CH 46

t/n

will be getting rid of the brackets and only putting them in when it’s simply impossible to differentiate who’s speaking or not!

“You can’t just show favouritism to only my younger brother though.”

“I don’t think you not respecting my personal space has anything to do with the fact that I favour Lecht.”

“It does, what do you mean it doesn’t? You’re always stuck super close to my younger brother while you don’t even allow me to approach you.”

“It’s natural that my relationship with Lecht is different from my relationship with you.”

“Then that’s favouritism, isn’t it?” Frody continued to blur my point.

“Isn’t it natural to treat the person who has always protected me differently from a person who helped frame me with false accusations?”

“I couldn’t help it because I was bound to a contract.” He said in a sad voice as if it wasn’t his fault, but then threw another absurd speculation at me. “Or are you jealous about the fact that I have a relationship with another woman?”

How on earth did that issue lead him to come to that conclusion…? His unfounded confidence and narcissism seemed to be able to pierce the heavens. I was so lost for words that I couldn’t find the words to say anything back to him.

“Tell me honestly. You like me too, don’t you, Saintess?” He bent his upper body and leaned closer toward me, his eyes crinkling as he laughed. 

The scent surrounding me got even stronger to the point where it felt like I had fallen into a perfume bottle that contained gold osmanthus. It was so strong that my head started to ache. I could feel the scent trying to soak into my body. It muddled my senses like how it would be if I was drunk and narrowed my vision down to only see Frody. 

But I only felt like that for a short amount of time. In an instant, the divine power in my body removed it immediately. 

Tanma had explained it to me before. “A saintess can easily disperse the ability of all demons.”

With my ability, even the strongest demon wouldn’t be able to touch me, the child of god. That’s why I wasn’t afraid to face Frody, despite not knowing what his special ability was. 

“So this is your ability.” 

A scent that muddles up all your senses.

The corners of Frody’s lips curled up. “What do you think? Are you enraptured?”

“…”

“Everyone who has fallen for my seduction says so. It’s a pleasure that makes you desperately yearn for it to never end.”

Pleasure, what pleasure? I just had a severe headache from that strong scent.

“So that’s why you’re wary of Ryno?”

I remembered my first meeting with him. After all that provocation toward Lecht, he had taken a step back in retreat when Ryno appeared. No matter who sees it, it’s obvious that Lecht is the stronger one between the two.

“Your scent must be spread first for you to be able to enchant, but Ryno’s wind blows away all traces of your scent.”

I seemed to have hit the nail on the head. Frody’s eyes twitched. 

“Why would I be wary of someone who isn’t even a proper demon?” Although he spoke in a languid manner, I could sense a sharp edge in his voice. Since he was always a provocative and sly person, it was easier for me to sense when his composure was shaky. 

“Do you think that I’m unable to beat that half blood?”

It was true that the stronger amongst them would win, regardless of their abilities anyway.

“But it’s true that you’re forced to avoid him as well, aren’t you?”

However, it was inevitable for him to hate his opposing elemental type. No matter how much someone with the fire ability was able to beat someone with a water ability by using a much stronger fire, it was a similar logic in the sense that in the end, fire would be forced to avoid water.

“Are you provoking me right now, Saintess?” Frody placed his index finger on my chin and lifted my face toward him. “What are you going to do if I lose all reason? I seem to have less patience than I thought.”

“That sounds like something I’m meant to say.” I glared at him and said firmly, “I’ll say it one more time. Take your hands off me and stay away from me.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t move away?” 

With a sarcastic tone, he moved closer toward me. The tips of our nose were about to touch. He raised one corner of his mouth as the scent of gold osmanthus got even thicker. 

I clicked my tongue at my past thought of trying to convince this man at least once. Just by seeing him look down at me now, I could tell that he was the type of person who didn’t have the adequate emotions for me to do so.

So I took out the divine power from within my heart and detonated it. 

Bam!

“Ugh!”

A flash of light appeared with the loud noise as a great wall was formed between the two of us. Frody was cast far away, as if he had been thrown out.

