Aedis laughed and fed me another round candy. Without realizing, I ate it once again. When I felt its flavour on my tongue, my expression morphed. Yuck.
"It's so bad but you keep feeding me it. Can I spit it out?"
"Tomatoes are good for your health."
"I don't like sugary tomato-flavoured candies."
Despite my adamant refusals, he dipped his long fingers back into the candy jar. You've never tried it before, have you?
I acted quickly. Snatching away the candy, I immediately shoved it into his mouth. He ate it obediently, his jaw moved in an easygoing manner as he chewed it for a bit before chucking the jar of candy out the window with zero hesitation.
But some unfortunate fellow seemed to have been stricken by it.
"Ack!"
"Captain!"
Those were the voices of Vega and Prokeon.
...um, I'll just pretend I didn't hear that.
It seemed like karma for whispering outside the door earlier.
Moving on, Aedis doesn't have a weird taste in food.
"Gross, right? Give me something else."
Aedis brought out another dessert. This time, it was something that looked relatively good. An orangette with honey-soaked skin and chocolate-coated over it.
I carefully bit the end of the desert with relief. It tasted normal.
Seeing me quickly gobble up the delicious dessert, Aedis smiled happily.
"It's good to eat well."
"Mr. Aedis, do you like desserts? You keep on bringing me sweet stuff."
"I don't dislike them."
His simple answer reminded me of my coffee question. Haaaa.
"We're already married, so why don't we be more honest with each other?"
"My wife asks for a lot."
I smiled at his innocent complaint.
"Let's ask each other questions taking turns. Don't lie to me."
He tapped the desk with his fingers.
"Can I ask you the first question?"
"Why not?"
As soon as I gave consent, he charged in with a question that stabbed me right in the heart.
"My son has a hopeless personality so normal people usually can't deal with him. So, how did you manage to take his sword from him?"
"I drank the blood of a beast."
"It's simply because you drank blood?"
He didn't seem to believe me. Every once in a while, people would eat the meat of a beast, but they weren't able to get the benefits that I did.
"Its blood that I received from the beast I made a contract with. Fair and square."
At last, his face showed interest in my response.
"I didn't know you were close to a beast."
In reality, it wasn't that big of a deal. Earlier than other people did, I noticed the beast who was walking around imitating humans in an awkward manner. I told it to escape because if it kept coming here, it'll be hunted.
Then, the beast told me it had something it needed gain. At the time, I had no idea it was a territory document.
It was an ancient beast. We spoke about humans together, the beast was very calm.
Though it was awkward, the beast had a talent for imitating humans. It did it so that it can communicate with us, but I also believe it did out of slight curiosity.
Anyhow, considering the fact that I knew Gilbert would strive to come to the capital like a peacock showing off its feathers, I needed a way to stand up against him. And I learned that the beast longed for a place to die.
At the time, as if it were a habit, the beast continuously inspected his cloak with outrageously wrinkly hands of a strange colour.
In short, it was looking for a rich noble, man or woman.
A noble who'd be able to invest large sums of money in wastelands as if it were nothing and forget about it.
I was ready to pay as much as it wanted.
In various ways, our interests aligned, so the contract went smoothly.
But it was still fascinating. Trespassing into the human world because you wanted a grave. The beast sure had a lot of confidence. Did it ever think of what would happen if it got caught?
My lashes fluttered as I blinked.
"I was just lucky. It won't be coming back, is it my turn yet?"
I had many questions I wanted to ask him. How old he truly was, why he doesn't die or age, why he adopted Gilbert and Rehan and so many more.
But I'll learn those over the course of time. First of all, the more important question.
"What's your ideal type?"
Aedis coughed all of a sudden.
"...I believe I've misheard. What did you say?", he said in a somewhat strange tone.
"Is it embarrassing to say? Then, what about your three sizes."
He had a serious look on his face.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Well, yes."
I feel a bit hurt right now.
When Aedis saw me scrunch up my nose, he spilled the secret numbers of his body in a flustered manner.
"As soon as you had the opportunity, you dug up my most important secrets like a rotten bastard."
