As Aren created a wind to float Heather, Klen walked over to Heinz.
“Ugh…….”
He picked up Heinz, who didn’t even have the energy to struggle, and tucked him under his arm before turning his head toward me.
Then he reached out his other hand to me.
“Let’s go.”
I took that hand.
By the time we started walking, the chill that had frozen the surroundings had all scattered.
Perhaps because it had frozen at a low temperature only momentarily, the plants had not withered.
Picking our way through them, we headed even deeper inside.
I felt sorry for the soldiers who would be searching the area, but we couldn’t be caught just yet.
After moving for a while, we finally stopped at a place hidden by trees where a massive boulder stood tall.
[Well then, I shall scout the surrounding area.]
Aren set Heather down and flew back up into the sky.
He looked as if he wanted to shower the two of them with curses, but since I wouldn’t allow it, he didn’t even want to look at them.
I watched the blue bird disappear into the heights before turning my head back.
“The two of them won’t open their mouths easily.”
“It certainly appears that way.”
Klen pulled a pouch from his chest.
“What is that?”
The pouch looked very familiar and was light, as if nothing was inside.
“I borrowed it briefly from the healer.”
“Ah…….”
If that were the case, it wasn’t empty; rather, it would contain an unimaginably large amount of things.
“Adrian. Would you mind stepping back for a moment?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I intend to extract a confession.”
“……!”
When a smile formed on his face while he said those words, goosebumps broke out across my neck.
Coldness and a smile are truly a bad combination.
What on earth was he planning to do to get a confession?
Surely he wasn’t going to torture them while wearing such a pure smile.
“W-wait! Wait a minute, you aren’t really going to leave, are you?”
“We’ve… become, cough! somewhat close, haven’t we? That bird… no, that man’s eyes, he’s lost it.”
When I took a step back, the two of them desperately tried to stop me.
“……Close? Since when?”
“N-no. We aren’t close.”
However, those words seemed to provoke Klen instead.
Since he had already shown his magic, he didn’t seem interested in hiding it further; the chill spreading from his feet began to freeze the surroundings again.
Heather, standing on the ground, became even more firmly fixed as she stuck to the floor.
I could see her body trembling violently—I couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from fear.
“Damn it! The information was all wrong. Klen Valuncio was…… this kind of person?”
“For the sake of my beloved wife…….”
He stopped abruptly in the middle of a phrase he usually said quite well.
“I should definitely resort to torture.”
“Suddenly?!”
“Heh. Go ahead, do whatever you want. We won’t open our mouths so easily…….”
“Adrian. Please help me.”
He reached out his hand, asking for my help. I didn’t know what he was planning.
But since he, who had told me to step back, was now asking for help, I readily approached him.
And then,
“Mmph?!”
“Gasp.”
“Is this…… torture?”
Klen grabbed the back of my head and suddenly kissed me.
I tried to pull away, but the grip of his hand was so strong that I couldn’t move an inch.
He pressed his lips firmly against mine and forced his way through.
If it had been a light touch and release, I would have played along as much as he wanted.
The only saving grace was that because he turned his body before the kiss, all they could see was the back of my head.
The tongue that invaded wasn’t a joke; it was in dead earnest, as if pouring all its strength into stimulating me.
Even as I felt my body twitching and trembling, he showed no sign of backing down.
Instead, he persistently rubbed against the spots where I flinched in surprise.
My mind felt like it was drifting away at the deepening kiss, performed not in private, but under the gaze of others.
“Euuub.”
I focused all my nerves on holding back the moans trying to escape, but unable to do anything about the rushing sensations, I could only tightly grip the hem of Klen’s clothes.
‘Was the one being tortured…… me?’
My head was full of confusion.
Usually, in times like this, isn’t the other side the one being tortured?
Why am I the one receiving it?
Is it because I followed them with such a light heart?
My tightly clenched hands had turned pale, and I was reaching my limit in holding back the sounds trying to escape through my nose.
It was only when saliva began to trickle down my chin that the long harassment ended.
Just as a moan was about to burst from my liberated mouth, he pecked my lips lightly as if to swallow it.
Then, he slowly licked over my lips before pulling away.
“Ugh. This ‘torture’…….”
“Ah, the real thing is this.”
Klen took a small bottle from the pouch.
Inside were several green, round objects.
Since they were in a bottle, were they medicine?
But they also looked like berries or simple clumps of grass.
“Ugh! Th-th-that is!”
Unlike me, who felt doubtful, Heinz’s face turned pale and stiff.
Seeing as he recognized it at a glance, it seemed to be medicine made in the Eastern Tower.
‘Then, why the kiss?’
What on earth was that just now?
“I did it unintentionally out of joy for saving my kidnapped wife.”
It seemed my question had shown on my face.
Klen pressed his sleeve against the corner of my mouth, which I hadn’t even been able to wipe yet, and gave a faint smile.
Since his true nature was already exposed, there was no need for him to act.
‘Is he trying to trick me?’
Having brushed off the matter of the kiss so vaguely, he approached Heinz with the bottle.
“I will force his mouth open, so please put it inside.”
“Um. What is this? I feel like I need to know what it is before I can do it.”
“This is.”
Klen took my hand and tilted the bottle over it.
A small, round thing rolled out and landed on my palm. It didn’t hold any particular heat or cold.
There was no strange smell either.
Instead, there was just a slight scent of grass that calmed the mind.
“It is medicine the healer gave me before I left. She said it might be useful.”
“……Ah.”
The healer’s medicine.
If that’s the case, at least it’s not a type of poison.
Befitting her title, she wouldn’t make anything harmful to the body.
However, the taste certainly couldn’t be guaranteed.
“Gah! Let go! Let go!”
Klen grabbed Heinz and forced his mouth open.
Covered in wounds and frozen cold, his body couldn’t even struggle.
But his eyes shone fiercely as if he would devour us right now.
I tossed the medicine into the slightly opened mouth.
