Youngest 254
by Cristae254
“……”
“……”
“……What.”
As I pulled away, I saw Kal’s face, utterly stunned.
He looked as if he’d just witnessed the sun rising in the west.
‘…Uh.’
What’s with that reaction?
‘Was that… not right?’
Khalid blinked and murmured,
“I was just about to say… there was blood on your lips…”
He trailed off, unable to finish. His face was flushed all the way up to his hairline, and my heart gave a sharp thud.
What?
‘C-come to think of it, when the wind was whipping around earlier, I think something like a shard of glass did…’
I touched the edge of my mouth and felt a sharp sting, plain as day…
Good grief!
What did I just do?
The hazy, wistful feelings that had overwhelmed my body evaporated in an instant, and cold, clinical reason descended.
Somehow, the mood seemed like it would allow for that sort of thing, so I acted on impulse before I knew it.
But really, that was nothing more than a childhood friend getting headbutted on the lips, wasn’t it!
‘Oh no. He seems upset.’
Kal had frozen like he’d been stripped to the soul, not even able to blink. If left alone, he’d probably either weather away or turn to stone.
“K-Kal. I—I’m sorry. I made a huge mistake…”
A black mark in my history.
I’d just created my own embarrassing memory.
This won’t do. Better erase it.
Just wipe it clean, every bit of it.
As I scrambled to get up, I slipped on the scattered junk around us.
“Ah!”
Wow! Back-to-back disasters! Wipe the memory! For real this time!
“Ruby!”
Kal grabbed me firmly.
Our bodies pressed together again.
“I… that is.”
“Look, Kal, could you please just move aside for a second? There’s a spell I absolutely have to cast. It’s a very crucial spell—keeps holes from getting burned in my blanket.”
Kal gazed down at me intently.
“No.”
Then, as if coming to a decision, he set his jaw and scooped me up.
Before I could even process what was happening, my back landed on a soft mattress.
Kal, looming above, wet his lips and locked eyes with me. The heat from his body was almost searing.
“…Ruby.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Do you pity my past?”
‘W-what is this?’
I couldn’t hear a thing in his low voice. The look on his face right now—wanting me, maybe—was unfamiliar, and yet, it sent a thrill through me.
“I don’t care, even if it was out of pity.”
Kal, who had been staring at my stiff, awkward self, crooked a smile and brushed my lower lip gently with his thumb. As he drew near, he whispered,
“I held back for a long time. If it was for you, I could have held back forever. But…”
His thick eyebrows drew together in a pained frown.
“You can’t torture me like this.”
“No matter how you say it, how could a kiss be torture…”
“Rubian.”
The way he uttered my name sent a chill to the roots of my hair. Kal cupped my cheek tenderly.
“If you dislike it, slap me.”
I tried to say something more, but it was impossible.
His lips crashed into mine, making my scalp tingle, a shiver running down to my crown. Our breaths tangled, saliva mixed. Something soft pressed in, ruthlessly overwhelming me.
He was like a starving beast. As if this were the first and last time, he clung to me desperately, tasting and swallowing everything I had.
The heat of his hands on my cheeks, the pounding of his heart under my palms.
Everything was overwhelmingly intense.
Whenever I gasped from lack of air, Kal would reluctantly draw back and look at me.
“…Should I stop?”
Every time I met those eyes, hazed with hunger, it felt like my head would explode.
“J-just one more…”
The moment I spoke, he twisted his chin and kissed me again.
It was a rough, yet tender kiss.
For the first time in my life, I learned that just kissing someone could leave you utterly drained.
And every time, Kal would let out a low laugh and pour mana into me. He seemed to be getting the hang of it as well.
The sensation of mana flowing against the lining of my mouth…
You’d never know it unless you experienced it yourself.
‘This is insane.’
What am I even doing right now?
This really is…
A crazed first kiss.
Ch.27
Meanwhile, Leviathan moved swiftly through the royal capital, infiltrating the palace. Ahead of him, a few knights and Void were tirelessly carving a path.
