Chapter 24 …
“Why are your feet so small? Is this part of the illusion too?”
“My feet… no. It’s just that your hands are big, so they look smaller.”
I was on Calisten’s back when he started fiddling with my foot, then squeezed it in his hand.
“It tickles, so don’t—ah…!”
“Sorry.”
I had been trying to wash him, but when he grabbed my foot, my body curled up instinctively.
“Your feet are so cute.”
“I think you were given too much truth serum.”
Hearing what Calisten was saying, it really did seem that way. At my words, he let out a small sigh, as if he agreed, and stayed still.
I rubbed his neck, then his back. When I scrubbed his shoulders and back, he trembled as if it tickled.
“Cal, put me down now.”
“Okay.”
He set me down, but maybe because everything was slippery, I felt a little scared as I slid down.
“Sorry. I got a little scared.”
I loosened my arms from around his waist—I hadn’t even realized how tightly I’d been holding him—but he didn’t answer.
“Can I wash you now?”
His voice felt like it was echoing inside a cave. Maybe that was why I couldn’t look away. When I met his deep red eyes, my chest felt strange.
“I haven’t finished washing you yet…”
“Don’t you want to?”
“…No.”
My head told me I shouldn’t, but I didn’t know why I ended up agreeing. When I really thought about it, it wasn’t that I hated it. I was just terribly embarrassed, and unsure if this was something we should be doing.
But somehow, when I looked into his eyes, I didn’t want to refuse.
“I’m seeing things right now, Aselia.”
“Mm.”
“I was injected with truth serum, too.”
“I know.”
I didn’t understand why he was bringing that up again, so I simply replied and lowered my head. He squeezed body wash into his hand and placed it on my neck. His hand was so large that I had the absurd thought that if he tightened his grip, my neck might snap.
“Your neck is really pretty.”
“Cal, your neck is really… thick.”
When I echoed his observation, he laughed.
“It’s strange. An illusion has never felt this real before.”
His words made my heart pound. I was afraid he might know it wasn’t a lie, yet it also seemed like he didn’t.
“Your shoulders are really small.”
My shoulders were captured in his palm—slippery and warm—and the sensation felt odd. Soon, that warmth traveled down from my shoulder to my arm, stroking past my elbow and down to my hand.
The heat of his hand was intense. He pressed at my fingertips, then traced back up over my elbow and toward my underarm, his palm heavy and overwhelming.
“Aselia.”
“Ah… yes.”
I came back to my senses and looked at him. His expression was hazy.
“I’d prefer it if you looked at me. Not somewhere else.”
“Okay. I will.”
He glanced at my collarbone and brushed it with his thumb. His hand, which had been tracing along it, slowly slid downward.
“Hng…”
It felt as though my flesh was being kneaded, but I didn’t look down. Because he had told me to keep looking at him, I held his gaze. As if entranced, he continued moving his hands, spreading lather.
My whole body felt like it had turned into a bundle of sensitive needles. Every time his hand touched me, it was as though needles pricked into my skin—ticklish, yet burning hot at the same time.
It was so hot it felt as though his magic was seeping into me.
“Ah… Cal…”
“Is this really an illusion?”
“Hng—”
As if to confirm, he twisted his grip slightly. Startled, my waist trembled. My body reacted on its own, and before I knew it, I was clinging to his shoulders.
“Soft.”
“I-It hurts when you press…”
When I told him that, he stopped pressing. But I could still vividly feel the sensation of his grip tightening and releasing. He cupped me in his palm and then began stroking me, and every time the heat of his hand touched my oversensitive skin, the feeling was indescribable.
“Turn around.”
“Ah… okay.”
It felt like my mind was turning blank. I did as he said and turned around. Warm water poured over my shoulders. Just moments ago, the water had felt pleasantly warm, but perhaps because of his hands, it now seemed lukewarm.
“Ah…”
His hand stroking my stomach felt pleasant. He traced my abdomen with his fingertips.
“That’s my belly button.”
“I know.”
He pressed at my navel with his little finger, then moved upward again, grasping me with both hands and pulling our bodies close. Startled by how tightly he held me, I grabbed his hand, and I could feel the hard planes of his abdomen against my waist.
