“Wouldn’t it be difficult now as Your Majesty’s bedchamber maid?”

Reniel thought this was also a test by Thanasis.

She believed that even if the original content changed, the characters’ preferences would not.

Thanasis fell in love with those who made him submit. In the original, it was Felix.

He fell in love because Felix shattered Thanasis’s world, controlled his mind, and treated him cruelly to make him think of Felix all day.

Of course, there was debate about whether that was really love, but regardless, Reniel felt Thanasis was not interested in weak women he couldn’t subdue.

As proof, even now he was so close yet not touching her.

If his real goal was to take her as a bedchamber maid, he would have touched her already.

She smiled thinking this.

“You’re smiling?”

Thanasis felt very strange when Reniel smiled brightly.

What could she be thinking to be so unbothered with him right in front of her like this?

“I find this situation amusing. I understand you don’t want me to have a lover.”

She said this while slowly sitting up. Thanasis was surprised and backed away slightly.

He was unknowingly so tense that when Reniel approached, he retreated while holding his breath.

Yet his body trembled at the unfamiliar pressure felt in his chest.

“What… do you understand?”

His words came out strangely halting, perhaps from breathing incorrectly.

“You’re saying I can’t have a lover while I’m a bedchamber maid, right?”

“…That’s right.”

“Then I can date after I get promoted?”

“…”

Thanasis thought he should agree but didn’t want to. So he was looking for an excuse to say no.

Since no suitable excuse came to mind, he frowned and tried to look away.

Yet as Reniel sat up fully, he couldn’t sit down pressing against her, so he stood supporting himself on his knees.

“Your Majesty?”

He thought he could simply not promote her, but.

He had an inkling of how capable this woman before him was, so he couldn’t easily say such things.

“Is there someone you want as a lover?”

“There could be.”

“You don’t have anyone now?”

“No, not right now.”

He found it absurd and unpleasant that Reniel answered without even considering him.

“Do as you please. But absolutely don’t while you’re a bedchamber maid. You could die.”

“Because of the necklace?”

There was some exaggeration mixed in about the necklace’s function, so he hesitated a bit before answering.

“…Yes.”

He answered like that while staring at her smiling face.

The emotions and bodily reactions he felt now were just due to the defense mechanism of a magic purification ability user.

It couldn’t be sincere, and the pleasant response was obviously false.

Yet Thanasis felt very strange from the unfamiliar reaction.

He often felt it in the secret room too, but then it didn’t feel as strong as now due to survival instincts.

It was unfamiliar for his body to react to a woman, and for somewhere to feel heavy.

He felt heat rising and blood rushing to one place, but rather than wanting to explore her body, he wanted to look in her eyes and talk.

“You’re really ugly.”

He retreated while dismissing it like that, as if hypnotizing himself.

As he turned away obediently, she took in the wounds on his back with her eyes.

“You have many scars.”

She was a bit surprised that there were many serious wounds on his back as well as the front.

Then she poured disinfectant on cotton held with tweezers again. And she slowly wiped his back.

Thanasis’s back, which was more gruesome than expected, felt unfamiliar to her.

Looking closely, Thanasis also had a large body like a warrior.

But rather than an intimidating body like Felix’s at first glance, it seemed closer to being beautiful.

Thanasis’s body was large and splendid.

His back full of muscles to an aesthetically flawless degree was beautiful despite having several scars.

Focusing on his back, she unknowingly inhaled when he slightly trembled from the ticklish cotton.

“The hard tweezers touching my skin is irritating.”

“It seemed more hygienic than using hands.”

“Forget it. Use your hands.”

“Alright.”

She put down the tweezers to do as he said and grabbed the cotton with her hands.

The cotton damp with disinfectant gave a cool sensation to her fingers as well.

She began disinfecting his wounds again, wiping his back.

The colors of the scars were all different. Some were the same as his skin color with only traces of scars remaining, some were brown.

And some were pink as if proving they were recent.

“Does it hurt?”

“Then would it be ticklish?”

“It seemed like you were ticklish too.”

“That’s right.”

