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T/N: I keep chocolates near me whenever I translate, because my heart felt bitter for these characters that I need something sweet 😣
E/N: The angst has just begun and it's already killing me 😔
It was right after Anna had already been sent away. At this late hour, no one should be visiting Daphne.
“I’ll go and check.”
Baroness Nuvelle opened the door. Standing before her was Johann.
“Johann? What brings you here at this hour?”
“My lady, there is somewhere you need to go right away.”
His tone was unusually urgent.
“His Excellency…”
Johann’s gaze shifted over the Baroness’s shoulder, toward where Daphne was. He stopped himself from saying more, but the Baroness understood. Daphne, grasping her clothes tightly, also caught the meaning.
“Madam, I will take my leave now.”
As the Baroness and Johann hurriedly departed, Daphne was left alone.
‘His Excellency…’
She recalled the eyes that had swept over her hastily before speaking no further.
She opened her hand. Four crescent-shaped red marks were embedded into her palm. She was used to such treatment. It happened as naturally as breathing — no, even more frequently than eating, since she could count on one hand the number of proper meals she had had.
Daphne tried to rise from the bed but paused to catch her breath. Despite being told to rest, she had overexerted herself the day before by visiting Edmund, and her body felt heavy.
Determined, Daphne pushed herself up once again and headed towards the window. At that moment, a wave of sharp, piercing pain washed over her entire body.
“Ugh…”
She let out a groan, clutching her chest and staggered towards the wall for support. Her body was drenched with sweat from small exertions only.
Panting heavily for just a moment, Daphne opened the window. The cold wind swept in fiercely, brushing against her and filling the room. The chill was sharp enough to make her eyes snap open, and she exhaled slowly. With much needed support, she lifted her head and looked outside.
From there, she could see Edmund’s office and bedroom clearly. Daphne recalled the pain she had just experienced.
‘...It’s begun.’
It had finally started.
— — —
“There are no signs of any physical attack from His Excellency.”
At the Baroness’s words, Johann let out a sigh of relief.
“However, due to prolonged exposure to His Excellency’s unchecked aura, they have suffered some internal injuries.”
As knights of the Black Knights Order, they had managed to endure this much. If they had been ordinary knights, they would have been left with lifelong disabilities due to the severe internal damage.
“With steady medication over the next month, they should make a full recovery.”
“That’s a relief.”
After finishing her examination of the five unconscious knights, the Baroness hesitated.
“Is His Excellency... alright?”
“...He’s the same as always.”
Lock the door and let no one in, no matter what happens. Those were his strict instructions before he collapsed.
“Steward.”
Benjamin entered with Alec. Both of their fingertips were glowing red.
“Don’t tell me…”
Johann’s eyes widened, but Alec shook his head.
“No. The aura seeped out through the door as we were locking it.”
“What about the magic?”
“It was done.”
Edmund could no longer control his aura. As a result, he was left in a room sealed with a Grand Mage’s barrier spell, waiting indefinitely for his aura to settle.
“I might be mistaken, but…”
Benjamin looked at his fingertips, which were still throbbing with a burning sensation, as though they had been scorched.
“His Excellency’s aura…”
“You’re right.”
The Baron nodded. It had been five years since Benjamin last felt Edmund’s aura, but he noticed it immediately. The aura had grown even stronger.
“So, I wasn’t wrong.” Benjamin’s face darkened. “I just hope this passes without incident.”
The long period of patience had only just begun.
— — —
Daphne dreamed.
She couldn’t remember the details, but she knew for certain it wasn’t a good dream. If it were, her back wouldn’t be drenched in cold sweat.
Raising only her upper body, she wiped away the sweat from her hair. She reached towards the small table beside the bed. Every day, Anna would leave a kettle of warm water and a cup there.
But today, the cup seemed further away. After trying to reach for it for a while, she still couldn’t find it. Just as she was about to rise, something hot touched her hand. She quickly withdrew, and the sound of everything falling off the table echoed through the room.
Sighing, Daphne carefully pulled back the blanket. However, as she slid off the bed, she lost her balance and began to fall toward the floor, now littered with shards of broken glass.
Too late to stop herself, she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the pain – but instead of hitting the ground, she felt a firm embrace around her waist.
“...Careful.”
A low voice murmured in her ear, and Daphne looked up in a daze.
It was Edmund.
— — —
His head was spinning.
Trapped in a deep abyss, Edmund struggled. He tried moving his arms and legs, but it was futile. He fought desperately to escape this place.
