After learning why Asrahan had been sulking, Lariette was so delighted that she busied herself teasing him, but as soon as a day passed, she changed her attitude at once.
It was because she realized the most important fact she had missed while intoxicated by the thrilling rush of being able to tease that Duke Candel.
‘Wait, does that mean we won’t be making any progress for a while?’
He had said that her request to take things slowly had not meant cooking, but the pace of their physical intimacy. In other words, he meant they should take things slowly from now on.
To Lariette, it was outrageous. He had acted as if he might charge straight to the end at any moment, and now he suddenly wanted to take things slow?
Of course, if she were her usual self, she would not have felt so wronged. But Asrahan and Lariette were in the middle of a three-month dating contract, and they had only about ten weeks left.
That being the case, they did not have the luxury of taking things step by step—kissing in the fourth week, moving on to the next stage in the sixth week, and so on. They had even less emotional leisure to spare.
‘I want to enjoy it while my body is healthy and lively! Why! Why can’t I!’
Lariette could not bring herself to say it aloud, so she merely punched her pillow again and again. After all, he had been sulking just moments ago because she hadn’t listened to his request; she could hardly press him again right away.
In the end, a few days later, during dinner, Lariette could not hold back and asked Asrahan in a subtle voice.
“Asrahan, you know…… just how slowly is slowly?”
“You mean our progress?”
“Yes, our progress.”
Asrahan still seemed embarrassed to mention the word progress, stubbornly insisting on replacing it with something else.
But Lariette, wearing a mischievous smile, deliberately corrected him again. Teasing him when he was embarrassed was simply too much fun.
To others, Asrahan looked as blunt and cold as ever, no different from usual, but to her, the fact that he was flustered was plainly visible, which made it all the more enjoyable.
However, at Asrahan’s next words, Lariette’s face crumpled as if she had never been amused at all.
“……I think it would be best to proceed as slowly as possible.”
Just how slow was as slowly as possible supposed to be? She had no idea, but it was clear it would fall short of the speed she wanted.
Lariette drooped both her brows and put on a dejected expression. Her plump lips naturally jutted out.
“But……”
Asrahan did his utmost not to look at the sight of those red lips moving and elegantly lifted the coffee served for dessert to his mouth.
But in the next instant, he found himself in danger of spitting out the coffee in his mouth.
“But I want to hurry up and do it with you, Asrahan!”
Crash! With a sharp sound of shattering, an expensive piece of tableware rolled across the floor. A servant who had not been employed for long had been secretly listening in on their conversation and, startled, had dropped a dish.
The servant lifted his head with a flustered face. And his gaze met the monster duke’s ice-cold eyes.
Before he could even make an excuse, Halstein ordered him out of the dining room. To ruin the mood when the prospect of resolving the matter of an heir was right before their eyes—such a thing could never be forgiven.
Halstein swiftly and naturally ushered the servants outside. He wanted to restore the atmosphere somehow.
Asrahan tore his gaze away from the servant and looked back at Lariette. In truth, he was relieved the dish had broken at just the right moment. If the servant had not broken it, he himself might have shattered his coffee cup first.
After a brief silence, Asrahan gathered his thoughts and concluded that what Lariette meant was likely different from how he was taking it.
He would have to ask to know what exactly she wanted to do. Having been tricked several times before, he did not discard his suspicion.
Maintaining his composure as much as possible, Asrahan asked slowly.
“What is it that you want to do?”
“Everything! Hugging, kissing, intercour……”
And Asrahan immediately stuffed a peach into Lariette’s mouth, cutting off her words. He could not bear to hear any more. He deeply regretted asking her so directly.
Thanks to Asrahan stopping her, the unfinished word instantly occupied his mind.
‘Intercour…… intercour…… intercour…….’
He bit down hard on the inside of his lip to keep the word from completing itself. His brows furrowed on their own.
“Mmph! Mmm!”
Lariette chewed the peach that had suddenly been shoved into her mouth and sent Asrahan a disgruntled look.
At that, Asrahan covered his face with his large hands as if to hide it and let out a sigh. The skin visible between his fingers was pinker than usual.
He remained silent for a long while, steadying his breath, then slowly began to speak in a low, sunken voice.
“……Lariette. As you know, my body is rotting from the curse.”
It was so sudden that it almost felt out of nowhere. Yet it was something that clearly had to be addressed.
“My skin is in tatters, and the area around my heart is full of scars, as if it might break apart at any moment. I am so hideous and dreadful that it would not be strange to call me a monster.”
