IIAD | Chapter 2.4

Just calling his name was enough. Nika was quick on the uptake. Sure enough, after a brief pause, he let go of Baran’s wrist. But… for some reason, he looked annoyed.

Baran was curious enough to want to ask about it, but before he could, Raymond yanked him away mercilessly, putting an increasing distance between him and Nika.

── .✦

“The Duke insists that you must attend.”

“Have I lost my mind? Why the hell would I willingly walk into that place? It’s obvious there’s no real reason for it.”

“Well… there doesn’t seem to be a particular reason. But the Duke is throwing a grand banquet to celebrate the victory at the Dartalu River battle. Pretty much everyone of importance will be there. Even Duke Sasavaran, who usually won’t budge from his seat, has confirmed his attendance. As a marquis, it’d be hard to justify your absence.”

Everything pointed to the undeniable fact that Baran had to attend the Duke’s banquet. He kept coming up with arguments against it, fighting back until he completely ran out of excuses. With nothing left to say, he clamped his mouth shut.

“This is about the dragonkin, isn’t it?”

“…….”

“Marquis, remember your contract with His Highness the Prince.”

Raymond let out a sigh, looking down at Baran’s obviously deflated posture.

“If we want to get there on time, we need to leave within two days.”

Two days was too short. Just in case, Baran quickly did the calculations in his head, estimating the travel time on horseback. But of course, Raymond—who was always quick with numbers—was right.

It would take seven days of riding nonstop to reach the Duke’s temporary base in Taltar territory. That meant if they left in two days, factoring in the journey there and back, it would be a total of fifteen days away from home. That many nights without seeing Nika.

Baran’s shoulders slumped at the thought. Raymond, noticing his master’s visible frustration, cleared his throat.

“By the way, he didn’t look too happy earlier.”

“Hm?”

“The dragonkin. Lord Nika. Did something happen?”

Baran fell silent.

Yeah… he had noticed. When Nika let go of his sleeve earlier, his grip had hesitated, his gaze had been sharp. Baran saw it, understood something was wrong—but instead of stopping to soothe him, he had rushed off, prioritizing his own immediate troubles.

Now, thinking about the expression Nika had been left with, Baran ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in his movements.

Then, suddenly, he shot up from his seat.

── .✦

It was still too early in the season for fallen leaves to scatter and fully set the mood for autumn’s melancholic chill. But the weather had undeniably turned more autumn-like. Once the warmest hours of the afternoon passed, the occasional gust of wind sent an eerie chill through the air.

Baran had just finished his urgent tasks and was now making his way to Nika’s room to spend what little late-night time they had together. Raymond’s earlier words kept nagging at him.

Nika was usually buried in his books at this hour. But tonight, he was different. He sat upright, his gaze cast low, deeply lost in thought.

Baran tried to spark a conversation with some casual topics, but after receiving nothing in return, he eventually gave up.

“Something wrong? You’ve been silent for a while now.”

After watching Nika for a moment, Baran got up and opened the window. The stillness in the room, thick with unspoken emotions, was suffocating. A sharp breeze rushed in, sweeping through the curtains and stirring the stagnant air. Breathing in the crisp night air helped clear his head.

“I was thinking.”

Nika finally spoke. His lips had been so dry from the prolonged silence that the words came out with a slight crackling sound.

“About what? Me?”

“…….”

Silence. The most implicit kind of confirmation.

Baran turned away from the window, folding his arms. His expression grew serious.

“You don’t look too happy. Did I do something to upset you?”

“It’s my own issue. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

But despite saying that, Nika followed up with a pointed remark.

“Actually… if there were something, it would be your irresponsibility.”

“Irresponsibility?”

“That’s right.”

Baran noticed that Nika was deliberately avoiding eye contact. His words came out with an unusual hesitance.

“I am not a doll or a pet that survives solely on your love. But you act as if I am. As if you’ve given me a confined space where I’m meant to stay and wait for you, and only you… Like this morning, when you left me behind to go off with your steward.”

“Nika, I—”

“It’s exhausting. No, actually, I don’t care about that. This life, as it is now, is already beyond anything I ever dared to dream of before.”

The moment Nika quietly lifted his head, something inside Baran trembled.

His wavering eyes—so unlike the ones that had once cut down Claten without hesitation, so unlike the cold and composed Lord Nika who had shaken Baran’s heart before—held something entirely different. The slight furrow of his brows, the way he clenched his fists as if holding something back… It was a side of him that only belonged to the eighteen-year-old Nika.

Baran’s lips twitched, barely suppressing a smile.

“Still, it feels unfair. I know, given my circumstances, this might sound shameless. But you were the one who first called me your lover, Baran.”

“Ugh.”

“I am isolated here. Every day, I can only spend time with you. But you… you are different. You can go anywhere, see people I don’t even know, live moments I’ll never be a part of… Baran, why are you laughing? What’s so funny?”

