In truth, Evernight was also unable to find a way out of the current predicament.
He deliberately didn’t add an explanation with his own mouth, like ‘I’m feeling sexual desire for you to a fucking degree right now, so get lost while I’m asking nicely.’ It wasn’t out of consideration for whether Anya would be hurt. It was because the moment he confessed it himself, he felt like he would truly lose his reason.
The monster’s curse sometimes became more intense and toxic the moment you blabbed about it out loud and made it concrete.
“Even if you di-dislike me… it’s-it’s useless. First, the wo-wound….”
Evernight felt faint anger and irritation. He was utterly sick of troublesome burdens that required responsibility.
Evernight wanted to disappear suddenly, though he didn’t know when that would be. That was his only wish in his entire life.
“Hah….”
Evernight exhaled hot breath. As the pain gradually faded, that damn scent came rushing in again.
“You… can do anything for me?”
The affectionate brown eyes with rounded ends looked up at Evernight earnestly, and his head moved up and down slightly. As if he knew what he was saying…….
That naive greenhorn was only worried about Evernight’s wellbeing. It showed so much that it was evident throughout his whole body. It wasn’t a particularly bad feeling, so he found himself quite ridiculous. The timing was definitely not good. Moonlight seeped softly into the cave, but it was absolutely not a romantic atmosphere.
“How far… is possible?”
Rather, it was the opposite. It was a very dangerous and precarious flow of air. Evernight’s eyes, which occasionally turned red, clearly threw a warning to Anya. But somehow his tone became a little gentler and his gaze became only more persistent.
It was an impulsive remark. Nevertheless, with just this one sentence, Anya made a moved face as if his drooping ears had perked up.
‘He’s definitely still a child.’
What does he think I’ll ask, to be so welcoming? Evernight felt strong disgust toward himself for feeling dirty and sordid desire for such a brat, but that was only for a moment. He barely lowered the hand he had stretched out onto his knee. Strength entered his grip with a crack.
‘Pull yourself together.’
When he banged his head hard against the cold rock wall once more, Anya rushed over in horror.
“E-Evernight-kyung!”
“Anya. Honestly, I’m at my limit right now. So let’s stop here.”
Evernight pushed Anya away weakly, but the boy insisted on staying by his side, not caring.
“Th-that’s why you should receive treatment. We-we have to endure until Riario-kyung and Karen-kyung can fi-find us.”
Evernight inhaled the scent wafting from his chest with a hazy mind, then pushed Anya away once more at his lower body that was becoming stiff. Anya immediately showed a disappointed expression like a whimpering puppy.
“How can I just wa-watch someone who was injured be-because of me? Ra-rather, being stuck over there is more-more of an ordeal. Just looking at you is pa-painful….”
Anya said so and dabbed and wiped Evernight’s forehead with his sleeve. It was an action he wouldn’t dare do normally. Anya was desperately trying to protect him.
“If-if kyung dies, I….”
A future he dared not even imagine…. Moisture welled up in his almond-shaped eyes with drooping ends as if they would fall at any moment, but they never fell.
Evernight laughed faintly with ridicule.
“You… I told you not to harbor cheap sympathy carelessly, right? Who’s worrying about whom right now. Fuck.”
He was now almost at the point of desperation. There was nothing he could do when he was begging to be killed like that. Originally, enduring this far was consideration for that greenhorn, if it could be called consideration.
Evernight looked at his own blood dripping down his fingers and spoke. A mad sexual desire arose. He wanted to destroy the boy from head to toe.
His rough voice spread through the cave as if whispering a hidden secret.
“That monster, it smelled me on you.”
He could see Anya’s body trembling finely, but Evernight didn’t care.
“The dead ones are inevitably drawn to my blood. That’s why you became a target. Of course, the fact that you fell for that monster’s temptation means you’re incompetent all the same… do you still pity me?”
Anya shook his head roughly.
“…It’s-it’s not pity. Kyung is the lord of Til-Tildyen… and al-also, you saved me and that’s how it happened….”
“Right. Useless sympathy. If you hadn’t lived with me, that monster wouldn’t have laid a hand on you… acting kind, fuck.”
Evernight placed his finger on the brow furrowed with worry about himself and let out a hollow laugh. Blood flowing from the wound on his forearm left a red mark on Anya’s forehead.
“I-I’m not ac-acting kind. Re-really.”
Anya looked up at him while kneeling obediently. The corners of Evernight’s eyes trembled finely.
“Then everything you just said… can you handle the price?”
The two people’s gazes intertwined hotly in the cold of midnight.
“…Yes. Anything.”
Anya’s voice was filled with determination, as if firmly armed with resolve to sacrifice even his life.
He flicked his finger. It meant to come closer. Anya approached Evernight as if bewitched by a monster’s temptation, but shuddering briefly at the ominous energy.
Before getting close, Evernight reached out and grabbed Anya’s collar, pulling him down. Before he could even think “oh no,” Anya fell into his arms. Grabbing the waist of the struggling Anya, Evernight sat him on his lap.
“You said… you’d do anything for me?”