Boom—! Something exploded, and flames shot upward. Fighting was breaking out in all directions.
He had brought only a small group of knights, but all of them were elite soldiers trained in swordsmanship by either Leviathan or Balok. Each was worth a hundred men.
“My lord, it’s that tower!”
With a great roar, an adjutant rushed to Leviathan and pointed. Following his finger, Leviathan saw a black spire incongruously perched at the farthest rear of the dazzling white palace.
‘Ah, it wasn’t always black.’
It was shrouded in an impenetrable black mist.
What he had taken for thick smoke was, in truth, such a corrupted magic force that even he, a non-mage, could feel it. The density was suffocating.
“According to the captured mages, the Mage King is in a laboratory in that tower…”
The adjutant was muttering when, all at once, someone who had been composed by his side suddenly bolted ahead.
“Rosetta!”
Leviathan spurred his horse and raced after her.
The Mage King’s presence was drawing closer.
Some time passed like that.
I roughly pushed Kal away.
“Enough, stop!”
“…”
Khalid wiped his lips and shifted back.
“You said just one more.”
“That was a while ago! Since then you haven’t even given me a chance to speak!”
As I complained, Khalid quirked an eyebrow. His glistening red lips, far too provocative, forced me to avert my gaze and slap the arm braced next to my head.
“Now… get off. Are you a puppy? Why are you licking me so much…”
“I am.”
Kal, still burning with heat in his eyes, smiled at me.
“I’m your loyal hound.”
His throat bobbed as he gently brushed my lips. Alarmed he might pounce on me again, I hurriedly sat up.
“Anyway… anyway, this is not the time for this.”
It truly wasn’t.
Although I was hardly one to talk, having just done such a thing at a time like this… In fact, there was still much to be done.
Suddenly having encountered a god and having seen Kal’s past, it felt like an enormous amount of time had passed, but it hadn’t even been two hours since we came in here.
Tying my hair again, I asked,
“So, where did your power go?”
“No idea. But first, the Mage King…”
At that moment, boom! A tremendous noise rang out. The stone walls vibrated with such force the ground shook and bits of debris rained from the ceiling.
“We should get out of here first.”
“The Mage King’s presence is coming from the rear tower of the palace.”
Was it possible to use teleportation magic inside the palace right now?
‘If he’s blocking the standard teleportation circle, maybe if we write a completely different one…’
Just then.
Wizeria, who had been silent, spoke.
I’ll show you the magic circle.
‘You…’
As my eyes shone red, a power within me answered with utter detachment.
I am not the goddess he seeks.
I stifled a sigh at that answer.
‘…I know.’
Our names aren’t even the same.
The goddess truly did vanish.
‘I realized as much after seeing the mural at the southern temple.’
The name Wizeria, then…
It was the name of the sapling the goddess nurtured in the mortal world.
The very tree later called the World Tree…
That ancient tree.
‘Most likely, this power comes from the World Tree.’
Of course, since the goddess created the World Tree, her traces would inevitably cling to this power. Perhaps the dragon god had simply mistaken it for hers.
“Ruby? What’s wrong?”
Then, Khalid gazed at me anxiously. In his pupils, I could see my own eyes glowing red.
“It’s nothing. Let’s move—quickly.”
Symbols and incantations flashed through my mind, and a teleportation circle unlike any I’d seen before spread out across the floor.
Khalid swiftly gripped my hand and channeled mana into it.
BOOM!
The mysterious roar only grew louder.
At once, I sent my mana surging outward. A light breeze swept through the room; the magic circle glimmered blue, and I felt the now-familiar sensation of my body being pulled away.
Flash—!
We arrived at the tower where the Mage King was.
And then—
“Ruby!”
My father came running frantically toward us.
‘Oh no.’
For some reason, I startled like a thief caught in the act and let go of Khalid’s hand.
“F-Father. Y—”
My father’s brow gave a twitch.
“Y—?”
“Y-Your Majesty, have you come…?”
“…”
It was a pressing situation, but somehow…
Somehow, I found it impossible to meet my father’s eyes…