Lariette wondered whether she should tell him he was not dreadful, but she did not. No matter what she said, it would sound terribly light compared to his words, and she could not bring herself to open her mouth.
Asrahan gave her a faint smile, as if thanking her for that. It was a bitter smile.
“That is why, for now, it is difficult for me to…… touch you closely. I’m sorry.”
The fear that Lariette might grow tired of him because things progressed too quickly was, in truth, secondary.
His greatest fear lay in his own body. He could not dare to touch her in that way with this dreadful body.
Perhaps at some point, Lariette might smell his foul odor and frown. If that happened, Asrahan felt he would truly collapse.
Asrahan slowly lifted his gaze and met Lariette’s eyes. Contrary to what he had feared, her face was calm.
“Then it can’t be helped.”
Lariette gently curved her eyes. A bright smile settled on her face. It was the same smile she had worn at the information guild.
“I’ll just have to work harder to cure your curse!”
“……Pardon?”
Asrahan asked blankly. As always, her answer had far exceeded his expectations.
“I think you’re wonderful even as you are now, Asrahan, and that’s why I want to have in-ti-mate contact with you.”
Lariette drew out the end of her words regretfully. When her soft fingers touched the back of his hand, he trembled ever so slightly.
“But if it bothers you, then I have no choice but to purify you even harder. So that you can touch me without difficulty.”
“……Thank you, Lariette.”
Asrahan bowed his head in gratitude.
The warmth had been conveyed to his hand, and yet, strangely, his chest felt hot. It was as though warm smoke were gently rippling inside his heart. It was a feeling he could not understand.
“By the way, then is holding hands and hugging all right?”
Lariette asked in a playful voice, wearing a clear smile. Asrahan thought she was deliberately joking to change the atmosphere, and smiled back as he answered.
“Yes, that is all right.”
“Then what about kissing?”
“……If we take it slowly, I think it will be all right.”
“I seeee— Then we’ll have to hug every single day!”
Of course, Lariette was utterly sincere.
***
That night, Lariette buried herself in the soft bed and began to ponder seriously. All her thoughts were about Asrahan.
‘I have to purify him quickly…… but there’s still quite a bit of his upper body left to purify.’
She was working as hard as she could, yet there was still no sign of it being completely purified. As she had seen last time, the curse around his chest was exceptionally deep. It was only possible to make this much progress because Lariette’s power of purification was extraordinary; other purification mages would not even have dared attempt it.
Just who on earth had cast such a curse?
Lariette thought hard, but it was a question for which she could find no answer. Whoever it was, they had to be either someone with exceptional skill in curses or someone who resented Asrahan terribly.
When she recalled what Asrahan had confessed earlier in that devastated tone, she felt pity for him all over again. She could not even imagine how hard it must have been for him to live in a cursed body since childhood.
It was completely understandable that physical intimacy was difficult for him. His body had been in a state that had shocked even her when she first saw it, so it was no wonder he felt self-loathing.
‘……Hm? Something’s strange.’
At that moment, a small doubt flashed through Lariette’s mind.
Asrahan, who felt self-loathing over his own condition. Asrahan, who found physical intimacy difficult because of it. Asrahan, who treated Lariette with great care and respect.
All of it was completely different from the image she had initially expected of him. In particular, it was utterly different from one of the reasons Lariette had chosen him as her three-month dating partner.
—I’m someone who’s going to die, so I can’t have a relationship that’s too serious. With someone who seems like he’s dated plenty of women, lightly…… just for exactly three months.
Suddenly, she felt as though her chest had been stopped up. It was something she had not even considered.
‘Surely Asrahan…… this isn’t his first relationship, right?’
There was no way. Who would accept a three-month contractual relationship as their first romance?
Lariette desperately searched for grounds to refute the idea and shook her head in fear. But as she recalled how clumsy he had been with women, her suspicions only deepened.
In the end, Lariette decided she would have to confirm it tomorrow. Surely it could not be true, but if he really had been single all his life, she felt she would be overcome with guilt.
After that, she continued on to all sorts of other worries.
Before long, the speed of her blinking gradually slowed, and soon her heavy eyelids closed, a soft snoring sound quietly spreading through the room.
In the end, with the thought “Come to think of it, where is the curse on his lower body?” as the last of them, the worries circling round and round on her pillow scattered into sweet sleep.
***
The next day, as soon as breakfast ended, Lariette followed Halstein. There was something she wanted to ask him.
Pretending to return to her room, she quickly changed direction and secretly trailed after Halstein. Since it was a private question, she wanted to ask when no one else was around.
