Chapter 64 – 64
“Rude bastard.”
Before heading to bed, Euro, who had just finished a light wash and was drying his hair, suddenly swung his fist at the air.
Imagining Melione in front of him and pretending to flick his forehead, Euro recalled what had happened during dinner.
No matter how he thought about it, there was nothing Melione should have been angry about. All he had said was that he regretted not being educated and wanted to try learning now.
If Melione had disliked the suggestion of dancing together at the festival, he could have simply said he wasn’t interested; why did he suddenly snap at him? Especially since it was said out of concern.
“‘It is not something for the lady to concern himself with’? Give me a break. You think I want to be worrying about you?”
It was absolutely absurd. No matter how much he pondered it, Euro felt wronged and vented his frustration alone. However, he couldn’t just scream or curse Melione out loud.
Muttering insults under his breath to soothe his anger, Euro suddenly turned his head to stare at the door connecting to the bedroom. The fact that he had to share a bed with him there again today distressed him.
He wanted to sleep peacefully, but that was impossible with Melione by his side. His body grew tense simply because he was conscious of the other man’s presence.
Blinking, breathing—everything felt unnatural. As he became conscious of every single action, his eyes remained wide open, and sleep drifted further away.
Thus, he would hold out outside the bedroom until he was so sleepy he could barely endure it. Only when it became a time when Melione [stolen content]would likely be asleep Read on Read BL Novelsdid he cautiously crawl into the bed and settle in.
Naturally, he could never be in top condition. Suffering from sleep deprivation, he often found himself nodding off in the office or taking naps on the sofa.
Thanks to Larry’s medicine, he didn’t realize he was ill, but his weakened body likely played a part. The medicine Larry gave him was merely a painkiller; it wouldn’t have fully restored a body that had suffered hematemesis.
Since he didn’t feel the pain, Euro was unaware that he was overworking his frail body. However, due to prolonged sleep deprivation, changes began to appear that no amount of painkillers could hide.
Even without doing much, his body felt limp and sluggish. The clothes tailored specifically for him had become somewhat loose around the waist.
While he wasn’t so skeletal as to be unsightly, he occasionally heard comments that he didn’t look well. Unlike Melione, who grew healthier by the day, Euro’s health was steadily declining.
But even so, there was no other way. Even if Euro gave up sharing a bedroom with Melione and moved, it would be difficult to recover his failing health.
As long as the curse remained unbroken, nothing he did would be meaningful. And yet, why did Melione have to prick him with such a sharp tone for no reason?
Euro rubbed his face with his hands and practically dragged his feet toward the connecting door. He felt that maximizing the healing effect through sleep somehow made his condition worse.
Knowing that, he couldn’t use the love drug frequently. It wasn’t as if he had an overflowing supply, either. In that case, he had no choice but to put into practice the reason he had originally decided to share the bedroom.
Today, he intended to go to bed early without waiting for Melione to fall asleep. His body was tired from the long outing, and he thought it would be the perfect time to use his healing ability under the guise of a lullaby.
‘Just wait until I get rid of that curse… I’ll give him a real flick on the head.’
Surely his savior wouldn’t go out of his way to hunt him down and kill him just for getting hit once. He felt he needed that much release to feel satisfied.
After letting out a deep sigh, Euro turned the doorknob and opened the door. What he saw was Melione, already leaning against the headboard of the bed, reading a book.
Sensing a presence, Melione slowly turned his head to gaze at Euro. At this, Euro gasped, stepped into the bedroom, and closed the door behind him.
He was certain the room had been empty when he peeked in earlier. Since Melione had gone straight up to the office after dinner, Euro assumed he wouldn’t come to the bedroom immediately; he had no idea when the man had washed up and lain down.
He had intended to lie down and wait for Melione anyway, but now that the man was already in bed, his heart began to race again.
Though he had no memory of the second night, the memory of the first night was vivid. Thus, it was difficult to look directly at him as he sat there with his long hair flowing, wearing pajamas that were nearly translucent.
He was sure he hadn’t been conscious of him once since that first night. Not even a fleeting memory of that day had come back to haunt him.
