Red Tape

Luca immediately dragged Liam, who had gone to Brody’s store to run an errand. The destination is Luca’s room.

The second floor of Jones’ store is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Jones, and the third floor is occupied by Luca and Haley.

Luca’s room, which includes a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, a tea table, and two chairs, is surprisingly luxurious for a commoner’s room.

“Here. Thank you, Luca.”

Liam took out the clothes and boots he had neatly packed in a tin trunk and handed them over. Luca doesn’t even check them and just throws them on his bed. He is interested in something else.

Luca forcefully drags Liam, who is standing at the doorway, to a chair. He then goes into his closet and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and a glass that he had hidden deep within.

Luca poured the whiskey into the only glass and drank it all down himself. Then, shaking his head, he looked straight at Liam.

“Hey,I thought about it carefully.”

“Huh?”

“You asked me last time if I would ever lusted after someone I should not be with.”

“…..”

Liam immediately averted his eyes.

“Is the person you said you absolutely should not have, a guy?”

At this serious question, his eyes automatically turned to Luca. Liam remained silent, neither confirming nor denying. However, the expression on his face, as if he had been hit with the nail on the head, answered everything.

“Is this the same person for whom you borrowed these clothes and made them wear them?”

“…..”

“Huh… .”

Luka realized it when he saw Liam’s earnest eyes when he came to ask for clothes in the middle of the night.

Thinking about it, the things Liam had asked him before when he came to the club matched up. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t noticed it before.

Maybe it was one of the same servants. Luca vaguely guessed.

“I am weird…. .”

Liam lowered his head and covered his head with both hands. If I’m like a monster to me, how much more so for others?

Liam feels distressed that his best friend has found out about his dirty feelings. However, he also feels relieved inside, as if he has let go of the burden he had been carrying alone.

“It can’t be helped. Love doesn’t come to people selectively.”

“Love?”

Liam raises his head as if he has heard something unexpected and blinked his eyes.

He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then jumped as if sparks had struck his feet. It is a reaction as if he has accidentally stepped on the hem of the king’s robe.

“T-That’s not it, Luca!”

How dare I do to him.

Even mentioning such a thing is disrespectful and blasphemous to him.

“How could I… love him… I just,I respect him!”

“That’s ridiculous. Can you stick your dick in the asshole of someone you respect?”

“Wh-what?”

Liam’s face turned pale.

“What kind of respect is this?”

“Ah, no, before that… .”

“What? Ah,this asshole?”

Luca, who had been speaking calmly, realized it only after seeing Liam’s shocked expression.

Liam is completely ignorant of male-to-male relationships.

“Do you know that men can penetrate each other?”

“…What? Don’t lie.”

“How naive. Men have holes too.”

“….!”

Liam, who has been thinking about the structure of the male body in his head, finally understood what Luca was saying after a few seconds.

Luca clicked his tongue briefly at Liam’s pale face and poured whiskey back into the glass in front of him and handed it to Liam.

“There’s one at the club I go to. He is a court painter and he fencing with men every day.”

“Fencing?”

Luca smiled faintly and moved his index fingers back and forth, as if fencing. The metaphor is clear.

“Fencing with your penis.”

“…!”

Liam, who was shaking his eyes back and forth in confusion, grabbed the glass in front of him and drank it in one gulp. Luca took the empty glass, filled it, and took a gulp.

“Oh, my friend is a homosexual.”

“Ah, no!”

“No. Hmm… .Who on earth could it be, Liam Jenner’s first love.”

“T-That’s not it!”

Liam shook his head. Then he reflected on his feelings.

“How dare I… . I just… I want him to be happy. I want to protect him from pain and injury.”

“How stupid.”

Luca refilled his glass and handed it to Liam, declaring it.

“That’s love.”

“… .”

Liam emptied the glass in front of him and pondered until the end. Luca smiled cheerfully and filled his glass again.

“Congratulations, my friend. Finally, you are an adult.”

“How dare I…How dare I… .”

How dare I. Can I carelessly call this feeling of a lowly being like me as  love?

***

Erwin, in his pajamas, is leaning against the headboard of the bed with the blanket covering his waist. Liam carefully approached him and sat down, taking Erwin’s hand.

Since they are going to sleep side by side, it will be better to tie it around his wrist rather than his ankle.

