returned to water.
“My lord, you’re incredible…”
“You know more than just magic — you know all this technical work too?”
The workers’ expressions were shifting into something like reverence. They’d thought he was nothing more than a bookish young noble — but the sight of their lord covered in dirt and sweating alongside them was, in and of itself, moving.
It was then.
“My lord! My lord, we have a problem!”
From somewhere in the distance, the Grand Duke’s adjutant Cedric came sprinting over, gasping for breath. Elian had just been directing the first pour of the foundation concrete.
“What is it? Did monsters appear?”
“The — the Grand Duke… is calling for you, sir!”
“…What?”
“He says to come immediately! If you’re not there within thirty minutes, he’ll freeze the entire domain wall—”
“Oh, for the love of — seriously, NOW of all times!”
Elian nearly hurled his leather hard hat straight at the ground.
Do you have any idea how critical this moment is? Concrete curing is all about timing!
But the person in question was the Grand Duke of the North. A man who could just as easily freeze him instead of the wall.
“I’m going, I’m going, alright! Damn it all!”
Elian took off sprinting toward the lord’s manor without even stopping to change out of his work clothes, covered head to toe in dirt.
* * *
Bang―! The door to the lord’s manor office flew open.
“Ha — hah… I’m… here…”
Elian gripped the doorframe and fought to catch his breath. His lungs felt ready to burst. He had run like a man possessed to make it within the thirty-minute cut. His curly hair, soaked through with sweat, clung to his forehead, and his face and clothes were already a complete mess of dirt and dust. There was not a single trace of lordly dignity to be found.
Calix, who had been sitting by the window with elegant composure, sipping his tea, slowly turned his head. His gaze landed on Elian — a complete disaster of a person.
“…”
Calix’s brow furrowed slightly. He was filthy. He looked every bit the part of a noble who had abandoned every shred of dignity he was supposed to maintain. Just standing near him, it felt like the drifting dust would transfer onto Calix himself. Under normal circumstances, even a single speck of dirt would have made him recoil and sooner have the garment burned than worn again. To him, filth was impurity — the symbol of disorder that had not been brought to order. And yet, strangely—
Why can’t I look away?
The Elian in front of him was different. The smudges on his cheek were not marks of laziness. They were proof of survival — of someone who had thrown himself into motion and fought to build something.
The pale nobles filling his own castle. Those dolls who hid their truly rotten insides behind perfume and wore nothing but hollow smiles. This was nothing like that. A pulse hammering with life. Ragged breaths. And the shimmer of heat rising off his entire body like a mirage.
It was the smell of real, living vitality — the thing Calix had craved his entire life. That dazzling, vivid aliveness was stirring something twisted and possessive inside him. An impulse rose: he wanted to wash away all that filth, and find out just how burning and radiant the thing beneath it was.
“…What happened to you?”
Calix set his teacup down and asked.
“I — I’m sorry. I was at the wall construction site and had to rush over—”
Elian wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve. It smeared a streak of dark mud across his pale cheek.
“I’ll go wash up first. I’m too dirty to come near you right now—”
“No.”
Calix rose from his seat. As he approached, Elian instinctively stepped back. Even he could tell he probably reeked of sweat and earth. Calix was always immaculate, perfectly put-together. If anyone had what seemed like a cleanliness obsession, it was this man — he should have been grimacing.
“Don’t come closer. I smell.”
“Yes. You smell like dirt.”
Calix didn’t stop. He walked right up until he was standing directly in front of Elian’s face. Then he slipped cold fingers beneath Elian’s chin — dusted with dried cement — and tipped it upward.
Elian had always looked somewhat pale and slight despite his decent build. But right now, his cheeks were flushed a deep rose from running, and his chest rose and fell in hard, rapid pulls — radiating a raw, burning vitality. The hair clinging to his nape, damp with sweat, and the rivulet of sweat tracing down between the strands was, inexplicably… arresting.
The scorching heat itself — the kind Calix had never been able to feel in his own life.
“But warm. And I like it.”
“…Pardon?”
“I need to recharge right now, and I don’t have the patience to wait for you to wash up.”
Calix’s crimson eyes gleamed dangerously. He brought his hand up to the buttons of Elian’s dirty work clothes.
“So I’ll wash you myself.”
“S-sir? What are you—”
“Come. To the bathroom.”
Calix snatched Elian’s stunned, frozen wrist and led him through to the private bathroom connected to the inner office. There was no room to resist. Arguing that bathing together wasn’t in the thirty-minute standby contract would have been pointless — Calix’s momentum was utterly relentless.
The bathroom door closed. Moments later, the sound of rushing water followed.
The strange bath time of a lord fresh off a construction site and a Grand Duke with a cleanliness obsession was just beginning.
