#44
“But it’s really a misunderstanding. I’m treating my body preciously enough……”
Ersen’s voice was urgent in comparison. His words ended with a slight rise, and his pupils moved here and there.
“Really?”
Treating Theodore’s voice muttering that even a dog wouldn’t believe it as background noise, Skyle tilted his head slightly.
The angle of his head tilt was gentle, and his jawline created natural shadows under the light falling from the window.
The Prince spoke with his body trembling even while pale with shock.
As if feeling wronged, or like a child trying to make excuses for something. Denying something with his whole body, he gripped the sheets with both hands while his eyebrows twisted.
“Of course. The contract will be kept, so don’t worry.”
His nodding motion as he spoke was slightly disheveled.
“Your Highness……”
Skyle spoke in a voice mixed with sighs, as if calling his name briefly.
“Our Archduke…… To think you’d be so fragile……”
At Ersen’s next words, the air in the room stiffened for a moment.
Though he couldn’t help but hesitate at the following words.
Skyle’s fingertips stopped for a moment, and his facial expression hardened firmly.
A sound of suppressed laughter could be heard from Theodore’s direction, who had suddenly become quiet, but Skyle lightly ignored it.
Theodore’s shoulders trembled very slightly as he tried to hide the breathing sound leaking from his nose.
Prince Ersen the Second looked worriedly at the hardened Skyle with a troubled expression, then spoke while artificially crafting an affectionate voice.
It was a tone created by forcing up the corners of his mouth and softly shaping his gaze. The deliberately feigned affectionate tone of speech, a tempo that spoke one syllable slower than usual.
“That aside, how was the young lady’s reaction?”
As he spoke, he slowly turned his pupils to look directly at Skyle.
“……As soon as her surprise subsided, she managed the atmosphere in the venue.”
Skyle didn’t react immediately, lowered his gaze for a moment, then quietly answered again.
Her attitude was as if it had nothing to do with her, so Skyle had almost suspected the half-demons who had just entered.
She was organizing her surroundings without being shaken in the slightest in the middle of the banquet hall, and her usual polite smile was floating on her lips without fail.
But given the circumstances, the fact that at such a coincidental timing, in that exact glass, it was the rare Logi poison and no other poison……
That could hardly be seen as coincidence.
‘Though it’s the kind of behavior half-demons would do, even they would need time for such magic.’
Skyle narrowed his eyes and looked out the window. The reflection of light remained faintly on the glass window, and within it, Skyle’s pupils wavered briefly.
They weren’t hasty enough to cause trouble in front of everyone at the ball.
Rather, since they preferred meticulous and secretive methods, there was little reason for them to attempt something in the middle of the banquet hall.
Skyle was now certain that Lady Marsien used black magic.
“Hmm. As expected.”
Skyle muttered as if to himself while narrowing his eyes. He let out a long breath toward the back of his neck and leaned back slightly. His tilted shoulder line spoke of a brief rest.
“……As expected, did you know?”
“What?”
Ersen answered while slowly lying back down.
The back of his head touched the pillow by his bedside, and he slowly closed his eyes then opened them. After touching his forehead once with the back of his hand, he rolled his fingers gripping the blanket a bit deeper.
Theodore watched quietly then asked.
A few seconds of quiet gaze continued before he spoke. Without withdrawing his gaze, he leaned his body very slightly forward and asked.
“That Lady Marsien learned black magic.”
A resonance lingered in the air. The straightforward tone, and the weighty silence remaining at the end of his words.
“Mm…… I was only guessing.”
Ersen answered while letting out a short breath. His pupils were fixed on one wall, and his voice stretched out slowly.
A lie.
For a moment, the air in the room trembled very slightly. There was a brief exchange of glances, and though no one pointed it out openly, it was all too obvious.
The two people watching inwardly shook their heads at his reply made with his usual cryptic smile.
His expression was familiar, and that characteristic laugh with slightly raised corners of his mouth was too natural to cover a lie.
“And about the treasure you mentioned earlier…… I’ll tell you when I need help, hyung.”
Ersen’s words were laid out low. Though he didn’t close his eyes, his words didn’t continue further.
“Tsk.”
Theodore clicked his tongue briefly. It seemed like an irritated reaction, but he didn’t go further with words.