“Grrr…!” 

Kelber bit the body of Frody’s pet snake harshly and wounded it severely just in time. The five-headed snake made a grotesque sound and shrank its swollen body. Becoming the size of a normal snake, it hurriedly slipped out of Kelber’s grasp and disappeared up the opening of Frody’s pants by his ankle. Kelber came straight back to my side and guarded me.

“Ha!” 

Frody, who had been thrown by force and not by himself, let out a sigh as if it were ridiculous. 

“You even used the same move as that woman. Is it because you’re also the saintess?” He said, looking at the wound caused by the surging of my shield within me. 

Although I had already retrieved the shield back within me, he stuck his long tongue out and licked the blood that was coming out of the wound with his eyes fixed on me. As if he were provoking me. His ‘enchantment’ overflowed in that series of actions. 

“Saintess, shall I give you some advice?”

“There’s no need.”

“Don’t trust my brother too much.”

“Isn’t your way of coming between us a bit too shallow?”

“I’m not trying to come between the two of you. I’m saying this with you in mind, Saintess.” Frody’s soft voice seemed to slightly scratch the inside of my ear. 

I didn’t know what he meant by that. But I didn’t fall for it. 

I had already heard the rumours about the Grand Duke of Arvis, and also read the story of him as the Demon King in a novel. However, the Lecht I had met in person was completely different to what they said about him. So, no matter what Frody said, I was going to trust Lecht, who I had already seen and judged for myself. 

But I had something else I was curious about. “Why do you hate Lecht so much?”

Although he smiled softly and constantly called him, ‘Little brother, little brother’, Frody hated him. No, he despised him. 

Even though it had only been a short while, I could see through it with just a few words. 

“Probably trying to feel out my true intentions.”

Considering that Lecht had been the one to say that, the relationship between the two of them seemed to be quite complicated.

“I don’t understand why someone with such a strong sense of narcissism like you would lower yourself into signing a contract with a human just to argue with him.”

He was a man who ignored Ryno, simply because he had human blood mixed in with his demonic lineage. I could see what he thought of humans. Furthermore, he wasn’t just any ordinary arrogant man.

But to be a contractor and listen to a human’s ‘requests’? Just to pick a fight with Lecht? It was an incomprehensible act that didn’t match his standards at all.

“Because he doesn’t suit being the Demon King.”

“…?”

“I’m the one who’s the product of the previous generation’s demon king and saintess. But you think I’m fine with the product of my father’s night of decadent pleasure taking the position of the demon king?”

There was a sense of superiority, anger, and ridicule in his voice.

“But wasn’t the demon king determined by Lunar, and not by blood?”

I didn’t know everything there was to know about the demon realm. But I had heard all the basics from Tanma and Ryno. 

The reason why the Demon King was the Demon King was because God deliberately gave the power of God to the Demon King for his own use. Since using the power of God usually required a lot of mana, God usually tended to choose those who had a huge amount of mana.

“Naturally, you were a candidate as well, but… wasn’t it still Lunar’s decision in the end anyway?”

Since genetics also played a large factor in mana, it was usually those of high rank amongst the demons, or those who possessed the lineage of the demon king that eventually became the next demon king. So whether it was Frody or Lecht, there was nothing strange about it.

“Did that punk say it like that?” Frody laughed as if it were amusing. “That result was fraudulent.”

“What do you mean fraudulent? It was a decision made by God.”

“To be more exact, it isn’t made by God, but by the Saintess.”

What is he trying to say…?

“Since we can’t always hear God’s voice, it’s the Saintess, who is the child of God, who makes those decisions. We have no choice but to accept those words.”

“Then are you claiming that the Saintess of that time misrepresented God’s words?” I was a little dumbfounded. “There’s no way a saintess would do that. Lunar wouldn’t have just watched and let that happen.”

“Are you talking about divine punishment? It’s been almost five thousand years since that’s been meted out.”

It seemed as if Frody didn’t believe in Lunar itself.

