A Ring of Desire and Silent Worry
At that moment, Michael halted his movements for a brief instant.
He had remained seated without a single twitch for a long while, as if holding back something intense.
Then he took Irene's hand in his own.
And pressed his lips to each individual finger.
With every touch like that, a cool breeze seemed to caress his body.
One might think such pleasure would stir his emotions.
Yet Michael felt none of it.
"...This isn't such a bad time."
The desire surging inside him burned away his reason every moment, every second.
It was supposed to torment him terribly, yet he found himself reluctant to escape its overwhelming intensity.
That was why the coolness Irene offered as her pair stirred a deep sense of guilt within him.
Each time their skin met, he became painfully aware of how dark and thick the desire he harbored truly was.
Fortunately, today he had managed to restrain it.
Because each time he touched her, a tiny chuckle escaped her lips.
It was a sound he had never heard from her before.
She always treated him with the utmost respect and deference.
"I can't understand why you're so troubled by me, even as my pair."
Her voice, which would have startled anyone awake, now came out as a petulant murmur.
"It would be so much easier if you'd just accept me without any suspicion."
He muttered these words while repeatedly kissing the tips of his fingers and nails.
It felt as devout as the first time a pious believer beheld the divine form.
Then his lips lingered on the ring finger of her left hand.
"..."
His narrowed eyes fixed on the bare finger where the ring should be.
At the same time, the red in his pupils grew even darker.
Whenever anyone passed Irene, their gaze inevitably fell upon the ring on her finger.
Watching such reactions filled him with satisfaction.
Every time he looked at her, people would wonder.
Who had placed that ring on her finger?
And who exactly was she paired with?
When he learned that a pair received their first adornment from their partner, that thought immediately came to mind.
Among the "known" items, it was the one of supreme value—the one he most wanted to present to Irene.
That was why he had deliberately called it forth.
Others couldn't possibly know.
They had no idea what an unstable dungeon truly was.
Or how he controlled it.
Michael set Irene's hand down and rose from his seat.
Even though he had only stepped a few paces away, the separation felt as if he had left a vital part of his body behind.
He had been clinging to her through the night, devouring her in every way.
Yet the hunger only grew deeper instead of quenching.
He had no idea how much longer he would need to hold her.
But that frustration never arose.
The sensation of craving another soul so intensely that his fingertips trembled was, in its own twisted way, truly enjoyable.
Enough to make him understand why the Temple had forbidden such pleasures.
It was a terrifying, abhorrent ecstasy.
Enough to shatter even the most devout soul beyond repair.
He glanced around and spotted the ring resting on the table.
Thinking he should return it to its owner's hand, he turned to leave—
Then his steps halted.
His gaze fixed on the ring still clutched in his own hand.
Before he could step away, he spun back around.
His eyes were drawn to the box on the table.
He opened it at once.
Inside lay the dagger Irene had purchased at the auction that very afternoon.
Once Michael gripped it, the blade let out a protesting whine.
Seeing the ownerless artifact voice its grievance brought a smile to his face.
He muttered while alternating glances between the ring and the dagger.
"Even you have a pair, huh."
Others might not know, but he did.
The ring and the dagger were once fragments of the same mineral mass.
Each created separately.
They wandered across other dimensions and worlds.
Now they had briefly stayed here.
When far apart, there was nothing he could do.
But since they existed in the same world, one had clearly called the other.
Michael looked at the paper the Hand of Appraisal had written in the box.
Its writing was a language unknown anywhere in the world.
The fortress staff had clicked their tongues, declaring it impossible to decode.
Yet Michael's eyes swept across it in seconds.
"Yorgo's Dagger, inflicts fatal wounds with a specific probability, and its power increases the more enemies it faces..."
The continent had no record of such an item.
He read the description too easily.
Perhaps it was because they shared the same root.
The dagger bore a similar evolutionary trait to the ring.
He tucked the paper away and closed the box.
Seeing the auction-marked container, it was clear that Irene had won the bid after he left.
Carrying the ring back to the bed, he looked down at his sleeping wife and spoke.
"You bought a fine blade."
"This will grow gradually, just like your ring."
"Feed it blood without restraint, and it will become the sharpest weapon in the fortress."
Of course, sleeping Irene could not hear a word.
She would no doubt wonder what kind of dagger this truly was.
But Michael had no intention of telling her for now.
'If I tell her...'
She was someone who easily detached herself from the fortress.
Once she learned the dagger's nature, she might sell it to someone else and flee from here.
'I can't allow that.'
Irene still didn't know the reason why, despite the world's most precious treasures being showered around her, she never held money in her hands.
"I'm sorry. But... once I gather enough money, you'll have no choice but to leave me."
Soon everything would come to an end.
So please, until that moment, stay here beside me.
Michael carefully took Irene's hand and slipped the ring onto her ring finger.
Wearing what he had given her always brought a profound satisfaction.
After setting her hand down, he gently brushed her bangs aside and murmured.
"I'll give you more from now on."
Once this dungeon expedition ended, she would obtain everything she desired.
Or far more than that.
No one would ever dare point a finger at her again.
Even if he wasn't there, she would live her entire life...
Then Michael's thoughts turned to what had happened earlier that day.
"Ah."
He had dealt with the matter, but the hasty return to meet Irene left it unfinished.
He rose, covered his sleeping wife with the blanket, and kissed her lips once more.
After the kiss left him with lingering regret, he stepped outside.
It was time to finish what remained undone.
* * *
The next day, Irene told Reina, who had come to visit, with wide-eyed surprise.
"You said a dungeon appeared? One of a high-grade unstable dungeon?"
Reina's expression shifted to one of shock at Irene's reaction.
"You didn't know? That's why the city was in chaos!
The streets were a mess with people fleeing, and the fortress side was equally rattled.
The first time a high-grade, unstable dungeon had appeared in the inner district."
"I had no idea at all."
The staff in the Appraisal Room hadn't said a word either.
And the moment it ended, I returned to the room."
When I woke from sleep, Michael was standing right in front of me.
After that, the whole night together meant I couldn't even leave the room to hear the news.
"Fortunately, with Michael-nim nearby, the raid went smoothly.
But because the dungeon appeared in the middle of the city, some people got caught in the crossfire."
"Thankfully, most were just injured.
But two auction guests... were swept away and lost their lives."
Reina hesitated, glancing at Irene, then managed to speak.
"They were people who had won the Quiet Stone you offered."
"...!"
They were dead.
At times like this, one should hope the souls of those who left the world had safely reached the divine realm.
Yet she was more concerned about the Quiet Stone they had taken.
"Ah, yes.
The Quiet Stone they won was separately discovered and retrieved from the auction."
"I see...
Let them find peace."
"Let them find peace."
Reina, who knew nothing of what they had done, crossed herself with a solemn expression, assuming Irene's shock was weighing heavily on her.
Reina continued discussing the matter for a while longer.
Then in the afternoon, she announced she was heading to a nearby low-grade dungeon with Felix.
Left alone, Irene spent a moment in thought before packing her clothes and heading out.
There was something she needed to confirm.