CH 78

“Haah…” Finally, his lips fell away from mine and I was able to take a big breath in. I felt so foolish for declaring that we weren’t in a romantic relationship a while ago. I could still feel the heat of Mayer’s lips pressed against mine, like a burning mark.

“Mana, Mayer’s mana…” I muttered, hastily checking on Mayer. His demonic power was naturally spreading throughout his body. Ever since his first loss of control, it had been tightly sealed, but now it was as if it had always been there from the start. Being able to finish the treatment without him going berserk was already a success. I could finally let go of the tension in my heart. Of course, there was an unexpected accident in the process, but that wasn’t very important. To be more precise, it was within the range of what I could forget. Or rather, gloss over.

Mayer stared at me, his eyes still unfocused. He likely didn’t remember that we kissed. If that was the case, what happened today could be forgotten as a perfect crime. “Good. Let’s just think of it as… having kissed a dog,” I mused out loud.

A dog’s tongue could slip into one’s mouth when kissing it, couldn’t it? Done hypnotizing myself into thinking it was no big deal, I chortled. When I looked out the window of the bedroom, I got surprised. The sun was setting before I knew it. Had it been about three hours? It was a relief to have finished before it grew completely dark. Although I did have to keep watching over Mayer, I felt it was fine to let go of his hand.

That was exactly what I did after several long hours of holding. We had been so desperate that our hands were covered in a cold sweat. From whose hand it came from, I bet neither of us knew. There was even a mark on my hand in the shape of Mayer’s hand, a symbol of how much pain he had suffered. This was going to bruise, along with my shoulders. Wherever Mayer had clutched me, it ached. I didn’t need to take off my clothes to know that my shoulder was bruised black and blue. I thought I may as well drink some holy water and checked if there was any remaining… But I had used up all of it while trying to feed Mayer. Every bottle I checked was empty. I grabbed the last bottle I could find and tilted it, but only a single drop came out.

The holy water Mayer dribbled would’ve been more than enough to heal my bruise. I clicked my tongue in discontent. Still, it was no big problem since I could ask August to heal me later. Until then, it wouldn’t be particularly hard to endure the pain. A bruise was nothing. In any case, Mayer fell right asleep, unable to handle the fatigue. Perhaps he had fainted outright. Yeah, it’d be less painful to stay knocked out.

I gazed at the sleeping Mayer. His hair, usually smoothed back, had fallen over the thick lashes covering his golden eyes in a disheveled mess. In that instant, I found myself reaching out a hand to smooth his hair back, and his dark hair ran past my fingertips. “This is nothing to be bothered over…” I muttered.

Mayer Knox was still constricted by the ridiculous jinx of his hair cursing people from his childhood. I could vividly recall the moment he shook off my hand from touching his hair. I had casually passed over the bewildered remorse on his face at the time. To be honest, it wasn’t a matter I needed to be so concerned over. Regardless of Mayer Knox’s past, the issue of his demonic power and element conversion was solved. Thus, my goal was achieved. All I had to do was to encourage Mayer into training, defeat the demon lord and bring him back to keep my promise with Vince. We’d save the world and everything would be just perfect. But, for some reason, even though everything was going as I wished, my heart was shaking and I couldn’t figure out why.

I had thought I’d feel better as long as Mayer’s demonic power was solved, but the result was the exact opposite. I ended up growing more concerned, more entangled. It wasn’t only because of the kiss, it was something from a little earlier than that. Yes, from the moment I came to know more about Mayer.

Understanding someone was like giving them one’s heart in equal proportion. As a gamer who played from Fabian’s perspective, I felt a deep intimacy toward Fabian before we even met. That was because I knew so much about him, knew how and why he would make his decisions. Now I have come to understand Mayer. I couldn’t help but compare the man’s actions to the information I had about him. Would it have been better if I didn’t know about him? No. It was different from my time with Fabian. Things wouldn’t go the way they did then.

I stood with my back against the setting sunlight and, for a long time, gazed at Mayer from the side. I remained still until the light faded into shadows.

That dying light was like seeing my future.