DBOFS 88

Chapter 88

However, his pale face was twisted with tension, sweat running down his forehead and temples. His closed eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

“……Harris Godwin is… in danger.”

It was a voice from a dream.

The voice coming from the far reaches of his consciousness was fragmented, barely audible.

“Fake sedative… second awakening…”

Some words, however, seemed to resonate more clearly.

“……Guide… must escape.”

Escape…

That final word etched itself into his mind like a slave’s brand. And then—

“……!”

Suddenly, consciousness returned.

Harris’s body was convulsing. His mind, barely awake, was no less unstable.

“Escape…?”

Who? Harris’s mind filled with a single thought, and the answer came instantly.

“Jade.”

Instinctively, Harris realized: the one the dream warned him about was Jade!

She might try to run from him.

It was an intuition, a warning without any concrete evidence.

But the last time he ignored such a warning, what had happened to him?

“Ugh…….”

The pain from the restraints pricked at his now-fading wrist scars.

Cough, hack! Khehk!

Harris vomited again, dark red blood spilling out. A surge of emotion—whether fear or rage—boiled up inside him.

“L-Lord Duke has awakened!”

“The Lord Duke?!”

The room became chaotic as people rushed in.

Godwin’s servants, along with Radian’s young Viscount, Yanis, who had been waiting for Harris to wake, had arrived.

After being unconscious for a week, Harris had finally regained consciousness!

Those who had been managing the chaotic state of Godwin were deeply relieved to see him awake.

Once they realized that Harris had even held his own against the formidable forces of the Tower and the Imperial Court, their respect—and even pride—toward him had grown immensely.

“Truly, the late Duke was right!”

What if His Excellency hadn’t recognized Harris as his heir?

The thought of the consequences was unbearable.

No matter what happened, the old Godwin faction would have been crushed, and everything of Godwin would have fallen to the hands of Norman, the so-called prodigal. That was practically a given.

Even though Harris’s powers were bizarre and terrifying… it was not as frightening as the thought that the old Godwin faction—his own people—might lose everything.

The old Godwin faction, now rapidly shifting allegiance, was eager to pledge loyalty to Harris.

Viscount Radian Yanis, who had always supported Harris, found the situation distasteful but ultimately good for their master.

“Nothing like what happened at the banquet will happen again.”

Relieved by the sound of the Duke awake in his bedroom, they hurried inside.

“Lord Duke, it’s truly a relief to see you awake—?!”

They froze.

Harris’s bloodied mouth and his bright red eyes, staring back at them, were terrifying.

Blood-stained fingertips and wrists torn from the restraints added to the horrific sight.

“……!”

The assembly froze in fear. Why did someone who had merely fainted look so vicious?

His terrifying gaze swept over them one by one, chilling them to their very souls.

Yet the demon-like Harris paid no attention to their reactions.

Amid them, Jade was nowhere to be seen.

The guide who had always been by his side, healing him, was gone!

“……Jade.”

His low voice was unnervingly calm.

Wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, Harris appeared outwardly composed.

“Jade, where are you?”

But his blood-red eyes revealed his true state.

Jade was gone. Why wasn’t she there? Why had she disappeared? Why… had she run from him?

‘She betrayed me… even though I said I would kill her if she did.’

He had warned her, threatened her, yet she had ignored it all and fled.

‘Why?’

Because he was terrifying? Because his powers were too strange?

‘But I held her before… It was fine then. She even got angry for me…!’

Betrayal and rage burned his heart red. The pain was sharper than any physical agony, leaving him breathless.

Yet his wide-open eyes glimmered with madness.

Yes… maybe it was for the best.

Ever since he had begun handling Jade delicately, fearing he might break her if he gripped her too tightly, a deep anxiety had lived in his heart.

The fear that he couldn’t trust her, that such luck could never belong to him, that one day Jade might betray and abandon him…

The threat to kill her was merely an expression of that fear. Like a child demanding love while throwing a tantrum.

It had been foolish.

If you truly do not want to lose someone, you must hold them tightly.

Unfortunately, this was a lesson Harris had learned from his father. To never let someone slip from your grasp, you must seize them firmly.

Having lived his life constrained and suppressed, it was a choice he had unconsciously avoided.

