🔊 TTS Settings
CHAPTER 51…………
#51. The Boy Who Hurts the Heart (1)
Excited, Ares hid his true feelings and looked up at Minte.
“Master, can I go ahead by myself?”
“Hmm… very well, young lord.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Don’t go roughhousing with the young ladies!”
Minte shouted after him, but Ares was already running toward the building.
Minte slowly turned his body toward the man grinning beside him.
To be honest, this man made him uncomfortable.
Not only was he frivolous, but he had also witnessed too much back in burning Charon…
Still, the fact that he had just held himself back with sound reasoning left Minte a little embarrassed.
“Your Grace. Just now, I was too hasty—”
“Well, now that the nuisance is gone!”
But before Minte could finish his awkward apology, Phobos clowned around boisterously.
He gazed at Minte with sparkling eyes.
“You’re the most magnificent in the world again today, Lord Epikus!”
“…”
“Once this mission is done, shall we go dragon riding together? I’ve even found a spot with a great view!”
“I must decline, absolutely.”
The duke managed to squander whatever goodwill he had just gained.
“Uh, sister…”
Selina looked up at Theia with teary eyes.
Once her sister set her mind to something, everyone around her got swept up helplessly.
But this time, no matter how she thought about it, it was recklessly foolish.
“Are we really okay doing this? If Father gets angry—”
“What? We’re not doing anything wrong, are we?”
“But! It’s almost our turn to present flowers to the princess!”
“Hah!”
At Selina’s words, Theia lifted her chin even higher.
Now, led by the Nestor sisters, half a dozen young ladies entered a shop with a red roof.
Because the ladies offering flowers moved separately from their families, this was possible.
And if the princess’s knights came and scolded them, the girls planned to widen their eyes and retort like this:
‘Are you punishing us just because our clothes got dirty and we stepped aside for a bit? Wouldn’t that be more disrespectful to the princess?’
But Selina was still restless.
“But… if His Highness Erebos gets angry…”
“There’s no way His Highness Erebos would be angry with our family!”
Theia snorted, flipping her hair back.
The Nestor family had made great sacrifices for the late queen.
Most of their knights had perished in Charon.
And all because of Halcyon’s paladins.
“This is just a prank, Selina. We’ll leave right before the ceremony begins.”
“Sister—”
“And that human prince.”
Theia shuddered as she thought of Prince Deucalion.
He looked far too friendly with the young princess.
‘How can the future Demon King keep such a person by her side? No matter how young she is, it’s seriously a problem.’
Yes, this was utterly righteous anger.
Shouldn’t someone harshly teach the princess what was proper?
‘Even if it’s His Highness Erebos, I can’t stand by and watch the princess’s manners get ruined!’
Creak. Just then, the door cautiously opened.
Well-dressed human children blinked in surprise at the girls already inside.
“Uh…”
Theia glared fiercely at them and snapped.
“How dare you come in here!”
“Huh? But—”
They were the children of Iliod Kingdom’s merchant lords visiting Kore.
In Iliod, merchant lords held status nearly equal to nobility.
So even if their formal rank was lower, they could not be slighted by foreign nobles.
Yet the eldest boy, in his late teens, endured his shame and bowed politely.
He had olive-toned skin, black hair, and green eyes.
“Forgive us. We thought this was a public space—”
“To enter a place where nobles rest? You only show your lack of breeding.”
“…!”
“This is why humans are all the same!”
At that sneer, the human children, who had only been glancing around nervously, froze.
Sometimes, when passing on the street, they saw demons look at them like that.
But never had they heard such hateful words to their face.
The eldest boy calmly spoke again.
“Isn’t that too harsh, my lady? Besides, it was a demon who guided us here.”
“Then the shopkeeper is worthless, letting in such lowly—”
“—Hey, you sure talk big, huh?”
A boy’s mocking voice came from the doorway.
Recognizing him, Selina whispered in alarm.
“Lord Ismenios!”
“What are you all doing here?”
Ares frowned at the scene.
He had come to tell Sion to offer her flowers, but instead stumbled into a standoff between nobles and human children.
Still, the most important thing was Sion, so Ares snapped at Theia’s group.
“Hey. All of you, get up right now. Sitting around gossiping here?”
“Lord!”
Theia was horrified by Ares’s reckless tone.
The House of Nestor was an esteemed noble line.
As were all the young ladies here!
A mere boy, however noble, had no right to speak so rudely to them.
“How can you address ladies so disrespectfully! Is this what you learn in the princess’s palace?”
At her words, Ares boredly picked at his ear.
“If they’ve got no sense of fear, then I’m allowed to forget my manners for a bit too, right?”
“Wha—”
“Ah, forget the arguing. We don’t have time.”
Ares waved his hand as if swatting flies.
It was arrogant to the extreme, but somehow suited him perfectly.
And with the authority of his ducal house behind him—
The young ladies, overawed by the boy before them, began glancing at each other uncertainly.
Sensing the shift in mood, Ares pressed them again.
“Sion… you just wanted to ruffle Her Highness’s temper, didn’t you? Now that you’ve had your fun, get out.”
Before you get killed by Master Minte or your whole family destroyed by His Highness Erebos…
But before he could truly threaten them, Theia shot him a glare and retorted.
“Doesn’t it make you angry, Lord Ares?”
“Angry? About what now?”
“Being treated as an equal with that Halcyon human! No, even worse than that—”
“I decide what makes me angry. Don’t get ahead of yourself!”
Ares cut her off sharply.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t felt some shame or frustration today.
‘But if that blue-eyed idiot says it’s for Sion’s sake, then I can do the same.’
Hadn’t Phobos just said so too?
If you’re going to be jealous, at least make it productive.
So Ares would drag these haughty girls out himself.
But Theia still glared at the group of humans in the room.
“No way… I won’t leave if such low-born rabble are here.”
“Hey…”
“What do you trust about them? Just like Halcyon—barbaric, cowardly—”
“Who said their crimes were forgiven?”
Having never seen the war himself, Ares had little he could say.
All the more so when he looked at the adults who still remembered it.
Even his brother Phobos, even His Highness Erebos—both seemed gentle at times.
But sometimes he could feel the deep-rooted hatred within them.
‘After all, the queen died because of those people.’
And yet, with Sion and Calion…
The more time he spent with them, the less sure Ares felt.
‘Not that I like those blue eyes, though.’
He had learned of the sins Halcyon humans had committed.
But was it right to blame one blue-eyed person for the crimes of their bloodline?
And was it right to insult all humans just because they resembled Halcyon?
Ares glanced sideways at the human children, trembling with shame.
‘If I had only ever lived in the duchy…’
He would never have met Calion or these children.
If he had only met them when older, maybe he too would have despised them, like Theia Nestor.
‘But to say that out loud would be embarrassing. Ugh, we really don’t have time!’
Instead of voicing those awkward feelings, Ares sneered.
“Anyway, looking at you now—you’re the most cowardly one here, Theia Nestor.”
“What…!”
“You’re just taking it out on Sion because she’s young. Coward that you are, get out already!”
At his accusation, Theia’s face flushed red.
“Lord, how can you say such—”
But she broke off as a sound came from the wall behind her.
Crrrk. Crrrk…
The scenery of the room wavered, the water bottle on the table rattling.
With a chilling noise, thick cracks began spreading across the wall.
