The event was hastily ended when Blie suddenly collapsed after hugging me so tightly that I couldn't breathe.
Rossi was anxious as if the fallen Blie was his own daughter and prepared a room for her in the Grand Hall.
Since the Grand Hall was much closer to the square than the Imperial Palace, we quickly headed there.
“She is alive. She just seems to be overworked and needs some rest.”
At that sound, the High Priest Teln looked at the lying Blie with a face filled with wonder.
“Ugh! Your Eminence. If you look at me with those kind eyes, even the person who wakes up will poke his own eyes and faint again.”
“Alive, alive...”
“Let’s go out first. You saw that she’s alive, right?”
Ephero glanced at Rhodnes, who was standing guard in front of the door, then dragged the High Priest and the attending doctor out of the guest room.
I continued to look down at Blie without being distracted by the sight.
Unlike inside the glass case where she lay comfortably as if asleep, she looked a little sick.
Rossi wiped Blie's forehead, which was dripping with cold sweat, with a wet towel.
“This crazy thing, for me....”
Rossi has been mumbling the same thing since earlier.
“Young Blie once asked me why I wandered around like that.”
“...”
Rossi shed tears through her blurry eyes as she recalled the past.
“A long-hidden truth. I said I was looking for records to reveal and set the record straight. I thought, foolishly, that if I told the little kid a few things, she wouldn’t have guessed.”
Rossi buried her face in her hands and muttered in pain.
“When this child woke up, looked me in the eye, snatched the record from me, and proclaimed it before the people as if it were the will of God, I realized.”
You were trying to make my wish come true...
With those last words, Rossi sobbed quietly.
As I was watching, confused as to whether I should comfort her or stay quiet, I felt a piercing gaze.
“...Tell me something.”
All the way from the top of the stage.
It was Rhodnes who was glaring at me with those burning eyes.
Just like the momentum I was shooting at.
It only took a moment for our rough lips to touch.
I had no intention of pushing him away, but he pushed me as soon as we entered the empty room as if I was going to push him away.
Although it was a room without a bed, I felt like I was rolling around in bed with him.
Rhodnes, who had held my hands together and pushed me against the wall, was breathing heavily while digging into my mouth.
It was a passionate gesture that made my body heat up in an instant, reminding me of the heat we had shared until this morning.
He held my hand, which was pinned to the wall, tightly as if he could not even tolerate me hanging around his neck, and he tasted my breath. The heat that came in through our lips warmed my whole body.
Finally, our lips parted, when our legs began to hurt from standing for so long.
I had seen the sunken eyes of Rhodnes many times before, but this time it felt a little different. It was because I couldn't tell whether they were angry or excited.
Even after he pulled away, he still held me against the wall for a long time, pressing his forehead against mine.
In a room filled with smoke.
Although we only exchanged heavy breathing, we eventually hugged each other as if we had had a long conversation.
His lips, still wet, lightly bit the nape of my neck and he let out a deep sigh. His hot breath scattered across my sunken collarbone. I shivered slightly at the thick breath that clung to me like fog.
“What should I do with you?”
“...Roan.”
When his name was called, he buried his lips deeper. A tingling sensation ran from the nape of her neck, where he had touched, to the tips of my toes, where he had not touched.
“It’s driving me crazy because you won’t listen to me....”
He swayed as if he was crying or laughing. I held my breath in his arms, afraid that I would miss a single word he said.
“I love you so much I think I’m going crazy.”
Rhodnes, who had left a mark deep in the back of my neck, slowly raised his head.
A face as red as marble came into view.
Intensely gleaming red eyes.
His trembling lips sparkled as if he was desperate to explore my mouth again.
“Where are you going, huh?”
I quietly placed my hand on his cheek as he let out a groan.
Although Rhodnes looked at me with eyes filled with resentment, he willingly buried his cheek in my small palm and kissed me deeply as if worshipping me.
“I love you, Roan.”
For a moment.
His breathing, which had been ragged, stopped. His prominently angled jawbone bulged out, along with its tendons.
Rhodnes, who had frozen with his lips pressed against my palm, slowly raised his head towards me.
"I love you."
