The One and Only Sami Chapter 15

Recognizing the confusion on Sami’s face, Razard slowly slipped off one of the rings on his hand. The slender ring, set with a red gemstone, caught the lamplight and gleamed with a heavy, golden luster. It was definitely golden, yet Sami couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow chilling and sinister.

“Any Djinn can be imprisoned.”

Razard held the ring between his index and middle fingers, tilting it back and forth. Following his lead, the ring caught the light at different angles, emitting sharp flashes.

“A lamp, a ring, a jewel… anywhere. They are beings that understand and enjoy boundaries, so it’s actually quite easy to divide the ‘inside’ from the ‘outside’ and bind them.”

Razard shrugged.

“But it’s literally just a forced imprisonment. Especially the Djinn we call Marut—they’re notoriously difficult to handle, you see?”

“Marut… isn’t that just a term for the highest grade of gemstone?”

“Well… that’s what most people believe. In reality, they are stones inhabited by the power of a Djinn. And a very special kind of Djinn at that. Without the ‘Djinn Marut,’ a ‘Marut gemstone’ is just… a rock.”

As the man flicked his hand, transparent light reflected off the stone and danced across their cheeks and the bridges of their noses.

“Those gems that roll around on the silks of nobles just to look pretty? Those aren’t called Maruts. They’re hard to distinguish from other jewels, and finding them in the first place is no easy task. You remember the cave from earlier, right?”

Sami’s gaze lingered on the fingertips playing with the ring before traveling up to Razard’s face. Their eyes met. As if he had been waiting for this, Razard’s eyes crinkled into a soft, arching smile. At that melting look, Sami’s Adam’s apple bobbed again as he swallowed hard.

“But, Sami. You had such a perfect resonance that you could even sense the Marut’s scent. Even I only know their scent very faintly…”

Even me.

Their eyes remained locked. A bead of cold sweat gathered at the back of Sami’s neck. Razard was merely explaining things with a smiling face, yet a sense of danger prickled at Sami.

It felt like he was a moment away from being swallowed whole by a giant serpent from a fairy tale.

“Why are you trembling like that? I’m complimenting you.”

Razard studied Sami intently through narrowed, heavy lids. It was a persistent gaze, making Sami feel as if the man were peering through his skin to his flesh, and even deeper to whatever lay within.

His eyes grew hazy in tandem, as if a shadow had fallen over his pupils. Razard’s voice sank into a calm low.

“That’s why I chose you.”

Using his thumb, he slid the ring around his finger so the gemstone faced Sami directly.

“It seems you are drawn to the Marut. Or perhaps it’s the other way around? Well, it doesn’t matter.”

The wide facet of the greedily glowing gem reflected Sami’s face with a polished sheen.

“You’re a fine vessel. Better than a lamp, a ring… or even a jewel like this.”

Sami had a calm and simple nature. He wasn’t dim-witted; in fact, he was quite quick-witted, much like his efficiency at work. If he weren’t, he never would have earned the trust of the picky, elderly retainers of the Salif household.

“So… that strange voice I heard was a Djinn? …A ‘Marut’?”

“Mhm. You caught on quick.”

“And that Djinn is…”

Sami couldn’t finish the sentence, his face sinking into a state of profound distress as the realization hit him.

“That’s right.”

Watching him, Razard shrugged and chuckled. His attitude was remarkably generous, as if he were happy to finish the thought for him.

“I put it inside you. It’s been contained very stably.”

Sami’s eyes went wide. Now that the terrifying possibility had been confirmed, moisture began to well in his blinking eyes.

He had promised to help if he could, but to be shoved into a Djinn’s pit of fire without any explanation? This was an utter betrayal.

“If I’d known… I wouldn’t have come!”

“It’s fine. I promised, didn’t I? I’ll send you back safely before morning.”

“There’s a Djinn in my body right now, how can you say you’re sending me back safely?! You’re not planning on just leaving it in there, are you?”

“Of course not. I’ll calm it down and take it back out. Don’t worry.”

“Then take it out now. And…”

He suddenly felt drained. He was horrified by the fact that the strange voice whispering to him, the eerie illusion asking for his name, and the fire that felt so real were all the work of a Djinn.

But as he realized everything had gone exactly as Razard intended, his rising anger threatened to turn into sorrow.

While he was wandering around calling out for him, the man had simply been waiting.

