Chapter 9
“What a strange woman.”
At last, after leaving Count Rosentin’s estate, Deminic glanced back one more time toward the room where Belona was staying and muttered to himself.
She was strange, yet oddly trustworthy. Somehow, she also felt strangely familiar.
She had left a powerful impression on him from the very first moment they met.
The woman who casually brushed back her vivid red hair beneath the brilliant sunlight and continued saying exactly what she wanted, completely unfazed by his threats, was genuinely refreshing.
Is that why I keep wanting to get closer to her?
It was an unfamiliar feeling.
Under normal circumstances, once he had obtained the information he needed, he would have simply lost interest. If he wanted a quicker, simpler solution, he would have just killed her.
But he didn’t want to do that.
Raelon and Roxellern.
Even now, he still found it hard to believe that the blood of the Empire’s two most powerful families flowed through his veins.
He had never believed that someone like him had been born with an ordinary fate.
But to discover that his mother had been an imperial princess and his father a duke…
Lost in thought, Deminic pulled the sapphire ring from his pocket and held it up to the light.
“Deminic, your destiny doesn’t lie here. Remember that. When the time comes, when you’re old enough to stand on your own, I’ll tell you everything. But not now. It’s too dangerous. If they find you first…”
He remembered the woman he had considered his real mother all his life.
She had ordinary brown hair and an unremarkable appearance.
She had been gentle and kind, yet she had always lived as though something was chasing her, constantly trembling with anxiety.
Not long after Deminic had become old enough to understand the world around him, she died in a carriage accident before he had even turned ten.
After her death, he discovered a carefully hidden bundle tucked away inside a drawer.
Inside it was the very ring he was holding now.
At a glance, it was obvious that the jewelry was incredibly valuable. The gemstone alone looked expensive enough to buy an entire house.
Yet despite living in poverty, she had never sold it.
That alone had convinced him that it must have held great significance.
So he had kept it safe, making sure never to lose it.
“…It would probably suit her.”
His thoughts, which had been trapped in the past, instantly returned to the present the moment the sapphire’s blue glow reminded him of Belona’s equally vivid blue eyes.
I will never betray you.
Belona’s repeated promise echoed through his mind.
Setting aside the absurd claim that she could see the future, she truly was an incomprehensible woman.
She acted as though it was inevitable that he would eventually choose the path of destruction, yet she seemed almost painfully distressed when she looked at the scars covering his back—scars he himself had long since stopped caring about.
Why?
That was exactly why he had told her everything about his past.
No matter how much he tried to provoke her, she remained calm and gave as good as she got.
Yet the moment she traced the scars on his back, listened to his story, and looked genuinely saddened by it, he found himself strangely drawn to her.
Those wounds had already been torn open and shredded countless times in the past.
They were merely scars now.
They no longer affected him.
Yet he had deliberately used them as bait, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was truly in Belona’s heart.
Maybe I’ve become greedy.
Every moment he’d spent with Belona replayed vividly in his mind.
She was small enough to fit comfortably within his arms, her body delicate and fragile.
Yet her personality was as fierce and unyielding as her flame-colored hair.
Even the irritation that flickered in her clear, deep blue eyes amused him.
Deminic had a feeling that there had never been anyone like her in his past and that there never would be again.
He didn’t want to let Belona Rosentin slip away.
The thought of returning to a colorless life without her already seemed unbearably dull.
He slipped the ring back into his pocket and absentmindedly rolled it between his fingers as he merged into the bustling crowds of the city streets.
He made his way toward another temporary hideout he had prepared while Belona slept.
“What a bunch of idiots.”
Standing above a street that had finally emptied of the busy holy knights who had been searching for him, Deminic pulled out the sapphire ring once more.
This time, he carefully examined the inscription engraved on it.
“So this is supposed to be proof of my identity…”
He had already verified about half of what Belona had told him about his background.
The moment he had mentioned the Emperor and Empress, the High Priest had gone completely pale.
Fear had overtaken him so thoroughly that he had started glancing around nervously.
Piecing together the fragments of his past from there had been surprisingly easy.
The Empress probably believes I’m dead.
