Once I learned his name, my days began their slow, steady march forward.
Every morning, Lord Rein came to the annex. He would cut pieces from his own arm, and his warmth would flow into me.
"Good morning."
Bit by bit, my voice returned.
"Water."
"……Thank you… very much."
At first, it was just a single word. The next day, it was two. Lord Rein never demanded anything of me. He only asked if I was in pain or suffering, and he waited patiently for me to answer.
◇◇◇
The treatment eventually covered my entire body.
When it first began, I was a hideous sight, covered from head to toe in reddish-black burn scars. Because of that, I was grateful that Lord Rein worked so dispassionately, even when faced with my naked body.
However—even as the scars vanished and my original white skin returned, Lord Rein's attitude remained unchanged. Without so much as a flicker of his expression, he would carve his own forearm and press his blood-stained hand against my wounds.
He had me strip many times to ensure no spot was overlooked. There was almost nowhere left on my body that Lord Rein’s hands had not touched. Even so, he never lost his composure.
More than that, Lord Rein seemed to have no room for anything else due to the agony of carving his own flesh every single time. Gritting his teeth, with beads of greasy sweat on his forehead and a deathly pale face, he was desperate just to endure his own pain. He likely didn't have the slightest mental capacity to care about which part of my body he was touching.
At some point, I became completely dominated by the sensations I felt during the treatment.
The moment Lord Rein’s hand touched my skin, the boundary between our flesh blurred and vanished. I lost track of where he ended and I began. Enveloped in that green light, our existences intermingled, our two bodies melting into a single mass—it was an unbearable bliss.
—This man's body and mine are melting together.
It was a sense of peace that I had never known in my life.
I, who had been called a Criminal Slave, who could no longer be held even by my own mother, was becoming one with someone at this very moment. I felt the sensation of Lord Rein's heat spreading to the furthest reaches of my body. It wasn't pain, nor was it mere pleasure. In a much deeper place, I felt my very core being tethered to him.
To erase a single one of my burns, Lord Rein's spirit was being ground down by pain.
Even though he was more precious to me than anything, I almost told him to stop—but I couldn't.
Just the thought of rejecting Lord Rein's warmth made my heart feel unbearably cold.
◇◇◇
Nearly a year had passed since the treatment began. The burn scars across my body had almost completely vanished.
All that remained were the charred tips of my ears.
That day, Lord Rein spoke with a light, casual tone.
"Last part. I'll heal the tips of your ears now."
—I had never let another person touch my ears, not once since the day I was born.
I had no memory of even letting my mother touch them. Even as a young child, I knew what those parts meant to an elf.
But Lord Rein did not know. Unaware, he was about to touch them as the final site of my treatment with his usual casualness.
That was, instead, a blessing to me. If Lord Rein had known the meaning, he surely would have hesitated or held back; he might have even considered ending the treatment there. Precisely because he knew nothing, he reached out to touch me with his usual proximity.
I nodded.
My heart began to race, independent of my will.
As always, Lord Rein pressed a small knife to his forearm. Blood seeped out. His fingertips, layered with his own skin, slowly touched the charred tips of my ears.
The moment he touched them—
"Nnh..."
A small breath escaped my lips.
An elf's ears are extremely sensitive. There, the sensation of melting together flowed in far more densely and directly than it had through the rest of my body.
The warmth from Lord Rein's fingertips passed directly through the nerves of my ears and reached the very center of my brain. The boundary of our skin vanished. From my ears, from my temples, and down my neck, Lord Rein's heat flooded into me, his existence overwriting my own.
—Lord Rein and I are melting together.
A thin tremor ran down my spine. My breathing grew ragged. From between my lips, a small sound leaked out once more.
"Mmm..."
A single tear spilled from the corner of my eye. It wasn't because I was sad. I was simply so full that I was overflowing from my own vessel.
Lord Rein's hand stopped for a fleeting moment.
He noticed, I thought. My heart leapt in my chest.
However, Lord Rein only knitted his brows slightly and murmured, "Ears have delicate nerves, after all. Maybe it feels strange as they regenerate." Then, he immediately focused on the treatment again. He likely interpreted it as a reaction to the nerves reconnecting. He did not pursue my odd behavior any further.
That was fine. That was better.
This sensation was a secret shared only between Lord Rein and me, one that could never be told. A secret that even Lord Rein himself only half-realized.
Slowly, slowly, my senses returned.
The tips of my ears had been restored to white skin. The parts that had been charred and lost their shape were whole once more.
Lord Rein's heat still remained, gently lapping deep inside my ears.
—In that moment, all of me became Lord Rein's.
"……Lord Rein."
For the first time, I called him that with my own voice.
Lord Rein blinked as if surprised, and then he smiled gently.
"Yeah.……That's the first time you've called me by my name."
Deep in my chest, I trembled.
To me, this man wasn't just my master. He was my savior, the one who shared his own body to create my exterior, and rebuilt my interior with his warmth. He was my everything.
"—Lord Rein."
I spoke his name once more.
In my heart, I made a vow.
No matter how much time passes from now on, I will never leave his side. The warmth he offered me, I will continue to return with my own body for the rest of my life.
I, who was born a Criminal Slave, who was burned and left for dead—I had been melted down by this man and given form once more.