Chapter 42
Watching her slender, pale fingers move delicately, Ael absentmindedly asked:
“…Worse curses?”
“I don’t really know well either. I haven’t learned Altnebra language for very long… But at least I understood Ael’s words, so maybe his curses are kind of mild? What do other people say? Ah, fxck, shxt, son of a bxtch, damn…”
Kiara, with an utterly innocent and bright expression, started listing all kinds of vulgar curses. His face instantly turned bright red. Ael’s red eyes trembled in embarrassment, but Kiara’s stream of curses didn’t stop.
Finally—
“… suck my ****.”
“Stop.”
Kiara, who had been going on for a while, made a disappointed face at Ael’s command to stop. Even though she didn’t know the meaning, she found the rhythm of the words surprisingly enjoyable.
Cursing really is cursing. The way it sticks crisply in the mouth while speaking.
Kiara, thinking this absentmindedly, asked with a displeased look.
“Why? What does this mean?”
“…It’s something like that.”
“Whyyy? Tell me! It sounds like it means ‘to suck something.’ Really well, too. Isn’t that a compliment? Like, being good at laundry[1] or something… ugh.”
Finally, Ael covered Kiara’s mouth with his palm. Kiara frowned in dissatisfaction, not knowing what she was saying but still talking nonstop.
Unable to bear looking at her face, Ael looked away and sighed.
“…Alright, alright, just undo the knot already.”
Kiara quietly removed Ael’s hand from her mouth and asked again, still with a hint of regret.
“Just the strap?”
“If it’s the strap, that’s enough. What more do you want?”
“Ael, are you hurt?”
Talking about the leather strap, Kiara suddenly asked if he was in pain. Ael’s gaze shifted back to her. He raised his eyebrows, but as if not scared at all by that, Kiara smiled brightly at him.
“How long does it even take to take off armor? And while you’ve been undoing the leather strap, you’ve been… scrunching up here and there.”
Kiara reached out toward her own face, and Ael flinched in surprise. Ignoring that, Kiara rubbed the wrinkle caught on the bridge of his straight nose with her finger and continued.
“So I’ll help you. You looked uncomfortable.”
“…That’s just leather armor. It doesn’t look heavy, but it is.”
Resting his face against Kiara’s fingers, Ael gently closed his eyes. The cool touch of her fingers, slightly colder than his body temperature, felt good. Though he verbally protested, part of his heart was already halfway surrendered to whatever she wanted to do.
As if sensing this, Kiara confidently said in a cheerful voice.
“That’s nothing. You said it yourself earlier — a bucket of rain doesn’t look heavy but carrying it around isn’t easy. Even with pulleys, carrying something as heavy as bathwater can’t be done with an ordinary man’s strength.”
Eventually, Ael nodded in agreement. Excited, Kiara started loosening the leather strap at his side.
“See? See? You should’ve just asked for help sooner. Trying to force it just made it tighter.”
Ael silently watched Kiara, who was chattering nonstop as she undid the strap. It was borderline nagging, but strangely, he didn’t mind listening.
She was so absorbed in what she was doing — head bowed low, nose practically brushing against his side — that he couldn’t see her face. But her glossy black hair shimmered in the candlelight.
Was black hair always this nice to look at?
Ael had always hated his own black hair. Yet Kiara’s, despite being the same color, looked beautiful. Pretty enough that he found himself wanting to keep staring at it.
…Now’s not the time to be losing your mind over shxt like this.
He forcibly turned his gaze away and muttered under his breath.
“…You’re a noisier witch than I thought.”
“Oh, am I?”
Though he’d spoken low, Kiara had somehow caught it and smiled sweetly. His tone had been brusque, but it didn’t seem like he hated hearing her talk.
No, in fact, it almost sounded like he wanted her to keep talking. So she continued, lightly.
“After I first woke up in the Black Forest, I couldn’t talk to anyone. It was really lonely. I mean, I had nothing to do but memorize phrases like that.”
“Phrases like…?”
“‘Suck my ****.’”
“Got it.”
Amused by his reaction, Kiara let out a bright, tinkling laugh.
She’s just playing with me now.
Ael sighed like he’d given up, and a stray thought wandered into his mind.
…Well, maybe that’s not so bad.
¹In Korean, the word 빨다 can both mean “to suck” and “to wash” depending on the context.↩
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