RSHTV 05

Chapter 5

The hand holding hers loosely seemed less intent on stopping her and more intent on telling her not to worry about it anymore.

“It probably hurt back then. I don’t feel anything anymore.”

Despite his elegant, handsome face, his hands were surprisingly rough, as though to prove that he had endured many harsh years. He did not immediately release Bellona’s hand.

Perhaps he was even trying to reassure Bellona, who had become emotionally shaken.

“Your hatred is justified. But you shouldn’t express it this way.”

Ah.

How hypocritical must the words Bellona had once said to Deminic have sounded?

She had known only the barest surface of his past, yet she had pretended to sympathize with him and lectured him as though she understood.

“How much could a child possibly have done wrong to deserve something like this?”

The words poured out like a sigh, as though she were finally releasing a breath she had been holding for a long time.

She realized that she had never truly understood the anger Deminic had carried in his heart all this time.

Deminic himself, however, turned around, blocking Bellona’s view of the scars on his back, and continued speaking as though it were nothing important.

“When I was young, I resented the beatings, which were practically nothing more than an outlet for their anger. But there was always a small doubt in my mind. Was I really born with the eyes of a demon? Was that why my personality was so twisted? Was I naturally rebellious and incapable of obedience? I used to wonder about things like that quite often.”

With the corner of his mouth tilted upward in a sneer, he seemed to be mocking his younger self with bitter self-deprecation.

“Looking at how I turned out, perhaps I really was born with the wicked fate they said I had—the kind that would prevent me from ever truly belonging to this society.”

“That’s impossible.”

For a moment, Bellona wondered what things might have been like if she had been able to choose when to regress.

What if she could have pulled Deminic out of the temple’s grasp before he ever had to secretly entertain such ridiculous thoughts about himself?

“In any case, I really was quite rebellious. Whenever the priests searched through my belongings because they wanted to sell anything valuable and pocket the money themselves, I fought back fiercely.”

“That ring?”

“That, among other things.”

Deminic continued explaining for longer than Bellona expected. Still with his arms crossed, he picked up the coat he had carelessly tossed onto the table and took an elegant-looking case from one of its pockets.

“It was one of the belongings I protected even though it meant biting the arm of the senior priest in charge of the temple orphanage.”

Bellona had thought he merely intended to show it to her, but Deminic casually dropped the ring case directly into her palm, forcing her to quickly steady it so she wouldn’t drop the precious object.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“You were staring at it, so I assumed you wanted it.”

“That makes no sense.”

Bellona carefully opened the case.

A sapphire set atop a silver ring gleamed with an intense, brilliant blue.

“If you change your mind, tell me anytime.”

“You can’t just give something like this to anyone.”

“You’re not just anyone.”

It was difficult to read the emotion in his gaze as he looked down at her.

It sounded like a joke, yet there seemed to be some sincerity mixed into it.

“Of course, I do want you to trust me, Deminic, but aren’t you trusting me a little too easily?”

“I never said I trusted you. My instincts simply tell me that you’re not lying.”

“That’s basically the same thing.”

“In any case, my instincts are never wrong. I find you extremely entertaining and interesting, so I see no reason not to keep you close and watch you.”

“Could you stop talking as if I’m some fascinating experimental subject?”

Bellona rolled her eyes and sighed.

Rather than being offended, Deminic let out a short laugh, as though he found her reaction even more amusing.

“Think of it as a token of the secret relationship between the two of us. Besides, this ring will have served its purpose for me soon enough.”

“It belonged to your mother.”

Even if he claimed it would soon have no further purpose, the ring clearly held enormous meaning.

Yet Deminic didn’t seem particularly attached to it.

“My ‘mother’ wasn’t the Duchess. By reclaiming the position of Duke of Roxelln, I’d already be showing enough consideration for the Duke and Duchess.”

Bellona couldn’t agree with such a simple conclusion when she remembered just how precious their first child had been to the Duke and Duchess of Roxelln.

“That’s not it. Not when you consider the story behind your eyes, either. It’s completely different.”

“…My eyes?”

Those red eyes had made even Deminic doubt himself and had caused his younger self so much anguish.

“Yes. Your eyes.”

His bloodshot eyes, sometimes clouded by madness, could appear frighteningly crimson.

