HPV 59

Riarun was just as shocked. After the loud ripping of fabric, the sensation of wind against his waist and hips made his situation crystal clear even without looking down.

His body was wrapped snugly in Banwes’s thick arms. Riarun quickly lowered his head to check and sighed in relief. He double-checked again, glancing around to make sure no bare skin was showing.

Banwes had wrapped him up so tightly he felt like a cocoon. Half surprised and half accustomed to it, Riarun realized he was resting against the man’s neck with both arms.

A brief silence fell. Before it got any more awkward, Riarun spoke up.

“But why are you carrying me? It’s not like I can’t walk.”

As if pricked by a needle, Banwes immediately set him back down.

“…If you waddle around wrapped in cloth like that and trip, it’s as good as not being able to walk.”

Riarun’s eyes narrowed. Banwes realized instantly that his excuse hadn’t convinced him at all. His heartbeat thudded unevenly, feeling as if the other could see right through him.

He hurriedly came up with another excuse.

“You might run off with my clothes on those two legs of yours.”

It was a worse excuse than saying nothing at all. Silence fell again. The very air around them seemed to pull the heat out of Banwes’s body.

This wasn’t good. A man who had survived by staying unmoved through anything, now had a heart that screamed and strained against his ribs just from a young man standing before him.

“You’re… just making stuff up, aren’t you? Trying to mock me.”

Before they could say more, shrieks erupted nearby, breaking their standoff. They turned their heads at the same time.

A tall man stood stark naked.

Paronai’s trained body had apparently ripped his clothes apart. Flapping scraps of cloth drifted away from him. While he hastily tried to cover himself with his hands, women passing by screamed and fled.

Banwes glanced at him and then turned away.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know me! Help me too!”

Feeling a little sorry for him, Riarun helped out. They managed to strip Banwes’s inner shirt so that Paronai could at least cover himself enough to make it back.

***

The mage fully rejoined the group the following night.

Paronai, who had come to the door to greet him, hesitated. The mage’s face—bare and strangely beautiful—felt so unfamiliar that it made him seem distant.

While Paronai stood frozen, Penzey was the first to speak.

“You’re back to normal, huh?”

Paronai’s expression clouded a little. The memory of standing naked in the middle of the street earlier that afternoon was not a pleasant one.

Taking a deep breath, he looked closely at Penzey’s real face and forced himself to speak firmly, as if trying to accept it.

“You’re back too.”

Penzey’s lips twitched into a small smirk. His face might have changed, but his demeanor was exactly the same.

Paronai patted Penzey’s shoulder.

“Sorry about your father.”

It might have annoyed him under normal circumstances, but the mage now had enough room in his heart to simply nod along.

“Yeah. Thanks. We weren’t particularly close, but… it did leave me feeling a little hollow.”

Paronai kept stealing glances at him, his eyes clearly asking questions he couldn’t voice.

“I was just feeling a little bitter about the disguise being seen through. I’m fine now.”

“I get that! It’s like when you plan a prank and someone catches you ahead of time—it just kills the whole mood.”

Thus, the mage’s dramatic two-day ordeal came to an end with a single line. At least for Penzey, it felt like he had finally shed something he no longer needed.

Thanks to a conversation no one else here should know about—with the High Priest.

“I was going to have to drop the disguise sooner or later anyway. If we’re going after the Black Dragon.”

That smug tone of his flowed easily even from his real, unhidden face.

For the first time, I took a proper look at Penzey’s face. Though he was twenty-eight, his skin was unnaturally smooth, not a single fine line betraying his age.

Maybe because he hadn’t used that face in so long.

Yurichen quietly stepped back to organize their supplies. Just as he was pulling out a new veil to wear over his head, Penzey reached out.

“Let me borrow that.”

Without waiting for a reply, he snatched it and tried it on himself. The veil, opaque enough not to show what was beneath, draped flatly over his features. Penzey tilted his head this way and that, inspecting it.

“Not bad. So this is the real reason you’re so mysterious, huh?”

From that day forward, Penzey no longer wore disguises. His habit of flirting brazenly with beautiful people also mostly faded away.

He lifted the veil from his head and suddenly threw an arm around my shoulders. His face leaned in close, smiling cheekily.

