By Zephyria 
Aegis’s eyes usually looked slightly different when they were exposed to light. But this was… This was the first time I’d seen that color.
Watching him lick his lips with unfocused eyes, I finally realized that Aegis wasn’t in his right mind.
“Do you even know who I am?”
I asked with a frown, and his cloudy eyes slowly began to focus. But what Aegis was looking at wasn’t me, but the blood flowing down my neck.
“…He’s really not in his right mind.”
The swirling crimson eyes, like stagnant blood, were eerily beautiful. I averted my gaze and raised my hand to cover my neck. It felt like I was being possessed by a demon.
Then, without any warning, Aegis started to shed tears again. The moment I saw that, my hazy mind snapped awake.
“……”
With each slow blink, tears dripped down. I stared blankly with a bewildered expression, and when I quietly lowered my hand, Aegis, who had been sobbing sorrowfully, stopped crying.
“……”
“……”
Then, he slowly buried his face in my neck again. Just like before, he licked it a few times, and then, perhaps because the blood wasn’t flowing well, he bared his teeth again.
I could usually bear it, but it hurt so much that I couldn’t take it anymore. I pushed Aegis’s shoulder away and said,
“Do you want to drink blood?”
“It hurts.”
“It hurts me more.”
“It hurts,”
“……”
Aegis squeezed his eyes shut, and more tears fell. Watching Aegis sob, his slender shoulders trembling, I reached out and carefully put my thumb into his slightly open mouth.
Even with my actions, Aegis didn’t react much, just kept his mouth open and shed tears. I felt his teeth with my thumb and looked inside carefully, but there was nothing special.
If his fangs were sharp, at least the skin would have been cleanly pierced when he bit me, and it would have hurt less…
He just bit my neck with the strength of his jaw, so it was no wonder it hurt. I’ll probably have a huge bruise later.
“Kyle… hic. K-yle…”
“……”
Who’s really hurting right now? Aegis kept whining and crying that it hurt. Besides, my finger was still in his mouth, so his pronunciation was strange, which made him look even more pitiful.
I took my finger out of Aegis’s mouth and sighed.
“Then I’ll give you blood, but don’t bite me. It really hurts…”
That’s when it happened. I started to hear hurried footsteps in the distance.
Startled, I reached out and hugged Aegis protectively. Then, I completely covered Aegis’s hair with the outer garment I had dropped on the floor, so that not a single strand could be seen, and grabbed my sword.
Judging by the sound of the footsteps, it wasn’t just one or two people, which was a big problem. Perhaps because I had cut my palm a little while ago, the hand holding Aegis’s shoulder kept throbbing. And the pain from the bitten neck was also considerable.
If I were alone, I could have escaped even with some injuries, but the problem was Aegis. How could I get out with a kid who couldn’t even stand properly and wasn’t in his right mind?
After a moment of thought, I pulled Aegis away and said,
“Go over there to the corner for a moment… Aegis?”
“……”
“Just let go of this for a second. I’ll be right back, so just hide over there for a moment. Okay?”
“……”
“If you keep doing this, you and I will both die.”
“……”
No matter how much I explained the situation, Aegis wouldn’t budge. He wrapped his arms around my neck and clung to me like a barnacle, showing no intention of letting go.
“Aegis.”
“……”
“I’m telling you, we might really die? I’ll give you blood later. Just go over there for about 10 minutes.”
“……”
The more I spoke, the tighter Aegis’s arms around me became. He was shaking so hard that his body was trembling. But his strength was so weak that I could probably force him off if I wanted to…
“Aegis.”
“……”
I couldn’t bring myself to forcibly remove the arms that were trembling and hugging me. I was looking at Aegis with a heavy heart when I heard someone calling me amidst the growing footsteps.
“Kyle! Kyle!”
“Your Highness!”
At the sound, I quickly raised my head and looked towards the entrance. Come to think of it, I left the two dead men at the entrance of the secret passage. The guard on patrol must have found them and come all the way here.
The tension drained from my stiff, tense body. I let out a sigh of relief, threw away the sword I was holding, and hugged Aegis, who was clinging to me.
“I’m alive.”
I thought I was really going to die.
As I let out another sigh of relief, the royal guard holding torches began to appear.
