Chapter 223
Couple rings. The safest gift imaginable. It had been the first idea to pop into Jaha’s uncreative mind—yet she’d still agonized over finding the right ones.
“I’m not asking you to take off your gloves. You can wear it underneath, if you want.”
He didn’t react at all. Feeling cold sweat gathering at her nape, Jaha hastily added:
“If it really doesn’t work, you could attach it to a chain and wear it as a necklace, or—”
“Jaha.” His voice stopped her. “Do you want to see my bare hands?”
“Um… yes.”
She hesitated before nodding. It would’ve been a lie to say she hadn’t thought about it. And there was no way someone as perceptive as him wouldn’t know.
“But you don’t have to if you’re uncomfortable! It’s just symbolic—you can keep it without wearing it.”
“I see.”
He ran a hand through his hair. The radiant golden strands cascaded over his broad fingers before settling back into place. Objectively, it was such an ordinary gesture—yet there was something inexplicably mesmerizing about it.
Was it his sculpted features? The aristocratic grace in his movements? Or the unique aura that always seemed to envelop him?
Before she could find an answer, lost in her daze, his honeyed baritone washed over her.
“I’ve thought we’d need to address this eventually.”
He paused, as if choosing his words, then spoke calmly—without any trace of anger or displeasure.
“Do you remember what I told you before? About why I don’t remove my gloves.”
Jaha nodded slowly. It hadn’t been that long ago, and their conversation still lingered vividly in her mind.
“There’s something on the back of my hand that I’d rather not show others.”
“Can I ask what it is?”
“How should I put this… If I had to define it, I suppose you could call it ‘evidence of the sins I’ve committed.'”
“For me, it’s something ‘I don’t wish to show,’ and for others, it’s something ‘better left unseen,’ so I always keep it covered… but if you’re curious, I’ll show you.”
He raised his hand. As Jaha’s gaze lingered on his long, straight fingers sheathed in white gloves, the fabric began sliding up from his wrist.
“Keep your distance from the statue.”
The sudden request baffled Jaha, but she obediently moved away from the nearby sculpture.
The moment his hand was finally revealed—
“Huh?”
When she came to her senses, she was staring at the ceiling. Blinking in confusion, she gradually pieced together what had happened—she’d fallen backward, but he’d caught her by the waist, preventing any injury.
Frozen in that precarious position, Jaha couldn’t move a muscle until he slowly helped her upright. Yet her mind remained dizzy.
What just happened?
When did I collapse?
Jaha slowly retraced her memories.
Him removing his glove. The prominent tendons trailing up his wrist.
Despite his delicate features, his hands were rugged. The smooth silk glove had rolled up further, revealing the back of his hand—she’d definitely seen it. But she couldn’t remember any of it.
What his hand looked like, what was on it—nothing came to mind.
It was as if someone had flipped a switch, turning her consciousness off and back on. Like a blackout, despite not having drunk a drop.
“What the hell—”
“Your consciousness rejected it. The information exceeded what you could process.”
“Huh?”
“This is an extremely complex seal. There are likely fewer than five people on this continent capable of perceiving it properly.”
In other words, she’d hit her limit. Like a low-spec computer freezing when forced to run an advanced program, her brain had shut down rather than decipher the seal on his hand.
For a moment, her pride stung—but Jaha quickly accepted it. Fewer than five people in the world? The bar was impossibly high. If it required supercomputer-level cognition, expecting herself to qualify would just be unreasonable.
“How did you end up with something like that…? Can’t you remove or undo it?”
“Yes. Probably.”
His unusually hesitant reply made her pause. Why was he being so pessimistic about it?
“Because it’s a divine seal.”
“D-Divine?”
“Yes.”
The unexpected word froze Jaha in place. A belated realization washed over her—this was a world completely different from Earth.
Right. This was undeniably another world. The fact hadn’t mattered much to Jaha since, unlike typical protagonists, she couldn’t use magic or divine powers. But now it struck her with full force.
Mages, priests, demons, gods—to Jaha, these were as distant as Arab oil tycoons. Entities that might exist in the same world but would never intersect with her life. Yet here one was, barging into hers without warning.
Jaha clenched her trembling fingers, steadying herself. At least let’s hear the reason.
“Why?”
“I violated a taboo.”
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.