Noce went to the fallen Aquila and dropped to his knees. He saw the abnormal heat devouring her body and the black-blue blotches spreading again over her shoulder.
Poison reaction.
He immediately pressed his mouth to hers. He thumbed her jaw to pry her lips open and breathed his cool breath into her.
“Uh— mm….”
Breathing was hard enough already; kissing on top of that was no easy ask. But Aquila slit her eyes to confirm it was him and, with a trembling arm, lifted her hands to cling around his neck.
His eyes, watching her complexion as they kissed, darkened for an instant.
With a snap he lifted her and stood. Their lips did not part even as he stepped onto the bed.
He sat back against the headboard and settled her atop his body—just as he had done through the three days since he had fished her from the sea after she was shot.
Careful that nothing touched her wounded shoulder, he slid one hand under the back of her head so she could take his kiss.
For a while, no words passed—only pained groans and wet, sticky sounds filled the room.
Gulp…
Each time his tongue drove in deep, her throat bobbed. In a daze, she received his kiss, swallowing the saliva that pooled in her mouth, and slowly the light returned to her eyes.
The agony around the wound dulled to something bearable, and the fever burning through her body visibly cooled.
“Haa… ah….”
When a little strength returned, she pushed his tongue out and let a wet breath spill. Then she shot him a sharpened look.
“What… happened?”
Hadn’t he said that if their bodies joined, everything would definitely heal?
Had he lied just to make her climb into his arms on her own? Anger and scorn were starting to color her red gaze when Noce lightly licked the lips still exhaling their ragged breath.
“That’s what I want to ask.”
His hand slid over her waist, stroking lazily just above the curve of her rear.
“I filled you to the brim to make you better… so why did it flare again?”
“Ugh… that’s—irresponsible….”
“…Ah. Maybe.”
Still rubbing the small of her back, thinking, Noce narrowed one eye.
“An innate power?”
“…What?”
“If the poison in that round wasn’t man-made but someone’s innate power, it would make sense.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Aquila’s edged voice softened a fraction, but distrust still hadn’t left her eyes. Meeting that look without flinching, Noce asked back:
“And you had heard of mine?”
“….”
“In times like these, no one goes around bragging about their powers.”
He was right. If word got out that a beastfolk—worse, a beastfolk with an innate power—existed, they’d be marked by slavers at once.
No—before slavers, it wouldn’t be strange for a state to try to capture them. Unlike the Kingdom of Leandro, in many countries beastfolk slavery remained legal.
If that’s true…
Someone had targeted her.
It meant that under whoever stood behind this—possibly Ouroboros—there might be a beastfolk with an innate power that made poison.
Aquila turned pale.
Dangerous.
A poison that didn’t yield even to an innate power—meaning even the royal Mermaid’s Tears of the Kingdom of Leandro might not cure it.
And even without that, the enemy now had another weapon whose base they hadn’t found. There was no guarantee her precious family wouldn’t be struck by the same weapon that had struck her.
I need to get this out—fast…
But she was on a pirate ship somewhere out at sea; she didn’t even know where. And in this state, she couldn’t do anything.
Watching her bite her lip, Noce’s eyes cooled.
Thinking of something else again.
By now he could tell. The woman in front of him did not fear her own death.
There was another reason she had wanted healing badly enough to let him have her body. And it was the same reason she had tried to escape this ship at any cost, and offered up her shoulder to that bastard just to get information.
Irritating.
He had come to talk after realizing a human like her hadn’t understood his courtship.
But even now, he still wasn’t in her sight.
He was the one who had saved her, treated her, cherished her—yet—
Last night, beneath him, she had cried so sweetly.
He could no longer tolerate her ignoring him to his face.
“…Maybe I should just do as I please.”
“Ah…?!”
He suddenly rose. In a blink, their positions reversed. Aquila, laid on her back against the mattress before she knew it, sucked in a startled breath.
Leaning over her, he seized one of her thighs.
“W-what do you think you’re doing?!”
“Something the young lady knows very well.”
He lowered his head despite her hands pushing at his chest.
“It wasn’t completely ineffective, was it? Maybe I just didn’t fill you enough times.”
“W-what…?!”
“This time I’ll keep at it until you’re cured.”
“W-wait. Wait…!”
The golden eyes, cold to the point of something strangely gleaming, raised gooseflesh along her skin.
Why did his eyes flip like that all of a sudden…?!
Never imagining that her indifferent reaction had triggered this disaster, Aquila rushed to stop him.
“Don’t. We’re not even sure that’s the cause…!”
“That’s why we test it. Say, for a week.”
“A-a week?”
“Right. If I pour my seed into you day and night for a week, we’ll know for sure—”
“I don’t want to know…!”
Was he saying he would have her day and night for a week? To a human, it was mad beyond understanding. Aquila yanked hard at his lapel.
Even once was hard. I thought I was going to die…!
That night when she hadn’t been herself flashed back. Color crept into her previously bloodless face.
She wanted to wrench her trapped thigh free and kick, but her body hadn’t recovered enough to make it possible.
“Why? You do want to be cured.”
“I don’t. I’ll find another way.”
“What way? You going to really try killing me?”
“…!”
Noce said it offhand, but Aquila snapped wide awake.
‘Will your blood work as medicine?’
‘Bold young lady. Are you actually going to try to kill me?’
He’d said the same then. He hadn’t denied that his blood worked as medicine; naturally, he’d answered on the premise of his death.
That edge honed by razor-close crises lifted its head.
“…Is your blood, taken by killing you, more effective as a cure than sleeping with you?”
“……”
Noce stilled—just slightly. Aquila, focused on his reaction, felt her eyes spark.
That’s it.
She had already learned with her body that there were tiers to the healing in his fluids: a kiss that merely eased symptoms; his seed, which made it feel for a moment like she was fully cured.
Then what about his blood?
Long ago, there was a rumor: if you take the heart of a gifted one, you can use that power.
These days you hardly ever saw otherkind with innate powers; it had drifted as a baseless tale.
But if it was true?
Aquila’s eyes slid to his left chest. Feeling her gaze, Noce’s eyes slanted.
“…Ah, so you really will try to kill me.”
His mutter carried a mix of feelings—irritation, some hollow sigh, and yet a thread of elation.
“It’s assassin-like enough, but how? In the state you’re in, you’ll die quick if I don’t kiss you.”
Obviously impossible. Even at full health, her odds of beating that monster were nil in a straight fight.
But—
My method was never about winning. It was about killing.
Assassination was, by nature, an act premised on exploiting the enemy’s opening—a killing technique aimed purely at the kill, not a contest of skill.
Aquila was adept enough at it to earn the epithet White Crow.
But I need my body whole to try it. In that case…
Aquila squeezed her eyes shut. A truly insane idea had just occurred to her.
And yet… as of now, it was the only solution she could see.
“I’ll give you my body.”
“…What?”
“In return, give me a chance to kill you.”
In Noce’s gloomed-over eyes, something like disbelief flickered. Aquila wanted to bite her tongue. It was certainly the kind of thing to fluster a madman—because she was saying it.
“…Did I understand that right?”
He bored into her red eyes, as if to test her sincerity.
“You want me to hold you and heal you—so you can kill me?”
“You’re not planning to die easily, are you?”
Since she was making a crazy proposal anyway, Aquila chose shamelessness.
“You think I’ll take you in one go? I even have a time limit.”
“……”
“It sounds like it could be a fun game for you, too.”