Chapter 54
Tarmin couldn't take his eyes off the man speaking down to them.
There was a face he knew all too well.
“I trust you can all guess why I've summoned you here. It concerns yesterday's unfortunate incident, which nearly forced us to abandon the city. You are all important witnesses.”
Unlike the others, the middle-aged man standing on the dais wore a splendid coat decorated with gold thread.
His wavy black hair, tinged with pale green, was neatly combed and fell around his shoulders.
A magnificent scimitar hung at his waist, sitting naturally against his tall frame.
“To put it another way, you are also suspects accused of luring monsters here and endangering the city. On behalf of the city, I ask you: did you betray Tariq, which provided you with food and lodging?”
A man who had once been his companion, and who had traveled throughout the Empire as a foreigner.
A prince from a foreign land stood before him.
The merchants murmured anxiously at the harsh words. Danis, their leader, leapt up in protest.
“What? No! That's absurd!”
“Well, we'll see.”
The man turned his gaze from Danis and the others to the passengers.
Their eyes met briefly, and Tarmin grimaced.
A tiny smile, one only he could recognize, played at the man's lips.
Tarmin knew that mischievous smile all too well after spending years at his side.
The man's gaze shifted to the Empire's knights.
“Or perhaps some of our guests would benefit from seeing Tariq fall to the monsters.”
At his blatant, almost provocative stare, Lise shrank back slightly.
Ivar stood straight behind Lise, too, but his face looked as if someone had punched him in the gut. His rigid shoulders made it clear that he was ready to charge if things went wrong.
Lise asked quietly, though even she sounded unsettled.
“You… are you really an elder of Tariq?”
“I am. You were escorted here by our soldiers, weren't you? Do you have some reason to doubt me?”
“…No.”
Lise's eyes narrowed as she answered, and the prince's smile deepened.
As tension filled the room, Danis sweated and gestured wildly as he defended the caravan.
Unlike Lise and Ivar, he couldn't afford to act if things went wrong.
“Um, Elder? It's true that we encountered centaurs on the grasslands. But it's unfair to accuse us of luring the monsters here! We didn't even know that was possible!”
Strictly speaking, the caravan hadn't encountered any monsters. They'd only encountered centaurs.
They were men who had risked their lives crossing the monster grasslands for years. They weren't so careless that they'd accidentally drawn the monsters here.
Even if they had meant to do it, there was no reason to endanger a city they traded with, and that provided them with food and lodging.
The prince listened closely to what he said, then spoke as if he'd realized something.
“From what I hear, you distinguish these so-called centaurs from the monsters. Are centaurs not monsters?”
He had certainly encountered centaurs while traveling through the Empire with Tarmin, yet he spoke as if he were hearing of them for the first time.
This entire conversation was unfolding exactly as he intended.
When the “elder” played along, Danis spoke with growing enthusiasm.
“That's right! This was my first time seeing them, but apparently they're living creatures, not monsters. They're one of the chosen peoples, with a king and even priests! Um, well, a young lady named Enya told me that… Tarmin? Where is Enya?”
At that moment, everyone's gaze in the hall focused on one spot.
Tarmin sighed and looked up at the man on the dais.
He was smiling brightly.
**
A few hours later.
The long winter night wrapped snugly around the bed where Enya lay.
By the time Enya began to wake, a fire had been lit in the hearth.
Enya's face was drowsy with sleep beneath the warm sheets.
Tarmin reached out with his cold hand and touched her cheek.
“Agh…”
Enya groaned in discomfort and twisted in her sleep, but Tarmin followed her with his hand, continuing to stroke her cheek gently.
Sitting beside the bed, Tarmin freely fondled Enya's warm, soft cheeks.
He wanted to lie down beside her and hold her tight, but tonight was going to be a little long.
Enya cracked her eyes open and checked who the hand belonged to.
“Awwww… Taaal.”
Then she grabbed Tarmin's hand where it rested against her cheek.
Tarmin chuckled and said,
“Sleep well? Time to get up.”
“When'd you come ba... to the room...?”
