TYHL SSS 01 🍷💫

~ Special Side Story 1 ~

Tap. Tap.

Kal walked down the corridor.

Before long, a familiar bedroom door came into view.

When he went inside, the pure white bed sheets—unusual for this room—were messily scattered.

The room was quiet. There was no sign of the servants.

In the silence—

Soft, steady breathing could be heard.

The moment he realized whose breathing it was, his shoulders stiffened.

“Mm…”

Perhaps sensing someone, the person sleeping turned over.

Slide—

The sheets slipped down, fully revealing a smooth, bare shoulder.

‘Wait. Wait—just a second.’

Khalid froze as if struck by an arrow.

“Kal…? You’re back already?”

Her voice was low and heavy with sleep.

“Ah… I can’t move my body at all…”

Lying with her back turned, the woman only flailed her arm weakly.

That made the sheet slide even lower, clearly revealing her pale back.

‘No, no, seriously—time out.’

Kal’s vision spun.

‘Right now… she’s not wearing any clothes…?’

Is she completely naked?

And more than that—

Those persistent marks carved into her smooth back…

The instant he understood, it felt like scorching lava was poured over his head.

He clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached.

‘Damn it, time-warp device.’

He had asked to see a future where he married Rubian safely…

‘Who asked to see this kind of scene?!’

He thought it would be something like walking hand in hand into the wedding hall at most.

He never imagined something this intense…

“I’m not eating breakfast… I’ll just… sleep a little more. Blanket… blanket, please…”

Rubian murmured in a faint, hoarse voice.

Kal panicked—but still shut his eyes tightly and moved out of habit.

He sharpened his senses to the extreme, wrapping the blanket with utmost care so his hand would not touch her bare skin.

Swish—rustle.

A single large cocoon lay on the bed.

Kal barely cracked his eyes open and let out a deep sigh.

Her side profile, already fast asleep again, came into view.

She looked pale—like someone whose soul had been thoroughly drained.

‘You crazy bastard.’

Just how much did you torment her?

‘Do you have no self-control?’

Or… was it so overwhelming that you forgot restraint entirely?

‘You’re not some damn beast.’

He scrubbed his face dry, freely cursing his future self.

Tap. Tap.

Then, footsteps approached from outside.

It was probably this timeline’s Khalid returning.

Kal hurriedly activated his mana.

The stimulation was already too much—he had no intention of staying longer anyway.

Click.

When the ‘future’ Khalid opened the bedroom door—

“……”

There was no one inside.

Loosely dressed in a robe, he placed the breakfast tray on the table.

His eyes landed on the large cocoon resting neatly on the bed.

A weak, breathless chuckle slipped out.

Ah… so it was around this time.

A very faint memory surfaced. Not that it mattered anymore.

“Ruby, I’m back.”

“Mmnn……”

Smack, smack.

Kal showered kisses over her round shoulder without pause.

His beautiful but slightly wicked fingers slipped under the blanket without hesitation.

Her body twitched at the memory of last night’s excess, but even that was adorable.

“Let’s eat something.”

“…I said I’m sleeeeping…”

“Okay, eat and then sleep. You’ve gotten skinny again.”

Rubian suddenly choked up.

“When I eat, you’ll…! Again! Again!”

“Again… what?”

That fox-like face—knowing everything yet pretending not to—was utterly shameless.

Staring at his dazzlingly handsome face, practically glowing, Rubian burst out:

“I want to return you!”

Khalid chuckled, kissing the back of her neck as she teared up.

“Sorry. I didn’t know I had that little self-control… though, to be fair, the one clinging to me at dawn was definitely you—”

“Let’s cut ties for a while. You’re clearly bad for my health.”

“Nope. Can’t. Do you know how hard it was for me to get this far?”

“Ah… right.”

Rubian muttered like she understood.

“You almost couldn’t even marry me after throwing an engagement party.”

At that moment, Khalid’s gaze changed.

“When I think about it now, it’s amazing that all that even happened.”

“……”

“We even set the wedding date, and then suddenly—husband with amnesia? What kind of nonsense is that~”

Rubian sighed, her complaints continuing as she thought about it.

“Seriously… telling me not to touch you, telling me not to marry you, blah blah—mph!”