My love is foolish and selfish.
I thought that if I didn't do something that would make the other person happy or helpful, it would be useless even if I said it a hundred times.
Perhaps it was because my life resembled that of a person who lived to be useful during the time I loved Noevian.
Noevian too. Rhodnes too. Even though I knew that no matter what I did, they would be happy if I just said I loved them.
“I love you, Roan.”
I was a coward who could barely say such things when I was convinced that I had been of great help to him so that he could never reject my heart.
However.
In that one cowardly word.
An expression on Rhodnes's face that I had never seen before, even after spending several hot nights with him and mingling with him, came to mind.
Rhodnes's two hands cupped my cheeks, and his red eyes, which swayed and swayed until they finally collapsed, stared at my lips as if they were burning them.
"I love you."
As if I was born into this world and had been waiting for those words.
A beam of joy disguised as an expressionless face flashed and shattered repeatedly in his beautiful eyes.
And soon.
Our wet lips met again.
The warmth that had been licking my lower lip like a beast tending to its wound soon exploded inside my mouth, letting out an angry growl.
The tips of our noses, heated up and flushed, rub against each other incessantly.
A hand hotter than that pulled the back of my head, sucked in my breath without hesitation, licked it again, chewed it thoroughly, and swallowed it.
In contrast to its ferocious momentum, its breath was so fast that we drank it as if it were a sweet drink and got drunk.
“Adrienne, Adrienne, you’re really, really... a coward.”
He said with a hot sigh through the sloshing sound.
It didn't matter what he thought of my cowardice and what I knew of it.
I smiled and answered him as I looked at him with red eyes.
"I know."
“If you say that, I...”
A low groan came out, scratching my throat through the gap between my teeth, biting my lip, and wet my lips.
“...I can’t do anything.”
The man who said that he could do nothing at any moment by pulling off the clothes and cloak he was wearing and rolling around on the floor said.
Hot, wet lips started to touch the corners of my mouth, then my cheeks, the area around my eyes, and my forehead.
“Even the words ‘I’m sorry.’ Even the words ‘thank you.’ Nothing is bigger to me than those words.”
He held me in that embrace for a long time, his arms tightening with each breath.
Just as I was thinking about my body, which had melted and was sinking into his hot, large body, he whispered as if sighing.
"I love you."
I was happy.
“I love you, Adrienne.”
Was he this happy?
That thought was fleeting. The kiss, full of joy, continued again. And as that earnest and passionate kiss continued.
I could feel it even without me asking or him answering.
Rhodes is very happy now.
Because of me and no one else.
Just as the sun was setting.
Rhodnes and I went back to the room where Blie was lying.
Rossi was still by her side.
“Blie!”
And then Blie, who had a frown on her face, blinked his blurry eyes several times and opened them.
She was staring at the ornate ceiling painted with holy paintings with her eyes wide open, and then she turned her gaze to Rossi.
“Ugh, F**k! Ah! Crazy. My heart almost dropped!”
“You, you... !”
“I told you, Master. Don’t ever look at me while I’m sleeping with that face. Phew... It looks like I’ll be dreaming about this again for a while.”
“That’s what you say to a teacher you haven’t seen in years!”
“Master. How long has it been since we last met? Didn’t we stop by a few times along the way? Or what? Did decades pass while I was dead?!”
Blie sat up abruptly and looked around quickly.
And then she froze when she saw me widening my eyes at her, who had a foul mouth more than I thought.
“Is this a dream?”
"Hi."
I awkwardly raised my hand in greeting. Blie's gaze passed over me and turned to Rhodnes behind me.
“...That son of a bitch?”
Blie's eyes quickly scanned the room.
I answered quickly as if he was about to kick the bed and jump out at any moment.
“Which son of a bitch are you talking about? There are more than one son of a bitch.”
Blie's actions, which seemed to be looking for someone in a hurry, suddenly stopped.
Soon she threw her head back violently and started laughing.
“Ah-. The younger sibling I imagined was a bit more boring and stupid.”
I didn't even realize that I was clenching my fists in tension until Rhodnes silently grabbed my fists from behind.
“Every son of a bitch is dead.”
