191.

It was a spectacle.

Punish her, do whatever. Was I the one who leisurely enjoyed the rising leisure like intoxication? No matter how much he tried, he was destined to become the tongue in his sister’s mouth. The fact that his head was spinning so much at the short question of what he wanted was proof of that. Even dizziness arose in his temples. With a dumbfounded mind, he felt acutely like a thorn the time passing helplessly.

Unable to bear the pressure any longer, the words he finally blurted out as if pushing them out of his mouth were.

“Want me.”

It was the most primitive language.

After saying it himself, he almost bit his tongue hard. In fact, his desire required more detailed and elaborate language. Such an immature behavior at this golden opportunity. He was sweating profusely, feeling utterly pathetic to a desperate degree. He was so restless, feeling like a complete fool. However, his flustered tongue could not produce any long words. He could only wait for Inette’s reaction with a pale face.

Inette, who raised her upper body groggily, had a somewhat bewildered expression. She stared blankly into the pitch darkness and tilted her head.

“Want you? You?”

“Yes….”

The request was so meager that he knew in advance his sister would question it. For that reason, Johannes’ answer lacked much energy. What… how… As Inette fumbled weakly along with him, her movements suddenly stiffened. Johannes sensitively measured even the slightest changes in her expression with an anxious mind. Ah.

His sister’s face, paler than a half moon, grew even whiter.

“No.”

The low voice was like some kind of scream.

Johannes noticed the trembling in his sister’s hands as she clutched the blanket. The gradually intensifying beating of her heart was a storm in itself. She had just now realized the nature of the emotions the siblings harbored.

Well, she’s a sister who’s oblivious by nature. This realization is quite late too. Johannes could almost hear his sister’s next words. You’ll deny it from the start. His heart felt like it would burst at even a single strand of his sister’s hair.

“Don’t do this.”

Indeed. Johannes’ expression crumbled miserably. He exhaled roughly, not realizing he had been holding his breath.

“Want me.”

Ah, huk. As he blindly pushed his body forward, his head drooped forward with a short groan. His lungs, which had suddenly become stuffy, were bursting out without even a chance to endure.

The wings that had been crouched like a beast, pushing out even the intestines below his ribs inside his body, burst out with a cracking sound of muscles tearing, and a tingling sensation ran up Johannes’ spine. For a very brief moment, all he could do was shudder silently.

“You said you’d give it to me. Inette.”

Johannes, gritting his molars, barely raised his head. He somehow extended his hand, which was twitching like a seizure. He fixed Inette’s chin with his fingertips, focusing on a spot slightly off from her eyes, and Inette’s shoulders jumped in surprise at the unexpected contact. Johannes approached Inette’s nose tip, drawing a painful breath. He whispered.

“Whine to me… beg me. Truly cling to me, saying that it wasn’t this good-for-nothing but Johannes you really wanted. I’m not asking you to say something you don’t mean right now.”

“……”

“Where are you looking.”

Johannes’ forehead tilted as if following her.

“Wait…”

“Look here.”

He immediately prevented Inette’s gaze from drifting towards her husband by applying force to his fingertips. Because her chin was firmly held, the time it took for her gaze, which had lost the strength to flow, to return to him seemed like a thousand years. When his sister’s attention was finally fully on his eyes, Johannes lowered his forehead in a collapsing manner and pressed it against her brow. His rapid breathing caught on her nose bridge.

“Right now… just don’t look at anything else but the two of us.”

And, his voice, pleading almost inaudibly, was clearly trembling. Johannes quickly murmured in a heavily suppressed voice.

“I know. I’m not completely unaware of your anxious feelings. If you really don’t want to, you can think of it as spitting out sand because your mouth is dry. Pretend you’re comforting your pitiful brother with lies, close your eyes tight and just spit it out this once. The first time is hard, but the second time you’ll want me and welcome me first. I swear, I’m the one who won’t be able to bear it if I don’t fulfill whatever you whisper. You know. You know too. So, hm? Open your mouth.”

Johannes pressed broadly under Inette’s chin with an urgent look, opening his hand. He didn’t want to give her any leisure to think about anything. Inette’s lips, which had been closed like a prisoner due to tension, opened shallowly as a result.

There was even a sound of her thin throat drawing in a short breath. Although that sight was quite painful, Johannes paid no heed. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear. He just pressed his forehead forward like a madman, his vision dizzyingly dark.

Now even the narrow gap between the tightly closed lips seemed stifling, and he shuddered once. It was a gesture as if he was about to dive into the air below and enter his sister’s mouth. With such a thirsty posture, he began to pour out his long-held desire downward, downward.

“Please declare.”

“……”

“Declare that you’ll fall into my arms, that you’ll entrust your safety to me. Please. Declare that, and then just throw tantrums at me anytime, crying and bursting with anger. I. Inette.”

“……”

“I am.”

“……”

“I am already your faithful limbs. So let me take on all your difficulties, secrets you’d take to the grave, and even the shameful things that make your face flush. Use me as the only person to take care of you.”

“……”

“Do you understand? Do you understand this meaning? You… you’re reigning over the future Duke Valdemar. Yes. You, who receives the service of the duke.”

“……”

“You are my king.”

That man who is a royal in name only is not needed by you at all. Silence.

Johannes’ hand, which had finished demanding while forgetting even his own anger, trembled. Although he had pressed, it was close to a confession. The wings, not yet fully dried and dripping Johannes’ bodily fluids like a placenta, settled on his highly raised back and soaked the lower hem of the blanket with blood.

