The One and Only Sami Chapter 29

“For real… my actual body is still on the ground?”

“Yeah, back in those bushes. Only our vision shifted up here.”

“How is that even…”

The very top of the Harut’s palace tower. It was unbelievable. He’d heard the tower was under heavy guard, with doors secured by layers of locks.

His Aunt Jarta had told him that beneath the spiral staircase lay a bottomless well; anyone caught sneaking into the tower was simply tossed over the edge, no need to even drag them out. She said the stench of death, like the Jahanam pits, wafted through the interior.

They said the roof was made of the most noble gold, and that the top floor held jewels no one dared covet. The tower had always been a thing of myth, something he only ever looked up at from afar.

“This makes no sense.”

Sami and Razard were sitting boldly on the roof of the tower for anyone to see, yet the people below showed no sign of alarm. They seemed not to see them at all, still lost in the hedonism of the banquet.

“…It’s true.”

They really couldn’t see them.

He had truly been swept upward by the sheer force of an incantation.

Sami shivered as goosebumps broke out across his skin, and Razard’s arm tightened its hold, wrapping around him even more firmly. The overlap of that solid forearm made the embrace feel scorching hot. He could still feel the weight of Razard’s face resting on top of his head.

The wind blew again—a sweet, slender breeze. It was a wind that didn’t quite belong on a high spire. That contrast only made the situation feel more dreamlike.

Slowly, bit by bit, his sense of reality began to dull.

With only Razard’s body heat and heartbeat remaining vivid, Sami finally allowed himself to look closely at the view beneath the tower.

“Oh…”

The palace below sparkled with so many lights that the rooftop views he’d seen before couldn’t even compare.

He’d thought there were a lot of fancy lamps lined up, but from up here, the entire palace looked like one giant, multicolored glass lantern.

Red, blue, green, and gold. The lights, infused with every color, were fractured into diamond shapes, shimmering with a complex beauty—as if the most ornate patterns of a royal carpet had been cut out and pasted onto the earth. The extravagant floral patterns pulsed and glowed incessantly, as if prepared specifically for someone looking down from the heavens.

Light encircled the palace walls in a ring, and the procession stretched even beyond the gates. The dots of light leading toward the night market looked like petals of marigold and pentas scattered one by one.

“…”

The view was opulent, as if someone had gathered petals made of light and tied them into a bouquet.

Yet beyond the city, the dark feast of the sands continued. Casting his gaze further, he saw the desert ridges bathed in white moonlight, tracing pale outlines in endless curves.

“…It’s beautiful.”

“Right? Told you it’d be worth seeing together.”

Razard was so self-centered. He only made a show of asking for an opinion while actually dragging Sami along wherever he pleased.

And yet.

“Yes.”

For this moment, Sami wanted to thank him for catching him and pulling him up here on a whim.

“I just… I was just thinking that I’m glad I met you today.”

“I told you, meeting me is always a stroke of luck.”

“It’s not always like that…”

“Getting cheeky with me, are we, Sami? Hmm?”

“But it really is pretty. I’m almost sad I can’t tell anyone about this.”

The two of them were silent for a moment.

Midnight at the banquet, sitting atop the highest tower in the land, sharing a view no one else would ever know. Usually, people called things like this a secret.

Just as fruit hidden behind a veil tastes sweeter, a world known only to two is bound to feel all the more intimate.

Because of that.

“It really is remarkable and lovely.”

Razard set aside his usual scheming grin and offered his most honest impression.

Remarkable and lovely. Sami let out a small, warbling laugh at the words. The laugh turned into a vibration, and this time, it reached Razard’s chest. Razard tapped the top of the head tucked into his embrace.

“What?”

“It’s just a bit funny to call a view ‘remarkable.'”

“Is it? Well, I think you’re pretty remarkable too.”

He pressed his face lightly against the crown of Sami’s head and then pulled away.

“After what happened the other day, you’re walking back in here with your head held high—that’s very remarkable, isn’t it? I suppose that restoration elixir I fed you worked wonders?”