The hand wrapping the red string around Erwin’s wrist while kneeling down is extremely careful and looks pious at first glance. As if performing a ritual.

Erwin looks down with interest as Liam passes the string here and there and ties it.

“It’s amazing.”

“If you untie this way, it won’t loosen up. But if you hold it here and here like this.”

As I pulled on a specific part of the string, the entire knot, tightly tied, slid down. It is a unique knot that can be tightened and loosened at will.

“Hmm, that’s interesting.”

“People even make bracelets with this knotting technique.”

“Where did you learn all this?”

“I worked at the docks. I know twelve different types of knots.”

Liam speaks in his usual boastful tone. Erwin snickered, and Liam blushed belatedly as if he had regretted it.

Soon, a bracelet tied tightly around Erwin’s wrist. Liam, holding the other end of the long string, wrapped the string around his own wrist.

The two, connected by the red string, lay on the same bed. Liam, who dared to lie down on his master’s bed, looked up at the ceiling and blinked his sleepless eyes repeatedly. Erwin, too, seemed unable to sleep.

“Where did you like the most among the places you lived before coming here?”

He hears Erwin’s languid voice. Why is he curious about the life story of such a lowly, boring person? Is he curious? Liam answers calmly.

“Ferwick.”

“Ferwick?”

Ferwick is a small southern city bordering the ocean. The area is well-known for being underdeveloped and having a thriving slave market.

Erwin raises his eyebrows, perhaps a little surprised that he has chosen such a place as his favorite.

“It was fun because it was a lively place with various people. If my mother hadn’t passed away, I would have probably settled down and continued living there.”

“Your mother… Was she sick or something?”

“No. It was a carriage accident.”

“… .”

Erwin clearly wanted to ask more, but he kept his lips shut and held back. Liam, sensing Erwin’s consideration, continued in a low voice.

“We often held festivals under various pretexts. It was a town that desperately needed an excuse to be happy. I would watch people dancing on the street with my mother and buy caramel from a vendor. It’s a salty caramel made by boiling seawater… .”

Perhaps the master wanted to hear stories of places he had never been. A place like Ferwick was a place the master would never visit.

Liam continued talking for a long time. Erwin’s eyelids slowly opened and closed before finally closing.

“Good night, master.”

Another night is deepening.

***

Liam opened his eyes at the same time as he felt a tap on his wrist.

He notices Erwin sitting on the bed, his back turned to him. Probably, His half-asleep mind would not understand why he couldn’t get out of bed.

Erwin’s body twitches repeatedly.

“.…Master?”

Liam gets up with a puzzled expression. He looks at Erwin, wondering why he is doing that, and belatedly discovers that the space between Erwin’s legs is bulging.

Liam’s eyes widened. Erwin instinctively shook his body and rubbed the tip of his erection against the hem of his clothes.

“Ugh… .”

Erwin furrowed his fine eyebrows with a shallow groan. His lower body is shaking, but his mind is asleep, so his body is not moving as it should.

Cum has soaked into the center of his pure white tunic, turning it gray.

Erwin continued to groan in pain. It seems that he is struggling, and sweat begins to drip down the bridge of his nose.

“Master… .”

He should not let a lowly man like himself witness such a sight. Liam gently places his hand on Erwin’s shoulder and tightens his grip.

“Master, Master.Master?”

After calling out a few times and shaking his shoulder, Erwin’s eyes regained their light.

Erwin looked confused, as if he had been pulled out of a dream by pulling his hair.

He is surprised to find himself sitting in the middle of the bed, and is even more surprised when he looks down at himself. The shoulder he has grabbed begun trembling and shaking.

“Master… .”

“Stop calling me. I’m awake.”

Erwin quickly grabbed his tunic’s hem, pulling his clothes tight from below his neck to above his knees. But that only made the wetness show more. Erwin’s face filled with frustration.

“Okay, let go of my wrists for a moment.”

At the moment, Liam realizes for the first time.

His noble-looking master, who seemed to have no desire whatsoever, is also a man like me.

A man who is lying down in his sleep, struggling, with carnal desires, just like him.

What would you do if I let go of your wrists? You’ll go into the bathroom and grab your genitals and shake them to solve it.

Liam’s brow furrowed in regret.

I can’t stand seeing that.

Liam has an absurd thought.

He spit it out as if he is vomiting something stuck in his throat.

“Can I…do it for you?”