John gripped my shoulder roughly and pulled me toward him. I found myself settling beneath him without realizing it. The shadowed face I looked up at was completely different from the one I usually saw. If the usual John was a gentleman, now he was as if a beast. Perhaps that was why I felt like prey faced with a predator.
“I’m scared.”
In the unfocused red of his eyes, only madness filled them. John suddenly gazed at the back of my neck and bit my throat hard.
“I smell something delicious about you.”
Pain and a hot fever spread through my body. I squeezed my eyes shut and fought to escape from him, which seemed to dive at me without hesitation.
“This is the rampage of black magic, isn’t it.”
Besides the rough movements, waves of sinister black magic energy seemed ready to attack me.
“…It hurts.”
The abrupt words caused John to falter for a moment. At that moment I found myself meeting his blackened hand, which had become so darkened that it now looked almost like charcoal.
“Grrk—!”
John’s face twisted in pain. It seemed the contact with the sooty part of his body caused him pain due to the side effects of the black magic. Yet John did not release my hand. Instead he pressed my fingers tighter between his own, locking me in.
“Am I really going to be able to do anything?”
I was frustrated because I didn’t know much about black magic. John’s words seemed true. There was nothing left for me to do but wait and perhaps die like this.
“No. I promised I would stay.”
I couldn’t despair here, not after promising. I hurriedly spoke to the trees, though now I could even reach them mentally.
-Trees! This is urgent! Do you know anything about the rampage?
Originally when I was with John I avoided speaking up for fear they might notice, but this was no time to hide.
-There’s no reply.
The trees always answered me whenever I spoke to them. It was to help the last fairy, me.
-This isn’t reaching me.
The black magic’s power around John intensified, and the tree’s guidance faded. Then John, who had his face pressed against my neck, slowly raised his head and locked eyes with me.
“Who are you talking to right now?”
“Uh, what?”
“You just used some strange power. Or rather, who exactly are you…?”
His red eyes, once covered in black magic, flickered back and forth.
“Even if you’ve lost your reason, can you still talk?”
But there was no such thing as an answer.
“You might not remember the rampage memory.”
The trees’ advice came back to me.
-Despite the odd behavior, sometimes act as you please. You’re a fairy, so there are moments when your instincts tell you to do the right thing.
-What do you mean?”
-That strange impulse inside you. There will be a moment for it, for sure.
Suddenly the advice from the trees crystallized. As John’s threatening face drew near, I quickly released one of my bound hands and pressed it against his cheek. Unlike usual, I spoke to him in a more familiar way to seem closer.
“I’m your wife. The woman you love very much.”
“…What?”
His voice was torn by pain.
“That’s ridiculous…”
“John.”
Seeing his suspicious, disbelieving face, I lowered my voice sadly.
“Don’t you remember? You told me you loved me. So you asked me to stay by your side even during the rampage…”
“Me?”
“You really don’t remember anything about the rampage, do you?”
John frowned, but he didn’t let go of my hand resting on his cheek. I forced a calm smile.
“But it’s okay. I love you, John.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. If not, why would I be here like this?”
A lie he could tell while in rampage state.
“Truth is, it hurts less, somehow.”
“Yeah. Because we love each other, they say we can block a rampage.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was saying.
“But John’s condition is improving.”
The black magic, which had seemed ready to erupt moments earlier, had quieted a bit. Our conversation even seemed possible as his condition stabilized.
“If we stay like this, won’t the rampage end and everything return to normal?”
John, who had been staring into my face blankly, suddenly pulled me closer and drew me into his chest.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah?”
“Just looking at you makes my heart race.”
That must be because of the magic rampaging.
“I’m always thirsty. It seems the thirst grows because of you.”
The John who had been kissing my nape ceaselessly let out a faint laugh. The continuous affection made my face burn red.
“This is dangerous in its own way.”
Even the normally adept John was dangerous, but the way he spoke without filtering his thoughts was incredibly alluring. He looked at me with eyes that glowed red.
“Why can’t I endure you more when we’re together?”
“What do you mean by that…”
“You said you two were in love, didn’t you? Then isn’t it fine?”
He laughed slyly as his hand stroked near my waist with greed.
“I’m going to eat you up.”
There was no chance to stop him. He bent his head and pressed his lips to mine. The moment I felt as if something hot entered me, the world suddenly turned white.
I grasped my pounding head and blinked.
“I think I kissed John…”
Suddenly the surroundings turned white and I found myself in a strange space.
What on earth was happening? Could something like this happen during rampage?
A cold, eerie wind brushed over my body. I ran my goosebumps as I looked around. It seemed to be a prison. It resembled the prison I had seen when we went to visit the Duke and Duchess of Libertan. As I moved, guards sprang out from the opposite side.
