Chapter 3

When someone collapses right in front of your eyes, your startled body moves on its own. However, it was too much for Revelin—who had never even swung a sword once in her life—to catch a sturdy man, and a physically massive one at that, much larger than the average guy.

Catching the falling Chedwin, Revelin lost her balance and tumbled backward together with him. “H-Huh? Huh-huh-huh?”

Thud!

A sound loud enough to shake the entire balcony echoed through the air. Fortunately, because Chedwin had locked the door when he came in, no one was around to look inside or come running.

“Ugh.” Revelin groaned softly.

Whether it was a survival instinct to save someone or because he regained a tiny bit of consciousness right before collapsing, Chedwin had wrapped his large hand around Revelin’s head, saving her from smashing her skull against the stone floor of the balcony.

Instead, the back of Chedwin’s hand took the brunt of the impact against the hard stone. “Hey, Your Grace the Grand Duke.”

She poked and shook him, but there was no response. Did he faint? Did he fall asleep? There was no other choice.

Struggling, Revelin pushed Chedwin off her body and managed to push herself up into a sitting position. The crushing pressure weighing her down was immense, as if his entire body was made of solid muscle.

“What on earth is going on here?”

Thanks to Revelin breaking his fall, Chedwin had avoided smashing his face, but his condition was far from good. “Gasp, hoo, hah, ugh.”

Clutching his chest, he lay facedown on the stone floor, writhing in pain. “Your Grace? Are you alright?”

Chedwin was completely out of his mind. One look at his state made that painfully obvious.

His unfocused, hazy eyes stared blankly into empty space, and he didn’t answer, as if he couldn’t hear a thing. Is this contamination?

Strange. Up until the middle-to-late parts of the original story, Chedwin had never shown any signs of suffering or agony from contamination. So why now?

It’s still way too early for his mind to collapse.

She didn’t know the reason, but he clearly needed help. However, since she couldn’t possibly carry or drag this giant man away, there was only one answer.

“I’ll go call someone.”

Who on earth should she call, though? She needed to find someone who wouldn’t find Chedwin’s state suspicious and would serve him with absolute loyalty. I really don’t want the original plot to get distorted over something weird.

The moment Revelin turned to leave, grab—a strong force yanked her wrist. Her body tilted sideways.

“D-Don’t… ugh, leave.”

Chedwin, holding onto her wrist with a distorted face, muttered something. Even though a cool breeze was blowing, the black hair on his forehead was drenched with cold sweat.

“Pardon?”

What on earth was he saying? Holding her breath, Revelin focused entirely on the shape of his lips.

“St… ay…”

Because of his weakened voice, his pronunciation was slurred. She couldn’t tell what he was saying at all. Yeah, giving up.

Rather than wasting time trying to listen to the incoherent murmurs of a sick patient, it was much better to go call someone.

“Please let go of my hand for a second. I need to go get— Huh?”

The moment she grabbed his hand to pry it off hers, Revelin’s body froze as she felt a bizarre sensation that defied all explanation.

The surroundings grew as silent as if she had sunk into the depths of a cold, deep lake. Shreds of chaos shook her body as sharply as if she were being pierced by needles.

Even without anyone telling her, she instinctively knew that this was a fraction of the pain Chedwin was currently feeling. The moment she touched him, her knees buckled.

All the strength inside her body was being sucked into Chedwin, as if crying out to be let out. “Ugh.”

Revelin’s body trembled violently in shock. A bizarre sensation followed, making her stomach churn and turn upside down as if she might vomit.

Thick demonic energy stabbed her entire body like thousands of needles. And the purification power from inside Revelin’s body rushed toward Chedwin.

Mustering whatever strength she had left, Revelin slapped Chedwin’s hand away and stumbled back. “Hah, gasp.”

The moment their grasped hands broke apart, the force flowing toward Chedwin abruptly stopped. What is this?

This sensation—she had definitely felt it before during an academy class. It was exactly the same as when she had purified a single, small contaminated flower.

Of course, it was overwhelmingly more burdensome than back then, but the mechanism of absorbing demonic energy and pouring purification power into it was undeniably identical.

Revelin’s eyes shook. How am I… purifying him?

