Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Jiwoo stared at Lanceil, who seemed to be worried about her.

Looking at the red cheeks with a little bit of agitation, she felt the urge to pamper him that she was actually doing it because she wanted to die.

However, she didn’t want to cause such a conflict with the person she liked. Even more so for those who cared about this person.

She should weigh her life against this person who she met not long ago that they consider a very important person. That was quite childish.

“…Yes, I’m okay.”

Lanceil grabbed Jiwoo’s hands and stroked the back of her hand hard. Like someone who did not want to let go of her.

“Do you need anything else?”

“Ah… I think it would be helpful to have a sharp knife.”

Lanceil reflexively rummaged around his waist, but he had no dagger.

“Oh, here.”

Instead, Tevon, who was standing next to him, held out his dagger. Jiwoo grabbed the handle, and Tevon said in a cheerful voice.

“Oi, if Helka bites you again, stab him with this.”

“Tevon!”

Lanceil turned his head and glared at him.

But Tevon paid it no heed, lifted my shirt and showed his abdomen. Contrary to his appearance, which looked younger than the others, his tightly woven abdominal muscles were revealed. Touching the vital point of where the kidney was, he continued.

“Exactly here. Stab it. And kuak! turn the handle to the right.”

“Tevon!”

“Ah, what. Helka wants to die. If he dies today or tomorrow, dies like this or like that, what does it matter? Whether that old geezer is dead or not.”

Lanceil’s face turned red at his immature brother’s words. As Jiwoo gaped at him and couldn’t close her mouth, he grabbed his brother’s long ear.

He had long ears, so it was caught in one hand.

“U-ack!”

“When will you stop acting so childishly!”

“Aaacckk!”

She didn’t know about the children of Elandos, but that seemed like a very strong punishment. Lanceil looked back as he dragged Tevon relentlessly.[1]

He bowed his head slightly. Jiwoo raised her hand to greet him before entering the old tree.

As soon as she grabbed the entrance door and entered, a strong barrier surrounded the tree.

Callan said Helka was treated for an arrow wound and laid down on the bed. The old tree was taller and wider than any other decent apartment building, so she could just head to the bedroom without having to look around for a long time.

It was when she thought that the inside of the old tree was surprisingly bright.

“Oh, that scared me!”

She was so surprised that a Korean came out. Someone was standing tall in the spacious living room inside the old tree.

There was only one person who could be here. She just didn’t imagine that he would stand up like that.

“…Hel, Helka?”

She called him, but he didn’t move. He was just staring at Jiwoo with a subtle smile on his face. Jiwoo hesitated a little, then slowly approached him.

As he stood still, his appearance seemed more peculiar. All the children of Elandos were tall and had good build, but he was particularly tall.

She has never seen anyone that tall. When she got closer, she had to bend her head to look up, so he seemed to be about two meters tall. And the luscious black hair that doesn’t show any damaged parts.

The straight hair that stretched downwards seemed difficult to achieve even if she purposely tried to straighten it like that.

The most impressive thing about him was his black eyes. She didn’t know what the original color was, but now his eyes are as black as obsidian, absorbing all the light. It was so black that she couldn’t tell the difference between the pupil and the iris.

He smiled calmly without frowning in pain, making him look like a faithful priest or paladin in the temple because of his upright eyes and thick eyebrows.

“Helka, are you alright?”

Although he was looking this way, he did not move no matter how much she spoke.

There was also a subtle smile on his face. It looked like he had become a stone statue of some kind. Jiwoo opened his palms and waved them in front of his face.

Grab!

“Ack….!”

Then Helka grabbed her wrist. It wasn’t that his grasp was strong, but she was so surprised that she pulled her hand away.

But again it was captured by Helka. As he held Jiwoo, Helka led Jiwoo and walked without saying a word.

“Ah, hold… on. Helka?”

“……”

“Helkainis?”

When she called out his full name, he looked back. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he still didn’t say anything.

He just smiled brightly. Jiwoo was surprised to the point that her face turned red.

His smiling face was impressive enough to be called shocking. It wasn’t because of the fact that it was a smile on his handsome face.

His thick eyebrows were raised, and his lips slightly parted. His eyebrows curved like a crescent moon. His smile was exceedingly innocent without a single impurity, like a child’s smile. Or, a smile that made him look like he was really happy.

She heard that he was quite old enough Tevon called him ‘old geezer’, but he didn’t look like that at all.

As she was mesmerized by that smile, at one point, Jiwoo followed him to the bedroom.

The bed was big enough for ten people to lay down and roll. Helka, who went in front of her, naturally dragged Jiwoo to the top of the bed and sat her down.

As soon as the soft bedding touched her behind, Jiwoo was startled.

No, wait.

The person being treated was the one who had to sit down, right? She was so surprised that she could be so immersed in his single smile.

Jiwoo tried to get up and tried to make Helka sit instead. She touched his shoulder.

The black eyes were close to her. His face was too close…

“……!”

Clank!

Jiwoo was startled and dropped the dagger that Tevon had given him to the floor. Helka, who lowered his head, kissed her.

“Gasp!”

Jiwoo immediately pushed his shoulder and pulled back her lips.

Since it wasn’t a forced kiss, Helka was pushed straight away without much force. However, he did not completely back down.

Helka watched Jiwoo wipe her lips with the back of her hand, but soon grabbed her wrist and removed the hand that was covering her lips.

“Wa, wait, ung.”

Jiwoo’s body was completely frozen.

He didn’t mean to remove her wrists to force the kiss. He wants to kiss her lips, but something was covering them, so he just grabs whatever was in the way and moves them away.

As proof of that, when Jiwoo took her hand from his grasp, she was able to shake it off surprisingly easily.

When Jiwoo pushed his shoulder again, Helka shifted his weight and pushed Jiwoo down.

“Mmh— uhp!”

She was now fully laid on the bed. As he didn’t stop just at the level where their lips met, he pulled out his tongue and started licking it, and Jiwoo, frightened, pushed his shoulder again. Then she turned her body around and got away from him as far as she could.

“Gasp… what the hell…”

But when she got away, she was still on the bed. Jiwoo crawled away.

She crawled on all fours and saw him approaching her and remembered what Callan had said.

―When he runs rampant… There’s a bit of a beast-like side…

This was what he meant!

No matter how far away she tried to get away, Helkainis was faster than the startled Jiwoo.

He crawled closer and climbed on top of Jiwoo. And rubbed his lips and cheeks all over Jiwoo’s face. His fine hair gently tickled her face and shoulders.

His lips, which had been smeared with saliva as though he was a beast marking its territory, came down further and went to the nape of her neck. He couldn’t kiss there, so he started sucking on the side.

“Huht, uuhhtt!”

As he used his teeth, a moan naturally flowed out as he chewed the tender flesh.

What Helkainis did reminded Jiwoo of when he licked the blood of her palm when she cut off her palm to purify the miasma. The act of instinctively finding his way to live and clinging to it.

At that time, she seemed to be able to understand his behavior, which she was even afraid of because he would not know the reason for it.

He found Jiwoo from a distance, ran to her, and hugged her, and the pain lessened. Even without reason, his body would have remembered it.

“Stop it.”

Jiwoo pushed him away again. Of course, drinking her fluids like her saliva, or perhaps stroking her would be more effective. But besides that, there was a more sure way.

“Give me back my dagger.”

But in this state, how would they be able to communicate?

—

t/n:

¹ HUH!! So when Jiwoo touched Lanceil’s ears ~softly~ it’s ‘marry me’ but when it’s pulled super hard it’s corporal punishment— wow, how difficult is this to balance, like setting the shower knob for the right temperature~