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Chapter 115
“I’m alri–…!” Of course I was embarrassed. After all, this was Seo Dawon.
However, Seo Dawon did not push me away and, instead, held onto me, covering my eyes with his own hands. As soon as he did that, I felt strangely tired; at the same time, I could not keep my balance due to the strength that was put into my tense shoulders.
No longer able to resist, I weakly collapsed completely into the Mage’s arms, only able to breathe shallowly. Then, I managed to muster my vigilance and distrust to say, “Seo Dawon, what have you done to me……”
[Clack, clack!]
Simultaneously, I heard Lackey rushing towards Seo Dawon. However, inducing some anxiety, the sound of the skeleton running cut off. My ears felt deafened; I felt that Seo Dawon had done something.
“Wha….What are you doing!”
“Don’t be afraid. I just want you to get some rest–some sleep.”
“Why……”
“You wouldn’t know, but your body’s reached its limits. I know you hate that I’m intervening like this…..”
“Limit…….?”
“First of all, sleep tight. You haven’t slept 20 hours this week.”
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…I haven’t slept for more than 20 hours this week?
I don’t remember that. I shook my head to deny it, but, as soon as Seo Dawon started stroking my head slowly, I felt the embrace of sleep enveloping my body.
I identified the sensation overwhelmingly–painfully–rushing over me as ‘drowsiness.’ Blinking, struggling with the deluge of sleepiness, I bit my tongue until it began to numb–out of reluctance to fall asleep like this. “I, I’m……. I’ve never had a hard time sleeping…… I’ve never asked you to solve this, either…”
I kept yawning, regardless of my will, during the entirety of that short sentence. My voice gradually grew languid, like a sinking ship.
However, Seo Dawon never stopped stroking my head, and Jung Garam, who was holding my knee, slowly pulled on my feet. As if he were trying to move me into a lying position.
Then, he said something shocking. “It seems like Choi Lee-kyung doesn’t remember how he tossed and turned, crying all night and asking hyung to put him to sleep?”
“……” Seo Dawon didn’t answer, but his silence was enough.
I wanted to ask them about what they said, but I couldn’t move my lips because of the vertigo that settled into me. Soon I was dazed by the sensation of drifting off into sleep.
Kim Olim said, “I don’t think he’ll last long at this rate. Won’t it get worse if we resurrect the others? Hnnn…Is that why you all so seriously argued to sleep with him? I thought he’d remember a little bit of all this.”
“It’s going to get worse.” Seo Dawon spoke, tone brokering little emotion.
Simultaneously, I felt someone’s cold touch holding my neck. That hand gently touched the back of my neck, as if it were painting something on my skin.
“When I signed the contract, it was frankly offensive, but……”
That touch must belong to Kim Olim; my contract seal with her was inscribed on the back of our necks. Kim Olim continued, still firmly pressing down at that spot, “As soon as I saw the seal, I became satisfied.”
“……”
“……”
“Most definitely, Choi Lee-kyung is…..Well, you all know better than me what I’m talking about.”
“Mm, Well… You’re talking about ‘that feeling.'”
And, as if stimulated by Kim Olim’s words, I felt another touch on my thighs.
I didn’t have the energy to open my mouth, so I could only flinch my legs; however, Jung Garam rubbed his lips alongside my thigh and gently bit with the blunt side of his teeth. He did not bite for long, but the emotions held within that gesture were too heavy to pass off as a joke.
However, Jung Garam quickly removed his lips and replied in a cheery tone, “It’s like I want to consume… The desire to indulge in some…inclinations. You’re talking about that sort of feeling, right? But, then Choi Lee-kyung will die.”
Of course, the content was nowhere near cheery.
I was appalled, but their voices sounded gradually more and more distant against my will. More and more, I began to hear their conversation in scattered pieces.
“So, Seo Dawon, explain. Your contract……isn’t that right?”
“I’m just following the characteristics of the undead. Hunger and Obsession. If it gets worse, I suppose I’ll want to do harm.”
“Then, hyung……”
“No. The contract will be carried out as it is. Whatever misunderstanding Choi Lee-kyung has, it….. after all.”
“….Choi Lee-kyung, like that……Does he know?”
“You can’t let him know. He’ll be wary of us.”
It was too much. Just before my consciousness faded, Seo Dawon finally took off the hand he had that cupped my face.
However, I was already unable to open my eyes. Far from being able to see the servants, I could no longer hear them as well. The only thing left, at the end, was the sense of the Mage gently stroking my head…
Soon, I lost my wakefulness.
