Reinhild fell ill the very day after Xion gave him the mana stone necklace.
“Ugh, nnngh…”
With every shred of stamina drained, a sudden surge of mana flooded his body and his frame simply couldn’t endure it.
It was like stuffing a paper-thin pouch full of heavy sand.
The worries and lethargy that had been weighing on him melted away for a moment, his tension released and the reaction hit all at once.
Reinhild groaned in pain, and Xion remained at his side the whole time.
Doesn’t he have to go to work?
Even through the haze, Reinhild fretted about Xion.
Xion loved working so much. What if, because of him, Xion couldn’t do what he enjoyed?
More precisely, what if Reinhild kept getting in the way and Xion started finding him a nuisance?
“Xi…ooon…”
His voice cracked. He could hardly form the word.
“Don’t try to talk.”
Xion propped him up and let him drink the water he’d prepared.
This won’t do…
If he wanted to cling to the world’s safest haven which is Xion’s house, he mustn’t become dead weight.
What if Xion, tired of looking after him, threw him out? He had nowhere to go.
He will have nothing left, no demon retainers to beg for help.
All I have left is Xion.
Reinhild flailed, trying to rise. Ten seconds later he gave up, collapsing back onto the bed.
My body won’t move…
It wasn’t fair. Never in his life had his mana run dry. He’d never known how inconvenient that could be.
He’d also never known one mustn’t force mana circulation when one’s strength was exhausted.
It was a realization five hundred years in the making and not the least bit pleasant. He would rather have stayed ignorant forever.
“Rein.”
Xion laid a hand on Reinhild’s forehead. Instinctively, Reinhild nuzzled into his palm.
So cool…
Xion, who always felt warm, sometimes hot, felt cool today.
Reinhild’s fever was high enough that a human’s body heat seemed chilly.
Like a cat seeking affection, he rubbed his cheek and brow against Xion’s hand.
No… I shouldn’t… being a bother…
Yet he kept wanting to cling and whimper, even knowing how pathetic it looked.
When the fever eased a little, Reinhild opened his eyes a little and looked up at Xion.
His vision was fuzzier than usual, but Xion’s face was close. How could he not see it?
Xion’s expression was stiff.
So the Demon King shows his disgrace…
Reinhild drew his head back a fraction.
“Rein.”
Xion called his name again. Come to think of it, he’d said it moments earlier as if waiting for some reply, perhaps.
“I—”
Reinhild parted his lips to answer yet no words emerged.
His mouth had been sealed.
More precisely, Xion pressed his own lips to Reinhild’s.
It was an incredibly brief, gentle kiss. No audible smack, just the lightest touch.
Eyes wide, Reinhild blinked up at him.
“Th-that was…?”
“A greeting,” Xion answered before he could finish the question.
“A… greeting?”
“A ‘get-well-soon’ greeting for when someone’s sick.”
Lies.
What kind of greeting is that?
He might be a Demon King and Xion a human, but even he knew humans didn’t greet each other like this.
None of the countless books Xion had brought him mentioned such a practice.
“It’s true. It’s a greeting that means I’d rather take all your pain onto myself.”
Xion cupped Reinhild’s cheek with his right hand, extending his thumb to rest upon the lower lip…
Exactly where his mouth had just touched.
How brazen can one man be?
Reinhild was dumbfounded, but he couldn’t let it show.
If he acted displeased, Xion might suspect what he really was.
Absurd excuse or not, at least Xion delivered it with disarming calm. Reinhild let it pass, closed his eyes.
Taking the silent assent, Xion smiled faintly and greeted him once more… pouring into it the wish that all of Reinhild’s pain might pass to him instead.
❖ ❖ ❖
Even so, Reinhild continued to suffer for days.
Whenever the agony spiked, he cursed Xion’s bogus greeting in his heart.
But Xion would lean in, planting kiss after kiss and telling him not to hurt, leaving Reinhild no chance to complain out loud.
As time passed, the fever subsided.
Xion checked on him constantly, easing his recovery.
With regular routine and endless “don’t-be-sick” greetings, Reinhild slowly regained his health.
The body that had been buckling under surging mana steadied.
Several days later, Reinhild finally managed to sit up.
I can breathe again…
Now that the boiling mana had settled, he could sense how much remained.
He drew a long breath and set his hand over the left side of his chest.
He didn’t need to touch to gauge the amount, but the gesture calmed his thumping heart.
The mana that had hit rock bottom had risen markedly in a few days.
Thank goodness!
It wasn’t yet a satisfying reserve. It was only a bit more than he’d built by training at the lake.
It’s still nowhere near enough to challenge the Hero or regain the demons’ respect.
Yet it should be sufficient to keep him from collapsing again, so long as he didn’t spend it recklessly.
That mana stone is amazing.
He’d worried that wielding power while empty might damage his heart, perhaps so badly he could never hold mana again.
But the stone Xion had fetched not only aided recovery, it actually increased his reserve.
It was a truly admirable gem.
Smiling with contentment, he lay back down and hugged the quilt.
Come to think of it, the fevers and the nightmares had they’d stopped. Probably since Xion began that odd “get-well” greeting.
He’d called it nonsense, but maybe only half of it was nonsense.
Thinking of Xion, Reinhild drifted into sleep.
“Rein?”
Xion eased the door open to check on him.
Moments earlier Reinhild had been muttering “Xion’s a fraud of a greeter,” but now he slept soundly.
Xion sat beside him a long while, watching the gentle breaths.
The one who’d seemed near death days ago now looked healthy, flesh filled out, color returned to his skin.
Even the red mark on his wrist had long vanished.
With a satisfied smile, Xion unclasped the necklace and removed the mana stone.
The once-lustrous gem was now utterly faded. It was emptied by Reinhild’s voracious absorption.
It’s said a mid-grade stone takes at least half a year, even a full year, to drain completely.
Reinhild had drained this one in no time.
“Nn…”
Feeling the stone slip away, Reinhild stirred, his hand drifting to his chest.
Before he could scratch himself, Xion gently caught his hand.
Perhaps reassured by the familiar warmth, Reinhild sighed and sank back into deep sleep.
Making sure not to wake him, Xion left the room, the pale stone still in hand, and headed to the storehouse.
Inside, amid sacks of grain and winter firewood, he tossed the spent gem into a corner.
Thunk.
Even empty stones could be sold as jewelry for a fair sum, but Xion didn’t care.
Their only use was restoring Reinhild.
Without checking where it rolled, he pulled out the large sack he’d brought home the day he’d found the first stone.
Reinhild had assumed it held monster parts. In truth, Xion hadn’t hauled any carcass near Root.
The sack was crammed with red mana stones all collected one after another as he felled monsters, driven by worry.
He took one, returned to the room, and set it into the empty necklace.
Reinhild would never notice. Twice before, Xion had changed the stone and he’d sensed nothing.
“Don’t be sick, Rein.”
He stroked the sleeping man’s hair and gave yet another of those countless “get-well” greetings.
“Mmm, mm…”
Reinhild’s brows knit. His lips moved.
Apparently, even in dreams, he was calling Xion’s greeting a fraud.
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