Rory didn’t kiss him.
Instead, she turned to face Xarion and asked in a serious voice, "Xarion, can you tell why you suddenly don’t want to beco mates with ?"
She gently pushed him back into the chair behind him.
eting her steady gaze, Xarion bit down hard on his lip. "I... if I tell you... will the Female Master promise not to be angry?"
Rory thought about it for a mont, then nodded. "Alright. I won’t get angry. Go ahead."
Xarion reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist, his voice low and hesitant.
"I... I suddenly realized... I don’t want to die anymore."
He paused, his grip tightening slightly.
"I’m afraid that if I beco mates with you, but then refuse to let you cut my beast mark... the Female Master will think I lied to you... and get angry with ."
"You... don’t want to die anymore?" Rory stared at him in shock.
"Mm!"
Xarion nodded quickly. Seeing the astonishnt on her face, unease crept into his chest.
The Female Master looked so surprised. Would she be angry still?
"When did you start feeling this way?" Rory asked, studying him closely.
There wasn’t the slightest hint of anger in her voice—only curiosity.
She hadn’t forgotten how he had been when he first arrived: half-dead, lifeless, constantly talking about ending his life.
Even Xarion himself couldn’t say exactly when the change had begun.
"Probably... after the Female Master comforted again and again."
Or perhaps it had started even earlier—during those monts of closeness between them, when he slowly discovered that living could hold its own quiet pleasures.
"Female Master... I wasn’t lying to you before," he said quickly, his voice tightening. "At the beginning... I really did want to die..."
"I know."
Rory planted both hands on the arms of the chair, leaning in and effectively trapping him there as she looked at him with complete seriousness.
"I’m not blaming you. On the contrary—I think it’s a good thing that you don’t want to die anymore."
"You should have told sooner."
Xarion looked at her, eyes lighting up with sudden emotion.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her down into his embrace, then pressed his lips firmly against hers in a fierce kiss.
If he had known the Female Master wouldn’t be angry, he would have told her long ago.
Then they wouldn’t have missed such a perfect chance to beco mates last night.
The thought sparked inside him like a falling ember—instantly reigniting the heat in his body that had only just begun to cool.
Xarion’s kiss was fierce—almost predatory.
It carried the force of a long-suppressed hunger, claiming and conquering without restraint.
All the desire he had buried for so long surged into that kiss. Rory felt almost breathless beneath it. Her hands instinctively pressed against his chest, yet the muscles there were drawn tight as heated steel. Through her palms, she could feel the powerful thud of his heartbeat—like war drums—pounding so hard it made her ears ring.
Xarion’s breath wrapped around her completely, carrying his usual cool, glacial scent—now laced with a searing heat that seed ready to consu her.
Suddenly, Xarion stood.
He lifted Rory effortlessly into his arms, carrying her toward the captain’s cabin’s massive curved viewport.
His steps were steady and strong, as if the treasure he held was the most precious thing in the entire universe.
At that very mont, the darkness outside the starship suddenly blood with light.
One by one, streaks of colorful teors tore silently through the void, trailing radiant plus behind them.
Magnificent violet. Dreamlike pink-blue. Blazing gold.
They wove together into a grand, silent spectacle—like fireworks scattered across the heavens—transforming the cold river of stars into sothing fantastical and surreal.
Xarion gently set Rory down on the cool control console before the glass viewport, yet he did not move away.
He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, the tip of his nose brushing softly against hers as they both gazed at the breathtaking scene outside.
The flowing colors washed over their entwined silhouettes.
Xarion looked at Rory, and in his silver-gray eyes, sparks of starlight ignited and danced.
"Xarion," Rory murmured softly, still watching the overwhelming beauty beyond the glass. Her voice was slightly hoarse from the kiss, her breathing uneven.
"The teor shower... it’s beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as the Female Master."
Xarion’s gaze never left her. His low voice carried a subtle tremor, like a quiet current of electricity.
