I Became the Main Character’s Demon Sword

42

Rohan hesitated when he saw Arpel’s actions but didn’t avoid them. He pretended not to notice the slight flinch and patted Arpel’s arm.

Nothing changed after that. Rohan acted as usual, to the point where his avoidance of Arpel in the morning seemed strange. However, Dionel’s comment about “puberty” still lingered in Arpel’s mind, causing him to try not to touch or caress Rohan too often.

What seemed to have returned to normal was suddenly upended when night fell.

“What?”

“Let’s sleep in separate rooms.”

Arpel blinked, momentarily at a loss for words. Rohan’s sudden statement was too unexpected and bewildering.

It had been seven years. From the time they first met when Rohan was a 10-year-old child until now, when he had almost caught up to Arpel’s height, they had rarely slept apart. Largely because neither had suggested sleeping separately before.

Perhaps that’s why? When what had become routine was suddenly at risk of breaking, it felt strange.

‘…It’s because of puberty.’

The inexplicably bubbling emotions were unclear in their desires. Rohan had always been someone who made Arpel hesitate and feel confused. Yet he couldn’t let go because Rohan’s happiness was Arpel’s happiness.

Although Rohan had declared they should use separate rooms without any reason, Arpel suppressed the thoughts that were sprouting up without direction. He tried to convince himself that things could change, that during this period, various things were bound to be different.

“Alright.”

After a long moment of silently facing Rohan, Arpel finally gave an affirmative answer. Rohan’s eyebrows seemed to twitch, but Arpel was too busy sorting out his turbulent emotions to notice.

“Good night, Arpel.”

“You should sleep here.”

“I’ve already told Dionel to prepare the room next door.”

Arpel had to take a short breath. Otherwise, he felt he might pour out his directionless emotions, which he couldn’t even define clearly, onto Rohan. His eyes blinked slowly as he endured various thoughts.

“…Alright. Good night to you too.”

Emptiness? Hollowness?

As he watched Rohan turn and leave the room, Arpel tried to define the something that was welling up from deep within his chest.

It felt as if the time they had spent together was slipping through his fingertips. He stopped staring at the closed door and lowered his gaze to his palm. A self-deprecating smile bloomed again on his face, which had already lost its expression since Rohan’s disappearance.

‘I knew this would happen.’

Even young birds leave the nest to make their own homes when they grow up. How could it be any different for humans?

Perhaps Arpel had been envisioning this future ever since he vowed to stay by the side of the child who had once been so young, without parting.

In the novel, Rohan fell in love with Leriana, who comforted him. Similarly, someday he might fall in love with Leriana or someone else and gradually drift away.

The strange satisfaction of being prioritized over Leriana for the past few years crumbled. The emotions he had been trying to ignore evaporated, leaving a deep stain. These were thoughts he shouldn’t have had in the first place.

Arpel found himself thinking that it was fortunate he was a sword, not a human.

No matter what future lay ahead, Arpel, who would become Rohan’s contractor, would never leave his side.

***

Rohan, after turning his back on Arpel and leaving the room, immediately entered the adjacent room and closed the door, but remained frozen in place for a while.

“…Hah.”

Somehow, he felt wronged. Even though it was all his own doing. Rohan felt, for the first time, a sense of resentment towards Arpel.

Suggesting separate rooms was the result of a day-long headache-inducing deliberation.

‘I didn’t think he wouldn’t even ask why.’

Although Arpel seemed momentarily speechless, he eventually agreed to Rohan’s words without asking for any reason. Could it be that he had been uncomfortable all this time? Unverified assumptions began to swell in Rohan’s mind.

He trudged towards the bed and flopped down carelessly. Although it was merely the absence of one warm body beside him, as they had always slept together, the room felt excessively large. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation.

From the confusing night until this morning, Rohan had done nothing but actions that made him feel sorry towards Arpel, such as avoiding his hand and leaving alone. But at that time, it was truly an unavoidable choice for Rohan. Just organizing his tangled thoughts was overwhelming.

After nearly half a day of racking his brains, Rohan finally concluded his feelings.

Rohan was in love with Arpel.