Lariette used wind magic to even block out sound. But despite such efforts, she was discovered far too quickly.
“Is there something you wish to say to me, my lady?”
“Eek! H-how did you know……!”
“Noticing when one is being tailed is a basic virtue for a butler.”
Halstein chuckled with a kindly expression. Lariette could not understand what tailing someone had to do with a butler’s virtues, but she merely smiled back awkwardly.
“Um…… it’s nothing much. It’s about Asrahan……”
“What would you like to know? His wealth? The extent of his power? Or perhaps how leisurely and happily the duchess could live?”
Ask me anything! Halstein said, his eyes sparkling excessively. If someone else had said it, it might have sounded sarcastic, but his expression was far too innocent for that.
Lariette waved her hands, saying that was not it. In truth, she did want to ask whether the Candel ducal family’s wealth was truly great enough to buy another kingdom, as the rumors said, but she restrained herself.
“Surely Asrahan…… has dated someone before me, hasn’t he?”
She smiled sheepishly and asked with caution.
And in that instant, Halstein felt as though he had been struck in the back of the head with a club, but like the seasoned butler he was, he maintained an ordinary expression.
‘What should I answer?’
Halstein desperately racked his brain. What in the world was the correct answer?
Back when Halstein was young, people tended to like someone who had never dated before, but things were quite different nowadays. If a twenty-seven-year-old man had never dated, everyone was quick to shake their heads. They said it was burdensome.
Judging from the negative words in Lariette’s question—“surely” and “hasn’t he?”—she seemed to be hoping that he had romantic experience.
Would he tell the truth and lower her favorability, or maintain it with a tiny lie? Halstein’s choice was obvious.
“Hoho, surely that could not be. I do not know the details, but I doubt it.”
“Ah, I knew it. I asked a pointless question. I’m sorry.”
“Not at all.”
Halstein deliberately avoided sounding certain. It was to avoid being interrogated later.
Lariette left with a radiant face after hearing Hallstein’s answer. Her steps on the way back were endlessly light.
Hallstein let out a sigh of relief and stroked his chest. Judging by her expression, lying had apparently been the right answer.
Meanwhile, on the way back to her room, Lariette came across a familiar figure from behind in the splendid corridor.
A tall man wearing a white shirt over his bandages, holding a thin, long coat in his hand. Even from the back, it was obvious he was handsome. It was Asrahan.
‘Right. No matter how much trauma he has, when he’s that handsome, how could he never have dated anyone?’
Of course, that had to be it! Lariette grinned and agreed with herself. With her heart lightened, she ran over in one step and threw herself at Asrahan. She meant to startle him.
“Wah—!”
“It is dangerous to rush at me like that.”
But Asrahan turned around naturally, as if he had expected it, and caught Lariette’s body. It was no surprise, since he had once blocked enemy attacks even in his sleep during the war.
“Tch, no fun. Did you come to see me?”
“Yes. I was on my way to your room.”
Asrahan answered as he carefully set Lariette down on the floor. Lariette looked up at his handsome face with satisfaction.
Soon, as if she had suddenly remembered something she had forgotten, she cried, “Ah!” Then she flung her arms open wide and spoke in a casual voice.
“Asrahan, hug me!”
“……Pardon?”
“You said hugs are fine! Give me today’s hug!”
Asrahan’s ears reddened once again. He had thought she had said it as a joke, but it seemed she had been serious.
“There are many servants here, and this is the corridor, so perhaps next time……”
Of course, this was only Asrahan searching for an excuse because his heart was pounding too hard. But Lariette took his words quite seriously.
“Hmm, then.”
Without hesitation, she took Asrahan’s hand and led him away. Her strength was frail, but Asrahan could not bring himself to resist and was dragged along according to her will.
Lariette opened the door to an unused inner room and shoved Asrahan inside without reserve. Then she followed him in and promptly shut the door.
Click! The door locked with a sound.
And so Lariette and Asrahan were left alone together in the dark, narrow inner room with not a single window.
“We can do it here, right?”
Lariette said, smiling with her eyes.
At that moment, the fear and anguish that had been lingering in Asrahan’s heart these days vanished in an instant.
And what remained was only instinct.
Asrahan’s large hands wrapped around Lariette’s shoulders and back in one breath. Soon, his firm, muscular body and her soft, small one overlapped without the slightest gap between them.
Lariette giggled and hugged Asrahan’s broad back. The deeper embrace than she had expected was quite satisfying.
But only for a moment—Lariette’s face quickly flushed red.
Because she felt a strange sensation near her stomach.
It was hard.