102.
‘He wasn’t originally this kind of person.’
It seems that trying to make him easier to manipulate was a mistake. Where did it go wrong? Grey traced his memories back to when it all began.
Grey’s master, Aksen, had a bad relationship with Rector, who was Keith’s master.
“How could I lose to that fool who only knows swordsmanship!”
So Grey also wanted to infiltrate the capital like Keith.
“Rector’s disciple is stupid. He can’t even complete his missions properly because he’s busy protecting someone with no real benefit. So you should be able to do much better.”
As his master said, Grey caught a more useful person than Keith. That was Lyunne, the beloved youngest daughter of the Duke’s family. She was intelligent and talented, but her ambition and dissatisfaction were just as great, so it didn’t take long to win her over.
Lyunne resented her older brother for becoming the heir just because he was the firstborn, and she wanted to grasp power for herself. That’s why she joined hands with Grey even while suspecting his true identity.
Once he succeeded in attaching himself to her, the rest wasn’t difficult. Brainwashing wasn’t done with drugs alone. Grey broke down Lyunne’s defenses and became her most influential advisor.
‘I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.’
This operation was a failure. The eyes they had placed in Lucid were being eliminated one by one. They would soon attach trackers to this side. Lucid’s shadows were relentless, and if he wasn’t careful, Grey’s life would be in danger.
It was time to withdraw. He would be punished when he returned to headquarters, but his master would at least prevent his death. So now he had to wrap everything up.
With that thought, Grey changed his cold expression to a gentle one.
“That’s a wise decision.”
“Then you’ll help me?”
“Of course. I’ll try to find some people.”
It wouldn’t be easy, but he needed to gather enough people to make it look convincing. In the past, mercenaries from outside would move easily if given money, but lately, they were being cautious. In the past, Lucid’s first wife had tried to have them kill Yu Jin, but she failed. In that situation, when the first wife was exiled and Yu Jin became the heir, Lucid punished the mercenaries and those involved.
Many died, and even the survivors couldn’t live normal lives. After that, they stopped accepting requests related to nobles. The mercenaries wouldn’t move until Lucid’s anger subsided and safety was assured. But it wasn’t feasible to move Leviathan’s people either. They were far too valuable compared to mercenaries.
‘Then there’s only the vagrants left.’
Although the back alleys had been mostly cleaned up, there were still those who held grudges, clinging to past glories. And he had heard that one of them was looking for a sponsor to support him. Usually, Keith would have controlled and dealt with this, but he couldn’t do so now. After all, the person he cared about so deeply was said to be dead.
‘Even if he doesn’t fully believe in that death, he still can’t move easily if it’s even a fake death.’
Grey decided to gather vagrants and thugs from the back alleys. This would drastically lower the success rate of the plan, but what did it matter? He would soon be leaving the capital anyway.
Yu Jin opened his bleary eyes and thought,
‘It’s been a long time since I slept so soundly.’
He had worried about having nightmares, but nothing of the sort happened. His body, which had fallen asleep and woken up without dreaming, felt refreshed as if it had forgotten all fatigue. But Yu Jin didn’t get up immediately, instead nuzzling his face against Jinhyeon’s chest, which was holding him tightly. After confirming that all of this wasn’t a dream, he smiled brightly.
“I like you.”
In his excited state, he blurted out the words he had been holding in his heart all this time.
“I really like you.”
As he confessed his feelings several times, he suddenly heard a small laugh from above. Surprised, he looked up to see Jinhyeon watching him with open eyes.
“I knew it.”
At those casually thrown words, Yu Jin’s face turned bright red. Jinhyeon hugged Yu Jin and spoke again.
“You like me.”
“…You like me more.”
“That’s true too.”
Jinhyeon readily agreed and continued.
“So now we like each other, right?”
“I guess so?”
“Then can I now hear the story you’ve been hiding?”
Yu Jin hesitated for a moment but didn’t refuse. Now that their feelings were mutual and they had developed trust in each other, he decided to gather his courage. Although he was afraid of how Jinhyeon would react, he couldn’t keep running away forever.
