#113
“No, what’s so funny about this?”
“Well, honestly, it’s enjoyable.”
“What?”
Jin-ha, flustered, grabbed Riyekan’s cheeks and kissed the corners of his eyes as he spoke.
“That you’re anxious about our relationship. I thought I was the only one feeling that way. You’re such an incredibly insincere person.”
“That’s nonsense… uh, um…”
Riyekan started to raise his voice but ended up moaning. He was torn between wanting to be angry and feeling good from the kisses on the corners of his eyes. After Jin-ha kissed him a few more times and then kissed the tip of his nose, Riyekan spoke sulkily as he pulled away.
“Anyway, don’t meet the Queen alone. If the Queen calls you, make sure to take me with you.”
Jin-ha, who thought Riyekan had a jealous streak, hesitated for a moment before nodding. He didn’t want to provoke him after finally calming him down.
“And instead of these teasing things, give me a real kiss now.”
Jin-ha gently pushed away Riyekan’s face as he tried to sneak a kiss. Then, he started unbuttoning Riyekan’s shirt buttons while protesting with his eyebrows.
Riyekan asked in a bewildered tone.
“What are you doing now?”
“Checking.”
“Your… body?”
This stubborn man wouldn’t rush into it before nighttime. Riyekan’s thoughts were clear, wondering what Jin-ha was up to. Of course, Jin-ha wasn’t trying to undress Riyekan to have his way with him.
“You said that if I come back injured, you wouldn’t kiss me until the wounds heal, right? First, I need to check if you’re injured or not.”
At those words, Riyekan sighed in relief internally. Earlier, the other wizards were surprised when they saw him, so it was fortunate that he had washed his face and cleaned the front of his shirt. It was an action he took just in case Jin-ha would be surprised, but thanks to that, he could kiss now.
Come to think of it, he said he was feeling lonely. Somehow, he returned before a full day had passed, but he must have felt a little lonely. Surely, he wouldn’t deny feeling lonely after just one day.
While Riyekan was thinking such thoughts, Jin-ha, who had unbuttoned his shirt and was examining his upper body for wounds, suddenly asked in a sharp tone as he was about to remove the sleeves.
“What is this?”
“Huh?”
Jin-ha pointed to a small bloodstain on the left sleeve.
“This is blood, isn’t it?”
“That… it’s not my blood.”
“Liar.”
He had already checked with the Information Eye, and he was brazenly lying. Jin-ha took off his shirt and examined his arm.
“Where are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt.”
“If you keep lying, I won’t let you touch me until we return to the tower.”
Only after Jin-ha threatened him did Riyekan reluctantly confess the truth.
“I just coughed up a bit of blood from using magic roughly.”
“Coughing up blood? From using magic roughly?”
“It’s really nothing.”
“How can it be nothing if you’re coughing up blood?”
Riyekan was a wizard with such immense magical power that he could calm a storm. And such a person coughed up blood from using magic roughly?
It must have been a terribly dangerous battle. Now that he thought about it, he had only been gone for half a day, and his return was strange. When he went to deal with the unicorn whales, it took several days… Even though there were dozens of unicorn whales and only one sea serpent, it was strange.
Jin-ha suppressed the complex emotions that were flooding in and spoke in a low voice.
“Bennis will have a cure. Wait here.”
“Let’s go together.”
“How can a patient go anywhere? Just lie down in bed.”
“I don’t want to be alone, okay?”
Riyekan clung to Jin-ha, who was trying to push past him, and whined like a child. Usually, Jin-ha would give in to his requests at this point. But contrary to Riyekan’s expectations, Jin-ha firmly pushed him away as he tried to go out with her.
“Stay put and wait quietly when I’m telling you nicely.”
At the soft warning, Riyekan unconsciously took a step back obediently. Jin-ha glared at him once more and then swiftly left the room.
“Jin-ha…”
Muttering as he looked at the closed door, Riyekan rolled his eyes in bewilderment and quietly moved to the bed. Only when he lay down in bed as Jin-ha had told him earlier did he feel at ease.
Just now, it was a little scary.
Even when they first met, even when he forcefully invited him to this side with an unreasonable invitation, he didn’t have such a scary expression. He kept his distance and was wary, but he wasn’t this cold and indifferent.
