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Chapter 6
Now that she was inside, Rosalyn still couldn’t easily speak.
It felt strange.
The boy who had once been smaller than her had grown into an adult who now looked down at her.
His brilliance was still there, but unlike the fragile glass-like child from the past—something that might shatter if touched—he now looked like a diamond, solid and unbreakable.
Rosalyn momentarily forgot her purpose for coming and simply stared at Deus.
Their meeting blue eyes felt as if they were piercing straight through the mask covering her face.
She swallowed dryly. A foreign tension crept in.
“When did you get there?”
After a long silence, Deus finally spoke.
It was as if he had known she would come.
People who receive unexpected visitors usually react in one of three ways:
They fall over in shock, scream, or do both.
Those who remain this calm are usually those who expected the visitor.
‘Kid’s grown up well. The boy who used to only cry… now he even knows how to hide scandals.’
A complicated feeling rose inside her.
Should she be happy that the first life she ever saved had grown up safely? Or disappointed that he had grown into someone who needed to hide romantic scandals from public view—even to the point of using someone like her, a mere “delivery girl”?
Lost in confusion, Rosalyn moved her lips silently.
“Were you there for long?”
Deus repeated the question again.
Rosalyn rummaged through her thoughts awkwardly.
Hanging on the wall a moment ago had been much better. At least then she could talk freely.
“Ah—no. I just arrived.”
Her answer was barely coherent.
She felt like screaming at how pathetic she sounded.
“Why were you in a place like that…?”
“I-I came to deliver a letter, Your Grace!”
Afraid she would get dragged into something worse if she hesitated, Rosalyn quickly blurted out her prepared excuse.
Deus’s cold expression twisted slightly.
“So why would you deliver a letter…!”
He swallowed the rest of his words.
Even if grass was below, falling from that height could still cause serious injury.
Why would she enter through a window when the door was right there, after he had even emptied the entire estate?
It felt like something she would do—but at the same time, it didn’t make sense.
Rosalyn didn’t miss the faint tremor in his voice.
‘Wait… is he scared?’
For a moment, the face of the trembling boy from years ago overlapped with the man standing before her now.
That misremembered image softened her misunderstanding.
She forced her voice to become gentle.
“There’s someone waiting for Your Grace’s reply. I came on their behalf to deliver the letter. Ah, I’m taking it out now—don’t misunderstand. It’s not a knife.”
Adding a careful explanation, she slowly pulled out the envelope from her clothes.
“I would like you to write a reply to this letter, Your Grace.”
Deus stared at the letter in her hand.
It bore no markings.
And it was sealed without any content inside.
He didn’t even need to open it to know.
Because he himself had sealed that letter.
“…Your Grace?”
Rosalyn carefully called out to him, gently shaking the letter.
Deus’s gaze snapped to her.
His dark, complex eyes made it impossible to read what he was thinking.
After a short hesitation, Rosalyn suddenly grabbed his hand.
“It’s not poisoned or anything. I’m not a rookie dumb enough to do something like that.”
She placed the letter into his pale palm.
Deus froze completely.
His heart pounded so loudly it felt like it was ringing inside his ears.
He wondered if she could hear it too.
He quickly stepped back.
‘Seriously… why is he acting like a scared rabbit over something like this?’
To Rosalyn, it just looked like he was recoiling in disgust.
She sighed internally at her wasted effort at gentleness.
Still, a true professional shines even more under pressure.
She took a deep breath and gathered the last of her patience.
“Now then, shall we open it quickly?”
She gently guided Deus toward the desk.
Deus looked down at his restrained wrist.
The warmth he felt through the glove was still there.
Just like six years ago—when a bloodied hand had grabbed him.
* * *
It had happened in an instant.
Inside a carriage rolling down a cliff, young Deus clung tightly to his mother’s waist.
He was too young to understand death.
But old enough to feel fear of the unknown.
Unable to even scream, he trembled violently and shut his eyes tightly.
