SIDE STORY 06
If I wasn’t imagining things, the rim of his ear visible through his hair…
“Luce…”
It’s bright red. As if it were on fire.
“Luce. Answer me. Why is this considered no big deal?”
I shook Luce’s arm, urging him. Perhaps I had a masochistic streak. I desperately wanted to see him, even as he tried to hide his face with his hands.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
After persistently tugging at his arm, finally the hand that had been covering his face dropped.
The petals filling the room seemed to have stained Luce’s cheek as well. I stared, entranced, at his white cheek tinged with flower dye. Still, he couldn’t meet my gaze and parted his lips, slightly trembling.
“I…”
“You?”
“…I’m just returning what I received.”
His tightly bitten lips quivered.
Excessive joy, they say, carries a streak of violence. To quell this tingling excitement, I felt like I had to break something.
“Are you… returning what you said last year?”
Luce nodded. I calculated the date. Five days had passed since I’d been sick—so today marked—
“Is this the one-year mark?”
A year ago today, Luce had shattered the body of a demon and scattered it across the world.
At the same time, it was also the day I had proposed to him.
“A year that passed in a blur…”
“The longest year of my life. I’ve endured it pretty well, haven’t I? Even quite properly.”
Right?
Luce lifted my hand and kissed it. His lips on the back of my hand, and the way he stared into my eyes—it burned like fire.
“Are you proposing now because you couldn’t wait any longer?”
“Rinne. I’ll wait for hundreds of years if you want me to. If, at the end, you are there.”
Luce’s life was far longer than I could imagine, probably nearing eternity.
“And while I long for you, even my boring life will be filled with you.”
Yet he said he would gladly devote that endless life to waiting for me.
My throat tightened. A resolve I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
“…And if my hair turns completely white in the meantime?”
A childish tantrum. I had no intention of making him wait that long, yet I toyed with the complaint anyway.
But I knew Luce would indulge this shallow whim. A soft kiss, gentle as one gives a child begging for sleep.
“I’ll see you in all the pure white,” he said.
Just like now.
“…Ahem.”
I cleared my throat, and Luce laughed. Resting his chin in his hands, framed by flowers, he looked ridiculously adorable.
“Do you like it?”
“Hmm… quite a bit.”
Luce liked having his head touched. I thought he’d dislike it, as if being treated like a child, but watching him close his eyes and fully accept it was always unfamiliar.
“Then… will you tell me now? Who was that idiot spouting nonsense?”
“There’s no one like that!”
He asked so kindly that I almost blurted out the truth. I was still worried! At this rate, he might find out I’d been making a fuss alone.
Better redirect Luce’s unnecessary persistence.
“If you’re going to wait forever, why rush the engagement?”
Luce followed my obvious attempt to change the subject.
“Because waiting for you, I alone is enough.”
“Huh?”
“Think of it as my consideration—you won’t waste time waiting in vain for anyone else.”
He sounded serious explaining that. I laughed at the sight.
“You overestimate me. Who else besides you would be waiting for me?”
Maybe just my mother, apart from Luce?
He looked like he had something to say but soon just laughed along with me.
“You’re right, Rinne. So come to me, no matter what.”
“When should I go?”
I asked playfully. He answered with a radiant expression.
“It doesn’t matter if it takes long, but I can’t promise to wait patiently.”
“Please don’t make such jokes with a smile…”
“Did that seem like a joke?”
I stopped laughing and placed my hand on his shoulder.
“Luce. For caution’s sake, remember that in the empire, there are people dear to me, including myself.”
“…Of course, Rinne.”
His smiling face looked somewhat displeased.
“Why is the silence so long?”
“I know very well. I won’t ruin anything in your world.”
I knew that Luce would do anything to protect my world. He had thrown himself into danger and paid a heavy price.
So I must protect my world. To preserve the world he sacrificed so much to protect.
And to do that, I had to protect Luce.
“Luce. As you said, there are many other things in my world besides you.”
“I know.”
“I’m happy that there are many things precious to me.”
“If it makes you happy, that’s enough.”
He knew how to manage jealousy. Even clumsily, his skill was far better than mine, whining as I did.
Now it was my turn to say what Luce wanted to hear.
“And the reason my world is beautiful is because of you, Luce. Because of you, my world is complete.”
“……”
It felt as if I were confessing everything I’d ever felt all at once. Surely, my feelings, long unexpressed, overflowed. I felt quietly proud of this sudden achievement.
Though Luce’s continued silence cooled my excitement quickly.
“…Luce, why aren’t you saying—”
A soft pillow cradled the back of my head. In an instant, I was trapped in Luce’s arms.
Before my swelling lips could settle, what a sudden calamity!
“Lu-Luce?”
A sense of dread rushed over me. The moment I lifted my gaze to calm him, I sensed it immediately.
“Rinne…”
Ah. This was serious.
I inched backward, crawling, but as soon as my back touched the headboard, it was over.
Luce looked down at me, eyes wide and pupils dilated, following all my movements.
“I-I’m a patient. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
His lips traced my cheeks, the bridge of my nose, forehead, and eyelids—everywhere. The contact was thick with desire.
“I’m supposed to stay calm… as a patient…”
“Yes.”
Even the hands I tried to push his face away with were caught. Smooch. Smooch. The embarrassing sounds never stopped, making me dizzy.
“You’re saying yes without listening at all—ugh!”
“Y-just a moment…”
“Just a moment, my ass! Ugh!”
I hit his shoulder and grabbed his hair, but Luce didn’t stop.
“Lu-Kariel! Wait!”
Suddenly, like a lie, his body froze.
I normally wouldn’t use his true name, but the urgency left me no choice. I wiped my forehead and straightened myself.
Luce’s unfocused eyes still followed me.
“…That’s not the name I meant to give you.”
“I told you to calm down. We still have so much to talk about, don’t we?”
I stroked his cheek to calm him, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.
Even the slight movement of his fingers seemed exhausting, yet he tilted his head and pressed his lips against my hand. Seeing me flinch at the unexpected contact, he squinted his eyes in amusement.
“Yes. Rinne. Talking with you always makes me happy—whether it’s words or touch.”
“Please, that mouth…”
“You’d be happy too if you were like me.”
“That mouth… it’s… so beautiful.”
I almost didn’t need to hear the last part. It took a long time to resume conversation with Luce after that final addition.
