Chapter 31

His mouth was still unbearably bitter.

Even so, Hong Yeom-rang clearly saw the tips of Hisa’s pale ears turning red.

He ran his tongue slowly over his bitter lower lip.

This was the first time since childhood he had been so sick he nearly lost consciousness.

The heat still lingering in his body hadn’t fully faded, so he raised only his upper body and tilted his head as he watched Hisa.

Even the bitter medicine did nothing to wake his dazed mind.

His relentless gaze stayed only on the tips of Hisa’s ears.

Her fingertips were red.

The tips of her ears were red too.

Behind the smell of herbs, that faint honeyed scent drifted in again, and something in his head throbbed.

Heat pooled deep in his lower belly.

All he could see was Hisa crouched down, her loose hair roughly braided back, busily doing something.

Hong Yeom-rang blinked slowly.

His head tilted further.

Even the cheek visible beneath her side hair was faintly flushed.

“My lady.”

“Hm?”

Hisa’s shoulders stiffened slightly.

Hong Yeom-rang spoke in a raw, cracked voice.

“Come here. You need to eat breakfast.”

His voice scraped along the cave walls.

Low.

Dark.

Threatening.

Nothing about him looked like a man inviting someone to breakfast.

Hong Yeom-rang looked once at the pale trace still left on his hand from jerking off.

Then once at Hisa’s back, which still refused to turn.

“…It’s noon now. We can eat at dinner.”

Ah.

She was avoiding him.

He almost laughed.

His tongue slid along the inside of his cheek.

That sweet scent was so rich it felt bitter.

It made his head spin.

And even now, the thing standing like a beast between his legs still hadn’t softened from last night.

The memory remained vivid.

Breathing in her scent.

Grinding himself.

Burning with lust.

“Hisa.”

Hisa blinked at the wall.

Hong Yeom-rang had called her name.

Not angry.

Warm.

Almost gentle.

His voice was subdued from illness, but there was no anger in it.

Her neck creaked as she slowly turned.

She rose and staggered toward him.

Smack.

Her careless palm landed on his forehead.

“Hey, hey. You’ve still got a fever. Can you see?”

Then she spread five fingers before his face and waved them.

Of course.

The fever hadn’t broken.

Thinking she needed to make him take medicine again, Hisa moved to pull away from the motionless Hong Yeom-rang.

“Ah…?”

But in that instant, her waving wrist was seized.

And she was pulled down.

As her body tipped sideways, Hong Yeom-rang naturally wrapped one arm around her waist.

Hisa’s small body fell against him.

Looking at her wrist, all bone and skin, Hong Yeom-rang clicked his tongue.

“Hong Yeom-rang?”

Since he hated being called Yeom-rang or Rang-i with fire in his eyes, Hisa pronounced his full name carefully.

A useless little laugh slipped out of him.

Just as Hisa had pressed her palm to his forehead, he let his head fall weakly onto her shoulder.

Through his right ear, he heard Hisa’s breathing.

Faster than usual.

Warm breaths tickled the fine hairs beside his ear.

That sweet scent clung to him through the smell of grass.

“Your meal’s been served right in front of you. Eat.”

Ah.

His ear itched.

The corners of Hong Yeom-rang’s eyes reddened as he smiled soundlessly.

Then he sank his teeth into Hisa’s shoulder and bit as if urging her.

Her little body jolted.

“Ha…”

Hisa’s ass crushed his hard cock without mercy.

At the dull pain and the sharp thrill racing through his head, Hong Yeom-rang groaned.

Even if he blamed it on fever, this wasn’t the first time he’d pleasured himself.

Even with his mind soaked in illness, he admitted it.

He was in heat for Hisa, who lay against him without a thought.

Every meaningless touch.

Every breath she took while stealing hair to eat.

He had reacted to all of it.

He had sharpened himself against every one of Hisa’s careless acts.

He had decided she was a monster seducing him.

That because she was a monster, she bewitched him like this.

