The Beast That Licks Me - Chapter 3.6

Upon seeing the stationery, Rosette couldn’t help but touch it once. The crisp, white, smooth texture of the stationery. The feel of high-quality paper made Rosette’s heart flutter. When she lived as a Count’s daughter, she could write on such paper every day. Rosette picked up a pencil. She planned to first write and translate in her notebook before transferring it to the stationery.

“May I begin?”

“Yes.”

“To my beloved…… Katrin.”

At Laub’s words, Rosette’s expression subtly changed. The letter she had to write turned out to be a love letter.

“Do you remember that day we spent together? The time we shared behind the Tes River was an unforgettable moment in my life.”

“Do you remember when we were together…….”

Rosette smoothly read and translated the text. Occasionally, Laub looked at the translated text with a satisfied expression. It seemed Laub also had some knowledge of foreign languages.

“We made love for a long time in the grass. The red and intense kisses, I still cherish the pants stained with green grass.”

Rosette pretended to be unaffected as she wrote down the words, but given the nature of the content, she couldn’t help blushing. Rosette decided to focus on the words rather than the content.

“Even while running around the Root shopping district on a rainy day, I didn’t feel tired because I was buying a gift for you. And yet, I couldn’t give it to you. After kissing a doll that resembles you, I’m sending it as a gift. If you think of me occasionally while looking at the doll, nothing would make me happier. With love, Laub.”

Despite her decision to focus only on the words, Rosette found herself moved by the content. Laub was truly a romantic man.

After transferring the translated content to the letter, Rosette handed it to Laub. With a satisfied expression, Laub folded the letter and placed it in an elegant envelope.

“Is there another letter?”

“Yes, this time I’d like it in the language of the Klart Kingdom.”

Though she had studied diligently, thinking there might be a day when she could go there, it had been a while, and she was needlessly worried about whether she could do it well. Thinking about the Klart Kingdom language, Rosette picked up her pencil with a tense expression.

“To my dear Caitlin.”

“……?”

“Do you remember that day we spent together? The memory of our first kiss in front of the Klart Tower kept me awake all summer nights.”

“…….”

Rosette’s face, from which all romance had suddenly vanished, crumpled dramatically.

***

It was late evening when Rosette returned. She collapsed weakly onto the bed. Evan, who had been playing around beside her, was surprisingly energetic. After placing the book he had borrowed today on the bedside table, Evan sat on the bed, preparing to wash up. Rosette, unbuttoning her outer garment, stretched out weakly.

“I’m so tired…….”

Rosette looked up at her swollen right hand. She couldn’t remember how many more letters she had written after that. And all addressed to different women!

“Evan, now I understand why you said that person was bad.”

“Huh?”

Evan, still dreaming of sweet cakes, asked hazily.

“That Laub person. He seems like a really bad person. To my beloved Caitlin, to my beloved Bessie, to my beloved Judith. How many women’s hearts is he playing with?”

“Really? He didn’t seem that bad after spending time with him…….”

Rosette picked up a pillow and hit Evan with it.

“Not ‘after spending time with him,’ it’s the cakes he bought you that made you think that way!”

“Ah, ah. Rosette. I’m sorry. Stop hitting me.”

Rosette only let him go after hitting him with the pillow two more times. Rosette sighed deeply. Evan read the atmosphere and got up from his seat.

“Can I go wash up, Rosette? My mouth is sweet from eating too much cake.”

“……Go ahead.”

Rosette saw Evan off with a cold attitude. As soon as the door closed with a thud, Rosette closed her eyes. The room was getting dim as the oil was running out, and she wanted to just fall asleep like this. But she couldn’t. Just lying on the bed in her outdoor clothes was already far beyond Rosette’s tolerance limit.

Rosette fought off the drowsiness and refilled the oil in the lamp with somewhat clumsy hands. After filling it completely, she immediately put the lamp back. In the process of returning to bed, she barely knocked the book hanging on the bedside table. Books and objects tumbled to the floor. Rosette sighed and reached out to pick them up.

《How to Become Rich from Nothing》

《You Can Do It Too, Becoming Rich》

《The Girl Who Bought a Cow with a Chick》

“…….”

The list of worldly books made her heart ache. As Levit said, perhaps she could find a better job after getting off the ship. Rosette picked up the last book that had fallen to the floor with hope.

“What is this……?”

It was clearly a book with text written on it, but it was difficult to recognize. Yet it was strangely familiar. Rosette traced through her memories and began to read the title of the book.

