Lariette’s face was nothing but innocent as she commanded him to undress. Yet, slyness she could not hide rippled in her eyes.
Asrahan’s Adam’s apple bobbed clearly.
At his completely motionless figure, Lariette soon reached out and gently grasped the collar of his shirt.
“Shall I help you take it off?”
She whispered subtly, her eyes curving playfully.
Asrahan still wore his characteristically indifferent gaze, but the truth was otherwise. He felt his body burning up.
Taking his silence as consent, Lariette resolved to interpret it as agreement. Thus, without hesitation, she unfastened the topmost button of his fully buttoned shirt.
“Ugh….”
As the sensation of cold fingers brushed past his collarbone, Asrahan let out a small groan before he knew it.
Fortunately, Lariette didn’t seem to hear it, but he had heard it himself.
“I’ll… I’ll undress myself.”
He answered hastily and swatted her hand away. Lariette simply shrugged as if to say, ‘Go ahead, then.’
Frowning at his own embarrassment, Asrahan hesitantly began undoing the buttons of his shirt.
She sat on his bed, watching him undress. The moment he realized that, his hands kept twitching and trembling.
The sight of the handsome man clumsily unfastening his shirt with his long, smooth fingers was an incredibly pleasing one. Lariette barely restrained the corners of her lips from rising of their own accord.
Even the face he was trying to keep composed was disheveled, unlike usual, having just woken up. Seeing him like this rather than his always perfectly prepared self felt refreshing.
The black shirt gradually opened, revealing a body with distinct contours.
Despite the thick bandages wrapped tightly around him, large muscles revealed their presence as if showing off.
At the sight of his firm chest and clearly defined abdominal muscles, Lariette unknowingly gulped.
Having undone the last button, Asrahan looked at her with trembling eyes.
“Must I undo the bandages as well?”
“Th-that… it has to touch bare skin… but….”
She mumbled evasively. She couldn’t bring herself to demand he remove even those and stand half-naked before her.
For a moment, a subtle tension swirled between them. Their gazes met, and their lips moved, but no words came out.
“Hoo….”
Letting out a short sigh, Asrahan soon began unwrapping the bandages without hesitation. What was revealed was a body bruised in shades of red and blue.
His perfectly sculpted, muscular body was covered in all sorts of wounds. There were countless minor scratches, and especially below his left pectoral, near his heart, there was a blackened mark that looked torn to shreds.
His bruised body was clearly that of a dying man. Asrahan checked Lariette’s reaction with trembling pupils.
She showed little agitation despite the horrific sight. But that was only outwardly—inside, she was screaming at the top of her lungs in shock.
“Then let me examine you first.”
Feigning composure, Lariette reached toward his chest.
Her fingers made contact with his firmly protruding upper chest, and soon a white energy swept through his body.
The curse on his upper body was deeper than she had thought. Having checked his condition, she continued with a regretful expression.
“I think it will take some time to purify. There is too much curse to accept all at once….”
“Is that so.”
If the curse could be removed, he wouldn’t mind if it took years. Asrahan glanced intermittently at Lariette’s fingers as he thought.
Strangely, all his nerves kept focusing there.
“Shall we try once for now?”
Lariette quickly regained her energy and spread her hand with vigor. Then she placed it firmly on his firm chest.
Asrahan flinched and trembled, looking back and forth between his chest and her hand in disbelief. His ears felt as if they were burning hot.
Lariette had already closed her eyes to concentrate, so he couldn’t say anything.
Soon, her warm energy spread inside his body, and a ticklish sensation swam across his chest.
Unlike when she had purified his hand, it took quite a while. Asrahan clenched his fist tight and simply endured the moment.
The blue stains around his heart faded bit by bit, barely noticeable. Though the black mark remained, as his skin tone returned, vitality came back to him.
An eternity seemed to pass for Asrahan, and soon Lariette slowly withdrew her hand.
Cold sweat trickled down the back of her neck.
“Hoo… I still… need to do this… much more….”
“Mage. Are you alright?”
Lariette hung her head deeply, gasping out hot breaths.
The mana being devoured was far greater than she had anticipated. She had barely avoided being completely drained.
Her arm supporting her on the bed trembled. It felt like all strength had left her body. She tried her best to endure, but her arm was already beyond her control.
Eventually, as even the strength to support herself vanished, Lariette’s body collapsed forward in an instant.
Precisely, toward Asrahan.
“…!”
“Ugh….”
Asrahan caught her instinctively and deeply regretted his action. Lariette’s body and Asrahan’s half-naked form overlapped as if in an embrace.
“Ugh, I’m sorry.”
“Just a moment… I’ll lean on you just for a moment.” Lariette, barely maintaining consciousness, whispered in ragged breaths.
As the faint breath from her lips brushed his body, Asrahan froze like ice.
Thump, thump, thump….
His heart, whose very existence was usually doubtful, beat loudly.