This was a wicked monster.

And yet right now, he couldn’t tell which of them was truly wicked.

Hong Yeom-rang bit into her shoulder so she couldn’t see his face.

His eyes gleamed.

“Hong Yeom-rang.”

One of Hisa’s hands was trapped in his.

Her other had nowhere to go.

Then Hisa called to him in a birdlike voice.

“Yes.”

“Your body’s warm. You need more sleep.”

Hisa shifted her ass slightly, uncomfortable from the hard thing pressing into her.

“And feed you.”

She smelled of grass, as though she’d rolled in fields.

Even her breath carried the herbal scent he had swallowed.

At his shameless words, Hisa let out a deep sigh.

“You smell like chestnut blossoms.”

The gleam in his eyes vanished instantly.

“…What?”

Feeling the strength leave his arm, Hisa scrambled off his thigh.

He stared up at her in disbelief.

“I just mean… if you go a little higher up, there’s a chestnut tree. It smells like that.”

“Oh. Now you’re complaining about the meal?”

Hong Yeom-rang already knew what she meant by chestnut blossom scent.

Had he grown into a man without ever hearing dirty talk?

To hear his cock’s smell compared to chestnut blossoms.

He could only laugh in disbelief.

Even the cock standing stubbornly softened limply.

It felt like cold water had poured over his fevered head.

Hong Yeom-rang blinked slowly.

Come to think of it, Hisa was always strangely clean.

Her feet were dirty because she wore no shoes.

But her face was always clear.

And she always carried that sweet scent.

“Hong Yeom-rang. Hong Yeom-rang. Where are you going?”

“Call me whatever you want.”

“Rang-ah, where are you going?”

He stood.

Pulling up his loose pants, he went to his bundle and gathered clean clothes.

Then the anxious Hisa asked quietly.

There was a small trickling pool in the cave.

But right now, he needed somewhere he could soak from head to toe.

Maybe then his heated mind would calm.

Turning halfway toward Hisa, he spoke.

“I’m going to wash the table my lady eats from.”

One corner of his mouth lifted crookedly.

Watching her flutter around like that, his rough temper surfaced on its own.

Part of him wanted to see her fluster more.

So he deliberately turned away.

Autumn had made the mountain air sharp.

He walked out without hesitation.

Wind rushed through.

That strange rustling sound echoed in his ears again.

“Open it. Before your lady loses her appetite.”

The goblins rustled among themselves.

It sounded like sinister wind.

They acted furious, as if asking what to do about this Kim son-in-law bastard treating them like servants just because they’d opened the path once.

Then Hisa followed him out and waved frantically toward the forest.

At last the goblins ended their little meeting and grudgingly opened a path.

As if it were only natural, Hong Yeom-rang strode down the path whose end was unknown.

Like Hisa had done, he led without looking back.

He knew she was right.

The fever hadn’t fully broken.

But in truth, he had always carried heat.

Since the fever illness in childhood, it had never left his body.

Compared to that, this was nothing.

Behind him, he heard Hisa following almost soundlessly.

His ears stayed alert.

To keep from turning back, he stared only ahead.

After walking for some time, a bitter scent similar to Hisa’s smell reached him first.

Soon the air grew damp.

Mist thickened.

The sharp chill had become warm.

They arrived at a hot spring tinged green.

“This is a medicinal spring.”

Hisa, who had been sneaking behind him until now, finally passed him.

The green water looked deep enough to make entering hesitate.

And it carried a scent much like the grassy smell he had sensed from Hisa.

“Five hundred years? It said five hundred years, right?”

Hisa held up five fingers into empty air as if asking someone.

Then she nodded as if she’d gotten an answer and told Hong Yeom-rang,

“It says five hundred years. It’s good to bathe here. Cold water isn’t good right now.”

Hisa was genuinely worried about him.

Unlike his teasing, she was still fussing.

Most of the herbs on his shoulder had fallen off while walking.

And when she looked at that spot, there was only pity in her eyes.