LFDD 06

Chapter : 6

That day, after Hiazelki returned to her room, Kael went back to the library.

But there was nothing there anymore.
No lingering regrets of sinners.
No remaining thoughts.
Nothing at all.

Kael could not even understand why such things existed in the first place.

They committed sins by their own choice, so what right did they have to cry out that they were wronged?

‘Troublesome things until the very end.’

Kael glanced out the window once more at Hiazelki in the garden before leaving the room.

He walked a little faster than usual.

As soon as Kael stepped out, Albert quickly appeared and followed behind him.

“Albert, we need to perform a purification ritual.”

“Pardon?”

At Kael’s words, Albert blinked in surprise.

He regularly carried out purification rituals for the castle, but they were usually done once every twenty years.

‘It should not be time yet.’

Though confused, Albert did not question him.

“Yes, I will prepare it.”

Albert immediately withdrew and hurriedly sent all the servants outside the castle before Kael stepped beyond its gates.

In an instant, the castle was emptied, and all the servants, including Hiazelki, gathered in the garden.

“What’s happening?”

Yuri asked with a puzzled expression, while Lisa stepped in front of Hiazelki and held her small hand.

“They say he is performing a purification ritual.”

“Really?”

‘Purification?’

Hiazelki widened her eyes and quietly stared at Kael’s back as he stood before the castle.

As he muttered something, a glowing red scale appeared in the air.

Startled, Hiazelki tightly grabbed Lisa’s clothes.

Kael’s lowered gaze slowly swept across the outer walls of the castle.

Soon, light poured out from the scale and wrapped around the castle.
All the servants quietly turned their heads away from the light.

But Hiazelki only shut her eyes briefly from the brightness at first before fixing her gaze back onto Kael’s back.

The light surrounding the castle slowly returned into the red scale.

“Lisa, I think it’s okay now.”

“Ah, yes.”

Hiazelki slipped past Lisa and toddled toward Kael, who was still standing in front of the castle.

The red scale was still floating before him.

“Master.”

Kael turned around at the sound of her voice and flinched when he saw the child.

As if bothered by how close she was, he turned his head back toward the red scale.

The glowing scale faded away like scattered dust, and the moment it disappeared, Kael immediately stepped back.

But Hiazelki had already experienced chasing him before, so she quickly took two more steps forward.

Kael flinched again, but this time he did not run away.

“What were you doing?”

“…A purification.”

“Why? What is that?”

There was no deep meaning behind her question.
She was simply curious.

“…It was not specifically for you. This is just something done regularly. So that impure things cannot enter my castle. Understand?”

“Huh? Yes.”

It felt a little like he was making excuses, but Hiazelki did not think much about it.

For some reason…
The more she met Kael, the less scary he became.

The child looked up at him as he awkwardly avoided her gaze, then grabbed his sleeve.

“Master, let’s take a walk together.”

“What? Why would I—”

“The flowers are pretty!”

Kael had been about to refuse immediately, but when Hiazelki smiled brightly at him, his words trailed off.

Looking at her innocent smiling face, he simply could not say no.

‘…Am I really going crazy?’

Kael began to wonder if he had truly lost his mind.

“Let’s go!”

As she started walking while holding his sleeve, Kael reluctantly followed after her.

“…Why would anyone bother looking at such ordinary flowers?”

He grumbled, but he still followed wherever Hiazelki led him.

Yuri and Lisa, who had been waiting in the garden, stared with dropped jaws when Hiazelki returned together with their master.

And they were not the only ones shocked.

“Master…?”

Albert, who spotted Kael from a short distance away, also could not close his mouth.

‘This… this must be reported to Lord Siel.’

After making that decision, the butler hurried over to Lisa and anxiously told her to take over things for him.

While the two of them enjoyed their walk among the flowers, Albert ran into the castle to write a letter to Siel.

By now, Hiazelki had completely adapted to life in the castle.

Everyone was kind, and Kael was no longer frightening.

Rather than scary, the more time she spent with him, the more it felt like something she had desperately longed for was finally being filled.

And yet—

Inside the moonlit room.

Hiazelki, who had been sleeping deeply, suddenly opened her eyes.

Was it a dream, or one day from the past?
She could not tell clearly.

‘Wasn’t this house supposed to be empty?’

The faint sound of wood scraping and rough voices echoed in her ears.

‘That child saw my face.’

Her parents rarely came home.

In the old, worn-down house, the child had no one to rely on and was always hungry.

Still, whenever her mother and father occasionally returned home, she would run to them with a bright smile.

Then they would throw her some bread without even hiding their annoyance before turning away.

The bread that eased her hunger was nice.
But bread was not what the child truly wanted.

Why would they not smile at her?
Why would they not hug her?

All she longed for was her parents’ love.

Then one day, strange men entered the old house.

