"Killian. From now on, you must protect this child."

Killian had been born into the Colosseum under the principle of collective punishment and had spent his entire life as a slave. The hand of salvation extended to him came with a request: live in the imperial palace and protect the youngest son, Rosha.

He later learned that the man who had made that request was the emperor himself, called the eternal sun of the Kalvasa Empire.

In exchange for freeing him from his slave status, the child Killian was to protect with his life turned out to be the youngest imperial prince of the Kalvasa royal family, a boy the same age as Killian.

"I, I am, you know."

Unlike the other princes, Rosha lived in a detached annex far from the main palace and had received no proper education, making him an utterly innocent child. It was said to be because he had been born under an ominous oracle.

Rosha's mother, Viola, had not been the empress but the emperor's mistress, and even she had died giving birth to Rosha, leaving no one to protect him.

Because of that, he was a child the imperial family had effectively abandoned, and Killian had been handed an unwanted, inauspicious burden that everyone else shunned.

But what did it matter?

"I like Killian sooo much! He's kind and plays with me and. Even though he's the same age as me, he's so, so, grown-up and cool."

Watching that face smile more brilliantly than sunlight, chubby pale cheeks still full of baby fat flushed a rosy red. Killian would find himself thinking that this world was, after all, a place worth living in.

"I like you too, Your Highness."

"Killian will stay with me, always, right?"

"Yes."

"You won't go anywhere?"

"Yes."

Rosha, who had been whispering as though sharing a secret, giggled. Then he threw his arms wide open and pulled Killian into a fierce embrace. Killian went limp and toppled backward with Rosha on top of him, and Rosha looked down at him from above and burst into bright laughter.

Killian felt as though the purity of this child would blind him white, and for the first time he felt something called desire.

It was a heartbeat that was rough yet soft, different from the one he had when swinging a sword to survive in a brutal cage where the strong lived and the weak died, and he tasted the sensation of his lower body stiffening with shameful arousal.

And he knew it instinctively.

His sun was not anywhere else. It was right here. He would go blind and spend his entire life caught by this child, unable to think of looking anywhere else.

* * *

Today was the day Rosha's coming-of-age ceremony was held at Seria Palace, his residence. Of course, the ceremony amounted to nothing more than meeting his parents, the emperor and empress, to exchange greetings and sharing a modest meal.

For the coming-of-age ceremonies of the other princes, the Pope had come in person to bestow holy water and hold a lavish banquet, but that was not something permitted to Rosha, who had been born carrying an ominous oracle.

Even his parents, the emperor and empress, were extremely reluctant to show Rosha to the outside world, so the fact that they had made the trip at all was already something of a miracle.

"Congratulations on coming of age, Rosha."

"Yes, yes..."

"Your... 'physical' matter... there haven't been any particular problems?"

Rosha nodded awkwardly at his father's dry question. The empress, who had been eating in silence, added a brief piece of advice.

"Always be careful to keep yourself from being found out."

"Yes..."

That was the entirety of the conversation exchanged at the meal. Neither Rosha, who felt no affection for them, nor the emperor and empress, who were preoccupied with concealing the embarrassment that was Rosha, had any desire to prolong the occasion, and so the coming-of-age ceremony ended just like that.

But Rosha was not sad.

Because he had Killian, a close childhood friend and a dependable knight-protector.

Killian, who was the same age as Rosha, had also come of age this year, and Rosha had decided to celebrate that fact together with him.

"He should be in his room by now."

He would sneak over and surprise him with congratulations. What kind of reaction would Killian have? Rosha smiled softly as he let his imagination run, picturing what expression the always composed and unruffled Killian would make when being congratulated.

Just then, a clear voice rang out from the end of the corridor.

"Do you know where Sir Killian is?"

"No. Oh! Are you also going to give him a gift?"

They were ladies-in-waiting who worked in Seria Palace.

"Mm-hm. I hope he'll accept it."

"He's kind despite how he looks, so he'll probably accept it, don't you think?"

"Right? I'll give it to him when I run into him later."

The two ladies-in-waiting smiled shyly like girls in love and disappeared to the end of the corridor. Rosha, who had stopped short for a moment, began walking again, more slowly than before.

Killian had been popular since childhood because of his exceptionally striking appearance and his strangely mature air. Rosha, who was closer to him than anyone and had been with him the longest, felt that popularity more keenly than most.

