Chapter 53: Sleeping Beauty

A dream. This had to be a dream. No, a nightmare. This was a nightmare. A really bad nightmare.

"Oowww!" Unfortunately for Chevel, as he was speaking, he was cut off by a painful pinch. "What was that for?!"

Chevel rubbed his poor bruised cheek as he turned to the culprit complaining about unnecessary injury he received.

Despite Chevel's initial complaint, Linus's eyes remained glued to whatever was over the corner. All he got was the same aghast look glued on Linus's face that he had when he first saw his idol falling from above only to lock lips with the new guy at their school.

This was no dream.

"""NOOOOOOO!"""

Van, Dio, and Lapis yelled in unison as they separated the two petrified statues from one another. Lapis and Dio lifted up a horror strucked Rood while Van got a hold of an unmoving Shicmuon who was clearly in a state of shock. No sign of life was found in Rood's dead, wide eyes. He laid there lifelessly in Dio's arms all the color drained from him.

"Unacceptable! I refuse to accept this 'thing' and my little brother in a relationship. I absolutely refuse." Gender aside, Lapis would never let someone like Shicmuon have any form of connection with Rood. The bigger problem was the guy's personality than his gender.

"Except that Rood isn't your brother." Sweat dropping, Dio pointed out. "And i-it's not like they did it on purpose either."

Right in front of the stairway, there was a sign that read, "Caution waxed floor. May cause slipping." It was likely this was what Shicmuon was staring at so intently before the accident. To sum it up, basically, while Shicmuon reading the sign, Rood who was upstairs and dazed at the same time lost his footing and fell. As luck would have it, his face ended up on Shicmuon's and in the worst possible way. Whether it was coincidence or bad luck is up to debate.

"Right Rood?" Dio could not cope with the very thought of Rood and Shicmuon in a 'relationship.' He really hoped it wasn't it.

"..."

Now, this was a bit surprising. Dio didn't expect to see an unconscious Rood in his arms. No wonder he was strangely quiet the whole time.

Most likely from the 'accident.' The shock of pressing lips with Shicmuon must have been too much for Rood's mind, and he fainted. Not that Dio or anyone else would blame him for. Dio would probably do the same thing too if it were him.

Dio shuddered at the thought. He prays he spends the rest of his life not having to kiss another man.

At the same time, Van too had an issue with a certain someone being eerily quiet more so than usual. Except in his case, it was Shicmuon. He found it odd how the redhead was looking down at the found. His bangs hid his eyes obscuring any kind of emotion from Van.

The kiss must have been a pretty big shock for him too.


Getting their priorities straightened out, the first thing they did was to bring Rood to place him in a nice comfy place which was his assigned room in the Tower. Rood laid in the bed sleeping so peacefully... despite all the noise going on in the background.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Linus ordered struggling under Lapis's hold.

"As if I'd do that!" The blond quickly retorted.

"Why not!"

"Because I'm not going to let you kiss a defenseless young boy in his sleep! Do you want to go to jail?!"

"Baldwin got to so why can't I?" Linus whined.

"Do you really need to ask?!"

"No fair. I wanted to kiss Rood-nim. It's no fair that Baldwin gets to. It's bad enough that they're roommates, but they also shared a kiss! I wanted to be Rood-nim's first kiss!"

"First kiss?" Lapis repeated. "That was his first kiss?"

"Probably. I don't think he's dated anyone before. So wouldn't that be considered his first kiss?"

First kiss... That was his first kiss? Rood's first kiss was with Shicmuon? Yet he did nothing to stop it and allowed that poor child's first to be with that beast.

After much thought, Lapis falls to the ground on his knees wallowing in his depression. Black clouds of despair hover around him.

"Just kill me right now..." He was a failure of an older brother (not that he was an actual brother either way).

From the sidelines watching the whole comedy routine, Chevel sweat drops at the two friends' idiocy.

What are those two doing? Chevel never really could get the relationship between the two friends.

Right by Rood's side was Lidusis who took a seat on an available chair and standing next to him was Dio. Both their eyes remained fixated on the sleeping figure on the bed, but their minds were elsewhere which couldn't be helped considering that they just saw their dear friend kiss another man right in front of them. Unintentional or not, the impact nonetheless was tremendous. That scene will forever be etched into their minds.

Breaking free from Lapis, the first course of action Linus took was to lean in close to the unconscious Rood only an inch away from the blond's face. Naturally, this startled the heck out of both Lidusis and Dio whose eyes were practically popping out of their eye sockets. Before Linus could get any closer, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.

"YOUCH!" Linus screamed out at the painful sensation of his hair tail being ripped off from his head and by his best friend, Lapis, no less. "How mean, Lapis... It's not nice to go around pulling on other people's hair like that."

