IPDT 58

I casually brought it up, hoping to find out where the human who had made Yul do such harsh work might be. Yul, whether he knew my intentions or not, just smiled prettily.

“He’s dead.”

“…He’s dead?”

“Yes.”

But an answer I hadn’t expected came back. To my bewildered self, Yul kindly added an explanation.

“The last time he saw me, he said he ‘wanted to die’.”

“Really…?”

“Yes.”

Hearing his firm answer, the anger that had swelled within me shriveled up like a dried-out fish. It wasn’t as if I could bring a dead human back to life… He was a lucky human. Instead of burning with more passion for that human, I decided to finish asking Yul what I was curious about.

“So you only did odd jobs like cleaning the stable and carrying luggage? What kind of human was he?”

“A human who put on performances for nobles.”

“What kind of performances? A play?”

“No, a performance that gathered humans with physical abnormalities to entertain the nobles. I’m talking about showing dwarves, a man with two heads, humans like that, suffering.”

Yul was calm as he recounted the past, but I, the listener, was not. It was because I had a bad feeling. Could Yul have simply done odd jobs under a trash-like human like that? He didn’t have any physical abnormalities, but he was the only human in this world with black hair.

“…You know, Yul, you only did odd jobs there, right?”

“What answer do you want?”

As my eyes wavered, Yul’s grip tightened. He was squeezing so hard that my arm began to ache. I stared blankly at Yul’s unsmiling face. If the performance hadn’t involved Yul, he would have answered, ‘No.’

But asking what answer I wanted must be because it wasn’t true that Yul had only done odd jobs.

“…What was the performance about?”

Yul stared at me with a blank face. Black eyes that seemed to be calculating something. As I met those eyes, my heart stirred.

What are you thinking beyond those eyes? I placed my hand over the back of Yul’s. Yul looked down at his hand, then lowered his head. Yul’s head rested with a thump on my shoulder.

“The humans who originally went on stage didn’t survive for long. It was a performance where they’d throw a human with no arms or legs into a giant water tank and make them escape, or see if a starved lion could break the cage and eat a dwarf. But a new human joined the performance. That human had all his limbs perfectly attached, and he wasn’t a dwarf. He didn’t have two heads, nor was he hairy like a beast. Only his hair and eye color were different from the humans of this world.”

Different hair and eye color. My heart thumped, thumped lowly, and my hands trembled. The more I listened to Yul’s calm story, the more I felt my blood run cold.

“At the new spectacle, the audience made him strip. Saying they would acknowledge his hair was ‘truly’ black if his body hair was also black. They also wanted to know what color the black-haired one’s blood was. At first, they cut his skin shallowly with a knife. A while later, they beat him with a whip that easily caused wounds until he bled, and then after that, they gave the audience a chance to ‘experience’ it.”

“…I don’t want to hear any more.”

“There were also humans who felt sexual desire while watching the performance, so for a while, it was safe. But that wasn’t the case when the performance started to get old. It would be a loss if the money-making spectacle caught a venereal disease, so insertion was forbidden, but—.”

“I told you to stop!”

I covered Yul’s mouth. But my faintly trembling hand was devoid of strength. Yul, who had been watching me quietly, grabbed my hand and pulled it away. Then, he pressed his cheek against it and closed his eyes.

“I’ll stop now.”

“…Why did you tell me in such detail?”

As I mumbled in a small voice, Yul slowly opened his eyes. I bit my lip and looked straight at Yul. I was curious about what Yul had done before meeting me. I also wanted to know what the performance was. But there was no need to tell me in such detail.

Yul’s story caused me pain. I didn’t want to know the story of him being stabbed by blades, hit by whips, and abused. I didn’t want to guess what Yul, who couldn’t even communicate with the people of the continent, must have been thinking there. I remembered the image of Yul as he was dying, saying he ‘wanted to die.’

“My heart hurts so much.”

“Why?”

Yul brought his face close to mine. A distance where the tips of our noses might touch.

“Do you feel sorry for me?”

“…You’re so cruel.”

“Don’t cry.”

Just as I thought the corners of my eyes were getting hot, something rolled down and fell. Yul licked away the tears that soaked the corners of my eyes. I pressed my lips firmly together and swallowed my sobs. It felt like a walnut-sized ball of fire was caught in my throat.

“…I should have found you sooner.”

“Yes.”

“I want to get revenge for you, but I’m sorry I can’t.”

“I know.”

Yul’s lips, which had been rubbing my eyes, slowly moved downwards. To the bridge of my nose, to my cheek, to my lips. I could taste saltiness from his wet lips. When I closed my eyes, the tears that had welled up dropped down with a plop.

“Open your mouth for me.”

Yul whispered lowly, his lips still pressed against mine. It was a whisper that was impossible to refuse. When I parted my lips slightly, his tongue came in. He wrapped his hand around the nape of my neck.

…Plip, plop. I could hear the sound of raindrops falling on the roof.

