I Tried To Be Her Loyal Sword

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241st Chapter

“Focus… focus.”

“Three… ”

Leo burst out laughing and rubbed his head against my shoulder. His usual sharp and fierce demeanor had completely softened, making him look like a gentle lamb.

He clung to my arm like a sloth.

“Alright…

“What’s… going on in this crazy situation…?”

“No.”

Despite my arm being merely a thin branch compared to his size, his desperate grip made it feel like a lifeline. With his long eyelashes fluttering, he whispered, blending sweet alcohol breath with his words.

“I like you. You’re the best in the world, Shushu.”

‘This guy… Is this his way of showing affection?’

I pressed my forehead.

This was the first time I’d ever drunk with Leo, so I had no idea how he normally acted. The rare display of looseness and his beautiful face whispering confessions that would make anyone’s heart skip a beat was utterly bewildering.

“Is he alright? He drank a whole barrel by himself. That nectar is way stronger than human alcohol.”

Lennon clicked his tongue, dusting off an empty barrel that was about the size of his body. Not a drop of liquid fell from it.

I slapped my forehead.

“Is there something like a hangover cure here?”

“There is, but it’s for wolves, so it might be toxic for humans.”

It was a total mess.

Watching Leo cling to me and giggle, I checked if I had taken a sip of the nectar, and Lennon tilted his pristine face in curiosity.

“I’ve been wondering, is he your concubine?”

“Cough!”

I nearly spurted the nectar all over Leo’s face. I barely managed to hold back, instead coughing up in disbelief as I looked at Lennon, my mind reeling.

“How could you think that?”

“Aren’t you a Sword Master? Capable wolves tend to keep multiple concubines.”

“Humans typically practice monogamy… And he’s a king, so if he were to take a concubine, it would probably be him doing the choosing.”

“What does that have to do with anything? You’re stronger than him. So he’s your concubine, right? Or maybe he’s your main one?”

I found myself learning more about wolves’ cultures than I ever wanted to know.

The fact that he claimed he had never been outside in his lifetime felt valid; he was completely ignorant of human culture.

“My dream is to become Lord Feisha’s concubine.”

Lennon shyly glanced at Feisha and whispered to me. His voice was loud enough for Feisha to probably hear, yet she remained expressionless, downing her drink as if she already knew. I shook my head.

“Anyway, Leo and I are not in that kind of relationship.”

“Huh.”

Despite my clear rejection, Lennon’s expression said he did not believe me. His annoying smile only deepened. The strength in his grip on my arm increased.

“Why not just say it?”

“What?”

“You just said you like him the most.”

The sweet alcohol-tinged breath tickled my ear. Leo’s bright red eyes, now shimmering against his pale skin, widened.

“You have to say you like me too.”

A hallucination of fox tails fluttering behind him danced in my mind.

‘I definitely can’t let him drink unsupervised.’

While the possibility of a Sword Expert getting drunk is quite low, if it happened twice, he might end up seducing everyone in the world. I rubbed my oddly heated ears and groaned.

“You’ve drunk too much, Leo.”

“I’m not drunk. Want me to recite the Atara history? I’m perfectly fine.”

“Sure, sure.”

His voice, reeking of sweet alcohol, echoed the usual drunken phrases. I wrapped his arm around my shoulders and helped him along.

“Where can we stay?”

“In the cave with the red pillars. It’s for guests, so there shouldn’t be anything lacking. It won’t be too cramped for two. There might be some dust since nobody’s used it since Anteia.”

Feisha pointed to a cave while observing us like characters in a romance novel, clearly intrigued. Just as I sighed deeply and prepared to lead Leo, he stopped.

“I don’t want to go until you tell me.”

His voice was petulant, causing him to halt where he stood while he had been swaying just a moment ago. When I looked at him in surprise, he blinked sluggishly, his eyes now heavy-lidded.

“Can’t you just say you like me?”

His voice was sweeter than the lingering taste of nectar in my mouth.

“Wow. You said you weren’t a concubine.”

“Shut up.”

“I just said one thing.”

Looking at the smirking Lennon, I pressed my forehead. Leo had never shown this attitude towards me, as he disliked being treated like a child. The contrast from his usual demeanor made his actions all the more impactful.

‘Saying I like him has always been easy.’

Most humans I met fell into the category of “like”, and I didn’t enjoy expending emotional energy on dislikes. Loving my people naturally led me to appreciate the world as well.

Thus, saying I liked someone was usually effortless. But this time, I hesitated, feeling it might carry some special significance. After a brief pause, ignoring the sparkling anticipation in Lennon’s eyes, I opened my lips.

“… I like you. How could I not like you?”

Even with my hesitation, there was no lie in my words.

“Wow.”

“Are you going to join him in this too?”

“What do you mean?”

Glancing at the chuckling Feisha, she turned her head nonchalantly, pretending she didn’t hear. I washed my slightly flushed face lightly and urged Leo.

“Is that enough? Let’s go.”

If he decided against it again, I had every intention of carrying him like a sack of potatoes, but he started walking on his own before I could pull him.

