“…How can I get out?”

How can she get out? There seemed to be no way to leave.

Jiwoo was just sitting on the bed, thinking, when the bird that had been silently perched on her shoulder hopped down her arm to her palm.

“I want to get out.”

Jiwoo murmured to the bird, though it couldn’t respond.

“I want to heal that person…”

She extended her hand expecting the bird to show some affection as it usually did, but the bird pecked at her fingers instead.

“Ouch…?”

Normally, she only felt warmth from the bird, but today the peck seemed to spark a tingling sensation like static electricity.

“Hm? Oh…”

It was like a single drop of ink falling into a glass of water, something shocking and intense spreading through her body.

“….Ah!”

Jiwoo gasped and pulled her hand back, but the ‘ink’ had already clouded the water.

That contact with the bird had somehow infused her with knowledge. New, yet strangely familiar, as if it had always been part of her.

Even though it was her first experience with this power, it felt like she could use it as if it had been hers from her birth.

Should she try it? Her heart was pounding. This was exactly the power she needed at that moment.

Jiwoo reached into the air. How she did it, she couldn’t exactly say. It was instinctive, she just moved her hand through the air as if she was feeling for a wall, and suddenly, her hand pushed through.

Click. It almost sounded like a door opening.

She pushed through the wall as if entering a door, and stepped through.

The air became denser instantly.

There was a bitter medicinal smell.

She had moved through space and entered Grand Duke Aleph’s bedroom. From the center of his room, Jiwoo could now see what Aleph was doing after rejecting her offer.

Painkillers, he had said. The empty bottles rolling on the floor were familiar. People who couldn’t bear the pain given by the miasma used them. It was a medicine to ease the pain, known to be quite potent, and there were several bottles.

If anyone were to see him without his shirt, they would immediately say that the painkillers were clearly insufficient.

The black scar crossing his back was horrendous. A massive scar stretching from his neck down to his waist, from which evaporated miasma was visibly wafting. It seemed he was barely managing to endure with the help of his medication.

It was a miracle he hadn’t died.

No, it was strange.

Given the depth of the scar, he must have been enduring this pain for decades. Normally, people couldn’t bear such pain and would have sought treatment or, failing that, might have succumbed to suicide to escape the agony.

As Jiwoo approached him slowly, Aleph sensitively picked up on her presence and abruptly turned his head.

She expected either rejection or relief that someone could alleviate his pain.

However, Aleph simply looked at her and laughed vacantly.

“Ah… again… d*mn it. How much longer.”

Using coarse language, Aleph then turned his head away, pretending he hadn’t seen her.

Perhaps he thought he was hallucinating due to the medication?

Dealing with someone in a semi-delusional state was frightening, but Jiwoo mustered her courage and moved closer to him. She had brought a knife she had brought from the previous room.

As Jiwoo was about to place the knife on her wrist to act quickly, Aleph suddenly screamed.

“No, no!”

He rushed over and roughly snatched the knife from her. Aleph threw it to the floor and grabbed Jiwoo’s shoulders.

“Please, please don’t do this! Please! Stop now. Please just stop now…”

Pain shot through her shoulder from his grip, and as Jiwoo grimaced, Aleph collapsed to his knees in front of Jiwoo. He grasped her legs and began to sob.

“I’m to blame. It’s my fault! Just let me apologize at your side. Why do you keep…! Why do you keep appearing like this?”

Faced with his irrational behavior, Jiwoo swallowed hard.

Was it possible he was mistaking her for someone else under the influence of the medicine?

It seemed he was indeed hallucinating and was not in his right mind. Jiwoo understood that he didn’t want to show this side of himself, but still wished he had sought treatment before it had come to this.

“Come to your senses, Aleph. I’m trying to help you heal. I’ll just treat you and then I’ll leave.”

“Akarna… I, I didn’t mean to disappear. Don’t go, please don’t go.”

The fact that he was correctly addressing her meant he wasn’t mistaking her for someone else. Calmly, Jiwoo stroked his scar, feeling the strong miasma dissipate slightly under her touch.

“Ugh…”

Aleph gasped in pain.

“See? Because I’m Akarna, I can heal you.”

“That’s, that not what I meant. I, I didn’t ask for this, Aka, Ji, Jiwoo, please.”

“….”

It was the first time she had seen a man cry like this. Seeing tears came out from someone as composed and dignified as him.

“It’s okay. I’ll make it better. Look at me.”

“Ugh. Uh-huk…”

His cries were too sorrowful to be just from physical pain. It was more of his mental screaming than the pain of his body.

Jiwoo held his face in her hands and tried to soothe him. She wiped his tears and made eye contact to show her intent was not to harm but to help.

But like fire burning in his eyes, hot tears continued to pour from them and scorched her hands. Aleph reciprocated by holding Jiwoo’s face, trying to calm himself as she wiped his tears.

Then, he spoke.

“…I love you.”

“What?”

It seemed he couldn’t hold back his feelings any longer.

“I love you. I love you…”

“Ah, that…”

His head tilted slightly.

“I love you, Jiwoo…”

The tears in his eyes were like the red of a sunset. The color that would fade away any moment now. They sought rest right before him. Just as he had described her before—a deep night sky.

Caught in his gaze, Jiwoo was startled when she felt his lips against hers.

Her shoulders tensed, but his skilled tongue had already parted her lips and delved inside.

She couldn’t tell how much painkiller he had, but the taste of the medicine was overwhelmingly bitter.

“Haa, hu-ugh…”

Under the influence of the medicine, Aleph moaned, further intoxicated by the pain relief that seemed to come even more. Perhaps no herb in this world could match the effect of Akarna’s saliva.

Jiwoo’s head was spinning for other reasons.

Why, why such words?

Was it the medication, or was his emotional state heightened excessively after meeting an Akarna, who was known for alleviating pain?

He grew lost in the kiss, twining and sucking at her tongue. Lips bitten, and tongues clashed. She struggled to keep up with his increasingly rough and uncontrolled affections.

“Uhp… huht.”

The kiss deepened and became more insistent. Every time he shifted his grip to tilt her head, Jiwoo gasped for air.

“Ung…!”

As her position slowly reclined further, she eventually found herself lying on the cold floor and was forced to endure his relentless kisses as his arms encircled her.

“Haa, Akarna…”

“Ung, hup!”

Even when she tried to turn her head away, his lips eagerly followed.

Her trembling hands pushed at his shoulders, but he caught her wrists. Pinned down on the cold floor with both wrists held, she was unable to move as he pressed his kisses deeper and more intensely.

__