I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 33

Smack, smack.

He sucked at the wound on the back of my hand, making embarrassingly suggestive sounds. And as if that weren’t enough, he even extended his tongue and gently licked over the wound. It was almost as though he were a loyal dog following its master.

“St-stop it! Please!”

The sensation of his hot, rough tongue brushing against the back of my hand sent shivers down my body, and I felt so dizzy I thought I was going to die.

But despite my pleas, he calmly licked at the wound a few more times before suddenly pulling a dagger from his waist.

“What are you trying to do…? Don’t tell me—”

Before I could even process what was happening, he smoothly dragged the blade across his own forearm.

“Yusiliph!”

Watching someone injure himself right before my eyes was far more shocking than I had expected.

I twisted my body and struggled with all my strength, trying to get him to let me go.

But Yusiliph paid no attention to my reaction. He tilted his arm so that the blood would flow, then pressed it against the wound on the back of my hand.

My eyes widened. While I stood there stunned, the hot stream of blood flowing from his arm began seeping into the wound on the back of my hand.

“Yusiliph… Why?”

I stammered, completely at a loss for words.

Honestly, this was the most bewildering moment I had experienced since being possessed.

‘What on earth is he doing?’

Yusiliph. Why do you keep hurting yourself for my sake? To you, I’m nothing more than an unlucky noblewoman who happened to be tied to you by a rotten fate.

This was going far beyond merely acting like a loyal bodyguard to his employer. Wasn’t this the kind of thing people only did when they shared a genuinely close relationship?

Like family, comrades who had lived and died together, or lovers.

My eyes, looking up at him, wavered aimlessly, unable to hide my confusion.

Yusiliph looked down at me with the same indifferent, dark-red eyes as always.

Yet beneath that cold gaze, the blood slowly seeping into the back of my hand was unbearably hot. It felt as though it might scorch not my hand, but my very heart.

“Don’t do this, Yusiliph. A wound this small will heal on its own!”

I finally came to my senses and tried to pull my hand away. But by then, my hand was already firmly trapped in his grasp.

“How do you know that? Have you ever been bitten by a vampire before?”

He replied in a casual tone, as though he were merely teasing me, but I couldn’t retort as casually as I had before.

His knees pressed tightly against either side of my legs as I crouched, almost as though trapping me—or embracing me. My hand was completely immobilized in his grasp, while his blood, warm blood that carried the sensation of his very life, continued to seep into my wound.

I could feel the wound healing at an astonishing speed, and the sensation was indescribably strange.

It felt as though his blood had entered my veins and was recklessly racing throughout my body before burrowing deep into my bones. As though I had helplessly surrendered myself to him and was being completely invaded.

“Ah.”

In the end, I couldn’t hold back. My face flushed as I let out a strangely sensual moan.

Something inside my stomach kept tickling, and I felt myself clench tightly down below. My earlobes and throat burned as though they were on fire, and both my cheeks heated up on their own.

“Does it hurt?”

As though he hadn’t noticed any of the changes in my body, he continued to stare at me with his indifferent gaze and moved even closer.

His firm, tensed thigh muscles pressed against the edge of my thighs, and I could feel his heavy, steady breathing far too close to me.

I felt my mind grow hazy. Perhaps this was exactly what it meant to be bewitched by a fox.

I couldn’t understand why his dark-red eyes and sharp, heart-piercing gaze—which I had become so thoroughly accustomed to by now—felt so stimulating.

Just like the thrilling, intense afterimage left behind by last night’s dream.

Throb.

Along with that tingling sensation, I felt something trickle down from below.

“Ah, it hurts!”

Overwhelmed by the haze in my mind, I finally pushed him away and sprang to my feet.

Surprisingly, he let me go without protest and stood as well. I moved several steps away from him, grabbed my wrist, and pretended to be in pain for no reason.

“I-it’s only natural that it hurts when you hold me that tightly.”

“I’m sorry to hear it hurts that much. You stayed still when the vampire bit you, so I thought you couldn’t feel pain and went too far.”

He replied annoyingly before holding out a handkerchief. Realizing he meant for me to wipe away the blood, I shook my head.

“Wipe your arm first.”

The bleeding had already stopped, and the wound must have healed by now, but the moment when he had injured himself still lingered vividly before my eyes.

The chilling shock of seeing that blade slash his flesh, as though it were cutting into my own chest, felt like something that would continue to haunt me for quite some time.

‘Dorothea. Even though I haven’t met you yet, somehow, I think I finally understand how you felt….’

“Wipe yours first.”

But Yusiliph stubbornly kept his hand extended with the handkerchief.

With no choice, I took it and wiped the back of my hand. My skin, which had returned to normal as though by magic, was revealed beneath it.

I had read this scene countless times in the original story, but seeing the wound regenerate before my eyes in the blink of an eye was still astonishing. I let out a quiet exclamation.

“Wow.”

Seeing my genuine amazement, the corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly. Only then did he take the handkerchief from me and wipe his own arm.

When I saw the gaping red wound disappear, leaving behind perfectly healed skin, I finally felt relieved.

But the chill lingering in one corner of my chest still wouldn’t go away.

Watching him casually wipe his arm, I spoke in a serious tone.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

In my words, he raised his eyebrows into a sharp angle.

“Why shouldn’t I? Did it really hurt?”

“That isn’t the point! I’m telling you not to hurt yourself so casually!”

I ended up shouting far more fiercely than I intended.

The confusion and heat I had felt from our physical contact just moments ago were still coursing through my veins, while he remained infuriatingly calm. It felt unfair.

But more than anything, I was afraid he would continue hurting himself out of habit.

I was afraid that, just like in the original story, he would eventually end up horribly broken.

That was what scared me the most.

As I furrowed my brows in earnest, he gazed steadily at me and asked,

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why do you hate seeing my body get hurt so much? From your perspective, even if I get hurt, you have absolutely nothing to lose.”

“Well… you…”

Because you’re my lifeline, and the only hope this doomed world has.

But I couldn’t possibly answer that.

I opened and closed my mouth for a moment before finally coming up with something to say.

“Because when you keep doing things I never even asked you to do, it makes me feel like I owe you for no reason. Then, when I really need to ask you for a favor later, I won’t be able to do it comfortably. Remember? You said you’d grant one request of mine later in exchange for me keeping the three promises I made to you.”

“Oh, that. I must admit, I’m quite curious what you’re taking so long to ask me for.”

Yusiliph replied calmly and began tidying up the area around us. He finished in an instant, then casually held out his hand to me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep a separate tally of this small favor of saving your life.”

“What?”

“Did you intend to enjoy the benefits for free?”

“That’s not what I meant! It’s not like I asked you to do it in the first place!”

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have been lying there looking as though you were about to breathe your last.”

“When was I—”

“Oh, and I believe the prognosis will be better this time.”

“Huh?”

I instinctively took his hand and asked,

“My blood, you mean?”

“Yes. Originally, the regenerative effect is much stronger when bodily fluids are directly mixed with those of another person than when the other person simply drinks them.”

“…Ah.”

For some reason, the phrase ‘directly mix bodily fluids’ sounded incredibly suggestive, and I flushed as I hurriedly avoided his gaze.

The various things Yusiliph and Dorothea had done in the original story flashed through my mind.

‘No, why do these indecent thoughts keep popping into my head? Don’t tell me I’m sexually frustrated?’

Yusiliph was probably simply telling me about the results he had discovered through experiments involving mixing blood with his father, Sheryen.

So why was I the one letting my imagination run wild again?

As I squeezed my eyes shut in self-loathing, Yusiliph asked in an infuriatingly calm voice,

“Then shall we return to the mansion now, employer?”