Dry Drowning

Chapter 25

Today, as always, a loud knocking sound rang out.

It was obvious who it was, so I opened the door right away, and Kyle, who had been lively since morning, waved his hand while shouting good morning.

What do you mean good morning?

Kyle tilted his head for a while and quickly followed behind Ian’s back as he stepped out of the hallway without pretending to listen. There was something strange in his expression.

“What? You didn’t sleep well?”

It wasn’t obvious, but it was amazing that he noticed it right away. Since he was not obligated to answer, Ian moved to the training ground without saying a word. He was a little tired, but that was not a problem. Compared to the past, when he often used to stay up all night for a few days, it was comfortable.

Last night.

It was not until the door was completely closed that Ian slowly opened his eyes.

It happened to be a cloudy day too. The room was very dark. Even though the fireplace was turned off, Ian realized that the person who just came in was not even holding a candle.

Even with his closed eyes, he could feel the light. But even though the person came so close, he didn’t feel anything. What was the reason for sneaking in so late at dawn, staring at a sleeping person, and then leaving? He couldn’t tell who it was because he couldn’t see his face.

Maybe that’s why.

After putting the firewood back in and lighting the fireplace again, Ian did not lie in bed until it was bright outside the window. It was because he felt like someone would open the door again after he fell asleep.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

Kyle, who was following Ian, and walked silently to the training ground, asked again. Whether I couldn’t sleep or had a bad dream, it wouldn’t have anything to do with you, but you were unnecessarily nosy.

If Ian kept ignoring him, he would keep on asking until the end, so he shook his head moderately and approached the table. Now that it is almost a designated seat, it was neatly organized, unlike the first day when the seat was buried in dust. Seeing that the new ink bottle and fountain pen were neatly placed, Ed must have been there…

“Or did someone come in the middle of the night?””

…What?

Ian put down the paper he was holding and quickly turned around. Kyle, who had been following closely, looked at him now.

“Huh? What’s with this reaction?”

It seemed strange that Ian, who Kyle thought would ignore him, reacted right away. Kyle, blinking his eyes a couple of times while thinking about something, soon grinned and opened his mouth.

“Our prince, are you really enjoying secret meetings without me knowing? Learning hard… For a love letter maybe?”

“…..”

It’s my fault for mixing things up.

I desperately sympathized with what Claude said a few weeks ago, and turned around.*

[*T/N: I don’t really understand what Ian is talking about, but I guess it’s about Kyle teaching Ian or something. If you guys remember or understand you can comment it.(• ▽ •;)]

Ian could feel the knights glancing this way for the second time already. He sat down, found the part he had marked, and began reviewing the words he had memorized. Tea cups, lamps, candlesticks, chandeliers… Kyle, sitting on the other side, raised his chin on the table as Ian repeatedly filled the blank space with his still clumsy handwriting.

“Why? Dating is good. It is like a place to attach my heart to.”

He said in his heart that he should do it if he likes it so much.

Kyle, who slowly bowed his head forward, whispered as if he were making a secret proposal.

“Do you want me to be your lover?”

“……”

“Wow, what’s with that expression? I’m hurt. The prince doesn’t know, but I’m not an easy man. The lady who wet her pillow with tears because of me, lined up from the Grand Duchy to the Royal Road.”

False words were also a disease at this point.

Ian, who looked at Kyle with a face that said he was fine, wrote down the words he learned two days ago on the paper.

You’re lying.

“Then tell me.”

After seeing it, Kyle smiled with the corners of his mouth pulled up, and suddenly asked at once. I can’t help it, but I’ve been interfered with since earlier. At that moment I wanted to ask whether he would stop if I grabbed his hair like two weeks ago.

“Prince must have an ideal type, too.”

Are you still talking about that?

Ian didn’t know why he was suddenly obsessed with this topic.

In the first place, Ian lived a life far from that. He didn’t have the time, the ease, or even the proper status. He was already dead on paper because he was treated as dead in the family. And it wasn’t an environment where he could interact with someone.

So, he had never thought about his ideal type…

ㅡTell me. What kind of person you would like to be.

It was then.

Someone’s voice suddenly passed by his mind.

Ian pressed his forehead with his palm because he felt like he was going to have a headache.