"Female Master... let’s beco mates."
As the words fell from his lips, his kiss followed once more.
But this ti it was different—gentler, lingering. His lips traced along Rory’s jaw, slowly drifting downward to the graceful line of her neck.
At so point, the lights inside the starship dimd.
Only the shifting glow of the teor shower illuminated the small world they occupied—flickering softly, brightening and fading with each passing streak of light.
The faint sounds within the cabin were swallowed by the steady hum of the starship’s engines.
Behind Rory, the glass of the viewport pressed cool against her back.
In front of her was Xarion’s body, burning with heat.
Ice and fire.
The stark contrast heightened every sensation until her awareness felt magnified a hundredfold.
Then the largest teor of all blazed across the sky—golden and radiant, its brilliant tail stretching across the stars. For a single breathtaking mont, it flooded the entire captain’s cabin with daylight.
And in that instant, within Xarion’s spiritual sea, frozen ice spikes began to lt.
Like running water breaking through a thawing riverbed... like the first stirring of life after a long winter.
A wave of unprecedented relief surged through him.
From deep in his throat ca a quiet sigh—soft, satisfied, and filled with a kind of reverent gratitude.
The light faded.
The stars returned to their silent calm.
The teor shower gradually thinned... until the last streak vanished into the dark.
The captain’s cabin fell into stillness.
Only the mingled rhythm of their breathing—and the steady, powerful beat of two hearts—remained.
Xarion held Rory tightly in his arms, his chin resting atop her head as he greedily breathed in her scent.
She slled like ripe peaches ward by the sun... and fresh milk still carrying a trace of heat.
There was also a faint sweetness woven through it—subtle, addictive.
Xarion tightened his embrace slightly, as if he wanted to press her into his very bones.
Rory shifted in his arms until she found a comfortable position. Tilting her head up, she t his gaze.
For a mont, she froze.
The dull, lifeless gray that once haunted Xarion’s eyes was gone.
Those silver-gray eyes now looked as if they had been washed clean by the brightest stardust in the universe—clear, luminous, and unfathomably deep.
If his gaze had once resembled a frozen sea of death, then now that sea had finally thawed.
The turbulent currents buried beneath centuries of ice had transford into gentle, shimring waves. Across its surface reflected the endless starry sky—and at the center of that galaxy, clear and unmistakable, was only her.
It was a purity of light so intense it was almost overwhelming.
Like an ancient tree on the brink of death that, after enduring endless drought, suddenly received life-giving rain—sprouting new branches overnight and bursting with vibrant, unstoppable life.
The light in his eyes was even more dazzling than the magnificent teor shower they had just witnessed.
Rory’s heart skipped a beat beneath that gaze.
Without thinking, she raised her hand, her fingertips gently brushing the corner of his eye.
"So beautiful," Rory said softly, genuine admiration filling her voice.
Xarion blinked in surprise, then quickly understood what she ant.
He caught her wandering hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing a reverent kiss against her soft fingertips.
His voice was low, still rough from emotion, yet tender enough to lt into warmth.
"Because of the Female Master... my eyes finally have light living in them."
His Female Master was that light.
The reason he had found the strength to want to live again.
Outside, dawn gradually began to brighten the sky.
The starship sped away from the starry expanse and returned to the estate.
Still holding Rory in his arms, Xarion stepped off the starship and carried her straight to her room.
Soon after, the sound of running water echoed softly from the bathroom.
By the ti Jasper returned, the starship was already parked in the manor courtyard.
But neither Xarion nor Rory was anywhere to be seen in the living room.
When Jasper reached the third floor, he saw Xarion stepping out of Rory’s room.
Xarion was heading to make breakfast for her.
He was worried that the Female Master might wake up hungry.
The mont he spotted Jasper, Xarion imdiately took out a tenth-rank beast core and handed it to him.
"I need to stay with the Female Master," he said. "Could you help make her sothing to eat?"
"Make the things the Female Master likes."
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