A Sudden Breakup
Adeline hesitated for a moment, then rose from her seat. She smoothed the slightly rumpled hem of her skirt, which had ridden up while she lay down, and walked closer to Noah. A candle attached to the wall cast a soft glow over the room. As she stood beside the bed, Noah, who had been lying on his side, caught her wrist. His touch was tentative—half-grasping, half-releasing, full of careful hesitation.
“Don't hate me.”
“……Why would I hate you?”
Noah's words made Adeline's heart plummet.
“I'm worried that you'll distance yourself from me…….”
“No, it's not that. It's for this reason.”
“Then will you do it again in the future?”
“Of course…… Wait, do what?”
Adeline tilted her head, still firm and convinced. Noah pulled her wrist, guiding her to sit on the empty spot beside him.
“A kiss.”
“……That was just emergency care.”
“Yeah. Emergency care. That's what I meant.”
Adeline stared straight ahead and stiffened slightly. She moistened her dry lips with her tongue. Her fingertips grew tense, and she took a deep breath.
“If I have a seizure…….”
Noah's gaze bored into Adeline's side profile, where tension was unmistakable.
“But what if you won't be there when it happens?”
“Yeah……?”
“How about moving to another room?”
“Ugh?”
Adeline turned to Noah. For a moment, she wondered if she'd heard wrong.
“Move rooms? To where?”
She couldn't possibly mean sharing the same room. Even sitting beside him now felt awkward; sharing a room would be hell for her. The sudden eye contact made her lower her gaze.
Noah's fingers brushed Adeline's chin. He lifted her face gently without force, meeting her eyes. Unlike her trembling gaze, Noah looked straight into hers.
“My next room. How about it?”
“Ah.”
Thank goodness it wasn't the same room.
Her heart, which had shrunk, seemed to expand. She felt late shame for accidentally straying into a trap, heat rising in her body. Adeline gave a small wave of her hand fan.
She had been worried, of course. Noah's seizures still dominated her thoughts. The emergency care of touches and kisses had stolen all her attention, but that kind of seizure could be extremely dangerous.
It was late at night. Imagining the servants and maids not moving, only Noah having a seizure alone made her head spin.
A vague fear that without summoning help or a clear mind, he might choke and die made her heart flutter.
“It's the next room, right? Huh?”
Adeline's worry stretched longer, making Noah's lips lick nervously. His wet tongue made Adeline's eyelids flutter rapidly. Just like when it had swept across her palate, her shoulders trembled faintly.
She wanted to be calm, but she couldn't manage it, and Adeline felt like crying. The Noah who claimed it was his first kiss was completely unfazed…….
“If you hate me, I'll do nothing. The kiss was quite good—enough that I'd want to do it again—but I'll wait until you want it.”
Noah's hand, which had been supporting Adeline's chin so it wouldn't drop, caught her cheek.
The words tangled inside her head.
She was even more confused by his saying that the emergency kiss had been good, and her comfort that he'd do it whenever she wanted it was honestly dizzying.
The words sounded like they were hinting at 'another kiss.' It felt like he was giving her hope and expectation that she could always kiss Noah again if she wanted, or rather, opening the possibility that they could kiss.
“I'm safe, Adeline.”
“Yeah…….”
“No one in the world is safer than me. I'm weak enough to have seizures, and you think about me.”
It was night, she had been startled by the seizure, and her mind was completely taken by the emergency care kiss. Noah, like a sly snake, was twisting Adeline's judgment right now.
“Stay by my side and watch over me. Now you're the only one I have.”
After much thought, Adeline nodded. She had no idea she was walking into a tiger's den.
She had no idea that the man she trusted most was harboring the blackest of hearts in the entire world.
* * *
The Miller Duchy had been unusually noisy for a while. It was because the young Duke Miller's room had been torn down for construction. After punching through the wall of the adjacent private space to create a passage, he hadn't installed a door and instead hung a curtain.
Adeline opened her mouth in surprise when she saw the hastily made room.
“Why did you tear down the wall when there's a door……?”
“No need to go through the door every time.”
“It's not bothersome at all.”
“Opening and closing the door every time is so annoying. Here, you just walk right in.”
It was a space where privacy was completely unprotected, but since the wall was already broken, they couldn't fill it back up. The one thing she knew for sure was that if she had realized this was what moving to the next room meant, Adeline would have reconsidered his offer.
So, a cohabitation-like life in the next room began.
The good thing was that she could check on Noah's condition often. After a few days, Adeline fully agreed with Noah's complaints about how bothersome it was.
In the first few days, she had felt awkward and deliberately walked through the door. But the moment she lay down to sleep, when she heard Noah's groans and went to check, she found it bothersome to keep the curtain drawn, open and close the door, and then open and close Noah's room door again.
‘It’s uncomfortable…….’
Even at night, she felt a secret worry. Lying in bed, Adeline tossed and turned. Sleep didn't come easily. Since arriving at the Miller Duchy, Adeline's time had flown by quickly. The day ended without knowing what she had done. Lying in bed, her body was exhausted, but her mind was oddly alert.
The reason was right here—
Rustle.
“……!”
It was Noah's presence. The moment she tried to go to bed, Noah's rough breathing reached her ears. Every so often, a sound like something bubbling in his throat would come out.
At first, she thought it was pain, but as time passed, Adeline realized it was different from the groans of suffering. It was deeper, hotter, and wetter.
Adeline couldn't fall asleep at all.
“Right now too…….”
Adeline braced her body to stay still. Because she had tensed too much, even when lying comfortably, her shoulders were stiff. She thought if she moved and made noise, she would embarrass Noah, so she bit her lips tightly.
‘Noah probably doesn't know. Everyone can hear it.’
So he was making a sound, wasn't he? He didn't seem like someone who would do it even though he knew.
“Huff…….”
But he had the strength left to do it.
A strange feeling stirred in her because, no matter how severe the illness, he still had the ability to feel lust.
It was something she shouldn't hear, but she couldn't move because if she covered her ears, the rustling sound would come out.
Adeline's toes curled at hearing another's intimate sound.
Squish, stretch.
The lewd sound of flesh rubbing against flesh echoed. Despite not intending to, the image of Noah in his pajamas, biting the collar, automatically came to mind. As soon as she imagined it, the thought was cut off. Since she had never seen a man's genitals before, she didn't know how they looked.
‘Hah. Just go to sleep quickly.’
Noah was only energetic when he made sounds during his illness—once a day, sometimes for several days straight. Because of that, Adeline had no choice but to stay awake with him every time.
At night, because his strength was drained, during the day, when she supported the dizzying him, Adeline's strength ran out completely. After several days, her stamina was depleted.
“Ugh…… Adeline, ah……!”
Adeline's shoulders trembled. The moment Noah reached his peak while making sounds, he habitually called her name.
On the first day she overheard him, thinking it was pain, she jumped up in alarm and tried to kick open the door. But when she half-opened the door, Adeline breathed in the thick air. Fortunately, Noah hadn't noticed the door opening, so Adeline quietly returned to her bed.
“Oof……!”