Mmm. My eyes slowly opened. What time is it? Looking at the darkness, I guess it’s still early in the morning.
What was I doing… Uh, huh? No way? I jumped out of the bed and looked around. Oh gosh, it looked like I fell asleep.
What about Redian? Crazy. I must be going crazy. I needed to treat his back, and I was going to talk about the monster hunting competition, but I forgot everything and fell asleep.
“Re…?” My lips stopped trying to call him. It was because of the silver hair that was sleeping by my bedside.
Did he do it himself? Next to him were towels soaked in water and a medicine cabinet. Seeing that I felt much better than before, it seemed like Redian had been treating me all night.
“What’s going on here?”
“…”
Looking down at the sleeping figure, I couldn’t say anything for a moment. Something very strange and fuzzy was rising in the back of my mind, and it just felt awkward.
Wait, so how long has it been like this? The floor was cold, and his legs must be hurting, so I couldn’t just leave him lying there. But there was no way I could move him to the bed myself.
He must have barely fallen asleep, but I can’t wake him up. What should I do? I couldn’t call anyone because no one knew Redian was there.
Ah, right. I looked at my necklace and the restraints on Redian’s wrists. When I took off my necklace, the restraints clanked as if they were coming off. If I pull the necklace like this…
Oh.
Redian’s lightly lifted body was laid down on the bed. As the restraints moved in response to my necklace, Redian naturally followed. Isn’t this quite useful?
In the end, the restraints and necklace were connected as one. Then… I wish I could just press it like a button and pull him to me, even from afar. Then there wouldn’t have to cause a commotion like at last night’s festival.
Being able to control him like this was only possible if Redian was next to me. However, if I could press a button to make him come, I could find him quickly, even when he’s far away. That’s going to be a proper restraint.
Anyway, I laid Redian down on the bed and covered him with a blanket. When I saw his sleeping figure, Maze’s words came to my mind.
“Redian needs to take sedatives to fall asleep. Otherwise, we have to train him until he collapses from exhaustion.”
“Even if we did that, he would wake up as soon as he felt the slightest sound or sign of presence. He also tends to have nightmares.”
He often has nightmares. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t just once or twice when I saw it myself. There were times when he was hallucinating and muttering incoherent words. There were times when he collapsed and vomited blood.
“…Ha.”
Then Redian frowned. His breathing became increasingly rough as if he was having trouble breathing. I thought he was asleep, but it seemed like he had a nightmare.
“Rere, are you sleeping?” I spoke to him on purpose. As if to let him hear my voice even in his dream.
“Do you know? I’m going to start counting to ten now. Then everything will be over.”
I wiped his cold, sweaty forehead and continued to whisper. “It’s okay, Redian.”
It’s just a dream that will disappear when you open your eyes. It’s okay. Everything is fine.
“…Ha.”
Redian’s trembling lips slowly calmed down.
“…”
But at that moment, I saw. The moisture that had accumulated on his eyelashes was falling down.
I can’t keep doing this. For some reason, my heart felt like it was pounding faster. There was nothing good for me about feeling these emotions.
“Don’t dream about anything and get up after a good night’s sleep.”
I shook my head and drove away the weak emotions.
Even though I’m continuing to treat him, he still has severe insomnia. Is there any way to treat him naturally without using sedatives or drugs?
I looked at Redian, who closed his eyes, lost in thought for a long time. Fortunately, when the dim dawn came, Redian fell into a deep sleep without waking up even once. Um, if not… It would be okay if he continued to sleep next to me.
Somehow, laughter flowed.
* * *
It was morning before I knew it. After taking a bath, I took care of all the work I couldn’t do yesterday and read all the meeting reports. However,
When will he wake up?
“…”
Redian was still asleep. It’s as if he wanted to compensate for all the insomnia he’s suffered so far.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
While waiting for Redian to wake up, I immersed myself in work again. I looked at the reagents that Vallentin had sent, which made me amazed. What he sent wasn’t just an antidote. This one is for wrinkle improvement and whitening, this one is for elasticity, and this one is for soothing and moisturizing.