Euro naturally lifted the covers and sat on the bed. Then, meeting the eyes of Melione, who was still watching him, he gave an awkward smile.
“Were you reading a book?”
“…Yes.”
“May I ask what book it is?”
At this, Melione closed the book and handed it to Euro. Since it was a book he didn’t recognize anyway, Euro only pretended to look at it before speaking.
“It’s a book I’ve never seen before. Is it a novel?”
“Yes, it is a novel. Do you like books?”
“It’s not that I like them… it’s just that reading is the only thing there is to do at home.”
Euro wasn’t particularly interested in novels. He had read a fair amount of comic books, but those were either incredibly famous ones or childhood trends like Greek and Roman mythology.
He had only chosen books here as a plausible excuse to visit the auction house. Compared to other luxury goods, books were an item that wouldn’t draw much criticism even if collected.
During his school years, he usually listened to music or practiced dancing, and after becoming independent at twenty, he was too busy working various part-time jobs to survive.
Working or practicing. Those were the only two things he could do, and even then, a day wasn’t enough. Perhaps that was why it had been difficult for him to make friends he could talk to openly.
Thinking back, his life before the possession had been very lonely. He had no adult to rely on, nor friends to share his worries with. At most, he had the younger children at the orphanage, but even with them, deep conversations were difficult.
If there was one person, it was the director of the orphanage who had raised him. However, it was too much to burden her with his trivial worries when she had so many other children and tasks to manage.
‘I wonder how she’s doing.’
When he had made it to the final live broadcast of the audition, the director was the one who came as his family. Because she was the person who had cheered for him more deeply than anyone, he couldn’t even fathom how she would feel now.
“Still, I like it when I come across an interesting book. When I get immersed, I feel as if I’m living in that world.”
“….”
“I can forget about the things that worry me for a while, and I feel a sense of empathy when I meet a character with similar struggles… Do you like books, Your Excellency?”
“I do not particularly enjoy them. Occasionally, when I cannot sleep.”
Melione took the book back from Euro and set it aside. Nights where he could do nothing were always long. No matter how sleepy he was, he couldn’t sleep, and after repeating the cycle of suffering from pain and half-fainting, an unwanted morning would arrive.
Facing the start of another tedious day, Melione always dreamed of death. No matter how interesting a novel was, it could not be a sanctuary. Yet, Melione read books occasionally.
Very rarely, a desperate desire to live another life would surge within him. He didn’t care for protagonists who overcame all hardships and adversity; he preferred nameless characters.
He would spend a long time dwelling on the lives of extras—those who sold fruit to a passing protagonist or disappeared after being mentioned only once.
A life that was ordinary and precious, where one simply lived each day diligently, without searing grudges or any great hardships, but also without achieving great things or gaining any glory.
“Could you not sleep today either?”
At Euro’s question, Melione slowly raised his head. He was looking at Euro with a very warm gaze.
“Then, would it be alright if I sang you a lullaby?”
At those words, Melione frowned. He had never heard a lullaby, even as a very young child. He had always fallen asleep alone in the vast bedroom, occasionally hearing someone’s screams.
It was the sound his father made. By the time Melione was three or four, his father had already been [unauthorized copy]confined to [unauthorized copy]the annex. Though it was some distance away, whenever the silent night came, his desperate voice would always echo throughout the mansion.
It was a sorrowful plea to just kill him. If there was any lullaby Melione had heard, it was only his father’s screams. He had cried silently under his covers while listening to that sound.
It wasn’t that he was sad for the pain of a father whose face he couldn’t even properly remember. It was because fear overwhelmed him every time he realized that such a sight was his own future.
Melione gazed at Euro. Euro, still wearing a peaceful smile, patted the pillow and said,
“Just trust me this once, okay?”
“….”
“If you are unwilling…”
“…No.”
“….”
“Do as you wish.”
Melione lay down comfortably as instructed. Then, Euro placed a hand on his chest, gently patting him as he began to sing.
“Sleep tight, my baby. In the front garden and the back hill…”
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