A heavy impact.
The world flipped violently—and then stopped.
His parents’ voices scattered like a swarm of bees.
Deus could do nothing. He exhaled shallow, broken breaths that felt like they could cut off at any moment.
As he struggled just to breathe, a creaking sound came from above and the carriage tilted.
He instinctively knew it was his father moving, but he couldn’t lift his head.
Soon, screams erupted everywhere.
The sound of clashing weapons and the nauseating smell of blood filled everything.
“Deus, my child, ah…!”
His mother’s warmth wrapped around his head.
Hot tears fell onto his forehead.
Deus trembled silently, unable to call out to her.
After a while, the screams began to fade.
The end was approaching.
He forced his eyes open.
His mother forced a smile and gently touched his cheek with trembling hands.
But before she could say her last words—
Rough hands seized her.
Deus was thrown into a sea of blood.
His vision spun.
He couldn’t tell whether the screams were his or someone else’s.
It was pure hell.
“Hey, stop right there!”
“Who are you?!”
“Is that… Deus?”
“What? You here for the same job?”
“Forget that. Is that him or not?”
“It’s already over. Get lost!”
A blade rose above his head, dripping blood.
Tears spread across his pale cheeks, turning faintly pink.
“Do you not understand human language?”
A sharp clash of steel cast a long shadow over him.
“If I ask you a question, answer it!”
A girl with hair as red as blood stepped forward, pushing back her opponent.
“One person intervened—and the situation reversed instantly.”
“Tell me. Is that little kid Deus?”
“If you don’t want to die, answer me!”
“Shut up and die already, you bastard!”
With every movement of her hand, the world turned red.
Soon, silence fell everywhere.
“Hey. Are you Deus?”
The blood-soaked girl crouched down and asked.
Deus could not answer, only silent tears falling.
“Damn it…”
She raked her bloodied hair back in frustration.
“How old are you? Ten? Twelve?”
Terrified, he barely managed to speak.
“P-please… s-save me…”
His voice shook violently.
Her face twisted.
Hesitation filled her green eyes.
Then she glanced up the cliff.
Her softened expression sharpened again.
“Ah, screw it. Get up, kid!”
She grabbed him with a bloodied hand and pulled him up.
Deus’s stiff legs moved as she dragged him down the slope.
Her hand was warm—hot.
A warmth he thought he would never feel again.
With trembling hands, he grabbed hers tightly.
She glanced back with annoyance.
“Don’t grab like that.”
Then she interlocked her fingers with his.
“There’s trouble! Split up and search!”
Shouts echoed behind them. She sped up.
Deus held her hand tighter.
In that moment, this warmth was his only salvation.
* * *
“Your Grace? At this rate it’ll be morning. Should I open it and read it for you?”
A tilted voice made Deus flinch.
He clenched the letter tightly and looked at the intruder.
To him, this moment felt as vivid as yesterday.
But she looked completely unfazed.
Could it be… he was the only one who remembered?
A rising anxiety tightened his chest again.
He needed confirmation.
Deus shifted his gaze to an old book on the desk.
“This book… do you know it?”
Its worn cover was so faded the title could barely be read.
“What…? A book, suddenly?”
Rosalyn frowned at the sudden question.
She wanted to tell him to stop stalling and just write the reply.
But his expression was so serious that it looked like he would do nothing until he got an answer.
She sighed and leaned closer.
“Lemon… tree? Meet…?”
As she slowly read the scattered words, her expression froze.
A memory flashed through her mind.
“Is it that fun?”
“It’s amazing! The best! …Thank you, Rose.”
Her breath caught.
‘Oh no. Is that… that book?’
A chill ran down her spine.
Rosalyn slowly turned her head toward Deus.
He wasn’t asking about the book.
He was asking whether she knew him.
Whether she was “Rose.”
That was his real question.
Rosalyn’s eyes shook violently.
The tension in the air became suffocating.