He had never been jealous of it even once. In Rosha's eyes too, Killian was handsome, and even though he could seem blunt at first glance, he was kind, so it would be stranger if he were not popular.

If anything, Rosha thought it was fortunate that Killian was not looked down upon, even though he was a knight of common birth who held the secret of having once been a slave before being freed.

On top of that, Seria Palace was isolated at a distance from the palaces of the other princes.

All the servants who worked in this palace had restricted access to the outside world and had little contact with people beyond its walls, so it was perhaps only natural that everyone fell completely for Killian, the only pleasing sight within it.

There were times he envied the "ordinariness" that Killian possessed, but...

"What can I do. I was born this way."

As long as he hid it well going forward, as his parents had said, there would be no particular problem. He would live alone without being able to marry, but that was fine. Killian would be by his side.

"He promised he would."

As long as the secret he was hiding even from Killian, the secret about his body that his parents found shameful and repulsive, was never discovered. He would be able to maintain this relationship forever.

Rosha fidgeted with his hands and soothed himself. In the meantime, he had arrived in front of Killian's room. Rosha snapped back to his senses and composed his restless heart.

"I came to congratulate him, so I can't be gloomy!"

He shook his head to clear it, then took hold of the door handle. He turned it slowly so it would make no sound and peeked his head through the door, just barely, and that was when it happened.

Slick, slick, wet, slick...

He paused at the wet, squelching sound coming from inside. A strange sound arriving in a steady rhythm. He was standing there blankly trying to figure out what it was when Killian's heavy, heated breathing reached him.

"Ha... hh, Rosha."

He felt the back of his neck go stiff in an instant. Without meaning to, Rosha pushed the door open a little further and ended up seeing Killian, who had been hidden behind it.

Killian was perched on the end of a long console table pushed against the wall. His shirt was more loosely disheveled than usual, his trousers were open below it, and the thick, upright shaft jutting out was held in his hand.

"...Oh."

At first he had no idea what he was looking at. A single serpent rearing up over a copper-toned pubic bone with veins standing out and coarse hair below. Beneath the large, distinctly shaped head, blue veins ran long and knotted and swollen, and the foreskin was a dark, dusky color that made it look almost grotesque.

"Oh."

It took time to realize that the slick, glistening, wet thing was Killian's penis. It was so large and thick and fearsome-looking that it was hard to believe it was the same thing as the male organ Rosha had between his own legs.

Rosha had never in his life seen such a club. He had even less occasion to see someone else's genitals. His lips moved wordlessly at the absurdly unreal scene before him. His gaze, drawn as if by the law of universal gravitation, lingered for a long time on the gap in Killian's trousers.

A glance. Killian slid his eyes sideways. The moment Rosha met those dark green eyes directly, the rush of reality hit him and he didn't know what to do.

"Ah... um..."

He had accidentally witnessed his friend masturbating. And on top of that, he had stared openly. Rosha's mind went completely blank. In contrast, his face, which was naturally pale, flushed red as a ripe apple.

"Has Your Highness ever masturbated?"

Killian asked, out of nowhere. In a voice that had sunk deep and grown thick with arousal, casually as always, yet with a question that was anything but casual.

As though he had already known Rosha would come.

As though he had known all along that Rosha was standing there watching.

Killian moved his hand diligently, rubbing the slick head with his fingertips and stroking down the shaft, and the wet, lewd sound of it filled the silence.

He was shamelessly continuing to masturbate even after being caught. He did not startle or panic or drive Rosha away, and he did not get angry.

It was Rosha who was flustered, thrown off by Killian's composure in a situation that was entirely outside anything he had expected.

"Ah, I, I..."

Out of curiosity he had touched both his male and female parts before. But the unfamiliar sensation and the memory of his parents' stern eyes had frightened him, and he had not touched himself since. Naturally it was too embarrassing a thing to say readily.

While he was unable to answer, Killian lifted himself off the table and stepped toward him. A strange, heavy musk drifted from him.

Rosha, who had gone rigid with tension, was caught by Killian's hand and pulled, stumbling across the threshold and into the room. The door closed behind him and he found himself suddenly trapped between the wall and Killian.

The same question fell again over his lowered head.

"Masturbation. You've never tried it?"

"..."

"Right. You haven't."

A low voice falling from even closer than before made goosebumps rise across his skin. Rosha squeezed his eyes shut, not knowing what to do. His face burned as though it might burst. His white ears had gone bright red.