At the voice telling me to kill, cold sweat soaked my entire body. It was hard to control my body at the feeling of my head being forcibly turned inside out. For those with weak mental fortitude, this was a level of pain that would have made them collapse long ago.
To shake off this terrible pain, I first had to get away from the sound. In this state, I couldn’t do anything either. I pressed my trembling hands against the floor and slowly lifted my upper body. Breathing became difficult, so I slowly exhaled and inhaled. Then I tried to get up by pressing on my thighs, but it only remained an attempt. It was because the sound grew increasingly fierce.
The rough, unrefined sound was no different from something raw. I couldn’t control my body as I wished. As if it would repay today the resentment of days suppressed until now, there was no sign of it ending. My eyes automatically furrowed. Through my narrowed vision, I could only see the floor.
I was going crazy. With the sound filling my head and recklessly stirring around here and there, it was difficult to even maintain thoughts for a moment.
My vision was blurry. My breathing gradually became stifled. At the same time, I was swept up in a feeling that I should kill the Parallel World Ruvlian as the voice indicated. The sound was trying to control me. I gritted my teeth and tried to regain my senses so as not to be swayed by the hard-to-suppress, long-held resentful scream.
While exhaling short breaths, I struggled desperately to get up. Strength kept leaving my arms and my hands slipped. This had never happened before. What on earth is this sound? The moment doubt arose, I couldn’t continue thinking.
As if to prevent me from taking other measures, the louder I thought, the fiercer the sound became. A fishy taste of blood lingered in my clenched mouth. I emptied my head as much as possible and regulated my breathing. Since I couldn’t grasp what would happen if I lost consciousness here, I had to hold onto my consciousness tightly.
However, such efforts didn’t last long either. My vision gradually became hazy from the unknowable sound. It felt like consciousness was fading away. I had to regain my senses and get out, but no strength entered my entire body. My upper body was already tilted, and my cheek touched the floor.
Gradually my eyelids lowered, and when my eyes became slender. Between the voice that had grown large enough to devour me, the faint sound of shoe heels could be heard. It was a sound heard in my ears, not my head.
Through my thinned vision, black shoes appeared hazily. I intuitively recognized who the owner of these shoes was. It was the Parallel World Ruvlian.
Even though I knew I should hold onto my consciousness even more now that he had come, my body wouldn’t listen. Unfortunately, I had reached my limit.
Sensation became distantly far away. It was a blackout.
_oOo_
Ruvlian Belitent thought everything was going smoothly. Yes, he surely would have thought so if he hadn’t suddenly failed to detect movement in one of the spells he’d placed on Baek Sihyeon’s shoes.
As planned, he leaked the story to Montrio Alescan so he would know Baek Sihyeon was here, and he immediately took the bait. With good timing, Montrio arrived at the mansion when Baek Sihyeon was in the library. While he had a brief conversation with him, Baek Sihyeon went to where the hidden room was located, as intended. Now all that remained was to properly finish the useless conversation with Montrio, then have Montrio head to that room as always.
“Tell me the truth. Is it really ‘Baek Sihyeon’?”
“My ‘darling.'”
To the question of whether it was ‘Baek Sihyeon,’ Ruvlian Belitent corrected it to ‘darling.’ This meant that the ‘Baek Sihyeon’ Montrio spoke of and the ‘darling’ Ruvlian spoke of were clearly different people.
“Ha…”
A helpless sigh filled the reception room. Unlike him who looked complicated, Ruvlian Belitent leisurely raised the corners of his mouth. His expression was as if asking why the fuss when he’d done something natural. After inhaling and exhaling several times, Montrio gazed at him with sunken eyes.
“Did he want it?”
“Montrio.”
“I’m asking if he wanted it. Honestly, there’s no way he would want this. But you, what on earth…”
“Montrio Alescan.”
Ruvlian Belitent called his name again, cutting off his words. A surname was attached to the name called for the second time. The look in his eyes asking if Montrio didn’t know best what would happen if he crossed this line was a bonus.
An intangible energy containing clear meaning of submission pressed down on Montrio. He bit his lips. He knew better than anyone what would happen if he crossed the line. That’s why he couldn’t say anything.
“Just drink tea and go back. I’d prefer if you didn’t wander around more and meet my ‘darling.'”
The slow voice clearly showed who had the upper hand. He glared at Montrio who gave no answer to the command-like words and immediately walked away. As if he had no intention of wasting more time.
By the time he grasped the antique doorknob, Ruvlian Belitent thought. Soon Montrio would speak as he always did. That he’d just stop by that place.
It couldn’t help but be truly laughable. Did he think atonement was possible even if he did that? It would be much faster to just admit he was a damn bad bastard. Feeling guilt was only ridiculous. Though it made planning easy.
At that moment, a shudder ran through his entire body. The spell he’d placed on Baek Sihyeon, the one that sent a notification when his body was threatened, had activated. Ruvlian Belitent’s expression hardened quickly.