The house was too shabby for thieves looking to steal something.
There did not seem to be anything valuable inside.

They had entered simply looking for a place to hide.

The child met the men in the darkness and trembled in fear.

Frozen stiff in bed, she could not even bring herself to get up.

The terror of unfamiliar intruders inside the dark house filled her.

Trying not to be discovered, the child carefully climbed down from the bed.

Creak—.

What she had not expected was the noise made by the old house.

It was not loud, but it was enough to draw attention.

After that, she could no longer understand what was happening.

Her entire body burned with pain, and darkness covered her vision.

Tears endlessly poured from her eyes, and no matter how much she begged them to save her, the kicks and punches raining down on her never stopped.

Not until her breathing finally ended.

Hiazelki woke with a sharp gasp and breathed heavily.

‘Someone…’

Her soft little hand searched through the empty air.

“Ahh…”

Please, someone save me.

Even though the pain from back then was gone now, tears still flowed endlessly.

Stop.
Please stop hitting me.

No matter how desperately she begged, the violence had never stopped.

Just as sobs were about to burst from her tightly blocked throat—

“Hiazelki?”

Her tear-blurred vision finally became clear.

In the darkness, red eyes were looking down at her.

Another figure stepped closer and quickly grabbed her small hand reaching through the air.

“My lady, what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

It was Yuri’s voice.

“Yuri…?”

Her voice came out hoarse from holding back her crying.

“Master…?”

For some reason, both Kael and Yuri were inside the dark room.

Yuri was probably there because the maids took turns watching over Hiazelki while she slept.

But she could not understand why Kael was there.

Slowly sitting up, Hiazelki stared blankly at him.

A tear that had gathered in her sleepy eyes rolled down her cheek.

Kael’s gaze darkened when he noticed it.

“Why are you crying?”

“Ah…”

Hiazelki hurriedly rubbed her eyes with her sleeve.

“I… had a dream…”

“So you really did have a nightmare. Shall I bring you some warm milk?”

“That would be best.”

“I’ll prepare it right away.”

Hiazelki did not feel like swallowing anything.

But before she could even shake her head, Yuri had already left the room.

“……”

In the brief silence, Hiazelki quietly stared at Kael.

He too looked at the child with glowing red eyes while tilting a wine glass toward his lips.

It was clearly wine, yet somehow it looked as though he were drinking blood.

“Would you like a glass too?”

“Huh?”

Because Hiazelki kept staring at him silently, Kael assumed she wanted some too and asked.

“I heard humans sleep well after drinking this.”

“…Master, children are not supposed to drink alcohol.”

“Is that so? How troublesome.”

Answering with a displeased face, he drank more wine.

‘Offering alcohol to a child… He really is an unusual dragon.’

She slowly felt herself relaxing while thinking that he truly knew very little about humans.

The idea of him seriously offering wine to a child was so ridiculous that she felt she could sleep again now.

Even after dreaming of such horrible memories, simply listening to his voice made her drowsy.

“…What kind of dream did you have?”

Watching the wine gently sway inside his glass, Kael asked calmly.

Hiazelki hesitated for a moment over how to answer.

In the past, she had once spoken about her previous lives and had been severely scolded by her parents for it, so she could not easily say it aloud.

“…Just… a scary dream.”

Kael’s eyes glimmered as he watched her small moving lips.

“That is not exactly wrong.”

“Huh?”

“Siel told me. He said I must take care of you. Apparently, you were born with a fate different from ordinary humans.”

Kael’s gaze drifted somewhere far away.

Come to think of it, Hiazelki remembered hearing something similar too.
That she would be safe beside the Dragon of Judgement.
That it was her destiny.

Especially when they spoke about the curse.

“Nonsense.”

‘Right, nonsense… huh?’

Hiazelki had been nodding while recalling Siel’s words, but tilted her head at Kael’s next sentence.

“Do you truly believe there are humans whose lives are completely decided by fate? I do not.”

“…Why?”

“If humans only lived according to predetermined fate, then there should be no humans who commit sins either.”

Humans were beings loved dearly by God.

There was no way God would intentionally place sins into the destiny of those humans.

‘In other words, committing sins is the human’s own choice.’

Closing his eyes to hide his deeply sunken gaze, Kael swallowed the rest of his wine.

“So you should throw away that nonsense called fate as well.”

The word Siel had carelessly mentioned before.

‘Curse.’

‘Is that what he means?’

A fate different from ordinary people.

Hiazelki still did not fully understand the curse placed upon her.

Was it endlessly reincarnating?
Was it that each life kept ending meaninglessly?
Or was it never once being loved by her parents?

But somehow, none of that felt important anymore.

Because Kael’s words kept echoing inside her head.

‘Throw away that nonsense called fate.’

Hiazelki blankly stared into the air, slowly rolling those words across her tongue.