Asrahan gazed steadily at her smiling face.
It was a contract in which he would lose nothing, no matter what he gave. However, there was a need to make things certain.
“……Very well. But I will add one condition as well.”
“What is it?”
Instead of answering, he took a fountain pen from the inner pocket of his coat. Then, in an elegant hand, he added a clause at the very bottom of the contract.
Asrahan slowly lifted his gaze from the contract to her. His eyes were sharp.
Lariette checked the final clause and, without realizing it, swallowed dryly. Even though she had resolved to purify the entire curse and leave, a chill ran over her for no reason.
“Fine. No matter the result.”
“Good.”
Together, they signed the new contract. Asrahan handed it to a servant and instructed him to keep it safe with the utmost care.
“Then, how about tomorrow? Let’s go on a picnic! The rear garden here looked huge and beautiful. There’s even a fountain!”
“Tomorrow is the day I go to the imperial castle.”
“Then the day after tomorrow! Let’s go right away the day after tomorrow!”
“……Is there any need for such haste?”
He moistened his throat with the champagne served as an appetizer and asked. Her impatience puzzled him.
“I’m in a terrible hurry, you see.”
“With what?”
“Well, obviously…… with you.”
When Asrahan asked back, Lariette answered playfully. At the flirtatious wink she threw his way, he quietly closed his mouth.
***
A day spent doing nothing was an enormous waste to Lariette.
‘In the past, I didn’t even know how precious they were and wasted day after day so easily. Foolishly.’
Lariette smiled bitterly and mocked herself.
After rolling around all day on the spacious bed, her mana had thankfully returned to normal before long. From what she had checked a few days ago, it seemed she would be able to purify the curse by now.
‘I have to hurry if I’m going to purify everything before I leave.’
She was anxious that some mishap might occur—such as collapsing after purification and being unable to go on the picnic—but she had already experienced it once, so she believed the second time would be easier.
That was why, on the morning of their appointed day, Lariette woke as soon as the sun rose and went to Asrahan’s study. It was practically dawn, yet he, too, was already awake, looking perfectly neat as he handled documents.
“Asrahan, do you not sleep in either?”
“It seems the same goes for mages.”
“That’s because I can’t afford to waste a single moment.”
Asrahan wanted to ask what she found so precious, but he did not. It was obvious she would reply with some embarrassing line like last time—“The time I spend looking at you.”
Meanwhile, just as he expected, Lariette was having an embarrassing thought. To be precise, she was once again marveling as she looked at his face.
‘How can someone be this sculpturally handsome?’
His face overflowed with decadent beauty. From his seductive eyes and high nose bridge to his sharp jawline and thin, long lips, there was not a single feature that was not outstanding.
And how tall he was, how broad his shoulders! Even his thick torso and firmly risen chest muscles were perfect, as though someone had taken Lariette’s ideal type and set it down in front of her.
As she stared at him for a long while, a faint crease appeared between those beautiful brows. At some point, Asrahan’s calm blue eyes had turned toward her.
“……Please stop staring.”
“It’s my gaze. Please respect its freedom.”
Asrahan closed his eyes as though his head hurt and pressed his fingers to his forehead. Then, to change the subject, he hurriedly brought up something else.
“We shall go on the picnic during the day. It will still be cold for you.”
“Mhm, all right. Do you have time now?”
“As you can see, I am busy.”
For no reason, he tapped the documents with the nib of his pen. However, Lariette approached with a bright smile and propped her arms on the table.
“You don’t even have time to purify the curse?”
Asrahan’s head shot up.
Had she already recovered her mana? Even for him, who had met all kinds of mages, it was an astonishing speed.
“I’ll sit down for a bit.”
Only after she had already perched herself on the long chair he was sitting on did she report this. Then she added carefully,
“I think it will be more effective if I touch bare skin. May I undo the bandage?”
“I will do it.”
The moment he finished speaking, Asrahan swiftly unwound the bandage around his right hand. Even when the ragged flesh was revealed, Lariette still did not look surprised.
With the caution of someone handling a baby, she placed her hand over his. Bare skin touched bare skin, and soon white light spread out.
Unlike last time, the amount leaking out was far less. The warm light did not scatter, but wrapped around Asrahan’s hand before seeping inside.
The skin, which had exposed its raw red interior, slowly healed and began returning to its original state. The moment he perceived it, his hand flinched and trembled.
Lariette withdrew her hand much sooner than she had during her first attempt. As far as she could determine, this was the maximum amount Asrahan’s body could accept.
