Chapter 113

"Strange. Why hasn't Lord Nine returned?"

When Kinaine hadn't returned by dawn, Ramu couldn't hide her worry. Rahu, who had recently been strangely following Kinaine, had already been pacing around the room with an anxious face like a dog who had lost its master.

"Could he have left already?"

"That can't be. All his belongings are still here."

"There's hardly anything to call belongings. Lord Nine didn't bring much to begin with. He could easily leave that much behind."

"But he wouldn't leave without saying anything to us. Lord Nine isn't that kind of person."

Finally, they continued waiting for Kinaine's return.

How much time had passed like that? Someone knocked on the door.

"Lord Nine!"

Rahu ran to the door before anyone else. But the person standing at the door wasn't who they were waiting for.

"Eek!"

Seeing his face, Rahu backed away with a frightened expression. In contrast, Ramu greeted him with somewhat welcoming recognition.

"Oh? Lord Targan? What brings you here?"

Ramu didn't have negative feelings toward Targan. He had once provided food separately at Kinaine's request. Of course, his intimidating appearance made it impossible to treat him with familiarity.

Targan quietly looked down at the tiny winged tribe members who barely reached his waist. His expression was indifferent as always. But the perceptive Ramu sensed he seemed somewhat troubled.

"A message from Lord Asad. You are to leave this place by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? So the departure has been decided."

Ramu and Rahu weren't surprised. It was natural they couldn't stay in the dragon palace once they were no longer bride candidates.

"Then I'll be going."

"W-wait a moment!"

It was then. Rahu, who feared Targan for once being imprisoned and watched by him, gathered courage to call out to him.

"Lord Nine hasn't returned yet, have you seen him? Ramu saw him leave with Lord Asad."

"...Only you two are leaving the dragon palace."

"What?"

"Lord Nine will remain here."

Ramu and Rahu looked at each other.

What was going on?

Until yesterday, Kinaine's resolve to leave the dragon palace had been firm. The two also knew by now that he wasn't someone to easily break his stubbornness. Above all, he wasn't the type to announce such a decision without any explanation to them.

Something strange was happening.

* * *

Chirp.

At the clear bird sound, Kinaine opened his eyes. But still, he saw only pitch darkness, the same as when his eyes were closed.

Though he lay on a soft bed, something felt unfamiliar. He could keenly sense that not only the place where he lay, but the space's smell had changed. Kinaine sat up straight and spoke.

"Is anyone there?"

There was no answer. Though he asked several more times, no sound was heard except his own voice. It seemed there was no one else here.

Kinaine closed his eyes and concentrated.

When he opened his eyes again, he could see the room's scenery. Only his viewpoint was slightly high, because what Kinaine was seeing was through the eyes of the spirit beast bird perched on his head.

It was the same black magic he had used at the Gold Pot. Just as he had borrowed an insect's vision then, this time he had merely changed the subject to the spirit beast bird. However, he couldn't use it long as it strained his body.

The place where Kinaine opened his eyes was a spacious room. However, there was no furniture except a bed, table, and chair, and thick, soft carpets covered the floor completely without any gaps. It clearly wasn't the ruined palace where he had been staying.

Getting off the bed and heading toward the room's single door, Kinaine nearly fell, staggering with his first step. It was the aftereffect of the long night. Still, though his whole body ached as if beaten, he was clean without any dirty spots.

Staggering to the door, Kinaine grabbed the handle.

"Hmm."

As expected, it didn't open.

Perhaps because they weren't his own eyes, he couldn't see traces of magic on the door like before. But he could tell without seeing. He had already experienced a similar situation once before.

Kinaine swallowed a sigh.

"As I thought... I'm imprisoned."

Here was proof that Helio and Asad were the same person. Their actions were identical like this.

Having no choice, Kinaine returned to sit on the bed. Then belatedly checking his appearance, he blushed slightly. Embarrassingly, he wore only a very thin garment like dragonfly wings without any underclothes. Such clothes weren't worn even as sleepwear in the modest royal family, and mercenaries wouldn't even look at them for lack of practicality.

These clothes that showed all skin beneath were solely for seduction. However, he thought they would only be effective on someone with a pleasing and delicate body, while on him they just assaulted others' eyes. Wearing such clothes, his body full of scars and grown even thinner was immediately visible.

Just why had Asad dressed him in such clothes? He couldn't fathom Asad's thoughts at all. If it was meant as a means of humiliation, there were better ways, and as for making him look good...

He still couldn't understand.

Kinaine released the magic. The world turned dark again.

"What's this thing? When did it follow us in?"

He seemed to have dozed off briefly. At the familiar voice, Kinaine's eyes flew open. Someone was sitting beside him on the bed. Judging by the chirping sounds, they must have been bothering the bird.

"Lord Asad."

"How is it here? Do you like it?"

"Why have you imprisoned me?"

"From now on, you'll stay in this palace. Since I haven't laid carpets anywhere except this room yet, stay here for now. I'll soon bring in servants to attend to you."

"Please let me out."

The conversation of mismatched responses paused briefly as a cold hand touched Kinaine's thigh. His thin body twitched as the hand lifted the thin fabric that might as well not have been there and moved increasingly deeper.

"Come to think of it, you don't really need to work. If you need something, order it, and if you want something, say so. As long as you're here, you can have anything."

Asad thought he should have been like this from the start.

Since when had he cared so much about others?

Though he had cited various reasons like alpha and omega or rut aftereffects, none of that mattered now.

He had no intention of sending Kinaine back to the human realm. So that's how it would be.

It didn't matter what Kinaine thought. He would just play with him until he tired of him, and think about it again when that happened. There was no need to think complexly about keeping one mere human.

Yes, thinking like that was clearly more like his usual self.

But why? Why did he keep feeling this anxious and uneasy?

If there had been a mirror, Asad would have discovered that his eyes, which usually looked down at others arrogantly, were shaking with anxiety like a dog that had committed a great wrong without its master's knowledge.

In contrast, Kinaine questioned calmly without panic.

"Lord Asad, didn't you promise? That you would let me return when the rut ended?"

"...It wasn't 'when the rut ends.' It was 'when the symptoms end.'"

Asad sat between Kinaine's legs and lowered his head to kiss the white thigh. Now he had realized how to silence Kinaine and shatter his composure.

As expected, Kinaine tried to bend his knees in surprise. Asad lightly prevented this by grabbing his ankles.

"Nng, that's, word play."

"Go appeal at the shrine. Tell them the dragon deceived you with lies. Let's see whose side the gods take."

Asad continued kissing up the thigh. Sensing danger, Kinaine reached out to stop him. Just as his hands filled with soft hair.

"Ah, wait, I don't like... hah!"

Kinaine drew in a sharp breath. Asad had taken his member into his mouth. Oral pleasure was what Kinaine had the hardest time adapting to, no matter how many times.

"I don't... like this."

"Then hit me."

At the casual words to hit him if he didn't like it, the hands gripping his hair tightened. But in the end, Kinaine didn't lay a hand on him at all.

Feeling the member swelling properly inside him, Asad thought humans were indeed liars.

Enjoying it this much, yet saying he doesn't like it.

No wonder he couldn't judge which of Kinaine's words were truth and which were lies.

But it didn't matter now. Kinaine was in his hands anyway. He would never lose him again.

'Again?'

Asad questioned the thought that suddenly occurred to him, but didn't dwell on it long. All that mattered was that he would be together with Kinaine from now on.