He immediately used restraint Magic to prevent Montrio from leaving the reception room. Then, without even glancing at Montrio who was shouting ‘What are you doing!’, he hurriedly moved to where Baek Sihyeon was.
At the scene before him, Ruvlian Belitent realized something had gone greatly wrong. Inside the room where curtains were drawn everywhere and dark, quiet stillness had settled, Baek Sihyeon was sprawled on the floor with all his strength drained, gasping for breath. He had sweated so much that there wasn’t a place where clothes didn’t stick to his body. Along with irregular breathing sounds, his bent back occasionally heaved.
How long had he been stupidly staring at that sight? Before long, Belitent who came to his senses exhaled the breath he’d unknowingly held. Then he gathered up Baek Sihyeon and lifted him into his arms.
His body was cold. His face with closed eyes was pallid and ashen. There was no color in his cheeks and lips. His hair wet with sweat hung damply. At that sight, he unconsciously put in so much strength that his hands turned deathly white.
“How dare…”
Anger surged up. He wanted to burn this entire place down. He wanted to find the culprit who made him like this and strangle them to death. With extreme rage, what little reason he had began to fly away. The Mana in his body rippled unstably as if responding to his anger.
That Ruvlian Belitent barely grasped onto reason was purely thanks to Baek Sihyeon’s face, more furrowed than before. While carrying him princess-style, with strong force entering his hands, there was no way it wouldn’t hurt. After looking down at Baek Sihyeon once, he soon raised his gaze and looked around.
This place where the Parallel World’s Baek Sihyeon had stayed had been neglected for several years. Dangerous things didn’t exist in the first place. Since ‘that’ curse had been placed, he wouldn’t have bought strange things out of unnecessary greed. Even if so, the spell placed on this mansion would have detected it and more.
He didn’t like that a hitch had occurred. Precisely, he was very irritated that this hitch had made Baek Sihyeon look like this. He wanted to sweep everything away, but now the collapsed Baek Sihyeon came first. Ruvlian Belitent, who left the dust-filled room, used Magic for Teleportation. The destination was his bedroom.
How long had it been since he got up from bed, and now he was lying down again? Ruvlian Belitent pulled the blanket up to his chin and roughly swept up his hair. His fine blonde hair became disheveled, and his eyes emitting a fierce light showed no sign of calming down.
Knock knock. A clean double knock sound rang out.
“Master. Did you call for me?”
Following that, the voice of his aide, Alt, rang out. It was because of the Magic messenger Ruvlian Belitent had sent as soon as he arrived in the room.
“Come in.”
Alt opened the door and entered the room. When he had barely taken one step, his lips automatically dried up and he swallowed. That’s how fierce Belitent’s momentum was. If he got caught wrong now, it seemed he wouldn’t even be able to collect his bones.
“Montrio Alescan in the reception room. Send him out.”
“Yes.”
“And the room the ‘Demon King’ Baek Sihyeon used. Burn it all down. Handle it so it doesn’t catch my eye.”
At those words, Alt’s vision spun.
At some point, many stories poured out from people such as ‘It wasn’t the Hero but the Demon King,’ ‘The Temple announced a strange prophecy,’ ‘Isn’t it an ominous sign?’ and so on. It was because Ruvlian Belitent had openly leaked words to the information guild.
After that, a large number of people wanting certainty appeared, and the words that the one who had been the ‘Hero’ had actually become the ‘Demon King’ and died were judged as truth. After that, chaos broke out.
At the fact that the Hero who was supposed to save the world was the Demon King, the Temple’s authority that issued the wrong prophecy was diminished, and places Baek Sihyeon used were considered ominous, so people stopped coming. Those places quickly turned into ruins. The same was true of the room at the very end of the corridor that Baek Sihyeon used in Belitent’s mansion.
Who on earth would try to enter such an ominous place, or try to get rid of it? Moreover, because several years had passed, it wouldn’t have been properly maintained. The space would be filled with damp and stuffy air.
On top of that, there was probably no human who could handle that quietly without catching Ruvlian Belitent’s eye. If one existed, they wouldn’t be a person of this world. Alt sincerely thought so.
“Not answering?”
That said, the momentum was too fierce to say to him, ‘I’m sorry, but there is no such person. Please reconsider.’ Alt knew the preciousness of his own life. Now was the time to definitely protect it.
“…I understand.”
Alt agreed with tears in his eyes. Since there were many people who could replace him, he had no choice but to do so in order not to be fired. Even though not a single person who met the conditions came to mind. He had to carry it out somehow. It was clear as day what kind of future awaited if he failed this task.
Alt truly hoped Baek Sihyeon would wake up soon. Rather, he hoped he would wake up and Ruvlian Belitent’s mood would improve. Then even if he failed the task, the possibility of survival would increase to some extent. That’s how crazy his master was about Baek Sihyeon. To the extent of not leaving his side for three whole days, only looking at his sleeping form.
nani the fuck