In the end, her prediction had been exactly right.

“Mmph!”

Khalid could not hold out for even that brief moment and seized Asilri’s red lips in one swift motion.

Asilri’s startled eyes blinked wide, and Khalid held her gaze with precision, as though unwilling to miss even that.

“Hh, hmph…….”

He pressed in so deeply it seemed he would swallow every last breath she had, and Asilri went limp and had no choice but to fall into his arms.

But Khalid furrowed his brow, dissatisfied with something.

“Open your mouth.”

So I can get in.

An imperious voice gave her the order.

Yet it also looked, in a way, like he was clinging to her.

Khalid, unaware of that, brushed her smooth cheek and kissed her again.

He pressed through the lips that had parted in surprise so quickly that Asilri had no choice but to let him in.

He moved roughly through her, the way a man might who intended to take everything she had.

Her lips, pressed against his, went numb.

“Hh…….”

Her head grew faint under a kiss so fierce it threatened to consume everything.

He swallowed even the last of her breath, and Asilri squeezed her eyes shut.

“Ngh!”

At that moment, Asilri bit down on Khalid’s tongue without meaning to.

Whether because of that, Khalid pulled back from her for a moment.

“Ha, haah…….”

Asilri finally drew in a breath of clean air and steadied herself.

Khalid watched her short, uneven breaths with barely contained impatience.

His relentless gaze kept chasing her lips and nothing else.

“……Not enough.”

When her wet lips caught the faint moonlight and gleamed, Khalid’s eyes flared again.

The sight of her lips, swollen and flushed, with a trace of red, was nothing short of provocative.

Khalid pulled her lower lip in roughly and clung to her.

Asilri pressed her trembling hands against his chest and barely held on, but even that was reaching its limit.

Just as her short breaths ran out and her vision began to blur, Khalid let her go with surprising ease this time.

“Haah…….”

Drained, Asilri leaned against him and caught her breath.

But that moment of reprieve was brief.

“Don’t. Pull away.”

This time, Khalid buried his face in Asilri’s pale neck.

The sight of him clinging to her with such desperation was unfamiliar.

But what was harder than that was……

“Hh, hmm……. Khalid, stop…….”

“Stop what.”

“It’s too, ticklish……!”

“Bear with it. You’re the one who provoked me.”

Enduring the heat of his breath, burning enough to scorch.

Every time his breath grazed the sensitive skin of her neck, her body trembled.

Khalid pressed his face into her neck and steadied his breathing, the way someone might searching for calm.

“Please, Khalid. Stop…… ngh!”

Whenever Asilri shifted even a little, unable to bear it, he would pull at the pale skin of her neck roughly, the way one might soothe a restless thing.

And when he pressed his teeth into the soft skin of her neck, a trace of red would show through.

Khalid ran his warm tongue over it and took it all away, the way someone might savoring something sweet.

“Haah, Asilri…….”

Khalid called her name over and over, like a man sighing.

Harder than enduring the unbearably overwhelming sensation was watching Khalid hold her and refuse to let go.

‘Why can’t I push him away?’

Asilri could have pushed Khalid away any time she chose.

But she could not bring herself to push him away as he clung to her.

She could not even understand why she felt no revulsion at this rough, relentless touch.

“Khalid…….”

Even as her reason grew distant, Asilri tried not to lose sight of him.

Her eyes, filling with tears, were a pitiful sight.

“Come back to yourself.”

It was at that moment that a reaction came to her wavering voice.

Khalid had been acting as though he could not hear her, but now he went still and looked at her.

[I won’t forget you, Asilri.]

Had she been drawn in by those red eyes of his?

An unplaceable voice drifted through her mind.

Asilri did not even notice the tears sliding down her cheek, and simply stared at him, clinging to him with her gaze.

“Hh…….”

Khalid’s eyes seemed to sharpen again, and then he licked away the tears wetting her cheek.

Lost in the dizzying sensation, Asilri sank fully into his arms.

Through the slowly blurring edges of her vision, Asilri murmured faintly.

“You said you wouldn’t, forget me…….”

You promised……

Asilri did not even register what she was saying, and at last her consciousness slipped away entirely.

