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Chapter 64
“…What kind of question is that all of a sudden?”
Damian put down the water bottle and looked at me. He looked puzzled by the sudden question.
“I was just curious.”
I hugged my knees and said.
“I have a clear goal. To escape from the Emperor… I mean, His Majesty’s grasp.”
I could feel Damian’s gaze fall on me. I didn’t meet his eyes, but I knew he was looking at me.
“So I want to become strong. Not just physically, but I want to have the strength to do things on my own. That is my goal.”
In the end, it meant protecting them because of me.
But I couldn’t say that yet.
Damian tapped the dirt ground with the tip of his foot. I just sat quietly, looking down at the light dust rising from the ground.
After thinking for a long time, he slowly spoke.
“I want to protect them.”
When I raised my head, I saw Damian’s side profile looking beyond the training ground.
“My mother and younger sister’s memories are in our family. And my father too. If I must destroy the imperial family in the process, I will do so.”
Then he turned his head and looked at me, a playful smile on his lips.
“If I say this, will you drag me to the underground prison?”
“If you want to say something like that, why don’t you make a more serious face?”
“I’m sorry, I’m not good at controlling my facial expression.”
Damian laughed slyly.
“Well… I’ll let it pass this time. Because Damian said what I couldn’t say.”
“I even heard the princess say we think alike. That’s surprising.”
“You do realize you’re only sixteen, right?”
“I am two years older than Your Highness.”
“Just two years.”
And originally, I’m four years older than you.
I just grumbled inside and curled my body a little more.
I heard a faint laugh above my head. After a while, Damian sat down beside me with a thud.
“Then may I ask something now?”
“About what?”
The cool autumn wind blew.
When I turned my gaze sideways, Damian was looking at me quietly, matching my eye level. His face was very serious.
“Why did the princess abandon the luxurious imperial palace and the Emperor’s favor, and choose the Carter Grand Duke’s house?”
I couldn’t say anything for a moment.
Honestly, it was a question I expected. I thought he would ask someday. But when I actually heard it, I didn’t know how to answer.
Say I regressed?
Say I was abandoned by the Emperor and died in my previous life?
Say that his father is actually my biological father?
It would sound insane.
After moving my tongue inside my mouth for a while, I answered.
“…Because I want to live.”
“Does someone want to kill the princess?”
“Something like that. More precisely, I want to live like a human being.”
“Like a human being.”
Damian still had a face that didn’t understand.
That was natural. I had lived as the worst demon of the imperial family, riding on the Emperor’s power. All the luxurious and beautiful things were mine. Even I had been ignoring the fact that I was living like a tool, not a human.
I buried my head between my knees again and spoke quietly.
“Everyone has their own circumstances. Just think of it that way. It might be a little funny from Damian’s perspective.”
“Not really, it’s not funny.”
“…I thought you would laugh at me?”
“If it were something worth laughing at, the princess wouldn’t have risked her life to come here. So I believe you.”
What.
I didn’t know how to react to such a sudden answer, so my eyes wandered around.
“…Thank you, for believing me.”
“We’re living under the same roof now. If I keep doubting and watching you, I’ll just get tired.”
“We had such a good atmosphere just now.”
“It’s still good, isn’t it?”
Damian laughed softly.
He really was irritating when he was doing well and then suddenly acted like that.
“Tell me the details later. When the princess is ready.”
“…Okay.”
If I were to talk about the Emperor’s matter, I would have to confess everything about the spirit stone and my blood. I thought that probably wouldn’t happen.
Damian moved his hand toward the area near my head but stopped.
His hand, wandering in the air for a long time, suddenly dropped downward.
“What is it?”
There was no answer.
Instead, Damian, who was looking at me with a strange expression, suddenly stood up.
“If you’ve rested enough, let’s start again.”
“Huh?”
Didn’t he just say today ends here?
“You were chatting, so I thought your energy returned. Please stand up.”
And he even started pulling me up.
I couldn’t hide my shock.
“Hey, Dami… Damian!”
“Quickly.”
This training-obsessed man!
I feel like dying.
My arms and legs felt like lead. My whole body hurt.
After several days of continuous training, all strength drained from my body. According to Damian, we were only building the very basics, but it seemed my trash-like body was the main reason.
Maybe because the period was long, I felt more exhausted than during the ten-day special training.
In the morning, I visited Carlos in the hospital. In the afternoon, I trained all the time. So during free time, I just lay down like dried seaweed.
“Loreia, you look like a baby grandmother.”
As I was burying my head in the bed and moving sluggishly as usual, a familiar voice suddenly came from beside my head.
It was Sion.
I didn’t know when he entered; he was sitting beside the bed and gently touching my forehead.
I turned my head slightly and squinted my eyes.
“…What is a baby grandmother?”
“Cute but looks completely old and worn out.”
What kind of thing is a hundred-year-old tower master saying to me.
I wanted to answer but didn’t have the strength. I just lay there limp.
Sion giggled and poked my cheek repeatedly. He twisted the hair that fell on my forehead with his fingertip, then brushed it aside and played with it.
His smiling face looked like a child’s.
Sion was staying in the grand duke’s mansion longer than expected. He seemed to go back to the magic tower sometimes, but even considering that, the period felt quite long.
‘Thanks to him, Carlos’s condition is improving quickly, so I am grateful….’
Then Sion’s hand slowly moved down. This time he touched my forearm and frowned.
“…You messed it up again.”
“…….”
“This. It’s a new wound, right? It hasn’t even healed yet.”
It was carefully covered with a bandage, so how did he know?
I didn’t do anything wrong, but I felt strangely guilty and averted my eyes slightly.
“Loreia, you looked away.”
“I can’t help it.”
“How can that be.”
Although the contract between Carlos and me was to deliver the spirit stone once a week, Sion didn’t look happy about that either.
After touching my arm for a long time, Sion released blue light from his fingertips. Warm energy wrapped around my arm. It was healing magic. The area around the wound itched a little, then soon felt comfortable.
I looked at him cautiously and said with a small laugh.
“Still, it’s good that Sion always heals me, right?”
Sion glanced at me, sighed, and continued the treatment.
He didn’t say anything, but his expression looked very dissatisfied. His lips were slightly pouting.
“…I don’t like it.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t like things like this.”