Kal, flustered, kissed her lips.

“Please. Let’s forget that terrible past.”

“Well? Unlike you, I have a good memory—hey! Stop kissing!”

“If I don’t kiss my wife, what should I do then?”

Kal, now relaxed again, sat beside the bed, pulled Rubian into his arms, and started openly flirting.

“Nggh. Let’s really cut ties for just one day. My wish. Or even just thirty minutes…”

“Nope. I already said no.”

He smiled lazily, rubbing the wedding ring on her finger.

“If you chose me as your husband, you have to take responsibility to the end, Rubian. Forgot our vows?”

“Hng. Back then, if I said that, you’d at least sulk cutely…”

“That was when I was an ignorant rookie.”

“Huuuung……”

Kal fell silent for a moment, then carefully asked:

“…So, am I not cute anymore?”

Rubian glanced at him shyly.

She pretended to dislike it, but honestly, she loved sharing warmth with him like this.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she whispered:

“You’re suuuper cuuuute…….”

It was the everyday life of a happy newlywed couple.

‘Damn… my heart almost exploded.’

Meanwhile, present-day Kal (the rookie) used the time-warp device to move to the next scene.

He had actually planned to end the time warp there, but maybe because he was too shaken—

He accidentally jumped to another future point.

And there, Kal saw it.

“Kyaaah!”

“Bwaaah!”

Two squirrels clinging to Rubian.

“Baby? Ptoo! Spit it out! Hair—hair is not food!”

Though he only saw it roughly from outside the window—

‘What the hell…?’

Did he just get his life spoiled against his will…?

Khalid returned to reality in utter confusion.

It had been an excessively stimulating trip.

And maybe because of that—

He suffered some aftereffects from the time-warp journey.

“Kal!”

Whenever Rubian tried to hug him or initiate skinship—

“…Wait. Ruby.”

“Eek! What’s with this iron wall?!”

“I—uh—I’m in a bit of a difficult situation right now.”

The future scenes flashed through his mind, making his body heat up.

“So… I’m really hot right now…”

“It’s a cold wave outside?”

“I’m in a heat wave.”

“…?”

“I’ll go run around the training grounds…”

His entire body flushed red, he ran around like a madman and destroyed about five thousand straw dummies.

But, well.

They say time heals all things.

As his body grew sturdier day by day, the memories slowly faded too.

Most of all, what Rubian said snapped him back to his senses.

“There’s no guarantee that the future you saw with the time-warp device will actually happen.”

“…Huh?”

“Well… think about it. Say there’s a future where you and I drink coffee together. But if I suddenly change my mind now and order tea instead—then that coffee future won’t happen, right?”

“……”

“In short, the future is a fragile bundle of variables that can change with the tiniest trigger.”

“……”

“So seeing the future with a time-warp device doesn’t really mean much. It just wastes mana.”

“Ah.”

“…Um, but why did you suddenly ask about this?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Kal decided to treat it as just a very realistic, perverted dream.

And instead of relying on an uncertain future, he chose to promise to keep Rubian by his side forever—as soon as possible.

And so, on a bright, clear day—

With his heart feeling like it would burst out of his chest, Khalid proposed to Rubian.

“Okay!”

The bright smile Rubian showed him then—

Was truly a moment of bliss that would never come twice in the world.

That autumn, they held a party to celebrate their engagement.

Rubian had intended it to be a small gathering, but Rosetta and Balrog’s “let’s add more” disease turned it into a massive event.

Following Rosetta’s opinion that weddings need plenty of preparation time, they decided to hold it the next autumn.

Inviting dignitaries from the Magic Kingdom to the Casalia Kingdom required a lot of preparation, apparently.

To Kal, though, it just sounded like a mother’s excuse to keep her daughter close a little longer.

Time passed peacefully.

Kal almost never thought about the future scenes anymore.

The ‘present’ with Rubian was simply too sweet—and stimulating in every way—so the memories faded on their own.

Thankfully.

It was good that he forgot.

Of course…

“Are you okay?”

“……”

“…K-Kal? Why are your eyes like that?”

“My body…”

“……?”

“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t touch it.”

Not just that—

He forgot a bit too much, which became a problem.

So, what exactly happened to him was—

To be continued.