And Blie's eyes began to sparkle at my answer. She frowned mischievously, just as she had on the stage.
“I guess it wasn’t a dream. Just now, and that voice I heard before too.”
"...voice?"
“You said you’d wake me up.”
“!”
“Originally, I was supposed to die.”
Only then as if to confirm that she was alive, Blie's gaze turned to the hand she had been swinging wildly for a while.
“You said you had a lot of questions for me?”
I stared at her without answering.
“I almost died after keeping it a secret my whole life, but I’ll tell you this once.”
Blie's mouth, which was parched and pale but burst into thunderous laughter, began to open.
“My story.”
So, it was quite by accident that Blie first learned of Adrienne's existence.
“I guess she thinks she’s some kind of nobleman if she dresses up like that.”
“That’s funny. I guess she’s desperate to be like the Archduchess of Ronta or something.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
That day too, Blie was on her way to Rossi's cabin.
In the poor estate, Blie's flashy attire and brash personality were always a source of irritation, like a sharp stone.
So, since there were many cases of quarrels, she thought it would happen again this time.
That is until a new rumor about the Archduchess of Ronta came to her ears.
“It’ll be so refreshing to just sweep it away with magic! Ouch!”
“What is that big girl talk you have now?”
“Why did you hit me! You would have hit a boy, but you’re talking about a girl.”
“What else do you dislike that makes you come here with your mouth open? Is this your playground?”
“The only person I play with is my teacher, so it’s like a playground.”
“Teacher, what the heck!”
“Are you spreading rumors in the neighborhood that I have magical powers?”
With that temper...
Rossi started to light a fire in the fireplace for Blie, who returned with her ears red and her tongue clicking.
“Who is the Archduchess of Ronta?”
“I can barely remember King Elacon’s name, so how would I know?”
Who are you to follow me?
Blie, who had been staring at the floor with annoyed eyes, turned her gaze to the newspaper that Rossi had brought out to use as kindling.
“!”
“Since the fire has been lit, how about a blanket. Blie?”
Blie of that day was particularly poisonous.
She couldn't take her eyes off the front page of today's newspaper.
Rossi was anxious as if the fallen Blie was his own daughter and prepared a room for her in the Grand Hall.
Since the Grand Hall was much closer to the square than the Imperial Palace, we quickly headed there.
“She is alive. She just seems to be overworked and needs some rest.”
At that sound, the High Priest Teln looked at the lying Blie with a face filled with wonder.
“Ugh! Your Eminence. If you look at me with those kind eyes, even the person who wakes up will poke his own eyes and faint again.”
“Alive, alive...”
“Let’s go out first. You saw that she’s alive, right?”
Ephero glanced at Rhodnes, who was standing guard in front of the door, then dragged the High Priest and the attending doctor out of the guest room.
I continued to look down at Blie without being distracted by the sight.
Unlike inside the glass case where she lay comfortably as if asleep, she looked a little sick.
Rossi wiped Blie's forehead, which was dripping with cold sweat, with a wet towel.
“This crazy thing, for me....”
Rossi has been mumbling the same thing since earlier.
“Young Blie once asked me why I wandered around like that.”
“...”
“When she was little, I just laughed instead of answering. I'm human, too, and sometimes I get tired.”
“A long-hidden truth. I said I was looking for records to reveal and set the record straight. I thought, foolishly, that if I told the little kid a few things, she wouldn’t have guessed.”
Rossi buried her face in her hands and muttered in pain.
“When this child woke up, looked me in the eye, snatched the record from me, and proclaimed it before the people as if it were the will of God, I realized.”
You were trying to make my wish come true...
With those last words, Rossi sobbed quietly.
As I was watching, confused as to whether I should comfort her or stay quiet, I felt a piercing gaze.
“...Tell me something.”
All the way from the top of the stage.
It was Rhodnes who was glaring at me with those burning eyes.
***
Just like the momentum I was shooting at.
It only took a moment for our rough lips to touch.
I had no intention of pushing him away, but he pushed me as soon as we entered the empty room as if I was going to push him away.
Although it was a room without a bed, I felt like I was rolling around in bed with him.