“Actually…”
Yu Jin slowly unfolded the story he had been hiding all this time. Jinhyeon listened to Yu Jin’s story with a serious expression. Even though it might sound like a delusion, he didn’t utter a single word of denial. Only after the story reached its end did he speak.
“So, I’m the protagonist of the novel?”
“That’s right.”
“An ambitious harem king, huh.”
Jinhyeon laughed hollowly as he said this.
“Is that why you couldn’t believe my feelings all this time?”
“…I suppose so?”
“That’s unfair.”
“You would have thought the same if you were in my situation.”
“I wouldn’t.”
Jinhyeon answered firmly. Yu Jin narrowed his eyes and looked at him, but his confident expression didn’t change. In the end, it was Yu Jin who raised his hands first. After all, that wasn’t really the important part.
“More importantly, are you okay with being a character from a novel?”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That this isn’t just a novel. I’ve heard before that some of the novels writers create are actually glimpses into other worlds that they write about without realizing it. If this were just a novel and had to progress exactly as written, there would have been some kind of force compelling it to do so. But there wasn’t, right?”
“Well, that’s true, but… The novel I saw had an ending.”
“That novel’s protagonist is a parallel world version of me.”
Parallel worlds. People’s futures often change due to small choices. Then where do the unchosen futures go? Perhaps there are countless worlds where other versions of us face different futures that we didn’t choose. It might sound peculiar, but it’s actually a common theme in fantasy novels.
Jinhyeon ruffled Yu Jin’s hair with his large hand.
“Ah! What are you doing?”
“Telling you not to worry about unnecessary things.”
“I won’t. I really won’t!”
Only after Yu Jin declared his surrender did Jinhyeon remove his hand. It was a surprisingly peaceful moment considering the huge secret that had just been revealed. At least until then.
Although Jinhyeon now knew the truth, Yu Jin still had to continue faking his death for a while. This was because the cleanup of Lucid’s elders wasn’t finished yet. For this reason, Yu Jin was staying in his room. Since he wasn’t the type to enjoy going out anyway, being confined didn’t make him feel stuffy. The problem arose elsewhere.
Unlike Yu Jin, Jinhyeon could go outside as long as he could hide his emotions. Thinking that Jinhyeon, being different from Yu Jin, might feel stifled if confined, Yu Jin had considered this as a consideration, but Jinhyeon shook his head.
“No, I want to stay here too.”
With that, he clung tightly to Yu Jin.
“I need to work, you know.”
“Go ahead.”
Jinhyeon said with a bright smile. However, for Yu Jin, trapped between Jinhyeon’s knees and tightly embraced, it was very uncomfortable. He tried suggesting that he could put a chair next to him for Jinhyeon to sit on, but it didn’t work. Jinhyeon would sit in the chair for a short while before quietly returning to Yu Jin.
“I feel anxious when we’re apart.”
People don’t usually describe being right next to each other as “apart.” But understanding Jinhyeon’s anxiety, Yu Jin compromised by having him sit next to him and hold hands. After all, Yu Jin was right-handed, so it was okay to give his left hand to Jinhyeon. Or so he thought. At first, Jinhyeon quietly held his hand, but that didn’t last long.
Soon, Jinhyeon started fiddling with Yu Jin’s hand, kissing the back of it and gently nibbling on his fingernails. Then he began licking the soft, white skin. This was no longer something that could be described as simply holding hands.
‘This is foreplay!’
During the time they were apart, Yu Jin had never touched himself down there. He hadn’t felt the urge to. But at this moment, his tightly sealed libido was starting to seep through the cracks.
‘No. Don’t get excited now.’
Remember how busy Haruna and Keith were, working to fake your death. Don’t forget the mountain of documents that need to be processed right away. Yu Jin tried to calm his excitement by reading complex sentences, but his hand gripping the pen grew tighter.
Jinhyeon’s broad and firm chest, his large palms, his thighs like a horse’s that fixed Yu Jin in place, his large, hard, and fiery hot dick- as all these thoughts came to mind, Yu Jin banged his head on the desk.
Thunk!
Begone, lustful demon!