But from this close, their actual color was closer to a clear, translucent scarlet.

As if the color of an exceptionally vivid sunset sky had been captured within them.

“Eyes that hold the radiant light of the sun.”

Even though Deminic showed little outward reaction, Bellona could tell from the way his gaze remained completely focused on her that he was listening with rapt attention.

“When Princess Olivia—the Imperial Princess, your mother—was pregnant with you, she was in danger of miscarrying. So the Duke searched everywhere. He wanted to find any method at all, no matter how rare or precious the treasure, that could allow you to be born safely and healthy.”

This was something Deminic would eventually learn far in the future, when he went to Roxelln Castle and met the butler who had been managing the castle alone.

But Deminic seemed to genuinely believe, more than Bellona had expected, that he had been born with some twisted and defective fate.

She wanted to correct that misconception.

He hadn’t been born that way at all.

If anything, he had been born more deeply loved than almost anyone.

If the Duke and Duchess had survived, many of the sharper edges of his current personality would have been softened. He might have occasionally been sarcastic, but he would never have developed such a fundamentally disillusioned attitude toward the world.

“What they found to ensure you could be born safely was called the ‘Fruit of the Sun.’ Before the current empire worshiped its principal god, when various ancient gods were still worshiped… it had existed since those times. It’s an ancient relic blessed by the Sun God, containing the most powerful life force. Its pure essence is an incredibly, incredibly brilliant red.”

At last, Bellona’s hand brushed against the corner of Deminic’s eye.

His face, which had been just barely out of reach of her fingertips, came fully into contact with her touch when he tilted his head.

“So, in truth, you were born blessed by the sun. You weren’t cursed by a demon, nor did you inherit a demon’s eyes.”

For a brief moment, time seemed to stretch endlessly as they stared directly into each other’s eyes without blinking.

One breath.

Then another.

A silent moment passed, so quiet that even their breathing could not be heard.

“You probably weren’t actually interested in hearing an explanation about your eye color at this point…”

Bellona began to withdraw, suddenly embarrassed that perhaps she had made such a grand explanation for no reason.

But Deminic stopped her.

“No. It feels like you only tell me the things you think I’d want to hear. It makes me wonder if perhaps the gods made a mistake and sent me a divine messenger.”

It was an embarrassingly sweet thing to say, yet Deminic, the one who had spoken the words, looked completely sincere.

His persistent gaze was rather overwhelming, as though he genuinely expected Bellona to suddenly begin glowing with divine light.

“I just want to help you.”

“Yes. For the sake of the ‘best’ future you believe in.”

After that, a brief silence followed.

Deminic seemed deep in thought.

But soon, he turned his head back toward Bellona and suddenly said something completely unexpected.

“Then I suppose you wouldn’t mind if I stayed here for a while.”

“…What?”

The seriousness of the conversation disappeared in an instant.

Bellona had assumed Deminic would hide for a little while before leaving again, and she immediately caught onto what seemed like an attempt to casually gloss over the matter.

“Why would you stay here? Why here of all places?”

“…You may not know this, but I don’t have anywhere I can go right now.”

It was an absurd statement, yet somehow it sounded like a sincere sentence filled with deep loneliness.

Knowing that he wasn’t someone who easily showed his emotions, Bellona wondered if she had imagined it.

“What?”

“Thanks to my rather dramatic escape, the Holy Knights are currently tearing through the capital, desperately searching for the dark mage. I don’t have the energy to deal with them right now.”

Bellona understood why he had come to her looking like this.

But why here of all places?

Before Bellona could ask whether he didn’t have even one safe place to hide, Deminic answered first.

“It’s ridiculous, but in this vast capital—or rather, in this entire country—the only person I can trust, even somewhat, is you, whom I met today. Besides, they wouldn’t dare search a noble household, so I have less to worry about here.”

Somehow, Bellona felt that this wasn’t the whole truth.

She knew Deminic didn’t operate alone.

Just how many subordinates did he have? Why wasn’t he going to meet up with them instead of staying here?

Still, Bellona couldn’t deny that she was partly responsible for the state he was currently in.

She tried to say something, but in the end, she couldn’t find the words and merely moved her lips.

“I won’t stay that long. One day, two at most, should be enough.”

“……”

“You’re responsible for me now.”