RSHTV 04

Chapter 4

Demynic was leaning against the tree with his arms folded leisurely, as though the place belonged to him, staring straight at her with crimson eyes that seemed especially vivid in the darkness. Looking down at him, Bellona was overcome with disbelief.

“Why on earth did you come here?”

Rose, who had just finished arranging the bedding, asked after hearing Bellona mutter under her breath with a hollow laugh.

“You said you saw a cat?”

“No. No, I didn’t. Thank you, Rose. I’m a little tired after going to the temple today. I’m going to bed early. You can go now.”

Bellona stopped Rose from approaching the window and quickly gestured toward the door with her head.

What on earth was Demynic thinking, standing there so openly like that?

“…Are you sure? Shouldn’t I bring you some tea or something else to drink?”

“Yes. You worked hard today, too.”

Bellona smiled sweetly and said goodnight like the somewhat childish, innocent, and lovely noble young lady she was supposed to be. Only after confirming that Rose, who still looked somewhat unconvinced, had closed the door as instructed did Bellona erase her smile and sneak a glance down below the window.

Perhaps he had heard their conversation through the open window, because Demynic had already reached the spot directly beneath it.

The scene looked almost as though he had come to rescue a princess trapped in a tower. Resting her chin on the windowsill, Bellona casually muttered,

“Prince, if you came to rescue me, it’s a wasted effort. I rather like living in this tower.”

“Wouldn’t forbidden lovers be more romantic?”

Bellona quickly decided to give up in the face of Demynic’s tendency to go one step further. It had been her mistake to think she could beat that man in a battle of words.

“…What kind of manners are those, climbing over someone else’s wall?”

“I wasn’t raised to learn things like that. There was no one to teach me.”

Though he said that, the graceful movement with which he tilted his head made it painfully obvious that he carried imperial blood. There was an elegance in even the smallest of his gestures.

I suppose even that is something you have to be born with.

Ah, yes. No matter how many times she was reborn, Demynic being an irritating man never changed.

Wasn’t it unfair? Some people had to work hard to acquire graceful movements and an air of nobility, while he had simply been born with them.

Bellona continued with a disgruntled expression.

“Explain properly why you came. Otherwise, I’m going to close the window and go back insi—”

The room suddenly plunged into darkness, and she sensed a presence right beside her.

Bellona immediately realized that he had used black magic. Through the keen senses honed over countless lifetimes, she could faintly detect the murky, unpleasant aura characteristic of black magic.

“You have to be careful.”

Bellona stumbled backward in surprise, and a strong arm caught her around the waist and steadied her. At the same time, the room brightened again.

“What is this…?”

Bellona tried to pull herself free from his grasp, but the sudden scent of blood made her instinctively place a hand on his arm and move closer.

“Are you hurt?”

When she lifted the black cloak Demynic was wearing, she saw that his white shirt was completely stained with blood.

How had he gotten injured?

It wasn’t as though Bellona had never seen Demynic injured before, but he was not someone who would easily sustain an injury like this.

When Bellona reached toward his shirt to examine the wound, a hand caught hers. Perhaps the injury was more serious than it appeared, because his hand, normally cold, was strangely warm and feverish.

“You’re being awfully proactive, Lady Bellona Rosenstein.”

Despite the leisurely, teasing tone he deliberately adopted, the hand that instantly stopped Bellona’s approach reacted like that of a wary cat.

It was as though he were bristling with instinctive caution, ready to flee at any moment.

“You’re the one who came looking for me.”

Bellona calmly spoke to him in a soothing voice while holding the edge of his shirt.

“Let me see. Don’t just leave it untreated.”

“It doesn’t need treatment.”

Demynic stared at her as though observing every one of her reactions. He spoke as casually as if he were merely tossing out a passing remark.

Bellona felt the hand holding her in place loosen slightly.

“How stupid did you have to be at the temple to get hurt like this?”

“I thought you were worried about me, but were you actually just laughing at my stupidity?”

Of course, the moment she saw the blood, her heart had dropped, and the feeling that followed had been closer to concern than anything else.

But admitting that for some reason felt like losing, so Bellona composed her expression and answered calmly.

“Of course.”

“…At the temple, I hypnotized the High Priest and made him forget his memories. On my way out, I happened to run into some holy knights who were returning.”

“What?”

“It was troublesome because I was trying not to kill them. Those who use divine power really are annoying.”

Bellona stared blankly at Demynic as he matter-of-factly summarized what had happened today. Then she suddenly shouted almost like a scream.

“Are you insane?”

Demynic was not invincible.