Thanasis found it amazing how she nonchalantly defused situations where he would get angry or irritated.

It was as if she naturally let him know it wasn’t something to get angry about.

It was strange how he understood that he had gotten angry over something not worth getting angry about when talking with her.

“Why are you being so gentle?”

“I have to be gentle so the wounds don’t worsen. I’m worried.”

“…I see.”

Thinking he couldn’t say anything to someone who said they were worried about him, he just endured the ticklishness.

Glancing at the mirror, he saw how focused Reniel was. Seeing that, his emotions softened again.

The mana noticeably calmed with each touch.

The mana flowing along his back soon regained its normal activity and circulated within him.

Even the pain melted away quickly, so he could barely feel the hurt anymore.

“Uh… What?”

Reniel suddenly wrote something on his back.

“You seemed too tense. Can you guess what I wrote?”

Thanasis found her behavior absurd. If other servants had done this, they would have been burned to death already.

But now, perhaps because she was touching him, such threatening power didn’t burst out all at once.

“Do it again.”

Then Reniel wrote something on his back with the disinfectant-soaked cotton.

“This isn’t writing?”

“That’s right. What could it be?”

Thanasis realized the picture she drew on his back was a heart shape and unknowingly turned around.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Just… finish the treatment.”

“Alright.”

He said that when their eyes met, but his heart fluttered again wondering if drawing a heart on his back might be an expression of her feelings.

Come to think of it, while she seemed not to give herself to him, she was actually there for him when it mattered.

Even when Ianathas discovered she was a woman, she eventually came back to take care of him, and after escaping from Duke Le Pelique’s mansion, she ultimately came to the palace with him.

Even now she was treating him and together in the bedroom.

Then.

Perhaps that just now was her true feelings.

“Hah.”

Thanasis felt he finally understood a bit what kind of person she was.

He often saw others submit to his beauty while considering him a monster.

They were fools who would kneel at his feet and obey whenever he wore fancy clothes, made eye contact, and smiled, even while despising him.

But they were quick to run away when they saw his monstrous side.

At first he thought she was one of those people too.

But now, perhaps because they had shared many important moments together, he thought she alone was different.

Perhaps she could remain by his side even after seeing his monstrous side.

“I don’t like cold ointment.”

“I’ll apply it with my hands. Don’t worry.”

She said that and then wiped her hands with cotton soaked in disinfectant again.

Then she opened the ointment jar and scooped up a generous amount of the glossy semi-solid ointment on her finger.

And she slowly applied it to his back.

His well-defined shoulder blades and back muscles undulated flexibly with each of her touches. That vitality felt as if it was touching her fingertips as he exhaled.

Thanasis couldn’t take his eyes off the mirror.

He felt her focusing on applying the ointment to his back, and her concentrated gaze felt like it was constricting his chest, making it hard to breathe.

So he unknowingly pressed his palm against the towel wrapped around his waist.

“Hey.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Do it slowly.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes, it hurts.”

It wasn’t a lie. Just that the place that hurt wasn’t his back.

He was hoping this welcome and unfamiliar pain wouldn’t end.

His face was too hot. His ears felt like they were on fire, and with each exhale it felt like boiling smoke was escaping from inside his body.

“Ugh…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, my ears are stinging a bit too.”

“…I’ll treat yours after I’m done with mine.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He glanced at the earrings pierced in her ears.

Though he really disliked them, he stayed still thinking the piercings could worsen if the earrings were removed right after piercing.

Soon Reniel finished applying the medicine and wiped her hands on the cotton. Then she unrolled the bandages.

He couldn’t help but focus even as she wrapped the bandages around his body as if embracing him.

He watched her hands tying the knot after wrapping his body in bandages.

Seeing her small hands even pick up the safety pin, he smiled strangely.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Your hands are really small. No wonder you can’t move when you’re caught.”

He took her hand. Then he spread her palm and drew a heart with his finger like she had done.

“So you did know what shape it was.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

He smiled along as he saw her grinning.

In reality, Reniel truly had no intention, but Thanasis couldn’t think that way.