* * *
“I……When did I fall asleep?”
“After our meeting, you had a glass of wine during the meal and went straight to bed.” Seo Dawon smiled and pulled my bangs back. He held a mysterious expression that seemed to exude cuteness. Somehow my face felt hot, and I rose from my seat, avoiding his gaze and scratching my head.
I didn’t know when I fell asleep, but, as soon as I opened my eyes, Lackey was held in my embrace, eyes closed, and I locked eyes with Seo Dawon.
My head ached as soon as I made eye contact with the Mage. He said that it was because I drank wine.
‘I drank wine yesterday?’
I think I drank some? I wasn’t the type to enjoy alcohol, but I heard that Kim Sangyoon brought some wine among his housewarming gifts.
‘By the way, it seems I have a bad hangover?’
I’ve never had such a hard time with alcohol before, though.. Rather than a hangover, the pain was enough as if my head had been hit several times with a hammer.
Seo Dawon’s expression also seemed unusual. He picked up a cup from the bedside table and handed it to me as soon as I made a grimace. I took a few sips, thinking it was water, but paused when I found some lemon-flavored unknown substance shining, round, and melting in the liquid.
“It’s a dissolvable foaming vitamin.”
“No wonder, I thought it tasted a bit weird……”
“You won’t take it because it tastes bad?”
“I’m not fond of the sour taste…..”
“Really? Then next time I’ll make it strawberry flavored.”
“……I’d like it if you’d stop treating me like a child.”
“Haha. Don’t force yourself to eat if it tastes bad.”
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How on earth do you think that that face encourages me to stop drinking if it doesn’t fit my tastes? It’s an expression that makes it seem like you’re looking down on me.
I frowned but eventually drank all the liquid he had given me–even the melted powder left from the dissolvable vitamin. IT was shiny, gold, and prickly, like grains of sand, but that didn’t bother me too much since it melted immediately when it touched my tongue. I don’t know if the vitamins took effect, but my splitting headache vanished in an instant.
“Choi Lee-kyung….. You’re making my back sore.”
“W-What are you talking about?”
However, as soon as I finished drinking, the door to the master bedroom suddenly opened and Jung Garam stormed in, holding a pillow. Once again, he was saying something strange.
I tried to get up from my seat, but I felt again the throbbing headache that I had thought disappeared. I collapsed back onto the bed when Jung Garam rushed in with a pillow.
Kim Olim, who followed Jung Garam into the room afterwards with her arms folded, saw Jung Garam entangled within my arms and stared fiercely at me. Damn it, I didn’t hug him on purpose! We just stuck together somehow……!
“Hey! What are you doing!” I shouted.
“You kicked me out of the bed, so I slept on the floor.”
“You could pick any other room and purchase a new bed!” I said, as I tried to shake off the heavy Jung Garam; Seo Dawon dragged him off first. I looked at him because he usually only stood on the sidelines, watching me suffer.
Seo Dawon opened his mouth as soon as he dropped Jung Garam, “Lee-kyung-ie, you must be exhausted today. You’ve been fretful all night, and you barely calmed down……”
“W-What are you talking about?!”
“Hm. I can do it too–that much.” Jung Garam said. 1
“Choi Lee-kyung. Aren’t you ashamed of causing so much trouble? Next time, I should really be here…”
“Come on. I don’t know why Kim Olim noona has to act like she despises him and sneaks herself in.”
I’m about to go insane. After drinking yesterday, did I do something wrong?
However, I couldn’t tell exactly because Seo Dawon’s voice was full of teasing as always. But, something about their reactions felt too strange to simply pass as a cheap joke.
Weirdly, when Seo Dawon and my eyes met, my heartbeat skyrocketed. I felt a bit bitter, since I was still conscious of him, but apparently I’ve been drinking to the point that my film cut off 2
‘No way, did I ask about how he felt when I didn’t command him a while ago……?’
Nervously, I worried that I created another dark stain in our history.
TL: Things got a bit dark didn’t it? I can’t wait for the inevitable fallout when all secrets are aired out into the open. I can understand the servants’ desire to spare Lee-kyung the knowledge of his…night terrors and breakdowns, both for their own and Lee-kyung’s benefit, but MC definitely won’t be pleased. And judging by what they said about Undead characteristics…no wonder Necromancers have had it hard.
…But also Jung Garam, smh, biting people’s inner thighs without first taking them out to dinner.
Footnotes
This is a rather vague sentence from Jung Garam, but it’s essentially implied that Jung Garam is saying “I can make you sleep too!” Poetic way of saying “I blacked out drunk”