DKFTI 33

“Uh…”

Embarrassed, Sibel opened and closed his mouth like a fish. Aizen offered both cups to him with a smile.

“What are you doing? Take your cup.”

“Ah…”

Sibel bit his lip nervously. How could he have lost sight of the cup right in front of him? He focused as hard as he could, trying to recall his memories.

Right? Left? Which one was it?

His hand hovered in the air for a long time. But Sibel soon picked up a glass as if he had made up his mind.

***

“Kyaaaah.”

A few minutes later.

“This tastes amazing!”

Sibel was drunk. His mind that had seemed impossible to shake crumbled at once.

Aizen looked at him and wondered what it was that Sibel had put in the drink.

“What’s 1 plus 1?”

Sibel’s face was red like a ripe tomato, his eyes half closed.

“What could it be?”

“Puahaha, it’s 2! Two! You don’t even know that!”

Should i hit him? Aizen pondered.

“Yeah. Right.”

But even Aizen was drunk. His body felt sluggish and his mind exhausted. The efforts he had spent on purifying his energy felt wasted.

Sibel moved like a grasshopper, constantly swaying his body from side to side.

“Don’t you feel dizzy.”

“Diz, hic, dizzy… hng.”

Hng? Hng? Aizen bit his lower lip unconsciously upon hearing Sibel’s “Hng”. Was that the kind of diubd a grown man would make?

So damn cute.

“I’ll, sing, sing a song!”

Sibel suddenly stood up. Aizen pressed his shoulder down and made him sit again.

“Huh, explosh, exploshive dragon.”

“What are you even saying.”

Aizen’s lips rose upward without stopping.

“Why are you laughing? ”

Sibel asked with and glared at him with blurry eyes, he wasn’t even able to open them properly.

“Because you’re funny.”

“Ah-ha. Because I’m funny.”

Sibel snickered and Aizen laughed with him.

“What did you put in the cup?”

Finally Aizen asked about Sibel’s scheme, something he had been curious about. Sibel answered obediently.

“Trooth, hic, potion of trooth!”

“A potion that makes you speak the truth.”

“Yes!”

“So that was your scheme.”

Aizen wasn’t particularly surprised. He was simply curious why they’d put something so useless in his cup, it wasn’t even poison.

“I was wondering something.”

Sibel leaned forward. As his hair poured down like a waterfall, Aizen reached out and brushed back the bangs hanging over him like a curtain.

Blue, transparent eyes were revealed.

“Why aren’t you going back and you are here…hmm, you’re acting all sulky.”

“Ah.”

It was almost touching that he had gone to such trouble for such a trivial question.

Aizen’s hand moved from Sibel’s forehead to his temple, then rested across the border of his cheek and jaw. The warm palm made Sibel’s face grow even redder. Their gazes, clouded by alcohol, met.

“Why do you think I’m here.”

“A spy, from the Holy Kingdom?”

Aizen snickered at Sibel’s answer.

“That’s right. A spy.”

“Eek! That can’t be true!”

Sibel pulled back, his hair rippled. It felt like waves were rolling over him. Aizen stared blankly at his face before speaking again.

“You’re afraid I’ll sell you out and get you killed?”

Nod, nod.

Sibel obediently nodded.

“Or are you scared I’ll stay here forever?”

Nod, nod.

Sibel nodded again.

“Are you afraid of me?”

Nod, nod.

Sibel nodded repeatedly, like a machine that knew only one action.

“I am afraid of you.”

As Sibel spoke in a small voice, Aizen answered softly.

“Hm.”

“But… you don’t seem like a bad person….”

“Hm.”

“You’re just strange. Hero”

“Right.”

Sibel’s body, which had been swaying for a while, slowly tipped sideways. Azein felt the alcohol rush back to him as he watched Sibel swaying in front of him.

“I’m only here because I want to see you.”

‘Was he drunk?’Aizen murmured without meaning to.

Sibel’s eyelids moved sluggishl as he leaned against the sofa’s armrest.

“Big… sin.”

Sibel muttered as if he were talking in his sleep.

“The apostle must not… do that, hmmm?”

Sibel’s eyes closed. Soon, the sound of his breathing echoed in the room. Aizen looked down at Sibel and turned over the words he had spoken.

“Sin.”

So the apostle must not do such a thing?

Aizen’s gaze deepened.

“Who is the one lecturing whom?”

