TDAA Ch 32

Having no choice, they could only stand on either side of Muriel and watch the entertaining-looking fight scene unfold.

Seeing Reston step forward alone, the dogs seemed a bit taken aback. But soon, the man who had been jeering earlier tossed off his shirt and stepped forward. As the two large men stood facing each other, growling, the atmosphere heated up.

“Remember clearly that this fight started because of your stupid tongue.”

“I didn’t say anything wrong, but you’ve got quite the long tongue. Is this how it is in the land of beastmen?”

After exchanging a single remark each, the two beastmen clashed in the next moment. The dog beastman, no smaller than Reston, possessed properly trained fighting skills. Techniques learned through long training, based on a mental understanding of how to move his body to deliver more effective blows, flowed elegantly through his movements. The delegation’s eyes changed as they witnessed a style of movement unseen in the land of beastmen.

The massive man, a large dog breed, moved smoothly and drove a fist into Reston’s solar plexus. A considerably accurate strike. A direct hit like that to the solar plexus would normally leave one breathless.

However, Reston’s solid muscles did not acknowledge the punch as a blow. Ignoring the fist as if it were nothing, Reston grabbed the man’s neck and slammed him to the ground. The dog beastman, his breath momentarily cut off as his head and back hit the ground, let out a groan but did not go down. Gritting his teeth, the man used his lower body to wrap his legs around Reston’s arm and twist the joint.

“Hup…!”

If Reston hadn’t flexed the muscles in his arm at that moment, his elbow would have been bent backward and broken. In that instant, the man quickly escaped Reston’s grasp.

“Hmph….”

Reston smirked, cracking his own neck. In contrast, the dog beastman was visibly tense. The brief clash just now had been merely a process of sizing each other up, but even that had clearly revealed the difference in skill between them.

Perhaps it was an obvious result.

A fight between a dog and a white lion—the difference in weight class was just too great. No matter how much they fought in their humanized forms, it was impossible not to be affected by their true forms. Unlike a dog’s, a lion’s bones were as hard as steel, and the quality of their muscles was also incomparable.

The dog, who had likely never faced a lion in a fistfight before, got a good taste of the wild and clicked his tongue with a ‘tsk’. In truth, it was a disadvantageous fight for the dogs from the start. This was because lions are solitary fighters, whereas dogs are cooperative hunters. As if reading his thoughts, Reston provoked him.

“If you’re scared, all three of you can come at me at once.”

At that, the atmosphere worsened. The dogs began to growl, taking positions as if to display their cooperative hunting skills, while the white lion, Reston, also lowered his body, ready to take on all three of them alone.

As if to show they were more than ready to join in if this brawl escalated into a full-on melee, Muriel’s other subordinates, who had been just watching until now, clenched and unclenched their fists. No, they seemed to be welcoming the fight. It was clear they intended to relieve all the boredom that had built up from days of idling and eating in the mansion.

Meanwhile, Muriel’s head, which had been heating up, was beginning to cool down. He had acted in a fit of anger a moment ago, but the thought of having to resolve the situation gave him a headache.

However, backing down here wasn’t just a matter of his own pride. Weren’t they, after all, a delegation representing the land of beastmen, specifically Eorzen’s alliance? If he were to be ignored or to retreat here, it wouldn’t just end with him being laughed at; the entire land of beastmen might become a laughingstock.

Since it had come to this, he must not back down, even if it meant taking responsibility in some other way later.

Just as Muriel steeled himself for a conflict with the princess:

“Stop.”

The voice belonged to the man who had suddenly appeared and whispered in the princess’s ear when the delegation had their audience with her.

“What is the meaning of all this?”

Eriad asked in a cold voice, surveying the scene—the white lion standing his ground with bulging muscles, the three dog beastmen across from him in formation and ready to fight, and especially the dog who looked like he had just rolled on the ground.

The calm voice that cut through the highly charged atmosphere surprisingly made everyone take a step back with just that one word. The dogs flinched at the appearance of a higher-ranking knight, while the white lion, given the reason he started the fight in the first place, turned his attention to the person who had appeared to sort things out.

Eriad gestured with his chin for the beastmen who were opening their mouths to make excuses to stand back, then walked up to Reston.