‘Yes… a choice.’

Harris lifted the bloodied corners of his mouth. You said something that cannot be chosen is not a choice.

Viewed this way, Jade not leaving him was not a choice—yet forcing her not to leave could very well be his choice.

Imprisonment.

He would trap Jade.

In a place where only the two of them existed, they would become both jailers and prisoners to each other…!

Ah, Harris’s smile deepened, as though savoring a sweet fruit. His mouth watered and his tongue longed.

Yes, Jade.

Since you abandoned me, betrayed me, and ran away, we shall become each other’s prison.

Together, we will descend into the abyss and create our own paradise.

As Harris sank deeper into this mad fantasy,

“……Lo-Lord Duke?”

Viscount Radian Yanis spoke in a slightly dazed voice.

“Apologies, but it seems Jade is right beside you.”

“What?”

Suddenly, the menacing aura in the room halted.

Harris, regaining his senses, followed Yanis’s trembling hand.

The grand bedroom of the Godwin dukes, with its enormous bed and a silk canopy embroidered with gold and silver, came into view.

And then,

“Uh… uh…”

On the floor by the bed, curled up like a small squirrel, was Jade, wrapping herself in the canopy as if it were a blanket.

“C-cold…”

Her small frame trembled as she mumbled sleep-talk with eyes tightly shut.

“…….”

So pitiful she seemed that even a millennium of betrayal could be calmed by it. Why on earth was she there?

Harris was speechless. The mad rage that had reached even his fingertips immediately ebbed, and his grim expression crumbled.

In its place came sheer disbelief and embarrassment.

“Ah, it seems the young lady dozed off briefly while guiding… caring for the Lord Duke,” Yanis explained.

Harris had been unconscious for nearly a week, and Jade had been the one caring for him the entire time.

Insisting on his absolute safety, she had kept everyone else away and tended to him personally.

‘How admirable!’

The old Godwin faction, loyal to the late Duke, still despised Norman Godwin as a prodigal.

Loyalty and devotion were their core values, what they were obliged to uphold.

Thus, seeing a small, pure-hearted girl like Jade devote herself so completely to their new master, Harris, was deeply moving.

“……She worked tirelessly. Lord Duke, you truly have an excellent guide.”

Even defending her actions on his behalf.

“…….”

Harris quietly observed Jade. Only then did he fully realize his body had completely recovered.

‘Jade guided me.’

Of course—otherwise, he could not have been this well.

Yet, in his earlier misconception that she had fled, he had almost lost control.

Failing to find Jade quietly sleeping nearby…

“……Why are you there?”

Harris let out a short sigh and, using a clean blanket, gently wrapped Jade and pulled her into his arms.

“Mm…”

Her trembling subsided.

And Harris’s own spiraling madness calmed as well.

The faint scent, the soft wave of her pink curls…

Holding her tightly, his insanity ebbed, and his mind returned to normal.

Jade, exhausted from caring and guiding him, had fallen asleep without even lying properly.

She would never have run from him or betrayed him. The warmth in his arms confirmed it.

‘Then, that voice in my dream…’

“……No.”

Jade whimpered from within his embrace.

“Don’t. Harris, stop…!”

Her voice, desperate and frightened, tried to restrain him.

“What do you mean ‘don’t’?”

Harris’s obsession reignited, his red eyes burning with dark madness, his deep voice trembling.

“What am I not allowed to do?”

Why was she speaking to him that way? What terrible thing was he in her dreams this time?!

The faster he calmed, the faster his emotions surged.

‘Why… why all of a sudden…’

‘No, why is she looking at me like that! Do I even understand these gifted people?’

‘Still not fully sane! W-we must escape!’

As Harris ground his teeth, Yanis and the others instinctively stepped back.

“……Call her.”

“What? Call who now?”

Harris’s eyes flamed as he shouted, forgetting that Jade had been in a dream-like unconscious state.

“Who else would you call besides me?!”

“I-I’m full… I can’t eat anymore… St-stop—!”

Jade, sobbing, struggled to cover her mouth, then reluctantly swallowed, resigned.

“…….”

Harris closed his eyes briefly, realizing what dream Jade had had about him.

In another sense, it made his teeth grind. What had she done in her dreams…