CHAPTER 17…………………………………………………
Had it been so long since he’d even thought that this was the result?
“I don’t know.”
There was nothing he knew for certain.
He pushed himself up from the bed and headed to the bathroom, then plunged his face into the sink filled to the brim with cold water.
As the chill touched his skin, his mind seemed to clear a little. How many times had he held his breath, blinking his eyes beneath the surface?
Once again, Xenia came to mind. The holy power she exuded—the power that had not rejected him.
[Holy power doesn’t work? How does that make any sense?]
[Are you really human?]
[What if he’s a demon hiding among us?]
[We should kill him!]
He hadn’t been harmed by holy power. But neither could he be healed by it.
And yet, that very body had accepted Xenia’s holy power with astonishing ease. Even his adoptive mother had been unable to use holy power on him.
Was she different from the others because of that strength? Maybe so.
Perhaps he, too, wanted to use others, just as they had used him.
Really?
Who knew. In any case, he decided he should stay here a little longer—at least until he understood what this feeling toward her truly was.
Just as he steeled his resolve, his eyes flew open.
“Xenia?”
When he lifted his head from the water, the same spine-chilling sensation from two days ago washed over him in an instant.
The eerie cold he had felt the day Xenia returned to her room with her face smeared in blood.
“Ah.”
Remembering Xenia coated in the filthy aura of demons, Lumière hurried out of the bathroom.
Water dripped from his face as he roughly wiped it away with his hand. Something had clearly happened. This was a signal from the instinct that had saved his life more times than he could count.
Xenia might be in danger.
Living together, he had naturally learned that her standing within the Demon King’s Castle wasn’t bad.
Still, demons were nothing but trash driven by their impulses—creatures who delighted in toying with humans.
Surrounded by demons who could change their minds on a whim, there was no way to be certain Xenia would be safe.
Yet the moment his hand touched the door, he hesitated.
“Are you going to keep talking from now on?”
Did he want to go out into the world? Did he intend to speak again?
He didn’t know.
“…Xenia.”
She had been the one who told him to stay hidden in the room. Just like last time, she might not have a single injury.
But that was only an assumption—a cowardly one.
He didn’t want to hide behind the belief that nothing would happen. Hadn’t he said he wanted to understand what he felt when he looked at her? Then now was the time to move.
Taking a deep breath, he wrapped his face tightly with the gray knit sweater resting on the vanity. He bound the sleeves firmly, and when he checked the mirror, only his faintly visible blue eyes could be seen.
Since he was acting on his own anyway, it seemed only fair to grant at least one of her requests.
After that, everything happened swiftly. It was the first time he had left the room since being confined there, yet his steps were unwavering. As he sprinted down the corridor, demons flinched in shock at the sight of him.
But instead of paying them any mind—those demons he was meant to exterminate—he focused on tracing Xenia’s presence, which was steadily growing fainter.
Thankfully, the farther down he went, the stronger her holy power became.
The underground.
Moments later, he violently threw open the massive door from which Xenia’s holy power surged intensely.
Leraje’s eyes gleamed as she looked at the unidentified man who had suddenly kicked open the storage room door.
Though his face was completely covered, his tall stature and perfect proportions—and the curves visible beneath his slightly damp shirt—immediately caught her eye. It was almost a shame that his face was hidden.
Entranced, Leraje stared at the blue eyes peeking out between the fabric, and the long lashes that fluttered so elegantly around them.
But her admiration was short-lived. When the man approached the shattered mirror, she snapped back to her senses.
“You shouldn’t go there. You’ll get caught up in the spell for no reason.”
She spoke while glancing at Count Beris, who was in the process of dispelling the mirror’s magic.
“We’re already解除—”
The man cut her off.
“Is Xenia here?”
Good heavens—even his voice was exquisitely sweet. Leraje nodded hastily without caring that she’d been interrupted, then clapped her hands as the realization struck her.
“Oh! Could it be—you’re that lover of Xenia everyone’s been talking about?”
Leraje hadn’t helped Duke Gremory out of any goodwill toward Count Beris. But Beris hadn’t been the only thing holding her attention throughout the schedule.
Beris simply wasn’t worth that much interest—and besides, she’d seen something delightful on the very first day. That brilliantly shining, beautiful holy power!
Her curiosity, already far from small, had only grown, and naturally she listened closely to any talk about Xenia within the Demon King’s Castle.
To be honest, when she first heard the rumors, she’d been displeased. She hated the idea of some random nobody clinging to Xenia’s side and ruining her refined aesthetic sense.