“Hoo…… The hand isn’t a large area, and the curse isn’t deep. I think one time will be enough. Like before, the curse will be purified all the way inside over the next few days.”
“……I can hardly believe it.”
For more than ten years, he had wandered in search of a way to purify the curse. Even until recently, when he had half given up, he had continued to look into purification mages.
And yet Lariette, who had appeared so suddenly, resolved what he had suffered from for so long far too quickly. When he first saw it, he truly could not believe it; now, the second time, it simply felt like a miracle.
“……Are you all right?”
After using purification magic, Lariette had lost consciousness and collapsed. Asrahan tore his gaze away from his hand and examined her, but she looked more fine than he had expected.
“Yes. I’ve gotten the hang of it. Back then, I didn’t know the proper amount, and I was clumsy at concentrating the power of purification on the cursed area, so there was a lot of waste.”
She had gotten the hang of it after a single try. Looking at her as she smiled as though nothing was wrong, Asrahan admitted that her claim to be the empire’s greatest purification mage had not been empty boasting.
“Now, since I’ve purified the curse…… shall we go on our picnic?”
“The morning wind is still……”
“As long as your body is all right, Asrahan, I don’t mind! I don’t really get mildly sick.”
Though she did have an incurable illness in a way that was not mild at all! Lariette swallowed those words with a smile. She could not waste time over something as trivial as a chilly morning breeze.
After hesitating briefly, Asrahan set the pen he was holding down on the table.
Just as Asrahan had warned, the spring morning weather was quite chilly. It was a little better where the sunlight fell, but in the shade it was cold enough to make one shiver.
However, since Lariette had been the one to insist on coming out, her pride would not allow her to show herself trembling, so she worked hard to pretend she was not cold.
‘Her gooseflesh makes her condition perfectly obvious.’
Asrahan, who had been about to point this out, swallowed the words when he imagined how brazenly she would respond. Then he gestured, intending to call a servant. That was, if Lariette had not snatched his hand first.
“Asrahan, no!”
“……I was about to call a servant.”
“Exactly. What place does a servant have on a date?”
Asrahan didn’t seem to have any awareness that this was a date. Lariette grumbled and looked at his coat with a meaningful gaze.
“Don’t you know? That…… when your lover is cold, you take off your clothes for them. You know, that sort of thing.”
“I refuse.”
She had thought he might at least hesitate, but his answer was far too firm. For a moment, she gaped at him in shock, then soon accepted it.
“Fine…… Well, you mustn’t catch a cold, Asrahan.”
Lariette nodded as if agreeing with her own words. As for him, he furrowed his brow in disbelief.
He was only not taking it off because it might smell. The Duke of Candel, catching a cold? Even a passing dog would laugh at that.
“Let’s sit over there near the fountain, where the sunlight is! Lots of wildflowers are blooming, so the view is nice too.”
“Let go of my hand.”
Asrahan spitefully slipped his hand free as he answered. When her plan to hold his hand naturally failed, Lariette’s eyes drooped.
‘Did he get burned in a past relationship? Or does he just not like me?’
She pondered as she spread the mat she had brought over the grass. If someone as impressive as herself came on this strongly, he ought to show even a speck of interest, but though she had thought he would be open to romance, he was more guarded than expected.
In truth, Lariette herself had not dated much either.
All she had were a few light relationships from her younger days, when she had been slightly less bound by her responsibilities as a duke’s daughter; after coming of age, it became impossible for her to meet someone because she wanted to.
Therefore, Lariette did not know much about how to seduce men. Even the few light relationships she had had were only with men who had fallen completely for her appearance and tried to seduce her first.
In conclusion, Lariette’s seduction consisted entirely of endlessly pulling him closer. There might come a day when she pushed him away without realizing it, but that day was not now.
Following her instructions, Asrahan lowered his large body and sat. To think that he was sitting on a mat laid out over grass surrounded by flowers. He felt an extreme sense of incongruity.
“Wow, the chef prepared this with such care. Finger sandwiches, scones, cake and macarons…… Asrahan, which do you want to eat first?”
“Anything. It does not matter.”
“Do you not have any food you like?”
“Not particularly.”
He answered as he glanced at the foods in the picnic basket.
Breakfast had never been prepared so extravagantly before, so judging from how much effort had been put into it, he guessed Hallstein must have had a hand in it.
Meanwhile, Lariette was greatly shocked by the statement that he had no favorite food. If he did not even have the small pleasure of eating delicious food, how could he endure this weary life?
“I like finger sandwiches. I especially like the ones with salmon, and I can eat cucumber, but I hate it. That fishy scent makes me nauseous.”
