Chapter 32: A Proposal

The vet was one that specialized with reptiles, but he also called in another vet from Rouleau who was quite knowledgeable about Rouleau Lizards, as well as a few others. After thanking each of them and receiving the medicine, Urien and Rodrick then left the clinic.

They hopped onto the carriage for their journey back. Inside, Urien expressed his gratitude to Rodrick again.

“Thank you again for your help, Lord Rodrick.”

Seeing Urien’s smile as he said that, Rodrick’s face also visibly relaxed.

He wasn’t the type of person who’d smile much, but in this moment, there was a soft smile on his face as he said, “I’m glad I could help.” At that, Urien nodded his head twice before smiling at the box on his lap.

“Um, so, this is Marx. He’s a Rouleau Lizard, and he’s been with me since I was living in the barony.”

“I see.”

Rodrick glanced down on the box. There wasn’t even a trace of disgust in his eyes as he did so, and instead, there was a hint of gentleness in it.

Since he was in the middle of training when Urien came to him, Rodrick still had his hair tied up and was still wearing his military-issued training uniform. The dark circles under his eyes were still there, but his tone and expression as he said, “Rest well,” to Marx, was calm.

This was the first time Rodrick had known of Marx’ existence. Urien thought that since Rodrick didn’t particularly like insects, he’d hate lizards too, but the gentle look on his face seemed to prove otherwise, prompting Urien to let out a sigh of relief.

‘So he doesn’t hate lizards, after all.’ Now that all the stress and tension left his body, Urien’s voice turned brighter as he continued.

“Yes. I’ll make sure he has plenty of rest. Still, this is the first time he’s ever been injured like this.”

“I see.”

Rodrick only replied with that simple answer, but that didn’t stop Urien from rambling on.

It was the first time Rodrick had ever seen him being this talkative.

“Marx is really gentle. Every night, I’ll sing a lullaby to him and he’ll fall asleep from it. It feels like I’m taking care of a human child. In the morning, when I say, ‘Good morning, Marx,’ he’ll blink to me. It’s like he’s responding to my greetings.”

“A lizard that responds to you, huh?”

“Yes! It always feels like he understands what I’m saying. Also, he loves climbing up my body…”

“Climbing up your body?”

“Yes! Whenever I place him on my palm, he’ll crawl on my arm and up my head.”

“He’s really nimble, isn’t he?”

“Yes! I’ll let you see it once he gets better.”

Up until now, Urien had never told Rodrick about Marx’.

At first, it was out of caution. But eventually, his wariness towards Rodrick subsided so there wasn’t a need to hide Marx anymore, it was just, he thought that there was no point in going out of his way to tell him either, so he decided to keep quiet.

He didn’t desperately hide Marx’ existence ever since, but for some reason, after revealing his existence, his heart felt lighter.

It was also the first time he realized how heavy it had been.

*   *   *

Marx woke up later in the afternoon. When Urien mixed the medicine with his food, he ate it without any problems.

Apparently, the cause of his injury was the new stone bed that Urien had placed in his box a few days ago. After he inspected the stone a little, there was a sharp point on its surface. Knowing Marx, he’d sometimes run around inside the box. He had probably done that and accidentally bumped into said sharp point, then eventually, bacterias got in and infected the wound.

Urien removed the sharp point afterwards, but he was still worried about Marx, so he brought his box to his room.

The problem was that due to a large tree near the window, his room didn’t have much sunlight in. That was when Rodrick came in and told him that the balcony in his quarters had some enough sunlight for Marx.

In fact, he even built a small pen in a corner of his balcony. Seeing how they made it in a single day surprised Urien, but after finding out that it was the perfect place for Marx to live in—as it’d protect him from wind and rain—Urien didn’t say much else.

Since his quarter wasn’t located too far from Urien’s room, he could visit Marx quickly whenever he wanted to. Rodrick often stayed in his bedroom or study anyways, so he permitted Urien to visit his balcony freely.

With that, visiting Rodrick’s quarter in the morning became Urien’s new daily routine.

Most of the time when he did that, Rodrick was still in his bed, who knows if he was still asleep or not. Today too, Urien went to the balcony and took Marx’ box out of the pen.

When he did, he heard a cute rustling sound coming from the box, and sure enough, Marx was already up.

“Good morning, Marx.”

Marx’ round eyes looked up at Urien. He blinked rapidly, as if returning his greeting.

The bandages on his body had already been removed. He was still taking the medicine, but his wound had closed up and he had returned to his energetic self.

As Urien was staring at Marx, hoping that nothing bad would befall him again, a voice came from behind him.

“Urien.”

“Lord Rodrick? Good morning.”

His bedroom was a distance away, so it shouldn’t be possible for Urien to wake him up by accident, but the man actually was quite sensitive to people’s presences, so he often woke up like this. Hence why, him coming in with whenever Urien was greeting Marx had become a common occurrence.

“Yeah, morning,” Rodrick replied as he sat down on the sofa and stared at Urien with a relaxed gaze.

His shoulder-lengthed hair was draped down, and he pushed it back with an annoyed look. Seeing how the dark circle under his eyes looked less deep than usual, it seemed that he just had a good night’s sleep.

Still, Urien thought it’d be best if he could have a good night’s sleep every night, not just last night.

Rodrick stared at the morning sunshine. He often chided Urien for being ‘listless’ but to Urien, the way he was now fit that word more than he was. 

As he was feeding Marx, Urien suddenly recalled about a young miss that was said to be Rodrick’s lover.

He had forgotten her name, but he did remember that she was Dieter’s little sister. Now that he thought about it, he had only heard about such rumors from the west wing’s servants, which were unreliable sources of news on their own. Ella had denied the rumor outright, so who knows if it was true or not.

Nevertheless, there was only a little over a year before their contract marriage ended. After that, Rodrick would be free to welcome his lover to his estate.

If someone he could entrust his life to was by his side, he’d surely feel more at ease living in his estate.

These days, Urien found himself praying for Rodrick’s well-being. After all, he had helped Marx’ life. Urien genuinely wished for him to have a happy life in the future.

And that was why, he decided to propose a plan that had been lingering in his mind for a while.

“Lord Rodrick.”

“What?”

Despite him being in a daze a few seconds ago, his reply came quickly. After he finished feeding Marx, Urien came over to approach Rodrick.

“I have a proposal.”

“A proposal?”

“Yes. If it’s alright with you, could I…die after our marriage contract ends?”

Almost immediately, Rodrick opened his sleepy, dazed eyes, wide. 

His golden eyes sparkled due to the morning sun, but his voice was dry as he asked,

“Die?”