Beni urgently felt the top of his head, but his ears hadn’t come out. That was fortunate.
It was a corner even among places with the kitchen side door. Since it wasn’t a place anyone would come to at night rather than during the day, that’s why he’d been taking off his clothes!
When Beni, whose eyes grew as if they’d pop out, looked that way, a tall height that seemed to tower came into view.
“D-Demon King-nim……?”
It was Ruan. At this time, he was usually in his bedroom. Because whenever he’d gone as a rabbit and knocked on the door with his hind feet, he’d immediately opened it. Since such a Demon King was in front of him, Beni didn’t know what to do in his confusion. In the meantime, Ruan’s eyelids trembled, then he looked at Beni, then looked at empty air again, his pupils in chaos.
Pale moonlight brushed Beni’s skin. At the milky-white pale skin, Ruan’s mouth dried up and he rolled his tongue for no reason. He’d only come because Beni’s presence came from somewhere secluded other than in front of the bedroom door…… He never dreamed such a scene would unfold. He swore to the Evil God, he truly didn’t expect it.
“Well…… why don’t you put on your clothes first.”
“Huk, ah, I’m sorry!”
Beni, flushed red all the way to his upper body, flinched his shoulders like a startled rabbit. He hurriedly grabbed his clothes, but Ruan’s gaze was fixed on each and every such movement. The curve of his side that folded thinly when he bent down, the outline of his chest that swelled and sank following the breath he let out rapidly in embarrassment.
The frame that looked more fragile than expected made him feel both pitiful and strangely peculiar. Ruan, unable to find his bearings between compassion and nervousness, just crossed his arms and firmly gripped his forearms.
For a moment the recording orb came to mind, but Ruan firmly denied it. No matter how much he liked someone, there were lines that had to be kept. Though he had collected rolling fur, collected leftover grass roots, bought dozens of rabbit drawings secretly spied on and drawn by servants and attendants, and countless times recorded the rabbit hopping around in his bedroom every night.
Haah, even though it wasn’t the first time seeing someone else’s naked body, his whole body heated up. As he kept looking at Beni, he felt like he was barely holding onto the end of his patience.
Ruan eventually turned his body around sharply and showed his back. Wondering if he’d stared too blatantly, he became conscious of Beni’s reaction.
Rustle, rustle sounds continued, then he felt a presence behind him. In Beni’s two eyes looking up at the Demon King’s broad back, fear was tinged. The Demon King’s bright red eyes looking at him had been so fierce that he didn’t know how many times he’d fumbled while putting on his clothes.
He must be angry, right? That must be it. It was already a problem that a servant was suddenly in the main palace in the middle of the night, but he was even undressing, so how suspicious must it look? Beni blamed himself for not hiding more in the corner to undress and firmly shut his lips. The Demon King had thought he was needed for once, but now that he’d shown such an appearance, he might think he was useless.
“Um…… Demon King-nim……”
Only after Beni gathered courage and called him did Ruan turn around. While his back had been turned, the Demon King’s darkly reddish skin had subsided to its usual color.
“What were you doing in a place like this, Beni?”
His voice came out particularly low and stern. He’s angry after all. Beni hung his head deeply and shouted in a voice blocked with tension.
“I-I’m sorry……! I won’t wander around in the middle of the night again…… Just please don’t expel me from the castle, I’m really sorry……”
When Beni seemed ready to even kneel, Ruan hurriedly cupped his cheeks with both hands and lifted them. In the two eyes full of fear, Ruan’s face was tinged with bewilderment. Though he didn’t know exactly what part Beni was so scared of right now, it was definitely his own fault no matter what.
“It’s not like that, Beni. You can wander around at night whenever you want to.”
The coolly sunken tone disappeared without a trace, and instead only a voice permeated with soft warmth remained. The Demon King’s gaze sweeping over his face contained not something to catch fault, but anxiety trying to read even his smallest reactions.
Even Beni, who lacked perception, could sufficiently realize that Ruan wasn’t angry at him. The shoulder muscles that had stiffened for fear of being expelled from the castle and being hated by the Demon King loosened.
“……Really?”
“Yeah, really. I asked what you were doing without any other intention.”