Holding a salmon sandwich, she chattered on.
“When I was at Blanche, I did force myself to eat it. A duke’s daughter shouldn’t be picky about food.”
Asrahan found her constantly moving lips curious, and then soon realized something he had not known until now. From her, sitting very close by, came a clear, pure fragrance.
“The smell……”
“Yes? The cucumber smell?”
Do you hate the smell of cucumber too, Asrahan? Lariette laughed brightly, delighted at having found something in common.
He answered by nodding. But what he was talking about was not something as trivial as the smell of cucumber. It was the clear, subtle fragrance that came from her.
There was no reason to be surprised that a noble lady’s body smelled pleasant. What surprised him, however, was the fact that when he sat near her, his own terrible rotting stench was almost completely covered by that radiant scent and disappeared.
It was strange that he had not noticed until now. Though that unpleasant smell still came from him, it was far less than usual.
‘Is it because of the power of purification?’
He had found it odd that she had never once mentioned that dreadful smell, but he had thought it was consideration born of pity.
Yet the face that so innocently brought up the smell of cucumber truly looked as though it knew nothing.
“Mage.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“From me……”
Do I not smell like a rotting corpse? Asrahan’s lips moved, but he did not want to say it with his own mouth. Thus, he hurriedly changed his words.
“May I have one? That salmon sandwich.”
“Pfft! Why are you asking something like that so seriously? Of course.”
Lariette burst into laughter and handed him the salmon sandwich. Asrahan awkwardly accepted it and ate.
His thin lips, tinged with red, parted, and for a fleeting moment, his vivid red tongue could be seen. Lariette, who had been staring at it blankly, flinched and turned her head.
‘How can someone look so sensual while eating?’
It felt as though she had just watched a kissing scene with a salmon sandwich. Lariette fanned herself with her hand and tried to calm her flushed face.
Then she sat beside him, looking up at the blue sky as she began to eat her own food. A leisurely mealtime followed.
Asrahan was usually a man of few words, but during meals he was even quieter. Suddenly feeling bored, Lariette lifted her free hand into the air.
Then she extended her index finger and moved it as though drawing a circle. Following the motion of her finger, a gentle breeze blew, making the surrounding grass and bushes sway.
Flowers severed naturally by the wind twined and tangled together before Lariette and Asrahan’s eyes, forming the shape of a flower crown.
“……You must have mana to spare.”
“A fair amount? Ugh, wait a moment. I really have no talent for wind magic.”
Because her concentration wavered while answering Asrahan, a red flower that had been flying over dropped to the ground with a thud. Lariette groaned softly as she focused on making the flower crown.
After about five minutes of concentration, a colorful flower crown was finally complete. Looking satisfied, she examined the flower crown she had made from various angles before placing it on his head.
“Wow! As expected, it really suits you!”
If anyone else had seen it, they would have been horrified.
There was no way a huge man nearly 190 centimeters tall, dressed in dark, gloomy attire, could look good wearing a dainty flower crown. Asrahan was grateful he had not kept a servant by his side.
“Is this fun to you?”
“Is it not fun? I find your face very entertaining, Asrahan.”
Looking at a handsome face is the most fun thing in the world! Lariette laughed brightly as she picked the flower crown back up. In truth, she was a little afraid that if she provoked him any further, he might even draw his sword.
Just as she resolved to push only a proper amount and then pull back, a sudden fierce gust of wind blew toward them.
Asrahan lightly lifted his coat to block the wind rushing toward her, but Lariette lost hold of the flower crown in her hand.
“Ah!”
My flower crown! Lariette sprang up and reached for the flying flower crown. More precisely, she ended up throwing herself toward the fountain where the flower crown was falling.
‘Aah, I’m doomed!’
Imagining her future self looking like a drenched rat, she squeezed her eyes shut. She was so flustered that she did not even think to use magic.
But at that moment, a large hand instantly caught Lariette’s slender arm and turned her around.
Splash!
The damp texture of water slid down her legs. The hem of her dress, which had fallen into the fountain, sagged, and her backside was cold.
Contrary to her expectation that it would hurt quite a bit, there was almost no pain. Feeling puzzled, Lariette slowly lifted her eyelids.
And right before her eyes, she found Asrahan’s face as he looked down at her with his brows furrowed.
Shaaah—
The stream of water pouring from the fountain soaked his hair and upper body as it flowed down.
“……Mage.”
A drop of water fell along his firm nape; blue eyes were revealed between long black lashes; and facing those moist lips, Lariette swallowed without realizing it.
“I think it is about time you stopped making me lose my composure.”