“I too…”

His voice trailed off, elongating like a stretched-out film, as white hair brushed against my shoulder. Leo, with his head resting on my shoulder, smiled brightly with his flushed face.

“I too, I like you so much I don’t know what to do.”

A straightforward declaration without any embellishments, pure and straightforward affection.

At that moment, I realized the boy, who could never behave like a child even when he was one, was at his most innocent.

Thud.

His large body fell softly as if he had collapsed on a pile of fluffy fur. As I adjusted his position while he lay there unconscious, I wiped the sweat from my forehead.

“If you get drunk again, I’ll put you in a box.”

Even I thought that my ominous muttering echoed ominously in the dark cave.

I sat down on another pile of straw, taking a moment to breathe. Dragging Leo to the cave wasn’t physically taxing, but carefully keeping him from slipping away consumed considerable mental energy.

“X Z,”

TT TT-

“Yeah, you brat.”

“AZ,”

nrnnr-

His jade-green eyes captured me. His voice held a hint of yearning, as if he wanted to confirm that I was truly here.

‘We were still young. Both you and I.’

Staring at his lost, childlike face, I realized anew that he was still immature. Feeling compassion wash over me, I stood and swept his disheveled hair to the side.

“Yeah. I’m here.”

His tightly clenched fist looked lonely, so I gently placed my hand over his. He seemed to need something to hold onto.

“Shushu.”

In a low voice, Leo whispered my name, then wrapped his arms around my neck.

“There were many times when no sleeping pills would help me fall asleep. Each time, I called your name because it was the only thing I could hold onto.”

An indescribable loneliness rang in his voice.

As I quietly listened to Leo’s words with one hand resting on the bed, he smiled faintly.

“And so, I wondered if my feelings for you were just a momentary whim brought on by a precarious state. I wanted to meet you only after reclaiming my throne, but I needed time to sort my thoughts.”

The notion that liquor makes people honest seemed to hold some truth, as Leo appeared more serious than usual. His absinthe-colored eyes flickered with a beguiling charm. Looking at him made me feel as if I might get drunk too.

“I was afraid of meeting you again. I didn’t want to distort my memories, keeping you in my mind as the perfect savior. But the moment I saw you again, I realized.”

Leo was more thoughtful than I’d imagined. His face, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, glimmered mystically.

“You are a breathtakingly radiant person. Even if I walked a completely different path from the one I’m on now, I would still inevitably be drawn to you.”

At the brilliance of his blossoming smile, my heart skipped a beat. I held my breath.

As the moonlight sparkled in an almost colorless way, it illuminated me—not that I was particularly shining myself. It truly was a ridiculous notion.

“I like you, Shushu.”

It wasn’t just a casual remark induced by alcohol. It was a sincere and straightforward confession that could only be expressed while intoxicated.

He tightened his arms around my neck, and I was pulled toward him without resistance.

Thud, my hand relaxing from the bed allowed my body to overlap with his. Perhaps it was the alcohol or something else, but his body felt significantly warmer than usual.

That warmth spread to me like embers carried by the wind.

“If you don’t like it, push me away now.”

With that low whisper, he gradually synchronized his breathing with mine.

Tingles ran through my body. One person’s breath was enough for survival, yet his breath slipped through my lips, threatening to send me into hyperventilation. The combined scent of his body with the sweet aroma of nectar was overwhelmingly sweet—

I took a trembling breath.

His soft, white hair brushed against my forehead. As he slightly adjusted the angle of his head, a sensation flowed through me as if jelly filled my mouth. I grasped his shoulders tightly, closing my eyes.

The sweetness buzzed in my mouth. Though I didn’t particularly enjoy sweet things, I felt no urge to reject this.

“A X”

TTTT-

I could feel the movement of his lips in proximity. An excessively plush-sounding endearment, which I had always found ill-fitting, felt peculiarly apt today.

As I squinted, my eyelids lifted to meet his sparkling absinthe-colored eyes.

“……Shushu.”

Thud.

Softly and swiftly, the positions swapped. I found myself lying on the bed, with him looming above me. His firm arms were positioned next to my face.

“Ah…

As if overheated from the alcohol, Leo tilted his head back to cool down, unbuttoning one of his dress shirt buttons. Streams of sweat glided down his straight, long neck, indicating how hot he really was.

“I…

His voice trailed off. His eyes, drowsy and distant.

Boom.

His body lowered onto mine.

I could sense his steady breath against my nape, and I looked at the silhouette of the figure resting its head on my shoulder, letting out a faint chuckle.

“He’s fallen asleep, what a crazy guy…”

In that moment, I completely cleared my head of the strange thoughts that had crossed my mind. It was a moment of relief, emptiness, regret, and tranquility all at once.

‘He really knocked out cold.’

He had pretended to be fine, but it seemed he had accumulated fatigue throughout our journey. I sighed with a smile, stroking the soft white hair of Leo, who lay nestled in my arms, and whispered.

“Sleep well, Leo. I like you too.”

It was a serene night illuminated only by a sliver of moonlight.