The Vacancy Left Behind

Ensi remained embraced in Agniele’s arms for a long time. Although it was a hallway where not many people passed by, it was the only path leading to the garden connected to the banquet hall, so there were still people passing through.

Both of them were as sensitive to presences as they were skilled in swordsmanship. Thanks to that, they clearly knew that those using the hallway thought oddly of them standing flat against the wall embracing each other, but both of them splendidly pretended not to notice.

To be precise, Agniele did so intentionally, while Ensi was in a somewhat dazed state and had no leeway to care about others, so it was closer to say he overlooked it unconsciously.

“Are you calmed down now?”

“I am sorry. You were flustered, right?”

Ensi pulled his upper body back slightly and looked up at Agniele. Agniele shook his head as if it were not even worth thinking about, told him it was fine, and carefully stroked Ensi’s cheek.

“Rather than that, I was worried. Wondering if something had happened.”

Ensi, who quietly leaned his face against Agniele’s hand, hung a faint smile at Agniele’s low voice. The fact that the one who always told him that he was the priority was together with him was, by itself, quite reassuring.

“There was nothing for you to worry about.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course.”

Curling the corners of his mouth into a bright smile, Ensi slighly rubbed the edge of his clothes where the red lip mark remained. He stared intently at the mark that only smeared but would not be erased.

“Ensi?”

At the call filled with wonder, Ensi, who grasped Agniele’s hand touching his cheek as if to cover it, met Agniele’s straight gaze.

“More than that, Iel. It would be better for you to return to the Duke’s estate today.”

“……Did I not say I would guard your side.”

“I am happy for that, but you have left your place for too long. Therefore, please?”

Agniele became sullen thanks to Ensi, who was persuading him to send him to the Duke’s estate. Discovering the subtly slumped shoulders and cast-down eyes, Ensi laughed awkwardly inwardly.

He suggested it because he thought it would be better for Agniele to hear what the Duke said today directly rather than conveying it with his own mouth, though.

Seeing the sullen Agniele, his heart kept trying to weaken. Firmly bracing his heart, Ensi rose on his tiptoes briefly and met his lips with his. Since it was still near the banquet hall, Ensi, who parted his lips quickly, wrapped his arms around the thick nape of his neck and leaned his upper body forward.

Agniele skillfully wrapped his arm around his waist to support the body leaning against him. Soon after, lowering his waist, he kissed Ensi briefly, exactly as Ensi had done. At that, Ensi, who burst into a clear laugh, put strength into the arms wrapping around the nape of the neck to hug the opponent even more strongly.

“Do not feel upset. There is no need for that.”

“But, you are trying to send me away.”

“I already feel an emptiness if you are not by my side, you know.”

“Then you just don’t have to send me.”

“Knowing full well that Lady Lacius was included among those who sent ardent gazes to you today, how could I do that.”

In fact, until he conversed with the Duke of Lacius, he hadn’t intended to send him away, but Ensi pretended otherwise. He expressed regret and lingering attachment just as Agniele did, and buried his lips in his cheek.

Agniele eventually complied with Ensi’s words. Because he too felt the gaze of Lady Lacius pursuing him.

As a duty as a child, it was about time to return to the estate. In a situation where he had even forsaken his duty as the successor, his conscience did not allow him to act any more brazenly.

“You will go to the Lacius family, right?”

“……Yes.”

Letting out a faint sigh, Agniele buried his lips in the nape of the neck where a faint pheromone was leaking out. As the lips touched the sensitive skin, a faint goosebump rose. Rustling, Ensi, who moved his body a few times, whispered in Agniele’s ear.

“Let’s go to our terrace.”

It was a voice containing a subtle temptation. Agniele, who pondered for a moment at the question tinged with moisture, eventually nodded his head.

Since it seemed mistaken to return to the banquet hall anyway, it was better to increase the time to be alone with Ensi instead.

Even though it was an afternoon when the sun was high in the sky, Ensi was still occupying the bed in light attire. Formulating a somehow displeased expression, he swept the cold bedding with his palm.

Will he not come today either.

It had already been two days since he personally sent Agniele nicely to the Lacius family from the banquet hall. Since it was he himself who persuaded the one who wouldn’t go, he could not bring himself to urge him to return quickly this time.

Apart from such calculations, it was also true that he became needlessly lonely since the one who had guarded his side for the past few weeks disappeared. The sullen Ensi hugged the blanket tightly.

“Young Master, today is the day Lord Luke’s family visits.”

“Since they must well know that my body is not good, it will be fine.”

While knowing that welcoming the guests personally as the master of the estate was the best, Ensi was utterly indifferent. They weren’t coming to meet him anyway. They were people visiting to see Luke, so he thought what did it matter.