Gasping for breath, Revelin looked at the lying Chedwin with a bewildered expression. A Level 10 purifier cannot purify a human being.

A purifier’s rank is determined by the limit of demonic energy they can cleanse. A Level 10 purifier has a limit so small that they cannot possibly purify a person. If you absorb demonic energy beyond your limit, the purifier dies instead.

So how on earth? No, more importantly—

Revelin clutched her head with trembling hands. They clearly said he was ‘in a very slightly contaminated state’!

That wasn’t true at all. How on earth was this supposed to be a ‘very slight’ state of contamination? How on earth did he endure it in this condition?!

It was absurd. Of course, since she had never purified a human before, she didn’t know the exact details, but she at least knew this wasn’t anywhere near the level of ‘very slight’!

His complexion looked a bit better than before, but he was still breathing raggedly.

“……More.”

A faint sound mixed with a hot breath reached her ears. Muttering lowly, Chedwin lifted his heavy eyelids. His dazed, unfocused eyes searched around vaguely to find Revelin.

He was definitely still out of his mind. Well, I’m not exactly in great shape either!

Ever since the academy graduation exam, she had actively avoided contaminated zones. Yet this was her first time purifying someone contaminated with demonic energy. Her entire body felt sluggish and hard to move, as if all her energy had been drained away.

“Your Grace, both of us—ha, it seems we’re both in need of help right now.”

Revelin spoke politely to Chedwin, who couldn’t even understand her words. “However, out of the two of us, my condition looks a bit better, so I’ll go call someone.”

Did he understand her words? Lying on the floor, Chedwin laboriously straightened his upper body. Propping himself up against the stone floor, he slumped backward to lean against a stone pillar.

“If you’ll just wait here for a moment, please, be a good—”

Just as she barely managed to stand in an awkward posture, a large hand wrapped around Revelin’s waist. “Gasp!”

Leaning against the stone pillar, Chedwin wrapped his arm around Revelin’s waist and pulled her straight into his embrace. It happened in the blink of an eye.

Standing in a half-balanced posture, Revelin’s knees buckled without a fight, and her off-balance body tilted sideways. Pressing firmly against Chedwin’s shoulder to avoid falling, she felt a warm breath brushing against her side.

“……Ha.”

Chedwin, holding Revelin tightly in his arms, rubbed his face against her like a man who had finally found the water of life. “Gasp!”

As their bodies pressed flush against each other, she felt as though she were being swallowed into an abyss so deep it couldn’t be compared to earlier.

Her consciousness split into multiple directions and reconnected repeatedly as her vision blurred. Because the chill spreading throughout her entire body was so intense, she felt like she was going to pass out right then and there.

A powerful force of purification, swirling violently as if her heart were about to burst, rushed toward Chedwin. Am I… purifying him right now?

There was no doubt about it. Revelin, a Level 10 purifier, was purifying Chedwin, even if it was only a fraction of it. Ah. There was a setting that the purification effect becomes stronger the closer bodies are pressed together……

She had forgotten, but this original story was an adult 19+ dark reverse-harem novel. That was why various R-rated world-building settings were hidden throughout the story!

I can’t breathe.

It was too much to handle. Since she had mainly learned through theory and had zero hands-on practical experience, Revelin was swept away like a boat without a sail before the massive wave of power crashing over her.

“Grand, Your Grace, stop, I’m going to, die, gasp.”

Trembling all over, Revelin pushed at Chedwin. But since he was likewise out of his mind, he only pulled her waist tighter, pressing her against him without an inch of space between them. “Please, just a little more.”

“You selfish, jerk.”

She knew. Right now, Chedwin was out of his mind, and he was probably clinging to her because his instincts told him this contact was his only way to survive. But when she felt like she was going to die, where on earth was ‘just a little more’ supposed to come from?!

Wait a minute.

Revelin, who had been trying to push Chedwin away, suddenly paused. If I purify even a little bit of this man’s contaminated demonic energy, will there be a chance my brother survives?

What if she purified him just a little to delay the moment of his mental collapse? If the original plot changes even slightly, couldn’t her brother live and her father live, too?

Putting strength into her tingling hand resting on Chedwin’s shoulder, her fingernails dug into his clothing. Opening her eyes—which she had squeezed shut—Revelin grabbed Chedwin’s hair and jerked it back roughly.