The moment their eyes met, Reston could instinctively feel that the large dog before him was on a completely different level from the ones he had just fought. The man, who perfectly wrapped his ferocious and savage nature in a cloak of human courtesy, stared at the white lion with cool eyes.

“Did my subordinate make some kind of mistake?”

“Squad Leader! I wasn’t really—.”

“Asher.”

The foolish dog, not even realizing his superior was trying to cover for him, blurted out in anger before yelping and retreating at the low warning.

Watching the scene, Reston narrowed his eyes in amusement. The fact that the opponent backed down without a second word just by having his name called suggested this large dog was a leader who had his team firmly under control. If so, that was a relief.

“I’m lodging a formal complaint. I witnessed that dog there blabbering on about how our boss, Muriel, is lacking and whatnot.”

Muriel, who hadn’t even known that was how it started, stared at Reston with wide eyes, and Eriad frowned.

Eriad looked back at his subordinate with disbelief, wondering what he was thinking, getting into a fight after being caught insulting a member of a diplomatic envoy. He met the flustered eyes of Asher. Asher, the dog beastman who had been rolled on the ground by Reston earlier, looked genuinely bewildered and wronged.

“But it’s true! Compared to Titi, that, ah, I mean, that, that person is so….”

“Asher.”

“I just said he seemed a little lacking compared to Titi!”

“…Shut your mouth, Asher.”

Asher, who continued to plead his case even after being reprimanded, finally stepped back after seeing Eriad’s cold gaze.

With this, the cause of the fight was clear. That stupid dog wasn’t even hiding the fact that he had insulted a member of a diplomatic delegation.

“…My subordinate has committed a great discourtesy.”

“A very great discourtesy indeed. Of course, whether to forgive it or not will be decided by the one who was insulted. Isn’t that right, Muriel?”

Reston subtly pointed out that the apology was being directed to the wrong person and pulled Muriel forward. Suddenly sandwiched between two enormous beasts, Muriel looked at Eriad with some annoyance. The man, though his face was cool, looked somewhat weary as he politely placed his hand over his left breast and bowed to Muriel.

“I am Eriad, Squad Leader of the Shield Squad of the Meric Domain’s Beastman Knights. That rude fool is my subordinate, so I will apologize on his behalf. Since a great discourtesy was committed against our guest, if you would be so kind, I will allow you to deliver any punishment you wish.”

“Any punishment I wish, you say?”

Behind the words allowing him to mete out punishment as he pleased was the intention to end the matter without escalating it further. This was not what Muriel wanted. If possible, he wanted to blow this up even more. By insisting, if he must, that he was the representative of the delegation from the land of beastmen, and that insulting him was the same as insulting the land of beastmen.

And in doing so, he wanted to create a situation where the princess could no longer avoid showing her face.

“What I desire is not something like punishment, but….”

“But who is this Titi that you keep comparing him to?”

The one who cut in between them was a wildcat, a beastman knight under Muriel’s command. The wildcat, who was still close to being a boy, had wide eyes full of curiosity.

Muriel quickly tried to push him back, but Eriad’s answer came first. As if he knew what Muriel was thinking, he spoke kindly to the wildcat who had diverted the attention.

“Titi is not a dog, but a wolf who used to live in the Meric domain.”

“Whaat?”

That answer startled not only the wildcat but Muriel as well. A wolf lived in the human lands, a place that could have been called the domain of dogs?

“He was a very strong, big, cute, and lovable wolf. It seems Asher was very fond of that wolf back then, so he had some fantasies about wolves. I suppose not all wolves can be that strong.”

“No, no. If the comparison was to a wolf, then, uh, Asher, was it? That dog’s got a point.”

“Yeah, it’s true our boss is a bit lacking compared to other wolves.”

Muriel’s face contorted as he glared alternately at the wildcat and the leopard standing on either side of him. Only then realizing their slip of the tongue, the two beasts looked away with an ‘oops’ expression, pretending not to know, before getting smacked on the back of the head by Reston. Muriel, who sighed and looked at the two beasts as they slumped to the ground with a cry of “ow,” turned back to Eriad and made the request he hadn’t finished earlier.

“I would like to request an audience with Her Highness the Princess at the earliest possible time.”

“That will be difficult, Muriel.”

Before Muriel could react to the firm reply, Eriad continued.

“Because Her Highness the Princess will be absent for the time being.”

