Obsession: Sins He Calls Love

LIAM

Realization is like a dagger, spearing my head and chest. I quickly step a few huge steps back, my heartbeat escalating dangerously. My breath is caught in my throat, sweat forming on my hairline, and my eyes are darting around the cloudy place. My hood that was covering my face has fallen, revealing my alluring features.

The man before me is looking at me with a mixture of suspicion and surprise. Well, this is natural because no one can enter the area but… a youth with an extremely adorable face, sandy brown hair, and green eyes somehow managed to enter the borderlines.

"Who are you?" Kian asks, his eyes narrowing. "How did you come here? This place is off-limits for citizens." Kian takes a step forward toward me.

I instinctively take another step back. "I-I got lost."

I am a professional liar. Not that I chose to be, but it's that I have to be since I am directly connected with the politics of the royal court of Solaryn. Lying is just a part of my job. And I do that very well.

Kian lifts a suspicious eyebrow at my words, not quite believing me. "Are you a magic wielder?"

This is the last thing I want people to know about me because there are very few people on the continent who can't control their magic, and I am one of them. It will be easier for the enemy to identify me if they know it. But for now, if the information allows me to get away from this man alive, then I am willing to give it away.

"Yes," I answer meekly, trying to put on the act of a fragile youth, which I appear to be.

A mixed feeling of hatred and the need for survival war inside my chest. I can't quite interpret what Kian looks like aside from that he has bright blue eyes because of the fog and clouds wafting around us. But it does little to subside the flaring rage inside my chest.

He killed Eiden…

Kian's blazing eyes narrow further as if he has seen right through me, and he just knows what I am thinking. "Which kingdom are you from? Oblivara or… Solaryn?" There is something in Kian's tone when he mentions Solaryn's name that I can decipher. Something that I can only name as hatred.

On the off chance, I am going to admit that I'm from Solaryn. I know better than that. "I am from Oblivara." I take in air through my mouth and let it out through my nose in an attempt to calm my skyrocketing pulse, but I make sure to look anxious and a bit scared.

"You are from Oblivara?" Kian's eyebrow raises further to his forehead. "From where exactly?"

"I am a wanderer," I reply almost instantly. "I wander around the kingdom." This is the best fabrication I can come up with right now.

Kian pauses as he tilts his head slightly and studies me intently as if trying to see through my soul, and I have a feeling that he is actually doing just that. This is taking all my willpower not to go and push a sword through the other man's abdomen. I fist and unfist my fingers to control the fury coiling in my chest.

Someone approaches us, possibly the man who was calling Kian just a moment ago. "Commander Eyrx? Thank God I found you…—" The man's eyes drift to me. "—May I know if the Commander knows who this individual is?"

"I also don't have any intel on this man, Fred." Kian shakes his head, though he never takes his eyes off me as if I will disappear into thin air if he does, and well, without any doubt, I will actually vanish if he does.

"C-Can I go now…?" I take the chance to pipe in.

"No." Kian looks like he has made up his mind, and I can feel a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue at Kian's announcement. I have a bad feeling about this. "You are going to Oblivarae with us. I can't just let you go like this."

Oh yeah, luck is never on my side, is it?

A feeling of foreboding settles inside my bones alongside hatred and self-preservation.

I want to slay Kian right here and now, but I doubt Kian would let me do that. Even if the fog is obscuring Kian's face from me, I can clearly make out the man's silhouette. And I can tell the man is enormous. I don't even reach the man's shoulder properly. Without any doubt, the man is at least five inches over six feet. He is the biggest man I have ever seen in my life. And from earlier when Kian caught me, I am sure that the man is nothing but muscles.

Other than that, Kian's on a different level than me. The flying tales about Kian prove that. I wouldn't want to leap into a brawl with Kian without any proper planning.

My mind is racing through thousands of possibilities of what Kian might want to do with me, but… I come down to nothing. I flip through the other options in my mind. I can run and hide. I can injure Kian and run away. But none of them seem favorable to me. Since I have to enter the enemy territory without creating any suspicion, none of these options work for the outcome.

"W-Why?" I take a few steps back, putting on a scared mask.

After much contemplation, I have come to the conclusion that going to Oblivarae is the best option for me. But I can't just tag along with Kian. It would make me even more suspicious in their eyes.

Kian reaches out and grabs my waist. "Because I said so," he states matter-of-factly, his voice is rough, yet there is something in it that makes me want to hear it even more. Then Kian starts to drag me with him. Fred, the guard, starts to follow his boss.

Mission successful.