Rhodnes, who had held my hands together and pushed me against the wall, was breathing heavily while digging into my mouth.
It was a passionate gesture that made my body heat up in an instant, reminding me of the heat we had shared until this morning.
He held my hand, which was pinned to the wall, tightly as if he could not even tolerate me hanging around his neck, and he tasted my breath. The heat that came in through our lips warmed my whole body.
Finally, our lips parted, when our legs began to hurt from standing for so long.
I had seen the sunken eyes of Rhodnes many times before, but this time it felt a little different. It was because I couldn't tell whether they were angry or excited.
Even after he pulled away, he still held me against the wall for a long time, pressing his forehead against mine.
In a room filled with smoke.
Although we only exchanged heavy breathing, we eventually hugged each other as if we had had a long conversation.
His lips, still wet, lightly bit the nape of my neck and he let out a deep sigh. His hot breath scattered across my sunken collarbone. I shivered slightly at the thick breath that clung to me like fog.
“What should I do with you?”
“...Roan.”
When his name was called, he buried his lips deeper. A tingling sensation ran from the nape of her neck, where he had touched, to the tips of my toes, where he had not touched.
“It’s driving me crazy because you won’t listen to me....”
He swayed as if he was crying or laughing. I held my breath in his arms, afraid that I would miss a single word he said.
“I love you so much I think I’m going crazy.”
Rhodnes, who had left a mark deep in the back of my neck, slowly raised his head.
A face as red as marble came into view.
Intensely gleaming red eyes.
His trembling lips sparkled as if he was desperate to explore my mouth again.
“Where are you going, huh?”
I quietly placed my hand on his cheek as he let out a groan.
Although Rhodnes looked at me with eyes filled with resentment, he willingly buried his cheek in my small palm and kissed me deeply as if worshipping me.
“I love you, Roan.”
For a moment.
His breathing, which had been ragged, stopped. His prominently angled jawbone bulged out, along with its tendons.
Rhodnes, who had frozen with his lips pressed against my palm, slowly raised his head towards me.
"I love you."
My love is foolish and selfish.
I thought that if I didn't do something that would make the other person happy or helpful, it would be useless even if I said it a hundred times.
Perhaps it was because my life resembled that of a person who lived to be useful during the time I loved Noevian.
Noevian too. Rhodnes too. Even though I knew that no matter what I did, they would be happy if I just said I loved them.
“I love you, Roan.”
I was a coward who could barely say such things when I was convinced that I had been of great help to him so that he could never reject my heart.
However.
In that one cowardly word.
An expression on Rhodnes's face that I had never seen before, even after spending several hot nights with him and mingling with him, came to mind.
Rhodnes's two hands cupped my cheeks, and his red eyes, which swayed and swayed until they finally collapsed, stared at my lips as if they were burning them.
"I love you."
As if I was born into this world and had been waiting for those words.
A beam of joy disguised as an expressionless face flashed and shattered repeatedly in his beautiful eyes.
And soon.
Our wet lips met again.
The warmth that had been licking my lower lip like a beast tending to its wound soon exploded inside my mouth, letting out an angry growl.
The tips of our noses, heated up and flushed, rub against each other incessantly.
A hand hotter than that pulled the back of my head, sucked in my breath without hesitation, licked it again, chewed it thoroughly, and swallowed it.
In contrast to its ferocious momentum, its breath was so fast that we drank it as if it were a sweet drink and got drunk.
“Adrienne, Adrienne, you’re really, really... a coward.”
He said with a hot sigh through the sloshing sound.
It didn't matter what he thought of my cowardice and what I knew of it.
I smiled and answered him as I looked at him with red eyes.
"I know."
“If you say that, I...”
A low groan came out, scratching my throat through the gap between my teeth, biting my lip, and wet my lips.
“...I can’t do anything.”
The man who said that he could do nothing at any moment by pulling off the clothes and cloak he was wearing and rolling around on the floor said.
Hot, wet lips started to touch the corners of my mouth, then my cheeks, the area around my eyes, and my forehead.
“Even the words ‘I’m sorry.’ Even the words ‘thank you.’ Nothing is bigger to me than those words.”
