The wound the Demon God had left, tearing bare skin as he mocked the Demon King who had been pierced by the Hero’s Sword, remained clearly on Reinhild’s left chest.
Unlike the bruise on his neck, the wound on his chest stung quite badly.
There were nights when the pain grew worse, and he would wake up drenched in cold sweat.
Xion had said the cause was the demonic energy that had seeped into his body when the Demon God’s claws tore his skin.
The demonic energy had pooled too close to his heart for Xion to strip it away with his power, and Reinhild’s body was not strong enough to endure it, so treatment had been put on hold for the time being.
But now that time had passed, maybe it was about time to start treating it?
With his face full of expectation, Reinhild grabbed his collar and pulled it down far enough for the wound to be exposed.
Creak.
“Ah.”
Reinhild suddenly felt his center of gravity lurch sharply to the right and hurriedly grabbed onto the bed.
“W-what is this?”
An earthquake? Was the floor collapsing?
But if that were the case, wasn’t it strange that only the bed was rattling?
Reinhild raised his upper body and looked around, searching for the cause of the tilted bed.
The area where Xion’s left hand had been resting had sunk in.
“?”
The bed was tilted to the point where he worried that, under the blanket, it might actually be broken clean in half.
As if it had collapsed, unable to withstand the weight Xion had pressed on it…
‘How shoddily do humans build their beds?’
What was the point of a bed that could not even withstand a human’s weight!
There was no way he could trust such a bed and sleep peacefully on it.
He had to talk to Xion right away and get the bed replaced.
“Xion, the bed is…”
“Rein.”
“Uh…?”
Xion seemed to have no interest in the bed at all.
His face, more flushed than usual, overlapped faintly with how he had looked the first time they met five hundred years ago.
Xion gently laid the half-risen Reinhild back down and took his hand.
Reinhild thought Xion was going to pull his hand up and kiss his fingers.
Because he always did that.
But instead of kissing his hand, Xion asked a question.
“May I kiss your chest?”
“Was that not what you were going to do?”
Why was he asking something so obvious?
‘He is worried my body might be hurt.’
Every time Reinhild suggested treating the wound on his chest, Xion had held him back, saying they had to take time and let it heal little by little.
Now that Xion was showing a positive reaction for the first time, there was no way he could let this chance slip by.
Reinhild really wanted to get rid of this wound quickly, even if it was a bit much, so he turned a bright smile toward Xion.
“I am fine.”
Reinhild grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up, baring his chest.
Just tugging at the collar would not have been enough to reveal the entire wound.
Thump.
The air grew heavy, and the floorboards creaked as if they were about to sink.
Startled, Reinhild jerked his body even while lying down.
“What is that, an enemy?!”
Xion cupped Reinhild’s cheek, which had started to turn toward the sound, and placed a brief kiss on his slightly parted lips.
Maybe because Xion’s lips were trembling ever so faintly, unlike usual, the kiss he had already experienced dozens of times felt somehow different today.
‘So that just now is okay?’
Seeing Xion react so casually, it probably was not an enemy.
If something that posed a threat to Reinhild had appeared, Xion would have been the first to react before anything else.
Only then did Reinhild relax his body and turn the sidelong glance he had been sneaking back toward Xion.
Xion, who had not taken his eyes off Reinhild even for a single instant, met his gaze and gave him a deep smile.
Gulp.
Under the sticky, heavy gaze that felt like it was binding up his body, Reinhild unconsciously swallowed dryly.
This was strange. Somehow, the atmosphere felt a little different from usual…
Creak.
When Xion leaned his body over Reinhild, the bed squeaked.
Come to think of it, this bed was in the middle of breaking.
Was it really okay to be doing this here?
“Rein. Please focus on me.”
“Mmh.”
He really wished Xion would stop talking with their lips still together.
Every time he did that, somewhere—his chest, his shoulder, he could not even tell exactly where—itched in a strange way that made him feel weird.
Smooch.
Xion pressed his lips to Reinhild’s lips, then his jaw, his neck, his shoulders, in turn.
‘That part is not injured, though.’
Instead of voicing that thought, Reinhild grabbed the blanket tightly.
He felt like if he opened his mouth now, something incredibly foolish would come out.
Xion’s lips passed the rolled-up hem of his shirt and brushed against his chest.
Haa. With a short breath, his exhale touched his chest, and Reinhild flinched without realizing it.
Thump, thump.
