Chapter 106

In the early morning, soft sunlight streamed into the room through the window. A thin layer of fog had formed on the windowpane due to the cold, giving it a damp feel. Outside, there was the quiet characteristic of winter; not a sound could be heard.

The three candles lit last night on the round table at the foot of the bed have long since burned out, leaving only a little dark red wax on the dark wood surface, a testament to their existence.

At that moment, there was a slight movement on the sofa.

Black Sugar slowly opened its golden eyes, and after adjusting for a moment, it yawned, licked its lips with its red tongue, and then silently stood up, jumped off the sofa, and stretched on the soft carpet.

After silently sharpening its claws, Black Sugar swished its tail and walked towards the quiet bed. The pale red gauze curtains fluttered gently, swaying slightly in the breeze as it moved...

Following Cyrus's scent, Black Sugar walked to one side of the large bed—a black, fluffy head poked its head into the gauze curtains, golden eyes meeting golden pupils, one bewildered, the other indifferent.

Black Sugar tilted her head, looking at the two people intertwined on the bed with a puzzled expression.

--Cyrus was completely sprawled on His Holiness the Pope, clinging to his chest and legs with his hands and feet... His head was resting on Segalot's shoulder, his rosy lips slightly parted, fast asleep.

A slight blush crept across her face, strands of hair at her temples curled up, and her rhythmic breathing gently brushed against Segalot's neck and cheeks...

His Holiness the Pope was pinned down and unable to move; in fact, he did not want to move.

He gently wrapped one arm around Cyrus's waist to prevent him from falling off while asleep, while his other arm rested loosely at his side, with Cyrus's left hand hanging slightly above him across his chest.

Black Sugar let out a soft snoring sound from its throat, its large head topped with a pale red gauze curtain. Then it moved closer to the inside of the bed and licked the back of Cyrus's hand that was hanging down on Segalot's chest.

"Hmm..."

Cyrus seemed to feel the dampness on the back of her hand, and mumbled incoherently. Her drooping fingertips twitched, as if she were about to wake up.

Black Sugar wanted to lick it again, but a slender finger suddenly reached out and tapped its nose, pushing its big head back. The pale red veil finally slipped off Black Sugar's big head, keeping it out.

Segalot's golden eyes calmly gazed at Black Sugar, silently conveying a message—leave, go far away.

He withdrew his hand and then grasped the back of Cyrus's hand that had been licked, while simultaneously patting Cyrus's back gently with his other hand, one pat after another, in a very rhythmic and soothing manner.

Cyrus's somewhat hazy consciousness once again drifted into a deep sleep...

Black Sugar shook its head rather unhappily after being pushed away.

But seeing that the pale red gauze curtain didn't reach inside again, she turned around and went back to the sofa, nimbly jumping up to groom her jet-black fur.

Within the layers of bed curtains, Segalot slowly stopped patting. He lay quietly on the bed, his eyes gazing at the carved ceiling...

It may seem unbelievable, but His Holiness the Pope was indeed distracted.

Segalot's neck and cheeks were warm from her hot breath, creating a stark contrast with the other side.

This experience was quite novel.

In fact, when Segalot was half asleep in the middle of the night, he felt Cyrus moving towards him—her golden eyes immediately opened, and she was wide awake, almost without any sleepiness.

Segalot turned his head.

He noticed that Little Rose, who was only wearing the upper part of a nightgown, had thrown away the pillow she was holding at some point. Apparently, she was hot, and a fair, slender leg stretched out from between the blankets, her delicate, rounded toes kicking the side of his blanket.

The stark contrast between black and white subtly stirs a hidden longing within one's heart...

Segalot looked at her for a while before looking away. He then reached out and covered Cyrus with the blanket that had been kicked off, before closing his eyes to continue his light sleep.

But this silence was soon broken again.

Cyrus moved like a small animal slowly shifting its position, not only stretching out its legs again, but also groping groping with one hand in a daze, finally hugging the corner of his blanket and leaning closer...

Cyrus had already poked half of her body out of the warm blankets. Although the room wasn't cold, it wasn't warm enough to not need a blanket either.

Unable to do anything else, Segalot could only slowly pull the corner of the blanket that Cyrus was holding in her arms.

But before he could make a further move, Cyrus, who had suddenly lost her "pillow" in her arms, slid forward unhappily, almost burrowing her whole body into Segalot's blanket.

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His little head hung low, just beneath the slightly raised corner of the blanket on Segalot.

Segalot paused, his wrist hovering in the air for a moment, before slowly lowering the blanket behind him as Cyrus snuggled into his arms, hugging his waist like a pillow.

He didn't sleep for half the night after that.

The situation gradually changed to the scene seen in the morning.

--The blanket covering the two of them slipped down to their chests, just above their waists. Cyrus's nightgown was completely rubbed against her stomach, revealing a section of her fair waist, and below that, a thin, loose white bra...