“Your Highness Kyle!”
The royal guard who found me stepped over the dead men… No, wait a minute.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m alright… Did my brother come too?”
It wasn’t a guard who had come to find me, but the royal guard directly under the royal family. When I asked with a nervous expression, the captain shook his head and said with a serious face.
“His Highness did not come. More importantly, your injuries seem severe, so you must return immediately. Can you lean on me? This person first…”
“No, wait a minute.”
Looking at the captain who was speaking urgently, I belatedly remembered that Aegis was actually a man, not a woman. I was so flustered that I had forgotten that important fact.
Aegis’s clothes were a mess and wet, so if you looked closely, you could easily tell that he was a man. I shook my head and picked up Aegis, then stood up.
“I and Aegis are fine, so take that guy away first.”
“Is he still alive?”
“He’s still breathing. Find out how he knew the location of the secret passage, where he came from, and who he is. Remove the poison from his teeth first.”
At my words, one of the other royal guard examined the man who was half-dead and unconscious and said.
“Um, Your Highness. He’s dead?”
“What? I didn’t kill him?”
“…Usually, when the tendons of the limbs are severed and the jaw is broken, death occurs within minutes.”
“……”
Ah, damn it.
As I squeezed my eyes shut, Aegis, who was wrapped around my neck, began to stir. I adjusted Aegis so that he wouldn’t be uncomfortable and took a step forward.
“I have to get out of here first.”
“I’ll call a doctor.”
“That… No. No, the doctor…”
“Yes?”
If I called a doctor, everyone would know that Aegis was a man, wouldn’t they? And it would be clear that he was drinking blood too.
“Aegis is very surprised right now, gasp!”
“Your Highness Kyle?”
The captain looked at me with a puzzled expression when I gasped for air in surprise. I shook my head, trying to calm my trembling body as much as possible.
“No… Ah, nothing…”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. It’s just that blood splattered on me, it’s not a big deal… I’m not hurt at all.”
The captain’s expression began to turn serious as I kept stuttering. I smiled at him as if to tell him not to worry and started walking again.
“Aegis.”
And I slapped him on the back with the hand that wasn’t supporting Aegis.
Then Aegis, who had been licking my neck, flinched and took his lips off.
“Stay still. You’re in big trouble right now.”
“……”
“Oh, what a fate.”
A monster who is not a woman but a man and sucks blood is my wife. What sin did I commit in my previous life…?
“Ugh!”
“Your Highness Kyle, if you really can’t…”
“No, I’m fine. I just tripped over my feet.”
“Shall I hold him?”
“I said I’m fine.”
I patted Aegis on the back as if to comfort him, but this time Aegis didn’t stop his actions.
I told him not to bite me earlier, but now he’s licking and sucking like crazy.
I walked as quickly as possible, trying to act as if nothing was wrong, worried that the sound might be heard, while he was sucking on my neck as much as possible. And I carefully covered Aegis’s head with my outer garment so that this act wouldn’t be seen by others.
“Can’t you do it moderately…”
“Yes?”
“No… No, I’m just talking to myself.”
He’s not a baby sucking on a breast, how long is he going to keep sucking? I was already in so much pain from being bitten and cut, and sucking so hard on the injured area made my vision blurry.
But will he ever come back to his senses?
“……”
A sudden question sent a chill down my spine. Could it be… Could it be that he’s going to stay like this? That would be really troublesome.
While I was making a terrible assumption, Aegis, as if he was finally satisfied, took his mouth off my neck. Then he buried his face in the other side of my neck and started rubbing his cheek against it.
Just like rubbing his face on a pillow before going to sleep.
“Yeah, sleep, sleep. It’s better to sleep.”
“……”
I patted him on the back as if telling him to sleep, and Aegis, who had been stirring a few more times, became quiet. He wasn’t moving anymore, so it seemed like he had really fallen asleep.
I listened to the small breaths like fluff that I could feel in my ear and came out of the passage.
FAY 24
Inviolable
So much had happened in a single night.
I killed a person, almost died myself, and Aegis almost died too, but the most astonishing thing of all was that Aegis bit my neck and sucked my blood.
“…….”
I gazed silently at Aegis, who was sleeping peacefully with his face smeared with blood, sighed, and wiped his face with a wet cloth.
