The whole point of heading to the prayer room had been to wait for Aiden, who'd be coming after his training. With Aiden arriving sooner than expected, there was no real need to go all the way into the prayer room.
He ran all that way over here. I should sit him down and let him rest a bit.
But the moment he saw the beads of sweat dotting Aiden's forehead as the boy came bounding down the corridor like a puppy, radiating freshness, Luan was overtaken by the merciful heart of a benevolent hyung.
And we need to increase our time together for the relationship to progress.
So, led by Luan, the party naturally stepped into the prayer room.
It was called a prayer room, but it was a special chamber prepared for high nobles and members of the imperial family. The interior closely resembled the drawing room of any well-off noble. Small wonder the sofa had been so comfortable.
The instant they entered the room, Aiden moved nimbly and prepared tea with practiced skill. Luan was about to take a seat first when he gave a slight frown.
“Your Majesty.”
“What?”
Though wide sofas faced each other on both sides, Kirian had plopped himself down right beside Luan as if it were only natural.
“There's plenty of room, so why on earth sit right next to me? It's cramped.”
When he asked, puzzled, Kirian retorted shamelessly.
“We came to talk with that priest brat, didn't we?”
“We did.”
“Then the brat should sit over there.”
In an instant Luan's mind began to whir fiercely. It started to make sense. So you can properly appreciate Aiden's face head-on, you'd want to sit side by side across from him—that's why he's doing this.
Above all, no one had even brought up talking. As if to give the pretext of sitting beside him for Luan's purposes, Kirian was actually fulfilling his own private agenda. Truly masterful.
The Emperor's got a cunning streak too. Well, I'll allow it.
Luan nodded, fully convinced.
“All right, Aiden. Since the chance is here, shall we have some tea and talk for a while?”
At Luan's suggestion, Aiden, who'd been bringing the tea over, blinked his eyes round.
“Ah, me?”
“Who else is there to talk to but you? Come, sit.”
He gestured gently to the sofa across from him with a soft smile. Then he beckoned to Kael, who stood vacantly behind them, as well.
“You sit too, Sir Kael.”
“Ah, I'm fine. An escort ought to stand—”
“It makes me uncomfortable having you loom there alone while everyone else is seated. Sit, please.”
At the Empress's firm urging, Kael hesitated. Just then, Kirian, seated beside him, jerked his chin toward the empty seat and shot Kael a wordless look.
Sit.
At that frosty gaze, Kael obediently said “Yes, sir” and dropped into his seat at once.
The problem was that the only seat left was the one right beside Aiden. Directly across from Kirian, that is.
Forced to sit in the spot where he'd have to take the Emperor's gaze head-on, Kael felt cold sweat run down his spine. This was an intuition born of suffering.
Whenever Luan spoke beside him, Kirian's face softened like a spring breeze, but the instant he turned his head toward Aiden across the way, it transformed into something colder than a northern blizzard in a heartbeat. It was, quite simply, an eyesore.
Whether Kael was weeping blood inside or not, Luan peacefully presided over the tea time.
“How have you been doing lately?”
“Thanks to your consideration, Lord Luan, I've been doing very well.”
“I hear you're taking observation lessons with the temple knights.”
“Yes. I'm grateful, truly.”
Aiden smiled brightly and carried on his story in soft, steady tones.
“It's all thanks to you, Lord Luan. Because you firmly punished and drove out Joe, my former senior, I got to meet a new senior priest.”
Before that, Aiden had been cast off by his family, treated as incompetent and unable to properly wield divine power, bullied by Joe and his crew.
“My new senior praised my handiwork and even recognized my interest in swordsmanship. Thanks to that I took the knights' test, and beyond what I deserved, I was told I had some talent...”
Aiden chattered on, reporting his recent days, his face glowing as if bathed in sunlight. Luan was thoroughly pleased. Diligently building up his stats, as expected. Watching the boy grow up sturdy within the little fence he'd put up filled him with pride, as if Aiden were a child he'd raised in his heart. This must be why people play raising sims.
But the eyes of the Kirian listening to that peaceful conversation were fierce beyond measure.
He saved that kid with his own hands? In that frail body?
In Kirian's head rose the image of Luan vomiting blood. Did that redheaded brat put Luan in danger?
In truth Luan had simply used his power to cleanly crush the perpetrators, but in the lenses of the already maddened Kirian, Aiden's very existence was just thoroughly distasteful. After all, it was Lord Luan this, Lord Luan that, on and on.
“Thanks to you, Lord Luan, I really am doing well. But...”
Aiden, who'd been smiling brightly, suddenly trailed off and studied Luan's face closely. Pity welled in his green eyes.
“Your cheek...”
“Ah. It's nothing.”
On Luan's left cheek, the bruise mark Duke Requies had left still hadn't fully faded, lingering in a faint bluish tinge. Because he hadn't bothered to cover it with makeup, the trace was laid bare under the bright sunlight.
