AWWEWNR Chapter 11

Hanaella glanced at Anthony, who didn’t answer her question, and stepped inside. 

 

Shia, who had placed the severed arm in the regenerative device and was in agony as he poured a potion of Ethan’s blood into the device’s opening, widened his eyes in surprise at the sudden entrance of Hanaella.

 

The next head of the House of Ariel, the one who would become their lord, was a beauty with jet-black hair and black eyes of the same color. 

 

Unlike the ostentatiously adorned young women of the noble houses, she wore no jewelry in her hair, but her porcelain-clear skin and red lips made her radiant. 

 

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the woman who would become his master could be so beautiful.

 

Neither had Hanaella. Silver hair almost white, grayish ashen eyes, piercing features, a sharp nose, and thin but luscious lips to match. 

 

Shia Batanvu Fernando was a handsome young man with delicate facial features. The tears in the corners of his eyes, perhaps from the pain of his amputated arm, made me feel the urge to hug him.

 

After the two men stared at each other blankly, not even greeting each other, a distraught 

 

Anthony coughed and introduced Shia to Hanaella.

 

“This is the next Legionnaire, Shia Batanvu Fernando. Shia, this is Hanaella.”

 

“…Hayden’s little darkness.”

 

“A pleasure.”

 

“Please speak, then.”

 

An awkward silence fell over the room as the Legionnaire bowed to Hanaella and left. 

 

Shia, who was naturally soft-spoken and quiet, was pouring the potion into the regenerator, unsure of how to treat a woman of her age and soon-to-be master.

 

“Ugh—!”

 

A groan escaped Shia’s lips at the sudden, stabbing pain, different from the intermittent aches and pains that came before.

 

“Does it hurt much?”

 

Hearing his groan, Hanaella came over to him, concerned.

 

“Oh, not really.”

 

Shia panicked as Hanaella leaned closer. She placed her hand on his shoulder. Instantly, a black, thick smoke billowed from Hanaella’s hand and enveloped Shia’s entire body. Shia felt the constant pain, and the throbbing headache it caused, instantly disappear.

 

That wasn’t all, the speed at which the severed arm he’d placed in the regenerator was reattaching itself was visibly faster. 

 

It was a ridiculously fast recovery, not at all like the potion he’d put in the regenerator. 

 

Hanaella watched the black smoke from her hand curiously before turning her gaze back to Shia’s severed arm.

 

“I see. So this is how healing works.”

 

Shia was uncomfortable with the sight of Hanaella so closely beside him, and it made him uncomfortable. Her sweet scent made his heart tickle, and that was motivation enough.

 

“Ah, but you’re still slow to recover. Is it because of the amputation?”

 

“…”

 

“Can you give me a knife, maybe a splash of my blood will help…”

 

“It’s okay!”

 

Shia shouted in exasperation at Hanaella’s words.

 

“You haven’t even become an official Legionnaire yet. I already can’t receive the power of the next Lord.”

 

“…No, I’m just curious and want to give it a try.”

 

“But I can’t bleed the next Lord’s body just to heal my arm.”

 

“So it’s not about you, it’s about my curiosity.”

 

“Still, I can’t do that.”

 

“…”

 

Hearing Shia’s words, Hanaella let out a short sigh. 

 

Perhaps this was why he came to the Regeneration Room without resentment when the Knights’ Legionnaires cut off his arm as a test. 

 

Or why it was so easy for the former Tharrott to blackmail him with a potion of her blood.

 

‘This is the man who will share my destiny, and I will not let anyone else mess with him, for he will be my only trusted ally.’

 

Feeling sorry that she hadn’t been able to do anything for him in the past, Hanaella decided to give him everything she could in this life.

 

“Then we’ll do it another way.”

 

Releasing her hand from Shia’s shoulder, Hanaella grasped Shia’s face with both hands, gripping it firmly enough to keep him from pulling away.

 

“If you’ll pardon the rudeness.”

 

As soon as she said that, Hanaella pressed her lips to his. 

 

She had read in a book about the healing properties of saliva, but the suddenness of her action startled him, and he froze. Hanaella slipped her tongue between Shia’s frozen lips. 

 

Perhaps because she had been married to Tharrott in the past, she was not afraid to act once she had made up her mind.

 

She mused, ‘It’s just a kiss, a cure for the one who will spend the rest of my life with me, so why not, besides, he’s handsome.’ 