—Swoooosh.

Soon, the downpour of a sudden shower became a curtain, covering our surroundings. Yul pressed his lips to mine again and again, like a young bird seeking warmth.

I gasped through the kiss, imagining Yul’s body. A body that would have scars from being stabbed by blades and hit by whips. Did the scars from back then still remain? I carefully placed my hand over Yul’s chest. The place where half of my heart was beating was hot.

“Ngh.”

Yul lightly gripped the hand on his heart and bit his lip. I flinched, my shoulders trembling, and opened my eyes. Yul was looking at me with languidly opened black eyes.

“Focus.”

“…For how much longer?”

When I asked in a small voice, Yul kissed me again instead of answering.

The sudden shower stopped around the time the sun began to set. I could see the setting sun through the parting dark clouds. I rubbed my stinging eyes.

“Don’t touch.”

No, just as I was about to rub them, my wrist was caught. I looked down at Yul. Yul, who had me sitting on his lap, kissed my fingers and spoke in a ticklish voice.

“You look like a goldfish, with your swollen eyes.”

“…A goldfish?”

Because of his pleasant voice, I was late in understanding the meaning of his words. …He called me a goldfish? I could not tolerate being compared to a lowly creature that wasn’t even an intelligent being. I looked at the smiling Yul and shouted.

“I am not such a lowly creature!”

“Then what are you?”

“I am the great dragon!”

…is what I wanted to say. To think I couldn’t reveal my identity even after being subjected to such a ridiculous comparison. My clenched fists trembled, and then I muttered powerlessly.

“…’s familiar.”

“Really?”

Yul asked, tilting his head. I flinched without realizing it. ‘Really?’ Didn’t that sound like he had figured out my true identity?

But if he really knew, would he be feigning ignorance like this? I couldn’t tell. I may be the great balancer of the world, but I don’t have the ability to read Yul’s thoughts. I hesitated, then carefully opened my mouth.

“Yul, you know, what if, just what if.”

“Yeah.”

“What if I’m…”

not the dragon’s familiar, but the dragon himself?

That’s what I wanted to ask. But for some reason, my lips felt dry, making me pause. I swallowed hard and parted my lips.

“Everyone, go home! The workday is over!”

“Ah.”

Dong, dong, dong! A man who had climbed the high bell tower rang the bell. The words I had spoken with difficulty were buried by the sound of the bell and disappeared. Yul’s expression turned cold. I pressed my lips firmly shut, then shot up from Yul’s lap.

“What were you trying to say.”

Yul grabbed my hand abruptly. I looked at Yul’s murderous expression and quickly shook my head.

“It’s nothing.”

“What’s nothing.”

“I don’t think now is the time to say it. But I’ll tell you when the time is right. Because I wanted to tell you.”

After I finished speaking, I intertwined my fingers with Yul’s. Yul looked at our intertwined hands and his expression softened slightly. It seemed that my holding his hand firmly was a little nice for Yul too. I smiled sweetly and pulled on his hand.

“Let’s go back to our lodging.”

“…”

Yul let me pull him along without a word. I walked ahead, stomping through the sandy ground where puddles had formed.

The first thing I did when we returned to our lodging was to check Yul’s condition. I hovered around a cluelessly standing Yul, checking his physical state, and just in case, I asked him one more time.

“Yul, are you tired from working earlier?”

“What work?”

“Because you cleaned the stable…”

After hearing about his work at the ‘performance venue,’ Yul seemed like an even more fragile and pitiful human to me. What if the aftereffects of that time remained, and working in the stable made his shoulders stiff, or his legs hurt? As I looked up at him worriedly, Yul leaned against me with a listless face.

“Yes. I’m tired.”

Supporting Yul’s body, which was bigger than mine, made me feel restless. He’s tired, but where, and how tired could he be?

I carefully cupped Yul’s cheeks. Yul, who had been leaning on me, obediently lifted his head. Harmless-looking, submissive black eyes. A corner of my heart throbbed with a pang.

“Are you very tired?”

“Yes.”

“Should I cast a spell to restore your energy?”

“I don’t need anything like that.”

The moment he finished speaking, my body was lifted in a flash. Huh? While I was too stunned to say anything, Yul and I had reached the bed. Plop. Yul, who had naturally set me down on the bed, climbed on top of me.

“Yul, what are you trying to do…?”

“Recovering energy.”

“I’m pinned under you and you’re on top of me. How can you recover your energy in this position?”

“If you don’t know, you should watch. You’ll find out if you watch.”

I opened and closed my mouth. Yul was surprisingly shameless. I know what’s going to happen next, and Yul knows too…!

“No, I know! You’re going to kiss me.”

He had done it so much in the stable, I couldn’t do it anymore. If we did it more, I felt like my conscience would hurt too much. I pressed my lips firmly together and glared at Yul, but he just let out a laugh, not at all scared of me.

“You know well.”