Abrisius’s eyes gazed intently at Cairens. The deep scent of the underworld that made his nose wrinkle. Questions about his transformed appearance swirled inside Cairens.
Enjoying Cairens’s flustered state, Abrisius’s eyes slowly swept over him. Cairens’s desires were clearly visible. He craved revenge against the gods of the surface.
But that wasn’t the only cry within him.
—I like Abrisius.
Hidden inside Cairens, an old desire even he didn’t know about shyly asserted itself.
—My first friend. He was the first one who risked his life for me. I missed him. And when we met again, I was so happy. I want to know him.
Regardless of Cairens’s own will, his shy desire confessed toward Abrisius. Pure love. Cairens admired Abrisius. He seemed to think of it as friendship, but the desire within him cried out for love.
‘Love, is it.’
Abrisius, who had uncovered the desire beneath, laughed silently. Himself craving Seianes’s love, and Cairens loving him. How ironic.
—He’s so pure. I don’t want to hurt him. But I hate Seianes so much, I wish he would be sad. What is the secret about Abrisius that Seianes is hiding? I want to know him. If I learn that, can I be with him?
He felt sorry toward Abrisius, but he couldn’t forgive Seianes, and at the same time he admired Abrisius and wanted to know many things about him. His innermost thoughts were transmitted directly to Abrisius’s ears.
‘How fascinating.’
To think Cairens, who appeared to have no problems on the surface, had this side to him. He recalled Cairens from long ago, who had tried to sacrifice himself for the people. That noble appearance, refusing Abrisius’s offer to sacrifice himself instead, willingly offering up his own body.
That spirit of self-sacrifice was genuine, impossible to fake.
‘Yet even you harbor ordinary desires.’
The true feelings beneath his appearance as a perfect hero.
Of course, he seemed to be conflicted between revenge and his friendship with Abrisius. But beneath it all lay a heart that wanted to use revenge as a pretext to learn Abrisius’s secrets and possess him.
Too clumsy to call ugly, too clean to call dirty.
‘But still, that’s too much. Wishing Seianes would be sad?’
Of course, it wasn’t that he couldn’t understand why Cairens hated Seianes. The vengeful feelings inside him revealed the reasons Cairens resented the gods. The shamelessness of making humans sad and acting like nothing was wrong. There were more than enough reasons, including the fall of Atlante.
But wishing Seianes would be sad—what a nasty disposition.
Just because Cairens’s desire for revenge was justified didn’t mean Seianes had to be sad and hurt. As sorry as he felt for Cairens, Abrisius, who had loved Seianes more than anyone, didn’t want him to suffer.
Because Abrisius was the one who wished for Seianes’s happiness more than anyone. But now, things were a little different.
‘What I’m about to do now is make Seianes cry.’
Perhaps he could grant that wish. Though it would be Abrisius, not Cairens, who would make Seianes cry.
“Cairens, what kind of person did you think you were?”
Having witnessed all of Cairens’s true feelings without filter, there was nothing to hold back.
Whether driven by revenge or childhood first love, he definitely had feelings for Abrisius.
Abrisius, whose guilt and friendship had been devoured by desire, planned to thoroughly use him.
“Pure? Or did I seem like a childish kid?”
Abrisius, leaning down slightly, approached Cairens closer. Startled by Abrisius’s body suddenly moving in, Cairens twisted his body slightly. He couldn’t understand why he was approaching like this.
Because it didn’t seem like Abrisius… His current appearance was…
“Stop, stop it. Why are you suddenly acting like this, Abrisius?”
“Haha, why, you ask.”
Encouraged by desire’s beckoning gesture, Abrisius boldly pushed Cairens down. Surprised, Cairens helplessly fell as Abrisius pushed him. With Cairens beneath him like that, Abrisius looked down at him.
“You like me.”
“What?”