“Myths, Divine Beasts and…. History?”

Rosette tilted her head. As she opened it to look inside, Rosette’s expression rapidly hardened.

“Rosette? What are you doing there?”

Evan, who had finished washing, called Rosette from behind. Rosette was silent. Evan sat on the bed, vigorously drying his hair with a towel.

“I think I need to dye my hair again. It’s grown a lot since…….”

Before Evan could finish speaking, Rosette slammed the book down next to him. Evan narrowed his eyes, wondering what it was, and tilted his head.

“It’s just a book I borrowed because I was bored, why?”

At Evan’s words, Rosette trembled and suddenly lunged at him. Then she pushed Evan with all her might. But since Evan’s body was firm, it was Rosette who fell backward instead.

“Rosette, are you okay?”

As the confused Evan approached Rosette, she screamed.

“Get away!”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

Evan’s innocent face was colored with confusion. Rosette didn’t know what to believe anymore. Her vision blurred. It was because of tears. Realizing that Rosette was crying, Evan turned his head to meet her eyes and said.

“Rosette, are you crying? Why are you doing this? What happened?”

Rosette silently hit Evan. With her fists, with her palms. After being hit a few times without knowing why, Evan finally interlocked his fingers with hers and lay her down on the bed when she wouldn’t stop hitting him. Rosette looked up at Evan while sprawled on the bed. Tears streamed down toward her temples.

“You’ll hurt your hands, Rosette.”

She felt suffocated by his kindness, worrying about the person hitting him rather than his own pain. Rosette looked down at Evan’s interlocked hands with tears in her eyes. At first glance, his fingers were white and long enough to be mistaken for a woman’s, but they were much larger than Rosette’s and had prominent veins, making it clear they belonged to a man.

“……You need to tell me what’s wrong so I can understand.”

“……You’re heavy, Evan.”

The answer to the question was different. Evan was flustered by Rosette’s words and tried to get up. Before Evan could fully rise, Rosette pulled his interlocked hands. Evan lost his balance and ended up pressing down on Rosette again. A dangerous atmosphere hung in the air where their eyes met. The same blue eyes as the Evan from before. But unlike before, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all. Rosette, moving her lips slightly, slowly opened her mouth.

“When a snake comes out of your mouth, do you know what comes next, Evan?”

Rosette asked something rather unexpected. However, Evan hesitated to speak. He seemed to have noticed something. That hesitation made things even clearer.

“I… don’t really know.”

“That life will be tainted with poison.”

“….”

“That’s what you said to that lady.”

“Did I? I don’t remember very well.”

Evan pretended not to know and tried to get up again. Rosette grabbed Evan’s forearm, pulled it down, and climbed on top of him. Evan looked up at Rosette with surprised eyes at the suddenly reversed positions.

“All sinful things in the world come from evil.”

“….”

“Say it, Evan. You know it.”

Rosette looked at Evan with an unflinching gaze. After considerable hesitation, Evan turned his head to the side as if giving up and opened his mouth.

“…they too are in God’s embrace, so it is proper to learn discernment and moderation.”

It was a smooth, ancient sacred language completely different from her own. Even the High Priest didn’t have this level of fluency. She had suspected it, but hearing it directly felt different. At the same time, it felt like something was falling away inside her heart. Simultaneously, she felt unburdened.

“I’ve never learned the ancient sacred language. I only studied it occasionally from books.”

Many people learned the sacred language, but the ancient sacred language was a rare language known to very few. Because the meaning changed depending on the syllables and intonation, most people only scratched the surface even after studying for 10 years. It was a language that had almost disappeared even among priests because there was hardly anyone who could speak it properly.

Rosette had read about this dying language in books. She liked the book, and knowing a language that others didn’t know made her feel a bit proud. When Rosette was studying, Evan had never once looked at it with her.

‘When a snake comes out of your mouth, that life will be tainted with poison.’ That sentence was from the old doctrine written in the ancient sacred language. That was the sense of déjà vu she felt when Evan first spoke. Reading the book Evan had borrowed, Rosette realized it was written in the ancient sacred language. A book that someone couldn’t finish translating in a lifetime, borrowed because he was bored? What was more shocking was that it wasn’t a joke but the truth.

Since she had met him when he was a puppy, she had never thought Evan might have a past. But thinking about it now, there were many suspicious things. Especially now, when he sometimes showed his true self despite pretending to be foolish.