“Pardon? What do you mean, so suddenly….”

Just then, the sound of a horn echoed from somewhere in the domain. Muriel knew what this sound meant.

“The princess is scheduled to march to war.”

“…A war?”

If so, this was no time to be so leisurely.

He had to meet the princess or the lord as soon as possible to solidify the cooperative relationship with the land of beastmen. He didn’t want to seem desperate, but wasn’t the princess an indispensable card for the land of beastmen as well? If she were to die, the plan to kill the current king and install a new one to reset the current relationship would be ruined.

“It is not something like that. The lord of another domain has been forsaken by the king and has requested help from Her Highness the Princess.”

“…The possibility of a trap?”

“Of course, it is not non-existent.”

Eriad slowly shook his head and continued.

“However, it is Her Highness’s will that she cannot turn away from a subject’s plea to save his life.”

So the unspoken meaning was that, even considering the possibility of a trap, not going was not an option. It was a self-sacrificing, yet political, response.

Right now, Princess Ladie, as the daughter of the former king vying for the throne, was nothing more than the leader of a rebel force with a small support base. And her opponent was the most powerful figure in the human lands, the one who held the authority to appoint the lords of the realm. Only a very small number of lords could support Ladie without caring about losing the protective barrier.

Those were the lords loyal to the former king, including the Lord of Meric.

Until now, her support was merely a result of her lineage as the former king’s daughter. To gain more support, she now had to move on her own and prove to the other lords that she was a figure worth following.

And Muriel instantly realized that this campaign would be the first step on that journey.

He couldn’t know the princess’s true intentions—whether she was simply fulfilling her duty with a spirit of self-sacrifice or embarking on a political move—but he couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

Muriel quickly asked Eriad, who was signaling to his subordinates to go to the princess.

“Are you marching with them as well?”

“Of course. Our squad is Her Highness the Princess’s shield.”

“In that case, it seems we should be the ones to apologize.”

“Pardon? What is this sudden…?”

Eriad frowned at the sudden change of attitude, but Muriel did not back down and bowed his head.

“We are only sorry for having injured a knight who must go into battle immediately. So, as a token of our apology.”

Muriel glanced behind him, and the white lion, who had been tilting his head, smiled with a look of understanding and took a step forward. Reston, who had stepped back leaving everything to Muriel, revealed himself once more. Muriel patted Reston’s shoulder firmly and said.

“We will lend you one of our lions. And a leopard.”

The leopard, who was suddenly singled out and took a step forward, looked dazed for a moment before his face quickly lit up with excitement. He kept his mouth shut, perhaps worried that the fussy Muriel might change his mind, but he looked like he was about to fly away with joy. Beside him, the unchosen wildcat pounded his own chest, urging to be picked, before getting hit by the white lion and rolling on the ground.

Simply put, Muriel’s words meant he would let this incident pass quietly in exchange for a chance to contribute and earn merit.

Eriad hesitated for a moment but soon nodded. In any other situation, he might have refused on his own authority, but this campaign was scheduled to involve an incredibly fierce and dangerous battle. It wouldn’t matter if only the dog beastmen were in danger. But in a situation where the life of their master, Princess Ladie, might be at risk, he had to do whatever he could to strengthen their forces.

It would be a gain to temporarily incorporate the white lion, who seemed as strong as the captain of the Beastman Knights, into their ranks.

“Very well. We will gladly borrow your hands. And….”

Though the other party was also pursuing their own interests, the fact remained that they had extended a helping hand in a situation where they didn’t have to. Eriad bowed his head toward Muriel.

“I will be sure to report this to Her Highness the Princess. Of course, I will not omit the rudeness my boy committed.”

Muriel, sensing that this loyal-natured dog was pleased with the help, simply nodded. In a situation where time was short, arguing back and forth over whether it was necessary would only be a hindrance.

With that, Eriad turned and ran toward the castle gate, disappearing from sight. As Muriel watched the lion and leopard swiftly run after him, he prayed for the princess to achieve her goal and return safely.

“…I wanted to go too….”

Muriel ignored the whimpering mumble of the wildcat sprawled on the ground.

⋆୨🔮୧⋆

Siol, who had been immersed in research day and night for several days, was a mess. In a life where he barely washed, dove into his research the moment he opened his eyes, and collapsed into sleep only when he was about to die of exhaustion, Siol grew thinner and his cheeks more hollow with each passing day. Yet, even as he became so worn out, his eyes sparkled brightly.