It wasn't as though no rumors circulated within the temple. If anything, being a closed-off place, it reacted all the more sensitively. So Aiden too knew of the imperial discord and assault reports that had recently plastered the tabloids.
Of course, Aiden didn't take the rumors at face value. Given Luan's firm, indifferent nature, there was no way he'd sit calmly drinking tea beside the man if he'd been struck. Besides, just look at the state of that Misery-like emperor stuck to Luan's side like a leech, radiating killing intent with his eyes.
But the misunderstanding being cleared didn't mean Aiden bore Kirian no resentment.
For someone who's supposedly the Empire's emperor to fail to protect his own spouse and let such a terrible mark be left—incompetent, pathetic man. If I'd been by his side, I'd never have let it come to this.
A cold hostility flickered in the depths of Aiden's eyes.
Insolent brat. The unwholesome calculations turning in the boy's head showed through transparently in his eyes, and Kirian's eyebrows twitched menacingly. Under the table, his killing intent was a hair from erupting.
Becoming aware of the state of his cheek under Aiden's gaze, Luan waved a hand as if it were no matter.
“It's fine. It's nearly healed.”
It was then. Aiden carefully drew a small jar of ointment from his robes and set it on the table.
“It's a medicine I made myself from herbs.”
At that, Kirian scoffed.
“How dare you presume to use some crude concoction of unknown origin on the Empress?”
Kirian snapped at him irritably, but Aiden brushed off the Emperor's words lightly and spoke only to Luan, gently.
“When I used it myself, there was nothing better for drawing out bruises and calming wounds. You'll feel better soon.”
“Used it yourself? Ah... those, before.”
The atrocities of Joe and his crew flickered through Luan's mind.
Good heavens. That means this sweet, pitiable boy made and applied this medicine all alone when he was beaten black and blue by that trash.
A pang twinged at the pit of his chest. With Aiden's pitiful backstory overlaid on it, there was no way he could refuse the goodwill of such a wretched boy.
“Thank you, Aiden. I'll put it to good use.”
When Luan nodded, Aiden half rose from his seat. Luan, thinking he meant to hand over the jar, reached out a hand—but Aiden opened the lid, smeared the ointment on his own fingertips, then reached straight across the table toward Luan's face.
“Let me apply it for you, Lord Luan.”
It was a forward move no one had anticipated. And this was no emperor to sit by and watch such a provocation.
Slap—!
“What do you think you're doing.”
A breath before Aiden's fingertips reached Luan's cheek, Kirian shot to his feet with the speed of lightning, knocked Aiden's wrist away roughly, and snatched up the ointment jar.
“How dare you try to lay a hand on someone's face so carelessly!”
Kirian's voice rang thunderously through the prayer room. The red eyes blazing with fury looked ready to take Aiden's head that very instant.
Kael let out a hk and held his breath, and Aiden's hand froze in midair. But amid that savage atmosphere, the only one wearing a bored expression was Luan.
“Your Majesty. Why are you being so prickly about a treatment?”
Luan looked up at Kirian, baffled. When the imperial physicians applied medicine, the man had stood by with his arms crossed and watched just fine. He couldn't fathom why Kirian was thrashing about only at Aiden.
Then a thought flashed through Luan's mind.
Aha! He can't stand the thought of Aiden's lovely hand touching another man's skin!
So that's it. For such a grand display of devotion, it was a rather petty and small-minded jealousy. But, well, viewed as the cliché of a possessive man going through his first love, it had a certain cuteness to it. Misreading the situation, Luan sighed.
“All right. I'll just apply it myself, then.”
Luan reached out to take the jar, but Kirian dodged and declared, low, to Aiden, as if pronouncing a verdict.
“The only one who lays hands on my spouse's body is me.”
At that declaration, the air in the prayer room froze over. But Luan, the party in question, was still clicking his tongue inwardly.
He's flat-out advertising it for Aiden to hear.
Concluding it was a jealousy-baiting tactic, Luan shrugged readily.
“...So you'll apply it yourself, Your Majesty?”
“Yes. I'll do it.”
“Well, suit yourself.”
Whoever applies it, all that matters is the bruise fading. The man couldn't bear to watch Aiden touch another man, so what could be done? It was a remarkably fussy and prickly bit of flirtation.
Once permission was given, Kirian finally tempered his savage air somewhat and began to spread the ointment over Luan's cheek with his own hand. At odds with his rough nature, the Emperor's touch against his cheek was tearfully careful and tender.
Watching that scene unfold right before his eyes, Aiden's expression turned cold. The fist clenched beneath the desk trembled.
But that, too, was only for an instant. Aiden's face returned in a flash to its meek, harmless look. A serene smile, as if nothing had happened at all.
Confirming that flawless, eerily perfect composure, the corner of Kirian's lip curled up with a sneer.
Emperor and priest.
The gazes of the two men collided soundlessly in the air, throwing off sparks. Kael wanted to ask. Was there any good medicine for an upset stomach?