His face, which had been buried in her chest, was completely exposed. Their eyes met. Seeing those turbid, deeply sunken eyes without a hint of focus gave her goosebumps.

“Ugh, seriously.”

Revelin stopped trying to push him away. “Remember this debt you owe me today, crystal clear. Don’t you dare let Arent Eterion die, you hear me?”

Since the listener was out of his mind, naturally there was no answer. With trembling hands, Revelin closed Chedwin’s eyelids. Fortunately, he was docile.

Just in case he regains his sanity in the middle of it.

She had only intended to reason with him moderately; she had no desire to get entangled with the mastermind in a setup like this. He doesn’t need to know who I am. If a problem arises later, I can just claim I know nothing about it.

She hoped this butterfly effect, which wasn’t in the original story, would keep her brother safely protected.

Revelin slowly released her grip, not stopping the power draining from inside her body. “Ugh.”

Chedwin must have felt something, too, as he put strength back into the arms wrapped around her waist. “Hoo.”

Inhaling deeply, he pulled her back and hugged her tightly against his torso like an impatient man. I’m going to, ugh, die.

Tears welled up from the pain, and she couldn’t even breathe properly. If this was truly a fraction of the pain Chedwin felt, she could understand a little why he went mad.

It felt as though her skin was being ripped to shreds. Revelin’s breathing grew ragged as she gritted her teeth and swallowed down the agony.

She couldn’t even gauge how much time had passed. When she felt she genuinely couldn’t take it anymore because she couldn’t breathe properly, Revelin pushed Chedwin away.

“Hah, gasp, hah.”

Barely managing to break away from his embrace, she sucked in air, gasping to make up for the breath she had been holding. Chedwin’s hands had dropped limply to the floor at some point.

Leaning against the stone pillar, the complexion of the fainted man looked much more comfortable than before. Did the purification go well?

She had barely managed to put out an immediate fire; she hadn’t completely purified him. Still, it was enough since she had gotten past the moment where Chedwin was in immediate, fatal danger.

She couldn’t take any more. As Revelin was about to slump to the floor, she paused.

Wait a minute. Revelin looked down at Chedwin—who had fainted in complete disarray—and then down at herself, whose legs were shaking.

What if someone sees us looking like this right now?

Just the two of them alone on a locked balcony, where Chedwin is disheveled and Revelin is panting. It was a composition begging for misunderstandings.

Especially in an original work where these R-rated tropes ran rampant! No way!

Revelin desperately forced strength into her uncooperative body as she tried to slump down. Pushing off the ground, she finally managed to get her legs to stand.

Vaguely sensing movement, Chedwin’s closed eyelids slowly fluttered open. Dazed blue eyes turned toward Revelin. Don’t look at me. Don’t drag me into the original plot.

Revelin hurriedly turned around. “……Wait, st…op.”

A faint voice came from behind her, but Revelin didn’t stop.

Yet, with every single step she took, something rose up from within her stomach. Is this spit?

Swallowing it down repeatedly, she dragged her shaking legs forward and finally managed to escape the balcony. Fortunately, since the balcony was tucked away in a corner, she hadn’t run into anyone, and no one had seen her coming out.

Ragged breaths slipped between her tightly pressed lips. Perhaps because her vision was blurry, she couldn’t even tell if she was walking or flying.

“Revelin!”

At that moment, Arent’s voice called out. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, where were you… Revelin?!”

Accompanied by heavy footsteps, Arent ran over, only to stop dead in his tracks in shock upon seeing Revelin looking like she was about to collapse at any second.

“What’s wrong with you? What happened? Huh?”

Brother, you jerk. Do you have any idea what kind of things I did just to keep you alive? You better not die, live a long life, and pay me back for this debt for the rest of your days.

“Br… other……”

The moment she opened her mouth to hurl curses, blood dripped steadily from her mouth alongside a metallic, fishy smell. She had thought what she kept swallowing was just saliva, but it must have been blood.

“Ah.”

Revelin looked up at a pale-faced Arent. “What, are you doing, Brother. Right now, catch me……”

“Revelin!”

Finishing her sentence that she never got to complete, Revelin collapsed into Arent’s arms and fainted.