“Really?”
“Of course.”
“I just thought for sure you’d want to stay. You seem really close with your friend here.”
“It’s true that this is my hometown, and that Malri is an important friend. But… I still want to go with all of you.”
If everything we had been through had only been about purifying my rare curse, maybe now that it was gone, I would have felt like this was the right time to settle down.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
Of course, traveling with them had helped me level up significantly. But at this point, that wasn’t the reason I wanted to stay with them.
I just… really liked them.
I liked Jenin, standing right in front of me. I liked Barkrud, and Dain, and Seiris.
I liked Kelian.
So much that my heart felt full to bursting.
“If you all will have me, that is.”
“Of course, we will!”
Jenin answered in an instant, exhaling a relieved sigh—though this time, it was completely different from the one before.
“That’s such a relief. Honestly, I was anxious about this even before we got here… I couldn’t stop you from wanting to visit home, but I kept worrying—what if Aine decided to stay?”
Her worries had been completely different from mine. I hadn’t come here because I wanted to stay; I had come to properly say goodbye before leaving for good. Now that I thought about it, they had insisted on coming with me, even though I could have just set a meeting point and returned on my own.
“You were really worried about that? You didn’t need to be. Besides, Loti and Rona looked like they’d never leave no matter how much we tried to convince them.”
Jenin chuckled at my half-joking remark.
“It’s really a relief to hear you say that so firmly… but I think you should clear up some misunderstandings. Especially with Kelian.”
“Kelian…?”
“Yeah. He was the most anxious about it. He was worried you’d decide to stay.”
Kelian was anxious?
Jenin’s words left a ripple in my heart. She, now reassured, simply said she could finally get a good night’s sleep and disappeared into her room.
I couldn’t stand in the hallway forever, so I returned to my room as well, but my mind was even more tangled than before.
Right then, Kelian entered with damp hair, freshly washed.
A dangerous beast—I could not allow myself to look at him directly. I quickly turned my head away, speaking awkwardly to break the silence.
“Kelian, did you know? This room… It used to be mine.”
As if he would have known that. It was a dumb thing to say, but fortunately, he just replied, “I see,” and started looking around the room more seriously.
“I never had much in here to begin with, and while I was gone, they must have moved some furniture around… Ah, look at this. See this little drawing? I made it when I was a kid.”
A tiny doodle of a loaf of bread was etched into the wall beside the bed. Why bread, of all things? Maybe I had been hungry at the time.
Kelian leaned down beside me, lowering his head to get a closer look.
“Aine…”
Then, he traced his long, elegant finger over the drawing, and for some reason, it felt like he was caressing me instead. I flinched.
“Did you… draw a monster?”
Any strange tension in the air immediately vanished at his clueless question. I burst out laughing. Was my drawing really that bad?
Kelian looked at me in confusion, unsure why I was laughing.
“It’s a loaf of bread.”
“…Bread?”
His perfectly sculpted face scrunched slightly—not in displeasure, but in intense concentration as he studied the drawing again. Even that expression was beautiful.
Smiling softly, I let out the words lingering on my lips.
“Don’t leave me behind.”
Kelian’s gaze shifted as he analyzed the drawing. Slowly, he turned his eyes toward me.
“I still want to stay with you. So don’t leave me behind, Kelian.”
Please.
The last word slipped out pitifully, but I couldn’t help it. If Kelian and the others decided to leave me behind, I would have no way to stop them.
“…….”
He didn’t answer right away. But I realized I didn’t need to wait in anxiety.
Because he pulled me into his arms without hesitation.
His embrace always had an uncanny way of instantly calming me.
“I never intended to leave you behind. Not ever.”
His whisper carried an unshakable conviction. As if, even if I had insisted on staying, he would have dragged me away by force. Maybe Jenin had been right—maybe he had been anxious this whole time. The awkward tension that had been standing between us felt like it had crumbled, at least a little.
Yet, something still didn’t feel completely resolved.
Neither of us seemed entirely at ease.
Then, Kelian finally spoke.
“For now, let’s not share a room.”
At his quiet sigh of a statement, I quickly looked up.
“I’ll ask Seiris to swap rooms with me tonight.”
He had already made up his mind. He looked ready to leave this very second.
I hadn’t been able to respond immediately, but before I even realized it, my hand had reached out and grabbed his sleeve.
“Why?”
That was all I could manage to say. Just ‘why?’
Logically, it was a decision that even I needed. If I was already struggling with frustration, spending an entire night alone with Kelian—the very source of that frustration—would be far more torturous than simply camping outside.
So there was no real reason to ask. Yet, before I knew it, I had grabbed him, almost demanding an answer.
“Because I don’t trust myself.”
“What do you mean—”
“I mean, I’m not sure I can stay in control with you next to me.”
Even though I had tilted my head up, our bodies were still pressed together. Through the thin fabric, I could feel his warmth, the firmness of his muscles.
Kelian exhaled softly and rested his forehead on my shoulder.
For a moment, I wondered—was he struggling with the same urges I was?
No, if he was telling the truth, then he absolutely was.
I felt relief knowing I wasn’t alone in this. But at the same time, frustration began creeping in.
“You don’t have to stay in control.”
