After all, Zavad was a noble young master who, despite a life that wasn’t always pleasant, had never performed manual labor.
Zavad stared quietly at Ranshel’s hardened, chapped fingers before rubbing his lips against the rough surface.
“From now on, nothing but soft and ticklish things will touch your hands.”
“…”
Ranshel momentarily dazed out as he watched Zavad rub his cheek against the back of his hand and kiss between each finger.
Zavad was handling his rough hand with such care and caution, as if it were a delicate glasswork.
The ecstatic feeling seeping into his chest made his whole body feel like it was melting into a soft blur.
“The air gets dry in the winter, so your skin will crack and hurt. I should prepare some soft fragrant oils.”
“…You already have plenty in there.”
When Ranshel pointed toward the drawer, mumbling in embarrassment, Zavad let out a light huff of a laugh.
“The purpose is different. The ingredients are different, too…”
He stopped his gentle words mid-sentence and tilted his head to the side.
“Actually, perhaps they aren’t that different. They’re all things used to wet your body.”
Then, he placed his hand on Ranshel’s shoulder and slid his fingertips down the spine.
Shivering from the ticklish sensation, Ranshel hurriedly shook his head.
“I can’t do any more…”
“I know. Come here.”
Ranshel sat on Zavad’s lap as instructed and wrapped his arms around the sturdy shoulders.
They now kissed and rubbed cheeks like animals sharing warmth, a habit they fell into every time their eyes met.
The palm stroking Ranshel’s back was hot and firm, but it wasn’t a touch filled with heavy lust.
‘Was he just looking for an embrace?’
Feeling a flutter in his chest, Ranshel closed his eyes and leaned his full weight against Zavad.
But then, while holding him, Zavad began to fiddle with his left hand again.
Rubbing the ring finger and cupping his fingers into a circle around it was an act with an intention that was now too obvious to ignore.
Ranshel spoke, feeling his heart thumping.
“Why… do you keep doing that?”
“…Why do you think?”
When Zavad asked back suggestively, Ranshel buried his face in Zavad’s shoulder and mumbled in embarrassment.
“I don’t wear anything on my hands…”
“Why?”
“It’s just… it gets in the way. I don’t like it.”
“I see.”
Zavad, having answered readily, added lightly:
“Just wear it once to show me. That’s enough. After that, do whatever you want with it, wherever you want to keep it.”
“…Won’t you get mad if I take it off? I might even lose it…”
“I won’t be mad. I’d actually be pleased.”
“…Why?”
When Ranshel lifted his head slightly to ask, Zavad lightly rubbed his lips against Ranshel’s exposed forehead and answered lowly.
“Because I can give you another one.”
“…”
“It’s a good thing, since you never ask for anything other than to fill your stomach.”
Ranshel buried his face deep into Zavad’s chest again. His skin burned bright red, and his heart pounded noisily.
Zavad had been acting all along as if he were an affectionate lover playing along with his partner’s whims.
Ranshel tried hard not to think deeply about it, but everything Zavad showed him pointed in a single direction, making it difficult for Ranshel to calm his racing heart.
‘Young Master, do you love me?’
Ranshel didn’t ask the question.
He felt he knew the answer too well now, and he had a strong premonition that the answer would return to him like a blade.
Zavad was revealing his heart with his entire body.
And the version of himself Zavad saw was likely the same.
Ranshel couldn’t calm his heart, which was fluttering and sending blood to every corner of his body.
Eventually, he suggestively moved his hips to stimulate the object beneath his buttocks.
“…I thought you said you were too tired to do more?”
“I don’t know, ah, quickly…”
As if he never had any intention of refusing the pleading voice, Zavad overlapped their lips instantly.
The fire ignited once more in their cooling bodies.
The bed creaked and shook, and the sheets crumpled beneath their feet.
By the time Ranshel’s waist was so sore he could no longer move it, he lay exhausted, using Zavad’s arm as a pillow, blinking his drowsy eyes slowly.
He was in such a hazy state that it wouldn’t have been strange to fall asleep at any moment, when Zavad suddenly stroked his red hair and murmured:
“I… I didn’t want to make the same mistake my mother did.”
“…”
At the mention of Charlotte, a sudden chill washed over Ranshel, as if the heat that had warmed his whole body just moments ago had been drained away.
“Giving one’s whole heart to a worthless commoner. Throwing away everything you have for it. I vowed several times that I would never do such a ridiculous thing…”
Every time Zavad spoke slowly, Ranshel felt as if his windpipe were being choked.
Zavad didn’t know.
Charlotte’s end wasn’t that romantic.
She didn’t go on a happy elopement with her lover; she was disposed of after being hunted by the Nameless.
But he couldn’t tell him the truth.
It was a story that would never escape his lips.
Seeing Ranshel’s face turn pale, Zavad caressed his cheek with his large palm as if to soothe him.
“But… lately, I’m starting to understand.”
Instead of explaining that he didn’t mean to hurt him, Zavad kissed Ranshel’s forehead and the bridge of his nose, pulling him into a tight hug.
“That it could happen. That such a thing is possible…”
“…”
“That such a heart can exist…”
Ranshel closed his eyelids to hide his shaking gaze.
Zavad lightly bit the finger he had been fiddling with.
When the startled Ranshel opened his eyes again, the face filling his vision looked straight at him as Zavad spoke.
“I want to monopolize you.”
“…”
“I don’t think I can be satisfied anymore with just having my position as your employer changed so that I become your master for life.”
Despite the calm murmur, his red eyes were shaking unsteadily.
“What do I have to do… to have you completely?”
Ranshel didn’t know what to say.
Hearing those words, the things he had been forcing himself to forget began to crawl back into his memory like snakes.
His throat felt scratchy, as if he had swallowed sand.
“…Answer me.”
But when Zavad pressed him again, unable to hide his anxiety and pleading for an answer, Ranshel was once again able to erase every thought trying to occupy his mind.
“Young Master… you already have my everything.”
As his trembling lips parted to speak, Zavad’s eyes curved softly.
His well-shaped lips formed a deep arc.
Ranshel watched that smiling face, feeling a pleasant pain pierce through his chest.
It was a love that felt like self-harm.
