Chapter 92 – Old Habits
The castle hallways were empty.
The party had ended half an hour ago, and the royal wing had already returned to its usual silence, with the red crystal lamps dimmed to half brightness and the carpets swallowing the sound of footsteps.
A few meters behind Matt and Noxx, two guards walked in silence.
Matt stopped.
The guards stopped.
Matt turned his head.
"You can leave."
The two guards looked at each other.
"Princess, the queen's orders were—"
"The queen's orders were to make sure I attended the banquet," Matt cut in.
"..."
"Leave."
The guards hesitated for another two seconds.
Then, unable to find any way to argue without inventing an order that didn't exist, they straightened, gave a short bow, and disappeared down a side hallway.
Matt waited until their footsteps faded completely.
Then he continued walking.
Noxx walked beside him without saying anything.
They reached the door. Matt opened it and stepped aside to let her enter first.
Noxx walked in.
And remained standing in the middle of the room, her back perfectly straight, hands folded in front of her, gaze fixed somewhere above the furniture, in exactly the same posture she had maintained throughout the entire banquet.
Matt entered behind her and closed the door.
CLACK!
He looked at her for a second.
Then laughed.
"Noxx."
"...Yes?"
"You can relax now. We're alone."
Noxx lowered her shoulders slightly.
'Understood.'
Silence.
Matt continued toward the wardrobe.
Noxx waited for a response.
None came.
Noxx blinked.
Then she realized.
'...Ah.'
They weren't fused anymore.
There was no shared mental house.
No direct channel.
Thinking something was no longer enough for Matt to hear it.
There was air between the two of them now.
And air didn't carry thoughts.
Noxx's ears grew hot.
"Okay," Noxx said aloud, her voice far firmer than what she actually felt. "I understand."
Matt, with his back turned to her, didn't even ask what she meant.
Noxx sat on the edge of the bed.
Then she heard the sound of a buckle.
Noxx looked up.
Matt was taking off his jacket.
He had already tossed it over a chair.
Now he was undoing the buttons of his white shirt one by one, wearing the exact same expression he'd had while dodging punches an hour earlier.
Noxx turned red.
"W-What are you doing?"
Matt looked at her over his shoulder.
"Changing."
"Here?!"
"It's my room."
"..."
"I'm putting on pajamas."
"...Now?"
"Now. These clothes are uncomfortable."
Matt tossed the shirt onto the chair.
Noxx's eyes shot toward the floor with admirable speed.
"You should do the same," Matt added.
Noxx went still.
"...Me?"
"You."
"..."
"That dress has more layers than mine."
Noxx lowered her eyes to her lap.
The black dress with dark red details.
The carefully arranged skirt.
The slit along the side.
The tiny buttons on the back that the maids had fastened for her a few hours earlier.
'Okay.'
Noxx closed her eyes and concentrated.
She imagined the dress disappearing.
She imagined comfortable clothes replacing it.
She imagined the entire change happening cleanly and instantly, just as she had done thousands of times inside the mental house whenever she grew bored with her appearance.
Noxx opened her eyes...
And she was still wearing the dress.
'...'
'Ah. Right.'
Noxx pressed her lips together.
She wasn't inside a mental world anymore.
She was in the physical world.
And in the physical world, clothes didn't change through sheer willpower.
They changed with hands.
Noxx looked at her own hands.
Then she looked behind herself, toward her own back, toward the buttons she couldn't see.
Then she looked at Matt.
Matt was a few steps away.
Shirtless.
Barefoot.
Searching through the wardrobe with all the calm in the world.
Noxx swallowed.
And began.
She reached both hands behind her back and searched for the first button.
She found it.
Tried to push it through the hole.
It wouldn't go.
She changed the angle of her elbow.
Her shoulder hurt.
She tried from above.
The button slipped from her fingers.
She found it again.
It slipped again.
Noxx frowned.
Four minutes later, she was still on the first button.
"Want some help?" Matt asked without turning around.
'No.'
Silence.
Matt continued searching through the wardrobe.
Noxx waited.
Nothing.
'...'
'Again.'
'Again. Goddammit.'
Noxx squeezed her eyes shut.
'This habit is going to be more annoying than I thought.'
Noxx cleared her throat.
"I can do it myself," she said aloud.
"You've been on the same button for four minutes."
"...It's a difficult button."
Matt closed the wardrobe, turned around, and walked toward her.
Noxx stiffened.
Matt approached her with the complete naturalness of someone who had stopped being embarrassed by his own body a long time ago for the simple reason that he didn't consider that body his to begin with.
Matt stopped behind her.
"Lift your hair."
"..."
"Noxx."
Noxx brought both hands behind her neck and lifted her white hair.
Matt started with the first button.
He undid it in one second.
Then continued with the rest without stopping, his fingers moving quickly, without any particular care, like someone disassembling something he'd already figured out.
Noxx lowered her head.
She said nothing.
She let Matt open the back of the dress.
Let him slide the straps down her shoulders.
Let him hold the fabric while she pulled her arms free.
Let him fold the dress over the back of the chair beside his own clothes.
When he finished, Noxx was in the same state as him.
And for some reason Noxx couldn't fully explain, her face burned.
'...Why? It's the same body. Literally. I came from him. A few hours ago we were the same person. Why am I embarrassed?'
Matt looked at her.
"Are you feeling sick?"
Noxx took a step back.
"No."
"Tired?"
"No."
"You did a lot today."
Noxx sat on the bed, grabbed the edge of the sheet, and wrapped herself in it all the way up to her shoulders with a movement that was both quick and extremely undignified.