His voice echoing lowly in the cave was like Tildyen’s thick dawn fog. Anya nodded his head small but clearly. At that moment, Evernight imagined those finely trembling innocent eyes crumbling beneath him. It was an intense hallucination he absolutely couldn’t refuse.
“This fucking curse….”
Evernight wrapped his arm around Anya’s waist and pulled him close so that their chests touched very closely. And he whispered in Anya’s ear and laughed softly. It was sweet and gentle like the temptation of an evil spirit.
“…Perhaps you might be able to break it.”
“Ho-how? Wha-what should I do?”
Those worried eyes contained only himself. Evernight finally buried his nose in the white, slender nape. Intense impulse and desire tickled his stomach and heated Evernight’s body hotly. His companion definitely still had that fucking innocence as if he hadn’t experienced a single harsh thing in the world yet.
“…Last chance. Can you guarantee those words?”
Evernight let out a small laugh at Anya, whose body had stiffened in surprise. It was the first time the man who was always only cold had smiled at Anya. Though it was a somewhat sticky smile rather than a bright one, he still smiled at Anya. It was the first time.
Anya tried to calm his heart that was beating madly while trapped in his arms. The veins on the forearm wrapped around Anya’s waist bulged.
“That monster was a person consumed by some strong desire before dying.”
Probably… either a bastard who starved to death, or a beggar-like bastard who went mad with lust but no one gave him a second glance.
Evernight swept Anya’s now long-grown hair to the side, tucking it behind his ear, and barely continued speaking. His blackened hand was trembling finely.
“……”
Anya sat obediently and pricked up his ears to Evernight’s husky voice. Evernight turned his face slightly to take in that sight. He continued speaking.
“So at the last moment of death, he sprinkled on me the curse of the strong obsession that consumed him, and died.”
Those horrifying words, intertwined with the sound of the campfire softly burning down, sounded at first like an ordinary story heard at a bedside.
“Why, why of all people did he put that curse on kyung….”
Anya wanted to say that the monster seemed to have used some trick on him too, that’s why his memories were cut off here and there, but he kept his mouth shut in the end. Now that was nothing but an excuse.
“Probably… that monster….”
‘Thought I was similar to him.’
Evernight looked down at the back of his hand. The black thread-like lines had already expanded their territory, spreading ominously past his forearm to his shoulder. That monster wasn’t a common ghoul. Among ghouls, there were occasionally those with intelligence. A few of those with strong obsessions right before death transformed that way.
“Tha-that mo-monster and kyung are similar? Tha-that’s absurd. Exactly in wha-what way….”
Evernight quietly looked into the affectionate brown eyes that widened roundly. Dozens of whispers flowed in on the wind from outside the cave, disturbing his mind.
[Foolish Andalr person. You want to end the cursed bloodline, yet you still want to live.]
That monster probably instinctively noticed some kind of resentment and obsession that he had suppressed his entire life.
Evernight’s finger touching Anya’s ear stroked the small earlobe once.
“You… also know that the curse was cast on me too. So I also want to endlessly eat something. Unless this is resolved, the fucking curse will dominate my entire body. Before that… if that bastard Riario discovers us, we’ll be fortunate, but.”
His eyes penetrated intensely as if containing only Anya in this world. Anya hurriedly got up and shouted.
“Th-then I’ll go ou-out and ge-get something to eat!”
Evernight pulled Anya’s wrist. Anya sat down as if thrown back into Evernight’s arms.
“Ev-even though it’s co-covered with snow, if I lo-look carefully….”
Anya kept trying to get up without giving up, fidgeting in his arms. Evernight’s body was very hot even in this midwinter.
“It’s not something like food, Anya.”
Evernight grabbed Anya’s chin and turned it. Anya faced Evernight while caught in his large hand. Evernight spoke through clenched teeth, word by word.
“It’s you.”
“……”
He laughed softly.
“Right now my instinct is crying out to eat you.”
“……”
“It’s crying out to shove it in recklessly between your legs.”
“……”
Anya was at a loss for words at the crude remark. He could feel strength entering his hand placed on his waist. As if barely enduring, he occasionally exhaled long breaths and clenched and unclenched his fist.
“The fortunate thing is that it’s not to the point of slaughter yet.”
It was an empty joke. It was the last chance he was giving Anya. Only then did he feel something heavy beneath his groin. Anya’s face instantly burned red like a ripe apple.
“So, what will you do?”
He swept up his bangs and impatiently chewed the flesh inside his lips.
“If-if we do that, can kyung ge-get better?”
“I won’t get better. I might be able to delay it for a while.”
“Th-that time… you’re ta-talking about the act from the fi-first night, right?”
“Right.”
Recalling that time was still a very painful thing even now that time had passed. But there was no way out. In the land beyond the Wall where no one came, the approaching misfortune was more terrifying than just foolishly enduring. If it was absolutely necessary to delay Evernight’s curse, then that much… yes, that much could be sufficiently handled. No, it had to be.
“…Once you start, you can’t turn back.”
The innocent face seemed to hesitate for a moment, but it didn’t last long.
“It’s-it’s okay!”
Anya shouted.
“…For kyung’s sake, I’ll-I’ll do anything.”
The moment he heard the submissive resolve to give everything despite trembling, Evernight had no choice but to fully take in those small lips.
