1.5 Like Rain That Soaks You Before You Realize It’s Seeping In

Less than a week later, Mikhail arrived at the frozen lake exile site. The caretaker was startled by the unexpected guest, but Mikhail quickly silenced him, explaining that he had been dispatched for a secret investigation on behalf of a high-ranking official in the Imperial Family and that he would be visiting once a month. He added that there was no need to report this to His Majesty. As a bonus, he discreetly handed over a bribe—a tiny fraction of the vast fortune the Imperial Prince had already inherited from the Emperor.

The caretaker couple seemed suspicious at first, but since the Emperor was not the only one in the Imperial Family, they accepted it as an order from someone they dared not oppose, such as the Crown Prince or the Empress, and kept their mouths shut.

“Since my master is scheduled to be dispatched periodically, I think I’ll be able to stop by once a month from now on. Ah, it might be a bit… uncomfortable for the Duke, but…”

When Mikhail shared this “good news” with the Duke, who looked equally surprised, Marcel felt a slight sense of relief. This was because the emotion reflected in the Duke’s eyes was a mix of welcome and clear burden.

If this extremely dangerous relationship was merely a one-sided crush from a young Imperial Prince, then that was fine. There was a reason why Marcel, who had been mistaken several times already, was so certain.

The Prince was still a novice who had never experienced a rut. Though he was said to grow further, he was already as developed as most adult men, so it would start soon. It might not bother him now, but once he became aroused as an Alpha, he would realize it: how unpleasant the pheromones of another Alpha are to an Alpha. Marcel predicted that even if the Prince were unilaterally aroused by the Duke, the Duke would feel disgusted and push him away.

‘It makes me want to throw up, seriously.’

Having worked in environments swarming with Alphas, Marcel knew how nauseating it was. This wasn’t about some nonsense regarding the laws of nature or the will of God stating that Alphas must only pair with Omegas; physiologically, Alphas were designed to find the scent of other Alphas repulsive.

In any case, the Duke was a man whose life would end within a few years at most. For now, the best course of action was to play the role of a hidden helper, pretending to cheer them on, and wait for the Duke to die.

He told the Emperor that the Prince seemed to be suffering from homesickness. He argued that since the Prince was someone [unauthorized copy]who had originally wandered freely across various regions with a mercenary company, his condition would only [stolen content]worsen if he were kept confined to the Imperial Palace. Ultimately, the Emperor allowed the Prince to maintain his residence at the Imperial Palace while being free to travel across the country for a certain period each month.

‘How on earth did I end up like this…’

It was a situation that invited a sigh, but it wasn’t entirely without benefit for Marcel. The Prince had no interest in material things to begin with. Having secretly received a portion of the dust-gathering fortune Mikhail owned as a member of the Imperial Family, Marcel was able to provide a mansion where his entire family could live together.

‘I wonder if this is right, honestly.’

Thanks to this, although it was in a somewhat remote area, the family Marcel was responsible for no longer had to be scattered, living as dependents in other people’s homes; they finally had a proper place to settle. However, Marcel’s hair loss accelerated, and he could feel the back of his head becoming a bit thin.

‘I don’t even know anymore.’

Marcel sighed as he looked at the Prince—who was like a dog (in more ways than one) wagging his tail in front of the Duke—as if he were looking at a distant mountain.

‘Quite a lot of snow has piled up.’

Winter in Frigid was long. Being a territory located in the northern part of the continent, winter was geographically bound to be long, and it felt even longer because there was little to do other than warm oneself indoors. As usual, Hyeon woke up early in the morning and rose from his bed, gazing at the snow piled high beyond the window.

Within the white landscape visible through the bars, a familiar head was busily starting the day early.

‘At this hour again…’

Misha, the strange guest who visited the exile site once a month with his master, the investigator. Hyeon tapped on the window to stop Misha, who was clearing the garden path in thin clothing as if [Read on Read BL Novels]he weren’t cold. Read on Read BL NovelsA knock-knock with the back of the hand was the signal that had naturally formed unauthorized copybetween them, telling him to stop what he was doing and come to where Hyeon was.

“…!”

Hearing Hyeon’s signal, Misha looked toward the window in surprise, then smiled innocently and waved. With a faint smile, Hyeon looked down at Misha and gestured for him to come up quickly. Seeing the gesture, Misha immediately flung aside the shovel in his hand and ran toward the entrance.

“Did you sleep well!”

Hyeon burst into laughter reflexively at the bright greeting, delivered with unmelted snow still ruffled on his head. It had already been over a year since Misha and his master began their regular dispatches to the ice lake. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a positive situation, as it meant the surveillance of a shabby mansion that no longer showed signs of rebellion had tightened, but thanks to the new seeds and books Misha brought every month, Hyeon’s daily life was never boring.

As Misha had instructed, if Hyeon carefully tended the new seeds to sprout and grow them into seedlings, Misha would come the following month to find a good spot in the greenhouse to plant them. When Hyeon finished reading the books Misha brought, Misha would find more books for him to read as a pastime. After doing this for over a year, Hyeon’s greenhouse now boasted a landscape more splendid than most flower shops.