“Whether you believe it or not, that’s the conclusion. Don’t you think it’s pathetic for you not to accept it?”

“I can’t help but not believe it. Because the saintess was in a relationship with that bastard at that time.”

I felt suffocated for a moment. ‘That bastard’ he mentioned was obviously Lecht.

“In a relationship…?”

“Yes, they were dating.”

“…Do you mean the saintess from a hundred years ago?”

“Yes, that black-haired saintess. Oh, as expected, you seem to know of it as well?”

His words relieved the tension in my stiffened body. If it was the saintess from a hundred years ago, then he was talking about me. 

“But I don’t know how he coaxed the saintess into doing it, or how he made her point him out as the Demon King. I guess the saintess fell in love with that bastard who’s full of crap…” he clicked his tongue as if he was still amazed at it, even now. “But as soon as he became the Demon King, the saintess disappeared without a trace.”

“…”

“Lecht, that bastard made sure he didn’t even leave behind a body.” Frody had also said that when we first met. “He must have thought she was unnecessary after he had already achieved his purpose.”

“That must be your own delusion.”

“You say it’s just my delusion, but the fact that the saintess disappeared without completely is a fact though?”

Despite knowing that Lecht wasn’t the one to do such a thing, my heart still pounded at Frody’s confident voice. 

“That’s why I’m telling you to be careful, Saintess. That is, if you don’t want to end up like the previous saintess.”

What he said made sense at first, but on second thought, was full of discrepancies. 

Why would Lecht wait for me for a hundred years if he had already dealt with me as the ‘previous saintess’? And he had used the description, ‘left’, to describe the me from a hundred years ago. It made more sense for me to have died then, and that Lecht had simply buried me without Frody’s knowledge.

“Thank you for the advice. But it’s more likely for me to doubt you since you played a part in trying to drive me into a corner than to believe that you’re truly concerned about me being deceived by Lecht.”

I decided to deflect his argument with a medley of contradictions. He’s a man who falsely accuses me in order to get on Lecht’s nerves. It’s a piece of cake for him to make that bullshit up to drive a wedge between us.

“I believe in Lecht.”

There was a slight crack in Frody’s face, which had remained provocative all along at my unhesistating answer.

“What I’m particularly sure about is that he’s a man who keeps his word. And…”

“…”

“That he promised to protect me with all his might.”

As soon as I finished speaking, something black descended with a bam from the sky.

Babam!

“Ack!”

The thing that fell on Frody was so harsh that it shook the floor strongly. Frody, who had hurriedly retreated, was now holding a rapier that he had gotten from god knows where.

The dust that had flown in the air at that moment slowly cleared up, and what caught my eye after my vision adjusted was a hole in the place where Frody had been standing. There was a man standing in that man-made crater. His huge wings were spread out behind his back. The feathers that filled those wings were black and shone like a crow’s, and were denser than an eagle’s.

‘Just look at this. How could I not believe in him?’

A faint smile hung across my mouth. Lecht, who beat his wings threateningly and caused a strong gust of wind to sweep through the garden, descended and pulled out a heavy double-edged sword from out of the ground.

At the black aura that was swirling around Lecht, Frody tightened his grip on his rapier. “Ha. Look here, Little Brother. Don’t you know what happens when you touch me, who has a human contractor?”

Lecht’s large wings moved in response to Frody’s provocation, yet not a provocation, and enveloped me in them. When I felt that soft sensation against my body, I was already in his arms before I knew it.

Wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me toward him, he spoke in a low voice. “Do I look like I care about that right now?”

“What…?”

“If the regulations of the demon realm are a problem in dealing with you, who touched Ara, then such a trivial thing like the demon realm, I’ll just replace it as well.”

“…?”

I let out a gasp at Lecht’s words, which could be seen as worse than when he said he’d destroy the empire. 

But did I already get used to his remarks at some point? Instead of the anxiety or unease I naturally should’ve felt, my heart seemed to be pounding like crazy with a sense of excitement.