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Chapter 29
He opened his mouth.
“Before my brother Harnen left, he gave me a nullification magic tool. It can nullify the regression curse placed on me for about a day.”
“A nullification magic tool?”
I tilted my head.
The glass bottle I’d seen broken beside the two masked men who attacked As yesterday must have been that magic tool.
“Yes. Of course, since curses can only be tampered with by their original caster, there may be some side effects.”
“Side effects? Like what?”
I blinked wide-eyed at this unexpected obstacle.
Seeing me stiffen in shock, Aches let out a low laugh.
“They differ from time to time. The most common one is fever.”
“F–fever? Then you’ll be really sick?”
“This time it won’t be too serious, so don’t worry. My brother made it with the finest materials.”
“Well, that’s a relief, but still…”
That didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt at all.
I swallowed down the rest of my words with a sulky face.
Aches glanced lazily out the window, then continued.
“So we should make sure that effort doesn’t go to waste, shouldn’t we?”
“Well, that’s… true, I guess…”
I didn’t fully grasp what he meant, but the words weren’t wrong, so I nodded.
Seeing me agree, Aches looked satisfied and spoke again.
“Eat up. The stew will get cold.”
“Mm.”
I nodded and dipped the ciabatta into the stew, bringing it to my mouth.
After eating in silence for a while, I finally gathered the courage to ask the question that had long weighed on me.
“H–hey.”
“Mm?”
“All this time… why did you avoid me?”
Since yesterday—no, since five years ago—I had been holding onto this question, and at last, I let it out.
Aches was quiet for a moment before answering slowly.
“…Because I was afraid you might hate me.”
“What?”
What was that supposed to mean? Why on earth would I hate you?!
I stared at him in shock, my mouth wide open.
Sensing from my reaction that there was no chance of that, he chuckled softly.
“I know now. That will never happen.”
“Of course not! Never, I swear on everything I have!”
I declared firmly.
For a moment, his gaze deepened.
Fixing his eyes on me, he slowly curved his lips upward.
“Yes. …Never, with everything Enra has.”
Breakfast ended in relative peace.
After carrying the empty dishes to the sink, I rolled up my sleeves to wash them when Aches came over and asked,
“Enra, when’s the last time you cleaned the garden?”
I thought back carefully.
“Hmm, I did a big spring cleaning once… and not since then. Why? Does it look bad? Dirty?”
I asked cautiously, hesitating, but he shook his head.
“No, not like that. Just that some trash seems to have blown in from somewhere, so I thought I’d tidy up a bit.”
“Trash? I didn’t notice… Anyway, I’ll do it. You already cooked, I can’t make you clean too.”
“I’d feel guilty just eating for free. Let me do it, okay?”
Meeting my gaze at eye level, Aches blinked playfully, his long black lashes lowering and lifting over those jewel-like crimson eyes.
Caught in their shimmer, I dazedly nodded before I knew it.
“O–okay…”
“Thank you, Enra.”
With the sweetest smile, he greeted me and stepped outside.
I stood rooted to the spot, then flushed red and collapsed to the floor.
“W–who told you…!”
Who told him to smile that beautifully?!
I pounded the innocent wall with my fists, silently screaming until the ache in my knuckles registered.
Outside in the garden, Aches calmly scanned the surroundings, circulating his aura.
As expected, controlling aura in an adult body was far easier than in a child’s.
He wrapped the house in aura to block outside sounds from leaking in, then began tracking and eliminating the assassins lurking nearby one by one.
There were ten in total, about half A-rank and half S-rank.
That level of force would have been overwhelming in a child’s body.
“D–die!”
He was halfway through cutting them down with the sword he had taken from the first assassin he killed, when one of the remaining men pulled a pendant from his robes and threw it at him.
Aches reflexively deflected it with his blade, but even so, the pendant pulsed with a violet light.
It was the same glow he’d seen when he had been cursed with regression.
“So, a magic tool made by that Dante. A suppression spell, then.”
It seemed designed to inhibit his aura. Unlike yesterday’s top-grade nullification tools, this one was hastily made and of lower quality, so it had little effect.
But remembering yesterday, his lips twisted savagely.
—That bastard who tried to kill Enra should have been torn apart, tortured to death.
“Gahhh!”
Losing control of his strength, he snapped an assassin’s neck at an unnatural angle.
He spared the corpse only a brief glance before moving on to the next attackers.
If he remained here, Duke Baharman would keep sending assassins without end.
With that thought, Aches slit the final assassin’s throat.
Though he tried not to make a mess, there was no way to dispose of so many cleanly.
Dropping the body, his gaze flicked to the blood pooling beside it.
“Cleaning is cleaning, after all.”
He murmured lazily, then began tidying away the corpses and bloodstains that had dirtied the garden—making sure Enra would never notice.
Clink—the sound of a door opening reached my ears.
I was preparing some refreshments for Aches as thanks for cleaning the garden, and startled, I turned around.
Aches walked in, met my gaze, and smiled brightly.
“Enra.”
He strode toward me.
I froze, staring, then hastily looked away.
“Uh, want some tea?”
I fumbled with the teacups.
Behind me, he chuckled softly and nodded.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
“O–okay, just a moment.”
By habit, I reached for the dew tea on the shelf, then paused.
“Would you… like dew tea?”
Glancing back at him, I saw his eyes soften in delight.
“I’d love that.”
“Alright, just wait a little!”
Excited, I fetched the jar of hydrangea leaves.
After sending Aches back to the living room despite his offer to help, I carried out two cups of dew tea and a plate of cookies.
“Here you go.”
Even though I had given little As this tea a few times before, serving it to the grown Aches felt entirely different.
My heart thumped nervously as I watched him bring the cup to his lips. Only when his expression softened after a sip did I relax.
Nibbling on a cookie, I peeked at him and spoke.
“Um, Aches.”
“Yes, Enra.”
“How… have you been?”
I asked as carefully as I could.
He froze for a beat, then lowered his cup and fixed his gaze on me.
With a slight smile in his eyes, he asked,
“How do you think I’ve been, Enra?”
“…You spent the last five years in the war against the Semel tribe, didn’t you? It must have been really hard.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
To a man who had fought on the front lines for five long years, risking his life and cutting down enemies, how could I ask something so foolish as “How have you been”?
Of course it had been hard!
‘Stupid Enra…’
I lowered my head in shame.
Watching me quietly, Aches set down his cup and came closer.
“Enra.”
Kneeling at my feet, he gently rested his cheek against my thigh and looked up at me.
“I’ve suffered so much these past years.”
“Aches…”
“For five years straight, not a single day passed without me thinking of you.”
His crimson eyes lowered, heavy with sorrow.
“I kept wondering how I could make sure Enra wouldn’t hate me. If I acted kind, would you not hate me? If I won battles in the war, would you not hate me?”
“R–really…?”
I echoed without thinking, only to chastise myself inside.
He had suffered so much, while I had simply sat here feeling flustered and thrilled—what a selfish, awful person I was!