Edmund knew there was only one way out. He held his breath. Clamping his lips shut and stopping his breathing, he was soon consumed by pain.
The pain intensified until it became unbearable, and at the peak of that agony, Edmund opened his eyes, gasping for air. Darkness flooded in through his slowly parting eyelids. It was a pitch-black room, without a single hint of light.
Something brushed against his hand – a broken leg of a desk. He recalled how he had thrashed about in agony before losing consciousness, destroying everything around him. That must have been when the desk got broken.
Nothing in Edmund’s room remained intact. Thankfully, the walls were unscathed, thanks to the barrier spell. Edmund sat up from the ruined floor and began to piece together his memories.
The sound of crying. Then, soon after, three mutated monsters appeared, and the battle began. Mutated monsters were far more dangerous than ordinary ones – more difficult to deal with.
But that was only true for ordinary people. For Edmund, a person beyond the norm, there was little difference between a regular monster and a mutated one. However, unlike usual, Edmund couldn’t use his aura. If he did, it would spiral out of control.
Several times during the fight, he had narrowly escaped danger. And when there was just one left...
“Yo-Your Excellency!”
The creature had lunged at those hiding, and Edmund had to use his aura.
Too late, the Holy Knight had been swallowed whole, turning to ash alongside the monster. Although Edmund had quickly retracted his aura, the brief exposure had caused the knights to lose consciousness. After walking back to the estate, Edmund had also collapsed.
Now, leaning his back against the bed, Edmund tilted his head back. The headache seemed to be subsiding slightly. Suddenly, he grasped at the blanket beside him. A faint but familiar scent brushed past his nose.
Even though several days had passed, traces of Daphne still lingered in his bedroom. Edmund clenched the blanket, pulling it closer.
As he gazed at the blanket, stained with Daphne’s scent, he slowly lowered his head toward it. The moment his head dipped closer, his previously calm aura flared up again.
Edmund groaned softly and buried his face in the bed. His vision blurred. He was being pulled back into the deep abyss.
Edmund tried to open his eyes. But despite his efforts, they shut completely, and darkness engulfed him once more.
— — —
Moments later, Edmund opened his eyes. Puzzled, he had expected to find himself in the abyss, but the place he saw was entirely different. He heard someone stirring. Only then did Edmund realize he was still in his room.
He took a step toward the patch of moonlight shining in the darkness when—
“...Ha…”
A faint sigh came from the person lying in bed as they slowly sat up.
‘Daphne.’
It was Daphne.
As soon as Edmund recognized her, he let out a quiet laugh. Of all things, now even Daphne appeared in this wretched nightmare. The ways in which he was tormented were becoming more elaborate.
Aura was something only the chosen could use. Everyone praised Edmund because of that. However, this seemed more like a curse rather than a blessing. The power to turn everything to ash had slowly eaten away at his mind. While trapped in the abyss, the dead would reappear one by one.
Though their words were incomprehensible, they were unmistakably filled with resentment. But this new form of torment, unfamiliar as it was, was entirely unwelcome.
Edmund watched, holding his breath, as Daphne pushed her hair back and reached toward the table.
Clink!
With a clear sound, the kettle and cup fell to the floor and shattered. Daphne hesitated, then moved to get out of bed. But just as she lost her balance and fell toward the broken glass scattered on the floor, Edmund reached out his hand.
“...Careful.”
He wrapped his arms around her slender waist. Daphne looked up at him with wide eyes.
Edmund chuckled dryly at the warmth he felt holding her. Slowly, he scanned Daphne’s face in front of him.
‘Does it need to feel this vivid?’
It didn’t have to feel this real.
“...You…”
Maybe because everything was so unnervingly accurate.
“I hate you.” He confessed the truth buried deep within. “I hate you so much, it drives me crazy.”
He despised the unfamiliar feelings he discovered in himself because of Daphne.
“Maybe it would be easier if you just disappeared…”
Edmund, who had been muttering to himself, recalled the days without Daphne. His face twisted involuntarily. No, rather than going through that situation again, it seemed better to keep her right in front of him, or beside him.
“...You knew.” Daphne continued, her head bowed. “You knew that I... that I love you.”
“I know.”
“Since when?”
Since when... since when had it been?
Edmund searched his memory. At the same time, his vision blurred.
“It’s…”
Thud.
As Edmund’s body went limp and he collapsed, Daphne was pulled down with him onto the bed. Her hands, which had been carefully gripping his clothes tightly, released their hold.
It was unmistakably Edmund. Only Edmund could speak such cruel words so carelessly.