—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Caiden felt overwhelmed with a sense of humiliation as she looked at Leonhart.
While the magical beast wasn’t quite at the level of a destruction-class beast, it seemed to be at the disintegration-class level just below that.
It was strong enough that someone like her could be torn to shreds immediately if she charged at it.
Seeing the beast, Caiden gripped swords in both hands, but she couldn’t take even a single step forward.
Her body trembled.
The swords felt too heavy, and her whole body was cold from the sweat seeped out.
In contrast, the boy looked as relaxed as lying in his bedroom, even with the magical beast before him.
Caiden wondered how someone younger than her could be so unbelievably strong.
At the same time, she was both impressed and frightened.
“Senior, are you scared of the magical beast?”
The beautiful boy asked with a curved smile.
His appearance was extremely handsome, but at the same time, his beautiful golden eyes were shining ominously, which was scary.
Goosebumps rose on her skin, and her neck felt chilly.
“I-I’m not scared.”
Caiden thought she was whimpering.
Even to herself, it was an absurd lie.
Indeed, he would see through it.
She believed it would be tough to hide anything from this boy.
“That’s good then. Come here. If you’re not scared, you can come, right?”
Though his tone was questioning, it was clearly a voice mixed with informal speech, looking down on her.
It was essentially an order.
Caiden didn’t move as if showing a small act of defiance.
Her pride, not yet wholly shattered, was making her resist.
“Senior.”
The boy opened his mouth with a stern tone.
His eyes, smiling kindly until now, shone indifferently in the darkness.
Caiden recalled the boy’s cold, mechanical eyes as he handed her the sword and forced her to kill herself.
At that moment, the sword’s weight felt heavier than dozens of swords she had ever held and colder than any winter.
‘What if he tells that monster to devour me this time?’
Leonhart had promised he wouldn’t give such orders again.
But Caiden couldn’t trust him.
She was just anxious and scared…
Yet when he hugged her tightly, she felt somewhat reassured.
Was it because it came after experiencing extreme terror?
Hoo.
At the sound of the boy’s breath, as if holding something back, Caiden swallowed hard and came to her senses.
The boy’s golden eyes were sinking even deeper into the darkness.
Caiden gulped dryly.
Reluctantly, she took an unwilling step toward the terrifying magical beast and the even more frightening boy.
Each step felt heavier and more chilling than when she had approached the boy earlier.
As Caiden stood before him, the colossal beast made of darkness growled.
“Ugh…!”
Caiden hunched her shoulders and breathed heavily.
She didn’t want to die.
An overwhelming fear that she couldn’t handle was rushing at her.
Her calves felt stiff, and her legs were weak like she might collapse.
When the beast opened its mouth, sharp, huge fangs that looked like they could tear her to shreds were revealed.
As the beast growled, its massive body inflated like a balloon.
Caiden trembled as she saw the beast’s already threatening mouth grow large enough to swallow her whole.
‘He might really tell it to eat me.’
Caiden recalled Leonhart’s emotionless eyes once again.
“Senior.”
The boy’s voice spoke firmly, too.
What kind of order would he give this time?
Then.
“It’s okay.”
The boy gently comforted her, wrapping his arm around Caiden’s waist.
His golden eyes looked endlessly kind, but simultaneously, they entrapped her.
“If I’m beside you, it won’t hurt you.”
The boy’s hand warmly patted her back, and Leonhart’s voice was heard softly in her ear.
Caiden was surprised by the sense of security and warmth his body heat gave her.
At the same time, she recalled the moment she had cried loudly while rubbing her cheek against the boy earlier, and her ears burned hot with embarrassment.
And it was strange that now, like before, Leonhart’s arms felt the most reassuring.
To think she was taking shelter in the arms of the person threatening her to avoid the magical beast.
“You’re crying again.”
Caiden hadn’t realized her vision was blurring until she felt Leonhart’s hand wiping beneath her eyes.