“Don’t start that again…!”

“Hahaha…”

Razard, successful once more in teasing Sami, let out a refreshing laugh. With no way to argue while trapped in his arms, Sami could only give his forearm a sharp slap. Even then, it probably only felt like a tickle to Razard.

“I mean it, though, Sami.”

Razard buried his cheek in Sami’s curly hair. The lingering trace of laughter made his voice sound a bit more buoyant than usual—enough to make him feel more like a cheerful, youthful man than his usual smooth and slippery self.

“Lately, nothing has been as remarkable or as lovely as you.”

Sami tilted his head back to look up at him. He had intended to say, “Stop teasing me now.”

But the reason the words died in his throat was the way Razard was looking at him. Razard was no longer looking at the view below the spire. His gaze was fixed solely on Sami.

They were silent for a long time.

It was that moment when you realize it’s neither a joke nor a lie.

Bang! The sound of a firework echoed. The night sky, salted with stars, was dyed in brilliant colors.

The light of the fireworks, bursting in layers like marigold blossoms, cast various hues over Razard and Sami’s faces. Colors bled across their cheeks like wet paint. With every burst and every fading sparkle, Razard’s face as he looked down at him seemed to change.

“You’re probably the only one.”

Razard leaned in closer to Sami, who was still looking up with his head tilted back. Strands of sand-colored hair fluttered softly, brushing against Sami’s cheek.

Inside that space behind the hair, draped like a veil, was a secret world where only their gazes met.

As the third firework burst and faded, his quiet lips moved.

“The only person I find myself wanting to keep seeing like this.”

As if reciting an incantation, those full lips slowly pursed and loosely parted. Even though they were just a man’s lips, they were enchantingly dreamlike.

“We’ll see each other again soon, so don’t be too surprised when we do.”

Sami could see nothing now but Razard’s lips. Every tiny movement was etched into his eyes as if carved with a hammer and chisel. As he stared at those lips curved like a bow, his eyes grew hazy and unfocused.

A pleasant scent wafted around them. It was more flamboyant than floral oil and stickier than honey—a heavy fragrance that seemed to cling to the skin. An animalistic scent that wasn’t purely sweet or soft descended over Sami’s face like a thin veil.

Razard’s scent.

Sami knew this smell. He had smelled it before.

His breathing slowed.

“You always seem startled when you see me. Next time, you won’t even have the luxury of being surprised, so be prepared.”

Sami wanted to breathe in more, but the moment Razard pressed his lips to his forehead, the sharp scent of greenery rushed in. The smell of mint, the scent of bitter shrubs.

“See you soon.”

Sami.

…

“Ah.”

Just like that.

Sami’s eyes snapped open.

“Huh? Wha—whoa…!”

With nothing supporting his back and having leaned his full weight backward, Sami ended up splaying out flat on the ground. Fortunately, he’d been clutching the box tight, so no disaster occurred. There was only a young man, sprawled out in the middle of a thicket dense with small purple blossoms.

Sami was completely alone in the bushes.

“…Razard?”

He scrambled into a sitting position and looked around, but there wasn’t a trace of the man to be found.

Wait, had he even climbed the tower at all? His head felt fuzzy, as if he’d been enchanted by the moon. As Sami continued to scan his surroundings, his eyes suddenly caught the impossibly high spire. Beyond the rounded roof, the white crescent moon was still visible. The night sky was clear, without a single cloud.

…Did I really look down at the palace from that tower?

At that moment, another firework embroidered the sky. Sami looked up from his frantic searching.

Which one was that? He was told that once those fireworks finished, it would be time for the audience with the Harut. This was no time to sit around dazed in a lingering fog between reality and a dream.

He shook his head violently to clear his mind. Just as Sami was about to jump up with the box in his arms, something suddenly fell at his feet. It was a purple hyssop flower.

It must have been the one tucked into his vest. Sami knew exactly who had handed him that flower.

“…”

Readjusting his grip on the box, Sami picked up the flower. Then, he turned and ran back the way he had come.