I Pretended To Be Dead And Ran Away - Chapter 27

Ianathas was surprised by his own reaction.

It wasn’t the first time he had seen a woman’s body.

Rather, he was more accustomed to women than men, perhaps because he had dealt with countless women to train assassins.

For someone like him to turn his back just from seeing a bit of Reniel’s body.

Ianathas was even more shocked by that part.

Meanwhile, the strange scent that emanated from Reniel when he was a man seemed to be wafting more strongly now.

That scent was sweet, and perhaps because it was a person’s scent, it somehow seemed to ignite one’s lust.

“You should knock!”

“I’m sorry.”

Ianathas thought he should close his eyes while rubbing his face dry.

Of all things, the wall was so glossy that the contours of Reniel’s body were reflected and visible.

Clearly when he was a man, it was a thin and scrawny body, but as a woman, it should be the same body, so why was it so curvy?

He heard the sound of her hurriedly removing the towel and taking quick steps, seemingly trying to put on clothes.

Ianathas quickly squeezed his eyes shut.

Then his body, which had absorbed magic stones for concealment, began to react very sensitively.

Perhaps due to Reniel’s presence behind him, it felt as if she had brushed against him even though she hadn’t touched him.

And the purification ability that filled this room.

Ianathas thought that perhaps he was becoming intoxicated by this sense of stability because he too had absorbed magic stones and was experiencing side effects.

Fortunately, as she quickly put on the ring, the extreme tension seemed to dissipate. The moment she put on the ring, the scent changed.

He turned around and looked at Reniel.

“Why are you bathing at this hour?”

Ianathas regained his composure once again.

His ears were still hot and his face burned as if on fire, but he was definitely slowly regaining his composure.

The pounding heartbeat from the surprise also gradually calmed down as he confirmed that she had a man’s body.

He deliberately focused on the flat chest of the man. Reniel with the ring on was clearly in a man’s appearance. The chest was flat and thin.

The pelvis was small and the iliac bones were at a cute level.

But when his gaze went to her upper body, he quickly turned away as he had an illusion of seeing voluptuous breasts.

“Well, I have to bathe and sleep from this time. I need to sleep until lunch and then work again.”

Reniel was treating Ianathas as an unwelcome guest who would clearly disturb her sleep.

She was a bit flustered that he had seen her body, but now that she was in a man’s body, she was also finding stability.

She quickly put on thick pajamas.

“I guess I can’t get married now.”

She sighed. She felt ashamed for showing her body to a strange man.

“Why would that be the case?”

“Well, you saw my body, Ianathas.”

And she said that out of dissatisfaction that he was not apologizing and acting shamelessly.

When she pretended to be depressed, Ianathas opened his eyes wide, looking a bit flustered.

“I, I wasn’t the first to see. My lord saw first, right?”

“Ah, I see. So my body is something anyone can see. I understand.”

Reniel pouted her lips, now truly upset.

Though she clearly had a man’s body now, Ianathas found her pouting lips to look like tempting pink fruit in that moment, and was confused again.

“That’s not it. I’m sorry for opening the door without knocking.”

Ianathas seemed to have finally realized he needed to apologize.

“Really?”

“…Yes, I didn’t do it on purpose. I just thought you might be awake at this hour.”

“I see.”

“I’ll make sure to knock next time.”

Perhaps due to Ianathas’s apology, Reniel’s mood began to soften a little.

“Although my lord saw first, if you really want to get married, I could try to find you a match.”

“Were you not trying to kill me?”

“Ah.”

Ianathas’s mind finally started working again.

After all, according to his investigation, she was clearly the princess of Nirnberg.

Those sloppy forged documents from the poorhouse.

Traces of living while hiding her identity as a woman.

And the combination of aqua-colored hair and purple eyes, extremely rare in the empire.

Moreover, that enchanting scent coming from near her neck when she was a woman was clearly the scent of a purification ability user who could purify magic.

People who had forcibly injected magic stones were each experiencing side effects.

That’s why Ianathas was also having a bit of a hard time now.

His side effect was binge drinking. His binge drinking was not related to alcohol.

He looked at Reniel, who was opening her mouth carefully as if struggling.