How long had it been since he had been this engrossed? The alchemy he had practiced in an environment of abundance and favoritism had been satisfying, but there was a different kind of flavor to research that involved filling in gaps with knowledge and pursuing better efficiency through investigation and experimentation.

“Eheheh…! It’s done now…!”

As Siol muttered, sinisterly stroking a piece of firewood, Luber, who had been sleeping on his back on the carpet in his dog form, rubbed his eyes and got up.

“Is it… is it done…?”

“Yes! This should be enough to tell Ladie about. I was a fool, Luber! I was trapped in my own preconceptions. The truth is, alchemy is…!”

Without listening to Siol’s words, Luber staggered outside, then returned with a basket of food in his mouth and placed it next to Siol’s leg. Then, dozing off again, he said.

“Eat… Please eat….”

“No, you don’t have to take care of me even while you’re so sleepy….”

“I have to…. If I don’t, I get… scolded… in my dreams….”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Having spouted strange words, Luber fell half-asleep again while sitting up. For the past few days, while Siol had been deeply engrossed in his research, Luber too had not left his side, not even to go home. At first, he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying a life of just rolling around, aside from bringing meals and firewood, but at some point, he began to sleep poorly and doze off constantly. It was cute, but he didn’t need to stay by his side so desperately.

Siol looked at Luber with pity, stroked him a few times, and then took a roasted chicken leg from the basket and began to chew. Inside the basket were five different kinds of greasy meat dishes. Not only that, but there were also sandwiches, a salad, and juice with a lot of sugar in it. Since Siol had started focusing on his research, the number of dishes had increased one by one, until it had become a menu that could be called a feast.

He had wondered where such a feast came from in a place short on food, but it seemed they had managed to import a fair amount of food by secretly trading the jewels they received from the land of beastmen with a nearby domain. It made sense; the trade blockade ordered by the king was not only a problem for the Meric domain, which couldn’t import food, but also for the domains that no longer had a way to sell the food they always had.

“Hah…! Are you, eating…?”

Luber, whose head was drooping so low it was about to touch the floor, suddenly jerked his head up and asked Siol. His eyes were barely open.

“I’m eating. Want to eat together?”

“No…. I… if I steal food… I’ll be scolded….”

“Scolded? Who would scold you, Luber?”

He asked, exasperated, but in that short time, Luber had fallen asleep again. Just what kind of strange dreams was he having to be talking such nonsense? Siol pulled the sleep-staggering Luber over and gently laid him down on the floor.

“Huuung…. I’m sorry….”

Siol stroked Luber, who was whimpering and sniffling in his sleep, and asked softly.

“What’s wrong, Luber? Is someone bothering you?”

“Yes….”

“Who’s bothering you?”

“A huge… a huge… lizard keeps…!”

Luber, who seemed to be answering obediently, suddenly dropped his head and fell completely asleep. Siol looked down at Luber in bewilderment, then sighed, “Sigh,” and just stroked his golden fur firmly. He figured Luber must be quite tired from trying to attend to him, something he was not used to, even though he hadn’t done much.

Of course, he didn’t feel the gaze of the harvest mouse secretly monitoring the scene at all.

After finishing his meal, Siol put on his coat and pondered how to deliver this joyous news to Ladie. He could take one piece of firewood, explain it simply, and let her see the results with her own eyes. He would say he had been contemplating the alchemy that would help the residents, as they had discussed last time.

Leaving the sleeping Luber behind, Siol headed out of the research lab with a piece of high-quality firewood in his arms.

How much detail should he go into?

The original goal of alchemy was to mix various low-grade items and offer a sacrifice to obtain a better result. Because that was the basic human mindset toward alchemy, it hadn’t been easy to think of, but in fact, the basis of alchemy was simply to change properties to obtain a new result.

Therefore, it was also possible to change something not for the better, but for the worse. From the world’s perspective, wood for furniture was more valuable than wood for firewood. So, by transmuting the properties of furniture wood into firewood, it was possible to perform a truly magical alchemy that could actually double the amount of firewood. Of course, this was the result after sacrificing a portion.

If they were going to use furniture wood for firewood anyway, it would be better to increase the quantity by changing its properties to a lower grade through alchemy….

