Even though Ain was determined to fight, in the end when the monster pounced on him, he still instinctively closed his eyes and could only clumsily thrust the knife into the air.

But the imagined pain never arrived.

Confused he opened his eyes and the picture in front of him completely shocked him.

The Duke who had previously laid behind him on the ground unconsciously, was now standing in front of him, and in his hand was the creature that had threatened them before, with its life slowly fading away.

The Duke’s calming voice came from above. “Everything is fine now.”

Upon hearing his words Ain’s heart which had previously raced, slowed down.

And with this, the world around him grew dark.

. . .

The moment Eltanin’s eyes looked into the eyes of the man on the ground before him, he fell into a trance.

Seeing the other look at him with teary eyes made him think back to the moment he saw them for the first time.

Gold.

All he could see at that moment were these big golden eyes that were nervously staring at him.

Although he had said to himself that no matter the appearance of his bride, he would neither show like nor dislike on his face, at that moment the only thing he could think of was, that the eyes of his bride looked like the most beautiful star he had ever seen.

Even his annoyance flew out of the window at that moment.

Eltanin didn’t have many weaknesses, only three.

With them being his people, cute stuff, and … golden things.

And these eyes hit his weak spot directly.

To be honest, even till now he still couldn’t understand why they sent this golden star to be his bride. Besides being a sub-male, he couldn’t see any ‘defects’.

But who knows what kind of ideas they instilled into him.

What brought him back to the present moment.

If he were to be honest, saying he only felt a bit guilty about scaring the little golden star so much he fainted, would be an understatement.

But better safe than sorry, because he could never forgive himself if he brought someone dangerous back home.

So he needed to asses the danger level of this man.

And the result?

So weak he couldn’t even hurt a fly and he had no intention to harm him.

Well, it still couldn’t be ruled out that he was sent to spy on him and report the situation in his estate.

Whatever his intention at least now he was sure that every one of his people could eliminate this human if needed or at least knock him out.

What was left now, was to test his personality and goals.

And if he passed his tests he wouldn’t mind keeping this golden star around.

If not… Eltanin lifted his bride from the ground and let his sight slide over the other’s face.

A cold laugh escaped his lips

… he wouldn’t mind sending him back where he came from, either alive or dead.

. . .

When Ain opened his eyes again, he was lying in a bed.

Still feeling tired, he turned around to continue sleeping.

But sleep didn’t come, instead, the memories from the carriage accident appeared in his mind.

This made him sit up straight in his bed, but the sudden movement made his head ache.

With one hand on his head, he looked around to figure out the current situation.

If he could remember correctly then the Duke must be fine since he was able to take care of the creature but, where was he?

Being in a completely unfamiliar place all alone let fear rise in his body.

What if the Duke abandoned him here all alone because he didn’t like him?

He dreaded the thought of being completely alone somewhere unknown.

Anxiety started to take over his mind and his vision went black. It became hard to breathe.

Just as Ain thought he was going to fall unconscious, he felt a pair of hands on his back.

“Calm down! Try to take slow, deep breaths.” The person gave off a familiar feeling.

“Good. Everything is fine. We are no longer in danger.”

Slowly Ain was able to come down.

When he felt better and his vision was no longer obscured, he looked at the person next to him.

Relief rolled over him when he realized that the Duke had not abandoned him somewhere.

Truthfully Ain felt a little perplexed by his sudden breakdown.

He had thought that he had long overcome his fear of being abandoned.

Especially since right now, he felt fear of being abandoned by the Duke.

A man he had only known for less than a day.

Ain was shocked to find how dependent he was on the other man. He was truly useless. Not even able to live on his own. Always at the mercy of others.

Nothing had changed compared to the past.

The first time Ain had felt abandoned was when his mother had died. Once she was gone there was nobody left that cared for him.

It made him realize that he hated being alone but even if he hated it, he had no choice but to be alone.

