"Haa, haa."
I closed my eyes and focused solely on the sensation at the tip of my tongue.
I seized Rose's wet flesh as it fled inward from me and ravished it. Our saliva-drenched skin ground roughly together.
"Haa."
I thought I would die like this. I had expected to close my eyes at the cold border of unconsciousness.
But I came back.
The moment of life I greeted once more was overwhelmingly vivid, hot, and sweet.
"Phew."
I simply indulged in the skin, body heat, and breath right before my eyes.
As if this were the last time. As if I would never let go again.
While handling her preciously as though she were fragile, I also roughly toyed with her as if to break her.
"Your Excellency!"
Then suddenly, our pressed lips pulled apart.
Tung.
Something small struck against my hotly swollen chest.
"Your Excellency!"
The desperately calling voice pounded against my eardrums.
"……."
Slowly, very slowly.
My spinning head began to find its center, and my blurry vision sharpened.
"Your Excellency……."
I saw Rose lying beneath me, panting for breath.
Her moistly damp cheeks, lips swollen to twice their usual size. From the tip of her nose to her cheeks, there was not a single part that wasn't flushed red.
She was short of breath—Rose's chest heaved up and down repeatedly.
"……Hah."
Rose, lying disheveled beneath me… was far too alluring.
Enough to make me want to tear that dress to shreds and force my way inside right then and there.
But.
"Your Excellency, please……."
Looking closely, Rose's face was a wreck.
Perhaps from lack of sleep, the area beneath her eyes was dark, and signs of exhaustion were unmistakable. The hand pushing against my chest trembled.
"Stop……."
Seeing Rose on the verge of tears snapped me wide awake as if someone had doused me in cold water.
'What did I just do?'
My memories from the moment I regained consciousness were somewhat hazy.
Memories of charging at Rose like a beast stripped of reason—growling, biting at Rose's skin, sucking in every trace of Rose's breath—surfaced like faint fragments.
'…I've lost my mind.'
Rose feared me.
That realization alone was enough to rein in the instinct that had been running wild like an unbridled colt.
"…Phew."
As I let out a long exhale, the reason that had briefly fled returned. I took deep breaths, struggling to compose my aroused self.
"Your Excellency……."
Rose seemed somewhat relieved, perhaps having noticed my change. She withdrew her hand from my chest and silently gazed at me.
'What should I say?'
I didn't regret what I had just done. It was something I had always yearned for.
I simply disliked the idea that Rose might fear me or avoid me because of it.
As I was wrestling with what to say inwardly—
"Are you…all right?"
Rose spoke first. She slowly raised herself and met my eyes.
"Is your heart hurting or anything……?"
"Not really."
"Ah."
Rose scrunched the corners of her eyes and swallowed the surging sob.
Then—
"Euh…!"
She suddenly threw herself into my arms.
Ukshin—my left arm protested with pain, but I didn't show it and held Rose.
"Rose."
"Heok."
Rose buried her face in my chest and sniffled.
"I-I was worried… that you might not wake up……"
"Was that so."
"I was… worried……"
I had never doubted that this little squirrel would save me.
Even though I had known full well it would come to this… I had missed this warmth.
"Phew……"
My heart, having regained its normal rhythm, beat steadily. I felt Rose's damp face pressing fully against it.
"…Hmm?"
Looking now, my shirt was split in half and hung limply.
When I looked at Rose as if demanding an explanation—
"Ah, well……"
Rose fidgeted with her hands and laughed awkwardly.
"I had no choice."
I had roughly guessed what had happened, but seeing her like that, I felt like teasing her again.
"Isn't the pace a bit too fast?"
I'd thought I would be the one to undress the other first. I felt petty about somehow having lost to Rose.
"I had to give Your Excellency's heart emergency treatment."
Rose puffed her cheeks slightly as if feeling wronged.
"I couldn't very well do it with the shirt on."
She now talked back quite well, without panicking like she used to—but
"—Ah!"
I chuckled softly and answered by lightly biting Rose's earlobe.
"Y-Your Excellency!"
With a flushed red face, Rose pulled back slightly from me. One hand flew up hurriedly and caressed her ear.
"Why, why……"
"Why are you so startled? We did more than that."
"……!"
Rose's eyes shook violently.
It seemed she had thought I would act as if the kiss from earlier never happened.