“You must not, Your Highness!”

Siol, who was walking up the stairs while blankly formulating his presentation plan in his head, heard the Lord of Meric’s voice and instinctively hid behind a pillar.

“I must go.”

Ladie was there too. Ladie was descending the stairs, clad in armor. And behind her, the Lord of Meric followed with a stiff expression.

“It might be a trap! I am not saying you should do nothing! Send the dogs. But not you, Your Highness.”

“If I do not step forward this time, what other lord will trust me?”

“You could lose your life doing so!”

“Lord Meric.”

Ladie stopped walking and turned to face the Lord of Meric.

“Decide clearly whether you wish to raise the king’s blood like livestock, or whether you wish to serve a king.”

At that fierce rebuke, the Lord of Meric froze with wide eyes.

“I would never, mean such a thing….”

“Lord Meric, you oppose me every time I try to step forward.”

“That is because you only choose dangerous paths, is it not?!” the Lord of Meric shouted, as if growling. The emotional rift between the two, who had seemed so close, was palpable.

“It was the same last time. There was no reason for you to go all the way to a domain close to the land of beastmen and take such a risk. Yet you insisted on going. Thanks to that, several knights were injured, and Your Highness yourself was almost gravely hurt. Did you think I wouldn’t know that you were almost hit by a barrage of flames from a mage?”

“That is…!”

“Weren’t you going to retrieve the Alchemist of Death from the very beginning?!”

“……”

Unable to answer, the Lord of Meric continued to shout at Ladie. As if unleashing all the frustrations he had been bottling up inside.

“You asked just now if I wish to raise the king’s blood like livestock? Of course not! I wish for nothing more than for Your Highness to become a great queen. But at the same time, that blood is also precious!”

“I am not livestock….”

“If Your Highness were to die while taking such risks, what do you think would happen to this domain?”

Siol held his breath, clutching the firewood tightly.

The fact that there was a conflict between the princess who carried the former king’s blood and the loyal lord who had been the former king’s close friend was surprising enough, but what shocked him now was the fact that Ladie had taken a risk to bring him here. He hadn’t thought it was a purely coincidental meeting, but he had never imagined she would have crossed such a long way just to meet him. He had thought she had come to meet him on the way while she was in the area to handle some other business.

But to think that wasn’t the case.

Come to think of it, throughout their exchange of letters, Ladie had never believed that Siol was doing well. She had told him several times to come to her side whenever he wished. He had thought it was excessive worry, but in the end, hadn’t that worry allowed Siol to join her?

Thanks to Ladie taking a risk.

And now, Ladie was about to set off on another dangerous path.

To fight against the king, one must always face danger. It was a matter of course. Countless lords loyal to the king, the knights under those lords, and the soldiers armed with the alchemical tools Siol had once created and given to the king stood in Ladie’s way.

And Siol, as an alchemist, was the one who was supposed to create tools to make that path even a little bit easier.

Siol’s face turned pale as he looked down at the firewood in his arms.

This land was in the midst of a war, yet what he had created was not a weapon to aid in the war, but a method for the efficient transmutation of firewood. He should have made something that would be helpful on the path Ladie walked….

The achievement he had gained from days of research suddenly felt trivial and shabby.

“All the domains that followed Your Highness will be purged! Every person living in every domain, from children to the elderly, will be killed without exception, and for the next 30 years, the domains will be left as uninhabitable land. Then, when everyone has forgotten about them, a lord will be appointed and they will be given a completely new name. They will all become lands that never existed, people who never existed!”

“Are you telling me not to step forward and to preserve my bloodline in preparation for defeat?!”

“A king is not one who fights directly!”

“And I am not yet a king!”

Neither of them would back down an inch.

If you thought about it, neither of them had said anything wrong. To ascend to the human throne, one must inherit the king’s bloodline, and if Ladie was the only remaining royal bloodline besides the king, it was natural for the Lord of Meric to be sensitive about her life.

Ladie, too, would hardly find it pleasant to wait in a safe place for the throne to roll to her feet without doing anything. Hadn’t she already spent eight years in Siol’s laboratory doing nothing but living?

“Your Highness, the preparations are complete.”

The voice that cut between the two was that of a knight, announcing that the preparations for departure were finished.

“…We will speak of this again later.”

