The small table in Sien’s office had been filled to almost overflowing with plates full of decadent meals. Ritt was surprised to see how few of the dishes actually contained meat. In fact, it looked to be that 80% of the meals were comprised of just vegetables and fruits, with a few decorative flowers scattered about on top of them. Despite how small this fortress seemed, from everything else that Ritt had seen in this place, the atmosphere was definitely on the opulent side. He found it very unlikely that Sien was doing poorly and couldn’t afford to get more meat; After all, what country would be stupid enough to underpay its ultimate weapon? Still, Ritt left that speculation alone, thinking it too rude to ask about when he was being given a free meal. Instead, he simply bowed his head to Sien who sat across from him and expressed his thanks before launching into the meal.

 

“Wow, you really must have been starving. Aren’t you worried at all that I might have tried to poison or drug you or anything? Heck, if you don’t slow down you really might just die!”

 

Ritt stopped his rampage dutifully, just as Sien had said, and bowed his head once again, speaking once he’d finished chewing what he’d already been trying to eat.

 

“I doubt you would choose to poison me if you wanted to hurt me, Sien. But if it’s what you need from me to let me stay here with you, then you may do whatever you wish to me.”

 

Ritt had of course said such things out of necessity, unafraid of a bit of poisoning or pain if it meant he would be allowed to stay in the safety of Sien’s lands. Even if he hadn’t finished becoming the perfect Paladin this time, he was still most of the way there, and unless Sien killed him in the same way that he had before, then he would be able to shrug off most types of injuries. Living in relative freedom and happiness would definitely be worth the inconvenience, although perhaps if Sien went a bit too far in his torture then Ritt would have to rethink things.

 

Sien, on the other hand, felt his face burning at what he believed to be an overly bold confession. There wasn’t even a hint of a lie in Ritt’s words, once again, and Sien couldn’t process the sudden wave of emotion that was flooding into him. His face grew tight as he struggled against it, and his words came out in a menacing strained growl.

 

“Ghk… Stop… Stop it!”

 

Ritt blinked a few times and tilted his head slightly with an unsure face.

 

“...I’m sorry, I don’t know exactly what it is that you want me to stop, but if you can tell me what it is, then I’ll do everything in my power to fix it, Sien.”

 

Sien just couldn’t take it. Being threatening wasn’t working, and the man in front of him just kept acting like he’d do anything for him. He didn’t know what to do, and even contemplated if he should just kill Ritt to get rid of these strange feelings and be done with it, although the thought made him not feel good afterwards for some inexplicable reason.

 

Ritt, on the other hand, who was never a very strong conversationalist, simply shrugged at Sien’s continued silence and went back to eating, doing his best to slow down so he wouldn’t upset Sien again. He’d already eaten through a majority of the meat based plates before he realized that he almost hadn’t left any for Sien to eat, and so he woefully stopped, and offered up the last plate of meat towards Sien.

 

Sien, who’d been too busy wrestling with his overloaded heart, just looked down at the dish and flicked his fingers at it like he wanted it to go away.

 

“I can’t eat that. It’s for you, so you eat it.”

 

Ritt looked back and forth between the meat and Sien doubtfully for a moment, and he really wanted to ask if Sien was sure he could have it, but in the end he didn’t want to ask anything unnecessary and run the risk of upsetting Sien, so he once again just nodded and drew his own conclusions. Perhaps Sien had already eaten before he’d found him in the woods and simply wasn’t hungry. He had ordered all this food for Ritt’s sake after all, hadn’t he?

 

As Ritt continued slowly eating, he thanked his lucky stars that Sien was so generous.

 

Across the table, Sien stared, trying to understand the odd human in front of him. And the conclusion he drew was that this man must just be too trusting and naive. Even with the maids, he’d never asked them a single question and had done everything they told him to do, and answered everything they asked of him.

 

“It’s like you’re an obedient dog…”

 

Well no, he had asked them one question. He’d ignorantly asked who Lord Tavril was. Like he truly didn’t know the name of the man he’d confessed to and had been taken in by.

 

Ritt’s eyes rose up to look at Sien’s chagrined looking face when he heard him mutter, and his head tilted while trying to understand what Sien had just said. This look, combined with Ritt’s long, swaying,  almost flour colored hair, just reinforced the dog-like image in Sien’s mind.

 

In the end, Sien snorted and put out his hand.

 

“Hand.”

 

Ritt’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion for a moment, but he soon placed his hand on top of Sien’s just like he was asked to do, causing Sien to burst out laughing.

