“Demian!”
With eyes brimming with tears, Elise wrapped her arms tightly around him in a tight hug.
At her sudden action, Demian was slightly flustered, but he gently patted the back of the Elise hugging him, as if holding a precious treasure.
“I didn’t expect this.”
The corners of his lips curved upward.
Elise stepped back from Demian’s chest and stared intently at him.
Did the sharp canine tooth peeking through his lips look lovely today simply because Demian was the only person who had never forced her to sacrifice herself?
“Demian, in my next life… I will… make sure to love you.”
She intended to fulfill the promise she had made to him in their final moment, without fail.
“I knew it, you loved me all along too. Elise.”
“…Maybe so.”
Elise told a lie composedly without batting an eye.
“I knew it!”
Yet Demian let out a wide laugh, as if he genuinely believed her words.
A faint blush even brushed across his cheeks, which were usually deathly pale.
Seeing his overjoyed expression like that of an innocent child, she let out a quiet laugh despite herself.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“Because I’m always watching over you.”
Cancel that statement about him looking like an innocent child.
Elise spoke in a joking tone, looking at Demian with incredulous eyes.
“…Are you a stalker?”
“A stalker? I have no choice since I have to protect you at all times. Who knows what those filthy bastards might do to you?”
At his words, her eyes flickered slightly.
Could it be that Demian had long noticed something suspicious about them?
Elise glanced around, then took his hand and pulled him into a secluded corner of the garden.
“I expected this even less.”
It was already a quiet place with few people around, but as she kept seeking darker and dimmer corners, he found it immensely entertaining and followed her willingly, his shoulders trembling with soft laughter.
Finally reaching the shadiest spot in the corner of the garden—a place where truly no one would come—she leaned in close to Demian.
Then she began to whisper in a tiny voice.
“It’s a bit dangerous here.”
“Who’s in danger? Me? Or you?”
He smirked, thoroughly amused by Elise’s sudden change in demeanor.
“I’m not joking. Demian, what do you mean by saying you don’t know what those bastards might do to me?”
“Those kinds of people are so predictable, Elise.”
Demian shrugged lightly.
“Because their pretense of perfect goodness is sickening.”
“…Is that the only reason?”
“Yeah. Do I need any other reason?”
At his tilted head, she let out a quiet sigh.
She had thought Demian might know something concrete, but it seemed he knew nothing after all.
“I like that you’re not running away from me even after seeing me, Elise.”
At his words, Elise’s brow twitched faintly.
In truth, she had always run away whenever she saw Demian in the past.
The three men sticking tightly together to tell her terrible stories about him had played a huge role in that.
“They say Demian kidnapped children living near the border of the Ariaton Empire.” “He’s an utterly cruel bastard. I heard he killed northern nobles this time as well.” “To kill civilians—he’s no different from a demon. You must avoid him at all costs.”
Thinking about it now, however, it had all been mere rumors, and Demian had never treated her badly even once.
It was simply that she had gotten scared and kept her distance after hearing him called a villain and a lunatic so many times her ears nearly bled.
Now that she knew the future that awaited her, she had no desire to push Demian away anymore.
“Yeah. I’m not going to do that anymore. Do you dislike that?”
“How could I? It feels like we’ve gotten much, much closer than before, so I love it. Actually, aren’t we already close?”
His face suddenly leaned in close toward Elise.
“…Ah.”
Only then did she realize that their bodies were pressed extraordinarily close together.
“This is why I love you.”
Demian stared at Elise, whose face had turned bright red, his vivid green eyes flashing as bright as summer leaves.
“Because you’re unpredictable.”
“I couldn’t predict you confessing your love in a situation like this either, you know?”
“Could anyone compare to you, Elise?”
He covered his mouth and let out a quiet giggle.
So he was someone who could laugh so casually.
Aside from being just as handsome as Leonhardt, Ian, or Eshit, he was no different from an ordinary man.
Once she removed the rose-tinted glasses that labeled him a villain, Demian’s true self began to show.
Suddenly, she grew curious about when his feelings for her had begun.
Feeling embarrassed for no reason, Elise cleared her throat, unable to even meet Demian’s eyes.
“…Ahem, just when did you fall in love with me?”
“I fell in love at first sight.”