Baran, unable to hold it in any longer, burst into laughter and strode over. He sat down beside Nika without hesitation and reached out, pulling him into a crushing embrace.

The strength of his arms was rough, more forceful than one might expect from an affectionate gesture. A normal person would have found it painful.

“Haha, I love you.”

“What—suddenly—”

“I love you.”

Nika felt like Baran was treating the desperate courage he had mustered as nothing more than a playful complaint. He should have been irritated. He should have snapped back.

He tried. But all he managed was a weak twitch of his fingers in midair.

The moment he caught Baran’s scent—warm skin, the crispness of the night breeze, and the subtle earthiness of grass—it was like his tongue had been glued to the roof of his mouth. Instead, every nerve in his body became painfully aware of Baran.

The firm warmth of his touch. The steady rhythm of his breath. The way his voice resonated close to his ear. His existence.

His presence.

Nika clamped his mouth shut. His face was already burning, his ears—hidden behind his hair—flushed red. He didn’t return the embrace, but he didn’t push Baran away either.

── .✦

“You were jealous.”

“I was not.”

“Yes, you were. You even went as far as to mention it outright—sulking over why I left you behind and went with the butler. Are you still going to deny it?”

”…I was not.”

“Do you mean you weren’t jealous, or that you’re denying that you weren’t?”

Baran chuckled, his voice carrying a playful lilt.

“Anyway, I get what you’re saying. In short, you think I’ve been neglecting you too much. Well, I suppose spending every day locked up alone in the study must have been boring. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Nika’s cheeks turned red as he realized how openly he’d voiced his complaint. Embarrassed, he looked like he wanted to take back his words. Seeing that, Baran felt an urge to lighten his mood. So, without warning, he grabbed Nika’s hesitant arm and led him forward.

Inside the Marchioness’s room, Baran suddenly reached for a section of the bookshelf and pulled. A hidden passageway revealed itself. Nika, who had stubbornly kept his lips shut in protest, couldn’t help but let his mouth fall open. A musty, damp smell of dust and mold wafted out from inside. Baran, with exaggerated theatrics, bowed.

“This is….”

“A secret passage.”

“A secret passage?”

“Any old castle is bound to have at least one. Nobles tend to have a lot of things they’d rather keep hidden, you know.”

Nika wrinkled his nose as cobwebs clung to his boots.

“Are you even allowed to show me something like this?”

“Technically, no. It is a secret passage, after all. Even among the servants, only a handful know about it.”

Holding a candlestick in his hand, Baran glanced back and couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. Nika was walking awkwardly, watching his footing with extreme caution. The soft chuckle echoed against the brick walls.

Since the passage was narrow, they had to walk in a single file, with Baran leading and Nika following. Every few minutes, Nika would ask where they were going, but Baran remained silent. He could have given him a hint, but he kept saying he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

After passing through countless branching paths that were impossible to memorize, Nika started to sense that they were gradually heading downward.

The secret passage was infested with rats. When they passed a decaying rat carcass swarmed with flies, the stench made Nika gag, forcing him to clamp a hand over his nose. Meanwhile, Baran—who looked every bit the delicate aristocrat—was surprisingly unfazed. With a casual flick of his boot, he nudged the carcass aside.

When Nika demanded an explanation for why they were even taking this route, Baran scratched his cheek awkwardly. He couldn’t very well admit that he was keeping Nika hidden out of fear that word of his presence might spread. So, in the end, all Baran managed to say was a bland apology—something about how he hadn’t considered that Nika might have a weak stomach. Clearing his dry throat, he quickly changed the subject.

“Remember the other night when Raymond scolded me for sneaking into the study?”

“Scolded? You mean he gave you a full-on lecture.”

“He meddles too much. Anyway, this is the only way I can leave without getting caught.”

“And just where exactly are we going?”

Nika, who had been trudging through this suspicious passage with nothing but trust in Baran, closed his mouth again at Baran’s smile. Baran had been habitually saying, “We’re almost there,” for a while now. But this time, when he said, “We’re here,” he really meant it. 

Suddenly, Baran gripped Nika’s hand tightly and broke into a sprint. He reached for what looked like an ordinary brick in the wall and pulled.

A door appeared—at a place where a door should have never existed—and it swung open.

Baran had a well-trained body, but running a certain distance at full speed still left him out of breath. Meanwhile, for Nika, who was a dragonkin, all of this had been nothing more than a trivial movement that didn’t even disrupt his breathing. As a result, the strange situation arose where the one leading the way ended up looking more exhausted than the one following.

As Baran bent over slightly, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath, Nika spoke up.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“But this place is…”

Nika looked around curiously.

“It’s huge. And completely empty.”

“This is the training ground. The soldiers finished their drills a while ago, so it’s deserted now. Wait a minute—looks like those idiots didn’t clean up properly.”