The One and Only Sami Chapter 49

Right, Sami was still a tightly closed flower bud. No, a bud would be a generous description; he was a body that had only just begun to sprout. What was needed right now was the Marut buried beneath this desert.

To get it, Razard first had to soothe Sami, who was currently wilting under a mix of anxiety and disappointment.

“Sami, nothing is going to go wrong. Trust me.”

Sami, for his part, absolutely hated those words.

Nothing is going to go wrong?

He’d be seduced by strange voices in illusions, engulfed in phantom flames, and even end up acting like a total mess in front of Razard because he was assimilated by the Marut’s lust…

“Phew… you know you’re treating me worse than a hunting dog, right…?”

“Well, I can’t exactly rub a dog’s face against my crotch and tell him to take a bite, can I?”

“Razard, honestly.”

He really wanted to do something about that mouth. It was incredibly annoying how a man with such a handsome face could casually toss out such wicked, frivolous words.

“Fine. I’m not even going to bother talking to you…”

Sami turned his back on Razard and looked once more at the sand curtain between the pillars. It looked like thin, wide sheets of golden silk flowing endlessly. Through the dense golden light, Sami took a breath and caught the scent again.

The smell of acacia, which had no business being beneath this desert.

Just as Sami swallowed hard, Razard placed a hand on his shoulder and called his name. “Sami.”

“If you come back possessed by the Djinn inside the Marut, I’m going to do exactly what that Djinn wants. I’ll handle you quite roughly until you accept my seed and turn back into a jewel.”

The fingers on his shoulder toyed with his collar as softly as they had the hilt of the sword earlier. The fingers crawled like spider legs, as if he were playing a stringed instrument.

“I’m the one pushing you into this, so I can’t blame you for feeling ashamed. But since things have already turned out this way…”

Razard’s fingers pulled away, and a voice tinged with a smile drifted over Sami’s shoulder. What is he going to say now?

“Just let go of everything and enjoy what I do to you.”

It was another incredibly shameless remark.

“I told you. Getting to roll around with someone of my caliber isn’t a common opportunity. Your body is somewhat ready now. You’re building up some pretty good experience.”

“…! Razard, you are truly, truly depraved.”

A fraud and depraved… clearly, he never settled for just one vice.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Razard remained unfazed by Sami’s accusation. Still, his brazenly annoying attitude did help ease Sami’s tension.

As Sami shot him a sharp glare, Razard gave a nonchalant shrug and took a step back. He sat down cross-legged on the spot and drove his sword into a crack in the stone floor.

“I’ll be waiting.”

“If I come back and you’re not here, I might just become a Djinn myself. Just so I can torment you, Razard.”

“I’d welcome a Djinn as cute as you. I’d lock you up in my prettiest ring.”

He really has an answer for everything. Pouting his lips, Sami took a long, deep breath.

The tips of his sandaled feet were slowly swallowed by the golden veil of sand. His fingertips, knees, shoulders, head, and finally his heels disappeared into the gold. Only after the space had settled into a heavy silence did Razard reach up and touch the back of his own neck.

‘Doesn’t it get hard for you?’

He blinked expressionlessly, then tilted his head. He suddenly felt stupid for not being able to answer that question properly at the time.

What’s there to be hard? I do everything I want to do, I have everything I want to have, and I stab everything I want to kill.

As he went over it in his mind, the stifling feeling he’d felt earlier eased. Razard slowly leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“Is he naive, or just a fool?”

He decided to pinch the boy’s cheeks next time he asked.

Think about your own situation as a kidnapped pet first before you go worrying about others.

“Or is he just born to be that devoted?”

Sami had to walk through the sand hitting him from head to toe, so he squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. When the sound of rolling grains tickling his ears finally stopped, Sami gave his head a quick shake and opened his eyes.