He must have heard his heart start pounding at an incredible speed again, but Xion said nothing.
Instead, he cautiously rubbed his lips against Reinhild’s soft chest.
“Uh…”
The place Xion’s lips touched was not the wound left by the Demon God, but the scar where the Hero’s Sword had pierced him.
Reinhild had been about to say that that scar did not hurt or sting at all, but he closed his mouth.
Both Xion and Reinhild knew very well that this wound, received from the hero while he was the Demon King, would never fully disappear.
Even so, Xion was trying to treat it, not because he expected the scar to vanish, but perhaps simply to express how sorry he felt.
‘He does not have to.’
Reinhild lightly stroked Xion’s hair.
There was no particular meaning to it.
It was just that Xion was right in front of him, and he wanted to touch him.
He liked how every small movement Xion made could be felt in the palm of his hand.
‘So this is how Xion must have felt whenever he touched me.’
However Xion interpreted that gesture, his movements suddenly grew bolder.
Xion’s lips passed over the scar and touched the wound the Demon God had left. And then they moved on.
‘Huh?’
Before Reinhild could put his confusion into words, Xion’s lips brushed his nipple.
“Gasp!”
What was that? A mistake? Did he accidentally brush it while moving from this wound to that one?
Sluurp.
Xion’s movements did not stop at something that could be written off as a passing touch.
He wrapped his arm firmly around Reinhild’s waist, which had unconsciously started to pull back, and took the place his lips had brushed into his mouth with his tongue.
At this point, even Reinhild had no choice but to realize it.
Xion’s goal from the very beginning had not been the wound, but his nipple!
‘What, why?’
Reinhild was thrown into confusion.
‘Did he mistake it for a scar?’
He must have mistaken it for a swollen wound rather than recognizing it as a body part.
Otherwise, there was no way he would be rubbing his lips against someplace so completely unrelated.
Surely that was why he had put his lips… on his nipple…
‘There is no way!’
The appearance of demons and humans did not differ all that much.
There were some demons with horns or wings, sharp ears or long fangs, but Reinhild was not one of them.
Besides, he had personally seen with his own eyes that Xion had the same thing on his chest.
There was no way Xion, even if they were of different races, could not recognize that this was part of the body.
There were five long, claw-like wounds right next to it—there was no way he would mistake that and put his mouth on the wrong place!
“Xion, tha— uha!”
Before Reinhild could stop him, Xion’s tongue touched his left nipple.
A prickling sensation shot through him, and his body jerked.
It was not exactly that he felt pleasure from what Xion was doing; it was more a reaction born from how unfamiliar the feeling was.
“Xion…!”
Xion gathered the flesh in his teeth, chewing lightly as if he intended to devour the Demon King whole.
He also sucked on his skin with his lips.
Every time the sound shifted from the usual little “smack smack” of their kisses to something closer to a wet “shluurp,” Reinhild felt like his heart was going to explode.
The area Xion touched tingled as if poked again and again and burned as if it had been hit by a fireball.
It felt a little different from the alien sensation of accepting divine power.
This pounding was… excitement? No, it did not quite feel like that either.
“W-wait…!”
In the end, Reinhild flailed and pushed Xion away.
He had not done it thinking he could actually shove Xion off with force.
But unexpectedly, Xion moved back easily.
“Haa, haa…”
Creating some distance between them, Reinhild panted and tried to catch his breath.
It was not as if his mouth had been blocked like when they kissed, so why was he so out of breath?
Once he had finally calmed down, Reinhild, feeling Xion’s gaze stabbing down at him, looked up.
Xion’s face was redder than usual.
Reinhild could say with certainty that his own face had to be even redder than Xion’s.
“Rein.”
Xion’s voice was lower and more hoarse than usual.
Bracing his arms on either side of Reinhild, Xion straightened them and smiled while keeping some distance.
At that moment, Reinhild understood.
Xion had not been trying to pour divine power into him.
Everything he had done just now had nothing to do with a “greeting to make sure it does not hurt.”
This was…
“Ack!”
Reinhild sprang up from the bed and bolted for the door.
It was only that he had moved from inside the room to just outside it, but he did not forget to shut the door firmly.
Thud.
Xion was so flustered by the situation that it did not even occur to him to grab Reinhild.
“…Rein?”
No answer came back.
Xion could only stare blankly at the tightly closed door, like an owlbear whose favorite treat had been snatched away right in front of its nose.
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