“I woke up and saw that a lot of snow had piled up. If more snow accumulates on the greenhouse, the pillars might not hold and could bend, so I cleared it in advance.”

Even so, the snow in Frigid piled up to the knees in an instant, no matter how much one cleared. Even though Hyeon told him several times not to go through unnecessary trouble and to just relax, Misha never listened. Sometimes, Hyeon was left speechless by his slightly arrogant and naive attitude, devoid of any etiquette, but he didn’t dislike it.

When Misha first started visiting again, Hyeon’s mind had been full of questions. Why on earth would someone show such kindness to a dying traitor? It is not difficult to throw a one-time act of pity toward someone in a pitiful situation met in a foreign land. However, it was rare for an ordinary person to go out of their way to suffer by doing things others wouldn’t do over the long term.

Hyeon found it somewhat burdensome and thought it strange to receive this level of kindness without wanting anything in return, so he tried to keep his distance from Misha. However, as if by some prank of fate, the assassin’s crown, which had provided only a slight sense of fatigue until then, suddenly flared up from within, causing a seizure.

Having prepared himself to slowly wither away, Hyeon had never experienced a seizure, and it was quite shocking. Even though Hyeon knew through the original story when Duke Transis would die of illness, the pain was so chilling that he wondered if he might die right then and there. In the end, it was none other than Misha who found and cared for the collapsed Hyeon.

When Hyeon finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes after a long seizure and nightmares, Misha was dozing off in a chair next to the bed, his head bowed. The unpleasant screaming sounds that always accompanied his awakening [visit our site]unauthorized copyfrom foul dreams vanished the moment he saw Misha’s face, as if they had been muted.

Hyeon had told him there was no need to do that—a reproach mixed with a sense of inferiority, asking why he didn’t just leave a sinner who deserved his punishment to die as others would. But Hyeon was left speechless by the unexpected answer he received.

‘…Because you looked lonely.’

Misha answered abruptly, then, seemingly surprised by his own words, covered his mouth and apologized.

‘I’m sorry, I spoke out of turn…’

Then, following that, Hyeon was left speechless by the miraculous logic that if he hated others interfering, he shouldn’t have caught Misha’s eye. When Misha said that while a mere squire feeling a sense of kinship with the Duke might be unpleasant, he himself also had nowhere to belong, Hyeon felt as if a part of his heart had been suddenly invaded.

I looked lonely? Me? For Hyeon, things like warm human affection and strong bonds of solidarity were things that had been forbidden since childhood. You must know how to properly use everything around you. From the moment Hyeon could walk freely, other people were always just chess pieces to be manipulated.

Is there any madman who engages in sincere emotional exchange with a chess piece? Hyeon knew how to perform the version of himself that others wanted. It was easy to win people’s favor and induce them to act as he desired. In his days as a director, Hyeon was a bloodless piece of trash to some, and a kind neighbor and colleague to others. Sometimes he was a strict but fair boss, and sometimes a polite junior.

The real Lee Hyeon existed in none of those relationships. Only the Lee Hyeon who others desired, and who dominated others, existed. Only after casting off the hard armor of Lee Hyeon and wearing the masks of others did the image of the human Lee Hyeon, wrapped in a shell, finally emerge. A man who longed for people so much, who waited for someone to love him not for his position or power, but for himself.

The moment Hyeon revealed himself was fleeting, but someone who wanted to capture every single moment of him would not miss that instant. In truth, they had known each other for less than six months, but like any boy in love, Misha was innocent and ruthlessly bold.

As a person, Misha might have been a child with too soft a side, but as a predator, Mikhail knew instinctively how to corner his prey. Thus, it was only natural that Hyeon, who knew how to handle people but not how to be loved, ended up giving his heart away, like clothes becoming soaked in a drizzle.

Misha stayed at the ice lake with his master for slightly less than a week each month before returning to the Imperial Palace. When Hyeon sent letters to the palace, Read on Read BL Novelsreplies barely arrived two weeks later. Whenever [unauthorized copy]Hyeon’s old Read on Read BL Novelsand shabby mansion was filled with things Misha brought, he feared becoming increasingly dependent on him. But at the same time, he was grateful.

Now, Hyeon had nothing left. Had he been Director Lee Hyeon, the man who held a corporation in his hands, he would have been wary, wondering if this kindness was a ploy to take something from him. But for a sinner whose day of death approached daily, there was nothing left to be taken, nor anything to protect.

He thought that if God had led him here to spend his final days comforted, then it wasn’t so bad. If God truly existed, he would probably go to hell after death for the sin of repaying grace with betrayal.

“It’ll just fall down anyway once the sun rises.”

As Hyeon brushed back Misha’s messy hair, Misha replied, shaking his head like a puppy.

“But we can’t have a pile of snow falling on the Duke’s head.”

He said this knowing that on days with heavy snowfall like today, Hyeon would only go out to look at the greenhouse in the afternoon.

“That doesn’t mean you need to go through unnecessary hardship from the morning.”

“It’s better than being lazy from the morning.”