“How do I look? Suits me?”

…I almost jumped.

The shock that tingled down my spine was nearly the same as the first time I ever saw Yuricheon’s bare face.

I shook my head a little, startled.

The face freed from old grief… actually didn’t look so bad. Whether Penzey thrived or floundered was none of my business, and it wouldn’t solve my problems either.

The reason Penzey had made a habit of chasing after beauty—

Even as he gazed at flawless faces, he was always reminded of his own unhappiness.

A line from his monologue in the game surfaced in my mind.

[I wasn’t torturing myself.]

[Magic is about using words to accomplish what would otherwise require action. Human speech carries enormous power. When humans speak, it becomes real.]

[Language is more powerful—and more terrifying—than magic itself.]

[That’s why I say I like beautiful people. I hoped maybe I’d end up liking my face, liking myself, just a little more.]

I would probably never hear Penzey say those words aloud. His silence would prevent it.

But the thought lingered, and I turned it over and over again in my mind.

Then, I took a deep breath. Penzey’s words, unintended as it was, crushed me.

I had done the same. Through words.

I couldn’t speak the truth about what had happened to me. Only words that wrapped everything up as if nothing had happened would come out.

‘Then does that mean the lie becomes the truth?’

The curse Hancanera cast on me—Was it a curse that turned lies into truth?

I spent the nights sleepless, running the same thoughts over and over.

Trying to think of something else only brought more pain.

***

After we passed into the northern regions, the days of camping far outnumbered the days we found villages.

Most citizens of the kingdom lived in the central and southern parts.

The north was too cold, too barren—and monsters often descended from the heights. It wasn’t a place for humans to live.

After the Black Dragon took up residence further north, the King himself had ordered the remaining inhabitants relocated.

As a result, we couldn’t expect inns where servants would fetch hot bathwater and restaurants would serve warm meals.

“Wow, it’s freezing,” Paronai said, proclaiming victory over the weather as he watched Banwes finally, finally, put on another layer over his underwear and outerwear.

Yurichen had wound his scarf so tightly it covered half his face.

He had spent his whole life in the capital; he had to be freezing too.

Still, he said nothing, quietly moving to start a campfire. His long, pale fingers looked slightly dry.

Penzey casually tossed him a pair of gloves, his sharp eyes narrowing a little before he stepped in, pushing him aside and lighting the fire himself.

I was shivering so badly I couldn’t stand it anymore and crouched down.

It had been fine while I was piggybacked up the plateau by Banwes, but now that I was sitting still, the cold gnawed through me.

I hugged my knees to my chest, trying to trap some warmth inside.

Then suddenly—a wall of heat pressed against my back.

Banwes had simply sat down on the cold ground behind me.

His long, heavy legs stretched out on either side of me, and I ended up sitting between them.

The warmth spread, like being inside a house.

Even so, the strange tension made me hug my knees even tighter.

‘He’s not… he’s not going to hug me from behind, right?’

I waited.

But Banwes’s body never moved closer.

Only the faint press of his chest against my back remained, like a fortress standing behind me.

“Riarun seems to be struggling more than I thought. Make sure he wears another layer,” Yurichen said.

“I’ll give him mine,” Paronai said immediately, offering his spare clothes.

But even though they layered several garments, the size difference was too much.

In the end, Yurichen’s spare clothes fit better.

“You could just use a warming spell, you know,” Penze grumbled.

“Planning to waste even more magic? You should be replenishing the mana you squandered on that ridiculous disguise,” Yurichen shot back.

“That’s harsh. Be a little kinder to my poor heart,” Penzey said with a pout.

The dry firewood finally caught, and the campfire crackled to life.

Yet even with the fire, Banwes didn’t move away from behind me.

‘I’m not cold anymore though…’

Penzey and Yuricheon kept flicking glances toward me—and toward the person behind me.

Worried it might look strange, I tensed—but unexpectedly, someone else solved the problem.

Bzhan, who was secretly cold himself, shuffled in and plopped down beside me.

I shifted slightly without making a big deal out of it.

Banwes’s spread legs were broad enough for both of us to fit between.

“Tsk,” Penzey muttered, glancing behind me and quickly averting his gaze again.

I didn’t know why, but somehow… I felt a strong sense of déjà vu.