“What on earth is going on…….”
I had thought Aegis might not be human, but that was just a vague assumption. Seeing him with my own eyes drinking blood, my blood no less, I was at a loss as to what to do.
Moreover, Aegis was a man, not a woman. It was certain that he was not a princess of the Calderia Kingdom, and since he didn’t even know how to read, he might not even be royalty at all.
Naturally, I should consult with Mahir and lodge a formal protest with the kingdom. But that wasn’t a good idea.
The insane Khalifa would surely use this as an excuse to wage war, and then another bloodbath would sweep through the country that Mahir had barely managed to stabilize by sacrificing his eating and sleeping time.
Besides, they had tried to kill Aegis. Was he just a pawn to be used and discarded? Well, that was highly likely. They dressed a man who couldn’t even read in women’s clothes and made him do such a dangerous thing, so they wouldn’t have cared about his life at all.
After roughly wiping the blood from his face and checking that he was breathing properly, I put my hand on his forehead. He had no fever, was breathing properly, and was sleeping well, so I felt relieved for the time being. I had roughly scanned his body earlier, but he didn’t seem to have any particular external injuries.
More than that, I wanted to change his clothes, but I didn’t know who to entrust this to. The Servants that Aegis brought with him would all know that he was a man, but……. No, maybe they wouldn’t?
Just how much did they know? What about Jade, the escort knight? Were they all in on it? Or were they, like Aegis, pawns to be used and discarded?
Knock, knock.
At the sound of knocking on the door, I drew the curtains of the bed and approached the door.
“What?”
“The physician has arrived. Shall I let him in?”
“No, I’ll go out. Don’t let anyone in here.”
“But…….”
I was exhausted, having stayed up all night and gone through that ordeal. Without replying further, I waved my hand dismissively and turned my head. I glanced back at the bed where Aegis was sleeping for a moment, then closed the door and went out.
“Don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anyone out.”
“Understood.”
“Absolutely no one.”
“Yes.”
After giving strict instructions, I dragged my feet and moved away. Every part of my body ached. I desperately wanted to collapse and fall asleep, but I couldn’t.
The physician’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw the wound on my neck.
“Your Highness, is this really a wound from a sword? No matter how I look at it, it’s not an incision but a bite wound?”
“…….”
Yes, even a blind person could tell that it wasn’t a sword wound but a bite wound.
“You must tell me properly. Where did you get such a vicious bite? Did those bastards bite you or something?”
“Ah, I cut his tendon, and he bit me to stop it.”
“I’ve never seen such a beastly bastard……. So you broke his jaw.”
“Uh-huh.”
As I nodded with a sullen expression, the physician became furious and started to get angry. He said they were filthy bastards, that I should disinfect myself well in case I had caught any germs…….
“Just apply some medicine and put on a bandage. I have to get back quickly.”
“But why did you come alone? I certainly heard that…….”
“Come back when I call you again.”
Which I would never do.
The physician nodded at my words and said as he gave me first aid and bandaged me.
“There’s also damage to the muscles, so you need to rest for a while. Beastly bastard, so barbaric…….”
“Okay, okay. Are you done?”
“You must keep it from getting wet as much as possible, and the bandage must be changed every day. You mustn’t forget to apply the medicine, and also…….”
I nodded and listened absentmindedly, and the physician sighed.
“Aren’t you in pain? This is a really serious wound. You mustn’t listen so carelessly.”
“You’re going to make it heal, right?”
“Well, yes, but…….”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
I cut off the physician, who was about to nag, took the medicine and bandages, and went outside. As I was going to Aegis, a knight approached me. I walked quickly and opened my mouth.
“What about Jade and the Servants?”
“They are in custody.”
“Are they behaving?”
“They are protesting, but they are not putting up much resistance.”
It depended on how Aegis acted, but in the worst-case scenario, I might have to kill them all.
“What about my brother?”
“That’s…….”
I was walking almost running, but I stopped in my tracks with a puzzled expression at the knight’s hesitant voice.
“He seems to be still in his chambers and doesn’t know the situation.”
“Still sleeping?”
“Yes, he told us not to let anyone in…….”
I was about to ask if he was sick, but I stopped myself. Even if he was really sick, there was no way a mere knight would know. I stared at the air with a serious face and asked again.