[I just got lucky.]
Not to mention this note overflowing with how genius he is.
It’s really different. I just sat there and threw bait at him, but he came up with products for the cosmetics store. I really liked it.
How long has it been since then? “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
It was already afternoon. I felt my limit as I looked back and forth at the sleeping Redian and the clock ticking. Since he didn’t eat dinner last night, he had to eat something and more than anything…
Treatment! He had to get his back treated. But I couldn’t remove his clothes with my hands, so I kept waiting.
Right. Let’s do it quickly while he’s sleeping. I grabbed a clean towel and some ointment and approached the bed. Fortunately, Redian was wearing a shirt, so it seemed like it could easily be pulled off by unbuttoning a few buttons.
Without hesitation, I unbuttoned the buttons and loosened them. It was at that time when I could see the long clavicle and strong shoulder line.
“…What are you doing?”
A large hand grabbed both of my hands at once. When I raised my head, Redian seemed to have woken up and was looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed.
Wow, is it because it’s a novel? How can he look so fresh and clean even just waking up?
“Treatment.”
“…”
Redian hasn’t spoken for a while. Even though the sun was shining, his blue eyes were cold.
“From now on…” Then he murmured in a low, submerged voice. “Don’t touch my body.”
What? Is he drawing a line now? So far, I’ve applied ointment with my own hands and put gloves on him, but have he forgotten everything?
“Don’t you remember when I wiped the blood from your face? I was the one who applied the ointment myself every time you slept, Rere.”
“It’s different then and now.”
Then, Redian stood up, widened the distance from me, and stepped back. Is it different from now? What? In fact, haven’t we already gotten closer?
“What are you talking about?”
“So please be careful.”
Wow, how determined his expression is.
Redian took the ointment from me and stood up. “I will do it myself.” With legs long enough to make me look up, he walked to the bathroom in my room.
I felt quite absurd as I looked at his back. What? So please be careful? I squinted at the closed bathroom door.
He’s so cute… Yesterday, he was like a puppy, but he became like a cat again when he woke up.
* * *
“…Princess.”
Vallentin put down the glass bottle. There were already numerous bottles lined up on the table. When on earth is she coming?
Siani Felicite ordered an antidote but didn’t show up for several days. Thanks to this, he had nothing to do, so he messed around with this and that and ended up doing too many useless things. After experimenting with a distillation method to extract the active ingredients of herbs, he raised his head in frustration. But then.
“You’re here today too.”
Maze came into the laboratory. He said that as if he was used to Vallentin, who didn’t even look at him.
“All the reagents you made were delivered to the princess.”
Only then did Vallentin’s indifferent eyes turn to Maze. His expression while holding fresh bergamot in his hand was akin to that of concocting an assassination poison.
“What on earth is that woman doing without coming…”
“When she told you one thing, she was very pleased you had done ten. She greatly praised you for exceeding her expectations.”
“…Praised?”
Vallentin’s lips stopped. His frowning eyebrows slightly straightened.
“She said to tell you that the genius she recognized is indeed different.”
“Geni…us?”
His cold eyes gradually softened. Vallentin paused momentarily with an expression that was either good or bad. It was because no one had ever said this to him before. So he didn’t even know what this tickling feeling he felt. Instead,
Genius.
He picked up the glass bottle he had thrown on the desk again. Let’s try adding the skin-soothing effect to this moisturizing product.
“Why doesn’t she come to the underground castle these days?”
“Ah, the princess? That’s… because she has Redian by her side. She probably doesn’t have any reason to come.”
At that time, Vallentin’s hand, which had been moving the glass bottle, stopped again. “What? She’s taking him by her side?”
“Yes. Redian is currently staying with her as she prepares for something.”
What is she preparing for? And staying together?
“Where?”
“That, of course…” Maze shrugged his shoulders, wondering why he was asking such a thing. “Isn’t it in the princess’s room?”
