I was kissing him with such absorption I’d forgotten the purpose of the act itself. Then, in an instant, an unfamiliar sensation froze me solid.
Soft lips and a slick tongue, hard hands and forearms clutching me with aching need.
And beneath that, something heavy rubbed against my body.
What on earth was that. My heat-soaked head couldn’t think straight. From Varen’s jaw to his chest, down past his abdomen to someplace unfamiliar.
Unlike its owner, a lecherous hand moved on its own. It clamped, boldly, over something hard through the fabric.
"...Mmph! Mmph, mmph!!"
My muddied head cleared and the reality that had run away came back home.
I hammered at Varen’s chest and [N O V E L I G H T] shoved, frantic, and in the end I had to bite the most vulnerable thing—his tongue.
"Ugh... Ceryl, why do you always bite."
"Haah... ha... Stop..."
The fevered mood broke in a heartbeat. Like a bucket of cold water thrown over us, clarity snapped into place and a chill ran through me.
Panting, I put distance between us, but Varen, apparently unsatisfied, pressed in again.
"Hey—hey! We’re done. I’m fully charged!"
"Haah... just a little more..."
"Augh! I’m fine—fine! Don’t cling!!"
Once he got a hold, there’d be no escaping, so I bolted before the reaching hands could catch me.
A few steps apart, we could see each other plainly. And damn my curiosity, my gaze kept drifting to where it shouldn’t.
Noticing my side-eye, Varen slowly dropped his head. He checked some change in his own body and froze.
"This... is the first time..."
He stammered, voice thick with dismay. First time, was it; as if he did know embarrassment, he gave a pointless cough and turned his body aside.
I suppose he meant to hide it, but from the side its presence stood out even more.
At this point I didn’t know why I kept sneaking glances myself. To cut off optic nerves that wouldn’t listen, I covered both eyes with my palms.
"I didn’t see anything."
"..."
"Uh, look... it’s not weird, it’s a bodily function sort of thing... so don’t get too flustered..."
"..."
"I’m going ahead. Take care of it and come back."
I didn’t even check for his response to that last part. I turned straight away and headed for the hideout.
My head was a mess. I’d steadied myself by insisting it was only to charge life force, and yet I’d sunk into it that deeply. Self-disgust surged like a tide.
Even so—does he really react like that from a single kiss. Mortified and rattled, I scrubbed my face with dry hands.
Then suddenly, Varen’s flustered voice replayed in my head.
If it was the first time... would he be able to handle it alone...
"Aaagh! Get out! Get out of my head!"
To stop my thoughts from veering off, I thumped my skull.
"Ceryl—sir! Where did you gooo!"
Kallen was waving brightly at the cave mouth. The familiar orange-haired girl looked like a savior today.
I forced my stiff mouth into a grin and waved back. The heat boiling through me cooled fast.
***
"Hh... ah..."
A voice leaked from lips for whom even breathing had been pain. The eyelids, scabbed with blood-crust and swollen, blinked slowly.
I watched the miracle in quiet. After a full five days, Leobin’s first words on coming to himself were exactly what I expected.
"Ceryl..."
It wasn’t his old bright, sturdy tone, but hearing it after so long still tugged a smile out of me.
"Yeah, Leobin. I’m here."
I hadn’t noticed while his eyes were closed, but once they opened, even the sclera were a wreck, vessels burst to crimson spiderwebs.
Leobin’s sight adjusted in the dark and his eyes rolled, slow. At last they fixed on my face.
"You’re... alive..."
"That’s my line. How are you alive."
"To... protect... you, Sir Ceryl..."
"I don’t need it. Focus on recovering."
The moment he opened his eyes he rattled off the same carved-in line. It had been burdensome even when I knew nothing, and now that I knew the truth it was all the more uncomfortable.
I unrolled the layered bandages and checked the wounds. I pressed my lips shut over a site I’d never seen the like of, and covered it again.
The bone that had punched through the skin hadn’t vanished. The jut stayed, and the skin had sealed over as-is. I’d matched it as best I could, but of course the broken ankle had set at a wrong angle.
"I... will... protect... Sir Ceryl..."
A corpse’s body that couldn’t even die by choice. Nothing more, nothing less.
***
Once he came around, Leobin’s recovery was unhesitating. He sat up after a single night, and the next morning he swung his legs off and stood. He limped, but even walking posed no real problem.