At some point, the towel tied around his soaked lower body had shifted upward. His firm thigh brushed against my backside.
“We smell the same, Aselia.”
“Ah—”
One of his hands left my chest and slid down along my waist. The towel came undone under his hand and fell to the floor.
His hand stroked the tender skin of my thigh, ticklish, and then something hard—like a rigid tail—pressed against my backside. I gasped.
“Cal… Listen…”
“Hng…”
And then—
“Cal?”
His body suddenly collapsed.
“Cal!”
He fainted.
“If you succeed in this mission, your status and title will be securely yours, just as you wanted.”
In the deputy director’s office, Alexis frowned and tilted his head irritably at those words.
“Are you sure this identity can’t be traced?”
“That’s what they say. You can verify it yourself.”
Alexis had made a deal with the deputy director. Each time he completed a mission, the laboratory would help him create an identity he could use once he left.
Even the name Alexis Rainier had come from that arrangement. He didn’t even know his real name or surname. His memories had been erased after he arrived here, and he had been so young at the time that even if he recovered them, they would be useless in reclaiming his identity.
So creating a new one was better. And since he was an ability user, the imperial family was discreetly helping him establish it as well.
“Is the imperial family being cooperative because they’re afraid of the House of Magnolia?”
“That’s right.”
“If they’re planting a spy inside, they must be pretty scared.”
Alexis crossed his arms with a sneer. He was still dissatisfied. This agreement should have ended six months ago, but it kept being delayed.
His job was to eliminate rebel forces hiding near the border.
And this time—
“How long will this one take?”
“A month. If you do better, maybe only a few weeks.”
The deputy director leaned back in her chair and handed him a file. Alexis sighed in frustration.
“I’m worried about my toy.”
“Don’t be. No one cares about it anyway.”
“What if it dies while I’m gone?”
“If you show too much interest, wouldn’t that make it more dangerous?”
That was true. Alexis had many enemies. Even inside the lab, people only kept quiet because they feared him; many would love to take revenge.
He sometimes helped the researchers, which meant personally disposing of defective subjects. Some of the test subjects brought here had even been captured by him.
If someone had watched their family or loved ones die as they were taken—
Even if they pretended not to remember, they might be sharpening a blade for revenge. And such incidents happened several times a year. Memories erased by the lab often resurfaced on their own.
It would be safer for Aselia if he acted indifferent, as if she were nothing more than a toy he toyed with.
“If my toy dies, I’ll kill you.”
“How arrogant. A worm that would die without stabilizers.”
“If you want to keep using that worm well, take good care of it. It’s very precious.”
As he said that, he thought of Aselia. He would be gone from the lab for quite some time. If he showed too much interest in her, she might truly become prey.
Even telling them to move her into his room felt risky.
“When this mission is over, give her to me. As promised.”
“Fine. What’s so special about an A-rank?”
He was supposed to receive Aselia once this mission ended. He planned to take her to his estate and build a household with her.
Alexis had never thought he would want something like that. But the moment he became interested in Aselia, she became his.
“By the way, that A-rank.”
The deputy director crossed her legs the other way and looked at him. Alexis instinctively sensed the faint contempt and mockery in her eyes, and his expression darkened.
“Does she say she wants to live with you?”
“…Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She’s my toy.”
From the beginning, even if he had heard her opinion, he had no intention of truly respecting it. He had only asked to confirm.
“What if that A-rank said she hated you?”
“Does that matter?”
“Doesn’t it matter to you?”
For a moment, it felt like it might.
‘I—I belong to you, Alec.’
He could tell from her physical reactions alone that she had said that out of fear. Still, the fact that she had said it meant she would follow whatever he decided.
“I don’t know.”
The deputy director sneered.
“I didn’t know you were into men.”
“Think whatever you want.”
She had confirmed Aselia’s rank and even tested her ability, but had deemed her completely useless.
“If you really want to make her yours, break her at night. Then she’ll truly belong to you.”
At those words, Alexis unconsciously clenched his fist tightly.