He never loses an argument. With a faint smile, Hyeon offered Misha the breakfast he barely touched anymore. Misha was startled at first and firmly refused, but he eventually picked up the spoon as if he had no choice, given Hyeon’s excuse.

The excuse was that eating breakfast now made his stomach feel uneasy, making the start of his day unpleasant. It was actually true. Feeling his body weaken day by day, Hyeon savored his time with Misha.

“Is the departure at three in the afternoon?”

At Hyeon’s question, Misha’s shoulders twitched slightly before he answered.

“Yes. They say they’ll leave around then.”

“Then when will you be coming next?”

Mikhail held his breath for a moment before speaking.

“Probably around the middle of next month.”

“I see.”

The Duke added nothing more. He could have asked him to stay longer or requested something to be brought next time, but he simply waited for Misha’s visits as if he were a bystander.

Whenever Mikhail saw him like that, his heart ached as if he were under a curse, but there was nothing he could do. Making him wait for him here every day was better than leaving him to remain lonely until the moment he closed his eyes.

‘If only I didn’t have my brother.’

If that were the case, as the Crown Prince, he could have pardoned the Duke’s crimes. Ruminating on the impossible hypothesis, Mikhail found it difficult to walk away.

“…I’ll see you next time.”

Trying to ignore the bitterness in his mouth, as they left the exile site and climbed back to land, Marcel spoke up sarcastically.

“As Your Highness knows.”

Mikhail blocked his ears, as it was obvious what was coming next. Nevertheless, Marcel did not yield.

“The Duke does not see Your Highness as a man. It is more like the way an old man who has received his death date looks at a grandson, or the way a teacher about to retire looks at a student.”

“…”

Mikhail ignored Marcel with a familiar attitude. Where else could there be such a passionate and lonely one-sided love? While claiming he couldn’t leave the other’s loneliness alone, Mikhail was suffering while embracing the contradiction of being lonely himself.

The Prince, who had been smaller than the Duke when he first came here, had caught up to the Duke’s height. He was developing a frighteningly masculine appearance, but the face beneath the ridiculous glasses was so beautiful that no one could take their eyes off it.

“Let’s come next time when the weather has warmed up. Midwinter is just too cold.”

Mikhail ignored Marcel’s subsequent complaints just as completely and walked toward the nearest gate. He had no inkling of what would happen when they headed for Frigid next month.

The route Mikhail and Marcel took to the ice lake was generally consistent. First, they traveled to the Agrini Northern Gate, the closest gate for traveling by horse from the Imperial Palace. Although the Imperial Palace had the largest gate in the Empire, it was better not to use it to keep the fact that they were away as secret as possible, as too many people passed through it.

After moving to another city from Agrini for the detour, they headed to Parinel, the gateway city leading to [stolen content]Quilan. The reason for going through this cumbersome process every time was partly unauthorized copyto minimize the exposure of the Prince’s movements, but it couldn’t be said that Marcel had no personal motives.

Marcel’s fiancée, Feodora, who was well past marriageable age, lived in Agrini. Since Mikhail didn’t complain much if he stopped by to give her gifts or stayed for a day, it was a method that wasn’t bad for either party in many ways. Thus, as usual, they planned to head to Agrini, pass through another city, and then move to Parinel.

“Hmm?”

While entering the gate’s movement coordinates, Marcel frowned and reset the gate’s communication terminal.

“What’s wrong?”

Mikhail, who was watching Marcel from a step behind with his robe pulled over him, asked in a puzzled voice. Marcel shook his head lightly as if it were nothing, fiddled with the screen of the reset terminal, and then tilted his head in confusion.

“Why is it doing this?”

Despite paying the communication fee for the designated amount, the coordinates for the gate to Parinel kept showing an error stating that it was an unreachable coordinate. There had been no problems until last month, so why was this happening? Was the gate broken or under attack? Marcel took his hand off the magic panel he was operating and answered Mikhail.

“One moment. It says the Parinel gate is currently an unreachable coordinate.”

Parinel was a city that had declined along with the fall of Quilan. There were perhaps a hundred households living within the walls. Considering the population of the capital where the Imperial Palace was located was in the hundreds of thousands, it was a neighborhood where it wouldn’t be strange for the gate to be closed due to poor profitability.

“I’ll find out why the gate is closed for now.”

Marcel quickly reached for the communication orb used as [unauthorized copy]a visit our sitenetwork among investigators. Even at a faint pulse, the [unauthorized copy]communication orb reacted instantly and prepared to carry Marcel’s voice.

“This is Investigator Humphreys. Is there any official document regarding the gate closure? Please share.”

A moment later, after checking the messenger that returned from the communication orb, Marcel let out a long sigh with a deep frown.

“It says there has been a large-scale dungeon break on the border of Quilan, so it is a provisional permanent closure until it subsides.”

“What?”

Dungeon. To Mikhail, who had once worked as a mercenary belonging to the Monster Suppression Corps while traveling across the Empire, it was a word more familiar than the etiquette of the Imperial Palace. Was there a dungeon in that area? Mikhail tried hard to recall the explanation given by his direct senior, which he had listened to while dozing off.