Princess Reutrina, the one in charge of the ‘head’ portion of the people who were referred in six parts, received a letter from her comrade Kabal. A few minutes ago, she brought Riley, a guest who she gave the infirmary for him to rest as a patient, to her room by dragging him.
“Now.”
The otherworldly power that she possessed was reading the other’s thoughts and memories and controlling them. She dragged Riley here to use her ability.
“Young Master, show me your memories.”
She placed her fingers on Riley like a snake. She then exuded purple light from her finger and started to touch Riley’s forehead.
“… Let’s see.”
Using her ability, Reutrina started to dig into Riley’s memories, which were tightly hidden away in fogs. Reutrina furrowed her eyebrows after witnessing the very first sight.
‘What’s this?’
Going past the fogs, what Reutrina saw in Riley’s memories was a place that was drenched in red blood and leaked of blood. If anyone asked where it was…
‘A Holy Temple?’
It looked like a church or a holy temple.
‘Why does it leak of blood here?’
Reutrina had smelled blood many times in the past, but it was the first for even her to smell this kind of blood. It was that strange. She tilted her head to the side and wondered, but then she saw the back of someone who looked familiar.
‘… This man is?’
The smell of blood was coming from that man.
‘Young Master Riley?’
He was wielding a brilliant and majestic sword, but even the sword had the strange blood on it. One thing interesting about it was that the blood color was not red. It was purple.
“Your eyes look as if you are about to die at any moment. How could you have come all there way here, standing before me? I really… cannot understand this.”
Having heard the voice coming from somewhere in front of Riley, Reutrina, who was watching the memory in hiding, turned her gaze to the front of Riley.
‘That is?’
In front of Reutrina, in front of Riley to be precise, the being had red skin although he was not bleeding. The being had a palm sized black horn on his head.
“That sure is.”
Having heard the man with the horn, the man who appeared to be Riley shook his head and responded in a low voice.
He looked exhausted.
His voice was so weak that the one who just said ‘That sure is’ would not have looked odd if he just collapsed right now.
“You may be a Brave Hero who were born with blessing, but… Still, you are just a human. Nothing would look out of the ordinary if you died right now.”
“Instead of a blessing, it is probably a curse.”
“Curse. Certainly, you do have many curses cast on you, but they should only pale in comparison to the blessings you have?”
The man with the horn called Riley a Brave Hero. Riley, with bitter look on his face, muttered,
“Hu… A Demon Lord is being concerned for a Brave Hero? You sure are something. This is unbelievable. The fact that a Demon Lord is kinder than Priestess… I don’t know who I should bring this up to.”
Riley called the man ‘Demon Lord.’ The Demon Lord’s lips crumpled.
“Did you say… I am kind?”
“Ahah…. If I knew this sooner, I would have acted from being on your side instead. There won’t have been anyone trying to trip me over, and I won’t have had to worry about people’s opinions either.”
Riley roughly wiped the blood stained sword on his pants to clean it. The Demon Lord extended his hand toward Riley and made a proposal.
“In that case, even if it is from this moment and forward, how about standing on my side?”
“No.”
Riley had a bitter smile on his face. He said,
“The b.a.s.t.a.r.d called G.o.d always does things as one pleases. The G.o.d is selfish too.”
He was refusing the proposal.
‘Just what is this? Brave Hero? Demon Lord?’
They mentioned Brave Hero and Demon Lord. The conversation was incomprehensible for Reutrina. She stood there like an invisible woman. It was around the time when she furrowed her brows. Riley aimed his sword to the front.
“I don’t want to drag this out any further, so… Regardless of who wins, I think it would be best to finish this soon.”
The sword that Riley aimed to the front was engulfed in steady light. The Demon Lord, who had his arms crossed on his chest until this moment, lowered them and started to look at Riley.
“… Before that.”
To be precise, the Demon Lord was starting to look at the invisible woman who was standing behind Riley.
‘…?!’
The Demon Lord was looking at her with violent look on his eyes. Reutrina, who was standing there idly until now, flinched her shoulders.
