Chapter 5
The way he held her hand felt less like he was trying to stop her and more like he was telling her not to worry about it anymore.
“It probably hurt back then. Now, I don’t feel anything.”
Despite his refined, almost elegant appearance, his rough hands spoke of a life that had been anything but easy. Even after saying that, he didn’t immediately let go of her hand.
If anything, it almost seemed as though he was trying to reassure her, sensing her emotional turmoil.
“Your hatred is justified. But this isn’t the right way to deal with it.”
Ah…
How hypocritical must those words have sounded to Deminic?
She had spoken as if she understood him, offering advice while only knowing the surface details of his past.
“What could a child possibly have done to deserve something like this?”
The words escaped her like a long-held sigh.
Only now was she beginning to realize that she had never truly understood the anger Deminic had carried in his heart all this time.
Meanwhile, Deminic simply turned around, blocking her view of the scars on his back as if they were completely insignificant.
“When I was a child, I resented those beatings because they felt less like punishment and more like people taking out their frustrations on me. But at the same time, I couldn’t help wondering…”
He lifted the corner of his mouth in a bitter smile, mocking his younger self.
“I used to wonder if I had really been born with a devil’s eyes. Was that why my personality was so twisted? Why I was rebellious? Why I couldn’t be obedient? Those thoughts crossed my mind more often than I’d like to admit.”
He laughed at himself as though he found the entire thing ridiculous.
“Looking at the person I’ve become, maybe they were right. Maybe I was destined to be someone who could never truly belong in this society.”
“That’s not true.”
Suddenly, Bellona found herself wondering what might have happened if she’d been able to choose the point in time to which she regressed.
What if she could have rescued him from the temple before he ever started believing such absurd things?
“In any case, I really was a rebellious child. Whenever the priests tried to search through my belongings so they could sell anything valuable and line their own pockets, I fought back pretty fiercely.”
“The ring?”
“The ring included. Along with a few other things.”
Still standing with his arms crossed, Deminic continued his explanation much longer than she’d expected.
Then he casually picked up the coat he’d tossed onto the table and pulled an expensive-looking box out of one of its pockets.
“This is one of the belongings I protected by biting the arm of the head priest in charge of the orphanage.”
Bellona thought he was only showing it to her.
Instead, he carelessly dropped the box into her palm, forcing her to catch it before it fell.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“You kept staring at it. I thought you wanted it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She carefully opened the box.
Inside was a silver ring, the sapphire embedded in it shining with a brilliant blue light.
“If you change your mind, just let me know.”
“This isn’t something you can hand over to just anyone.”
“You’re not just anyone.”
She couldn’t quite read the emotions hidden in his gaze.
He sounded as though he were joking, yet at the same time, there was an unmistakable hint of sincerity in his voice.
“I want you to trust me, Deminic, but don’t you think you’re trusting me a little too easily?”
“I never said I trusted you. My instincts are simply telling me that you’re not lying.”
“That’s basically the same thing.”
“My instincts have never been wrong. Besides, you’re interesting. Very interesting. I don’t think I’d lose anything by keeping you close and watching you for a while.”
“Could you stop talking as if I’m some fascinating experiment?”
Bellona rolled her eyes and sighed.
In response, Deminic only laughed.
“Think of it as a symbol of our secret relationship. Besides, the ring will soon outlive its usefulness to me anyway.”
“It’s your mother’s ring.”
Whether it still had a practical purpose or not, the ring carried tremendous emotional significance.
But Deminic looked completely unconcerned.
“My mother wasn’t the Duchess of Roxellern. Reclaiming the title of Duke of Roxellern is more than enough to fulfill my obligations to the ducal couple.”
Bellona shook her head.
It wasn’t that simple.
Knowing how precious their first child had been to the Duke and Duchess of Roxellern, she couldn’t accept such a dismissive explanation.
“That’s not it. The story behind your eyes proves that.”
“…My eyes?”
His red eyes.
The very eyes that had made him question himself and suffer throughout his childhood.
“Yes. Your eyes.”
When consumed by madness, his bloodshot eyes could look terrifying.
