“Ah…”
At Yujin’s words, Elicia stared at him blankly. And then…
Drip, drip.
“Huh, wh-what…?”
Tears began to fall from her remaining eye. They streamed down her cheek, gathered at her chin, and fell, drop by drop.
“Ah… I-I’m sorry. I don’t know why this is happening all of a sudden…”
Elicia hurriedly wiped her tears as she spoke, but the tears showed no sign of stopping.
“Ugh… Hic… Sob…”
As if all her hardships were pouring out at once, she finally broke into sobs. Watching her, Yujin came to a stark realization.
She’s been through so much.
Elicia was in a very mentally fragile state. Yujin had been aware of this from the beginning.
From their very first meeting, no, to be exact, from the moment she saw Encheos in his possession, she seemed to break down and started shedding tears uncontrollably. It had been impossible not to notice.
When they made their contract, Yujin had presented it as if it were a demon’s proposal, thinking it might be difficult to earn her trust if he simply offered to help without asking for anything in return. It was true too that he had no obligation to help her freely. But in reality, the contract was nothing more than an informal agreement, devoid of any binding force. Yujin hadn’t even used any sort of binding incantation or oath when they made the contract.
In reality, he had only wanted to help her out of a pure sense of duty as an educator. Still, Yujin found himself wondering if he should have said these words to her earlier.
She’s more unstable than I thought.
There was no way for Yujin to know exactly what kind of hardships Elicia had endured until now. He didn’t know what battles she’d fought within herself or how she had resisted the encroaching darkness of the demonic power, moment by moment.
And so, after their first meeting, when she seemed much more composed than expected during their proper conversations, he had unwittingly let it slip from his mind…. that she was far from being okay.
“I’m sorry.”
With those words, Yujin gently wiped away the tears at the corner of her eye. Elicia flinched slightly at the touch.
“Ah, n-no… Professor, you don’t have anything to apologize for…”
“No, I do. I thought I understood the pain you were going through, but… that was arrogance and a delusion on my part.”
Yes, Yujin had come to this place with the pure intention of helping Elicia. While he couldn’t do anything about the countless people dying somewhere in the world beyond his reach, he believed it was a person’s duty to help those they could see and touch.
Still, looking back, he realized that his actions at the time had been far too calculated for such a pure intention. The structure of their demon-like contract was proof enough of that.
“Regardless of the contract… No, rather, because of the contract, I felt I had a responsibility to properly look after Your Highness. And yet, I failed to even notice that your heart had festered to this extent. Your mental state is one of the most critical factors in all of this, yet… I was far too complacent. I am sorry.”
As he spoke, Yujin retrieved a handkerchief from his subspace and gently wiped away Elicia’s tears. She accepted the gesture and looked at Yujin blankly as his hand moved.
“…Professor, why…”
“Hmm?”
“…Why are you so kind to me?”
At her question, Yujin paused to think. Why was he so kind to her?
“If I said it was simply because I’m a professor helping a student… you wouldn’t believe me, would you? Honestly, I wouldn’t believe it either.”
“……”
“In that case, I’ll ask you a question, Your Highness. If you saw a child standing in the rain, crying, what would you think?”
“That’s…”
“A child with no parents, left all alone, standing there crying until they’re completely withered away.”
“……”
The first thought would likely be how pitiful they were. Alongside that, there would be a desire to help them.
“I think… I’d want to help them.”
“I feel the same way. To me, Your Highness looks just like that child.”
Yujin smiled softly as he said this.
“Of course, it’s fine if you don’t believe me. But there is one thing I hope you’ll believe. Just as you thought about helping that child, there are far more good people in the world than you might think.”
“……”
“If that weren’t true… humanity would have perished long ago.”
No matter what world it was, that truth remained the same.
Having said that, Yujin put away his handkerchief.
Before anyone realized it, Elicia’s tears had already stopped.
“Well then, shall we get started? We can’t spend all day chatting, after all.”
***
Elicia’s treatment began.
Of course, calling it a treatment was slightly misleading, but in the end, it was still about resolving the problems with her body. So it was accurate to call it treatment in a broad sense.
“From now on, I’ll be undoing the seal placed on the demonic power affecting Your Highness. Are you ready?”
“…Yes.”
Elicia nodded her head stiffly with a tense expression on her face.
“I have an afternoon lecture to attend, so I can’t stay for too long. Let’s proceed for now with a three-hour session.”
“Three hours…”
A time that could feel long or short depending on the perspective. To Elicia, it felt like a rather long stretch.
“We’ll start by helping you adjust to the demonic power. There’s a chance the unsealed energy might run wild, but I’ll keep it under control. Now, let’s begin.”
Gulp.
At those words, Elicia swallowed nervously. She braced herself for the release of the seal.