Inette is not even breathing. With her pupils dilated as much as possible while receiving her brother’s hot breath on her entire face. For several minutes, only a distant silence filled the bed where the deceased young man and the young siblings lay as if collapsing.

Through lips frozen like a dead person’s, Inette asked.

“Do you truly… want such an appearance from me?”

Johannes released her chin. He raised his upper body on his knees, looked down at her for a moment, and nodded.

“Yes.”

Silence again.

Johannes’ insides are parched. The blood waiting for an answer seemed to dry up completely. Inette, staring at him, looked like someone whose gaze was caught on his eyes. There was no will in the gaze that tilted her neck up, following her brother’s rising face. With such an absent-minded expression, she twitched her lips again.

“The version of me you speak of is…”

“……”

“Not a lord, or a king…”

“……”

“But like your concubine.”

Johannes unconsciously took a deep breath and furrowed his brow. He was dumbfounded.

“Concubine?”

“Don’t tell me you’re now…”

“How can you not understand…”

“Don’t say such disgusting things.”

Inette’s low curse cut off Johannes’ words as he was shaking his head with a fiery sigh. For a very brief moment, a bewildered expression flashed across Johannes’ eyes. But a red tinge gradually appeared. Disgusting, she says. Of course, it wasn’t just him who was starting to boil over. Inette, who had covered her entire cornea with shock and anger, was glaring at him, trembling with her whole body.

“I wondered what intentions brought you barging in here causing this commotion… Have you been looking at me with such eyes all this time?”

“……”

“At me? Your sister?”

“……”

“I can’t believe it…. You.”

“……”

“Ah, it’s horrible, it’s filthy. I feel like… I’m going to vomit everything…”

Inette, who had pulled the blanket up to her chest with both hands, suddenly bent her waist. She looked as if she might actually retch as she said.

“Get away.”

Johannes only realized his hand was on her shoulder blade after being rejected. As soon as he became aware, he quickly clenched his fist and dropped it. He couldn’t stand his own hand that worried about her well-being first even after such an insult. He now knows too well that he cannot even ignore the emotion that clearly burns him. So is it not just a ragged anger? It wasn’t something to be newly surprised about.

“…Why are you so disgusted.”

Johannes stuffed his fallen spirits into his knees. He took one step closer on such miserable knees. Inette’s shoulders, which had been coiled like a baby snake under the gathered blanket, jumped slightly. She pulled back her upper body with a very wary look.

“…Go away.”

“You wanted me in your heart.”

“Don’t come closer.”

“You’re more honest when you’re half-asleep.”

“What?”

“What you said to me when you were drunk with sleep.”

“I…”

For a very brief moment, a bewildered look flashed across Inette’s eyes. Johannes swallowed the voice that was about to bark at her. He waited for her to realize and admit it herself, gathering his tattered patience. It was cruel patience.

Soon he watched her entire face turn bright red with quite a triumphant and also sorrowful feeling. Yes. Johannes saw that sight very clearly. He couldn’t help but see it. However.

“I don’t know.”

Inette shook her head slightly. Johannes’ eyes narrowed gently. Black blood vessels were rising all over his arm as he suppressed his rage. He spat out each word.

“No. You do know.”

“I said I don’t know.”

“What we did together.”

“You, don’t think about lying.”

“How deeply you licked inside my mouth…”

“Stop!”

Inette, who had shouted unconsciously, covered her own mouth with a face about to faint. She hurriedly glanced at her husband. By now she should have known he was someone who would never get up again. Even her minor temperament was so terribly horrifying that it was sickening.

Should he do more or not. Johannes, who was hesitating because he couldn’t fully dispose of his anger, eventually cupped Inette’s cheek with one hand. The back of his hand that was enduring her occasionally twitched.

“Back then, you had a feverish expression like in the old days.”

“Ah, please.”

And finally, Inette’s head collapsed as if leaning into his hand. Her exposed white nape was flapping like a fish on land.

“Please. I don’t want to hear any more filthy words…”

Johannes gave no answer. It wasn’t exactly the pleading he had wanted. She leaned her cheek on Johannes’ hand as if trying to cover her ears, but soon dropped her hand. She seemed to be completely exhausted from the extreme tension. Even that sight was like a dagger to Johannes, and it was miserable.

“How can you be like this. What if others hear? I just asked about your feelings because I was so frustrated, I didn’t mean to involve my name in such a shameful matter.”

“Why… am I not allowed?”

“How can you ask that now…”

“Because I’m your brother?”

“Of course…”

“Cut it out. I can’t understand it at all. How am I… any different from Xavier?”

Johannes realized with a start only after barking. That name, a name he had never once put on ‘Johannes” lips. And it was as if that name was a flare fired at his own patience. Ah.

It’s breaking.

“Xa… Who?”

Johannes stared at Inette as she raised her head groggily. This child is not his sister. Although he knew it rationally, the rage rising in his throat seemed to have no mind to consider this at all. He no longer had the ability to endure his sister’s ignorance. He swallowed once. He lowered his head deeply, then raised it. After glaring at the black ceiling as if to kill it instead of Inette for a moment, he lowered his posture like a wild beast and thrust an expression that looked as if it would swallow even Inette’s gaze under her eyebrows.

“Why… am I not allowed.”

“……”

“All kinds of filthy rumors circulated about your former brother, but you didn’t even listen with one ear. Why… can’t you endure it this time?”

“……”

“This empty body is also that of the brother you cherish, isn’t it?”