CH 90

Chapter 90 (Illustration)

Before closing the case, they immediately needed a place to stay that night. In fact, the night was so deep, they could have stayed in the Imperial Palace for a day or so.

‘I’ve been through something like that, how can I sleep with my feet stretched out in the Imperial Palace?’

She will definitely have nightmares. And she didn’t want to give the Emperor an excuse to make another nonsense again.

Aria was tired and didn’t want to stay in the Imperial Palace any longer.

“There are a few mansions in the capital.”

Then, Lloyd said. Insignificantly.

‘Not one mansion in the capital, not two, but a few…….’

She didn’t know about it because she had never been outside the territory.

Aria nodded her head as she realized Valentine’s wealth again.

“Let’s go to the nearest one, then.”

Lloyd and Aria left the Imperial Palace that day. Even the moonlight was dark in the middle of the night. The two rode in a horse-drawn carriage.

Lloyd was silent the whole time.

‘Since when.’

It was definitely good. The relationship between Lloyd and Aria was an amicable one.

Careful, kind, and wish each other happiness. It was very friendly.

Until the Emperor worked his tricks and the dead gutter rat appeared.

‘No, there was no change in attitude when the gutter rat appeared…….’

Rather, he was surprisingly calm. He pushed the rat to the limit as if he was very calm and used to it.

‘Oh, I remembered.’

The moment he mentioned that the gutter rat would steal ‘the devil’s malice’ from Lloyd.

It was from then.

From then on, Lloyd’s mood suddenly subsided. It was as if they had returned to the first time they met. Back in the day when Lloyd set up a sharp blade, pushing away everyone approaching.

Aria remembered the words that she had been wanting to say in her heart for a long time.

“Lloyd, maybe that bast… No, the gutter rat hurt you?”

“Hurt?”

“Um, hurt your feelings?”

Lloyd let out a smirk without realizing it.

Hurt his feelings. It was just an Aria-like, friendly expression.

‘No, it made you realize reality.’

Maybe, really, maybe, he thought it could be. That he can live like everyone else.

After a very deep and sweet dream, he only realized again that the place he was standing in was hell.

‘What I have is something no one can completely purify.’

Even singing the Siren song is useless.

It only temporarily alleviates the condition or slows the progression of madness.

Again, there is only one way to get rid of the curse. He knew it from the beginning.

It’s just that the colors during the four years when Aria appeared were so intense and dazzling. He just wanted to deny it.

‘It’s okay, it’s just. You just have to carry the memories with you.’

It was enough. Don’t be greedy any more. After all, nothing was his from the beginning.

Lloyd stared at Aria without saying a word.

‘Ariadne Cortez.’

When the flowers that had been abandoned during the winter bloom again. In a world of achromatic colors, he came to see the warm sunlight.

‘A miracle.’

Lloyd never believed the name of the memory.

Since when did this happen?

He spied on Aria secretly. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as she opened the window of the carriage and her hair naturally fluttered behind her ears.

Lloyd clenched his fists as he looked at her and then unclenched it.

‘Even though I knew it was poison in my mouth.’

It makes him want to swallow it unknowingly.

***

The mansion that was closest to the Imperial Palace. They came to this place without thinking about it because it was close.

Lloyd stopped and looked up silently at the mansion.

Then Aria asked as if wondering.

“Why?”

The employees and the knights who followed were all sent to the estate.

So, Aria raised her voice without hesitation. Because it was just the two of them.

“…it’s where I used to live when I was a kid.”

After a moment’s silence, he answered.

“From what age?”

“Well. From when I remembered it?”

How old was that? Around the age of five? Aria, who had been in her thoughts for a moment, said with a wide smile.

“You must have been cute.”

“Hmm.”

Lloyd, who remembers very clearly what he was thinking and living at that time, shed an ambiguous sound.

Lloyd Cardenas Valentine.

A five-year-old child who never celebrates his birthday.

From the time he accidentally discovered the ‘self-sacrificing spell’ in the book, the child had only one dream.

‘Let’s die.’

Let’s die.

The day he completely inherits that ‘power’ from Grand Duke Valentine. Lloyd was going to kill himself that day. He wanted to disappear with the power he had inherited.

In order to completely cut off the devil malice that has been passed down from generation to generation like a curse…….

It was when Lloyd was reliving the memories of his childhood.

He suddenly felt a soft warmth from the side of his hand. He looked down and saw that it was Aria’s hand. He raised his head.

Aria’s cheeks were smeared with red like watercolor.

Lloyd imagined clenching her hand to crush it, then let it go.