His vital signs matched those before the injury. Aside from keeping the protruding rib wrapped in bandages, it was hard to believe he’d nearly died just days ago.
There was no need to stay in the cave for recovery anymore. More than that, we’d wasted a week in the same spot; we couldn’t afford to linger.
Leobin nearly fainted when he realized I was traveling with a dragon—the dragon who had almost killed him.
But when I explained the situation calmly, he nodded. It was odd how easily he accepted it.
"Leobin, you don’t have to go with us. It’ll be dangerous."
"That’s why I must stay by your side. I’ll stake my life to protect you, Sir Ceryl."
"No, no. Enough. Protect yourself."
No doubt this, too, was the curse-like magic hanging on Leobin.
Traveling together felt awkward, but his body wasn’t fully healed yet; for the time being, it seemed better for him to keep drawing life force from me.
"Ha... even that human is coming with us?"
Of course Varen disliked it. Naturally.
He’d been irked even by Kallen’s presence. Still, Kallen had her own destination and we all knew we’d part ways; he’d been swallowing it without complaint.
Leobin was different. He was a human who would follow me even in death.
"How far is he supposed to come with us?"
"Who knows. For now, just until he’s better. There’s nowhere in particular to send him anyway."
"And that human draining your power—"
You’re the one filling it.
Too embarrassing to say aloud, I sent it with my eyes. He got the meaning and still kept that sullen look.
"He’s an eyesore."
"There you go again. What’s so bothersome."
"That he’s connected to you."
Could you call what tied Leobin to me a connection. Subordination felt the more accurate word.
Annoyed that he was annoyed by everything, I gave a light shrug.
"All set? Let’s move."
Kallen packed with practiced hands now. A week of careful gathering had stuffed her pack with herbs.
Ella split Kallen’s load; Rami had filled the empty lunch tins to the brim with wild raspberries.
Varen, of course, carried nothing. Even so, in the last few days his condition looked markedly better.
"I’m ready too, Sir Ceryl!"
Leobin proclaimed it with vigor, braced on crutches. They were ridiculously crude crutches—thick branches lashed together haphazardly.
"Since it’s a gift from you, Sir Ceryl, I’ll treasure it for life."
He even laughed, absurdly pleased at that thing.
And just like that, our odd company gained another member. A man with a corpse’s body joined us.
***
It was only one more person, but walking the forest became troublesome.
We used to go single file with Ella and Kallen in the lead, me and Varen behind. We moved with care, watching front, rear, and flank all at once.
Then something I hadn’t foreseen happened. The two men started a turf war over the space at my side.
"Sir Ceryl, give me your bag. I’ll carry it."
"No, give it to me. I’ll carry it."
"I can’t bear to see anything in your hands, Sir Ceryl. I trained at a martial school. Please, let me."
"Hmph, I’m a dragon. That little bag isn’t even weight. Give it here."
The surround-sound nagging from left and right gave me a headache.
On a narrow path, shoulders rubbing me from both sides, even walking straight I had to stumble.
I was near exploding, but I held onto patience. I split a glare evenly between them, to say: cut it out and get along.
"How about both of you buzz off? I’ll carry my own bag."
"But..."
"Unless you want to die, shut up and walk, yeah?"
One was a dragon; one had a body that wouldn’t die. Neither was someone I could kill with my own hands, and yet both shut their mouths at once.
Thanks to that, we walked in quiet, and I could watch Ella’s twitching hindquarters and sort my thoughts.
Ceryl Aylos.
He’s me now, but originally he was a character whose name never even appeared in the novel.
Maybe he showed up in the latter half I never read. Even so, with a mere wind-reading spell or whatever, you wouldn’t give him anything important.
And yet I needed to know about “Ceryl Aylos.” There had been too many suspicious moments to pass him off as just an ordinary scion of a fallen noble house.
First, Jed, whose face I could barely summon.
The 5th Monster Containment Facility might have been a forsaken border post, but it was still the top seat in a state institution. Jed was often called to the capital by the king.
Such a man had an easy trust in me. To be precise, not in me but in the House of Aylos.
And Ceryl, with no exceptional magic and weak mana, had been a key figure at the Facility. He held the strongest authority of all: the power to dispose of monsters.
Lastly, Leobin and Margon.
If you dismissed them as mere guards, they were still men under assumed identities. It meant they had infiltrated the Facility with a purpose alongside Ceryl.
What purpose did Ceryl have. What kind of house was Aylos, to plant Ceryl at the Facility.