Tears in his eyes, Linus rubbed his sore scalp.

"That's if I was dealing with a normal person. Anyone who goes around stealing kisses from innocent children in their sleep obviously don't deserve any mercy." Lapis clenches his fist at Linus.

*Gasp*

"So violent. Children these days..." Faking a gasp, Linus jokingly exasperated at Lapis successfully ticking the latter off.

"Do you want me to permanently rip off that braid of your's?" Lapis refrained himself from wiping off that annoying look on his friend's face. "More importantly, I'm afraid to ask but what were you trying to do?"

"Wake Rood-nim up."

"By kissing him in his sleep?"

"But haven't you read those books where the prince wakes the princess up from her cursed slumber with a kiss..."

"Those are fairy tales." Lapis pointed out. "And you're no prince. And you do know that 'princess' happens to be a boy. Lastly, I will never allow it. You are already beyond salvation so there's nothing much that can be done, but I won't let you sully that young boy's bright future with your perverse antics."

For a guy that's normally mocked and teased, he sure had a way with words. Compared to the other stuff, Linus was more taken back by the last part. He never would have expected such a response from Lapis of all people. So the guy had something in him after all. If only the same could be said for his lack of magical talent.

As the conversation escalated, it drew in the attention of the surrounding peanut gallery. Chevel wasn't sure where to interject. Lidusis just watched in bewilderment. And for Dio, he had other things on his mind.

"Wake Rood-nim up."

Linus's words struck a cord with Dio. As much as he wanted Rood to wake up, the idea of using a kiss like in those fairy tales was just too plain ridiculous. It's not like this was the first time he heard it. If memory serves, Lalita did tell them something similar.

"The only way to get back his memories is to... bring them back with a kiss from a prince."

Really, the idea of using some fairy tale solution to solve their problems was just plain ludicrous. Even if it was just a theory, something more realistic would have been better than some cliche fairy tale idea.

However as much as Dio wanted to deny the idea, a small part of him wanted to take the tiny chance of a miracle of restoring Rood's memories. His rationality and heart's desires were basically going at odds with each other inside his head. So much that he was likely to end up with a major headache if he didn't come up with a solution fast.

In the end, the desire to restore Rood's memories triumphed over Dio's rationality and sanity.

While the others were distracted, Dio moved in advancing towards Rood slowly pressing his face closer to the sleeping blond's. Sweat dripped down from Dio as started getting cold feet unsure whether to continue but nonetheless proceeded despite his current state of mind. Each centimeter that drew closer, Dio could feel his heartbeat race up and warmth of Rood's soft breaths. Hopefully, no one will be looking. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to live the shame down.

But as luck would have it someone was looking... Rood.

Apparently, the blond woke up just as Dio was a second from doing the unimaginable.

Silence reined over the two. Both just blinked and stared at each with disbelief for a brief moment. And then everything went black for Dio.

One moment he's leaning over Rood, and the next he's flying halfway across the room.

"..." Well, that certainly got everyone's attention.

It was no surprise that the dark blue haired demon was out cold. But what really came out to be a surprise was who the perpetrator.

"R... Roo—"

"Rood-nim!" Unintentionally cutting off Lidusis, Linus dashes over to the now awake Rood Chrishi and jumps at his idol.

Naturally, said idol easily ducked to avoid any unnecessary physical contact.

"You're awake!" Chevel commented in great revelation.

"Yeah..." was all Rood said with one hand brushing against his head. Despite having just woken up, his body felt quite lethargic.

"R-Rood?" He couldn't tell what it was, but somehow, Lidusis sensed something off about Rood. It wasn't like there was anything out of the ordinary about Rood. It's just that he had a feeling inside him was all. "A-Are you okay?"

"Oh, that." Rood lowered his hand from his head to his lap. "Pretty much. Some rest must have done the trick."

Looking around, Rood scanned the unfamiliar room.

"Rood? Is everything fine?"

"Yeah, it's just that I don't recognize this room."

Well, that couldn't be helped since they got to the Tower and all their personal belongings were already sent ahead. So this was their first time inside the lodging area. It was too bad for Lidusis that the arrangements were the same as when they were in the dorms meaning Rood was stuck with Shicmuon. Lidusis was delighted to be Dio, but he missed his former roommate so much. It wasn't the same without him.

"I'm sure that the room I was in was different from this when I took that medicine that staff member gave me unless they switched me to another room while I was sleeping."