In reality, it was true that he was sick, and it was also true that he was more fatigued than usual, perhaps because Agniele wasn’t by his side.

Even when hugging the blanket, the embrace felt empty, so he also tried hugging the fluffy pillow. He knew that the time for Priest Doha to come for treatment would arrive soon, but even while knowing that, the motivation to leave the bed did not arise.

The appearance of Ensi lying quietly in bed was just like damp paper. Thanks to Ensi, who had no strength at all, Emma, who was about to advise him once more to welcome the guests personally, also pressed her lips tight.

The arduous treatment was continuing, yet the man her master fully leaned on had briefly vacated his spot. It was natural that her master was withered like a sick chicken.

Therefore, wondering if his mood would improve even a little if the warm sunlight seeped in, she quietly pulled up the curtain in the direction of the window with that heart.

“……This weekend, I must go to the Celyn Principality.”

Ensi wanted to postpone it if he could follow his heart, but he couldn’t do so. Not to mention Luke, Nikephoros, and even Priest Doha. The ones who well knew his body condition were badgering him to find out a treatment method a day sooner.

Most of all, he was in a state where he had already sent a message to Titania that he would visit this weekend. If one made a promise, shouldn’t they keep it.

“Shall I send a contact to that person?”

“No, it’s fine. If it doesn’t work out, I can just go alone.”

To say alone was just a word, and in reality, many would follow along. Because to depart alone with this kind of body had many unsettling factors.

Most of all, if it were Agniele, he also wanted to believe that he would return on his own accord before he departed for the Celyn Principality even if he didn’t purposely speak of it.

Above all, Agniele was also by his side when he set the promise with Titania. Since they shared the detailed schedule, he too would well know when Ensi decided to depart for the Celyn Principality.

Therefore, he will come before then.

While thinking so, Ensi let out a sigh and buried his face in the soft blanket. When he was used to being alone just a short while ago, it was nothing to have no one by his side.

It was so yesterday, but today he was even lonelier.

They say you might not notice a person’s presence when they enter, but you notice their absence when they leave. It was exactly that feeling. Was it because they shared warmth at the time he was bedridden in the middle of a severe illness, of all times.

“Young Master, they say the guests have arrived.”

Ensi, who was busy soothing his troubled mind, merely nodded his head roughly at Emma’s report. Luke will handle it on his own. It wasn’t his family, and much less Agniele’s family, so he didn’t want to care beyond that. In the first place, it was a relationship where they should treat each other politely but needed an appropriate sense of distance.

“Young Master, do you not feel a bit hungry?”

At Ensi’s attitude that looked genuinely uninterested, Emma, instead of bringing up the same story, voiced the matter that kept weighing on her mind.

“I’m fine.”

“But the sun is already high in the sky. I am worried because you have eaten nothing since yesterday evening.”

“Well—.”

Thanks to Ensi, who avoided the gaze with a reluctant face, Emma swallowed a sigh inwardly. Still, when that person was here, he would at least make a pretense of eating.

In fact, that Ensi refused to eat food was not a matter of a day or two. Even around the time Agniele followed Ensi around like a shadow, he would frequently refuse meals on the pretext that his stomach was upset.

Whenever that happened, Agniele would feel more distressed himself. Of course, Agniele also used to pass over it at first, unable to overcome Ensi’s firm refusal, but after a few days passed, he changed his attitude and tried to persuade Ensi.

In truth, even to call it persuasion, there was nothing special. Because massaging Ensi’s cold hands gently and asking carefully if it wouldn’t be better to eat even a single bite was all it was.

However, he just didn’t easily back down even if Ensi kept his mouth shut, shook his head wildly, and murmured that he disliked it with a tearful face.

Therefore, if Ensi nodded his head as if unable to overcome Agniele’s entreaty, the dark clouds hanging over the refined face would disappear without a trace in an instant.

Furthermore, Agniele would even spoon-feed the food himself. It was a matter started to feed even a single bite more as the occurrence of Ensi setting down the tableware after eating barely a few bites repeated.

In fact, when Emma first saw that spectacle, she had seriously pondered whether he was accepting her master’s babyish behavior excessively. However, seeing her master who wouldn’t even glance at proper food for the second day already, she missed the past that hadn’t been long.

“Your cheeks have already become gaunt. If that person returns, he will surely be shocked. He will also feel hurt.”

Emma tried to persuade him by bringing up Agniele. At the somewhat clever method, Ensi glared at her, but she met Ensi’s gaze with her waist held straight.

“Since you could not eat food properly for the past two days, I will bring a soft soup. I will not urge anything else, so eat exactly that much. Yes?”

Hearing the words that Agniele would worry, he could not bring himself to refuse coldly. Ensi, who let out a groaning sound inside his mouth, eventually nodded his head.