Cyrus has always had a good quality of sleep; he sleeps very soundly, but his daily routine is also good. He will slowly wake up in the early morning and wait until he finishes sleeping in before getting dressed and washing up.

The melodious birdsong outside the window, rarely heard in winter, triggers my biological clock.

Cyrus finally woke up groggily, his hands and feet feeling extremely relaxed and slightly numb, making him want to stretch and roll around in bed a few times before getting up.

However, he immediately realized that he had slept in His Holiness the Pope's room and bed the night before, so he blinked his half-open eyes, trying to shake off the lingering sleepiness in his mind.

He raised his hand to rub his eyes again, and the dulled sense of touch he had just woken up finally came back on, and the blurry images in front of him gradually became clear in his mind.

The sensations he felt on his chest, lower abdomen, and legs clearly told him that something was wrong.

Cyrus's eyes widened, and her body involuntarily stiffened.

He... it seems he slept on His Holiness the Pope?!

Just then, a deep, husky voice came from above. "You're awake. Did you sleep well?"

Cyrus felt the hand around her waist gently patting him, while the other hand tenderly brushed a strand of hair from his forehead, her voice carrying a slight smile as she asked, "Don't you want to get up?"

Cyrus sprang to her feet like a startled cat.

He had never been so fast before, using both hands and feet to retreat from His Holiness the Pope. The blankets covering their waists were lifted to their feet by the force, and the fluffy, soft bed shook violently.

Black Sugar, who was half-sitting on the sofa licking its paws, immediately raised its head, pricked up its ears, and let out a howl. When it received no response, it lowered its head again and continued.

Pale red gauze curtains surrounded the bedposts. Cyrus, with her hair slightly sticking up, knelt among a pile of bedding. She was a little stunned, her face flushed with embarrassment. Her large robe covered her legs, but her shoulders had slipped down to one side due to her previous movements, revealing her fair and rounded shoulders.

He was completely unaware.

Segalot slowly propped himself up on the mattress, his golden eyes sparkling like stars in the morning sunlight, yet for some reason, they seemed to have fallen deep into lava, vanishing in an instant.

He reached out and calmly pulled up Cyrus's robe, which had slipped down her shoulder, then asked, "What's wrong?"

He seemed not to understand why Cyrus sat up as if she had been frightened.

Cyrus: "No... it's nothing, how could I... be on top of you?"

Segalot: "You fell asleep while listening to this last night, and then I fell asleep too, not waking up until this morning... Maybe you were using me as a body pillow."

He pointed behind Cyrus, where there was a real body pillow that had been dutifully performing its duties during the first half of the night.

Cyrus glanced back, then blushed even more with embarrassment, and whispered an apology.

"It's nothing," His Holiness the Pope said calmly, showing no sign of being bothered at all.

So, Cyrus also calmed down.

The morning's incident seemed to have passed just like that.

After Segalot waited for Cyrus to get dressed, wash up, and have breakfast, and then kissed Black Sugar, he personally led him away from the Saint Church.

Of course, before leaving, Cyrus didn't forget her boxer shorts...

When they arrived at the front part of the Saint Church, Archbishop Paul and Judas were already waiting there, with the carriage ready outside; they just needed to get in and set off.

"I'll take you back," said Segalot.

Unable to refuse, Cyrus agreed.

After the carriage had been traveling for a while, it stopped in front of the Sheri Hall. His Holiness the Pope did not leave immediately after seeing the guests off, but instead went inside the guild hall, intending to reciprocate by visiting Cyrus's current residence.

Quite by chance, Orville and Archibald also arrived in the magnificent hall at that moment and met the two who were talking to each other.

Orville and Archibald stopped in their tracks.

Cyrus greeted them.

Orville: "I went to see you last night, but your knight said you weren't in your room... Did you go out to stay somewhere else?"

Archibald looked at Segalot.

Cyrus nodded. "Yes, I stayed at the Saint Church last night."

He paused, not saying directly that he had shared a bed with His Holiness the Pope... for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Orville: "I didn't know the Saint Church was so generous as to allow outsiders to stay there."

Archibald: "Little Zuoyi, come here to me."

Cyrus was puzzled, thinking that Archie had something to say to him, so she walked over and asked, "What...?"

Archibald gently patted his head with one hand, then chuckled, "Why is there a strand of hair sticking up on your head?"

Cyrus: "I pressed down on it with water, and it rose again?"

"Um."

Segalot then said, "It's probably because you rested your head on my shoulder..."

Before the words were even finished, the hall, which was empty of outsiders to begin with, fell silent instantly.

Archibald's hand, which was pressing on Cyrus's head, paused, and Orville's gaze turned back towards Black Sugar.

Cyrus didn't notice anything amiss, but she was slightly embarrassed and blushed, then smiled twice with her eyes crinkling.