Ch#182
"Not uncomfortable?"
At Ardiana's question, Tie nodded from inside the blanket.
"No! It's awesome!"
A small smile spread across Ardiana's lips.
'So it's confirmed.'
She had suspected the Necromancer King's identity from the moment they first met.
After growing close to Tese tan, she had asked him about the Necromancer King several times.
But Tese tan rarely answered.
'Wouldn't it be better to hear it from the person themselves?'
'......Yeah? Didn't know you were so tight-lipped.'
'Don't be upset. I've always been the serious, heavy type.'
Unless he slipped away like a sly fox every time.
Glancing at Tese tan shaking his head beyond Astie, Ardiana recalled the past ten days.
'You handle the sword well. Ever trained?'
'A bit when I was young.'
'A bit and you're that good? Intriguing.'
'......What's with you these past few days? Trying to make me snap at you again today?'
'No? Oh, but I do like seeing you angry. I've always dreamed of being tightly held by a woman I revere.'
'Ha, unique tastes.'
'Does that mean you see me as special? Thanks.'
Even though she hid her face behind a mask.
Tese tan always acted like he could see right through her.
The funny thing was Ardiana felt drawn to him too.
Her gaze kept drifting, her ears reddening at his teasing jokes.
How long had that tightrope lasted?
A few days ago, hiding together briefly in an abandoned annex due to surging magical beasts.
Something happened that changed their relationship.
"......Hey, Vice Leader. You okay?"
"I'm fine. Don't worry."
They had no choice that day.
A rift suddenly widened, flooding them with too many beasts to handle.
Tese tan's face had looked unwell from the moment they hid in the stone crevice of the annex.
Despite saying he was fine, cold sweat beaded his forehead.
Ardiana thought as she listened to his quickening breaths.
'Could it be......'
She knew Tese tan's past: dragged to the Church at four and fitted with a heart seal.
Having visited the Central Continent's grand temple as a child, she knew it well.
'Poor thing......'
Beneath the grand temple's center lay the 'purification chamber.'
The place the grand priest had proudly shown her as glorious was dark in her memory.
Shackles for binding people everywhere, iron chains and bizarre devices scattered on the floor.
Most horrific: it was so cramped you could barely breathe.
Just like here now, in the collapsed annex debris.
"......Vice Leader. Look at me."
Ardiana cupped the trembling Tese tan's cheek, making him face her.
But the terror consuming his eyes only grew.
To make matters worse, his sweat-soaked body was ice-cold.
"......Tese tan!"
Even at Ardiana's call, Tese tan couldn't respond.
His eyes kept losing focus.
Growing anxious, Ardiana massaged his palms repeatedly.
Then, at some point, she did something she couldn't even understand herself.
She unwittingly pressed her lips to his pale ones.
"......"
With the mask between, warmth slowly transferred.
Focus returned to Tese tan's eyes around then.
Too flustered, Ardiana stammered.
"......I, I."
Then Tese tan's fingers brushed her earlobe.
Why hadn't she stopped him after?
When his fingers lingered on the mask strings.
Even when the mask finally fell to her lap, Ardiana did nothing.
"I've seen it before."
His low murmur made time stop.
The beasts' roars outside faded slowly.
Tese tan's gaze slowly swept over her.
"I've seen it before. At the imperial palace."
Tese tan's face was lost in deep thought.
"It was you that day too."
Another memory flashed behind his voice.
Pides's coming-of-age ceremony.
The intimate gathering of select nobles and imperial family.
There, Ardiana wore a plain bright green dress.
'Bright green was for clowns, vagabonds, or women caught in affairs......'
Unable to refuse the Empress's gift, Ardiana wore it and attended the banquet reluctantly.
Naturally, she never stepped into the light all night.
That day, Ardiana felt like stagnant, rotting water.
That the darkest spot in this vast palace was where she stayed.
But then, someone approached and spoke to her for the first time.
'What foolish customs.'
Luminen's youngest Young Lord at the time, fourteen-year-old Theseus.
'Colors only imperial family can wear. Colors you mustn't wear carelessly.'
Ardiana still remembered Tese tan standing silently beside her for a while.
Especially since he then,
'Theseus? Your clothes......'
Suddenly flipped his uniform jacket inside out and went to the Luminen Duke and Duchess.
The lining, with visible stitches, was gray.
A funeral color.
Pides and Ravennia's faces hardened.
But Tese tan stayed composed in that outfit until the banquet ended.
Not only that.
He mingled casually, chatting with various people.
It was amusing.
Watching him gave Ardiana courage too.
Whether the Empress punished later.
Whether her father scolded.
Courage to leave the banquet hall and return to her palace.
"Why."
The boy's face from that day overlapped with Tese tan's.
"......I hoped my hunch was wrong."
Tese tan gazed at her with shaken eyes.
As if it hurt that she was her.
As if he finally understood Ardiana's situation.
She didn't remember well after.
What was certain: the second kiss lasted much longer.
And Tese tan was just as cautious.
His touch caressed her like fragile glass.
That night.
Tese tan and Ardiana rejoined the Union Force late.
Aleric and Libia scolded them for tardiness, but Tese tan just ran a hand through his hair silently.
In the returning carriage, he clasped her hand beneath his robe.
'......Should push away.'
In the end, Ardiana couldn't.
She had no choice but to admit it now.
The truth she'd denied since reuniting in the plaza: she desperately wanted Tese tan too.
Ardiana gazed steadily at Tese tan beyond Astie.
A little earlier.
Tese tan had come to her solitary tent late at night.
Now he knew Pides's assassins targeted her.
'I sleep sitting up fine, Association President.'
'Yeah?'
'......Fine, truth is, I'm worried. Better I stay than you alone, right?'
But.
'......Ardiana.'
'You came first.'
As the tent flap closed, Ardiana had no choice but to pull Tese tan in.
He seemed flustered but didn't refuse.
The lantern went out.
The two awkwardly embraced toward the bed.
But when Ardiana finally lay back on it.
'Vice Leader! Association President!'
Astie burst in, freezing everything.
"Hee hee hee. So nice sleeping together!"
Watching giggling Astie, Ardiana ended up smiling too.
'Definitely a child.'
Saying kids don't sleep alone.
Two might be scary, but three less so.
No normal adult could say such things.
Especially barging into a man and woman's bedroom on the verge of intimacy.
'The Necromancer King harbors no malice whatsoever.'
Adelin's words suddenly came to mind, making Ardiana chuckle.
Then her eyes met Tese tan's, who was watching her.
"Mm......"
Astie's sleepy murmur faintly sounded, perhaps asleep.
"Ha."
A deflated laugh escaped Tese tan's lips.
As if on cue, a 'pfft' burst from Ardiana too.
She hurriedly covered her mouth with one hand.
That night, in the darkness, the two gazed at each other for a long time.
Both with bright smiles on their faces.
