Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

Yuria’s expression stiffened hearing the child’s answer.

Who would give this lovely child such a name? It couldn’t even be considered a name.

It was nothing more than a sharp dagger piercing the child’s heart.

On the other hand, Yuria’s expression made the child freeze. He thought Yuri was different from others and wouldn’t hurt him, but he couldn’t help being anxious about the obvious turn in Yuria’s aura. Her attitude towards him so far was strikingly different; however, his experiences and memories couldn’t be erased after a few days. So he was anxious, his left hand began shaking again, clawing the back of his other hand.

Noticing the child’s anxious reaction, Yuria pulled the child into a tight hug. Surrounding him with warmth, making it feel like his wounds were ignited, burning till none remained.

Yuria’s touch warmed the child and relieved his anxiety, what he had thought wasn’t true, although he was still nervous. Anxiety flashed through his eyes, exuding a sharp yet fragile energy that could explode with the slightest touch.

Assured now that the child had calmed down Yuria stepped back and asked, “Sweetie, if it’s okay with you can I give you a name?” She couldn’t accept calling this adorable kid monster or trash. She also couldn’t keep calling him sweetie, though it would be fine for a while, it wasn’t a name, and sometimes a name itself becomes a definition of existence.

The child tilted his head.

Monster and trash weren’t names?

He had always been addressed as such so he thought it was normal. The child accepted the monster and garbage as his name without even realizing their meaning – as his own being.

Yuri won’t hurt me. She’s a good person…

The child thought so. It was a weak thought easily shaken by anxiety, but nonetheless it was progress. She was the first person to approach him, the first to give him proper food and embrace him in warmth when no one else cared. Her care encircled him like a blanket, he’d never known such warmth. Until now, he was unaware that a human’s body temperature could have such comforting warmth. Yuria showed him a new world, he met her and suddenly colours flooded his world. If it wasn’t for Yuria, he wouldn’t have known such things existed.

Yuria considered the child’s silence as a yes. Even if she didn’t wish to bestow him with a name of her own choosing, she couldn’t deny the child a basic right of existence. Aside from respecting the child’s wishes, she could never stand still and watch as something hurt him.

“…Psyren, Fren for short. Do you like it?” After much deliberation, that was the name Yuria came up with. The child simply tilted his head, he did not know the meaning of the name, since he was abandoned before learning anything.

“It means treasure. Sweetie, no, Fren, you’re my treasure now.” She had no idea how much this lovely but poor child would mean to her in the future, but the fact that they were together, and not alone, was a gift in itself.

She, who fell into this world alone, and a child, who was alone before he could speak, felt the same emotions, having both seen the world from similar perspectives. Thus the sympathy and compassion she felt was much deeper than other people. Though they were both collapsing they were able to live together and become each other’s pillars – walking a path that shone brighter than any treasure. She had no regrets about taking him in, even if at its core it was her own selfishness driving the choice, Yuria swore to affectionately care for the child.

She wanted the child to live for himself.

I wish that in the future you won’t live as an incomplete person and will never be as wounded as you are now.

Yuria longed for such a future, although she may not be the shield that can protect the child from everything, she will be the first he can reach out to when in need of protection.

“…treasure…” The child quietly muttered.

“Yes, treasures are very pretty and precious,” Yuria explained.

Still it was difficult for the child to understand, he tilted his head and shook his head.

It’s not me who’s pretty – it’s Yuri standing in front of me, who’s beautiful and shines like no other.

“…Yuria, treasure.” The child softly said, wiggling his fingers due to the awkward warmth that filled his body. If something beautiful and precious was a treasure, it was Yuria, not him.

Yuria smiled kindly at the child’s words. “Yuria’s treasure is Fren, and maybe…”

In the future, Fren’s treasure might become himself.

Yuria touched Fren affectionately. That was then, Yuria heard a small voice in her head.

[Sweet child. Now that child won’t live as Arnen, but as Psyren.]

(T/N: The narration inside the [] was the voice Yuria heard in her head. )

Yuria looked around in search of the owner, but no one other than her and Fren were there. Yuria frowned, wondering if it was an auditory hallucination.

Arnen.