She’d planned to take a look and dispose of him casually if she didn’t like what she saw—but Xenia’s taste in men wasn’t bad at all. His fashion sense was a little odd, sure, but handsome people looked good in anything.
If he was this handsome even with his face covered, just how incredible would he look uncovered?
Leraje’s curiosity toward the man grew rapidly.
“Yes, Xenia is in there. But don’t worry—we’ll handle it just fine.”
Then, fidgeting shyly with her fingers, she ventured,
“Actually, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
She would save Xenia regardless, but if she could get something extra out of it, why not?
Looking down with an oddly bashful expression, Leraje cleared her throat.
“Would you mind unwrapping whatever you’ve got covering your face?”
No matter how long she waited, there was no answer.
Frowning, she looked up again—only to find that the man had already vanished.
“Sir…?”
As Leraje stared blankly at the empty space, Beris, who had witnessed everything, let out a mocking laugh.
“Serves you right.”
But Leraje didn’t notice the jab. She clenched her fists tightly.
“Hmm.”
Seeing her flushed face, Beris recoiled in disgust.
“Don’t tell me you like him now. Are you insane?”
Leraje paid his reaction no heed.
“Love is such a beautiful thing!”
And as she went on about how love was even more beautiful when shared between gorgeous people, Beris clicked his tongue.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what kind of lunatic you are.”
He stepped farther away with an irritated expression, but Leraje closed the distance just as eagerly, clinging to his side.
“Hurry and break the spell—I need to be formally introduced to Xenia!”
Watching her crazed behavior, Beris realized she truly had fallen for the man’s appearance and was blind to everything else.
A face-obsessed lunatic. She hadn’t even seen his face properly this time—so why was she this entranced? Even now, she was so distracted by the vanished man that she couldn’t see what truly mattered.
She hadn’t even noticed the ferocious aura lingering where he’d stood.
Pathetic.
Beris coldly shoved Leraje aside as she shook his shoulder.
“He doesn’t even need us. Looks like he’ll break out on his own.”
“Huh?”
Before Leraje could finish speaking, Beris recalled the man’s back as he tore through the magic and disappeared into the mirror.
“Didn’t you feel it? He didn’t get caught in the spell—he forced his way through it.”
There were two ways to break magic.
One: understand its structure and unravel it in reverse.
Two: overwhelm it with sheer power, crushing the mana sustaining it.
The man had chosen the second.
It seemed he’d restrained himself from completely shattering the spell because someone was trapped inside—but even so.
When a victim was bound by magic, using power carelessly only made things worse. It could completely shatter the victim’s mind.
That was why Leraje and Beris had been carefully undoing the spell in reverse rather than tearing it apart.
And yet, despite Beris already working on it, the man had torn through the magic with shocking ease.
“He’s no ordinary person.”
He had dismantled the barrier that blocked outside interference without harming the mind spell itself. His power was immense—but his control over it was even more terrifying.
“This aura…”
It had surfaced only for a fleeting moment, but that dark, viscous, yet vast power was comparable to Marbas, the Demon King at their pinnacle.
“With that kind of strength, if he’s not nobility, he must be a newly born demon.”
The aura felt slightly different, but newly awakened demons often hadn’t fully stabilized their energy yet.
In any case, the conclusion was simple.
They didn’t need to do anything.
“Bine is in there too. He’ll come out on his own.”
“True… he does seem incredibly strong.”
As Beris moved to disperse the spell formula he’d prepared, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
“Wouldn’t he come out faster if we helped?”
“What?”
“I really want to see his face.”
Beris recoiled at Leraje’s glittering, unsettling eyes and shoved her hand away.
“If you want to see him that badly, do it yourself.”
But Leraje didn’t back down.
“We’re allowed to use magic for cleanup. I’ll help a little too.”
She gestured toward the storage room, now even more filthy from the fight and the mirror’s magic.
“You know Duke Gremory entrusted their punishment entirely to me, right? Don’t you want this to be over quickly?”
In other words, if she decided to nitpick, the absurd punishment could easily be extended.
“Haah…”
Beris knew this wasn’t just empty bluster. At his sigh, Leraje beamed.
“Hmm? Aren’t you worried about your friend too?”
No matter how he looked at it, Beris had no choice but to give in.
“Don’t you dare go back on your word.”
Snapping irritably, Beris began moving his mana again. Leraje turned toward the mirror with a radiant smile, her face brimming with barely restrained anticipation.