"I'm fine," Noxx said from inside the sheet. "I just talked to some nobles. And danced with you."
"Right."
"Compared to the cave, that was nothing."
Matt sighed.
"Don't underestimate social events."
Noxx raised an eyebrow.
"I'm serious," Matt insisted, sitting on the opposite edge of the bed. "Fighting tires out your body. Social events tire out your brain. And your brain takes a lot longer to recover."
"..."
"I talked to around forty noblewomen today. Every one of them wanted something different. Every one of them was measuring every word I said. I'd rather fight for four hours straight than do that again."
Noxx thought about it.
Then she opened her mouth to answer.
'If it tires you that much, I can take control while you res—'
Noxx stopped.
She stopped halfway through the mental sentence, mouth slightly open and the sheet clutched against her chest.
'...'
'Not anymore.'
There was no shared body anymore where one of them could take the wheel while the other slept.
No shifts.
No strange but practical arrangement like the one they'd had for months, where Noxx covered for Matt whenever his mind shut down.
Now there were two bodies.
And each of them had to carry their own.
Noxx closed her mouth.
"...What?" Matt asked.
"Nothing."
"You were going to say something."
"Nothing, Matt."
Matt looked at her for a second.
Then let it go.
And that, more than anything else, made Noxx's chest tighten slightly.
Because before, Matt wouldn't have needed to let it go.
Matt looked at the sheet wrapped around Noxx.
"Are you hot?"
"No."
"You're wrapped up like a burrito."
"I'm comfortable."
"I can open the window."
"It's fine like this."
"It's a window. It opens. It's not complicated."
"It's fine like this."
Matt shrugged and stood up.
He walked toward the chair, where he'd left a simple black two-piece pajama set with no decorations, the kind Matt had specifically requested because it was the only clothing in the castle that didn't look like it belonged in a stage play.
He picked it up.
Then, with all the naturalness in the world, he reached behind himself.
Noxx disappeared.
FWUMP!
One movement.
A single violent flick of the sheet.
And Noxx vanished completely from sight, becoming a perfectly motionless white lump in the middle of the bed.
Matt stopped.
He looked at the lump.
"...Noxx?"
"I'm fine."
"You're under the sheet."
"I'm very fine."
Matt sighed and finished putting on his pajamas.
Inside the lump, Noxx had her eyes squeezed shut and her face red all the way to her ears, repeating one sentence with all the discipline she could muster.
'It's the same body. It's literally the same body. There's nothing there that I don't have. It's the same body...'
And then someone laughed inside her head.
A short, high-pitched, happy giggle.
Noxx's eyes snapped open.
"Moon, shut up," Sun whispered. "You're going to ruin the fun."
"I can't!"
"Moon."
"I can't, I can't, I can't!"
Noxx clenched her teeth.
'...What's so funny?'
Silence.
"...Nothing," Sun said.
But Moon couldn't hold it in.
"I didn't know Master had romantic feelings for Master Matt!" Moon suddenly blurted out with overflowing excitement.
Noxx shot upright under the sheet.
'No!'
"Yes!"
'I don't have those!'
"But it's a little obvious!"
'I don't have even a little of that!'
"Your face is really red!"
'It's a temperature problem!'
"But you said you weren't hot!"
Noxx squeezed her eyes shut.
'...Where the hell did you two even learn about this?'
Moon laughed even harder.
"Sorry! That's top-secret information!"
'What do you mean, top-secret information?'
Sun spoke calmly, in the tone of someone reporting the facts while wanting no part in the crime.
"Moon was snooping through the romance books Matt read during his student days."
Silence.
"Sun!" Moon shouted.
"It's the truth," Sun replied.
"That was confidential!"
"You can't declare things confidential, Moon."
Noxx covered her face with one hand.
Then she laughed quietly into the sheet.
'...You two are pretty idle weapons.'
"Hey!"
'And nosy.'
"That's even worse!"
'It's accurate.'
Moon made an offended noise.
Then, almost immediately, her tone changed into something far more dangerous.
"Master."
'No.'
"Master, listen to me."
'No.'
"If that's what your heart feels..."
'Moon.'
"...then you should kiss Master Matt."
'STOP TALKING NONSENSE!'
Noxx screamed it so loudly inside her head that it almost escaped through her mouth.
Moon burst into laughter.
Sun sighed.
And at that exact moment, something touched Noxx's head from the outside world.
Noxx froze.
It was a hand.
Matt's hand, resting on top of the sheet-covered lump exactly where her head was.
"Noxx."
Noxx lowered the sheet just enough for her eyes to peek out.
Matt was standing beside the bed in his black pajamas, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Are you seriously going to sleep like that?"
"...Like what?"
"In your underwear."
"..."
"There are pajamas in the wardrobe. Like twenty of them. The queen sends me a new one every three days for some annoying reason."
Noxx pulled the sheet up to her nose.
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, I'm sleeping like this."
Matt looked at her.
"...Okay."
"Okay."
"Whatever you want."
"Whatever I want."
Matt turned around to switch off the desk lamp.
But the door suddenly flew open.
BAM!
Iris walked into the room, still wearing her dress from the party, Eleonora's black sheath hanging from her waist.
Iris opened her mouth to say something.
She didn't.
Because what she saw was a bed.
And on that bed, wrapped in a sheet, with her clothes folded over a chair and very obviously wearing nothing but her underwear, was Noxx.
And standing right beside her, leaning toward her, his hand still only inches from her head, was Matt.
Iris became very still.
Noxx became very still.
Matt turned his head with all the calm in the world.
"...Iris."
Iris didn't answer.
Iris's fingers slowly began tightening around Eleonora's sheath.