~Chapter 9~
“…What a strange woman.”
Leaving the Rosentine estate, Deminic muttered to himself after checking once more the room Bellona would stay in.
Strange, yet oddly trustworthy. Weird, but somehow familiar.
From the very first moment they met, she left a strong impression.
With her shining red hair flowing under the sunlight and her uncaring attitude toward Deminic’s threats, she just said whatever she wanted. Honestly, it was refreshing.
Is that why I keep wanting to get closer?
It was an unfamiliar feeling.
Normally, once he got the information he needed, he would stop caring—or, more simply, just kill the person. But with her, he didn’t want to.
Railon and Roxellen, huh.
He still couldn’t believe that he had the blood of the two most powerful families in the Empire running through his veins.
He never thought he was someone with an ordinary fate. But to think his mother was a princess and his father was a duke… that was something else.
Deminic pulled out the sapphire ring from his pocket and held it up to the light.
“Deminic, your destiny isn’t here. Remember, okay? When the time comes and you’re able to take care of yourself, I’ll tell you everything. Not now. It’s dangerous. If they find you first….”
He remembered the brown-haired woman he had thought was his mother his whole life.
She was kind and gentle, but always anxious, as if something were chasing her. And before he even turned ten, she died abruptly—hit by a carriage.
When he checked what she had hidden deep inside a drawer, he found this ring.
Even though it was a jewel worth more than a house, she never sold it despite their poverty. That alone told him it meant something, so he also kept it safe.
“…It would probably suit her…”
His thoughts drifted to the past, but the blue light of the sapphire made him think of Bellona’s equally blue eyes, dragging him back to the present.
“I will never betray you.”
Bellona had emphasized that more than once. Even aside from her ridiculous claim of seeing the future, she was a woman he couldn’t figure out.
She accepted that Deminic might choose a path of destruction, yet when she looked at the old scars on his back—scars he no longer cared about—she pitied him so intensely. Why?
Maybe that’s why he ended up telling her everything about his past.
She usually reacted coolly to anything he said, but when she touched the scars on his back and listened to his story, her expression had softened into something sad… and he found himself strangely drawn to that.
They were just old wounds—already torn open long ago. Bringing them up now didn’t affect him at all. But if talking about them let him peek into Bellona’s heart, he’d take the chance.
Maybe I’m getting greedy.
Every moment he touched her lingered in his mind.
Her body was small and delicate enough to fit in his arms, but her personality was anything but soft—more like her fiery red hair.
Even seeing her get annoyed with him was entertaining.
He knew, both in the past and the future, that no other person like her would ever appear in his life. He didn’t want to lose Bellona Rosentine.
If she disappeared, his life would turn back into meaningless gray.
Deminic put the ring back in his pocket and rolled it between his fingers as he blended into the busy city crowd, heading for another temporary hideout he had prepared while Bellona slept.
“Idiots.”
Watching the paladins finally leave the area, he pulled out the sapphire ring again and stared at the cursive engraving inside.
“So this is supposed to prove my identity….”
He had already confirmed half of what Bellona told him about his background.
Once he mentioned the emperor and empress, the royal advisor turned pale with fear and frantically looked around, making it easy for Deminic to piece together the whole story.
The Empress probably thinks I’m dead.
On the day Deminic barely escaped the temple, the same massive fire that killed his parents had engulfed the orphanage building.
Sensing something wrong, he turned back toward his quarters—and saw flames swallowing the place. Without hesitation, he escaped through a small hole in the temple wall.
“Killing parent and child in the same way? How classy.”
His grip tightened around the ring.
Bellona had laid out his entire past, present, and future as if spoon-feeding him, making him think she told him everything.
Except… she clearly avoided talking about herself.
That, too, interested him. She could demand so much from him, yet she kept a distance.
Why?
Since yesterday, that question kept repeating in his mind.
Bellona seemed sincere about helping him, but made no effort to get close emotionally or personally. All their conversations were strictly necessary, and she only told him the information required to avoid unexpected danger—nothing more.
What did she actually want?
The moment he thought of the word “engagement” and “marriage” that she’d casually mentioned, a strange and unpleasant emotion crossed him.
If the secret she’s hiding is about another man…
Of course, as a noblewoman, arranged marriage was normal. But she didn’t seem like the type to accept it quietly.
Still, imagining Bellona loving someone and dreaming of a future with him made Deminic want to eliminate that man—whoever he was.
“I’m not doing all this because of something like love.”
From what he’d seen so far, Bellona was the kind of woman who would glare at him even with a knife at her throat and sarcastically ask if he finally decided to kill her.
He couldn’t imagine her loving someone so deeply that she’d use her future-seeing ability to help him.
No—that was what he wanted to believe.
Unless she has blackmail on the emperor and plans to storm the palace demanding the right to marry whoever she wants… that would actually suit her.
She was exactly the type to suddenly show up and toss him an amulet, telling him to stop using dark magic already.
But he didn’t like that idea either.
If she reached out to him first and agreed to cooperate with him, then she should focus entirely on him.
He didn’t care if it was selfish.
As much interest as he had in Bellona, he wanted her to give him the same full attention.
If I ever see her look at another man the same way…
He wanted every expression in those blue eyes—whether fiery or gentle—to belong only to him.
Then—
“I want death, Deminic Railon.”
A voice echoed in his ears so clearly it couldn’t be a hallucination.
Deminic froze with the ring in his hand.
“What?”
He couldn’t mistake the voice. It was Bellona’s. He had spoken to her just earlier today.
But hearing her voice say she wanted death…? Was he really going insane, just like she warned, because of the dark magic slowly eating at his mind?
“You don’t know anything.”
Her voice came again, soft and close, brushing against his ear like a whisper.
Deminic stopped rolling the ring and slowly lifted it. Was he imagining it, or was the sapphire faintly glowing?
“What is this…”
Until Bellona mentioned it, the ring had stayed locked away for years.
After he had fled far from the capital, living in rags until his current master took him in, he had pretty much forgotten about it.
It was said to be a gift from the first emperor to his empress—so maybe, like dark magic, it held some special power. But he had never sensed anything unusual.
Should I ask Master…?
His strict old teacher who had taught him dark magic might know more.
Maybe it was time to contact him.
“…But why did I suddenly hear her voice?”
No matter how long he held or flipped the ring, it stayed silent.
Only Bellona’s voice kept echoing in his mind, refusing to let him stop thinking about her.