Yujin reached out his hand toward Elicia and slowly channeled his mana.
Wuuuuung…!
A dark-red magical power formed a multi-dimensional magic circle. The seal that was cast with a high-level magic circle that only dragons would normally use had to be undone with magic of equal caliber.
Of course, Yujin could have used dragon language…. but he deemed it too soon to reveal that side of himself to Elicia. Naturally, Elicia had already begun to suspect that Yujin wasn’t an ordinary human, so she would inevitably discover the truth someday.
But that was a matter for the future. For now, Yujin focused on casting his magic.
Wuuuuuung!
The magic activated.
Click, click.
The sound of something metallic interlocking echoed through the air. It was the sound of the magic sealing the demonic power within the princess being released.
And then, at last…
Click!
It was as if a lock had been undone. The sound of the magic seal breaking reverberated through the air.
Whoooooosh!
“Ugh!”
At the same time as Elicia let out a groan, a blinding white demonic power erupted from her.
Whoooooosh!
Before long, wherever the white energy touched, pure white flowers began to bloom.
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!
In an instant, the white flowers spread outward from Elicia’s position, transforming the entire room into a field of blossoms. It was an infinitely beautiful sight, but…
“Ah, ahhh…”
To Elicia’s eyes, it was entirely different.
All she could see was a field of corpse flowers, filled with dead blossoms. The blooming flowers gave rise to wriggling maggots, and blood began to seep across the room.
The entire horrifying scene played vividly before Elicia’s eyes. It was like she was trapped in a nightmare.
And at the center of it all…
“….…!”
There stood another version of herself.
This other version of Elicia had a flower blooming from one of her eyes and was staring directly at her.
It was then that Elicia understood.
That figure was her demonic self. It was a manifestation of her weakness and malice. A self born from the darker parts of her soul.
Elicia’s trembling eyes fixed on “her”.
And then, after staring at Elicia for a long moment, “she” finally spoke.
Give. It. To. Me.
With those words, “she” lunged at Elicia.
Elicia instinctively took a step back, but the figure before her now was something closer to an illusion. A phantom.
Even as Elicia recoiled, “she” closed the distance in an instant and grabbed Elicia by the neck with both hands.
“Guhh…!”
[Give it to me.]
The demonic self kept repeating the words “Give it to me” over and over again. It glared at her with bloodshot eyes and a twisted, ghastly expression.
[Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me!]
The voice was filled with madness and malice. And yet… for some reason, Elicia thought she looked desperate and even urgent.
It was then.
[Die!]
“Urk…!”
She shouted before tightening her grip on Elicia’s neck. Elicia had no time to think anymore.
“Guh… ngh…!”
Shling…!
Before she even realized it, a sword appeared in one of her hands.
It was a single-edged blade. A pure white blade as if it were made of pure flowers.
The blade was formed of demonic power, curses, and the authority of a demon.
Elicia didn’t know how she had created it.
All she could do was swing it at the other version of herself standing in front of her.
Sssshhhhhhick!
The sharp sound of the blade cutting through the air rang out.
And then—
Grin—
The demon self let out a chilling laugh.
It was only then that Elicia realized something was off.
Pooof!
The illusion of her other self, the one gripping her neck, disappeared… and in front of her eyes…
“…Professor?”
Somehow, Yujin was standing there instead.
“…Ah.”
But it was already too late.
The blade was mere inches away from Yujin’s neck.
It had all happened in a fraction of a second, too fast for her to process or stop herself in time.
At this rate, Yujin’s neck—
Thump!
“….…?”
…was not severed?
No, more than that—
…Did he catch it?
At the very moment she realized it—
Wooooooom!
With a deafening roar, a fierce wind swept through, scattering pure white petals into the air.
Yujin had caught the blade that was infused with demonic power using just his index finger, middle finger, and thumb.
“A mere parasite dares to resort to cheap tricks.”
He muttered in a low voice with his usual closed eyes.
Woooooom!
An overwhelming surge of mana erupted from him. It was far beyond comparison to the white demonic power radiating from Elicia’s body.
The petals that had been scattered around disintegrated, and the once-rampant demonic power began to falter in alarm before retreating. No, more than that, it began to dissolve along with the petals.
“…..…!”
A powerful, noble, and majestic mana. And an aura of ferocity that stood in stark contrast to it.
Faced with such overwhelming power, the demonic power helplessly recoiled and melted away.
Screeeeeech!
A scream echoed from within, as though something deep inside was crying out in anguish.
Still, with his eyes only half-open, Yujin gazed directly at Elicia, or rather, into her very core and spoke.
“If you’re a parasite, then act like one and let yourself be eradicated. Wouldn’t it be better to go quietly, rather than scheming and hastening your own destruction?”
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