Legacy of the Dark Sage - Chapter 961: Can I Touch You?

Kyran watched Cyneah walk toward him. Through the dimly lit surroundings, he was still able to see the determination reflected in her mirror-like eyes. He was a little amused that she would show such emotion just to see him. But when he thought of how she would accomplish it— through the use of her magic sense— he kind of understood why she looked that determined.

Magic energy in Somuli was limited, and only when Cyneah focused her all could she properly utilize her magic sense.

Alas, Kyran was slightly off the mark with his guess. It was unintentional, but he ended up downplaying anything relating to Cyneah’s feelings for him. He was still convinced that she still sees him as her benefactor. She might have started being aware of him as a man after he openly admitted his intentions toward her, but that did not mean she was ready to move past that.

Even when Cyneah had been taking the initiative that day to convey her feelings slowly, Kyran only saw it as her trying to test the waters. Of course, he was not completely unaware of her feelings because he knew something had changed between them after he woke up, and he found her by his bedside. But because of the complications of the pact she had with Nahir, there was still this certain wall that they could not jump over just like that.

With Nachum ascending, the pact between Cyneah and Nahir had gotten weaker. Because of this, Kyran was confident he could easily remove it. The only reason he had not done it was that he had so many things to prioritize.

In any case, because of Kryan’s misconception about Cyneah’s actions, he failed to see that her determination had a deeper reason behind them.

The little magic energy in the surroundings gathered around Kyran. He could clearly sense that the one controlling them was Cyneah.

Initially, Kyran wanted to help her by opening a pathway of magic energy from the Human plane to the Somuli again. But he rejected the thought almost immediately because doing that would require Nachum’s assistance. Unlike when Anshel was still the fake Sovereign, Nachum was the legitimate Sovereign of Somuli. Thus, Kyran could not easily bypass the latter’s influence over the plane. He could not possibly ask Cyneah to stop for a moment so he could talk to Nachum and open that pathway.

In the end, Kyran simply stood there and let Cyneah do her own thing.

Cyneah slowly lifted her hand as Kyran’s silhouette started to show more clearly. She reached out a hand, wanting to touch his face, but then stopped as she realized he was taller than she expected.

Recently, Kyran had been taking Cyneah around a lot. But even then, she was unable to measure his height properly.

“Kyran…”

It might be because it was nighttime, but Kyran found Cyneah’s voice mellow yet clearer than normal.

“Can I… touch you?”

Fortunately, the only light around them came from the stars in the sky. If not, Kyran would have seen how red Cyneah’s face had gotten when she asked that question.

On the other hand, Kyran blanked out for a second when he heard Cyneah. But he recovered almost at once as he reasoned to himself that she likely asked that because only when she touched him could he better guide the magic energies in the surroundings and see him.

“… Yes.”

Even before Kyran responded, Cyneah had already taken the last few steps that would further shorten the distance between them. After which, she placed her raised hand— surprisingly, not on his face, but on his abdomen.

Kyran was wearing his coat and even a shirt under it, but when Cyneah’s fingers touched the surface of his clothes, he felt a current-like sensation that shocked him to his core.

This was not the first time he felt this. The first time it happened was when they were on the human plane.

Back then, they encountered three Special Ops from the Royal Army, and Kyran was forced to let Zephyr and Cyneah leave first while he dealt with the others. Unfortunately, one of the Special Ops went after them, and Kyran ended up trapped inside a cube of some sort. In the end, Kyran dealt with those two and went after Zephyr and Cyneah. However, he came a tad bit late as Cyneah was forced to use the potion he gave her and even got lost. After that, Kyran frantically searched for her, only to find her hiding in what appeared to be a crevice on the wall, all bloody and stark naked.

Kyran did not react to seeing Cyneah naked. Her appearance might have improved then, but she still looked like a young girl to him. Besides, he was trained to be able to control his emotions and carnal urges back in military school by letting them experience camping with the opposite sex during field drills and even sleeping in the same room. While those were done with the supervision of the instructors, it helped them overcome any possible shock of seeing a naked person.

This was also why Kyran did not react when he woke up and saw Stella lying beside him in bed back when he was in the Tower of Conclave.

Because of the training Kyran had in military school, he was confident in his ability to stay unaffected by the opposite sex’s allures. But for some reason, when he finally found Cyneah, and she hugged him as if her life depended on it, he stiffened after feeling a jolt of electricity over his body. The feeling was fleeting, and Kyran managed to recover almost immediately. He had even forgotten about that little incident— until now.

Could it be that even then, Kyran was already aware of Cyneah? But because he only saw her as a little girl, he brushed it off as if it were an isolated case that would never happen again.

This thought flashed through Kyran’s mind as Cyneah placed her other hand over his abdomen. Similar to what happened when she first touched him, the current-like sensation came once more, and he almost let out an audible hiss.

Only then did Kyran realize just how much Cyneah could affect him. The only reason he did not react strongly around her was because she remained distant. Or at least she never tried to get this close to him.

Kyran gritted his teeth as he tried to calm his suddenly growing nerves. Unfortunately, it was such a tall task, especially when Cyneah started tracing her hands upward slowly and sensually.

If not for the clothes he had one, Kyran swore he would have already completely lost his cool.

With knitted brows, Kyran decided to focus his attention on Cyneah’s face rather than the movement of her hands. In this way, he would slowly stop being overly conscious of what she was doing.

But as Kyran lowered his gaze and looked at Cyneah, his breath caught, and his throat suddenly grew dry as he saw her mirror-like eyes looking at him with such intensity. Her face also glowed mesmerizingly that he found it hard to look away.

He had always admired her beauty, even when he thought she was still young. But even when she started to recover and look more like her age, he never really showed much interest in the changes in her appearance.

Nevertheless, Kyran did find Cyneah had gotten beautiful after not seeing her for a year. While this was due to her maturing— from being a young girl to a young woman— her change had made him more aware of her.

Of course, Kyran did not show this. He was able to maintain an indifferent attitude because he had a lot going on then, unlike this time, when the only thing that occupied him was her.

Kyran could see beads of sweat appearing on Cyneah’s forehead, which showed how much she was concentrating on what she was doing. He had the urge to wipe them, but he found his hands had turned cold, and the mere thought of touching her kind of sent warning bells to go off in his head.

It was one thing to be the receiving end of her touch and another if he also did the same.

At that moment, Kyran could barely calm himself while Cyneah worked on her magic sense to see him.

As Cyneah traced her hands up Kyran’s chest, she guided the magic energies in the surroundings to wrap around him. She could normally do this without needing to guide the magic energies manually. However, she found it difficult to maintain them because a veil seemed to cover him still.

Just as Cyneah was about to continue tracing her hands upward, she felt Kyran’s strong heartbeat and could not help but smile.

‘So, he does get flustered…’ she thought, raising her head as if to look at him teasingly.

Though her magic sense barely formed his head’s silhouette, she already had a rough idea of where his eyes were. And when she raised her head, she realized that he was looking at her. She might not be able to see, but she sensed the intensity of his stare.