“What should I do now?”
I had no place to hide. Strangely, the guards appeared to look straight at me but couldn’t actually see me.
“Hey. That guy’s still standing pretty well, isn’t he? Even today he doesn’t pass out or bow to his pride. He’s truly poisonous.”
Hearing that, my heart started beating hard for some reason.
“That guy is poisonous and Libertan is poisonous too. How could there be such people together? They tortured families in front of that child, then burned them. Still they insist the heir must be kept alive, so they torture at night and work them as mine slaves during the day.”
“They’ve endured so far, but for how long will they last?”
The guards behind me continued their conversation, unaware of my presence.
“To be honest, even if he was a slave, I don’t think he can endure this much longer. And the food isn’t that good either.”
“I think he’ll die in a month. The Duke of Libertan must be beyond ruthless. People say he endures with poison, but is that something that can be done with just willpower?”
It seemed they were talking about John.
“Was it when John was being tortured by Libertan?”
Seeing the guards ignore me suggested the situation was far from ordinary.
“Could this be a past dream of John’s?”
I followed the direction the guards had come from. There, a boy chained by iron, with black hair, was slumped against the wall, as if he had fainted. It was a young John.
“To think I’ve entered into John’s past dream.”
Even after brutal torture, his exceptional looks were immediately recognizable.
“But…”
Seeing the condition of the young John, my heart ached deeply. His arms were bound to the wall, his legs chained like a slave. A huge scaffold seemed to be aimed at preventing his escape.
“How could this be.”
I didn’t know much about rebellion or law, but how could someone do this to a child?
“Because he’s the heir to the Duke, they said they wouldn’t hurt his body.”
His bare feet showed wounds. Even under his tattered clothing, there were small scars.
“Could it be that they only needed to keep his limbs alive?”
What I witnessed with my own eyes was far harsher than the story in the original. I stood there in shock, unable to speak.
“How hard it must have been.”
It was truly amazing that John survived here.
“Trying to blame him more would be even harder.”
How painful must it have been for a child? The abuse I suffered in Libertan was severe, but John must have endured far worse.
“I’m sorry.”
It was heartbreaking to think there was nothing I could do for a child currently suffering in this moment.
“Surely this is John’s past dream. There’s nothing I can change here.”
I felt guilty as I approached the fainting child John. There was a cage in the prison, but perhaps because it was a dream, I could pass through it. I crouched in front of John and gently checked his wounds, brushing his tangled hair aside.
“You must have been in a lot of pain.”
Even though my hand passed through, I could not stroke his bangs in front of him.
“Are you hurting so much right now?”
I spoke to him as if he could hear me, though the voice might be just a dream. It might not matter, as long as I wanted to say it.
“My voice might not reach you, but I’ll say it anyway, even if it changes nothing, just in case.”
I swallowed hard and placed my hand over his.
“Are you having a really hard time right now? There will be moments when you want to give up and give in.”
Strangely, the red eyes of John seemed to be looking at me.
“But still, you have to keep going. You can endure this. If you endure now, you can surely exact your revenge. You can do what you want, even if the mighty Duke of Libertan falls.”
Of course, that would mean I die. But my words came from a sincere place.
“And when you get out of this prison, there will be someone to help you. Someone who will care for you, stand by you, and be loyal to you. So it will be hard, but endure.”
Then tears glistened at the edge of John’s eyes, which had seemed to feel nothing up to now. He swallowed the tears and shook his head.
“Don’t cry, John. Why are tears suddenly coming?”
“Ah… so my voice isn’t heard, after all.”
With no physical force between us, there was no way to hear a voice. I hid my disappointment and gently cupped his thin, pale cheeks with both hands.
“How wonderful it would be if my warmth could reach you.”
In Libertan, there was no one around me, which made it extremely difficult. Being alone made it feel impossible to endure.
“Of course you’re amazing, John, and you’re wonderful, so you probably don’t need my warmth. But I still want to be of some help.”
As I ran my hand across his cheek, I slowly pressed my lips to his forehead, just as John had once kissed my forehead to comfort me. At that moment, John’s body trembled and asked with a wary look.
“Who’s there? Why is there warmth on my forehead…?”
Tears started to shimmer in the young John’s eyes. I pulled him into a tight embrace, surprised.
“Can you hear my voice? Or is my warmth touching you somehow?”
Maybe there was something I could do. For a moment, I held young John in my arms and abruptly stood up.
~·~·*· . ·**##^^##**· . ·*·~·~
Hey there, It’s Green Rose 😉
Since I human I might have make some mistakes while translating so please if you find them let me know here in the comments or in the Discord group so I can correct them and be careful in the future so they do not repeat.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
~~~Next Chapter~~~
Next chapter will be released Tomorrow.
See you then!!