In the cave beneath the oasis, the air had been thick with a sweet, suffocating fragrance, but here, it was his feet rather than his breath that felt heavy. Golden sand had risen all the way to Sami’s ankles.

Sand fell from various points in the stone cave—so high he couldn’t see the ceiling—forming rounded mounds.

Some mounds were as massive as desert dunes; others were as small as a pile slipped through a child’s palms. Sami moved his legs and walked toward the center of the cave.

The shimmering space didn’t smell like dust at all. Instead, it was draped in the scent of fragrant acacia and damp water.

It was certain. The Marut was here.

“…”

In the oasis, he had wandered aimlessly without knowing what was happening, but now he knew what he had to do.

“…Marut. You’re here, right?”

He just didn’t know how to call for it. Sami spoke cautiously, but there was no reply—only the soft sh-sh-sh of piling sand.

He was glad he was alone. He was just about to rub his cheeks in embarrassment.

Suddenly, a nearby sand mound began to surge upward. The scent of fresh flowers and grass grew even thicker. Sami bit his lip and watched the movement of the sand.

Part of him wanted to stay far away, but running away now wouldn’t change anything. Ignoring his trembling legs, Sami stood tall. Or at least, he tried to.

—Sami.

The rising mound of sand gathered delicately, bit by bit, taking on a human shape. Once the fine features, curly hair, dense eyelashes, and even the rounded fingernails were formed, it looked exactly like Sami. The way the tiny grains sparkled constantly made it look like a golden statue modeled after him.

It was imitating him again, just like last time. Though he felt a sense of revulsion, he forced himself to speak.

“Do you… know my name?”

“The Maruts share each other’s memories.”

The sand mound in the form of Sami spoke. Each time it did, the sound of sand grains shifting bled into its voice, giving it a mystical quality.

“You gave your name to the other Marut. That is how I know it.”

“…”

The Marut buried in the oasis had kept asking for his name. Since Razard hadn’t been there to stop the interrogation then, he supposed he must have eventually told it. Honestly, he’d been out of his mind, engulfed in flames. In his hazy memory, he only had the faint thought of, I guess I did.

“Sami. We have been waiting for you.”

“…? For me?”

“Yes.”

The sand-Sami confirmed with a gentle tone. With its hands folded over its stomach, it looked poised and mild.

Sh-sh-sh. A pleasant sound, like a child’s toy box being shaken, continued to echo. The Marut continued with a beaming smile.

“We decided to envy and be jealous of you.”

Its voice had a soft, rhythmic quality, like a lullaby. Sami couldn’t believe such a mellow tone was delivering words about ‘envy’ and ‘jealousy,’ so he blinked and asked, “What?”

Instead of repeating itself, the Marut revealed its heart in more detail. Using Sami’s face, it made an expression that the real Sami could never make.

“I’m so jealous I could go mad, thinking that you alone get to nibble away at that delicious Harut’s seed.”

The face smiled flirtatiously, eyes and lips curving.

“I don’t plan to take over your body like the last Marut did. However…”

Its nose scrunched slightly, radiating clear hostility toward Sami.

“I plan to torment you.”

“Why…?”

Sami, the object of this envy and jealousy, couldn’t understand the Marut’s spite at all. As a flustered Sami stepped forward, the sand making up the Marut’s fingertips trickled away.

“You… you can just take satisfaction through my body, right? If it’s my body you want, I’ll lend it to you…”

“Lend it? You have a Harut by your side, and you’re planning to just let someone else suck him dry?”

The Marut burst into a fit of giggles.

The laughter, thick with mockery, gradually subsided. Seeing his own face laugh like that went beyond dissonance—it felt like a kind of fear. The Marut shook its head, letting out a sharp, irritable sigh.

“Ah, how stupid. This one has no pride; he’s truly pathetic.”

The Marut let out a moan-like, sultry breath and poked Sami in the chest.

“Then again, for a poor Harut who’s been torn to shreds by a curse, someone like you might be the perfect match.”