MBYS 26

Chapter 26

Preparation (3)

With a dull, grating sound, the heavy mahogany door swung open, and the sight of the bedchamber, plunged into deep darkness, filled Eveline’s vision.

The room was saturated with the suffocatingly dense scent of sandalwood, along with the man’s magical power surging violently as though it might run rampant at any moment.

Standing before the window where cool moonlight spilled obliquely across the floor, Kailus silently stood with his back turned to her, the buttons of his shirt roughly undone as though he were suffocating beneath the rising heat.

His red gaze remained firmly fixed on the pitch-black darkness outside the window, but the moment Eveline cautiously stepped across the threshold, a low, cool voice cleaved through the heavy silence.

“You came after all. But tonight shouldn’t be your transfer cycle.”

The words were tossed out casually without him even turning his head. Anyone could tell it was a rejection.

However, instead of retreating, Eveline quietly closed the door behind her and slowly walked toward Kailus’s broad back, fully bathed in the precarious moonlight.

“I know.”

“Knowing that, you fearlessly pushed open the door to my bedchamber?”

Kailus, who had been facing the window, slowly turned around.

Backed by the moonlight, the man’s red eyes flashed like those of a beast as they swept over Eveline’s slender silhouette.

She wore a defenseless outfit, a soft gown barely draped over a thin silk slip.

Deep furrows formed between Kailus’s brows.

“In two days, we must set out for the capital.”

“So.”

A short, cool counter-question fell flat.

Facing the man’s surging aura without retreating even an inch, Eveline met his gaze directly with her calm, ash-gray eyes and opened her mouth.

“The imperial court…… is like a vast swamp where enemies lie coiled, waiting to devour Your Lordship. Whether along the journey or in the middle of the banquet hall, where countless gazes will be fixed upon you, if Your Lordship’s power goes out of control even for a single moment…… an irreversible disaster will occur.”

Eveline’s bloodless lips curved into a resolute line.

“That is why tonight, I must drain it away in advance. So that throughout your stay in the capital, Your Lordship can maintain your reason and self-control without a single weakness.”

The corners of Kailus’s mouth twisted upward.

“You doubt my self-control.”

“Let us call it guarding against your surroundings rather than doubting Your Lordship’s self-control. There is no need to feed useless prey.”

“Needless worry. You need only manage your own body properly.”

Though his voice struck down with icy resolve, an unidentifiable, fierce fire was rising deep within Kailus.

Eveline Damian.

She was nothing more than a tool. A consumable item to be discarded without regret once it had been broken through use.

That was the cruel iron rule Kailus had upheld his entire life while ruling the bloodstained north.

Yet right now, what viciously clawed at his mind was the image of Eveline’s bloodless face as she had collapsed in his arms a few days ago, staining his shirt red.

She was a woman so fragile and precarious that she might shatter at the slightest touch. Yet, as though she did not care in the slightest if her own body were torn apart, she had walked straight toward death solely because she wanted Kailus to remain safe.

This unfamiliar sensation had settled heavily into a corner of his heart.

He suppressed the churning fissure within him, burying it beneath the simple word ‘annoyance.’

“Tsk.”

Clicking his tongue in irritation, Kailus strode forward and sat heavily on the edge of the bed.

Soon, he extended a hand toward Eveline.

“Come here.”

“…….”

“Tonight, merely skim away the superficial magical power through skin-to-skin contact. I do not permit you to push yourself any further than that.”

Yet, looking down at the hand Kailus had extended, Eveline slowly shook her head.

“That shallow degree of contact is far from enough.”

“Don’t indulge in such presumptuous stubbornness. Do you really believe your tattered body can endure a full transfer?”

“I will endure it. No, I must endure it.”

“Arrogant words! It was barely a couple of days ago that you vomited blood and collapsed in my arms while indulging that petty stubbornness!”

Kailus’s voice came out low and crushed from deep within his throat.

Even beneath the fierce momentum that pressed heavily against the surroundings, Eveline did not retreat a single step.

