After bathing. Valen scanned the bedroom with piercing eyes. The servants standing outside the door could sense the tension. Their faces stiffened frozen with fear that he might raise his club made them all tremble like deer.
But thanks to the thorough cleaning over the past few days, the ventilation was perfect. There was no lack of tidiness, but it was excessive. Annoyingly so.
“The children picked fresh flowers and scattered them. Look.” Valen lifted a single rose petal from the bed.
“This is… a swan?”
Two swans, folded from towels, faced each other. Valen’s cheek twitched. Just clean up, he thought. For starters, he disliked the tacky sentimentality of fresh flowers and swans. On top of that, folding towels like this and presuming it would please Valen and Argen was utterly ridiculous.
But Valen didn’t raise the club.
A wager more important than lecturing servants awaited him. And anyway, Argen seemed satisfied with that tacky decoration. Besides, the servants weren’t Valen’s to command, so he decided to let it slide.
Valen wrapped his arms gently around Argen’s waist from behind. When Argen lifted her head, she saw his angular jaw.
“Are there swans in the demon realm?” It was a question, but his tone didn’t sound particularly curious.
While Argen was answering, Valen snatched the towel from her hand and flung it behind him. “They’re not common, but you can see them. Various birds live in the southernmost reaches.”
“Have you actually seen one?” Valen lifted the blanket and swung it hard, making a thudding sound. Pollen fluttered down like rain. Unlike Valen, who waved his hands to brush it away, Argen stood still, letting the flower shower fall on her.
“I haven’t seen a swan, but I’ve seen a child like one. A child with quiet, beautiful eyes who fiercely endures each day.” Argen flapped both hands like a dog paddling. It was probably meant to express the two legs of a swan working hard beneath the water’ssurface.
Valen chuckled and replied casually. “Ah, yes.”
He neatly smoothed the rumpled blanket and pressed Argen’s shoulders down to sit. His large hands kneaded her rounded shoulder blades with just the right amount of pressure, then slid down to grasp her forearm in one hand. It was a raw, gentle touch. In the silence, only their breaths came and went, and Argen’s pupils fluttered uneasily.
“Actually, I… don’t particularly enjoy bathing.” She spoke urgently, as if trying to dissuade him. It was a roundabout way of saying she didn’t want sex twice a day. Valen understood her true meaning perfectly well.
She said she’d do anything I wanted. Maybe it’s because she’s a demon, but lying is second nature to her. Perhaps I had nothing left to be disappointed about. Her hurried excuses didn’t offend him.
“I won’t.”
Her body relaxed with a sigh of relief.
“……”
This was a bit irritating. Seeing how noticeably at ease she’d become, a mischievous impulse stirred within him. Valen slipped his hand under Argen’s armpits, suddenly lifting her body and cradling her in his arms. He laid her down flat, facing the ceiling, and Argen covered him like a blanket. Startled, Argen jerked her head up, but Valen pressed down on the back of her head.
“Stop fidgeting and stay still.”
“Hah, but you can’t fall asleep with a boulder on top of you.”
“Overestimating. What boulder? A pebble?”
“About the size of that rock we sat on eating sandwiches during the last expedition…?”
“Impressive dreams.”
Valen placed one arm across Argen’s back and slid the other behind his own head. By the clock, it was time to sleep, but whether it was Argen’s fault or not, sleep wouldn’t come at all. He’d planned to return to the bedroom once Argen, struggling alone to put him to sleep, collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep first. But…
“To fall asleep, you need to feel comfortable in this space.”
“You’re practically a sleep doctor.” Valen quickly reviewed his life. Sleep in a comfortable place. Night and day, he was surrounded by those who targeted him with jealousy-fuelled assassination attempts and rape. Always tense, never knowing when something might happen, he found himself most at ease when sleeping rough during war.
Valenn gave a half-hearted nod.
“A place where nothing disturbs your sleep. Where you can sleep belly-up like a puppy and feel nothing but comfort.” (Argen)
“The first condition is already broken.”
“……I wish you could see this place as a temporary refuge where you can catch your breath. For that, I suppose I must make an effort.”
“Shut up. Go give another person a lecture on sleep science.”
“If the space itself cannot provide comfort, then the company of others can compensate for that lack.”
“And that company is you?”
Argen reached behind him and pulled Valen’s hand down. Slowly, Valen moved his fingers to interlace with Argen’s. Unlike Valen, Argen gripped his hand firmly.
“Just hold hands like this, sharing each other’s warmth. Press your bodies close together and feel each other’s breath. Before you know it, sleep will wash over you.”
As expected, it was all baseless, nonsensical talk. Yet he didn’t push Argen away because he noticed the change in her breathing. She claimed she’d put him to sleep, but in the end, she was the one drifting off first.
Valen decided to wait silently until Argen was completely asleep. It was an impulsive bet, but since he’d started it, he had to win.
What should he ask for?
Would she give him a map detailing the entire Demon King’s Castle? Even for Valen, that was information far too risky to hand over to the enemy. Rather than risk arousing suspicion, perhaps it would be better to wander around and check the paths himself.His thoughts branched out endlessly. But the destination he reached after walking slowly was the inside of his pitch-black eyelids. He sank deep into a darkness beyond the reach of consciousness.
He opened his eyes.
The ceiling, tinged with the yellow evening sunlight, came into view. Wind seeped through the half-open window, causing the thin curtains to flutter delicately. Something perched on the windowsill flapped its wings and flew away.
Where was this place? Waking up in unfamiliar locations had become so frequent it no longer surprised him. He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot through his shoulder, making him grimace.
A crudely wrapped bandage, stained with blood, covered his right shoulder. Whoever did this. It was worse than having nothing at all. Without hesitation, he unwrapped it, revealing a raw, crimson wound. The demon’s claws had grazed his shoulder, but it hadn’t been this bad.
It seemed someone had carelessly moved him after he fell, reopening the wound. It was Valen who had collapsed after seeing the demon flee, bleeding. If only they’d left him there, he would’ve shaken himself off and gotten up.
He felt no gratitude whatsoever for the effort of carrying Valen all the way here. Just as he tried to sit up in bed, the door burst open and something white flew straight at his face. He instinctively caught it. It was clothing. A high-quality fabric woven from soft cloth, without a single irritating flaw.
“Hey, change into this.”
A man, skin stretched taut over protruding cheekbones, said as he banged roughly on the door. His tone was like an officer urging a prisoner.
“Where are my clothes?”
As Valen pulled back the blanket and stood fully, his tall frame stretched like a giant. The muscles and scars covering his body seemed to speak of a life far from smooth. His menacing eyes were locked in a cold stare. He looked lonely, as if he carried the weight of the world alone.
Even at a glance, he was clearly dangerous. The man hesitated under his intimidating presence, but soon sniffed loudly, suppressing his fear. After all, he was just some guy who’d been rolling around on the streets. No matter how skilled with a sword or how strong he was, he had no one to back him up.
“That rag? I tossed it. The stench of boiling corpses was unbearable. Change into what I gave you. Someone wishes to see you.”
The man pulled a pocket watch from his coat, clicked open the case. Squinting as if his eyesight was failing, he checked the minute hand. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Make yourself look human by then. That’s wash water on the nightstand.”
The man spat out his words like excrement and walked out. Valen tossed the clothes in his hands onto the bed and pushed open the window.