Chapter 13
Chapter 13
But why had Lukenian taken her to bed? Because she came at him all worked up? Because he had no particular reason to refuse? Did he actually feel lust like any ordinary man when he saw someone aroused? She couldn’t picture it. But then, she didn’t know his private life well enough to be certain either. And anyway—wasn’t it strange that he hadn’t anticipated she’d melt into him when he used external force to run her mana circuits and cast magic through her?
Maybe she should have run after all. If it had been an unexpected accident for Lukenian too, that alone might have solved everything. They could’ve just pretended it never happened. Inside the Eternal Phase Tower, the distance between a school head and a researcher, between the head mage and a mere theorist, was vast. Unless you deliberately tried to build a personal relationship, it wouldn’t even be impossible to go without speaking. These things happened, didn’t they? A young man and woman, an accidental night together. The awkwardness was the problem, but the best way to handle that was to pretend it never—
“I can hear the wheels turning in your head, Princess.”
Lukenian’s words made her jump. She looked up at him. And felt a pang of disappointment. An emptiness in her chest.
“You’re calling me Princess now. Not that I have a problem with it. What happened earlier was an accident. I mean, I showed you such a pathetic side of myself, didn’t I? But you were at fault too. If you stimulate someone’s mana circuits and nervous system like that, how am I supposed to—”
Lukenian’s lips came down on hers again, cutting off her rambling. Larissa stopped breathing. And so the words stopped too.
The kiss wasn’t long. Lukenian finished it with a single lick of his tongue across her lips and spoke.
“Sleep more. No useless thoughts.”
“H-How, how am I supposed to not think?! Why did you do that to me!”
“Because you were cute.”
“———!!”
“Let’s talk about what happens next after we’ve slept a bit. You’re in no state to think clearly right now. It’s not just your mana circuits. Your brain has been pushed past its limit too.”
“You knew that and you still did it?”
“A man can’t exactly stay composed when the person on his mind is falling apart right in front of him.”
Lukenian answered like it was nothing. Larissa didn’t understand what she’d heard at first. Then it sank in, and her already bright red face turned the color of a crushed tomato.
“You…!”
Tap.
Lukenian’s finger lightly pressed between her brows. Every thought cut off at once and vanished.
And then one thing surfaced from the very bottom of her mind. Something she’d completely forgotten.
“Ah. The royal breakfast.”
“I’ll go in your place. Now sleep.”
Before she could even think to ask how he’d get in without an invitation, or that no one would care whether the ninth princess attended if Lukenian showed up instead, Larissa was already asleep.
Lukenian checked his watch. About thirty minutes until the breakfast. He’d need to get up now. Even if he teleported straight to the palace, he still needed time to change.
He touched her bangs lightly and smiled without thinking.
A strange woman, really.
He’d received plenty of hearts in his time. Love among them. He knew he was a fairly attractive man, even without the title of head mage of the Eternal Phase Tower.
But he’d never met anyone like Larissa.
People who loved you inevitably wanted you. But she didn’t. He never sensed physical passion from her, or any desire to keep him by her side or change him to fit her wishes.
It wasn’t that she was too shy to speak up. In fact, she often approached him in the workshop, chatting and joking. And yet what she wanted most wasn’t time alone with him. It wasn’t a secret rendezvous.
She wanted to understand. That was probably the simplest way to sum up her desire. She wanted to share the same view. Not in the sense of dreaming she’d rise to his level and become a high mage. Not in the sense of taking all his knowledge as her teacher. No. It was only to understand his heart.
Someone had struggled so desperately to understand him that she’d gone so far as to enter the world of magic. It was strange. And oddly ticklish.
What would she want next, once she understood? Once she knew his perspective, once she grasped his heart. Would she dig all the way to his soul?
Not even children who loved with their whole being could do what she did.
So how could he not find her dear?
Lukenian straightened the collar of Larissa’s nightgown and retied the loose ribbon. She would sleep soundly until this evening without waking.
He headed to the next room to change. The palace would be surprised when he showed up in her place, but it hardly mattered. He had no intention of revealing what happened today. Nor of jumping ahead to whatever their future relationship might be. Attending an event in place of a disciple from the same school wasn’t such a big thing.
If others misunderstood, that was their business. And he was certain that by tomorrow morning, it would no longer be a misunderstanding.
<End>
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