CHAPTER TEN.

The Unavoidable Full Moon

When Yevar heard about Lady Margaret’s condition, he collapsed grabbing the back of his neck. He tried to somehow blame Seiden for losing the Demon God Book right in front of them. His scheme was to modify part of the contract by bringing up an unrelated contract. Naturally, such tricks didn’t work.

Finally, even Yevar had to admit that it wasn’t Seiden’s fault that Lady Margaret’s curse had peaked on that particular day. In the current situation, waking Lady Margaret from her comatose state was their last remaining card. Thus, the task of monitoring Lady Margaret’s mansion and Van’s movements fell to Yevar again.

Meanwhile, Seiden and Bellota had to prepare to solve another homework left for them. As always, the full moon that showed no consideration for their circumstances was approaching fast. It was the full moon that Yevar had said they would skip once due to the rules of magic.

However, they couldn’t feel assured by that alone, so the two had to head to the tower again. No matter how much Yevar had boasted, they needed to prepare for contingencies since there wouldn’t be a second chance if things went wrong.

Bellota regulated her breathing several times as she slowly climbed the tall tower. Until now, during full moons, a hot and uncomfortable energy would swirl around her lower abdomen from early evening when the moon began to rise. Come to think of it, it had been the same that day when the full moon suddenly rose in Selento. Back then, she hadn’t thought the full moon would rise and had dismissed it as just feeling unwell.

But today was clearly different from those days. Bellota’s body was fine, and her mind was clearer and more lucid than ever. While this was certainly a welcome sign, her heart kept throbbing strangely at the thought of facing Seiden in the tower with such a clear mind. There had only ever been one thing that happened when they were alone in this tower.

After hesitating for a long while, when Bellota finally entered the darkness-settled tower, she saw Seiden who had arrived first. At the faint creaking sound of the door opening, his head, as he sat perched on the bed, turned at once. Soon seeing Bellota lingering behind the open door, Seiden rose from his seat to greet her.

“You’ve come.”

It was a surprisingly composed voice. Well, it was natural since she had always been the one possessed by the curse and losing reason while Seiden had always maintained his sanity.

Feeling needlessly embarrassed, Bellota gave a small nod and glanced around the room anew. Besides a large bed big enough for two people to roll around freely and a small bedside table next to it, nothing else existed in the tower.

That too was natural. Since this tower was prepared solely for spending full moon nights, there was no reason to have things like tables or chairs as if it were a reception room for entertaining guests.

“There are no chairs.”

As if thinking the same as Bellota, Seiden murmured in an indifferent voice and pointed to the bed where he had been sitting.

“Sit here. There’s still time until midnight, it will be hard to keep standing.”

Bellota quickly realized this was the best option too. She had no choice but to move and gently perch on the edge of the bed where Seiden had been sitting until just now. Seiden, naturally, tried to step toward the corner as though he wanted to stand apart from Bellota. Seeing this, Bellota unconsciously grabbed Seiden’s clothes.

When a surprised Seiden turned to look at her, Bellota quickly let go of his clothes and murmured quietly.

“Sir…… you should sit too.”

At those words, Seiden’s slow breath stopped.

“We still have time until midnight.”

Bellota couldn’t meet Seiden’s gaze and was needlessly looking at her feet. It was an innocent face completely unaware of how Seiden’s expression had hardened at her words just now. Seeing Bellota’s cheeks flushed red enough to be clearly visible even in the darkness, Seiden’s stomach seemed to churn dizzily.

While Seiden could have easily stood for a day if he wanted to endure, he decided not to tell Bellota that fact. Instead, Seiden sat beside Bellota as she had commanded. When she felt the soft bed sink lower under the weight of the heavy man, somehow Bellota’s heart seemed to fall along with the bed.

A heavy and humid silence flowed between the two for a moment. Neither Bellota nor Seiden could carelessly speak any words and kept their mouths shut. During the full moons until now, there had been no need for conversation. They had simply lost reason to the curse that terrifyingly enveloped their whole bodies and immediately made love. The heat that had flowed then seemed to permeate every corner of the tower, making Bellota’s throat keep getting parched.

In that suffocating silence, Seiden was the first to open his mouth.

“Lady Margaret……”

When his pleasant low voice cut through the tightly compressed air, Bellota startled and turned to look at Seiden. It seemed Seiden had been looking at Bellota since earlier. When she realized this fact, the tip of Bellota’s neck grew stingingly hot.

“The Hellers mages are watching her well.”

Because she was entranced by the red eyes staring intently at her, Bellota had to interpret those simple words for quite a while. Finally coming to her senses, Bellota quickly nodded with an “Ah.”

“They say the butler still hasn’t left the lady’s side.”

Seiden skillfully softened the stiffly tense air. As his gentle voice rang out, the tension that had filled up to Bellota’s throat seemed to finally loosen.

“It must be hard for him.”

Murmuring sympathetically, Bellota let out a slow sigh.

Thanks to the holy power Bellota had poured out that day, Lady Margaret hadn’t reached a critical condition, but she showed no signs of waking either.

“If the Saintess’s curse doesn’t manifest today, I plan to leave first to search for ingredients.”

At those words, Bellota looked at Seiden with slight surprise.

She already knew from a few days ago that the monster Seiden spoke of as ingredients was for making medicine to delay the manifestation of the curse holding Lady Margaret’s body. However, the monster called bevel that was needed for the medicine was hard to find in or near the capital. Bevel’s habitat was in the western forest, which was known as a treacherous and dangerous region. As the Holy Knight Order had decided to depart for subjugation in the western region, Seiden planned to look for a bevel while he was there.

However, the Holy Knight Order’s subjugation was scheduled for three days later. Yet Seiden was saying he would go to the western forest first to obtain the ingredients. Going alone to such a dangerous place, and tonight of all times…… At the sudden news, Bellota felt like her breath was caught in her throat.

But Seiden had left countless times to subjugate monsters until now. In fact, hadn’t she herself urged him to go for subjugation in Selento? Then why……”

Though flustered by the sudden emotion, Bellota tried not to show it and nodded her head.

“I understand.”

After giving just that quiet answer, unable to think of anything else to say, Bellota slowly lowered her head.

Silence fell again. Seiden, who had been looking only at Bellota the whole time, slowly tilted his head along with her and gazed intently at her profile. He had expected at least a ‘take care’ from her. As his foolish expectation stupidly faded, disappointment rose up, but even that quickly scattered as he became aware of his own presumptuousness. Yes, he knew that just being able to look at her like this was more than he deserved.

Her face, now reflecting the moonlight that had risen high outside the window, was beautiful as always. The delicate lines that made up Bellota were all calm and quiet. The round forehead and the bridge of her nose that rose to a proper height following that line. Down to the soft, plump lips that continued smoothly below.

Somehow, looking at her well-behaved features that resembled their owner, an inconsolable melancholy seemed to surge from a corner of his heart. Seiden’s heart burned dry, then crumbled instantly as if swept away by storms, over and over. It was an emotion that no other man should ever feel. Even if it burned countless times and was swept away hundreds of times, he alone should look at her and he alone should feel it.

As Seiden endured this curse-like blessing given to him in silence, he soon noticed an eyelash had fallen somewhere on her cheek. He naturally reached out his hand to remove it. When Seiden’s finger finally touched Bellota’s white cheek, she, who had still been looking at her feet, was startled and turned her head. Then she saw Seiden’s face, which had somehow drawn close enough that she could feel his breath. Bellota held her breath.

“There’s an eyelash.”