On the day Deminic barely escaped from the temple, a massive fire—the same kind that had taken the lives of his biological parents—engulfed the orphanage where the temple’s children lived.
His instincts had warned him that something was wrong.
He had been heading back to his quarters when an overwhelming sense of unease slowed his steps.
The moment he saw the building engulfed in flames, he didn’t hesitate.
Without looking back, he escaped through a small hole in the temple wall.
“To think they tried to kill both parents and child using the exact same method. How refined.”
His grip around the ring tightened.
Belona Rosentin had calmly explained his past, present, and future as though she were spoon-feeding him every answer he needed.
She had given him just enough information to identify his enemies almost instantly.
And because of that, it was easy to believe that she had told him everything.
But she hadn’t.
He could tell that she carefully avoided talking about herself.
And that only made her more interesting.
She could have demanded countless things from him.
Instead, she remained distant.
Indifferent.
Why?
The same question had been repeating in his mind since yesterday.
Belona’s determination to help him appeared completely sincere.
Yet she showed no desire to become personally close to him or build any kind of emotional connection.
Their conversations were purely practical.
She only shared enough information to ensure that he could prepare for potential dangers and avoid being caught off guard.
Nothing more.
What did she really want?
Suddenly, he remembered the casual way she’d mentioned engagement and marriage.
An unpleasant emotion he couldn’t quite identify swept through him.
What if the secret she’s hiding revolves around a man?
As a noblewoman, a political marriage would be perfectly normal for Belona Rosentin.
But she didn’t seem like the type of woman who would simply accept such a fate.
Still, the thought of Belona dreaming about a future with someone she loved ignited an overwhelming urge to eliminate whoever that man might be.
“This can’t possibly be about love.”
The Belona he had come to know over such a short period was a woman who would glare at him with those blue eyes and sarcastically ask whether he’d finally decided to kill her, even if he pressed a blade against her throat.
There was no way a woman like that would use her so-called ability to see the future simply because she loved someone.
No.
He wanted to believe that wasn’t the reason.
If anything, she’d be more likely to storm into the Imperial Palace, seize the Emperor’s weakness, and half-threaten him into blessing a marriage with whoever she wanted.
That image suited her much better.
The same woman who had suddenly appeared in front of him, casually thrown a necklace at him, and ordered him to stop using dark magic.
And yet, even that possibility irritated him.
If she’d been the one to reach out first…
If she’d agreed to become his ally…
Then shouldn’t he be her highest priority?
He didn’t care if it was unreasonable.
Just as his interest in Belona continued to grow, he wanted her attention to be focused entirely on him.
If I ever saw those eyes looking at another man the same way…
The intense gaze that occasionally blazed like fire during their conversations.
The soft, worried expression she’d worn while looking at his wounds and scars.
He wanted every emotion reflected in those eyes for himself alone.
And then—
“I want to die, Deminic Raelon.”
A voice echoed in his ears.
It was far too clear to be dismissed as a hallucination.
Deminic froze, the ring still clenched in his hand.
“What?”
There was no mistaking whose voice it was.
He had been speaking to that person just a short while ago.
But hearing Belona’s voice say that she wanted to die?
For a moment, he wondered if she had been right all along.
Was the dark magic slowly driving him insane?
“You don’t know anything.”
This time, her voice whispered softly against his ear.
Deminic stopped rolling the ring between his fingers and slowly lifted it.
Was he imagining it?
The sapphire almost seemed to be glowing faintly.
“What is this…?”
Before Belona had mentioned the ring, it had remained locked inside its box for years.
After his current master had taken him in while he was wandering far from the capital, looking no better than a beggar, he’d practically forgotten it even existed.
He had heard that it was a gift the first Emperor had given to the Empress.
He had briefly wondered whether it possessed some special power, much like his own dark magic.
But he’d never sensed anything unusual from it.
Maybe I should ask Master.
The man who had taught him dark magic might know more.
It had probably been long enough since he’d last contacted that stubborn old man.
“…Why did I suddenly start hearing her voice?”
No matter how many times he turned the ring over in his hand, it remained silent.
Yet Belona’s voice continued to echo inside his head.
As though it refused to let him stop thinking about her.