"Oh dear, aren't you judging me too harshly?"
You should've expected that anyways. I have many other questions that I'm curious about.
I wonder if I can question him about them.
Even though he said it was fine, I couldn't shake off my guilty conscience.
"Regarding his self-reflection, I'd like to offer you some help. If a normal human being were to drink the blood of a beast to improve one's physical ability, the side effects would be great. I believe my wife will continue to use it"
Well, you aren't wrong.
Gilbert feels great pride in his strength. Sooner or later, I intend to trample on the field he is most confident in so that he'll never be able to climb up again.
Aedis had his gaze fixed on me, who was lost in thought.
Quietly, his hand reached out.
His long fingers touched my hair, the part that got tangled earlier.
"Can you tell me the traits of the beast you made a contract with?"
"It was super old. It was looking for a place to die... and it talked about humans", letting him touch my hair, I answered softly.
"In return for giving it a grave, I received the beast's blood."
"How did you end up signing a contract with a beast?"
He untangled my hair with ease.
"Is that included in our session of truthful questions and answers?"
Aedis pulled back neatly.
"You can answer if you want. I don't intend to make the same mistake in less than five minutes."
After that, he stood up from his seat. Woah, his legs are really long. Like legs so long and wonderful that if I entered a leg-beauty contest with him it'd be difficult for me to win.
Ummm, I thought about it yesterday but I really want to see him wear something that's not black.
It'd be nice if we wore a couple outfit. That way, we could show off that we're on good terms without needing an explanation.
My parents, who I thought were calm when they gave me the right to choose for myself, seemed much more worried than I believed.
When I came back to my senses, Aedis returned with a comb. This man had the audacity to sit behind me and ask for permission when he already knew the answer.
"Can I?
Gently, I presented him with my hair and stretched my shoulders. I was about to close my eyes.
Before I knew it, the hand of the clock pointed to one in the morning. As I gazed at the pale scenery dyed with the darkness of the window, I felt drowsiness sneak up on me.
I felt the hands that were taking care of my hairbrush against my waist. He seemed to have put a lot of effort into combing my hair.
"Mr. Aedis, were you always this hard-working?"
Really, how can his image be so different from the novel?
Aedis noticed the true meaning behind my question and let out a low laugh.
"I don't know what rumours my wife has heard, but it seems like I need to explain."
"..."
"I didn't just idle around in my bedroom, but there wasn't anywhere I wanted to go either."
"..."
"I want to get along with my people."
His voices reminded me of the moonlight, faintly sounding in my ears.
It was a bit strange.
Based on the novel, I knew that he never tried to be nice to anyone in the novel, unlike what he's doing right now.
But the thing is, the only person Aedis treats like a human was Rehan... Does that mean he doesn't see Rehan as one of his people?
In the end, I wasn't able to resist the temptations of my curiosity and opened my mouth,
"Is there really no one in the north that you care about?"
I asked, referencing Rehan and he answered, also referencing Rehan.
"You could say that."
I'm glad my back was turned to him. This way, he wasn't capable of seeing my taken aback face.
He combed my loose hair with passion as if he had never touched something like it before. He started off by untangling my ends and gently brushed down.
Brush. I closed my eyes, not because of pain but because of the sleepy effect it had on me.
Haa, I feel relaxed. I want to endure it a bit longer....
It was our first night.
Although it seems like Aedis had no intention of making a move.
I felt enough strength to keep my eyes open again, smiling briefly as if I had just remembered a funny story.
"But Eve, are you really incapable of whistling?"
"...Pardon?"
"That's what your maid said when she got caught earlier."
I'll exercise my right to stay silent.
I'm glad I never told him I'm unable to roll my tongue in a U-shape either...
Unfortunately, outside of speaking and eating, I'm unable to control my tongue.
"It seems like you're a very picky eater too."
Why are you playing a humiliation game all of a sudden?! I'm against the topic of this conversation.
With a sour look, I changed the subject.
"Mr. Aedis, if you're free, can you do me a favour?"