Episode 24: Feeling Reborn (1)
“One Hundred Recommended Techniques for Ecstatic Coupling, and The First Step to a Safe Adulthood: A Practical Guide for the First Night.”
Reading the titles of the two books on the desk aloud, Kamran let out a strange sound, something between admiration and laughter.
Iskandel mimicked him with a dry chuckle and took a huge bite of bread from the tray.
“At your level, Your Highness, the practice guide is just right.
The hundred recommended techniques are a bit advanced for you.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
Iskandel took Kamran’s teasing in stride and shoved all the carved vegetable garnishes into his mouth.
“My duties, as far as I can gather, are as follows: train the saintess so she does not fall into the realm of lust, prepare her for the night of the coming-of-age ceremony, and transfer the divine power inside my body into hers.
It’s a disaster.”
“How is that a disaster?”
“How?
Do you not see how serious this is?
Does it make any sense for me, of all people, to be training and preparing someone else for this?”
“So what?
Are you planning to confess to the goddess or the saintess that you’re a virgin who’s never even been properly kissed?”
Iskandel couldn’t bring himself to say yes.
The lies he had tossed out so casually now felt like shackles tightening around his throat.
Kamran shook his head with a weary sigh, as if he could see straight through his master’s thoughts.
“I can say with certainty that being honest would not be a wise choice, Your Highness.”
When the advice he had given Hashana the day before came back to him word for word, Iskandel let out a crooked, hollow laugh.
Kamran finished arranging the folds of the garment with extra care, draped a purple cloak over Iskandel’s shoulders, and continued his counsel with a sigh.
“As your friend and as your loyal vassal, my opinion is the same.
A man plastered from head to toe with the blessings of Karasvati and Disorde could shout about his purity all day long, and not even a stray dog would believe him.
Am I wrong?”
“As if these blessings are such a big deal…”
Having devoured the large piece of bread in the blink of an eye, Iskandel lifted both arms and let them fall limply.
Kamran, quick to notice the change in his master—who had once spent his days steeped in herbal smoke with no appetite—subtly slid a plate piled with fruit toward him.
Unaware of his own transformation, Iskandel simply accepted the plate and began popping the unfamiliar fruits into his mouth one after another.
Kamran forgot what he had been saying, planted his hands on his hips, and took in the rare sight.
‘The man who used to eat just enough not to die, and only if I coaxed him… has changed overnight.’
Feeling like a parent watching a sick child finally eat, Kamran’s chest swelled as he tried to soothe the worried, complaining man before him.
The sight of Iskandel, troubled in a way Kamran had never seen before and eating with a real appetite, was not just fascinating; it was downright endearing.
“Weren’t you aiming for, at minimum, the position of official consort and, at best, spouse to either the saintess or the goddess?
That’s why you came here planning to stay in Durgtah as long as possible, since your life ends when the crown prince inherits the throne.”
“Well, yes.”
“You do understand that’s not a position you can aim for without a physical relationship, do you not?”
“I understand that much.”
“Then you should be grateful that the blessings of Karasvati and Disorde are your medals and assets.
Where else are you going to find a quality guarantee like that?
Why are you always complaining about it?”
Iskandel looked down at his body, now hidden beneath the thin fabric, with a complicated expression.
As he glanced at the new sandals neatly placed under the table, he quietly considered why he was agonizing over something so pointless.
If his target had been Rsanda, he wouldn’t have wasted a second on such worries; he would have been busy plotting how to strip her bare and devour her.
But his counterpart was not Rsanda.
It was Hashana. The source of this chapter is g.com.
From the day they met, she had shown him nothing but her straightforward, sincere heart, and that sincerity was what was throwing him into turmoil.
He shook his head, weighed down by the earnestness of a naive woman who had tried to make up for the previous day’s discourtesy with carefully prepared clothes, shoes, and food.
“I have never once wanted this kind of quality guarantee.
I swear to the gods.”
“You are probably the only person in the world who treats a goddess’s blessing like a burden, Your Highness.
Not even the crown prince, who has shared a bed with the goddesses hundreds of times, nor the priests, nor even I have received blessings as strong as yours.”
“Did you have to say that too?
You, of all people, know perfectly well these blessings are just warning signs they stamped on me—so that if they can’t have the fruit, no other woman can touch it either.”
Kamran shrugged.
“Of course I know. That’s why I tease you.”
Iskandel remained silent.
“Whether it’s fruit they spat out or fruit they couldn’t eat, no one can deny that you are the favorite plaything of two goddesses burning with lust, Your Highness.”
“…Did you really just call your prince a favorite plaything?”
“Am I wrong? After all those misunderstandings, after a lifetime of milking the goddesses’ favor for all it was worth, now you want to claim chastity? It’s a joke.”
Muttering under his breath, Iskandel finished off every last piece of fruit on the plate and washed it down with water.
Kamran, marveling at the empty tray, picked up a comb and began to work through his troubled master’s hair.
