HRB 78

After that day, nothing much changed between the two of them.

Eddie still doted on Ketron as usual, and Ketron acted as he always did.

Even someone who knew them well wouldn’t suspect that anything had happened between them.

There wasn’t a trace left of that night, of the heated encounter and the unspeakable acts they had shared.

The two of them returned to their usual relationship as if nothing had happened.

That’s how it seemed on the surface.

“Seriously, make sure you lock the door next time.”

Of course, Sebastian, who always thought of them as being in that kind of relationship, said this to Eddie.

Eddie now understood what Sebastian was misunderstanding, but since what happened wasn’t a misunderstanding after all, but something that actually happened, it was awkward to make excuses, so he just laughed.

Of course, he was a little conflicted inside.

That day was an accident. Ketron had fallen victim to the Nightmare curse, and Eddie had only helped Ketron, who was struggling and didn’t know what to do.

Yes, it had to end there. It was an accident, after all.

So, the very act of repeating to himself several times not to be conscious of it meant that he was already incredibly concerned, but Eddie didn’t even think about that part.

That day, Eddie naturally headed to the backyard to bring Ketron something to drink while he was exercising. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Ketron, who had stopped meditating after the incident the other day and was focusing on warming up again.

The moment he saw Ketron’s bare chest, the moment he saw his magnificent upper body filled with muscles, Eddie’s mind was filled with a certain scene.

Ketron riding on top of him, drenched in sweat.

“Eddie.”

The sound of his name being called.

“Eddie, that feels good…”

The sound of him moaning, honestly saying that it felt good…

Ah.

This is driving me crazy.

Eddie’s hand, which was taking out the straw and inserting it into the soy milk as he always did, fumbled several times before finally succeeding.

Calm down, will you? What are you doing?

Eddie, scolding himself, approached Ketron. Ketron had been staring at Eddie since before Eddie opened the door and came out into the backyard, so he couldn’t turn around and leave.

Eddie approached Ketron and put the straw in Ketron’s mouth as he always did.

Ketron naturally accepted what Eddie offered and drank. The smell of sweaty skin hit him, and even though Ketron was just sucking on the straw with his unusually red lips, Eddie had to try hard not to blush.

Eddie bringing Ketron something to drink while he was exercising was an unspoken agreement between the two of them, a daily routine.

If he suddenly stopped, it would definitely seem strange, and it would be obvious that he was being self-conscious, so Eddie couldn’t bring himself to do it.

But seeing Ketron’s bare body and flustering without even realizing it, Eddie realized.

Whether he suddenly stopped bringing snacks during exercise and made it obvious that he was being self-conscious, or whether he couldn’t even make eye contact and made it obvious that he was being self-conscious, it was all the same in the end.

Whichever he chose, it was a self-defeating move either way.

“Thank you.”

Ketron, who thanked him as always after finishing the soy milk, seemed much more composed than Eddie.

Watching him, Eddie suddenly realized that he was no longer the person who could lie down next to Ketron and fall asleep comfortably without a care in the world, as he had in the past.

That was quite a shocking fact.

***

Recently, Eddie had a lot on his mind.

The Demon King who had suddenly appeared, the nightmare that had attacked Ketron, the problem with his relationship with Ketron, and when Gerold would return were all concerns.

Among them, what bothered him the most were the words the Demon King had said.

The words “thank you.” The words “it’s thanks to you.”

What was thanks to him?

Of course, it wasn’t a problem that could be solved by worrying about it. It only made him more complicated.

Somehow, his instincts prevented him from telling Ketron those words, so Eddie didn’t tell Ketron everything the Demon King had said.

In the end, he was left to worry alone, so he had a lot of thoughts.

Eddie wasn’t good at lying, and Ketron seemed to have noticed that there were parts that Eddie wasn’t telling him, but he didn’t press him to tell him what kind of conversation the Demon King and Eddie had.

Ketron stared at Eddie, and then, after that day, he brought the Holy Sword into Eddie’s room.

He said that humanization wasn’t possible often, but if the Demon race attacked again, the Holy Sword could block them at least once if he humanized.

They couldn’t sleep together every night, so it was a natural measure in a way, but Eddie felt relieved for some reason.

He no longer had the confidence to just lie down and sleep with Ketron. He would stay up all night. It was an unavoidable choice for the sake of proper sleep habits and sleep quality.