Not familial love. A romantic love that made him want to hold hands, embrace tightly, and kiss.

Once he acknowledged it, he wondered why he had never thought of this as ‘love’ during the long time he had spent with Arpel.

Somehow, it made him laugh. In a way, the start of all this was a single worn book handed over by a small child, wasn’t it? Even so, he didn’t feel bad about it.

“…I miss you.”

A single voice scattered in the quiet room where nothing could be heard but his own breathing. Mindlessly fiddling with the bedcover under his hand, he recalled Arpel’s face.

When did he start having these feelings for him?

At first, when he met Arpel, he was a bit wary of him, but soon Arpel became Rohan’s entire world.

Initially, he followed him simply because he was the only one who remained by his side, but as they spent more time together, it was colored by the existence of ‘Arpel’.

The reason Rohan liked and followed Arpel was because he was ‘Arpel’. At some point, he started thinking that it shouldn’t be anyone else, that it had to be Arpel by his side.

His absolute feelings towards him grew day by day. It would be more difficult not to have such thoughts when faced with a gaze that lovingly looked at only one person.

Rohan thought that perhaps the feelings he had only just become aware of might have started when he was very young.

Of course, when he fell in love, or what the exact reason was, wasn’t really important. What love demands a clear account of its beginning, or lists reasons one by one for why it came to be?

Rohan loving Arpel was a natural thing. So much so that it felt like it might have been fate. It wouldn’t be bad even if it had been predetermined from the start. If it meant Arpel would be bound to him, Rohan could endure anything.

‘…Good night to you too.’

He recalled Arpel’s parting words just before he left the room. In his haste to leave, he had forgotten to ask for the goodnight greeting he always demanded.

Rohan had no choice but to ask Arpel for separate rooms. Having realized his feelings, and even dreaming unspeakable dreams about him, how could he calmly sleep next to the person he liked?

He felt he couldn’t overcome the stirring feelings. He thought his pounding heart would be too audible to Arpel lying next to him.

Rohan abruptly got up and headed towards the bathroom attached to one side of the room, unnecessarily pressing his slightly heated cheeks with his hands.

He felt he needed to wash his face to be able to sleep peacefully.

And so, for three days.

Rohan, who thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep with Arpel because of his pounding heart, instead found himself unable to sleep without feeling Arpel’s body heat. The dark circles under his eyes became so pronounced that Arpel became seriously worried about him.

“…Arpel.”

“Yes?”

Ever since Rohan had declared they should use separate rooms, Arpel always saw him off when it was time to sleep. Today too, as Arpel was preparing to see him off, Rohan spoke in a small voice while gazing at him quietly.

“Can we sleep together again…?”

Arpel’s hands, which had been tidying up the bed, stopped abruptly. Rohan’s face reddened slightly as he met the violet eyes staring back at him.

“Alright.”

Arpel nodded without saying much else. Nevertheless, because they maintained eye contact throughout, Rohan could tell. That there was a subtle joy mixed in his eyes.

Rohan decided to focus on the happiness and satisfaction he felt when being with the person he loved, rather than the embarrassment. Ignoring the overly prominent sound of his heartbeat, he quickly took his place on one side of the bed and lay down.

As he became conscious of Arpel’s body heat touching his fingertips, his blinking eyelids slowed down.

‘I wonder… if I’ll be able to tell him I like him?’

He didn’t know. He had just acknowledged his feelings, but the future was full of unknowns.

Therefore, even if Arpel were to find out about his feelings, it should only be after the contract has been successfully completed.

That way, Arpel wouldn’t be able to let him go no matter what happened. That’s what the contract between a demon sword and a blessed being was like. Entangled for a lifetime, completely bound to each other with no escape.

“Good night, Rohan.”

The greeting exchanged was similar to the first night they slept separately. Rohan, with a face heavy with sleepiness, smiled brightly at Arpel, tilted his head slightly, and leaned to the side.

“I didn’t give you a goodnight greeting today.”

It was a small kiss left on the cheek. Arpel, who had been blinking for a moment, had a faint smile spread across his face.

Rohan could be satisfied with just that.