Huh? This left Chevel, Lapis, and Lidusis perplexed. From what he was saying, it sounded like he was referring to back when they were at Xatyre. But didn't he lose his memory after taking the medicine and falling asleep so he shouldn't have had any memory prior to that? Also, he was left in that room while he was in Xatyre so there shouldn't have been any room changes. And now he was acting as if he was still in Xatyre.

"Hey, what's the last thing you remember?" Chevel asked Rood.

"I remember I was bedridden for a while after I collapsed in the changing room before we could take a bath." Rood innocently answered. "Why?"

He remembered that?! Then could that mean his memory's back?! Only one way to find out.

"Do you remembered that trip you made to the town outside of Helios?" Chevel inquired.

"You mean that time I fell on you and then you ran away like a little g—"

"He's got his memory back!" Chevel loudly declared effectively cutting off the blond before he could say anymore. As good as it was that Rood recovered from his amnesia, it didn't bode well with the blond aristocrat that Rood had to mention that of all things. Proof of it was in his sweat as he practically sweating buckets of it. If only he could have forgotten about that.

"I'm so glad!" Lapis cried in tears and snot. Well not actual mucus but metaphorically. The talentless Idun latched himself onto Rood for dear life sobbing away like there's no tomorrow. He's never been as happy as he was at that moment than he had been before in his entire life.

Okay, Rood was officially weirded out by Lapis's sobbing followed by Linus who after shortly getting back on his feet mimicked Lapis and joined him in crushing Rood's rib cage while dripping his salty water all over him. To add more to Rood's confusion, Lidusis was looking at him as if he had just recovered from some fatal illness.

"Rood..."

Scratch that, Rood was officially confused.

Not long after the sob fest ended, Chevel began to explain to Rood the events that unfolded. Apparently, while he did get his memories back, he had no recollection of the time he lost them so Chevel had to give him a basic overview of his memory loss episode in which he made sure to exclude certain embarrassing moments like Chevel being labeled off as a homosexual or Linus's previously attempted Prince Charming kisses.

"I see so we're no longer in Xatyre but the Tower now." Rood calmly acknowledged the newly acquired information, his forefinger and thumb under his chin.

"Yeah, Professor Orphell made the announcement back when you lost your memories." Chevel assured the young boy. "It was really rushed so even we were surprised when we heard it too."

"I suppose there isn't much to do now that we're here." With all those Tower magicians around, Rood'll have to be more careful about his identity. The last thing he needs is more people finding out that he's the Black Magician. But that wasn't the only problem. "... If only they could have done something about the room assignments..."

He was still rooming with Shicmuon much to his dismay.

"Speaking of which, where did he go?" Chevel wondered where Shicmuon had gone. He seemed really shocked by the kiss not that Chevel would blame the guy. And then he wandered off somewhere with that brown haired professor who was panicking for some reason and sprouting out random stuff like how he was too late or how his boss was going to kill him. Chevel found it odd that Shicmuon hadn't bothered coming back to his room despite all the time that's passed by. One would think that he'd gotten over the shock by now yet he was nowhere to be seen.

Just where was the redhead?


Oh god. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. This couldn't be happening. If he hadn't witnessed it, he wouldn't have believed it... Okay, maybe he would have, but that was beside the point. The bigger issue was how he was going to explain this to his superior. That he saw his mentally unstable ticking time bomb of a partner lock lips with his new object of obsession, a young, frail boy no older than 15 years old, whom he was supposed to keep Shicmuon away from.

"Gyyaaa! What am I going to do?!" Pacing back and forth in his room wasn't doing him any good, but he still did it anyway. Van was practically pulling his hair from the stress of the whole situation. He would have been better off it were a simple demon attack. But nooooo, it had to be that. "More importantly, an innocent child's future has been corrupted!"

The boy was pitiful as it was being Shicmuon's new target of affections, but now he had just kissed the most heinous creature in existence. No doubt this will leave a permanent black stain on his life.

Above all, he still had the job of reporting back every single detail that went on especially if it was related to Shicmuon and his new victim.

"Why the heck did he straddle me with this job?!"

As Van was in his own world, his companion was left to himself. He too was deep in thought of the recent event that took place. For Shicmuon, that was the first time something like that has happened to him. It left him completely speechless so much that his brain shut down. Back then, he couldn't form a single thought inside his mind or say anything. Just silence and his heartbeat rising. He didn't understand it all. Why did his heart beat like that when Rood fell on him? Shicmuon's heart nearly stopped when his and Rood's lips met and then it started beating rapidly. Whenever he think of Rood, he gets a strange feeling inside him which was odd since this had never happened before. He really didn't understand what this feeling was or what was going on. All Shicmuon could do was continue to stare into space while in deep thought. He presses his hand over his heart feeling the rising heartbeats in chest.