By Zephyria 
Could Aska finally be showing me some respect?
Mahir’s expression grew increasingly strange, but I was too happy to care. Despite my joy, I couldn’t ignore the fear hidden beneath Aska’s determined face, so I decided to correct him.
“I’m not going to get scolded.”
“You were just fighting.”
“When? Me and my brother? We weren’t fighting. That was just a conversation. We’re super close, aren’t we?”
“……”
Mahir didn’t respond to my words, averting his gaze.
“Anyway, go on ahead. I’ll talk with my brother and then go.”
“I really didn’t break the window on purpose…”
Aska mumbled in a small voice. I smoothed his messy hair, patting the top of his head.
“I know, I know. It’s true you can be a bit of a wild horse, but I know you’re not that bad.”
“Someone was holding a knife earlier, and I was surprised. You’re already sick, and if you got captured again and tortured…”
“Again?”
Mahir, who had been avoiding eye contact with an uncomfortable expression, frowned and asked back. He was definitely misunderstanding something. Still, I calmed Aska down first.
“I told you, that was an unavoidable situation. It won’t happen again. Who would dare treat me like that now? So stop worrying and go play in the dirt in the Greenhouse. And put on some shoes. Look, you’ve got dirt all over your legs.”
I lightly brushed the dirt off Aska’s legs and smoothed out his wrinkled clothes. It would have been better to wash them with water, but they would only get dirty again anyway, so I decided to do that later.
Even after I tapped the back of his thigh to tell him to go, Aska remained motionless.
There wasn’t really anything to hide, and it didn’t matter if Aska heard, but Mahir seemed uncomfortable with the talk of killing people. And inevitably, bad things about the kingdom would come up.
After waiting and coaxing him for a while, with no sign of him moving, Mahir changed the subject.
“What was that about being captured again earlier?”
At his question, I turned my head. As soon as our eyes met in the air, Mahir blinked once. We finished our tacit agreement to talk about the kingdom later with a look.
“I told him a story from when I was little, and he must have been worried about that.”
Mahir, quickly understanding what I meant, nodded and asked again.
“What about being sick?”
“What?”
“You said you were sick earlier.”
As Mahir frowned, Aska, who had been holding my hand quietly, stepped forward. Then, as if hiding me, he stood in front of me and stared straight at Mahir.
“That’s because of me.”
“……”
His expression and tone were excessively bold, making me slightly worried, but I was so touched by his attempt to protect me that I couldn’t dwell on other thoughts for long.
Afraid that showing I liked it would prevent him from acting this way in the future, I raised my hand to cover my constantly twitching lips.
Mahir stared at the tense Aska for a moment before extending his hand.
“Sit on the sofa and wait for a moment.”
It was a low, gentle voice, like reading a fairy tale before bed. Aska’s shoulders, which had been stiff and rigid, trembled slightly. Aska glanced at me.
Seeing his confused expression, I took his hand and sat him on a chair. Meanwhile, Mahir called a Servant to prepare tea, snacks, and fruit juice.
He was better than before, but Aska still looked tense. I was about to reassure him again, but I was curious to see how he would act, so I left him alone.
Aska sat upright, close enough that our arms were touching. But as Mahir approached, he leaned his upper body even closer to me.
His already slender shoulders were so hunched that he looked even smaller than he was.
“What did you say your name was?”
“Aska.”
“Thirteen this year? You said your birthday was recently, so you would have been twelve when you married Kyle.”
“Yes.”
I bit my lip tightly to keep from laughing. It was nothing special, but somehow I kept laughing. It was really nothing… it just seemed so desperate.
To think he was acting like this because he was worried I would get scolded.
With my upper lip tightly bitten, I looked away when I heard a knock. Mahir briefly said to come in, and the door opened. Instantly, Aska, who had been sitting upright, buried his face in my clothes again.
Slightly startled, I flinched, and Mahir widened his eyes as if he was also taken aback. The Servant quickly placed the tea, snacks, and fruit juice in front of us without making a sound, bowed his head, and left.
Aska, who had been quietly burying his face in my clothes, slowly pulled his head out when he heard the door close and sat up straight again.
I was impressed by how he could act like nothing had happened after doing something so absurd. He was following my instructions not to show his bare face to others.
I reached out and patted the back of his head a few times before handing him the fruit juice.
“Drink.”
At my words, Aska hesitated and looked at Mahir. He watched us quietly, as if observing, then smiled and nodded.
I turned my gaze from Aska, who was sipping from the glass, and looked at Mahir.
“For various reasons, I…”
I told him not to show his bare face to other people.