But only for a moment. A light rose from somewhere within her and wrapped itself around her body.

It reached Khalid too, who was holding her.

The dark reddish energy fell under the hold of that blue light and faded slowly away.

By the time the light had vanished completely, a low, sunken voice came through.

“……As I thought, you really are.”

But it did not reach Asilri.

* * *

He could not say when it had started to unravel.

He remembered waiting for Asilri, whose heart seemed troubled.

But the moment he realized she was gone, holding onto his reason had become nearly impossible.

He had gone running after her trail without a second thought, and at the end of it, she had been there.

He had found her unharmed, not a scratch on her, and yet……

[I have no intention of accepting anything other than Bliché. And that holds true for Renatus as well.]

After that, his reason had been shaken in an entirely different way.

He had not been unaware of where Asilri’s heart stood.

He had been holding onto something that had already left him, by force.

But facing it directly was more painful than he had imagined.

That was also why he had been unable to refute Ludwig’s goading words.

He had stayed at Asilri’s side after that, but keeping his fraying reason in check had left him no room to look after her.

Because if he fell apart here, there would be no one left to protect Asilri.

[……Rest for now, Asilri.]

Only after bringing her safely back to Renatus had he been able to let go of whatever had been thrashing inside him.

But it was too strong a thing to hold with so thin a thread of reason, and in the end Khalid had surrendered to that force.

The feeling of the dark reddish energy taking over his body was familiar, but it was not as painful as it had been before.

He had been relieved, at least, that Asilri would not have to see him like this.

[What is happening. Can you hear my voice?]

The moment he heard Asilri’s voice, his reason reacted on instinct.

She had come. To save him.

No. No.

Asilri had not come to save him.

She despised him utterly.

The reason he had barely managed to hold onto was crushed by instinct and vanished at once.

[Don’t, run away.]

The truth he had conveyed through the force of instinct was unbearably wretched and sweet at once.

If Asilri had pushed him away, he would have been pushed away. But she had not.

And so he had wanted her all the more fiercely.

Pouring out everything he had held alone while watching over her all this time.

[Come back to yourself. You said you wouldn’t forget me…… you promised……]

The moment he heard Asilri’s faint voice, he had barely managed to come back to himself.

Asilri could not possibly mean that.

There was no way she could remember that.

Even knowing it, Khalid clung to a faint hope and barely pulled his reason back into place.

But by then, Asilri had already lost consciousness.

Khalid gathered her into his arms and carried her back to his bedroom.

“……Haah, this is maddening.”

When he finally came back to himself, as always, nothing remained with him.

No. There was one thing now.

“……Asilri.”

His only salvation, Asilri, was in his arms.

That alone was enough to quiet his wild instincts.

Khalid touched the mottled marks left on Asilri’s neck with a look that was almost pained.

“Hmm…….”

Even as Asilri stirred in her sleep, Khalid did not take his hand away.

Behind the pained look in his eyes, there was also something like quiet relief.

“……As I thought, you.”

Make it so I cannot let you go.

Khalid made that cowardly excuse to himself and held Asilri’s hand tightly.

A wretched night passed.

* * *

The deep darkness stretched on.

It was an irony that being trapped in a darkness where nothing was visible felt, somehow, like a relief.

Asilri thought she would like it to stay this way.

But that too lasted only a moment.

[I won’t forget you, Asilri.]

The voice that spread through the dark, carrying a heavy weight of feeling, was strangely familiar.

When had it been?

She had thought of this voice before, sometime.

Even with her hazy reason, Asilri tried to reach for something, but in the end she dissolved into the distant sensation and let the thought go.

[Will we be able to meet again?]

[……If you want to.]

……Why on earth?

Asilri caught a glimpse of the faint afterimage rising before her and shook her head without meaning to.

Whether or not she knew the turmoil in Asilri’s heart, the little girl in the afterimage turned to the little boy again.

[What’s your name?]

The question was simple and guileless, carrying no deeper meaning, and the little boy visibly stiffened for just a moment.

Asilri, watching, found herself tensing without realizing it.

[I am…….]