That wasn’t reasoned logic speaking. That was pure emotion.
I felt his body tense against mine. His brows furrowed slightly as if trying to understand my words.
“Aine…?”
I met his confused gaze head-on.
I had held back because I thought he didn’t want this. But if he did, and I did too—then why should we keep holding back?
I tried to justify it in my head, but ultimately, I needed to confirm what he truly wanted.
“If you don’t want it, bite me, Kelian.”
I threw his own words back at him.
Then, standing on my toes, I crashed my lips against his.
Caught off guard, Kelian stumbled slightly, his body tilting backward as he let me press into him. My tongue pushed forward, pressing insistently against his.
It had been so long since the last time that it was clumsy, messier than before.
At this rate, I thought, maybe he really would bite me and storm out.
I was in no position to be throwing out bold words like, ‘If you don’t want it, bite me.’
“…….”
But in the next moment, Kelian, who had been quietly accepting me, suddenly grabbed my hips with both hands, and at the same time, his tongue entwined mine as if capturing it.
“Hnngh.”
A moan escaped as my tongue burned with heat, as if it had been seared. Even through my clothes, his hands kneaded my flesh before my body was suddenly lifted into the air. Thinking he was just holding me as he usually did, I wrapped my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. But then, while still holding me up, his hand slipped beneath my skirt.
“Can I put it in like this…?”
His low voice slipped into the brief moment when our lips parted, resonating as if it were pouring directly into my eardrums. Enthralled, I eagerly nodded, but my mind was too hazy from the intoxicating heat of our long-awaited touch to fully grasp his words.
His hand slipped past my undergarments and unhesitatingly caressed my most sensitive place. I could even feel the dampness seeping into his fingers, making my face flush with embarrassment. No, but… we’ve only kissed, so why am I this wet…?
“You’re already this soaked.”
As if to show me proof, he pressed his damp fingers against the inside of my thigh and slowly dragged them downward. The sticky, deliberate motion sent a shiver through me, and I clung even tighter to his neck. In response, he placed another gentle kiss on my cheek.
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Hnn….”
“I’m just as wet as you are.”
He pulled my hips in a little closer, spreading my legs wider as something firm prodded at my entrance. Even without looking, I could tell just how big, hot, thick, and rigid he was. The broad tip of his length pressed against my folds, nudging forward.
When he said he was just as wet as I was, he hadn’t been exaggerating. The head of his shaft was just as slick as the heat pooling between my thighs. It wasn’t from release—he hadn’t even begun yet—so the unfamiliar fluid mixed with my own arousal, drenching us both.
“Ah, hngh, aah….”
Slowly, agonizingly, he pushed inside. The sheer size and heat of him made me bite down hard on my lower lip.
“You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Hnn… ah….”
“Bite me instead.”
His voice was gentle and composed, yet his teal eyes were clouded with desire. The face that could have belonged in a royal portrait now carried a decadent allure, as if it belonged to something forbidden, something meant to be admired only in the shadows.
Seeing him like that made my stomach tense involuntarily. He must have felt it too, as his brows furrowed slightly.
“That’s not what I meant for you to bite.”
Thrust—without warning, the shaft that had been pushing in so slowly was suddenly buried to the hilt.
“Ah! Mm—!”
I barely managed to stifle my cry, clamping both hands over my mouth. The walls of the Deer Inn weren’t exactly thick. Even though my room was at the far end and only Kelian and I were inside, I couldn’t risk making too much noise.
But he didn’t seem the least bit concerned. As if that slow, careful pace had never existed, he gripped my hips tightly and drove into me with newfound force.
“Ahh! Hah, ahng, ngh—!”
I desperately muffled my moans into my hands with every deep thrust, but I couldn’t stop the sounds from slipping through. Nor could I do anything about the obscene noises of our bodies joining, the wet, lewd echoes filling the room.
“Too deep….”
He was reaching so deep inside me it felt like my mind was unraveling. While his lower half showed no mercy, his upper body remained impossibly gentle, holding me steady as I melted in his grasp. Maybe it was because he had been holding back for so long, but this reunion was far rougher than I had expected.
It wasn’t that he was being reckless or hurting me. It was just that the sheer size of him, the relentless way he filled me, was overwhelming, and the pleasure he forced out of me was unbearably intense. On top of that, he showed no signs of finishing anytime soon…
“Ahh! Hah, ngh—”
At some point, I had ended up lying on my stomach, and he pressed himself over me, rutting into me with desperate fervor. When I instinctively tried to crawl forward, to escape the onslaught, he gently pinned my hands down, only to slam into me even harder.
I was going to pass out. My climax should have peaked and faded by now, but instead, it kept surging, never-ending, like I was trapped in a spiral of pleasure with no escape. And then, before I even realized it, Kelian had flipped me onto my back, his mouth latching onto my nipple with an insatiable hunger.
“Ah—Ke-Kelian, g-gentler….”
Kelian, who had been nibbling on my hardened peak, finally soothed it with slow, languid strokes of his tongue. But ironically, that only made my nipple stiffen further, and when he noticed, he took it fully into his mouth and began to suck deeply.
“Hngh, haa… ahh!”
