Awakening to the sunlight streaming through the skylight, Yuder opened his eyes.

For a moment, the familiarity of the sparsely furnished bedroom almost chilled his heart. However, a strange sound he felt as he tried to move a little quickly snapped him back to reality.

It was the sound of the magic stone furnace burning stronger than usual. Each time it spewed its multicolored flames, a warm and peaceful air tickled his skin. It was a sensation Yuder had never felt in all the time he had spent here.

Yes, he was not the Commander of the Cavalry, and this was not Yuder's bedroom but Kishiar's. And the reason he woke up here was...

"..."

Turning his head slightly, Yuder soon found a blond handsome man lying beside him with his eyes closed, his arm comfortably wrapped around Yuder's waist. Even though he wore not a shred of clothing, he exuded no sense of vulnerability. His body radiated sculpted beauty under the light. As he breathed rhythmically, the shadows between his long eyelashes swayed like fruits, capturing one's gaze more intensely than any jewel.

Just as his regained sense of reality almost faded again, the sight of vivid, rugged marks on the man's chest sharply brought him back.

'...Yes.'

This was reality. More than anything, it was proof that everything that had happened yesterday was not a dream.

Yuder brushed his face with his hand and exhaled briefly. Even that small movement prompted a dizziness and lethargy in his muscles that he couldn't attribute to any particular part of his body.

The moment his body hesitated, the large hand wrapped around Yuder's skin twitched.

With barely audible breaths, the man who had been lying still with his eyes closed suddenly opened them.

"..."

Eyes met, and silence flowed. A few blinks later, a smile softly broke over Kishiar's face. The man, who seemed as inanimate as a mineral untouched by the passage of time, became a warm, living being in that moment.

"...Did you sleep well?"

"...Yes."

"Good."

The hand that had been wrapped around Yuder's waist moved up and playfully swept the disheveled hair off his forehead. The tips of his long fingers then traveled from Yuder's warm forehead down to his pale cheek, and finally paused below his swollen lips.

It was a touch they had shared multiple times before, yet somehow this time it took on an entirely different hue.

"I can't believe I slept in longer than you. This has never happened before. Even the time..."

Kishiar's gaze moved towards the ceiling as he mumbled cheerfully, looking up at the sky through the window.

"...It doesn't seem like an illusion that the sun is about to set in a few hours."

True to his words, the sunlight beaming down was decidedly different from morning light. Given that their lovemaking had started yesterday afternoon and only ended when the sun had risen and set again, it was no surprise.

A whole day had passed confined to this bedroom, yet it didn't feel as if that much time had actually elapsed. Neither was he hungry nor thirsty. Aside from a slight lethargy in his limbs, astonishingly, there was no problem at all.

Yuder looked down at the finger that continued to slowly trace his lips and quietly opened his mouth. As he stuck out his tongue to lightly lick the tip, the movement of the finger stopped. When he gently bit the end and looked up, he saw that the red gaze meeting his own had shifted, taking on a slightly different light.

And the same was true for Yuder's face reflected in those eyes.

"...Hmm. I was thinking we should probably start with a meal," Kishiar said.

He smiled as if it were difficult, but from the beginning, it was Kishiar who had stoked this fire between them, cautiously touching his lips all the while. It was evident that they both shared the same impulse, the same joy. Yet the fact that Kishiar remained restrained until the end felt both impressive and somewhat provocative.

If there were even a slight hint of hesitation here, the man before him would certainly pull back. He would expertly cloak all traces of emotion, extending a relaxed hand as if he'd never felt any impulse from the start. And that would have been fine.

But that was not what Yuder wanted.

Yuder recalled a sensation he had briefly felt for the first time just yesterday, when their bodies had overlapped.

It was an incredibly faint and ancient feeling.

Within the invisible currents emanating from the one who touched him, Yuder suddenly felt emotions that seemed both his and not his, bursting forth like sparks.

Though he had half-forgotten this sensation, having not felt it for so long, he immediately knew what it was. It was different yet similar to the feelings of another that he'd often experienced after becoming physically intimate with Kishiar in his past life.