“Did you read my face? What’s wrong?” Ian heard the sound of someone asking from afar. Frowning, he digs into his head once again. It was a voice full of affection, although it was not obvious.

ㅡCan you believe me? I…

As if the signal was cut off, the drooping voice stopped there. At the same time, the needle-piercing pain disappeared, and Ian caught his breath for a moment. Obviously, there were more words that followed behind. Even though he had never heard of it, Ian was convinced of it as if he had repeated it so many times.

What is this?

Is it part of an unforgettable memory?

Then why now? No matter how hard I tried to think of it, I couldn’t think of anything until then.

As Ian tried to bring out a familiar voice again, a shadow fell on the floor.

“Wake up.”

Suddenly, when he raised his head, he saw Kyle approaching him. Rather than a worried look, Kyle looked like he was observing closely. It was his first time seeing a person with a headache. Ian, who shook his hand because he had no time to look at him properly, turned his head.

He couldn’t even see Kyle’s next expression.

Since then, everything was the same as usual.

A monotonous time to learn new words, eat short, review again, and take exams. Except that Shyu’s face, who ran to see Ian in the middle, was swollen as if he had been beaten a few times, there was no sense of incompatibility even if he copied today’s schedule and pasted it on yesterday’s schedule.

Still, there was no encounter with the man.

When he stamped his seal to work at the fountain, he heard that he showed up at the training ground several times, but since he was stuck here, he never came once as if he had woven it.

It’s like you’re avoiding me.

“……”

Well, I knew it couldn’t be.

Why would you do such a hassle when you’re in a position equivalent to a grand duke?

In fact, Ian didn’t have anything he wanted to do if he met the man. It seemed that the man just had something to do with Ian’s memory, so he wanted to check it with his eyes again.

He was half curious whether his face still looked like what it did back then.

He also wondered where he was hurt and whether he was in danger.

He didn’t realize that such interest itself was weird.

Basically, it was an alien thing for someone who had little interest in others. No matter who was caught up in a power fight or who was beheaded, Ian would not have paid any attention.

“Well, good job.”

Before he knew it, it was dark outside the window. It quickly darkened as the days were short, so he came inside in the afternoon and used the drawing room. It was nothing more than an empty room because it was the Grand Duchy where guests rarely visited.

Kyle, who lives in the annex, always broke into the first floor because he had to go through the western entrance. Kyle, who was still single, waved his hand, turned around and added with a smiling face.

“From tomorrow, I’ll teach you a descriptive word. Shetier is the most vicious.”

“Among the people of the Empire who were taught from birth, many were wrong. If you learn the narrative right away, it is likely to lose interest immediately, so I had you memorize the words first.”

“I learned while being beaten, but I can’t do that to a precious prince.”

“Even if you give up on sentence phrases, it was calculated that memorizing words would be much better than not knowing them.”

Ian nodded appropriately without knowing the secondary hell that was just around the corner, and returned to his room. It was soon after climbing the stairs several times and passing through the hallway where beautifully crafted candlesticks lit up everywhere.

When he entered the room and closed the door, the interior was full of warm air, just like yesterday.

Just because he returned to a fairly familiar space, Ian headed to bed, squeezing his stiff neck, perhaps because fatigue was rushing in.

When he laid down on a soft blanket, something smelled good.

Come to think of it, there was no detergent, right?

When he had an unpleasant thought, he began to feel sleepy as if he had waited. It was not unreasonable to be tired because he didn’t sleep well yesterday due to the word bomb that lasted more than two weeks.

It was when he fell asleep while blinking and blinking, letting go of his consciousness.

Just like yesterday, Ian woke up by the same rattling window. He heard a small noise in his ear. When he came to his senses with the thought, “No way”, he could hear it more clearly.

Squeak.

It sounded the same as yesterday.

Realizing that the door was slowly opening, Ian slowly opened his eyes.

And soon, his eyes met someone over the door.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

T/N: I-I am on hiatus right?(─.─||）Hehe anyways I got time and got helped by my sis so here’s another sponsored chapter for the lovely readers. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

So I guess, I will give some surprise chapters in between my hiatus.(◡ ω ◡) B-But please don’t expect regular releases, I will post a chapter when get time or donation. (• ▽ •;)