Beni rolled his two eyes before answering.
“I was just…… going to take a walk……!”
It was an unavoidable lie since he couldn’t say he was a rabbit. Though he didn’t want to deceive Ruan, just this once it was force majeure. The Demon King’s eyes narrowed slightly, but it wasn’t an unpleasant look.
“With your clothes off?”
“Ah! That’s, I mean, because I was moving…… I got hot……”
It was a shoddy excuse even to his own ears. It wasn’t even summer, and lately thin frost had even occasionally been falling in the early morning. While Beni turned his small head wondering what more to say, Ruan let out a hmm sound and gently bent his waist.
So Beni wouldn’t be too startled, Ruan stopped at an appropriate distance and said with a mischievous face,
“I didn’t know my servant had a hobby of taking off clothes outdoors.”
“Such a hobby……!”
“Next time, tell me before you take them off so I can join you, Beni.”
Hot breath slowly brushed past his cheek. When the Demon King’s long fingers cupping his face moved as if tickling behind his ears, subtle goosebumps spread. The Demon King filling his vision wore a strange smile, then moved away.
When the palms touching his cheeks fell away, cold air blew in. Beni somehow felt his insides tightening and firmly gripped his pants hem. It clearly seemed to be a sentence with sexual teasing similar to Trellou’s, but what Ruan did didn’t feel bad at all.
Was it because he knew he wouldn’t really do that?
“If you’re still planning to walk more, won’t you do it with me?”
“Are you taking a walk too, Demon King-nim?”
Without returning to the bedroom? Didn’t he want to see the rabbit today? There were many things he wanted to ask, but since he was hiding a lot from him, there wasn’t much he could say.
“Tonight somehow feels like a night for a walk. If you don’t want to, you can go in, Beni. Do as you wish.”
Was Ruan this kind to everyone in the Demon King’s Castle? For that to be the case, there were many people around him right now who feared the Demon King. The current Demon King of cruel nature who killed his father, him who was kind and asked his opinion even though he was just a servant. Which one was the real Ruan?
Beni still didn’t know exactly what kind of demon Ruan was, but he decided to believe what he felt.
After contemplating for a moment, Beni nodded.
Since he’d originally come to see the Demon King today anyway, there was no major disruption to his plan. He just felt a bit regretful at the reaction that seemed the Demon King was fine even without seeing the rabbit.
“I’d like to walk with you too, if it’s okay with Demon King-nim.”
Instead of answering, Ruan smiled and nodded. Understanding it meant to come to his side, Beni immediately stood side by side next to him. Beni didn’t know that the spot beside the Demon King was only allowed to his mate.
The two people left the secluded side door and walked along the promenade where streetlamps shining with mana stones were erected here and there. The conversation with the Demon King flowed without awkwardness, and before he knew it, Beni was even saying small complaints that weren’t complaints, like how the main palace and his dormitory were quite far apart.
No matter how many layers of clothes he wore, he couldn’t prevent his hands and feet from growing cold. Beni’s body originally accumulated coldness easily. He pulled down his sleeves to cover his hands as much as possible, then took note of the Demon King’s outfit. Now that he looked, Ruan’s attire was much lighter than his own. It was just a thin silk shirt with a robe without a hood draped over it.
“Aren’t you cold, Demon King-nim? Your clothes are too thin.”
It was completely opposite from himself, who was even wearing fur clothes.
“The Demon King Race has a lot of body heat, so we generally don’t feel cold easily.”
“Wow, I’m envious. I feel cold very easily. There are times when I’m cold even in midsummer.”
When Beni rubbed his reddened hands together, Ruan suddenly slightly lifted the front of his robe. At his solid ribcage that was briefly revealed, his shirt seemed ready to burst.
“Here, it’s really warm.”
Beni had difficulty grasping what his sudden action meant. Could it be he was telling him to put his hands inside? To touch the Demon King’s body? He must have misunderstood, but besides that, he couldn’t think of what other reason he’d have for doing this.
It was the moment when Beni hesitated, then was sneakily reaching out his hand.
“His Majesty the Demon King!”
A loud shout was heard from behind.