“Oh, you’re not saying anything about me calling you hyung.”
Ersen spoke playfully while slightly raising his eyes. Though his tone was light, his words were getting smaller and smaller.
At his voice that seemed teasing but gradually became smaller, Theodore let out an incredulous laugh.
A laugh as if catching his breath. Only the corners of his mouth moved very briefly, and he turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes.
Really, what a loose mouth…….
Swallowing his thoughts inwardly, Theodore shook his head briefly.
“I’ll speak properly when you have the strength to understand words.”
His voice became lower, and within it was an implicit conclusion that he wouldn’t add more.
“What? Are you telling me to call you Your Highness? Really.”
Ersen muttered while pulling the blanket up to his chin again. His fingertips rolled up the blanket fabric as if pinching it slightly.
“And if you treat your body like that one more time, I’ll confine you.”
It was a short and firm declaration. There was no hesitation at the end of his words.
“That would be…… a contract violation……”
Ersen answered while turning his body halfway and burying his face slightly in the blanket. Though his tone was loose, there was a subtle energy remaining inside.
“Please sleep,” Skyle said quietly.
As he spoke, he unfolded the handkerchief in his hand again.
Skyle wiped the cold sweat on Ersen’s forehead once more. Then he muttered quietly.
He lightly pressed the cloth with his fingertips and slowly moved along the forehead line. His hand movements were steady and careful, as if gauging the heat of his forehead.
“You’re a strange person, really.”
Though his words were small like a soliloquy, they were loud enough to be heard in the room.
Theodore showed no reaction to those words.
He didn’t move his pupils, nor did he change his posture. Only the words that had been flowing at the tip of his lips stopped.
With Skyle’s words as the end, Prince Ersen’s breathing became slow.
His inhalation and exhalation gradually lengthened, and his diaphragm began to move evenly. His eyelids lowered, and his eyelashes were motionless.
Had he fallen asleep? He unconsciously let out a small sigh.
A very small and quiet breath. It was both a kind of liberation and an arrangement of half-covered tension.
A moment later.
When he turned his gaze from Ersen to look at Theodore, the peaceful energy that had been faintly dwelling in Skyle’s gaze had disappeared.
His eyes returned to expressionlessness, and the soft curves that had remained on his face also disappeared.
“Theo. There’s one thing I need to say. It seems the Second Prince’s body is unusual.”
Though his words were low, they were filled with conviction.
Theodore’s eyebrows raised slightly.
* * *
Skyle calmly reflected on what he had experienced earlier.
The motion of retracing his memory was done wordlessly, expressionlessly. He slowly leaned his back against the backrest and turned his head very slowly. The lighting in the room was adjusted low, and the curtains were half-drawn, blocking external light. In the silence, the moments he was recalling came back to life with solid outlines.
Behind the curtain, in the space where servants came and went, Ersen was quietly catching his breath.
That space was structured to connect with the corridor, and though external gazes couldn’t reach it, it was a passage used by royal security and support staff. A strand of light seeped through the gap between the closed curtains, and he was inside there.
His forehead wet with cold sweat, his trembling fingertips……
That scene remained impressively. His fingertips were gradually turning blue as if he were someone whose body temperature had disappeared, and the sweat beaded on his forehead was so damp it was dripping down his jaw. His lips were pale white, and his breathing was shallow and uneven.
‘And I definitely wasn’t conscious of anyone else besides him.’
The thought was definitive. Within his field of vision, there was only one person. As someone who had to control the situation, nothing else entered his senses at that moment.
Even if it was just for a single moment.
That moment of concentration was still gripping his mind. Skyle lightly rubbed his chin and slowly lowered his gaze.
Only after some time had passed since Ersen had completely left his hands and begun dancing with Theodore did he belatedly realize that he had been swept up in a wave of unfamiliar emotions.
At first, it was a hazy sensation. An off-kilter flow felt over his shoulder, or from outside his field of vision. But from the moment he completely withdrew his hands from Ersen, the emotion began to take concrete shape.
It wasn’t compassion, nor was it anger toward the child of a demon.
It wasn’t a familiar emotion. Rather, something unrefined was rising from a completely different direction.
An incomprehensible attraction.
His unconscious reacted first. Reason followed belatedly, and only an inexplicable impulse remained in his heart.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