"Th-That just now……"
Rose averted her gaze and dropped her eyes, then—
"Gasp!"
She jumped in surprise and gaped.
"Why……?"
"I wonder."
I smirked and relaxed my posture slightly.
"Who knows."
"--!"
Rose let out a silent scream.
I also learned one more fact from this.
When Rose was truly flustered, her entire face turned bright red all the way to her ears.
"Did you dislike it?"
Even in the tersely compressed question, Rose quickly grasped the meaning.
"…N-No…… It's not that."
"Then that's fine."
'I can do it again.'
Hiding the rest of that thought inwardly, I pulled Rose toward me with my good hand.
"I'm cold."
At the nonchalant lie, Rose didn't know what to do but quietly nestled into me.
"Rose, it's your fault, so you must take responsibility."
I could have held Rose anytime I wanted, but I made an excuse as though it were because of the cold.
"…Yes, Your Excellency."
Rose answered obediently and wrapped both arms around my back.
We could have put on clothes, or added more firewood to the fireplace. But—
As if we had made a promise, as if such options didn't even exist—
We simply savored each other's warmth, pressed together without a single gap between us.
"……."
Silence fell. It was a time to sort out each other's feelings and thoughts.
Once things had calmed somewhat, I finally had the composure to survey my surroundings.
'I've been rescued.'
My office in the mine. Rose's belongings were scattered haphazardly across the floor.
My last memory was… the horrific memory of passing out while feeling my entire body being crushed.
And then—
"What happened?"
I opened the floor for conversation first.
"You were rescued two days after being buried. Thanks to you having the cube, we were able to detect your location quickly."
Rose's calm voice began to carefully recount the truth.
"The problem is that Your Excellency……"
Rose looked me straight in the eye and said.
"was in a state of Velvet Wisp poisoning."
"Me?"
Even though I already knew what it meant, I stared at Rose as if asking what she was talking about.
"As we suspected, the culprit was Joel. He must have burned a candle made with Velvet Wisp mixed in, in Your Excellency's room. As a result, finely pulverized Velvet Wisp accumulated in your lungs."
As I silently nodded, Rose continued her explanation.
"That's why your internal mana graph was abnormal. As Andersen-nim confirmed for us, there's no problem under normal circumstances, but when a large amount of mana suddenly flows, an anomaly occurs."
"An anomaly being?"
"Mana backflow."
Rose declared with conviction.
"It's nothing serious for an ordinary person, but for someone with an immense amount of mana like Your Excellency, it's fatal."
"Then in Gallery 13—"
Rose swept her fingers around my cheeks and lips.
"The pulverized magic stone powder that filled Gallery 13 was the problem."
She was checking to see if any powder still remained.
It was a thoroughly precautionary action, but Rose's fingers grazing my skin felt quite sweet.
"That rapidly activated your mana and triggered a mana backflow. It left you unable to move, as if you'd been poisoned."
Rose glanced at the torn piece of shirt tossed to the side that had briefly served as a mask.
"Why did you wear that mask?"
Her eyes held suspicion—wondering if I had known something when I put it on.
"The dust was flying heavily."
In truth, I had put it on after realizing the magic stone powder was the problem—but
"I wore it to protect my throat. It's also one of the rules of conduct for those trapped in a collapse."
Thinking Rose might press me further, I had made sure my answer flowed out quite naturally.
"…I see."
Rose briefly accepted this and said.
"If you hadn't worn that, something irreversible might have happened. Perhaps… perhaps Your Excellency might have……"
Tears welled up in Rose's eyes again. Her eyes quickly grew bloodshot, and her lashes turned damp.
"Rose."
I carefully lifted Rose's hand away from where it cradled my jaw.
Chok.
I pressed my lips to the tender skin on the inside of Rose's wrist and gazed at her.
"……!"
Rose's breath caught. Her finely trembling lips parted slightly.
"That I returned safely—"
Chok.
I released Rose's wrist and this time pressed my lips to her forehead.
"—is all thanks to you, Rose."
Chok, chok.
Moving downward, I placed light kisses on the bridge of her nose, then on her lips in turn.
"……."
Pressed close against me, Rose's heart was beating fast.
I looked into Rose's tear-dampened eyes one last time and spoke.
"I'm glad I married you."
"Ah."
Like a great stone being dropped, ripples spread across Rose's tearful eyes.