To think he lived long enough to hear a Demon King telling him not to live that way.

Aizen recalled the day when he once thought of death. What if he had died then, what if he had chosen another path, what if he had not met Sibel?

“It would have been different.”

His plans had been hopelessly tangled because of this variable called Sibel. In the moment he felt glad he had survived after all, Aizen suddenly became aware of his own feelings.

“…Hey, Demon King.”

“……”

Sibel, fast asleep, gave no answer.

“I think I like you.”

Aizen’s gaze shifted to the two wine cups that had been emptied.

So then, which one contained the potion Sibel put in?

Even Aizen, who had mixed the cups carelessly, didn’t know the answer. He couldn’t tell whether the words from his mouth were from drink or potion.

“What a problem.”

But what was certain was that the words were true. In fact, he had known from the beginning. He had fallen into a troublesome trap.

An Apostle and a Demon King, anyone would laugh at such a pairing. But.

“An immortal and a mortal….”

That wasn’t a comedy. It’s a story that could only end in tragedy.

Was the bitter taste in his mouth from the excessive wine?

“Hey.”

Aizen called the sleeping Sibel. His hand reached for the collar around his own neck.

Something he usually didn’t even notice suddenly felt as if it was choking him. Pulling at it with his fingers, Aizen soon dropped his hand weakly.

His gaze fell on Sibel’s sleeping face.

His gentle voiced reached the Demon King, who lay carelessly asleep in front of the Apostle.

“If you put a leash on me, take responsibility. Demon King.”

It was a complaint heard only by himself.

Aizen’s body tilted sideways as the intoxication washed over him. He blinked, his eyes opening and closing, and each time he opened his eyes, Sibel’s face was there, until sleep consumed him.

***

“Ugh.”

The next day, Sibel was suffering from a hangover.

“You really are something else, Lord Demon King.”

Shanti placed hangover soup on the table for him and began to scold him.

“How can a Demon King come carried on the back of an Apostle to his bedroom!”

“Ugh.”

The loud voice made Sibel’s head throb and his stomach churn.

“You’re a disgrace to the Demon Realm!”

“When was I ever that great a Demon King anyway!”

“And now you’re shameless too!”

Shanti shoved a spoon into Sibel’s hand with an appalled expression.

“It’s all Ruru’s fault. No, Kairin’s fault.”

“You still blame others.”

“Ugh, my head feels like it’s splitting. I’m sure I drank that potion.”

“You mean that truth potion or whatever?”

“Yeah. I never get drunk, but I was clearly drunk on something. That proves it.”

Sibel gnashed his teeth. That sly Hero bastard. He mixed it and trick him into drinking it.

“Hm.”

Shanti narrowed his eyes and studied Sibel’s expression.

“Nothing happened, right?”

“I just passed out, so what could have happened.”

“You didn’t say things that shouldn’t be said to the apostle, did you ?”

“Was there even some secret I shouldn’t have told…?”

Sibel asked with a genuinely curious expression. At that, Shanti hesitated. Was there?

“Well, anyway, eat your hangover soup.”

Shanti pondered the state of the Demon King’s castle, which was being run so carelessly and wondered if the castle would be fine like this.

Slurp, slurp.

Sibel, who was slurping the hot soup, suddenly stopped because a certain scene flashed through his mind.

“Mm.”

Something felt very wrong m. Like he had missed something important.

“But where’s the Hero?”

“He was doing his morning training just fine.”

“Even morning training?”

Sibel felt wronged. They had been drinking together.

“What about Ruru?”

“Still sleeping.”

“And Kairin?”

“Rolling around the garden with his favorite Gomdori”

“Oh.”

Sibel groaned, holding his forehead.

“Kairin isn’t going home?”

“Unless you kick him out, he seems set on sticking around.”

“Why does he like the Demon King’s castle so much. I don’t think hid uncle will come looking for him again.”

“Who knows. Dragons are such willful creatures.”

“You’re a dragon too.”

“Do you think I’m the same as them?”

Sibel wondered what difference there could be, but since Shanti always showed irritation whenever dragons were mentioned, he chose not to press.

Grumbling, Shanti set a water glass on Sibel’s table.

“Shanti.”

“Yes.”

“You know I love you, right?”

Sibel made a silly face and shaped a heart with his hands.

“…Just eat.”

A blush spread across Shanti’s face, which was covered in fluffy fur.