Among the many changes he'd experienced after physical intimacy in his previous life, he'd also felt the sudden emotions of the other person. That unfamiliar sensation was accompanied by a phantom pain that felt as if something inside him had been torn to shreds, and it made Yude suffer by making it impossible to tell whether it was his own pain or someone else's pain.

But this time was different. The moment he connected with Kishiar, Yuder felt an ecstasy similar yet far more intense than his own, a strange and warm gratitude, and at the same time, a rigid and chilly emotion directed at Kishiar La Orr himself.

That was the very source of Kishiar La Orr's patience. It was the final safeguard he had set up so as not to ruin this moment, and it was also the most secret part of him that Yuder had only vaguely sensed until now.

Even in that intensely vivid moment, it was the only thing that kept a cool eye open, targeting not the surroundings but Kishiar himself.

Yuder was not lacking in patience himself, but his own patience often led to a good compromise with his own desires. Some baselines existed, but if something urgent enough to cross those lines appeared, he would not restrain an explosion.

This was the strength of teachings layered over innate disposition. The one who taught Yuder patience had instructed him on how to use enormous power judiciously, how to make rational decisions before emotional ones, but also said that if something more important than all of that appeared, it was alright to prioritize oneself.

And who was the one who taught him this?

It was none other than Kishiar La Orr.

The thought that the one who taught Yuder to be this way didn't apply the same principles to himself was both astonishing and somehow fitting.

Kishiar had certainly promised not to hold back, and he kept that promise. However, the cold voice directed at himself in his core was not included in that promise.

With an inexplicable feeling, Yuder’s heart throbbed largely, and tenderly.

It was only then that Yuder wanted all of Kishiar La Orr, including that cold patience.

If he verbalized the knowledge he had from his past life about the Awakener, Kishiar would surely begin to suspect or notice something more, but that didn't matter.

‘You taught me to be this way,’ he thought.

Yuder quickly gathered his thoughts and spoke, "I'm not hungry."

"What about water?"

"Are you thirsty?"

Without lifting a finger, several droplets of water silently appeared and disappeared between them. Seeing this, Kishiar chuckled as though he had asked a foolish question and finally their lips met properly.

The instant their tongues tangled, their bodies rapidly warmed. The subtle scent emanating from Kishiar grew richer, and Yuder's senses became keenly alert. Yuder felt a gradual firmness in the softness between his legs and twisted his head slightly.

Sliding down to Kishiar's neck, Yuder sank his teeth in just as Kishiar leaned his neck forward and pulled him closer, their lower abdomens nearly colliding. To penetrate while lying face to face… A vague thought flitted by as a firm hand gently lifted one of Yuder's legs and placed it on his own.

Only after another lengthy bout of lovemaking could they finally rise from the bed to prepare for a meal.

"Western food was good too, but eating back home is always better, don't you think?"

Yuder nodded slightly, chewing quickly on the bread and fruit that Kishiar had brought on a tray, wearing nothing but trousers. Yuder was in no better state, his attire consisting only of an untied robe.

If the Cavalry had seen their Commander and his assistant sitting side by side in such disheveled attire, eating haphazardly at a table that wasn't even in the dining room, they would've been shocked. But the Commander's room remained quiet that day. There wasn't even a single messenger bird pecking at the window, as if it were a lie.

Kishiar took the last sip of the remaining tea and set the cup down. Yuder silently refilled it with hot water, and Kishiar gave a brief, grateful squint. "Thank you. My thirst is quenched now."

Kishiar's slight fever had almost completely subsided. Whether it was because he had sated his burning desire, there wasn't a trace of fatigue on his radiant face.

Therefore, Yuder planned to examine his internal state once again after finishing their first meal of the day, post-sunset. Upon his suggestion, Kishiar readily agreed. In fact, it was something they should've done yesterday, but had unintentionally been delayed until now.

"What do you plan to do after you finish examining me?"

"I'm not sure."