She, resting her face on his chest, smiled faintly upon hearing his heartbeat.
“Actually, I treated the priest yesterday, so… hoo… I don’t have much mana left.”
“….”
“I became friends with that priest. I’ll regulate it well so it doesn’t interfere with your purification, so is it okay if I treat her sometimes?”
Lariette remained leaning against him, only lifting her gaze to look at him.
Perhaps struggling to stay conscious, her pink eyelashes kept lowering, veiling her clear eyes.
Asrahan, who had been maintaining a heavy silence, put slight strength into the hand holding her shoulder. Then he opened his firmly sealed lips.
“Do you… do this to her as well?”
“Hmm? What?”
Asrahan had been about to ask if she also made such physical contact when healing that priest. He hastily came to his senses and closed his mouth.
It was a question with no need to be asked. The priest was a woman, and even if she were a man, he had no reason to care. He couldn’t understand why he had even harbored such a doubt.
“…It’s nothing. Do as you wish, Mage.”
“Asrahan.”
Lariette slightly rubbed her head against Asrahan’s body and called his name. A languid gaze that looked about to close at any moment reached him.
“When are you going to date me?”
She smiled softly, her plump lips curving lightly.
For a moment, Asrahan felt as if lightning had struck his body. A faint tremor swept through his entire form.
Lariette, having left only those words, lost consciousness while leaning against his body. Confirming that, Asrahan slowly ran his hand down his face.
“I’m going mad….”
He was clearly thoroughly bewitched. Otherwise, he couldn’t understand this noisy heartbeat and his uncomfortably heated body.
Asrahan let out a deep sigh and slowly withdrew his lower body from her.
***
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
Lariette muttered, striking the pillow with her fern-like fist. The long pillow was covered in marks from being hit, as if it hadn’t been struck just once or twice.
The deeply dented pillow had already surrendered to her, but Lariette didn’t stop and threw another punch.
“I shouldn’t have pushed that hard!”
She lowered her head as if wailing and swallowed her rising tears.
What she regretted was her actions a few days ago, falling asleep leaning on Asrahan’s chest.
At the time, she had been busy praising herself for how perfectly she had fainted in his arms.
It was Asrahan who had caught her body, so it wasn’t forced harassment. It was a consensual touch.
But as a day passed, then two, then three, she realized it had been a complete delusion. Because she hadn’t been able to catch even a glimpse of him since then.
Asrahan had been avoiding Lariette.
Lariette had initially thought they weren’t meeting because he was too busy. Now she knew it wasn’t a coincidence. He was clearly running away from her.
Asrahan always ate breakfast or dinner with Lariette. It was to maintain the clause in their contract about eating together once a day.
But unlike before, when they had eaten proper meals, after the incident he would often drink just a cup of coffee for breakfast, claim he was done with his portion, and leave entirely.
On days he went to work at the palace, he wouldn’t return until late at night. On days he was in the house, he was nowhere to be found.
Once, hearing he was there, she had gone to his study only to find a single still-warm cup of tea left behind.
Feeling the warmth of the tea, Lariette uttered a line right out of a detective novel: ‘The culprit hasn’t been gone long!’ But the culprit was not caught, and she felt so frustrated she thought she would burst.
‘He’ll probably come back at dawn again today.’
He was definitely taking advantage of the fact that Lariette went to sleep early.
From what she heard, he didn’t even seem to have that much work! Today, she would definitely stay awake late. Lariette steeled her resolve, clenching her fists.
Knock, knock!
And then, a neat knocking sound rang at the door.
A soft and cheerful sound. She quickly realized who the knocker was and called out the name.
“Doha!”
Lariette sprang up and ran to open the door. When she faced the handsome man standing before it, her face brightened.
“Were you waiting for me, my lady?”
It was a welcome he hadn’t expected. Doha, his gleaming silver hair neatly tied in a single strand, stepped into her room with a chuckle.
“Of course! Listen, today Asrahan…”
At the sight of Lariette chattering away about her love life, he shook his head as if exasperated. But she didn’t care and was busy pouring out her worries.
While Asrahan had been desperately avoiding Lariette, she had built quite a close friendship with Doha.
Since there was no one else to gossip with, this was an inevitable result.
Lariette completely hid any information about Asrahan’s curse and only conveyed the situation of her efforts to seduce him.
With the looks of a man who had left a trail of broken hearts, Doha was also quite good at love advice. Since there was no law saying priests couldn’t date, Lariette guessed he had surely met countless women.
“So… he just keeps running away?”
“Yes! I can’t meet him, so there’s nothing I can do.”
What should she do at a time like this? Lariette asked for advice with a dejected face.
“You’ve grown bold.”
Doha smirked and muttered in a voice she couldn’t hear. Then he subtly reached out and rustled her pink hair.
She was just like sweet cotton candy, and he wanted to put her in his mouth. Of course, he didn’t mean only her hair.