He'd been stroking her to wake her, but Enya mumbled something, hugged his hand tightly, and tried to fall asleep again.
She was supposed to get up, yet she was sleep-talking. She was utterly defenseless.
Hadn't she rested all day? At a loss, Tarmin tried again.
“No, come on, get up already. We have a guest.”
Thinking he'd try to rouse her with a little more force, he tugged at the cheek he'd been stroking.
-Squeeeek
“Aww…”
Enya winced in pain when he pinched her cheek, but kept her eyes shut and endured it.
Normally, he would have made her regret putting up such a cute little fight, but there were other circumstances now.
Despite his exasperation, Tarmin summoned all his patience and asked,
“What's wrong, Enya? Does it still hurt?”
“Mmm…”
A coy, nasal hum that seemed to mean no.
It didn't look like Enya intended to answer with words.
He barely suppressed the urge to punch her for being so infuriating.
“Then what is it, you brat? If you're not in pain, why can't you get up?”
“Mmm…”
Instead of answering, Enya moved.
After shifting around for a moment, she lay flat on her back, stretched out her neck, and tilted up her chin.
Then she puckered her tightly closed lips and stuck them out.
The meaning of the gesture was unmistakable.
Enya was saying it plainly.
“Enya, you little…”
Wasn't there a traditional way to wake a maiden who'd fallen under a spell and couldn't get up?
She seemed set on not answering until he tried it.
“…Heehee, heehee.”
Instead, she kept puffing little bursts of air through her nose, as if she were about to burst out laughing.
She'd stopped pretending to sleep and lifted her chin; even she must have thought she looked ridiculous.
She seemed wide awake by now, but the question was whether he was going to play along.
Tarmin groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Enya, you little brat.”
“Mmm.”
Should he smack her on the crown? No, she was a patient, after all…
“Hey, I told you to get up.”
“Mmm.”
It sounded an awful lot like she was telling him to stop nagging and hurry up and kiss her.
Tarmin let out a deep sigh, then leaned over her pillow.
“Don't think I'm holding back just because you're sick.”
After one final warning, he drew her head into his arm, a motion he was getting a little used to.
He felt Enya's body tense against the arm supporting her.
He lightly pressed his lips to Enya's glossy, bright red ones.
It was a gentle morning kiss, without any tongues.
“Mm…”
A moment later, their lips parted with a soft smack.
Enya let a shameless grin spread across her newly freed lips.
“Heeheehee…”
“There, that's enough. Now get up.”
Tarmin wiped his lips and started to sit up, but Enya stopped him by tugging on his arm.
He looked at her quizzically. Enya had opened her eyes and was clinging to one of his arms.
It seemed the magic of the kiss had worked perfectly.
Enya gazed up at him with an affectionate expression.
In the end, Tarmin lost control and kissed her again.
"Hee… Mmph."
He forced her lips open and plundered her mouth.
His free hand naturally moved up to Enya's chest.
“Chuuurp… Mmm…! Haaah…”
He quenched his thirst to his heart's content, teasing her soft breasts.
Then he pulled away and looked at Enya.
Her fever-bright red eyes gazed up at him, yearning.
Tarmin had to think long and hard about whether to press his body against hers right then and there.
But someone was waiting, so all he could do was let out a long sigh.
“Huuuuuh…”
Whether or not she knew what he was struggling with, Enya left her breasts in Tarmin's hands and spoke with an utterly coquettish look in her eyes.
“I might not hate doing this with you, Taal.”
Hearing her say that, he couldn't think of anything else to say.
“Is that so?”
“Mmm, it is. Hehehe…”
When Tarmin let go and sat up, Enya, still clinging to his arm, naturally sat up with him.
She pushed the sheets aside and sat up, then snuggled into the space between Tarmin's side and arm.
Perhaps because she'd been sick and was only just getting her strength back, she was unusually clingy today.
Groaning at the soft sensation against his upper body, Tarmin carefully chose his words.
“Um, Enya, you're fully awake now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then get dressed. There's someone we need to meet.”
“Someone to meet?”
Enya's eyes widened.
***