Riyekan looked at the door with an anxious gaze. It seemed that the kiss and sex with Jin-ha, who was feeling lonely, were out of the question.
—
He was angry.
Riyekan, who had said it would take several days, returned in just a few hours, and coughed up blood from using magic roughly. There was no way these two facts were unrelated. Somehow, Riyekan must have noticed that Jin-ha had met the Queen and worried, so he overdid it and killed the sea serpent and returned.
If he had taken the time to kill the monster’s health and aimed for its weakness, he could have killed it without getting hurt.
Despite wanting to obtain a strong artifact for Riyekan, he ended up being the main culprit in hurting him. He had received a promise from the Fairy Queen that she wouldn’t harm him, so he thought it would be okay, but he was really stupid and irresponsible. Riyekan had seriously told him to be careful of the fairies. He should have known that he would naturally worry.
Jin-ha, who had come downstairs with his mouth tightly shut in self-reproach, faced the wizards who were restlessly guarding the parlor.
“Jin-ha!”
“Bennis, do you have any medicine among the things you brought?”
At Jin-ha’s question, Bennis nodded briskly.
“Yes, what kind of medicine do you need?”
“He coughed up blood from using magic roughly… No, it would be better for you to go up and listen to the story directly.”
“No!”
Bennis reflexively refused and answered, avoiding eye contact.
“Well, even without that, I can guess what the symptoms are. The Master sometimes handles raw magic without using spells. If you pour out more magic than the limit, your insides get terribly damaged. The medicine needed at that time is… Wait a moment!”
As he hurriedly ran off and disappeared somewhere, only the wizards who hadn’t had a proper conversation remained in the parlor. They awkwardly glanced at each other and then bowed their heads to Jin-ha.
“Hello, Jin-ha.”
“Hello.”
Jin-ha politely greeted them back and then asked a question that suddenly came to mind.
“Hasn’t Legas returned yet?”
“Yes, yes. Legas seems to still be at sea…”
Could the fight not be over yet? No, it didn’t seem so. Riyekan was a person who cherished Legas, no matter how he appeared. He wouldn’t leave Legas alone to continue a tough fight and return.
Thinking back to when the fight with the unicorn whales ended, and the other wizards took a long time to gather the by-products…
“I think I should go help Legas… No, this would be overstepping my bounds. I’m sorry. I’ll go ask Riyekan.”
“No need! We were planning to go see him anyway.”
All three wizards didn’t seem to be particularly prepared to go anywhere, which was strange. Jin-ha looked up at the wizards who were hurriedly leaving the parlor, wondering if they had heard the fighting sounds.
“I brought it, Jin-ha! Take this, and you’ll be fine.”
Just then, Bennis returned. Jin-ha stared intently at Bennis’s smiling face. His smiling face gradually became awkward and then turned into a crying expression.
“…Jin-ha…”
“…?”
“That… um…”
“Did you hear it by any chance?”
“Well… what do you mean… yes, I heard it…”
Bennis’s attempt at a brave lie failed in less than 3 seconds.
“It’s not that we tried to listen, but we followed out of concern…”
“Shouting in a place where everyone can hear, I was careless. Riyekan also has a dignity to maintain as a master…”
“Yes? There’s no problem with the Master’s dignity at all?”
“…Yes?”
“How can the great Master’s dignity be tarnished?”
“No… then why are you reacting like this?”
Jin-ha found it difficult to choose how to react to Bennis’s answer, which seemed half-brainwashed by Legas. He just ignored it and asked. Then Bennis answered with his eyes wide open.
“Well, since the Master shouted at you like that and you’re still fine, it must be true that the two of you are really dating.”
“What do you mean…”
“You know Yang has a terrible personality, right? There was a time when Yang ran away because the Master hugged him all day and slept. Well, it was still within the tower. Anyway, after that, Yang was punished by fasting for two days.”
“Two whole days?”
“The Master doesn’t just treat anyone well because they’re his obsession. If Yang had done that, he would have fasted for a few more days.”
It meant that others could see that Jin-ha had reached a completely different position from Yang. Jin-ha found it absurd that the wizards, who had shown no reaction even when they had spent days and nights together, were now afraid.
“Since you told Jin-ha to lie down, and you’re not angry and not using magic and being quiet, it seems like you really lay down. It seems the Master really loves Jin-ha.”
“No, why would that be a reason to fear and run away?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