“Well then.”
“Yes!”
“How about making him jealous?”
Jealousy? At the unexpected answer, Lariette widened her eyes and asked back.
“Yes, jealousy. There’s no man who wouldn’t realize his own heart upon seeing you with another man.”
It was, namely, Operation Jealousy. Doha added, twirling her hair around his finger.
Meanwhile, having heard the explanation, Lariette drooped her eyebrows and made a sullen expression. Then she replied in a deflated voice.
“I don’t even have a man who could make him jealous….”
Sad, but that was the reality.
Until she left Count Blanche’s household, she had been betrothed, so she had no opportunities to get to know other men. It was unthinkable for a noblewoman of high standing to have male friends.
But that was the past; the situation was different now. Doha kindly informed her of this.
“Oh, my lady. You wound me.”
He soon put strength into his fingers and drew Lariette’s head toward him. In an instant, their faces were close.
“I’m a man too, Rie.”
Doha whispered in a low voice, the corner of his mouth curling up in a smile. Then he pressed his forehead to hers and naturally began reciting a prayer, starting the healing.
‘At least say something before you do that!’
Though she had already experienced this posture once before, Lariette, startled all the same, barely managed to calm her rapidly beating heart.
A jealousy strategy, was it? She blankly murmured the unfamiliar words to herself.
It was a rather intriguing strategy. She could not tell whether Asrahan was the sort of person capable of jealousy, but perhaps he might react to seeing her with another man.
When she imagined Asrahan frowning with that handsome face of his and asking her to stay only with him, her chest tingled despite herself.
However, after pondering for a moment, Lariette soon conveyed to Doha that she did not think that would do.
For some reason, it made her feel as though she were deceiving Asrahan, leaving an unpleasant prickling in her conscience. Lariette smiled proudly, thinking she had made the right decision.
Yet that proud feeling disappeared in half a day. Because she changed her mind in an instant.
***
Asrahan returned, as expected, late at night.
Opening the front gate of the ducal residence without a sound, he slowly moved toward his room.
No, he was about to. If not for the voice that shot out like a bolt of lightning.
“You’re only coming now?”
Lariette was sitting on the dark staircase without even turning on the lights, looking at him.
Asrahan flinched before he realized it and met her gaze.
“……You were not asleep.”
“I was waiting for you. Since your face is so hard to see.”
“We see each other every day at breakfast.”
“You mean the sight of you drinking coffee for exactly five minutes, not answering a word, and then leaving?”
A chilling air about her, she rose to her feet. She had come out fully determined.
It did not feel particularly pleasant to be treated as though she did not exist without even knowing the reason. That was why today, she had resolved to settle things no matter what. Her violet eyes stared straight at Asrahan.
Asrahan turned his head without answering, avoiding her gaze. He truly had nothing to say.
Seeing that, Lariette frowned and took a step toward him.
“Twice a week. Party B must comply with Party A’s request to go out. Have you forgotten?”
If he kept running away, she intended to thrust his contractual obligations in his face. Because she assumed he would not be able to refuse even that.
However, Asrahan’s reaction was far colder than she had predicted.
“……Would a brief walk in the rear garden tomorrow suffice?”
“Brief?”
“Yes, briefly. I am busy.”
He answered calmly in an emotionless voice, unaware that Lariette’s head was boiling over.
From Asrahan’s perspective, it was unavoidable. Whenever he faced her, he kept feeling strange.
The strangeness bothered him, his body reacted especially strangely, and his heart felt strangely ticklish as well.
Such changes were unfamiliar and uncomfortable to him.
Then he simply had to avoid seeing her except when purifying the curse. Asrahan foolishly thought so.
And Lariette, unable to endure any longer, finally decided to let the fury blazing inside her burst forth.
“You must really be very busy.”
She showed him a bright, smiling expression and continued.
“Now that I think about it again, I don’t think there’s any need for us to eat together or go out together out of obligation.”
“……What is this all of a sudden?”
“You’re busy, Your Grace. I can’t be a hindrance, can I?”
The way she called him Your Grace, abandoning the name she had always chattered so readily, felt particularly unfamiliar.
Asrahan quietly scanned her face, trying to grasp her intentions.
But there was nothing especially different. Lariette’s smile was only radiant, and her voice was bright as well.
“From now on, I’ll eat and go out with my priest friend, so Your Grace can stay bu-sy forever!”
Make sure you do! Lariette added with a brilliant smile.
Then she whirled around and left at a brisk pace. In her heart, she was muttering curses at him.
Left alone, Asrahan stood blankly and stared at the place where she had disappeared.
Her declaration that she would no longer eat with him from now on ought to have been welcome, but strangely, his heart ached in a dull, heavy way.
However, even then, he did not know. What true heartache was.
As long as he was mistaken about the priest’s gender, he could not know yet.