“Where is Your Majesty?”
“He is in the Harem.”
It wasn’t a surprising fact.
Suddenly, I felt a surge of irritation, so I scratched my head roughly and moved on. I felt like I shouldn’t decide this alone, but I couldn’t consult with Khalifa, and I was reluctant to leave Talim to visit my brother.
But if you asked me if this was something to be annoyed about, it wasn’t. It was true that the situation was turning out strangely, but there was no reason for me to be annoyed.
I had returned alive and well, received appropriate treatment, and learned roughly about the identity of Aegis, which had remained a mystery. I had suffered, but I had also gained as much, so I could say that this wasn’t a wasted effort.
“…….”
I stood still in front of the door with the tray containing the medicine and bandages in one hand, staring only at the doorknob. I could feel the two guards standing in front of the door watching me.
“Haa.”
But why do I keep getting so annoyed?
Maybe it was because I had been having so many things happen lately, not getting enough sleep, and being tired. If I talked to Aegis, there was no way he would stay still with his personality, and we would definitely clash again, and just imagining it already gave me a headache.
After sighing a few more times, I slowly opened the door and heard a sound. It hadn’t been long since I had left, but it seemed he had already woken up in the meantime.
I quietly moved to the table, put the tray down, and looked at the bed with the thick curtains drawn. The fact that I couldn’t hear any crying sounds meant that he was in a better state than before.
I deliberately made noise as I walked to the bed and slowly drew back the curtains.
“…….”
“…….”
I had expected it since I had heard a sound earlier, but Aegis was awake.
“……Does anything hurt?”
“…….”
He seemed fine except for looking very surprised to see me, but I asked just in case. But Aegis didn’t say anything. Only his face, which seemed flushed with fever, became redder and redder until it turned as red as a carrot.
“You know you were kidnapped, right?”
“…….”
“Do you know who those people are? Did you see their faces?”
“…….”
“Tell me what the situation was like before you were kidnapped.”
I had so many questions that I sat down by the bed and asked without a break, but still no answer came. I thought for a moment that I might have been too much for someone who had just woken up, but looking at Aegis’s condition, it didn’t seem like that was why he couldn’t speak.
I looked at the air with a sullen expression for a moment, then glanced at Aegis and opened my mouth.
“Do you happen to remember what you did to me?”
“I don’t.”
“…….”
Aegis said urgently in a cracked voice. But that was the face of someone who remembered everything. I looked at Aegis for a moment and moved my lips as if to say something, but I just closed my mouth.
Well, he wasn’t in his right mind, but what he did was so bizarre that I would have pretended not to remember if I were him.
“Okay, well……. Then how much do you remember?”
“I said I don’t.”
“No, before you were kidnapped…….”
At my words, Aegis took a deep breath as if he was about to scream. But what came out wasn’t a word but a groan that seemed painful.
“Haa…….”
“…….”
His face turned red to the point that even his ears turned red, and even the hand covering his face gradually changed color. I was so fascinated by the fact that even the tips of his fingers had turned red that I watched as if I was watching a spectacle, and I decided to wait for Aegis to come to his senses.
Suddenly, Aegis jumped up and started running towards the window with a crash.
“What…….”
Before I could react to his sudden action, Aegis threw open the window and tried to jump out.
“Hey! What are you doing!”
I was horrified and grabbed Aegis’s body as I could and pulled him back.
“Let go!”
“No! No, you weren’t in your right mind back then!”
“Let go! I’m just going to die!”
“Calm down! It’s not that high here, so you won’t die even if you jump!”
One of Aegis’s legs was already sticking out of the window frame. Even after going through that ordeal, he was still incredibly strong.
“Ugh, really! Just!”
“It’s all because of you! You! You fed me something weird, you……!”
“Okay, okay, so just come down! I’m telling you, you won’t even break a bone if you fall from here? Ah, seriously, you crazy!”
I couldn’t take it anymore, so I lifted Aegis, who was struggling, and threw him onto the bed. Aegis rolled over to the other side without even touching the sheet with his back and glared at me, panting.
“Y-you……!”
“…….”
I was even treated to a circus performance in the midst of this chaos, so I couldn’t be happier.