 

“Wow, you really are obedient, huh?!”

 

Sien’s hand closed around Ritt’s, holding it tightly, and as his laughter melted away, only a cheeky and daring smile remained on his face.

 

“How cute! Good! I can work with that.”

 

Ritt, who didn’t understand at all what was going on, could only blink and nod along.

 

~~~

 

Later that night, when Ritt was left alone in the room that he’d been given, he looked at himself in the mirror and patted his face. He’d seen himself reflected in things many times throughout his life, but he’d never once thought of himself as ‘cute’. Perhaps he had soft features, but he certainly didn’t look youthful or beautiful in the way that Sien did, and he was also over a whole head taller than Sien; If anyone besides a woman or child was going to be referred to as cute, then it should have definitely been Sien, and not him.

 

Ritt’s hand tugged at his hair, noting its length had gotten past his shoulders again. The mages only cut his hair every few years, when it started getting in the way. If he’d stayed to become the Paladin, then they would have only cut his hair in a year, right before sending him out as a finished product.

 

There was no way for Ritt to ever be mistaken for a woman with the face and body he had, but perhaps Sien had called him cute because he had long, womanly hair?

If that was the case, then should he maybe cut it?

 

Sadly, cutting his hair would be no small order. His hair had once been brassy, like the rest of his family, but as the experiments went on, the color quickly faded and washed out, ending with this flour-like, almost dead color that he currently had. And somehow, just like the rest of his body, even his hair was very resilient. It was so bad that the mages would have to hack at it for an hour, which explained why they only rarely ever took care of it. What was even worse was when Ritt had started growing facial hair; The mages had had to meticulously alter the hair on his face so that it would never grow again. Ritt was lucky he got to keep his eyebrows and eyelashes in the end.

 

Thinking it over, Ritt quickly gave up on any idea to cut his hair. It would be too much of a hassle, and it’s not like he really cared if Sien called him cute. If it gave Sien another reason to keep him around, then he wouldn’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.

 

~~~

 

The next day, Ritt was woken up by Sien barging into his room and repeatedly poking him.

 

“Hey, you really sleep forever, don’t you?”

 

“...?”

 

Ritt blinked many times, trying to force himself to wake up. It was odd, he was feeling overly sluggish today. For a moment his mind even thought back to the dinner that the maids had brought to him last night, wondering if someone truly had poisoned him. Of course, he should have been immune to whatever poison it was, but if it was something particularly potent and life threatening, then it wouldn’t be odd if he felt a bit strange for a little while afterward.

 

He tried to raise his hand to sweep his hair away, but for some reason his arm was really trying to fight him when he moved it.

 

“What, is your arm asleep or something? Geez, you really are weak, aren’t you?”

 

Sien’s incredulous and teasing look stung at Ritt’s pride a bit. He brushed the feeling off, using his other hand instead to move his hair and help him get up, so as to not keep showing weakness in front of the young man he needed to impress.

 

Moments later, after Ritt had gotten up and was properly dressed, the two of them sat down in a side room attached to Ritt’s bedroom to have breakfast, or as Sien informed him, an early lunch.

 

“Honestly, do most humans sleep as long as you? I can’t remember… No, it can’t be, or humanity would never get anything done!”

 

Although he was ranting about how long Ritt had been asleep, Ritt noted that Sien was actually eating this time. The two hadn’t eaten together at dinner since Ritt had eaten alone and promptly gone to sleep, so he hadn’t gotten to see it last night. Oddly enough, he noticed that Sien was eating a little of every dish but the small amount of meats that were on offer.

 

Ritt was of course worried about this.

 

He’d been informed by the mages multiple times that eating meat was very important for the body’s growth. Perhaps that’s why Sien still looked so youthful and pretty, despite seemingly being of age? It was such a waste if someone as strong as Sien wasn’t eating meat; Just imagine how much more powerful he could become if he was eating better!

 

Ritt dutifully picked out the tastiest of the meat dishes on display and offered it to him.

 

“Sien, this dish is particularly delicious.”

 

Sien looked at the meat doubtfully, but he’d noticed a few times now, both today and yesterday, that Ritt looked particularly pleased every time he’d eaten this dish, and had started to grow interested in it. Sien typically ate alone, and it was rare for him to even see most cooked meat dishes these past couple of decades. In the end, his curiosity got the better of him, and he grabbed a slice of the meat and stuck it into his mouth-

 

-And immediately regretted it.