“Your Highness!”

“In the meantime, think again about whether you have truly seen me as nothing more than my father’s bloodline, as just a blood bag for the royal family.”

Ladie snapped in anger and stormed out of the mansion with the clanking sound of her footsteps. The Lord of Meric, fuming, couldn’t bring himself to stop Ladie by force and watched her back, remaining stock-still in that spot long after the door had closed.

And when the Lord of Meric finally turned back into the mansion, he was about to step onto the stairs leading up but then spotted Siol hiding behind a pillar.

“You are….”

“……!”

Startled, Siol flinched and watched the lord warily. It was the first time he had been alone with the lord since coming to the Meric domain, and to make matters worse, it was right after he had argued with Ladie. The timing was terrible.

“Why are you here?”

“I had… something to tell Ladie, so for a moment….”

Siol answered hesitantly and watched the Lord of Meric’s expression. He quickly averted his gaze as soon as their eyes met, but it seemed that action had instead angered the Lord of Meric even more. He took a step toward Siol and said.

“Listening in like a little rat! So, what is your impression? Her Highness took a risk for you, and what in the world are you doing? Carrying firewood?”

“No, this… it’s not like that….”

“To think Her Highness went through all that trouble for a mere greeting like this, I can’t believe it.”

I should have made a war weapon after all.

Instead of researching the efficiency of firewood, he should have made a tool that could be used on the battlefield, a tool that could kill people more easily and save more allies.

Siol stared at the floor, breathing in shallow gasps.

“I cannot understand why Her Highness brought you in. If you have any shame, find a way to be of some help!”

Siol stood frozen and motionless until the Lord of Meric disappeared onto this floor, and only after his presence had completely vanished did he stagger back, lean his back against the pillar, and slump to the floor.

Should I have made a weapon? Instead of researching something like firewood, I should have… made a weapon….

No, to make an efficient weapon in a situation of scarcity, something else had to be sacrificed. Through an unjust method of draining someone’s life force or magic. Just like the weapons he had made for the king in the past.

The tools he had sent to the king were only those that used mana stones or the user’s magic. They were fine if used moderately, but excessive use could lead to death from depletion of internal magic. Siol had emphasized several times that this point must be heeded, but thinking back now, there was no way the king would have accepted such a warning. The tools Siol had created had killed many beastmen, but they must have killed countless humans as well. Probably…. No, undoubtedly.

When one’s magic ran out, one would not use an alchemical tool. He had thought that as long as they were used following that rule, they were perfectly fine tools, so there was no reason to let them be used to the point of death by draining magic. He had trusted the king’s character…. No, he himself was at fault for creating the tools without a sense of caution. Siol bit his lip, blaming himself.

He trusted Ladie. But what if someone under Ladie made someone use the tool even if it meant sacrificing the user? His trust was directed only at Ladie. He couldn’t trust Ladie’s subordinates. So, from now on, he intended not to make tools that used the user’s magic. At least until he devised a plausible locking mechanism.

In a situation where he had made such a resolve, for Siol to create an alchemical tool for war was not something he didn’t want to do, but something that was impossible.

A moment ago, he had momentarily blamed himself and had the wrong thought, but thinking rationally, Siol’s choice was not wrong.

Let’s not torment myself for not being able to do the impossible.

However, there was one thing that was not impossible.

Siol fumbled in his bosom and took out the last remaining scale of Eorzen. This beautiful, glittering blue scale contained an enormous amount of power. A power comparable to a mana stone, no, a power incomparably stronger than a mana stone considering its size.

If he offered this scale to the Delivery Man, he could create a tremendous tool that could protect the life of Ladie alone, without devouring the user’s magic. The reason he hadn’t done so until now was because this scale was a very precious item to Siol.

Because it was the only thing that allowed him to feel the blue dragon, whom he might not meet again until all the twisted situations surrounding him were set right, or perhaps ever again. Because he had thought that this, at least, he did not want to lose.

But was this more precious than Ladie’s life?

Siol clutched the dragon scale tightly and resolved to part with it. Ladie had risked danger and come all the way to the vicinity of the land of beastmen to save Siol. If he hadn’t left the land of beastmen in time, she might have even searched inside the land of beastmen. No, she definitely would have.

Siol placed the dragon scale on his palm and slowly brought his lips to it.