“At first… sight?”
Astounded by those words, she recalled her very first meeting with him.
Her first meeting with Demian had been the absolute worst.
Because he had approached her so suddenly from behind, she had been so startled that she threw a punch right into his face.
“I distinctly remember throwing a punch at you back then, though…”
“Ah.”
One of Demian’s eyebrows arched leisurely upward.
“You were pretty back then too.”
Back then too?
Elise tilted her head to the side.
“Our first meeting wasn’t then, though.”
“It… wasn’t?”
With a puzzled expression, she stared intently at Demian.
At that, he lifted one corner of his mouth as if finding it beyond intriguing.
“Seeing that face of yours dying of curiosity makes me not want to tell you.”
“…Then I guess I won’t be curious.”
Elise snapped her head to the side, pretending to pout.
Demian, however, stared at her fixedly with an expression that conveyed how utterly endearing he found her.
In an instant, her cheeks flushed bright hot.
“Ahem, let’s stop talking about this…”
“Would you believe me if I said I fall in love at first sight every single moment I see you?”
“…Pardon?”
He offered an immediate answer without a shred of hesitation.
“The first meeting you remember—the time you threw a punch at my face was the same.”
This must be why people called Demian a lunatic. No, was he a pervert instead of a lunatic?
At Demian’s completely unexpected answer, her eyes blinked rapidly.
“The very first time in my life someone’s hand touched my face, and the face of that perpetrator happened to be more beautiful than any artwork I’ve ever seen.”
His answer, however, was not over yet.
“And to top it off, the power that perpetrator held was one-of-a-kind on the continent.”
Demian even spread his arms wide and continued talking excitedly, as if showing off his prized treasure.
“Because you’re simply perfect.”
“I’m… perfect?”
“Aesthetically, functionally, religiously, and even symbolically.”
Wrinkling his nose slightly, he offered a bright smile.
“Who could refrain from falling in love with a woman like you?”
Elise stared blankly at Demian.
She had been betrayed by three men simultaneously.
There were various reasons behind that betrayal.
Eshit because her ability was too powerful, Ian because her face was prettier than his, Leonhardt…
Honestly, she didn’t know.
Having heard Demian’s answer, however, she came to realize one thing.
That there was a person who loved her for every single reason they had betrayed her for.
And that she lacked the confidence not to fall in love with Demian, who was so madly in love with her.
“Demian, I have something to tell you.”
“Go ahead.”
“You see…”
It was right at the moment she was about to continue with a determined expression.
“Lady Elise!”
A familiar voice echoed from behind her.
“How can you be in a place like this with Demian…!”
Roughly grabbing Elise by the wrist, Leonhardt pulled her behind his back to shield her.
“Get lost this instant!”
“The Guard Captain of the Ariaton Empire has no manners, it seems.”
Despite having Elise yanked away from him helplessly, Demian did not mirror his hostile behavior.
“Addressing the Crown Prince of a neighboring kingdom like that.”
“I feel sorry for the citizens of the Devlun Empire who have a person like you as their Crown Prince…”
“Stop it. He is my guest.”
“Lady Elise’s guest…?”
Leonhardt stared intently at her with an expression of complete disbelief.
“What on earth is going on? To call a villain like this your guest! I haven’t received any report that you visited here either.”
“Do I have to report every single detail to you?”
Elise brushed off the wrist he was holding and snapped back sharply.
“Not you, but the guards holding the entrance certainly have a duty to report—”
“This worked out for the best.”
She cold-heartedly cut Leonhardt off.
“I had something to tell you as well, Sir Leonhardt.”
At the address of ‘Sir Leonhardt’ instead of the nickname ‘Leon’ she always used, the muscles in his face trembled faintly.
“…Lady Elise. I don’t know what happened, but you seem upset with me…”
Leonhardt’s pupils rolled slowly as he gauged Elise’s reaction.
Thinking it best to change the subject to appease her mood, he glared fixedly at Demian and opened his mouth.
“Ah, I actually had something to tell you as well. During this Spring Festival…”
“Let’s break up.”
However, the one who spoke first was Elise.
Whew—
Across the garden that had plunged into instant silence, only the sound of Demian whistling softly behind them echoed in the quiet air.
