Episode 10
Jared was staring at me, one hand shoved in his pocket. My bag, which had been suddenly snatched, was now dangling from his shoulder.
“Did you get abandoned?”
“Please give me my bag.”
“Then I’ll just take it for myself.”
“What? Wait a minute, aah…!”
Just as he had effortlessly slung the travel bag over his shoulder, this time he flipped me over and draped me across his shoulder.
Just like he had done before at the Audrianna residence.
No, why does he keep picking people up like they’re luggage! Even as I struggled, Jared steadily crossed the garden.
“Excuse me, Duke Castion!”
“If you fall, whose loss do you think it will be? Be still.”
He pushed me into the carriage.
Thud. My body sank into the plush seat. As I pushed myself up from where I was half-lying back, Jared also climbed into the carriage and closed the door.
The moment we were left alone together in the confined space, an instinctive revulsion surged. I tried to get out, but a large hand gripped my shoulder and pushed me down.
“When someone gives you a ride, you say ‘Thank you’.”
Jared knocked on the wall behind him and shouted, “Let’s go!” Soon, the coachman’s energetic cry was heard, and the horses quickly pawed the ground, moving the carriage forward.
Even as I felt the rickety, shaking vibrations through my whole body, this situation felt unreal in some way.
Jared sat leaning back in an arrogant posture, staring holes through me.
His grey-blue eyes were persistent, as if trying to strip my inner thoughts bare. It seemed I was the only one suffocating in this silence.
The muscles around my mouth twitched repeatedly from the awkwardness.
“……Thank you for the ride.”
“You’re the one who rubbed your lips raw and then threw up.”
Instantly, my words got stuck in my throat.
“……No.”
I answered, feigning nonchalance.
At that, Jared stuck out his tongue and lightly touched the wound on the corner of his mouth. My gaze inadvertently fell on his red tongue.
Tch. At the sound of his laugh, I quickly averted my eyes.
He leaned forward and lightly gripped my chin.
“You’re lying, and you’re not even hiding your busted lips?”
“It’s just… They split easily.”
“Oh, really?”
Jared’s thick eyebrows twitched upwards. The hand holding my chin slid down, grabbed my collar, and pulled it down.
Before I could even be flustered by my exposed neckline, a firm fingertip pressed firmly on one spot.
“Ah!”
A sharp pain made me flinch.
“Does that split easily too?”
It was the place Jared had bitten and sucked on yesterday. Heat rushed to my face instantly.
‘……Damn.’
I’d forgotten how perceptive this bastard was.
Making any more excuses would only make me look foolish. I fanned myself and opened the window.
Ugh, it’s even hotter.
But instead, hot wind blew into the carriage in gusts. Jared clicked his tongue shortly and closed the window for me.
“Not only are you rude to the person who saved your life, but now you’re going to commit sexual assault and then play innocent?”
“It wasn’t exactly saving a life. I just handled a drunkard.”
“So you admit to the sexual assault.”
“……I was just purifying you. You looked like you were in too much pain.”
“Ahh. So you just shove your mouth onto anyone who looks like they’re in pain?”
“……Well, I guess I’m a bit like that.”
I didn’t have the energy to argue with him. Seeing me readily admit it, he furrowed his brow and pushed his tongue firmly against the inside of his cheek, making it bulge. I watched the protrusion appear and disappear, then lowered my gaze.
“Didn’t you say you were 4th rank?”
“Yes.”
“The 1st rank couldn’t purify me. How did you, a 4th rank, manage to purify me?”
“What could I do? Arpina did it all. Arpina collapsed during the purification, and I just finished it up.”
For a while, there was no response from Jared. I glanced at him; he had leaned back against the seat again and crossed his legs.
“I suppose.”
After that, the conversation between us cut off completely.
I subtly tried to see if he would interrogate me further, but Jared just pressed and released his wound with his tongue, showing no other signs of anger.
Since he seemed to be letting it go, I didn’t add anything more. I half-opened the window and saw a familiar street.
“Um, you can let me off here.”
“Shouldn’t I just take you home?”
“Do you want to get your carriage smashed? The alley is too narrow.”
“Then to the vicinity.”
I stubbornly shook my head. He knocked on the wall, and the carriage gradually slowed before coming to a complete stop.
I got out of the carriage, grabbed my bag, and bowed my head.
“Thank you for bringing me back.”
Something came flying through the air with a whoosh. It wasn’t fast, so I caught it with both hands before it could hit anything.
“Put it on before you sleep.”
It was an ointment.
A firm hand pulled the languid body closer. Sweat-dampened hair scattered messily in its wake.
Jared swept his hand up the blood-engorged leg, from the knee to the top of the thigh.
“Haa… Just one more time, okay?”
He was impatient. He had reached the point where he could barely hold back, while the other person fidgeted, trying to shake off his touch, unaware that their pitiful struggles only incited a stricter impulse.
“You said ‘just once’ earlier too… I really can’t now. I won’t be able to get up tomorrow.”
Her voice, slightly hoarse from how much she’d cried, was sweet enough to devour. Jared held her small, heated body tightly from behind.
Her fidgeting fingers, her flushed shoulders, her rapid breaths—he didn’t know why everything about her was so precious and lovely.
Just looking at her made him feel like he was losing his mind.
He wanted to hold her greedily, just once, with all his strength, but her body was so tender that even a light grip would leave marks.
Chewing on this lifelong, unattainable desire, he pressed his lips to her head.
“Let’s do it just one more time. Please. Okay?”
“But I’m sleepy…”
“Just once. Baby, trust me. I’ll finish quickly.”
“When have you ever finished quickly… Hic.”
Her voice, already exhausted beyond measure, stirred both pity and lust within him.
He gritted his teeth, enduring the urge to see it through to the end. Unaware of his desperation, the other person gradually spoke less and then fell asleep.
Jared held the limp body tightly, burying his face in the nape of her neck. The scent that drove him mad made his head spin dizzyingly.
He moved over her shoulders and neck, nibbling intently, then took the soft skin on the inside of her arm into his mouth and sucked.
He couldn’t bring himself to put his mouth there unless she was asleep, since she shuddered when he licked her armpit. She had no idea he wanted to devour her heart and all.
“Huu, ah, euk…”
Jared took a deep breath of her scent and turned her body towards him.
And the moment he tried to see the face that was revealed.
“…Who are you?”
He woke up.
“Ha, fuck.”
It was a morning where the night’s blue chill had not yet fully dissipated.
The tendons stood out on the back of his hand as he roughly swept back his hair. A damp heat lingered in the air.
Every time he woke up, he felt this dizzying sensation, like falling.
It felt like he’d had an important dream, but the moment he opened his eyes, it was as if someone had scooped out a part of his brain—nothing came to mind.
He couldn’t shake the feeling of having something precious stolen from him. He’d tried countless times to remember what it was, but it was futile.
Only one memory remained in his mind, from which he could infer anything.
“Your name?”
“Ah, Arpina.”
He left the stifling bedroom and went straight to bathe. Jared, now dressed in his uniform, picked up his hat.
“Arpina.”
When he pronounced it aloud, the split at the corner of his mouth stung. He thought it would heal quickly, but it was more stubborn than he’d expected.
He went close to the full-length oval mirror and observed his own split lip. Simultaneously, the 4th rank purifier, who had had a wound in the same spot, came naturally to mind