 

In a way, she regretted that she had died knowing only one man, and that was Tharrott. 

 

Not that she had any intention of using her healing powers to entertain herself, but for now, all she could think about was healing the severed arm of the next Legionnaire, who was probably being harassed by the Knights.

 

As Hanaella’s tongue slipped between Shia’s lips, she opened them in frustration. 

 

Shia’s shoulders twitched weakly as Hanaella’s tongue touched his, and he shook his head. His eyes fluttered open in surprise and pleasure as Hanaella’s tongue licked the soft inside his lips. 

 

Hanaella glided her tongue around, feeling every inch of Shia’s mouth coated with her own saliva.

 

It was then that visibly dark magic enveloped them both. The dark energy from Hanaella’s body flowed through her tongue and into Shia’s body. 

 

Feeling the pain that had been throbbing faintly just moments before, disappearing in an instant, Shia lowered his gaze to stare at his severed arm. 

 

The woman who’d been giving him the saliva, Hanaella, also lifted her lips from his gaze and turned to look at his arm.

 

“Oh—! It’s reattached and sprouting new flesh!”

 

Hanaella exclaimed in wonder. Shia’s face instantly reddened as her lips were glistening with who-knows-whose saliva from the overlapping of their lips earlier. 

 

Looking at the reddened face and covering his lips with the back of his hand, Hanaella realized that she had done something terrible to the innocent, young man.

 

“Ah… was it your first time?”

 

Hanaela asked, and Shia’s blush intensified.

 

“I’m sorry. But you’ll have to get used to it. The only way to heal a wound quickly is to either lock lips like this or consume the blood directly, and you refused to drink the blood from me.”

 

“…”

 

“You’ve healed wonderfully. A little more and you’ll be clean.”

 

“No, I’m fine, I’ll recover slowly…”

 

“…Sure, if that’s okay with you.”

 

Shia breathed a sigh of relief at Hanaella’s words. 

 

The sight of him made Hanaella stare at Shia with a wince. He may be a boy, but he’s a man. A grown man, and a handsome man at that, surely there must be a woman for him.

 

‘Ah… did I steal a man’s lips without his permission…? Although a kiss is meant to be restorative, it is sexual harassment if done without permission.’ 

 

Not that it was selfless at all. But these are lips you’ll need to share often in the future, and I can’t cut my hands to make them bleed every time they get hurt… 

 

Still, if he has a woman, I’d prefer not to use saliva as a way of transferring it.

 

Thinking this over, Hanaella glanced at Shia and asked earnestly.

 

“Sir Fernando, do you have a lover?”

 

At her question, Shia gazed up at her with a bewildered expression. 

 

She was the most unpredictable type, he thought. One moment she was casually placing her hand on his shoulder to help him recover, and the next she was trying to cut into that pale skin and bleed out. 

 

‘I was so stunned that I refused, but instead, she kissed me so naturally.’

 

As the son of a Viscount himself, he was a member of the nobility, and he knew that the nobility of this country had no concept of courtesy. 

 

But to think that a young girl who had just come of age would kiss the first man she saw without even batting an eye…

 

Even if it was for restorative purposes, there should have been some resistance to kissing a stranger, but somehow she didn’t even seem to have that reaction. 

 

And the fact that she asked me if I had a lover when we were done…

 

“No. And you may call me by my first name.”

 

“Of course, Lord Shia. I was rushing to check, and I’m glad to hear you don’t.”

 

“…”

 

“I hope you’ll tell me as soon as you have a lover. It would be a shame not to be able to use this convenient method, but I suppose it’s not like I could kiss someone with a lover.”

 

“The… convenient… method.”

 

“Yes…? It’s easy, isn’t it, since all we have to do is transfer saliva from my mouth to yours.”

 

“…”

 

“Anyway, I’ve done what I wanted to check, so let’s head back.”

 

At Hanaella’s words, Shia pulled his arm out of the regenerator and stood up.

 

“I’ll take you back.”

 

“Don’t bother. Finish tending to your wounds.”

 

Hanaella smirked and walked out, leaving Shia to stand and stare at the door until she was out of sight. 

 

Sighing, Shia brushed his lips with his forefinger. 

 

The first kiss with a stranger of the opposite sex, for a ridiculous reason in such a bizarre situation, but there was something inexplicably comforting about the fact that this was the lord he was supposed to trust and follow.

 

“Hah…”

 

Shia let out a short sigh and stared at his almost-healed arm.