“The customers who came today were having this argument. Which is more delicious, jjajanggetti or Fire Chicken Noodle? They were almost about to throw punches.”

Thanks to that, Eddie had to spend his nights listening to the Holy Sword’s endless chatter before falling asleep these days.

Basically, the Holy Sword’s tone wasn’t that gentle, but he was still subtly showing Eddie that he liked him, so he wasn’t too bad to deal with.

“Eddie, that thing you did with Ketron last time, what’s that all about?”

“…”

“The guys who had me before used to do similar things. I didn’t know why they did it and I never asked, but now I’m a little curious. Ketron never answers me. You would know, right?”

Except when he asked difficult questions sometimes.

The day Eddie first heard those words from the Holy Sword, he had to gape so wide that his jaw almost fell off.

Come to think of it, the Holy Sword was in the room that day, at that moment! Leaning against the wall! That meant he had seen everything about their relationship from the beginning.

Fortunately, the Holy Sword, who wasn’t human, didn’t know exactly what the two of them had done, and didn’t seem to understand… Eddie felt like he wanted to faint just from the fact that he had shown that embarrassing scene to someone.

“Haa.”

Eddie sighed.

He was at a loss for words to answer the Holy Sword’s question, which he had been repeating for days.

Why did they do it?

That was the problem. Eddie didn’t know the answer to that question either.

In that situation, he was horrified by the fact that Ketron was cursed and the situation happened so quickly that he couldn’t think properly, but when he thought about it later, there were a lot of strange things.

In the first place, why did Eddie have to ‘help’ him? If it was just to cool down his heated body, there would have been no need for that.

Besides, even when the Demon King came, when Eddie comforted Ketron, and when they moved rooms… Ketron didn’t have any traces of that curse.

Then, what was that…

How should I interpret that?

That day, we definitely crossed the line.

We’re still nothing to each other.

When he went to the tournament waiting room to find Ketron because of the story’s compulsion, when he had to explain to the gatekeepers who he was looking for, Eddie couldn’t figure out what to call Ketron, so he used the word “friend.”

But then and now, the word “friend” was too inappropriate for Eddie and Ketron.

To be more precise, it didn’t fit then, and it fits even less now.

Is “friend” even possible?

“What kind of friends… do that?”

On top of that, he even kissed him, caught up in the atmosphere.

Remembering that Ketron’s lips, which he had devoured several times, were very soft, and that he had unconsciously burst out laughing when Ketron bit his lower lip first after they had mixed tongues a few times and he had gotten used to it, Eddie couldn’t take it anymore and slammed his forehead on the counter!

Ah, I’m really going crazy.

The few morning customers were staring at the Owner, who was alone at the counter, burying his head and muttering to himself, as if he were strange, but he didn’t even notice their gazes.

“Pfft.”

It was when Eddie sighed for what felt like the millionth time today.

He heard a voice that was now quite familiar to his ears.

“Yo, Eddie!”

Eddie quickly raised his head. A beauty with a refreshing atmosphere and a large man with a refreshing energy in a different sense were entering the inn.

It was Augustine and Laila, who had now become regulars.

They always came in the morning when there were few people, but because they were such famous figures, rumors had been circulating that they were visiting here every morning.

Thanks to that, the number of customers had increased, so he should be happy as the inn Owner, but to be honest, their visits were adding to Eddie’s current worries.

More precisely, Laila’s presence was.

This is driving me crazy. My stomach is even more twisted.

He felt like his insides were twisting like a screw bar, and his stomach was aching, but Eddie smiled and greeted them as his service industry instincts dictated.

“Welcome.”

But that smile gradually faded when he saw Laila looking around as if she was looking for someone as soon as she entered the inn.

Because she had visited several times, she now knew that Ketron exercised at this time, and she briefly glanced at the backyard door before quietly taking a seat.

She was looking for Ketron’s presence.

But she doesn’t look for him out loud. She doesn’t do anything openly. But even so, Eddie could see that she was looking for him.

That’s because she was officially Arthur Fontaine’s fiancée.

But there are two people here who know the truth.

Eddie and Ketron know that the person she truly wanted wasn’t Arthur.

In addition, Eddie knew one more thing. That the person she truly wanted, loved, and cherished was Ketron.

That their relationship was unresolved.