An inner desire that even he wasn’t aware of was exposed by Abrisius. Cairens’s eyes widened in shock, never having thought he would have his inner feelings confirmed through Abrisius’s mouth.
“What are you talking about? You seem to be misunderstanding something, but that’s not it at all. I just see you as a benefactor and childhood friend…”
“Your first love who left before it could even begin, right?”
Before Cairens could even refute, Abrisius cut off his words. The sight of Cairens pinned beneath him, looking up, was pathetic. The sound of his heartbeat could be heard through his eardrums.
“Cairens, listen. Do you want to use me to get revenge on Seianes?”
Now Cairens’s pupils dilated beyond the point of no return. Something from last night suddenly came to his mind… He had provoked Seianes, saying he wanted to know the secret about Abrisius.
“What…? You, don’t tell me you heard that…?”
Cairens trembled, unable to imagine that Abrisius was looking into his inner self. Guilt lay at the foundation of that trembling. He remembered himself last night, casually mentioning his name and toying with Seianes without knowing Abrisius was listening.
If he had heard that conversation, it wouldn’t be strange for Abrisius to treat Cairens with this changed attitude. Either he was angry, or he was mistakenly thinking Cairens liked him. It had to be one of the two.
“…Yes. What if I did?”
And as if he had really heard that confession, Abrisius shamelessly lied.
At Abrisius’s flat words, Cairens couldn’t even make excuses. While he was wondering whether to apologize or explain and make excuses for his situation, Abrisius’s scent suddenly hit him.
“So you wanted to know my secret?”
Along with the feeling of his heart dropping, Cairens’s chest tightened. Eyes tinged with reddish light curved gently as they looked at Cairens. He couldn’t breathe. His heart pounded dangerously, wondering what had gone wrong. Come to think of it, had Abrisius’s eyes always been this red?
Cairens, who had been holding his breath, carefully raised his hand and touched Abrisius’s eyelids.
“Ah.”
As the cold hand touched near his eyes, Abrisius let out a short moan. Fumbling around his eyes, Cairens slowly examined his face.
Yes, these eyes. The dark red color was tinged with a vivid crimson light. The energy felt on his skin showed no intention of hiding. Lake-blue eyes examined the person before them. No matter how much he looked, it was Abrisius, yet it didn’t seem like Abrisius.
“This… isn’t the Abrisius I know.”
Finally, after combining all the questions swirling in his head, Cairens reached a conclusion.
This wasn’t the Abrisius he knew. It was one thing for someone’s personality to change in an instant, but everything from the energy to the scent of the Abrisius he knew was completely different.
“You smell like contaminated earth.”
He finally let out the words he’d been holding inside. Abrisius’s eyes widened as he stared at Cairens intently. His blinking eyes took in Cairens, then soon drew a soft curve as if pleased.
“Wow… Pfft!”
Abrisius, who had almost laughed out loud, covered his mouth. The saliva in his mouth flowed back and coughs came out in fits. Despite the stinging pain, the smile on his lips didn’t disappear.
“Really?”
Unable to hide his uncontrollable smile, Abrisius began to laugh.
“Hahahaha, haha.”
In place of his pure appearance, frivolity remained. Full of desire. Swallowed by the primal and most faithful urge called love, Abrisius no longer had the same reason as before. Shocked, Cairens could only silently watch this scene.
“Just what…”
He tried to say, “Just what happened,” but the next words wouldn’t come out. It was because a faint guilt held him back—the worry that perhaps what he had said last night had hurt him and caused him to change like this.
But then, what was the reason for the smell of contaminated earth, for that energy to be spreading abundantly within Abrisius? As difficult questions kept popping up one after another, Abrisius finally opened his mouth.
“The smell of contaminated earth? That’s right. Correct, Cairens. That’s my secret.”
Abrisius, unable to hide his grotesquely distorted expression, grinned broadly. Then, the moment an unimaginable truth was revealed through his mouth, Cairens’s spine turned cold.
“I am a child of the underworld.”