What made matters worse was, that his sibling liked to bully him. Mostly they only did harmless pranks but one time they overdid it.

They led him into an unknown place and abandoned him there.

That time he had feared for his life. He wandered around for days but just couldn’t find the way back. Hunger and cold had taken a toll on his body and at that moment he had really thought he would die there.

Just when he was about to give up he spotted another person and with their help, he was able to escape that place, after five days of horror.

Maybe it was then that this fear appeared.

But it had been so many years already…

“Better?”, the gentle voice of the Duke brought him back to reality.

The Duke sat down at the edge of the bed and teasingly said, “Don’t tell me you already like me so much that you can’t live without me, dear?”

The shock on his face in response to the teasing must have been obvious as the Duke began laughing.

While the other was having fun, Ain stole a look at his true emotions.

Only once he saw that the Duke was really not angry at him for his meltdown and was only slightly shocked, only then was Ain truly able to settle down his heart.

“Where are we?”

“We are in an inn.”

The Duke let out a deep sigh and continued, “After you lost consciousness, I brought you to this inn I found. I hope you don’t mind that I carried you, dear.”, he teased.

A slight heat crept its way up Ain’s face.

He coughed and said, “Of course, that’s not a problem we are married after all.”

Although he was unsure how other married couples interacted he guessed a bit of closeness should be normal.

To bring their conversation back to the right topic Ain asked what caused the carriage to malfunction.

“Ah, nothing much. Just a failure of the magic engine. Anyway since our carriage is broken we will need a new one. I already contacted the estate and they will send one here. But that won’t happen till tomorrow, so we have to spend the night here.”

He got up from the bed.

“I bet you are hungry my dear. I’ll get us something from downstairs.

Unused to such a caring attitude, Ain stopped the Duke.

“That’s not necessary Duke. I’m not-”

A growl from his stomach interrupted his words.

Ain fell silent and his face began to burn again.

The duke started laughing.

“I’ll be back soon with food. Don’t miss me in the main time.”

With that Ain heard the door opening and the fading steps of the Duke.

Shortly before the door closed he heard the Duke say in a teasing voice, “And shouldn’t you call me husband instead of Duke?”

. . .

On the morning of the next day, their new carriage arrived at the inn.

After a short breakfast, the two left the inn for the estate.

Inside the carriage, Ain had to fight his sleepiness to stay awake.

“Tired?”, the Duke asked.

“Just a little bit.”

On the previous night, the two of them had to sleep in the same bed, since there were no other available rooms.

The Duke fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Ain on the other hand had a sleepless night. No matter what he did sleep would just not come to him.

He guessed that maybe the nap before the accident was the reason for this dilemma, but maybe his overly fast beating heart also played a role.

Sensing the man next to him made Ain nervous and since he was unused to so much physical contact, he couldn’t find any rest.

A sigh from the Duke brought him back to the present.

“Don’t tell me I’m the reason you couldn’t sleep.” He sounded distraught.

“If it’s like this then how are we supposed to sleep in one bed in the estate?”

This was truly a big problem.

Ain had forgotten that married couples spent all their time together. forget sleeping in the same bed, that would mean they would always be together!

But if they were always together then what if the Duke found out his secret?

Ain got anxious.

“No need to be worried about this. We will find a solution to that. So why don’t you sleep in the carriage for a while?”

Ain shook his head vigorously.

“No.”, he said resolutely.

“What if another accident happens?”

At his response, Ain could see amusement bubble up in the Duke.

“I promise you that there will be no more accidents today my dear.”, he said confidently.

“So now close your eyes.”

It was strange how much Ain trusted the words of the Duke.

Maybe it was because he had saved his life previously and shown Ain that he was reliable and could be trusted.

Anyway, after hearing his reassuring words, Ain let his sleepiness overwhelm him.

 

Little Theater:

Ain: I won’t sleep what if we have an accident again!

Eltanin: *laughs* Don’t worry lying on the ground once is enough.