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Valletta who was about to say no, let out a small sigh and reached out her hand. His long hair was like high quality silk.
‘It’s soft.’
His hair is softer than my hair so it hurts my pride a little.
“Sometimes, it feels like Master is a god watching a story.”
He closed his eyes and opened his mouth.
“… What are you talking about?”
“Hmm.”
Valletta’s hand gently brushed Reinhardt’s hair. Reinhardt, who let out a low groan with his eyes closed, smiled.
“Master… even If someone dies in front of your eyes, or when you get hung upside down, you wear an expression like there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Reinhardt’s lips moved slightly.
“As if everything was fixed and it was inevitable.”
Valletta’s hand came to a halt.
Feeling like he had hit the nail in the head, Valletta looked down at Reinhardt with a slightly stiff expression. Before she knew it, he looked at her with a shine in his eyes.
“I also thought like that. However, despite knowing that it was fated, I still often get angry. But my patient Master didn’t.”
“… You knew that it was fated?”
“Master wouldn’t know what kind of path I would’ve taken if I had left your arms.”
After cleverly dodging Valletta’s reply, Reinhardt got up slowly with a smile.
Then he pushed Valletta on the shoulder and gently laid her on the bed. His cold fingertips ran up her neck and touched her forehead.
Valletta sat up, and looked at Reinhardt who was facing her.
“Everytime I see Master, I want to nibble on you starting from your fingers and swallow you…”
The corner of his lips lifted up.
“I’m sure you’ll be angry, so I’ll be patient until you allow me.”
“… What the hell are you talking about?”
“Ah, since this is also my room, can I sleep next to you?”
“If I tell you no, you won’t do it?”
At Valletta’s question, Reinhardt’s eyes opened wide and gave her a look of hateful surprise.
Even so, it was soon swept away with a smile that could seduce even men.
“It looks like I won’t be able to sleep here until Master gives me permission.”
“…”
“As expected of my sensible Master.”
Valletta didn’t say anything, but Reinhardt immediately praised her as he felt that she had given up from her expression.
Valletta sighed and turned her gaze away.
“And go to bed early today. Since you’re tired.”
Reinhardt’s palm ran through her hair. With each swipe, she began to lose her consciousness.
Then, as if someone had turned the power off, she fell asleep.
Before she completely lost consciousness…
‘This crazy bxstxrd…’
Valletta’s eyes finally closed, unable to finish the thought that had crept into her head.
At the same time as her breathing became shallower, Jin, who was summoned, was released as the summoner lost consciousness.
Reinhardt laid her down in the middle of her bed and covered her with a blanket.
With one snap of his finger, a black curtain appeared on the glass wall in all directions, preventing a single light from entering.
Reinhardt’s hand ran slowly through Valletta’s dark brown hair. His red eyes sparkling in the darkness looked straight at Valletta.
“It would be better if you couldn’t do anything.”
So that you would rely on me for everything. And you won’t be able to do anything without my help.
The desires that seeped within him often overflowed, and it seemed that he would do something irreversible.
“If I wasn’t the Magic Tower’s Master, it would have been impossible for me to even be by your side.”
He was thrown into muddy waters that had an existence like a star in the sky, noble, beautiful, and strong with an ability that everyone wanted. There’s no way a pebble could stand on the same level.
If he didn’t have the strength, he wouldn’t have an excuse to force her to stay, nor have the power or ability to do so.
There was no need to just be beautiful. That beauty will someday be trampled on by someone and wither.
“But if it’s you, I don’t mind, Master.”
If she wanted him to wither, she could personally thrust a sword into him.
If she wants anything, she just needs to give the command. Whatever the command is, he will faithfully obey it like a well-trained dog.
Reinhardt kissed the back of Valletta’s sleeping hand. Then he laid down next to her, holding her hand.
“Sleep well, Master.”
Reinhardt, who lay on his side as if waiting for an unanswered answer, looked down at her for a moment, then slowly closed his eyes.
It was a night with warmth for the first time in their lives.
***
“…”
Valletta sighed inwardly. For the whole week, Reinhardt would put Valletta to sleep first, then he would rest while holding her hand.
He held onto it so tightly that whenever Valletta woke up in the morning, her hands would be sweaty and uncomfortable.
Reinhardt, who slept like a child, exhaled light breaths, and seemed very comfortable.
He was quite different from when he was sleeping crouched in the corner of a hallway or shivering in a warehouse or stable, where there was no place to sleep like when they were still in Count Delight’s residence.
‘Do we have to sleep while holding hands?’
She once happened to see Reinhardt sleeping in a corner of the hallway, but she pretended not to know, thinking that it was something inevitable.
