Chapter 59
“If you take the flower out and give it to me as a gift, I’ll forgive you.”
“And why should I obediently do what you say?”
Alnazir frowned, glancing back and forth between Fay’s face and the rock coated in black moss.
“Was it too difficult even for you, Alnazir? Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I overestimated you!”
It’s fine. That happens. Everyone finds it hard to break that rock, after all. Fay closed her eyes and nodded with mock regret, gently provoking him on purpose.
Alnazir quickly realized she was baiting him. The audacity of this human—after all his long existence, this was something new.
After staring at the shameless witch for a while, he finally clicked his tongue.
“It’s not that difficult.”
Ever since coming here, he seemed to have fallen into the habit of indulging her requests. At first, he’d only humored her complaints to keep communication smooth.
Somehow, that had turned into giving her flowers just to see her smile again. Alnazir sighed, recalling the great dignity he’d long forgotten.
“Will this do?”
He wrapped a tentacle around the rock. True to Fay’s words, it didn’t budge at first.
But once he applied real force, the stone crumbled easily. As fragments fell away, a purple flower hidden inside was revealed.
Alnazir retrieved it with his tentacle and gave it a brief sniff.
“It doesn’t even smell nice. Why would you want something like this?”
Despite provoking him so eagerly, Fay’s expression turned oddly conflicted when he actually brought the flower back.
“Well… it’s mostly used for medicine, so it doesn’t smell very good. But…”
Fay quietly regretted provoking him. She’d expected him to summon those massive tentacles she’d seen in the abandoned temple.
Instead, he used the thin tentacle that extended from his palm—the same one that so often wrapped around her body, the same one that had even been inside her.
“Y-you won’t use force on me like that, right? N-never?”
“Why ask something like that all of a sudden? I’ve always treated you gently.”
“I know you’ve been careful, but… from now on, touch me with your hands only. Not your tentacles.”
What if he got distracted for even a moment and used too much strength? It wasn’t hard to imagine her spine or neck snapping with a sickening crack.
“Alnazir.”
She called him again, asking for a promise—hands only, no tentacles.
She wasn’t smiling brightly now, just clinging to him with a worried expression, pestering him. And yet, Alnazir felt oddly at ease.
A woman who acted fearless until she realized she’d gone too far, then grew meek and cautious—this was exactly the Fay he remembered.
“So you really have calmed down.”
Strange. Were humans really creatures who forgave so easily over a single flower? Or was Fay just that simple?
When he agreed, her cheeks turned red with relief. It was amusing. Without thinking, he reached to cup her chin and lean in for a kiss—when she suddenly spoke.
“Alnazir, you sometimes think I’m cute, don’t you?”
For a moment, he paused as if his thoughts had been read.
“For the record, I sometimes think you’re cute too. Very occasionally, though.”
“Me? Cute?”
“Yes, that just now was a little scary, but… still. You were about to kiss me the moment we made up. Like you’d been waiting for it.”
How was that cute? Alnazir couldn’t understand it at all. Never in his life had he imagined that anyone might find him cute, least of all a human.
“So what is it really?”
“If you’re going to ask something, say it clearly.”
“Whether you’ve ever thought I was cute. Even once.”
“….”
“Never? Not even a single time?”
Fay hugged him tightly and looked up. The way she stared straight at him made his brow crease. It felt strangely ticklish, like something brushed across his chest.
Perhaps she saw the answer in his expression, because she grinned.
“Aha. I get it. Not just once—lots of times, right?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Then am I wrong?”
Fay burst into confident laughter.
“Alnazir, I don’t know how you would phrase it, but humans call this liking someone. You like me.”
“I know what ‘liking’ is. But…”
“Oh, you can’t deny it with your hand on your chest.”
“…What’s the point of putting into words what I feel toward you? No matter what answer I give, no one can know whether it’s the truth.”
He didn’t even understand it himself—how could she?
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