It was a familiar name. It was the name of the villain in a novel Yuria had read before, as a human-demon hybrid he received all kinds of hostility from people of both races.

“Then I…”

So I came to that world.

Yuria realized, without knowing where the town was or whose body exactly she had possessed, that she had taken the role of an unnamed extra in the novel. At first she couldn’t believe that she’d possessed a body inside a novel. It was an unexpected realization, but despite the suddenness of it all Yuria was able to quickly accept it relatively calmly.

The fact that she came to this world in the first place was more surprising, so even when she found out she possessed a character in a novel, she wasn’t as shocked as when she first came here. There was only the feeling that she just learned something new.

However, she didn’t know that she would meet Arnen, the villain, like this, that alone made Yuria’s heart quiver. That novel in particular, was the most impressive among all other romance-fantasy she had read. She sympathized with it the most and it hurt her the most. The reason was simple: it was the villain of the novel, Arnen, who she sympathized with. Even his name, Arnen, was heartbreaking, because it meant ‘no name’ no one had ever bothered to give him a proper name.

Is this fate?

Yuria wondered, knowing the identity of Fren.

Arnen was an iniquitous villain, who destroyed the world, a hybrid between human and demon, he was strong without any match, and more destructive and violent than anyone. However, in Yuria’s eyes, he was just a wounded soul. After being abandoned, Arnen struggled through all kinds of abuse. He was a pitiful soul who didn’t know how to receive or give love. The only light that approached him was the original female lead.

Arnen unknowingly gave his heart to the female heroine, but a knife in his back was all that he got in return. It wasn’t the original female lead’s fault, she simply cared for someone else, and that person hated Arnen. Arnen thought he was abandoned by the female lead when she chose the male lead, not him.

He clung to the female lead but she turned away from him. At the same time, in the face of the male lead who wanted to kill him just because of his devil blood, the female lead was confused, eventually siding with the male lead. Arnen couldn’t believe it. The woman he thought was a warmer light had become one with the man who wished his death. Knowing she also wanted him to die, Arnen willingly raised his sword; he had no interest in the world the male lead insisted upon protecting.

He hated the people who threw stones and daggers at him, so he killed them, but that was not revenge. It was just a struggle to get out of the situation, a struggle to live, not to get hurt.

Thus, Arnen became the world’s strongest villain in the original story.

None could match him, if he took one more step, the world would be destroyed, but Arnen lowered his sword at the sight of the mournful female lead, begging him not to. The road had already been stained with the blood of millions, but it was impossible to add the female lead’s blood to that road. Thus, Arnen was killed mercilessly by the male lead, and the world seemed to find peace.

But was it really peace?

In Yuria’s eyes, it could only be seen as a tragedy for Arnen. It wasn’t his fault that he was the successor of the demon’s blood. However, because of that, Arnen had to face a tragic end.

It was so sad.

Only one – if there was only just one person who was always on his side, if just one person understood his situation, and taught him about life, then that tragedy might not have happened.

Yuria had also been brokenmç, and bent from stones the world had thrown, so she could understand Arnen’s heart. She knew how hurtful it was for the one person he thought was on his side to turn their back. He hated her yet loved her, he loved her even when he knew he was hated. In the end, he lost his love and had no choice but to desert himself in order not to hurt the heroine.

How many times did she think of giving up, experiencing the endless despair and pain of being abandoned by the world?

If even one person had held her hand, to have known and understood the depth of her wounds then she wouldn’t have felt she was pointlessly struggling. That understanding made her sympathize with Arnen in the novel. Suddenly, Arnen had become Yuria.

Yuria escaped from that situation with the death of her parents, and fell into despair with their death. Arnen abandoned everything with his own death, so it was more painful. Rather, if she had a chance, she wanted to be by his side. She wanted him to have a fairytale-like happy ending.

What the hell did he do so wrong? What the hell, why? Why?

She repeatedly asked the world those questions .

After reading the novel, Yuria felt so desperate she fell ill for days. It was as if all Arnen’s feelings seeped into her. Yuria felt as if she had experienced his struggles herself.

“That was it but…” How did she actually end up meeting him? It was also in his childhood before he became an adult, and the novel started.

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