But up close, their color was surprisingly clear.
A transparent crimson.
Like the brilliant red of a sunset captured and preserved forever.
“Eyes that carry the radiance of the sun.”
Even though Deminic didn’t visibly react, she could tell from the intensity of his gaze that he was listening to every word.
“When Princess Olivia was pregnant with you, she was in danger of miscarrying. The Duke searched everywhere for a way to save both you and your mother. He didn’t care what it cost or how rare the treasure was, as long as it could ensure that you would be born safely.”
Eventually, Deminic would hear this story himself.
One day, in the distant future, he would return to Roxellern Castle and meet the lonely old butler who had continued managing the estate alone.
But Bellona wanted to tell him now.
Unexpectedly, it seemed that he genuinely believed there was something fundamentally wrong with him.
That he had been born cursed.
She wanted to correct that misunderstanding.
Because it wasn’t true.
If anything, he had been born deeply loved.
If the Duke and Duchess had survived, so many of his rough edges would have softened.
He might still have been sarcastic from time to time, but he would never have developed such a cynical, disillusioned view of the world.
“The solution they finally found was something called the Fruit of the Sun. Long before the current chief deity of the Empire was worshipped, there were many ancient gods. The Fruit of the Sun was an ancient relic blessed by the Sun God himself, containing the strongest life force imaginable.”
Her fingers slowly rose and brushed against the corner of his eye.
The distance between them, which had already been dangerously close, disappeared completely when he tilted his head toward her touch.
“The liquid extracted from it is a brilliant, dazzling shade of red.”
Her fingertips lightly traced the area beneath his eyes.
“So the truth is, you were born under the blessing of the sun. You weren’t cursed by a demon, and you didn’t inherit the eyes of a devil.”
Time seemed to stretch.
They stared directly into each other’s eyes.
One breath.
Then another.
The silence between them became so profound that even the sound of breathing disappeared.
“I doubt hearing an explanation about the color of your eyes was really what you wanted to—”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Bellona wondered if she’d gone too far with her dramatic explanation.
She tried to pull away.
But Deminic caught her hand.
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
“You always seem to tell me exactly what I want to hear. It almost makes me wonder if God made a mistake and accidentally sent me one of His messengers.”
The words were so unbearably cheesy that Bellona almost cringed.
Yet Deminic looked completely serious.
He was staring at her so intently that she half expected him to start searching for a divine halo above her head.
“I just want to help you.”
“Right. For the sake of the best future you envision.”
A comfortable silence followed.
Deminic seemed lost in thought.
But then, without warning, he looked back at her and casually said something completely unexpected.
“Then I suppose you won’t mind if I stay here for a while.”
“…What?”
The serious atmosphere vanished in an instant.
Bellona had assumed he would rest briefly before leaving.
Instead, she suddenly had the unsettling feeling that he was trying to slip something past her.
She immediately latched onto his words.
“Why would you stay here? And why my room?”
“…You may not know this, but I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go right now.”
The statement was absurd.
And yet, somehow, it sounded painfully sincere.
There was a loneliness hidden beneath those words.
Since Deminic wasn’t someone who revealed his emotions so easily, Bellona couldn’t help wondering if she was imagining it.
“What?”
“I made quite a dramatic exit from the temple. Right now, the Holy Knights are turning the capital upside down searching for a dark mage. And honestly, I’m not really in any condition to deal with them at the moment.”
Now she understood why he’d shown up in such terrible shape.
But why her room?
She was about to ask whether he truly didn’t have a single safe place to hide.
But Deminic answered before she could speak.
“It’s ridiculous, but the only person I can trust in this entire capital is you. Besides, no one would be foolish enough to search a noble family’s estate. That makes things much less troublesome.”
Bellona couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t the whole truth.
She knew Deminic never worked alone.
He had countless subordinates.
Why would he come here instead of joining them?
But at the end of the day, his current condition was partly her fault.
She opened her mouth to argue, only to realize she had nothing to say.
“I won’t stay long. One day. Two at most.”
“……”
“You should take responsibility for me.”