“Then have you put off killing me?”

“For now… I’m thinking about it. And I haven’t told my lord yet.”

“I see.”

“Would it be faster for me to investigate the facts, or for Reniel to tell the truth now?”

Ianathas was probing her, as if giving her a chance.

“Didn’t you see the poorhouse documents? I’m not some great person like the princess of Nirnberg. I’m a kind, pitiful person who grew up in a poorhouse from the age of five, and barely managing to survive after getting a job as a servant while starving. How desperate must I have been to live disguised as a man?”

Ianathas held his breath for a moment due to Reniel’s fluent words.

How could she provoke such intense desire just by pretending to be pitiful?

From the moment he learned she was a woman, it became increasingly difficult to endure.

“Let’s get some air.”

Ianathas thought this might be the situation experienced by those with side effects who encounter a purification ability user and suffer from magic pain.

It wasn’t some noble emotion like love at all. Just greed and lust.

If he could bite her neck and touch her body to receive purification, that would be it.

Ianathas quickly opened the window, startled by his own subconscious thoughts.

For him, bedding was just a secondary pleasure, a conventional thing to do before sleep.

But why was he reacting like this?

Ianathas opened the window wide and breathed near it, not understanding his own reaction at all.

“For now… I’m not reporting it. So you be careful too.”

“Yes, alright. And make sure to investigate properly. I’m really nothing.”

Reniel quickly added, approaching Ianathas.

“I’ll really be loyal to the master. There’s no better job and food anywhere else. So please, let me stay here until I retire.”

“…Until retirement?”

“Yes. I want to receive a mansion to rent out in the capital and retire. They say I need to work for 30 years for that.”

When Reniel said that, Ianathas took a step back and smirked.

“You want that shabby building?”

Ianathas recalled the plaza building that Felix had bestowed upon retired head servants in the past.

It was quite a nice building, but not that historic, and the money it would bring in was just pocket change.

Of course, that was from Ianathas’s perspective.

“How is that shabby? That alone would secure my old age. How dreamlike is it to not have to do hard work when I’m old, receive rent, and have a separate house for myself?”

There’s no way she couldn’t be the princess of Nirnberg, but if she had no childhood memories, such a mindset wasn’t incomprehensible.

And if she continues to live like this, as a man, only being a woman to her master.

That might not be bad either.

Reniel’s desires were very trivial, and she was an unusually diligent person who worried about old age despite being only twenty years old.

But every time he saw those eyes, his heart seemed to flutter.

This must be due to the magic of the purification ability user…

“I’ll think about it.”

“Please think positively. I’m begging you.”

“Don’t, don’t hold my hand.”

Reniel immediately let go of Ianathas’s hand that she had grabbed while pleading.

“For now.”

Even as he said that, he loyally thought that if she harbored other thoughts, he should make Felix kill her directly.

Ignoring the unfamiliar reaction of his body.

****

“How do you do that stabilization thing?”

Reniel came to find Thanasis at dawn that day. As soon as she arrived, she undid all of Thanasis’s restraints.

As if they were now truly comrades in the same boat.

Thanasis, seemingly quite satisfied with her actions, came over and behaved docilely beside her.

“From what I’ve seen, mind control is needed. Your Highness can’t control magic because of severe mood swings, right?”

Reniel said this while looking at Thanasis, who had naturally sat down beside her.

“Then wouldn’t it be enough to know how to get angry? I can use my ability whenever I get angry because I can’t control my magic.”

“That won’t do. We can’t have your magic fluctuating like last time.”

She said this while opening a first aid kit, as if trying to treat Thanasis’s disheveled appearance.

Meanwhile, Thanasis arbitrarily removed the ring on her hand and said,

“Come close to me and treat me. Then I think I’ll be able to know how to control my emotions as you say.”

“You’re saying you get angry when I come close?”

“That’s right, so I’ll try to control myself to be less angry when you touch me.”

Even at that moment, seeing Reniel’s surprised expression made him want to strangle her breath.

“Reniel…”

Reniel was frozen in place, startled by Thanasis who had suddenly come close enough to touch her.

If she answered now, their lips would brush slightly.