Deflower Me If You Can Chapter 18

At the exact same size and appearance, the armored knights—though clearly hollow inside—looked as though they might spring to life at any moment. The fear that they might turn their heads, spot Bliss, and come running to grab him by the scruff of his neck made him tremble all over.

Quick, quick.

After freezing for a moment, Bliss urgently began to move his legs. He had to get out of here fast. Before those knights moved, before they reached out with those cold steel hands to grab him…!

“Eugh, eughhh.”

Whimpers of fear escaped his lips. The faster he moved, the larger the shadows loomed, and the armored knights seemed to tower over him, ready to pounce. The cold wind brushing past his back must have been the draft from a knight’s missed swing, barely failing to catch the child. What do I do, what do I do.

The wind blew outside the window. The old window frame shook with an ominous creak. As the moon, hidden behind drifting clouds, peeked out again—

“WAAAAAH!”

Bliss, seeing an armored knight lunging its head toward him, finally burst into loud sobs.

∞ ∞ ∞

WAAAAAH!

Cassian, who had been fast asleep without even dreaming, furrowed his brows at the faint sound he vaguely heard.

…What was that?

He lay still with his eyes closed, but the faint sound continued. As his senses gradually awakened, it turned into certainty. Someone was crying. And very loudly at that. In the end, he had no choice but to get up with an irritated sigh.

“What the hell is it now.”

Swallowing a yawn, he shuffled across the room and turned the doorknob. Through the slightly open door, the child’s crying immediately flew in.

“Waaah, waaaaah.”

Cassian froze for a moment. He already knew the answer, but he felt a desire to deny it with a “no way.” It would take a bit more courage to ignore the option of closing the door and pretending not to know without confirming the truth. But the child’s continuous crying kept pricking at his conscience.

“Haah…”

In the end, Cassian sighed and stepped out into the corridor. He trudged toward the small, white lump lying face-down in the middle of the corridor, sobbing.

“Bliss.”

“Waaah, waaaaah! Help me, help me!”

He called his name and reached out a hand, but the moment he touched him, the child shrieked in terror and cried even louder. Cassian, with patience, spoke to Bliss once more.

“Bliss, calm down. It’s me, Cassian.”

“Huuuh, huuuuh.”

“Bliss, it’s me. Cassian, your friend. We’re supposed to get married, remember?”

“Huh, huh.”

Only then did Bliss’s sobbing subside. The child cautiously lifted his head; his face was a complete mess, covered in tears, snot, and drool. Cassian smiled kindly at the round face illuminated by the moonlight.

“Feeling a bit better now?”

“Ca—Cassian. Cassian.”

Bliss burst into tears again and threw himself at Cassian. Cassian gently scooped up the child’s small body, patting his back with soothing murmurs, waiting for him to calm down.

Ah.

He felt a damp sensation in the crook of his arm holding the child. He didn’t need to check to know what it was.

…He wet himself, this little brat.

Phew. Letting out a deep sigh, Cassian simply closed his eyes. All the while, Bliss, face buried in Cassian’s shoulder, was sobbing and wiping the rest of his tears and snot all over him.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Haah.”

Only after drinking half a cup of the hot chocolate Cassian had made for him did Bliss finally let out a satisfied sigh. His face was swollen—not just his eyes, but his entire face—and he’d taken off his wet pajamas and underwear, wearing one of Cassian’s shirts as a makeshift replacement. Despite all that, he looked far more comfortable than before.

Of course he does. He’s completely at ease now.

Cassian found the situation absurd, but thinking of the child trembling in fear in the darkness, he couldn’t help but soften.

When I was young, I was scared to walk down that corridor too. This kid’s no different.

Thinking that, mercy welled up in his heart. The anger and irritation he’d felt toward the child before falling asleep had vanished without a trace. In its place, a different question had taken root. Now that the child’s sobs had subsided and he’d calmed down somewhat, Cassian finally spoke.

“Bliss, what on earth were you doing out there?”

It was a question he’d been wanting to ask all along. At Cassian’s question, Bliss flushed his cheeks and grinned—heh.

“I was going to your room.”

“To my room? Why?”

Cassian’s guard immediately went up, but the answer was predictable. Bliss looked up at him with fervent, swollen eyes and replied.

“To sleep together, of course! We’re going to get married, so we’ll be together all the time, forever. Sleep together, share a room!”

Why on earth does he have such a good memory for this stuff?

Cassian felt the blood drain from his face. Well, he’d waited a whole year and come all this way, so of course he’d remember that too. Was he the one with the bad memory, at this rate?

A deep sigh escaped him at this unfamiliar sense of self-loathing. At this rate, his plan to leave early in the morning had gone up in smoke. Just as he was feeling despair at the child’s defense, which gave him no room to escape, Bliss spoke.

“We’re the ones who share a secret, right?”

Those words made Cassian, quite literally, “furious.” What? A secret? You call that a secret? This goddamn brat—I was going to let it slide, but you had the nerve to get all excited and blab!

“Do you even know what a secret is?”

Unlike Cassian, who growled through gritted teeth, Bliss answered cheerfully.

“Yeah, shh.”

Shh, my ass! Cassian’s fist trembled with the urge to throw a punch at the child, who was pressing his index finger to his lips and making a shushing sound, but he held back and spat out again.

“So I’m asking if you even understand what that means.”

He muttered in a low voice, simmering with anger, and only then did Bliss seem to sense something was wrong. Cautiously glancing at Cassian, he mumbled.

“…Yeah, I know. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Then why did you tell your Daddy?”

“Huh?”

At Cassian’s immediate retort, Bliss’s eyes went wide. Looking down at the child, who seemed utterly flustered, as if he’d never imagined this situation, Cassian quickly continued.

“Yeah, I saw you on the phone. You said you’d keep it a secret, and then you were happily blabbing away—why did you do that? You said you knew what a secret meant, didn’t you?”

Bliss couldn’t answer, his mouth just opening and closing. Thinking of that tiny head frantically scrambling for an excuse made Cassian want to let out a hysterical laugh. Go on, say whatever you want. Let’s hear how convincingly you can spin it, you little wretch.

With hostile eyes glaring at him, Cassian sat across from him on the sofa with his arms crossed. Bliss stole glances at him several times, at a loss. His gaze wandered, his eyes darting nervously, as he broke out in a cold sweat. Finally, he opened his mouth.

It would probably just be some nonsensical excuse anyway.

“…Sorry.”

At the unexpected word, Cassian paused. Frowning, Cassian watched as Bliss, head bowed low, confessed in fragments.

“I’m sorry, Cassian. I was so happy, I just wanted to brag about it. I’m sorry.”

Bliss’s voice began to tremble. Ah, damn it. Cassian regretted it instantly, but it was too late. Bliss was already sniffling and wiping his tears.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever had a secret… Nobody ever tells me secrets…”

Having only just stopped crying, Bliss started bawling again. Seeing him burst into loud, wailing sobs, Cassian’s anger had already faded, replaced instead by guilt. He stared blankly at the child, who kept crying and apologizing, before finally snapping out of it and hurriedly grabbing tissues to wipe his face.

“Stop crying. If you cry again, what then? I said stop. Here, blow your nose. Hnn.”

“Hnn.”

Obediently doing as he was told, Bliss blew his nose and sniffled. Cassian pulled out a fresh tissue, wiped away the remaining snot, and looked down at his face. If he left things as they were, it was going to be a complete mess.