That’s what I was going to say, but I had no choice but to close my mouth at the loud gulping sound coming from beside me. When I turned my head, I saw Aska holding the rather large glass with both hands, drinking the juice to the last drop.
Mahir, with a bewildered expression, asked, “Would you like more?”
“If you give it to me, I will drink it.”
His voice and expression were excessively solemn. You’d think he was being given poison…
In any case, Aska drank five more glasses of fruit juice after that.
‘Is he starving him?’
Mahir couldn’t hide his flustered expression and asked me with his eyes, but I just shrugged.
I knew he was holding back because Mahir was there, when he usually ate more.
“More importantly, what did you mean by saying he was sick earlier?”
At his question, Aska’s gaze briefly touched mine.
“It’s okay, you can tell me. I promise I won’t scold you.”
Only then, as if relieved, did Aska move his lips a few times before speaking.
“When I first came here, Kyle cast Sealing Magic on me by order of Your Majesty.”
I had been listening to Aska with my chin propped up, but I stopped.
“……”
That was the second time Aska had called my name. I was so surprised that I missed what he was saying in the middle.
“So I kept refusing to eat and protesting, and Kyle had no choice but to take me outside… ”
“……”
Again…
No, it had been almost half a year since we lived together, and he hadn’t called me once. Honestly, even when Aska called my name when I was vomiting blood, it was just out of surprise, and it wasn’t really a proper calling.
“At that time, the magic was forcibly broken because I used my power. I definitely didn’t do it on purpose, and I didn’t know it would turn out like this either. But I was wrong, so if you hit me, I have nothing to say.”
“Who’s hitting you?”
I asked with a dumbfounded expression, but Aska didn’t even look at me. Then Mahir looked at me with cold eyes for a moment. Feeling guilty, I looked away and pretended not to notice.
“There are many types of Sealing Magic. Are you aware of that?”
“I don’t know much about magic.”
“The one Kyle cast on you is a type of magic that requires the other person’s consent. As there is a restriction that it cannot be forced, once consent is given, the subject can never escape on their own. How did you do it?”
“I don’t really know either. I usually control my power…”
“Control? What kind of control?”
At his question, Aska glanced at me. Then, he stammered and said, “When I hit Kyle…”
“……”
“It was just playing around, so I didn’t hit him hard. We sometimes have pillow fights or spin around the table and hit each other’s heads when we catch each other, just that kind of play. I never hit him with the intention of hurting him.”
“That’s not what I’m suspecting.”
Mahir rubbed his forehead at Aska’s desperate excuse. Then Aska moved his lips with an awkward expression and continued.
“Anyway, I could usually roughly gauge how much it would hurt when I hit him with a certain amount of power, but that day was different. I was definitely only trying to knock him out, but suddenly…”
Aska told him everything, from how the person exploded like a balloon to how he controlled the blood to dry the person up. Mahir, who had been listening intently with a serious expression, nodded.
“Yes, you must have been very embarrassed.”
“Yes, I definitely didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I understand. More than that, it seems like there was a backlash when the magic broke. Is that why Kyle was sick?”
“Yes, he vomited a lot of blood and almost died, but I healed him.”
Ah, he didn’t have to say that in so much detail… He could have just said he was sick. But the water had already been spilled.
“Healed? You said you don’t know much about magic, so it can’t be that. What method do you use to heal?”
“…Do you want me to show you?”
“If possible.”
Aska trailed off with a reluctant expression.
“That’s, that’s a bit…”
“Why? Is it because there’s no one injured? Shall I call someone?”
“No, it’s an act that should only be done between husband and husband, so it’s not appropriate to do it to someone else. If Kyle gets sick again, could you come and watch then?”
At his cautious words, Mahir looked at me with a slightly embarrassed expression. I wanted to add some explanation, but I just kept my mouth shut.
I wanted to leave this whole situation to Aska. Was it because it was the first time I saw him talking to someone else for so long like this? Or was it because the topic was me? I wanted to keep listening to Aska defending me and explaining about me to others.
“You just have to swallow the saliva.”
Still, the phrase ‘an act that should only be done between husband and husband’ was too broad, so I roughly explained just this part. But at my words, Aska shook his head.
“Saliva isn’t necessary, you just need to make contact with the mucous membrane.”
“What?”
I had been leaning deep into the sofa, but I was so surprised that I straightened my back. Unexpectedly, I stared blankly at Aska and asked.
“You only need to make contact with the mucous membrane?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why the hell did you make me eat that?”
At my question, Aska tilted his head.
“You give me blood too.”
“……?”
Suddenly, what blood? What does that have to do with this?