“Enough of the spoiled complaints. Focus on getting ready. I understand your desire to deny it, but you were born the child of the priest of Disorde who bewitched the emperor. Look at this—your hair is shining from a single pass of the comb.”
He said nothing.
“A man like that can insist all he wants that he spent his life shut away in the deepest room of a brothel, reading books, painting, and playing instruments, but no one is going to buy it. Maybe if you hadn’t drunk or smoked herbs, but you did.”
Every word was so accurate he had no room to argue.
True, playing the part of a depraved degenerate had kept him safe from the Empress and Crown Prince’s assassination attempts… but the more he thought about it, the clearer it became that he was in no position to be teaching anyone.
“People here have far too much faith in the experience I supposedly gained living like garbage.
It makes me wonder if it’s right to smear such filth on an innocent girl.”
“Ah… I know exactly what you mean.
That’s how I felt when a certain brat clung to me, bawling and begging me to teach him every dirty trick in the book.
I won’t say who.”
“…Right.
What you felt then is what I’m feeling now.”
The two men, not expecting to find common ground here of all places, met each other’s eyes and let out a long, shared sigh.
After a moment, Kamran set the comb down and snapped his fingers.
“Then let’s reframe it.
You’re not here to seduce the saintess and become her kept man; you’ve come abroad to study intercourse and union.”
“Study…”
“Why not?
Studying is the only thing you’re good at besides your face, Your Highness.
Oh, and you’re very good at getting under people’s skin.”
Iskandel could not argue.
“Once you get a little closer to the saintess, talk her around and get me one of these combs. I like it very much.”
Tossing out a frivolous joke, Kamran brushed past his frowning master and picked up the two books from the desk.
“Didn’t you once tell me there’s a saying in some eastern book of war: Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated?
Now is the time.
Do exactly that.
Study where and how to touch, press, and enter your partner so she’ll be satisfied, and win fair and square.”
“That is absolutely not what that saying is for.”
“No, this is exactly it. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for you to defeat the version of yourself who only runs his mouth while guarding his body.”
Iskandel shot his closest friend a look of pure disgust.
Kamran didn’t budge, instead opening both books to the first page and holding them up at Iskandel’s eye level.
“When you were just a boy, you taught me and all the other lowlifes in the brothel how to read and behave, and you turned us into proper men. Then, when you grew up, you went on to master all sorts of things you never should have learned.”
He did not reply.
“So I have every confidence that you will achieve dazzling academic results, both for yourself and with the saintess, Your Highness.”
Iskandel batted away the hands thrusting the books in his face and stalked toward the door, as if he couldn’t stand to hear another word.
Kamran followed with the empty tray, continuing to offer firm advice.
“Judging by your face, you still want to confess the truth despite my counsel, so let me emphasize this one more time.
You look far too promiscuous to be proclaiming your purity, Your Highness.”
“If people are supposed to live the way they look, then you should be locked in the basement of Karasvati’s library restoring ancient manuscripts for the rest of your life.
With that neat, proper face of yours, you’re out there breaking hearts all over the place.”
“Since you’ve watched me do that often enough, I’m sure you’ll do just fine in practice.
You may not be particularly gifted when it comes to using your body, which is a concern, but at least you have your brains.”
Iskandel, who had been striding forward, stopped with his hand on the doorknob and glared at his bodyguard.
Kamran closed the distance in an instant and flashed a grin that said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’
“Also, keep in mind that when that golden light exploded yesterday, the citizens’ expectations of your skills shot through the roof.”
“Ha…”
“In other words, there isn’t a single person who would take you seriously if you tried to claim you’re still pure.”
“I get it.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Iskandel flung the door open without hesitation, only to freeze as the blinding sunlight stabbed at his eyes.
As if he had expected it, Kamran stepped in front of him, casting a shadow over the prince and murmuring slyly.
“Tell me what you plan to do, and I’ll see what I can do on my end.”
“What else can I do?
I’ll put together a curriculum to master these two books before the coming-of-age ceremony.
I’ll run a trial lesson today and adjust the pace from there.”
“I told you to study, and you really went straight there…”
“You keep an eye on the delegation so they don’t pull anything stupid, and find out which one of them is the spy my brother planted.”
Kamran, who had been watching Iskandel’s changed behavior closely, scrunched his face and turned to look at him.
“Iskandel.
Do you realize you’re talking the way you did before you got hooked on herbs, back when you were much younger?”
“Yeah.
I was purified.”
“…Pardon?”
“That’s what happened.
It feels strange, but… there’s no Crown Prince or Empress here.
If I act like a person instead of trash, my life won’t be in immediate danger.”
Kamran, who had been grinning playfully until now, quickly scanned their surroundings, then hardened his expression and lowered his voice.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?
There isn’t a single man in the delegation who hasn’t taken the crown prince’s money.
We still haven’t figured out which of them will actually send a carrier pigeon with a report.”
“Oh.
The letter…!
I forgot about that.
Take me to the saintess.”
When Iskandel forcibly changed the subject, Kamran’s brows, which had been deeply furrowed, relaxed.
He let out a long, long sigh and nodded.