Chapter 130
What appeared through the hazy steam was Caesar’s pale, bare body. I had been glaring at the blurred figure in the darkness, but once his form became clear, I was startled and turned my head away.
“Your companions washed together earlier, so why are you washing alone now?”
I heard Caesar walking right up in front of me. If I turned my head again, I felt like I would see him naked, so I stubbornly glared at the hot spring where the blurred moonlight was reflected.
“Obviously because I want to wash alone.”
I phrased my request for him to leave right away in my own roundabout way. But Caesar stood there without moving an inch.
I couldn’t look back at him, but I was so curious about what he was doing that I could hardly stand it. In the end, just before I lost to curiosity and turned my head, I heard his footsteps.
It would have been really nice if they were moving away, but instead, not only were they getting closer, I even felt the water ripple.
“Isn’t it hard to wash your hair alone when it’s so long? I’d like to wash it for you.”
It was a truly horribly unpleasant offer. The moment I felt his hand touch my hair, I turned around and struck his hand away.
“Don’t touch my body… Urgh!”
I thought that if I spoke fiercely, Caesar would notice how firm I was and back off, but instead, he grabbed my wrist and shoved me hard against the wall.
Because of that, my back hit the wall of the hot spring, and I grimaced as a small groan escaped me.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I tried to stop Caesar as he approached with my other hand, but that one was caught too, and I ended up completely pinned against the wall.
It was definitely a rather, no, a very uncomfortable situation. Since I had thought I would be alone in the bath, I had come in after stripping everything off, and of course, Caesar wasn’t wearing anything either.
In other words, if we got any closer, our naked bodies could end up touching. So the closer he came, the more fear I felt.
But Caesar himself was staring at my paling face without any change in expression.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
For him to suddenly give me a quiz. And by throwing the question I had asked right back at me, no less.
What kind of situation was this? This situation where a completely naked man was restraining both hands of another equally naked man in a hot spring and touching him was…
“…I don’t know.”
No matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t know. Caesar was someone who had tried to kill me only a few hours ago. So I did wonder if he still wanted to kill me.
“Now that I see you, you’re innocent too. Unlike how you look.”
At the word ‘innocent’, my brows furrowed sharply without me realizing it. Since I didn’t think I could beat him with strength, I was considering whether I should release my miasma.
But suddenly, I couldn’t move, as if my body had frozen solid. It was a strange feeling, like sleep paralysis.
I could breathe and blink, but my arms and legs were stiff and wouldn’t move.
Caesar stared at me, then very slowly lowered his head. I was afraid of his face coming closer, so I squeezed my eyes shut, and then a ticklish breath touched my ear.
“You probably can’t move at all. It’s because of the tea you drank earlier, so don’t panic.”
No way, that couldn’t be…
Flustered, I tried to move my body, but just as he said, it was no use.
“That’s why you shouldn’t carelessly drink tea given to you by someone you don’t know very well. His Majesty deliberately served tea containing an ingredient that paralyzes the body, just in case you all caused a disturbance overnight. If you had fallen asleep, you would have slept deeply and woken up after lying still like the dead.”
I had never even imagined that something like that had been put in the tea. I should have been a little suspicious.
“It’s a good thing I was keeping watch just in case. If not, you would have been left alone in the hot spring, frozen like this until morning.”
Caesar said as he lightly tapped my cheek, not hard enough to hurt. His face still showed not even the slightest hint of a smile, but somehow, his eyes looked full of interest.
He slowly slid the hand he had placed against my cheek downward. The sensation of it moving slowly past my chin and along the nape of my neck felt especially vivid.
“Don’t worry. I’ll play with you a little, then take you back to your room.”
