By Zephyria 
The movement of licking the spot where I had unwrapped the bandage to try and feed him blood a little while ago was excessively persistent. Moreover, his tongue was getting stronger, and I felt like he would dig into the wound if I left him alone any longer.
I took a deep breath and walked to the fountain to put Aska down. I tried to sit him on the railing, but he was holding onto my clothes so tightly that I couldn’t get him off.
“Let go of my hand.”
“……”
“I said let go.”
“……”
He never listened to me even when he was sane, so there was no way he would listen now that he was out of his mind. I gave up on talking. I had no choice but to use force to get Aska off. Aska, who was stubbornly clinging to me with a determined expression, finally let go as soon as he lost his grip, and I quickly stepped back.
Then, Aska’s expression changed to a tearful one in an instant.
“Sniff……”
“……”
“Huuung……”
“……”
Soon, he raised his head and began to cry sadly.
I left him to cry for now and raised my hand to lightly stroke my throbbing neck. Bright red blood was smeared on my hand. It seemed like the wound had burst open.
“Sniff, huuuh…… It hurts……”
“……”
“It hurts, I’m in pain…… Sniff……”
“……”
Who is the one in pain right now……? I stared at Aska, who was crying in pain, and approached him.
“Stop crying and cut it out.”
“It hurts……”
“I know it hurts, so stop crying for now.”
At my words, Aska, who had been sniffling, pursed his lips and squeezed his eyes shut. He was still hiccuping as if he was still crying, but he wasn’t crying as loudly as before.
I felt like I could still communicate with him to some extent in this state, so I asked calmly.
“Where does it hurt?”
“My head hurts……”
“Your head? Why your head?”
“My feet hurt too…… My arms hurt, my legs hurt too……”
“So, everything just hurts?”
At my words, Aska nodded and opened his tightly closed eyes. Tears streamed down his face, and his long eyelashes stuck to his under eyes and fell off each time he blinked.
“You lied earlier when you said you weren’t hurting, didn’t you?”
“Hic…… Sniff.”
Aska nodded again while hiccuping.
“Why are your feet hurt?”
“I stepped on a rock wrong……”
“Then who told you to go out barefoot?”
“Sniff…… Huuung, huuung…… Sniff……”
When I frowned, Aska lowered the corners of his eyes and mouth and started crying again.
“Don’t cry.”
“It hurts……”
“You got hurt because you were running around naked. It’s all your fault that you’re in pain. What are you crying about like you did something right?”
My words made him cry even louder. And then, Aska touched his arm and started scratching it with his nails, making a rough sound. He was scratching so hard that nail marks were added to his arm, which was already marked black due to the Sealing Magic.
“What are you doing?”
“It hurts, it hurts!”
“It hurts because you’re scratching like that!”
He ended up scratching until he drew blood, so I had no choice but to grab both of Aska’s arms with one hand and hug him so he couldn’t move.
“It hurts!”
“Stay still. If you stay still, I’ll give you blood later.”
“Sniff…… It hurts…… It really hurts. Sniff, huuuh……”
“Okay, okay, so relax your body and stay still.”
“Sniff……”
At my words, Aska’s body finally relaxed. I covered his face with the gown as much as possible and ran out of the garden as if I was running away. A little further on, the guards who were guarding the entrance found me and approached.
Before they could say anything to me, I put my finger to my lips and shushed them.
“Sniff……”
Aska was still crying in my arms. I quickly went up to the room and took off the cloth that was covering his face, and I could see that his skin, which had been pale, was flushed red.
I had felt it since I was holding him, but his body temperature was also quite high. I was wondering if I should feed him my blood before it got worse, but I took out the chicken blood that I had brought earlier, just in case.
“Eat this.”
I opened the bottle and put it to Aska’s mouth. His lips opened without much resistance, and I poured all the chicken blood into his mouth.
“Ptooey!”
“……”
As soon as the blood entered his mouth, Aska created a fountain of blood in my face.
Drip, drip……
Blood droplets fell along my chin. I couldn’t even bring myself to open my closed eyes, and as I stood still, the fishy smell began to sting my nose.
How great would it be if all of this was a dream? As I was briefly escaping reality, I squinted and saw Aska spitting out the blood that was left in his mouth.
