Chapter 83
“As a survival tactic, I’ll admit it was reasonable. I wasn’t in any real danger staying there anyway.”
“R-right! I—I trusted you, so I thought I should at least escape first, even if it meant leaving you….”
Fay couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye. The moment she tried to turn her head away, Alnazir tossed aside the severed head he had been holding and cupped her face in both hands.
“Even so, I wasn’t pleased.”
“Th-that’s…”
“I was mocked quite thoroughly for being abandoned.”
He gestured toward the Emperor’s head rolling on the floor, still spitting curses.
“Ah…”
“Fay. Tell me. How do you intend to make up for that?”
Sensing something ominous, Fay’s face turned pale. She lowered her gaze diagonally, too afraid to meet his eyes.
“I-is there… something you want?”
Her voice trembled with tension.
The shadowed man studied her silently for a long moment. She wished he would just say it already. The silence felt deliberate, like he was drawing it out to make her fear worse.
“Make the residence bigger.”
After a pause, he finally spoke his demand.
“…Residence? You mean my house?”
“I’ve acquired a new bathtub.”
His sharp golden eyes slid toward the Emperor’s head, which was still hurling curses from the floor.
He no longer slept in the old tub. Unless Fay stopped whining and agreed to share it quietly with him, he doubted he would return to sleeping there.
Still, ‘sleeping quarters’ were important to him. He might be maintaining a small, pitiful human form because of Fay—but the grander the bath, the more his authority felt intact.
In that sense, the enormous marble bathtub in the imperial palace had been perfect. Calling it a bathtub was almost insulting; it was practically a bathing hall.
So he really did have power befitting someone who bragged about being a god. Alnazir had thought, bringing both the Emperor’s head and the tub back to Aldehallow.
“But your house is too small. It wouldn’t fit, so I left it outside. Build a bathroom large enough for it.”
“I—I understand. A bathroom…”
Just imagining how massive a tub must be sitting outside her house made her dizzy.
Expanding the house would require materials, time, effort.
She would probably have to ask Bllter, the carpenter who had made her wooden tub before. But after the disastrous meeting, he seemed disappointed in the witches. Whether he would help was uncertain.
Perhaps sensing her hesitation, Alnazir stared at her intently.
“I’ll figure something out. I’ll build a separate bathhouse if I have to…”
Under his heated gaze, Fay felt as if her face might burn through. She was frightened by how intensely he was looking at her. She had agreed to his request, yet it felt as though she had still given the wrong answer.
“I-is there anything else? I-if you tell me, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Fay. You said you would make me fall into loneliness. That you would never speak to me again.”
“Th-that was… back then…”
“Is this not speaking?”
“I couldn’t control my emotions then… I’m sorry I said that. I was out of my mind. A-are you still angry?”
“You dared try to curse me. Of course I am.”
He said he was angry, yet his eyes curved upward at the same time. It was the most terrifying smile she had ever seen.
Her lips trembled. Alnazir brushed a thumb over her pale mouth. After stroking it twice, he leaned in slowly and pressed his lips to hers.
The witches watching gasped audibly.
Fay wanted to push him away out of embarrassment at being seen like this.
At the same time, she was afraid to resist too strongly. He claimed to be angry, yet his kiss was soft. She couldn’t understand what he was thinking.
She dared to open her eyes slightly. His deep golden gaze was right in front of hers. Deliberately, almost possessively, he devoured and sucked at her lips.
“Even so, I will forgive you, Fay. I will even cherish your petty pride and foolishness.”
Her heart dropped.
She had trusted someone completely—believing he would never betray her—and had been struck from behind for it. Of course it had hurt. Of course she had felt despair and grief.
And yet, to him, her anguish was nothing more than petty pride and foolishness.
Well… he was clearly something extraordinary. To him, a mere witch like her must seem trivial.
In that rush of conflicting emotions, Fay felt the vast wall between them for the first time, a wall she hadn’t truly seen before.
“Thank you… Lord Alnazir.”
The height of that invisible wall even changed how she addressed him.
But Alnazir didn’t notice at all.
He was too busy, satisfied simply that she was in his arms again—kissing her, and speaking with her once more.
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