He held me in that embrace for a long time, his arms tightening with each breath.
Just as I was thinking about my body, which had melted and was sinking into his hot, large body, he whispered as if sighing.
"I love you."
I was happy.
“I love you, Adrienne.”
Was he this happy?
That thought was fleeting. The kiss, full of joy, continued again. And as that earnest and passionate kiss continued.
I could feel it even without me asking or him answering.
Rhodes is very happy now.
Because of me and no one else.
***
Just as the sun was setting.
Rhodnes and I went back to the room where Blie was lying.
Rossi was still by her side.
“Blie!”
And then Blie, who had a frown on her face, blinked his blurry eyes several times and opened them.
She was staring at the ornate ceiling painted with holy paintings with her eyes wide open, and then she turned her gaze to Rossi.
“Ugh, F**k! Ah! Crazy. My heart almost dropped!”
“You, you... !”
“I told you, Master. Don’t ever look at me while I’m sleeping with that face. Phew... It looks like I’ll be dreaming about this again for a while.”
“That’s what you say to a teacher you haven’t seen in years!”
“Master. How long has it been since we last met? Didn’t we stop by a few times along the way? Or what? Did decades pass while I was dead?!”
Blie sat up abruptly and looked around quickly.
And then she froze when she saw me widening my eyes at her, who had a foul mouth more than I thought.
“Is this a dream?”
"Hi."
I awkwardly raised my hand in greeting. Blie's gaze passed over me and turned to Rhodnes behind me.
“...That son of a bitch?”
Blie's eyes quickly scanned the room.
I answered quickly as if he was about to kick the bed and jump out at any moment.
“Which son of a bitch are you talking about? There are more than one son of a bitch.”
Blie's actions, which seemed to be looking for someone in a hurry, suddenly stopped.
Soon she threw her head back violently and started laughing.
“Ah-. The younger sibling I imagined was a bit more boring and stupid.”
I didn't even realize that I was clenching my fists in tension until Rhodnes silently grabbed my fists from behind.
“Every son of a bitch is dead.”
And Blie's eyes began to sparkle at my answer. She frowned mischievously, just as she had on the stage.
“I guess it wasn’t a dream. Just now, and that voice I heard before too.”
"...voice?"
“You said you’d wake me up.”
“!”
“Originally, I was supposed to die.”
Only then as if to confirm that she was alive, Blie's gaze turned to the hand she had been swinging wildly for a while.
“You said you had a lot of questions for me?”
I stared at her without answering.
“I almost died after keeping it a secret my whole life, but I’ll tell you this once.”
Blie's mouth, which was parched and pale but burst into thunderous laughter, began to open.
“My story.”
***
So, it was quite by accident that Blie first learned of Adrienne's existence.
“I guess she thinks she’s some kind of nobleman if she dresses up like that.”
“That’s funny. I guess she’s desperate to be like the Archduchess of Ronta or something.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
That day too, Blie was on her way to Rossi's cabin.
In the poor estate, Blie's flashy attire and brash personality were always a source of irritation, like a sharp stone.
So, since there were many cases of quarrels, she thought it would happen again this time.
That is until a new rumor about the Archduchess of Ronta came to her ears.
“It’ll be so refreshing to just sweep it away with magic! Ouch!”
“What is that big girl talk you have now?”
“Why did you hit me! You would have hit a boy, but you’re talking about a girl.”
“What else do you dislike that makes you come here with your mouth open? Is this your playground?”
“The only person I play with is my teacher, so it’s like a playground.”
“Teacher, what the heck!”
“Are you spreading rumors in the neighborhood that I have magical powers?”
With that temper...
Rossi started to light a fire in the fireplace for Blie, who returned with her ears red and her tongue clicking.
“Who is the Archduchess of Ronta?”
“I can barely remember King Elacon’s name, so how would I know?”
Who are you to follow me?
Blie, who had been staring at the floor with annoyed eyes, turned her gaze to the newspaper that Rossi had brought out to use as kindling.
“!”
“Since the fire has been lit, how about a blanket. Blie?”
Blie of that day was particularly poisonous.
She couldn't take her eyes off the front page of today's newspaper.
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