Different from what the system had reported to Sofony, inside Alessa"s bedroom...
"...I, I"m sorry, in advance."
Alessa gulped. The man"s head was currently resting on her neck, and she could feel his unnatural high temperature and hot breath upon her skin. He was still trembling, most definitely from pain which he said was from a poison, yet here she was, growing beet red as she imagined him as Chris. She could see his skin also turning red, and even though he was soaked in his own sweat, he smelled nothing but that. Why was the scene appearing so erotic for her?
As expected she had fallen so low...
She shook the dirty thoughts from her head and concentrated on supporting him into her bathroom.
A minute ago, the remaining masked man who saved her from the two other suspicious and malicious people collapsed. He said it was due to the poison which was unexpectedly coated on the blade of one of the attackers. It seemed the toxin was not only potent but also malicious since the effects only showed a minute or so after. Plus, it was very powerful and deadly.
The tall guy she was supporting had told her all of this information with great difficulty before requesting to be thrown into a bathtub full of icy water.
"... I"ll remove it..."
She received no reply from the man who seemingly pa.s.sed out after sinking into the water.
Her fingers stayed still in from of him, hesitating whether to really remove the mask. What if this one turned out to be not "him" and then became berserk due to her seeing his face?
"But it can also be Chris, right? Masking his face to not be seen by those two hired killers."
Bracing herself, she decided to just see who the man was. Anyway, he was unconscious. She could just put it back then pretend she didn"t see anything.
Alessa initially shivered since the temperature of the water transmitted to her hand was really low. It took her a second or two to adapt. Afterward, since the guy was thrown face down, she had to turn his body a bit to the side before tracing the edge of the black mask.
Her heartbeat was so fast as she lifted it from the delicate skin.
The next second though, it froze, along with her face that momentarily stiffened.
"Eh?"
...
Three hours after.
The woman felt extremely tired. She still hadn"t had a wink of sleep after the incident.
Before the first break of dawn, she had to clean up her house, dispose of some gory b.l.o.o.d.y limbs, vomit while at it, carry the masked man back into the bedroom, remove his wet clothes, and phone the company about the death threats she received.
"...I should have just called the hospital."
Her eyelids were barely parted as she sat on a style patterned wooden chair next to the bed. Sleep was already beckoning on her. She felt so exhausted that she promised herself not to do any work for today.
Just when the woman was about to close her eyes for real, she saw some movements from the person lying nakedly under the blanket. Three hours ago, she had to summon all her courage and thicken her face to get the wet clothes off his body. With great difficulty, she completed the ordeal, but not without cursing and complaining in her head. For several times, she was tempted to just call somebody over to help her. However, the man had strictly told her not to alert anybody so she could not help but become scared. "This guy, Chris or not, who must be from a shady organization is finally waking up?" she mused, watching as the man, whose masked she didn"t manage to take off even after trying every five minutes or so, finally rose from the bed.
For a not-so-glorious reason, his action instantly made her eyes widen, her sleepiness flying away.
As if the man was not conscious that his upper body became exposed as a result of the blanket slipping down, he muttered, "... Where am I?"
"So indecent..."
No answer came as Alessa had to calm down her heart a bit, looking away.
"... d.a.m.n!" Finally realizing he was not in a familiar place, it seemed the man regained full consciousness and clarity to inspect his own self and belongings.
He must be feeling uncomfortable in the face so his hands went to the black mask covering it. Alessa noticed his action, so she whipped her gaze back to it, just observing not to stray her eyes down the neck. She then stopped herself from blinking, expectant of what would be revealed to her.
And then after three seconds second which almost appeared like hours to her, the black mask was lifted off.
Her mouth slowly arced into an O.
And she stood up from her seat.
"It"s... really you..."
While saying this, memories of what she read earlier rushed back to her mind.
A hoa.r.s.e voice arrived in her ears as a reply. The man, whose face had already gone back to normal due to the time limit of the item, looked conflicted as he stared at the widely smiling her.
"Yeah."
"... You... ran to where I am to save me."
"I also received an email, figured what"s happening and narrowed it down to your queenly half-sister putting a hit on you. I just didn"t expect them to send an elite like that. I nearly los---"
When he finally noticed that he had nothing, not even a thread, put on, he stopped speaking and trembled. The look of bafflement that registered on her eyes was so refreshing, but she had to look away as she could already feel the man slowly emitting bloodl.u.s.t stronger than the one who almost stabbed her with a poisoned dagger.
Seconds pa.s.sed by in silence, her nervousness growing stronger every ticking of the clock. When it reached a breaking point, she could no longer resist looking back at him, prompting to see him pinching his glabella. He looked so distressed, and it was not hard to guess what should be going on in his mind now.
She guessed it had to be her to break the ice.
With a sigh, she put on a pitiful look and said, "... Nothing happened between us. Stop worrying. It"s just that you requested to be in an icy bath earlier. See. I"m fully clothed."
"Though I would not have been against it..." She was an open-minded girl thus the secret and unspoken thought. A big part of this, however, was her affection for the person before her.
The man took his time to respond. He didn"t follow up on the topic that she tried to bring up.
"I was poisoned and put under the influence. But thanks for not bringing me to the hospital." His voice was very low.
Alessa sat back and asked, "You won"t be saying anything about me removing your clothes?"
The man immediately reacted by giving her a disapproving glance as if asking back why she had to say something like that.
She shrugged. blushing. "Alright, sorry."
He looked away from her, his fingers tracing the cut on his neck. She honestly didn"t know what to do with it earlier, so she could only try disinfecting and bandaging it. How glad she was to learn a thing or two about first aid from one of the doctor drama she had acted once last year.
She was worried though. For sure, getting dunked in a cold bath wouldn"t just magically evaporate the poison in his body, right?
"I think I can call a doctor who can secretly sneak in here."
Chris shook his head. "No need. My body const.i.tution is not so weak to not withstand it for a few more hours. The cold had helped me so much. Thanks. I will go now to have it treated somewhere."
Alessa felt helpless because the man was very stubborn. He had her go out. Five minutes later, he went out too wearing what he had on him when he barged into the house. She reckoned he found the clothes in the basket sitting against the wall next to the bathroom door.
Before he could flip the door switch open, she ran after him and asked, "Can I go with you? As in to accompany you to the doctor? I, I"m responsible for what happened as well since it"s me whom they"re really intending to poison or kill."
His refusal was never out of her expectation, but she felt upset as she saw him shook his head. She could only feel like that since she didn"t know that Chris was barely resisting the poison"s effect. His AI had asked him for a few dozen more minutes to dissolve it from his body. Due to it, the man was still under the extremes and was barely stopping himself from either pressing the girl down the carpeted flooring or throwing her across the living room to get him away from the temptation. Both possibilities kept playing in his head, making his breathing rough and labored.
It was Alessa"s second time seeing the guy so weak.
Seeing that he seemed to be falling again, Alessa worriedly grabbed his left arm.
"You, you don"t really look okay."
...
...
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