“There is a kitty cat there watching us in hiding.”
The man’s eyes started to overflow with purple light. Reutrina, who had the same purple glow in her eyes, muttered in disbelief,
‘Y… You are?’
He was similar to a great being that she knew and served. However, the pressure from Demon Lord was far more over overwhelming. Looking at the Demon Lord, Reutrina started to stumble back.
“You are just a trifle thing. You dare to pry on me?”
‘Ah, ah ah…’
“I do not recall giving anyone the permission to watch me fight.”
The Demon Lord extended his hand. Riley, who only showed the back of his head until now, also casually turned his head and looked at Reutrina who was stumbling back in fear.
“…”
‘… Ug.’
His eyes could not look any deadlier.
As soon as she had her eyes meet with Riley’s, she could not breathe. Before she thought ‘I’ll die!’, her vision was painted in darkness.
It felt like she was deep under the sea where there was no light.
“You sure do handle a lot of annoying things although you are supposed to be a Demon Lord.”
“A Brave Hero has the qualification to fight me undisturbed. That’s why.”
“Ha! That’s interesting!”
With that conversation as the last thing she heard, Reutrina was kicked out of Riley’s memories. She looked like she was frightened from a terrible nightmare.
“Kiiiaaaaaaaak!!”
She screamed and took her hand off from Riley’s head.
Afterwards… Riley opened his eyes.
* * *
Thanks to Reutrina, who was screaming at the moment… Thanks to Nainiae to be precise, Riley was able to wake up from the long slumber. He was cringing as if his ears were hurting.
“That mouth needs to be plugged up….”
He still looked sleepy. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked around. He felt gazes from his back, so he turned his head and found a beautiful girl with ivory white skin.
“Ah.”
Soon, as if he turned his head just now in order to find this girl, Riley had bright look on his face. He opened his mouth and called the girl’s name.
“Nainiae.”
“…”
The girl flinched her shoulders.
“… Yes.”
She was concerned.
The guard did not recognize her. Heliona took a moment before recognizing her.
‘In that case, would Young Master recognize me?’
She was concerned about that.
In the end, it was unnecessary.
Even though her face changed, and her right hand became whole again, Riley immediately recognized that the girl was the maid who served him.
“Did you say… Nainiae?”
Sera was standing there vacantly. Having heard what Riley said, she started to stare at Nainiae in disbelief.
“Before that one starts yelling again, can you please put a plug on her mouth?”
Riley put up his thumb and pointed to the side. Having heard the order, Nainiae nodded and said,
“… Yes.”
She finally got to lock gazes with the man who she was concerned for so long because he was not able to wake up all this time. Also, he recognized her face immediately. Besides these, Nainiae had several other complicated emotions surging through her inside. Still, she held in her tears and moved her right hand.
‘Silence.’
In the Dragon’s Language, she used the highest-level silence magic that she could cast. After casting the spell on Reutrina, Nainiae immediately gathered her two hands and lowered her head to greet Riley.
“Young Master, have you… slept well?”
In tearful voice, Nainiae asked if he slept well. Riley asked back as if he found the whole thing bizarre.
“What’s that? Why are you about to cry?”
With her head lowered, Nainiae wiped off her tears. Soon, she showed smiling face and shook her head as if there was nothing to be concerned about.
“… No.”
Finally… Finally… It was because she finally got to understand just how painful the memories that Riley had.
“It’s nothing.”
Having heard her response, Riley moved his eyes and looked at Sera as he raised his arm to the front.
“Sera, hand me your sword for a moment.”
“Sword? Why…”
“Just give it to me for now.”
Sera was vacantly staring at Nainiae, who had a completely different feel to her. Sera tilted her head to the side as if a wind blew in from somewhere. She then tossed one of the swords that she was holding to Riley.
“I’m not sure why, but…”
Riley s.n.a.t.c.hed the sword from the air. He vacantly stared at the sword in his hand for a moment. He then leisurely tried swinging it. Riley put up a puzzled look on his face.