Normally, he could easily recover from any wound, but divine power acted like poison to him. Instead of healing normally, his recovery became even slower than that of an ordinary person, and the divine power ate away at his body.

“You told me not to kill anyone. If I failed to control my strength, they would have ended up dead anyway, so I restrained myself.”

His tone sounded almost as though he wanted praise, and Bellona could not hide her disbelief.

Was Demynic always like this?

“I told you self-defense was fine. If someone is trying to kill you, you should defend yourself properly.”

Bellona slapped his arm lightly as though scolding him for saying something ridiculous.

Demynic let out a low groan and staggered before collapsing onto Bellona’s bed.

Bellona, who had been half trapped in his arms, ended up sitting beside him as well.

This was the first time in all her lifetimes that she had seen Demynic so casually reveal such helplessness. She was genuinely flustered, and an apology slipped out before she could stop herself.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

I never thought I’d live to see the day I apologized to this man.

Putting that completely inappropriate thought aside, Bellona seized the opportunity and finally grabbed his shirt, undoing the buttons.

“You’re making things rather difficult by being this proactive.”

“…Oh my God.”

This time, she didn’t even have the chance to criticize his nonsense.

The condition of the wound stretching across his shoulder was simply too horrific when she removed the makeshift bandage that seemed to have been hastily wrapped around it.

Bellona’s trembling fingers hovered over the long scar.

The long wound slowly closed as though time itself were being reversed, only to reopen again, as if something were blocking its recovery. The process repeated over and over.

The area around it had turned a dark bluish-black, as though poisoned. That must have been the effect of divine power.

“This… like this…”

“It’s fine. As long as I stop the bleeding, it’ll eventually heal, even if slowly. It just takes time.”

Demynic spoke slowly, looking as though he truly didn’t care.

But Bellona knew what it felt like to suffer a life-threatening injury like this. She grimaced mercilessly, empathizing with his pain.

“And you still came here?”

“Not despite it. Because of it.”

Without further explanation, Bellona watched as Demynic removed his cloak and tossed it onto a nearby chair, then completely took off his blood-soaked shirt.

His well-defined abs were revealed, followed by his firm chest.

As he checked the bandage on his completely blood-covered shoulder again, he spoke after noticing Bellona’s gaze.

“I’d appreciate it if you at least pretended to be embarrassed.”

“You’re the one taking your shirt off in front of me, not me.”

Bellona answered without even blinking, having no intention of turning her head away.

She was admittedly a little flustered inside, but she didn’t want to show any weakness to Demynic in any way.

Of course, losing a petty argument with him was even worse.

“A reasonable point.”

He chuckled softly, then suddenly approached the window and stood there quietly, watching outside as though checking the surroundings.

When he turned around, the sight of his back was enough to make even Bellona unconsciously flinch in shock.

His well-built back muscles shifted with his movements, accentuating countless scars. They looked like marks left by whips—wounds that had been torn open, infected, and barely healed, leaving behind rough, uneven traces.

Could this be what the priests meant when they said he was abused? Why…? And he was treated like this when he was a child?

It was shocking.

Naturally, Bellona had never had an opportunity to see Demynic’s bare back before.

Knowing the fact that he had been abused by priests while living at the temple as a child as a brief piece of objective information was completely different from seeing the reality of it with her own eyes.

“What… what are these scars?”

Bellona unconsciously reached out as though she needed to confirm that the unbelievable sight before her was real.

She couldn’t bring herself to touch the scars themselves, so her hand landed on his unharmed shoulder just above them.

Demynic turned toward Bellona. When he saw the concern written all over her face, he let out a quiet “Ah.”

“Wounds from being whipped by the priests when I was young. I suppose it’s not exactly a pleasant sight for the mind or body of a noble lady.”

“It’s not my mental health that I’m worried about…”

Bellona kept her head slightly tilted as she looked at Demynic, who simply watched what she was doing.

She then traced her fingers down the scars on his back.

The marks were much rougher and more uneven than they appeared, stretching endlessly across his skin, splitting into countless branches and merging together again.

She couldn’t even imagine how many times he must have been whipped.

It was almost possible to see it happening right before her eyes—the wounds reopening and bleeding again, scabs splitting and becoming infected before they had even had time to heal.

“That must have hurt.”

Countless words came to mind, but there was nothing she could do about something that had happened so long ago.

So, in a voice thick with emotion, she could only manage to say those few words.

When her hand reached the small of his back, Demynic suddenly caught Bellona’s hand.

“…?”

Only after Bellona raised her head in surprise at his sudden action did she realize that the distance between them had become far too close.