Overpowered Reincarnation Perks! - Chapter 17.9
Just as he named himself after the place where we first made love, there’s no way he wouldn’t revisit the place where we were last together.
‘I know. That I’m being greedy.’
I know how shameless it is to want to see his face again before leaving after hurting him. I know it doesn’t help in saving people or completing the quest.
But what moves me is always my heart. Not justification or duty.
“Callion!”
The wall, where rest times are more frequent than guard duties, was still quiet. I looked at the end of the wall, which was beginning to darken under the sky.
“Callion. I’m sorry.”
The wall is too high to know if he’s up there. But I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“When I first approached you, it was purely selfish. I didn’t consider your feelings.”
Maybe it’s just self-satisfaction to ease my own guilt. But I want to apologize to him.
“I’m sorry for hiding it. I know no excuse can cover up the wrong I did in deceiving you. But please let me apologize.”
“Don’t apologize, Ju-in.”
The low, refreshing voice came not from above, but from behind.
Before I could turn around, a large body embraced me. A cool and soft sensation like winter snowflakes enveloped me.
“It was I who told the lie. It was I who was greedy.”
“Callion.”
“It was all me. Wanting you, coming back, and clinging to you because I couldn’t let go of my lingering feelings.”
Blue eyes, as quiet as a winter mountain, held me.
“It was all me.”
The hand on my shoulder tightened slightly, and his face drew closer. Though he seemed to have been outside for a long time, the breath touching my nose was unexpectedly warm and sweet.
But Callion didn’t come any closer.
It was close enough that our lips could touch at any moment, but he bit his lip as if holding something back and raised his head.
“I’m sorry, Ju-in.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I told you that you could do anything as long as you didn’t abandon me… I showed an unseemly side of myself in front of you.”
The sadness etched on his face, delicate like glass artwork. Feeling sorry for his long eyelashes trembling, I hugged his waist.
“You can be honest in front of me, Callion. No matter what side of you I see, I will never abandon you.”
“…Really, you won’t abandon me?”
“Of course.”
The anxious feeling dissipated like a candle flame flickering in the wind. A deep breath, intense enough to make my heart flutter, flowed over my lips.
A desperate kiss, like trying to catch a light found while wandering in fog. The gesture of trying to feel the living, breathing other person with his whole body made my heart race wildly, and excitement warmed my entire body.
We didn’t just explore each other’s lips. The wet lips sliding over eyes, nose, ears, and skin acted obsessively as if about to devour the other. Seeing the innocent smile that couldn’t hide desire, my chest burned as if set on fire.
I only know one way to express this tender loveliness.
“Ju-in, Ju-in……”
The hand caressing my back and nape moved up, disheveling my hair. Callion’s eyes were red as he focused on biting my lower lip gently and sucking on our touching tongues.
“Callion, stop.”
“Ah……”
As I pushed him away and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, Callion let go of me with an expression of not knowing what to do, looking regretful.
“I’m sorry. Did you… dislike it?”
“No.”
It’s not that I disliked it, but because I liked it so much that I might forget I have to go to the central palace.
“Callion. Do you want to do more?”
“Of course… Ah, no. As you wish, Ju-in.”
“Do you want to do more?”
When I asked again with a subtle smile, Callion’s face turned bright red. That reaction sent a different kind of thrill through my chest, different from the kiss. Is it okay that I find teasing this innocent man so enjoyable?
“I… want to.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“What? Really?”
“Let’s do it when we get back.”
The sky, which had been getting dark, now had a clear moon rising. Silver hair shimmering in the moonlight fluttered in the wind. Suddenly wanting to grab it, I wrapped Callion’s hair around my fingers and gently pulled.
“I’ll be back after doing some lord’s work for a bit.”
“……”
“It’s really just for a moment. That we won’t be able to meet.”
It’s just that we won’t see each other for a while. We will meet again and continue to be together.
“So wait for me, Callion.”
“…Yes.”
***
I crossed the quiet night sky as if flying, held in Callion’s arms. The road to the central palace was wide, but there weren’t many people passing by. I looked down at the triangular roofs that had become as small as toys, thinking how fortunate it was that there was no one to peek under my skirt, fluttering in the night breeze.
The cityscape, filled with large and small yellow lights, was not dark even at night. A peaceful scene that made you forget there had been such a commotion. Seen from a distance, the way people live in that village or this castle is not different.
It means that the world I must protect always looks the same.
“We’ve arrived, Ju-in.”
Callion set me down on the ground and stepped back.
“Thank you, Callion.”
“……”
Callion slowly raised his hand. It didn’t touch me. He just moved his hand as if tracing my face line, about a finger’s width away.
Where had the person who had explored me so intensely during the kiss, as if about to devour me whole, gone? Occasionally, he would stop and hesitate with a face that seemed to find even touching the tips of my hair too precious.
Like now.
An expression that seemed afraid I might break or scatter like mist if touched, yet unable to bear the constant desire to see and touch. His hand, wanting to touch me but unable to, trembled slightly as it hovered in the air.
“I believe in you, Ju-in.”
“What?”
“I don’t doubt your words that we’ll continue to be together.”
Callion gently grasped my hair, then slowly bent down and kissed it very lightly, barely touching.
“I’ll wait, Ju-in.”
