Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1454: Intimacy (2)

"Am I doing the right thing?" Darwel asked as she looked in the mirror. She thought she looked a little different.

"What do you think, Lady Darwel?" said Sevill as she combed the El Sif's cherry-colored hair. She was the only one Darwel would trust with her hair. Not even her other personal guard, Viccil, was allowed to touch it.

Darwel had just finished washing up and oiling her body following her talk with her parents. She was dressed in a soft, silk, silver night dress that limned her body, tracing its shape with such perfection that she almost looked like a mercury idol from the chest down. Darwel was admiring her own shape in the mirror. It seemed so foreign, so curvaceous that she might have been sculpted after the meandering of a thin river.

Her time in the Deathly Ruse had left her feeling disconnected with anything that wasn't her mind, and even though she and everyone else had not been trapped in it for as long as they were supposed to be, it was still a rather strange experience. It was like sleeping soundly only to wake up in a panic, thinking that a lot more time had passed than in reality.

Even now, Darwel still felt her thoughts slog ever so slightly.

Her crimson-gold eyes shimmered and shuddered with emotion. The way they looked back at her from the mirror filled her with all kinds of doubts and apprehensions.

"It's to save Aigas - to save the world. I shouldn't be feeling so… cheap. And yet, I can't shake away that feeling," she said. "If it were older brother and older sister, they probably wouldn't be hesitating so much. Older sister has better genes than I do. Why didn't he pick her?"

Sevill ran her fingers through Darwel's hair. Its uniform color was almost as astounding as its glossy sheen.

"Have you already forgotten what he said to your mother and father that time he barged into the Royal Mansion?" she asked the princess.

"How could I forget?" Darwel said and she saw herself blush furiously.

How could such a memory magically disappear from her mind?

How Festos had pulled her by the waist close to himself and declared to the King and Queen that he had taken a liking to her.

It was her that he wanted, not her big sister.

But didn't she also take a liking to him when she was in Pelian, participating in the Premium Age Royale?

Of course, she did.

So, what made her hesitate so much?

'It's the fact that he's not doing this because he likes me. It's all for duty – for the sake of Aigas,' she gave herself the answer. She sighed. That stung. 'And since waking up, I feel like I don't know him anymore. He was acting strange that time, as if he wasn't himself.'

It also didn't help that her parents kept emphasizing that regardless of how intimidating Festos looked, she shouldn't be scared. What did they mean? How much could he have possibly changed since the last time she had seen him?

Had he become even more unhinged? Even more reckless-looking? Loose?

'Has he come a higher form of Luminant than before?' she wondered, hoping, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

After she was finished prepping herself, Darwel sat on the bed, facing the door.

"Do you need me to stick around and give pointers, Lady Darwel?" Sevill asked.

"No! I don't want you or Viccil anywhere near this place!" Darwel cried while pointing at the door.

Sevill smiled and left.

Darwel laid on her back over the bed and entertained thousands of thoughts. She wasn't a maiden by any standard. She had frolicked behind her parents' back and had her first of everything from the shadows. It was always thrilling and lacked any sort of responsibility or stern gravity to it. It was always playful.

Darwel had refused to be like her older sister who abstained until she was over thirty. But then again, her older sister had greater responsibilities that stole most of her time. Darwel doubted that she could be aroused quite as easily, in fact.

"Let's just get this over with," she said to herself right when the double doors slowly creaked open.

She felt a sharp presence enter the room and at once, she whipped her torso up.

Darwel's eyes swelled.

She did not know what she had expected to see, but this wasn't it.

Perhaps she had begun to picture a monstrosity oozing pus at some point, given the ominous tone her mother had used when explaining the situation earlier.

But that was far from what she could see taking slow, regal steps towards her.

It was a tall man with skin smoother and finer than hers. His slicked-back light auburn hair with two streaks of black on either end of his head; pupilless, iris-less eyes; and perfect nose sent her mind spiraling back to that memory from before, when that handsome man had pulled her close by the waist.

Like that handsome man she remembered, the one walking towards her was also draped in a loose, deep black robe that parted to reveal his naked, well-sculptured chest, abs and all the pleasant contours bulging from his skin. He was adorned in a simple pair of black pants over his legs. They seeped bits of darkness into the room.

But best of all - the thing that made Darwel's heart thrum faster and faster - was the calm, cool and friendly smile this man wore.

"…Festos?" Darwel said, dumbfounded.

"In the flesh," said Skullius. His smile widened, but it wasn't sinister and disgusting. It wasn't like before in the princess' eyes.

Skullius might have seemed calm, but inside, he felt annoyingly nervous. Oddly, the only thing to help him relax a bit were Uyuniya's words. He didn't like that fact, but well…

Sensing Darwel's deep gaze, he laughed softly. Now he was trying to copy the effortless chill of Future Skullius.

"I look more monstrous than this, truthfully, but I can change my shape at will. I imagined this form would be most comfortable for you to… interact with. It's a little different but… What do you think?" Skullius said as he spread his modest two arms.

Darwel rose from the bed and with only the mildest hesitation, she approached him. Her eyes lanced him with curiosity and passion. They shimmered.

"You do look different," she said with a strange smile Skullius had never seen from a woman before.

He had seen the blood-lusted smile, the kind smile, the fake smile, the subtle mischievous smile… but not this one.

The only thing that came close to looking like it was Vali's default smile.

"I don't dislike it."

Darwel had a bold look to her. When she reached Skullius, she traced a finger across his right breast. Her eyes never left his.

The Hybrid Warmoth, transformed through the properties of [Mystic Macer] hidden in his nimbus, felt Ju`wtte streak through his body at Darwel's light touch. Wait. It wasn't Ju`wtte. It was an unfamiliar sensation that this body had never experienced.

"You were afraid of scaring me?" said Darwel, still with her queer smile.

"Of course. Given the situation, that's the least I could do."

'Look confident! Sound confident! Look confident! Sound confident! Look confident! This is supposed to happen!' Skullius screamed to himself.

On the outside, he still had on his soft smile.

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Thank goodness he didn't have pupils!

Darwel would have caught him looking away anxiously.

"The situation, you say?" the Sif princess said and she planted herself against Skullius' bare chest. Her hair tickled his chin. "Are you only doing this for the good of Aigas then?"