“… is it just the mood?”
Meanwhile, Reutrina was growing more insane as she either pulled her hair out or drooled. She moved her lips and put her hand toward Riley.
‘Young Master!’
Reutrina’s hand was glowing with purple light. Nainiae was going to use magic immediately at Reutrina’s hand. However, she stopped her right hand before using the Dragon’s Language in the middle.
“What the… What’s with the Princess?”
With her head lowered, Reutrina was approaching Riley from the back. Riley avoided Reutrina’s hand without even looking. He smoothly tripped Reutrina and made her fall over. He pierced her skirt with the sword he was wielding all the way down to the floor to get her stuck.
“…”
Because of the silence magic, others could not hear what Reutrina was saying. They could only observe her mouth moving. Reutrina tore the skirt that was getting in her way and got up. She charged at Riley once again.
“Are you really that interested in me?”
Riley remembered that Reutrina had been sending sticky gazes toward him ever since the prospective marriage meeting. As if he was annoyed, he dodged her hand and picked up the sword he had stuck on the floor.
“More importantly, we were at the cave. Now that I opened my eyes, we are here. So, what are we doing here?”
The Princess was still unable to come to her senses and running wild. Riley dodged her hand several more times and looked at Sera and Nainiae, wondering what this was about.
Sera was panicking from watching Reutrina faltering around as if she had let go of her sanity. Sera asked Riley,
“Y… Young Master, don’t you remember?”
“Remember or whatever… I took a nap and got up, and the scenery changed. Do you think the situation does not warrant a question?”
“N… Nap?”
“Ugh, what a pest.”
It seemed Riley got annoyed by the Princess who kept on trying to stick to him. Riley cringed and lightly turned his body to the side. He used the side of the sword to smack the back side of Reutrina’s knee.
‘Um?’
However, the sound that was generated from the impact was something completely different from what Riley expected. Riley furrowed his brows.
‘She is not falling down?’
An ordinary woman would have lost strength in her legs and plummeted from this. However, for some reason, instead of getting on her knees, Reutrina was running even wilder now. It was as if what Riley just did only added fuel to the fire.
‘Something is wrapped around?’
Riley carefully checked Reutrina’s legs and confirmed purple energy. Meanwhile, Sera, who was watching with anxious look on her face, shouted,
“Y… Young Master! Look out! There’s something about Princess Reutrina!”
Riley dodged Reutrina’s hand yet again. Having heard what Sera said, Riley narrowed his eyes and started to inject mana in to his sword.
‘That is…’
A steady light started to flow in to the sword that Riley was holding. Nainiae, who was quietly watching from the back, thought that this must be what she learned about Riley earlier.
‘The one that Young Master have acquired in his past life… The Blessing of Sword.’
From Riley’s dream, Nainiae got to hold all of his past life’s memories in her chest. From the memories, she thought about the blessing that Riley had.
He could wield the Holy Sword.
He was without equal in swordsmanship.
He could gather mana just from breathing or sleeping.
It was a blessing that quite literally showered him with love from the sword. Riley had this since his past life, and he still had it wrapped in his hand.
‘As I thought… He needed sleep.’
Nainiae recalled the pa.s.sing remark by her teacher. Andal once said that ‘This rascal is a fiend.’ She also thought about why Riley slept so much. Having thought about both, Nainiae mumbled inside and tightened her fist.
‘The fever last time must be also because of the blessing. His body requires sleep, yet he avoided it for so long…’
Riley was making the move with the light engulfing the sword. With her eyes, Nainiae chased his moves.
“I don’t know what kind of trickery that the Princess used, but…”
Reutrina was still in panic. The side of the sword, which was endowed with mana, smacked the back of Reutrina’s knees.
Slap!
This time, instead of a dull sound, a pretty loud sound could be heard. It seemed the strike worked this time. Reutrina lost strength in her legs and plummeted. She sat on her knees.
“As I thought, you are not my type.”