“Picky eater……”
I opened my mouth without realizing it and then closed it again. The blood that had pooled between my tightly closed upper and lower lips entered my mouth. Due to the physiological unpleasantness, I followed Aska and spat out what was in my mouth.
Ptooey, ptooey…… Ptooey!
“What the hell is this……”
I don’t know what kind of nonsense this is.
“I kept holding it in……”
Aska said tearfully, as if he had finally spat out enough to be satisfied.
“I kept holding it in because you told me to……”
“I gave you blood, that’s why.”
“Liar…… Sniff…… Huuung……”
“Haa……”
Aska started crying in a small voice, so I got up from my seat for now. I wanted to wash away this disgusting mess that I had been covered in more than feeding him blood.
I wiped my face with one hand and went to the door. Before opening the door, I glanced back and saw Aska, covered in blood, fumbling onto the bed and going under the covers. The sound of him sobbing was leaking out, but it seemed like he remembered that I told him not to be heard by others.
His memory is intact and he listens well, so why is only his mental age regressing? It was an incomprehensible phenomenon, but I decided to think about it later.
“Can you bring Asella?”
I opened the door and said to the guard standing in front of me. He seemed surprised for a moment when he saw my appearance, but he didn’t panic much, bowed his head, and quickly left the spot.
The blanket that Aska had touched was already covered in blood. I didn’t think I would be able to wash it anyway, so I roughly wiped my face on the blanket while waiting for Asella. Aska was still sobbing.
Knock knock.
Then, I heard a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
At my words, the door opened and Asella came in. He looked at the state of the room and my appearance for a moment, then closed his mouth and bowed his head a beat later.
“I heard you called for me.”
“Prepare a bath for me, and how is the room?”
“If it’s the room where the two of you will be staying together, it’s prepared as you said. Shall I guide you there right now?”
I shook my head and pushed the bloody fingertip of Aska, which was sticking out of the blanket, back in.
“I’ll take a bath first. Prepare bandages and medicine to apply to the wound. And how long will it take to build a Greenhouse in the north garden?”
“I’ll prepare the water for your bath first.”
“Ah, okay.”
I could faintly hear Asella’s voice giving instructions to the maids outside the door after lightly bowing his head. At that moment, the pile of blankets rustled and a fingertip popped out again.
As I was staring at it, Asella and the maids came into the room. The maids quickly headed to the bathroom without even raising their heads.
And when I saw the maids who usually helped me with my bath, I lightly shook my head, and they left without saying a word, sensing my intention.
“How big are you thinking of making the Greenhouse?”
At Asella’s words, I hesitated for a moment and answered.
“Not too big…… But not too small either.”
“Would the size of Jihad’s glass Greenhouse be appropriate?”
“Isn’t that too big? Make it a little smaller than that. And make it completely isolated from the outside, and it would be nice to have a swimming pool too. I want the internal temperature to be not just not hot, but a little cool. Anyway, make it as quickly as possible, appropriately, and beautifully, starting tomorrow.”
Even with my vague words, Asella didn’t ask any more questions. That’s why I liked Asella. Because he always handles things perfectly, even if I just say things vaguely and appropriately.
The preparations for the bath were finished, and Asella went out, making it completely quiet. Aska, who had been sobbing under the covers, slowly came out.
His face was a mess, probably because he had been crying the whole time.
“Come on, let’s get you washed up.”
I got up from my seat with a tired face, and Aska followed behind me. When I went into the bathroom, I saw a bathtub filled with water and various kinds of bath products.
I had never paid attention to them before, so I didn’t know what was what. More than that, Aska was the priority, so I took off the blood-soaked gown that was half-covering his body. Then, I roughly splashed water on him to wash off the blood on his body and pointed to the bathtub.
“Get in there.”
“I’m in pain……”
“Where?”
“My arm hurts too……”
He kept whining, so I checked and saw that he had scratched it again at some point, and the marks he had scratched with his nails were all over the black marks engraved by the Sealing Magic.
“Why do you keep scratching your arm? It hurts because you made these wounds.”
When I frowned, Aska sniffled with a wronged expression and rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand. I sighed, grabbed Aska’s wrist, and took him directly to the bathtub, guiding him to get inside.
“Get in and sit down.”
Aska touched the water with his toes several times like a cat, then got into the bathtub with a frustrated face.