Rounded rabbit-like eyes and a bewildered expression followed, but he had no choice but to turn his back.

***

Self-sacrificing spell.

Lloyd had such a perfect memory that he could spit it out in any extreme situation. Well, he’s been memorizing it since he was five.

– ‘Birthday.’

Of course he didn’t celebrate it.

Why should he celebrate the day of his birth, because he will soon self-destruct anyway.

– ‘Hobby.’

Didn’t have it.

If he had it, he would only become greedy.

– ‘Memories.’

Didn’t make it.

It was difficult to create enough memories to reflect on his past.

– ‘Friendship.’

Didn’t want it.

That’s just an illusion.

– ‘Family.’

There was, but he lived as if there were not.

There was nothing that made a person’s life more regretful than his family.

– ‘Love.’

…… nonsense.

‘The malice harbored by Grand Duke Valentine has completely transferred to me.’

Lloyd was convinced.

So, he spit out the spell he had been repeating in his mind for thirteen years.

A strange character of an ominous pitch black light was engraved all over his body, riding around from head to toe.

“…Ugh!”

The pain felt like his whole body was burning. Even though he thought that his body had been dulled by pain from embracing the malice, he could spit a groan with his teeth.

But Lloyd persevered.

If he can endure this, he will be able to end the nightmare that has been passed down through the generations of Valentine.

Even if the ‘power’ called the curse, which occupied most of his body, didn’t run rampant like an outburst of malice.

No more screams came out. It looked like his limbs were being torn apart.

How much time has passed, on the cold ground, Lloyd regained his mind.

He forcibly lifted his body, where the pain was still scattered everywhere, and examined his condition.

‘The strength…… It remains.’

The spell has failed.

He had in mind the possibility that it might not succeed all at once, so Lloyd did not despair so much.

He groaned and got up.

Strangely, the place was as quiet as a grave. A bizarre gloom. There are no sounds of birds, insects, or breathing creatures.

Even that common wind noise.

Lloyd hurriedly looked out the window.

The garden, lined with all kinds of flowers and trees according to Sabina’s taste, had dried up.

As if it’s life force were sucked in in an instant.

‘This…….’

What is this?

Lloyd slowly backed away from the window and ran to the door and opened it.

No one was there.

In the kitchen, there were dishes cooked, traces of someone studying in the study room, and documents piled up like a mountain in the office, but no one was there.

As if they had evaporated.

Tristan, Sabina, and Vincent.

He could no longer see the jaguar, which would have been chasing Lloyd’s back If he had wandered around this much.

‘Ah.’

Ariadne.

Lloyd ran nonstop to the door.

But when he tried to open the door, his fingertips trembled. What if she’s not there? What if she’s gone? He ran rampant. His own strength.

‘What if I killed her myself?’

He eventually opened the door slowly enough to hear the creaking hinge.

And beyond the door,

Without even closing her eyes properly, Aria had fallen on the red puddle on the floor.

“A… Aria.”

This is nonsense.vIt shouldn’t have happened.

Lloyd rushed to his feet, and he hugged Aria. Lying in his arms, she was cold in Lloyd’s arms.

“…!”

Lloyd jumped out of bed. And he breathed in rough breaths.

He looked around as he felt his body cooled to the point of being cold.

A night that seems to be crushed by darkness.

It was the mansion where Lloyd spent his childhood.

Maybe it was a dream.

Like ice melting into a glass of water, he realized reality very slowly.

Lloyd wiped the cold sweat from his eyes. No, he thought it was a cold sweat.

However, the water drops that wetted his fingers had started flowing from the corners of his eyes as the source.

‘Did you cry?’

Him? Lloyd blinked his wet, pitch black eyelashes, and stiffened for a moment. It was the first day he shed tears in his life.

“……Haa.”

It’s not funny. No one really died, and he had a nightmare and cried.

‘It was as vivid as reality.’

If Vincent had seen it, it would have been a lifelong tease. That’s when he thought about it and raised his head.

Aria was in front of him.

‘Is this also a dream?’

She stretched out her hand. His hand was touched. Not only was it touched, but she also intertwined his hands without hesitation.

“Actually, my hearing is also like a rabbit.”

“……”

“It seems Lloyd is having a nightmare, so I came in at will.”

‘I’m sorry,’ a brief apology followed.

Lloyd blinked his eyes. Drops of tears from the corners of his eyes ran down his cheeks and down his jawline.

“Don’t cry.”

Aria reached out her hand and wiped the corners of Lloyd’s eyes.

At that touch, Lloyd thoughtlessly said,

“I want to live.”

“……”

“I want to live. With you.”

He revealed what he had now realized.