Without giving him a single word of explanation.

“Please send me home right this second.”

“Right this second? Hmm, that’s a bit difficult.”

“What?”

“I told you I’d send you back safely, didn’t I?”

Whether he noticed Sami’s turmoil or not, Razard remained shamelessly relaxed. His brow was smooth, and his half-closed eyes looked peaceful—more like the gentle ripples of an oasis than the predatory impression of a snake or tiger he usually gave off.

“I told you I trapped the Djinn in your body. Because you resonated with the Marut, its energy is now caught right here.”

Razard raised a finger and gave it a little wiggle.

“The Marut is a power that refines into a beautiful gemstone, but…”

As he spoke, he brought the finger he had raised and poked it lightly against the center of Sami’s chest.

“The Marut Djinns that dwell within that power have very strong carnal desires.”

“…What?”

“Every Marut has different desires, so I don’t know what this one wants yet. That’s something you and I have to figure out now.”

As mentioned before, Sami was calm, not slow. Yet he found himself asking back stupidly once again.

“What… do you mean by that?”

“You understood perfectly well. Don’t play coy.”

Razard twisted his wrist, still keeping his fingers against Sami’s chest, and this time tapped twice, lightly, as if knocking on a door.

“I don’t know if I should call Maruts lewd or just plain filthy. They have such a massive greed to take things inside themselves.”

Tap. His hand gave one last poke to Sami’s chest and pulled away. The stiff linen of Sami’s clothes wrinkled slightly under Razard’s touch.

It was just a touch through a layer of fabric, but once it was gone, Sami let out a sharp exhale as if he’d been holding it in. When he breathed in again, he felt a tickling sensation deep in his lower belly.

“Right now, you’re still lucid, so it’s not too obvious… or is it?”

“Razard…”

“Anyway, if you went home like this, the Marut’s desire would completely take over.”

Once he became aware of the heat, his breath grew hotter with every inhale and exhale—one, two, three…

Sweat began to bead on the back of Sami’s neck. His whole body felt flushed.

“Within half a day, you’d be going wild wanting to devour every man in that mansion.”

“Th-then you should just take it out now before it spreads like a curse!”

“A curse?”

Razard glanced to the side and then looked back at Sami. He had a smirking face, as if he were enjoying some private joke.

“A real curse isn’t anything like that.”

“…Sir?”

“What I mean is, it’s nothing as dramatic as a curse. I’d call it a blessing, actually. It’s quite well-timed, too.”

“What’s well-timed?”

“You said you turned twenty today, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes? What does that have to do with…?”

“It has everything to do with it.”

He slid his hand onto the thigh of the struggling Sami. The hot palm and the thigh locked together firmly. It was a much deeper contact than the light tapping on his chest.

“Don’t tremble. It’s not a bad thing.”

“Razard?”

“You can think of it as a gift for your twentieth birthday.”

“Pardon…?”

Sami’s naturally round eyes grew even wider. Enjoying Sami’s fumbling reaction, Razard brought his face closer. Sami had always been well aware of Razard’s beauty, but for some reason, that face felt unbearably dizzying right now.

That was what confused the innocent servant. What am I supposed to be resisting?

“Opportunities to roll around with a man of my caliber don’t come often. Especially for a scruffy little thing like you.”

Razard’s expression hadn’t changed. He looked down at Sami with those eyes that were always so infuriatingly composed.

That face with the relaxed smile—the same one he wore when walking through the caves, or giving him a ride on the carpet, or barging into Sami’s room uninvited.

However, the glint in his eyes that seemed to peer deep inside him, shining with a pale light, was far more chilling than usual.

Razard saw right through the reason for the heat that Sami couldn’t even name yet. And so, Razard continued to move his hands ‘to release Sami from the Djinn.’

First, he started by undoing the belt.

“Uh, um…?”

Sami barely managed to lower his head to look at himself.

Razard undid the belt that cinched Sami’s flat stomach and waist. His practiced hands moved with a light, rhythmic grace.

“To think you’re being devoured the moment you become an adult…”

The loosened belt, the legs beginning to show bare skin, the flesh gleaming under the reddish lamplight.

And the large hand resting on his thigh. The ornate rings set on every finger—fingers that were handsome right down to the nails.

“How does it feel?”

The moment he realized those rings were right in front of his eyes, he thought he saw the green gemstone flash.