However, it wasn’t easy to pretend that she didn’t know about it. She showed a little sympathy, but desperately avoided any ties in any way.
She quietly sat up on the bed.
It was impossible for her to get out of bed as he was still holding her hand. There were quite a few new things present in the room where previously there was only a bed.
A bookshelf with various books enough to cover one wall, a desk, papers, pens, and a spacious bathroom.
Fresh fruit was placed on the table every day, every meal including breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as snack and tea time.
The temperature was comfortable in the room, neither hot nor cold, was always constant, and the air was not dry. The blankets were always soft and smelled of sunlight. Everything was provided by Reinhardt for Valletta.
He did whatever Valletta wanted. Even if she wanted to eat fruits that weren’t produced in the current season or tropical fruits from a distant continent across the sea, it took less than an hour to bring them all.
He would ask for a compliment as he knelt down below the bed and smiled everytime Valletta would stroke his head. Valletta gave up being grumpy, thinking that there was nothing that Reinhardt couldn’t do.
‘… I’m running out of time.’
Count Delight kept the slaves that he nurtured in a place that he dreadfully named as the ‘Nurturing Room.’
She needs to go where that place is.
It was clear that the mercenaries who looked after them would throw them out as soon as they lost support.
It was more likely that they would sell them to a terrible place, or worse, leave them to starve.
In fact, if she wanted to try and pretend that she didn’t know, she could do it. However, it would surely bother her. She remembered that the remaining contract time was about a week or so.
‘Besides….’
As far as she remembers, the male protagonist in the Nurturing Room would take care of the troublesome things that would happen in this world later.
Originally, the main protagonist should have been released when the Nurturing Room got destroyed after Reinhardt’s massacre, but instead of destroying it, Reinhardt was busy lying next to her all day.
Moreover, as far as she knew, there were no documents left about the existence of the Nurturing Room.
He was, after all, Count Delight who was thorough in his own way.
If it weren’t for Reinhardt, he wouldn’t have come to such a miserable end.
‘More than anything else, I have to release them, so Reinhardt gets interested in him.’
She couldn’t understand why he was being obsessed with her for no reason.
He looks like a really innocent young man when he sleeps quietly, but when he opens his eyes, he’s like a sweet devil who came down looking like an angel.
As soon as she finished thinking, Reinhardt opened his eyes.
The hazy, unfocused eyes rolled over as if grasping the situation, and eventually turned to Valletta.
The boy closed his half-opened eyes and smiled.
“Master, did you sleep well?”
Valletta turned her head away in response to the gentle greeting.
Thanks to Reinhardt’s magic, it was clear that she had a deep sleep without dreaming or tossing and turning.
She didn’t want Reinhardt to misunderstand by admitting it though.
“Good Morning, Master.”
Reinhardt sat up, took her hand, and put his face in front of her nose.
If she won’t accept his greeting with a smile, it seems like he won’t back down.
Valletta showed a shaky expression.
“… Good Morning.”
As she greeted him with a reluctant expression, he grinned and slowly lifted her clasped hand, kissed the back of Valletta’s hand, and climbed out of the bed.
When Reinhardt snapped his finger, the black curtains all around them disappeared.
“I need to go to the Nurturing Room.”
Valletta, whose gaze followed Reinhardt’s movements, said. His expression contorted.
“Why are you going there?”
“To set the slaves free. They will either die or be sold anyway, so I want to let them go while they are still in my possession.”
She didn’t want to live with any guilt.
Reinhardt crossed his arms and looked at Valletta. His mouth twisted.
“Is Master saying that you know what kind of place that is and that you want to go there recklessly?”
“Whatever it is, it was my father’s business. I have to solve it. We can’t just let them die, can we?”
Reinhardt’s face, who always has a smile on, was distorted.
“Do you still consider that dog pig b*st*rd your father?”
“I have nothing else to say.”
He strode up and wrapped his big hand around Valletta’s cheek.
Reinhardt, who came close to her nose, opened his mouth.
“The Master, who is kind to everything but me, must have felt sympathy for things she had never seen before.”
“It’s not sympathy. Just…”
She just doesn’t want to feel any guilt.
Valletta, who was about to utter the words, bit her mouth. It was her useless pride. It was also because she didn’t feel the need to convince him.
“That place…”
Reinhardt opened his mouth, not showing what he was thinking. He shrugged his shoulders and flicked his fingers. A table appeared and hot food was already placed on it.
“Let’s eat first, Master.”
Reinhardt, who smiled sweetly and tenderly, pulled out a chair and glanced at her. Although Valletta felt uncomfortable, she sat quietly in the chair he had pulled out.
It was a much quieter meal than usual.