“Rather than Your Lordship showing a fatal weakness in the heart of enemy territory, it is far more beneficial to the Grand House for me to quietly break down in this room. My sole value lies in protecting Your Lordship’s perfection.”

With that cool reply, Eveline closed the distance without hesitation, boldly stepping between Kailus’s parted knees.

“What are you doing……!”

The exact moment Kailus’s red pupils widened in bewilderment at the unexpected provocation, Eveline’s white hands firmly grasped the man’s strong cheeks.

Then, without a shred of hesitation, she lowered her waist and pressed her pale lips deeply against Kailus’s tightly sealed ones.

“……!”

The very moment their breaths mingled, the man’s massive, suppressed magical power burst forth like a breached dam, violently passing through their joined lips and pouring into Eveline’s body.

A spine-chilling thrill, as though lightning were being driven down her spine, and a formidable agony, as if every bone in her body were being crushed, swept over her like a tidal wave and swallowed her whole.

The moment Eveline, choked by the overwhelming torrent of power, let out a faint groan and staggered, Kailus’s strong arms shot forward, firmly encircling her slender waist and pulling her roughly onto the bed.

With magical power exploding between their joined lips and their burning body heat intertwining, the man’s reason, which had been holding on by a thread, finally snapped without a trace.

Their intertwined figures collapsed into the deep darkness where even the moonlight could not reach.

Throughout the heavy night, the suffocating scent of sandalwood and their hot, ragged breaths tangled dizzyingly within the bedchamber, while their desperate contact continued endlessly.

Around the time the dim blue light of dawn began to seep coldly through the window, Eveline struggled to raise her trembling body, smoothing down the slip that was completely soaked in cold sweat.

A burning sensation, as though molten lava had been poured into every blood vessel in her body, rushed through her.

The man’s immense magical power, running wild through her veins like a mad beast, squeezed her from within as though it might tear her internal organs apart at any moment.

Eveline bit down on her bloodless lips until bitter blood welled up, swallowing back the scream threatening to escape.

Her gaze, attempting to stagger away from the bed despite the agony consuming her, lingered on Kailus, who lay sleeping amid the messily crumpled sheets, breathing quietly.

The furrows between his brows, which were always carved into a chillingly menacing expression, had been smoothed away as though they had never existed.

His rough breathing, strained beneath the vast magical power, had finally returned to a deep and peaceful rhythm.

Transparent moisture faintly welled in Eveline’s dim ash-gray eyes.

She slowly bent down and brushed back the black hair scattered messily across Kailus’s peacefully closed eyes.

Then, at a precariously close distance where her burning breath brushed against him, Eveline placed a light, affectionate kiss upon the man’s solid forehead, soft as a feather.

“May you have a peaceful night…….”

Leaving behind a secret whisper that would reach no one, Eveline quietly slipped out of the bedchamber, even muffling the sound of her staggering footsteps.

Click.

The moment the heavy mahogany door closed and absolute silence descended upon the room once more, Kailus’s red eyes, which she had believed were sunk in deep sleep, slowly opened.

His gaze, staring into the darkness, was chillingly vivid and sharp—far too sharp for someone who had just awakened.

Kailus, who had been quietly staring at the ceiling, slowly raised his large, solid hand.

Just moments ago, that was where the woman’s pale, soft lips had lingered.

His thick fingers slowly covered the spot.

The faint warmth remaining on the surface of his cool skin vividly seeped into him, completely turning his nerves upside down.

“Just what is she doing……?”

A long, complicated sigh escaped through Kailus’s tightly pressed lips.

A fearless woman who had dared to forget her place as a consumable and kiss her master on the forehead before running away.

That audacious act, which rightly deserved to have her neck seized and to be met with a stern rebuke, somehow filled an empty corner of his heart without leaving a single gap, producing a bizarre sense of fulfillment.

Roughly wiping his face with the palm that had been covering his forehead, he squeezed his red eyes shut once again, as though forcibly suppressing the unfamiliar emotions churning wildly within him.