“Are you usually this much of a crybaby?”
Caiden wondered if she had always been this prone to tears.
No matter how she thought about it, she hadn’t been.
Perhaps due to the harsh education she received as a child, Caiden rarely cried.
When she felt like she should cry, she usually gritted her teeth and held them in.
“N-No…”
Leonhart chuckled softly as he watched Caiden fumble for an answer.
“You’re such a crybaby, it’s amazing you haven’t been found out until now.”
Caiden realized Leonhart was teasing her and felt foolish for answering thoughtfully.
Come to think of it, how did Leonhart know her secret in the first place?
She hadn’t told anyone and thought she hadn’t been discovered.
“But it’s okay to cry in front of me. I already know your secret, after all.”
Caiden felt like she was sinking underwater and couldn’t breathe momentarily.
Secret.
Yes, because of the secret.
That secret that had followed her all her life, not letting her breathe properly, even for a moment.
She knew the day it would be discovered would come someday, but she didn’t know this strange boy would be the first.
“How… do you know about me?”
So Caiden mustered her courage and spoke those words.
For some reason, even uttering a single word to this boy made her heart pound like it would burst with an emotion similar to fear.
The next moment, the beast growled again, and Caiden startled, burrowing deeper into the boy’s arms.
Leonhart briefly looked troubled at Caiden’s reaction, like a frightened puppy’s.
“It would be strange not to know.”
Leonhart whispered mockingly to the slightly trembling Caiden.
“When you act like this.”
Feeling indignant, Caiden gritted her teeth and glared at Leonhart.
But surprisingly, Leonhart wasn’t smiling.
His expression was infinitely severe and heavy.
“For now, Senior, please die once for me.”
For a moment, Caiden’s legs, which had been barely supporting her by clinging to Leonhart, ultimately gave out, and she almost fell.
She thought he really was going to kill her.
‘As expected, he’s not going to keep his promise…’
Just like a blackmailer would.
As she became frightened again, Leonhart stroked her back.
“I don’t mean to really die. I told you, didn’t I? Just this once. This time I’m asking you to fake your death.”
“Fake my death…?”
“Yes. It’s inconvenient if you’re alive right now. I think it will be safe, but just in case.”
Caiden was scared but also puzzled by Leonhart’s words.
“Did you say Livia…?”
“You heard that too? Your ears work well even when you’re scared, huh? She’s so docile right now.”
It was a tone familiar with mocking and tormenting people.
Caiden felt something inside her crumbling away with humiliation.
‘I’m not usually this docile!’
Surely, just this morning…
She would have angrily rushed at this boy after seeing Yuria enter the council room with tear stains still visible.
“When did I…”
“Just listen for a moment.”
Leonhart didn’t even pretend to listen.
“You have to do this anyway. I’ll keep protecting you, but we don’t know when this thing might target you again. And I can’t stay by your side all the time.”
“Will it… come again?”
“Since it couldn’t kill you, I suppose it will.”
Caiden thought with her mouth open in an O shape.
Would this terrifying and scary thing come again when this boy wasn’t around?
Strangely, her body trembled violently.
She felt as if the hot breath of that monster trying to snap her neck just moments ago was still clinging to her skin.
“You don’t like that, right?”
Caiden nodded her head frantically.
“Then we’ll have to hide you, right?”
“H-Hide…?”
“I know a secret room.”
“Room?”
Leonhart didn’t answer Caiden’s questioning look.
Instead, he gently took her slender wrist hidden by her clothes and led her softly.
When the magical beast passed by their side, Caiden drew closer to Leonhart, trying to get as close to him as possible.
“Wait here.”
In front of the door, Leonhart spoke to the magical beast as if giving an order.
Surprisingly, the magical beast was following Leonhart’s words very faithfully.
What on earth was this boy?
Caiden couldn’t predict the boy’s true identity at all.
Leonhart walked silently with Caiden through the dark corridor.
Somehow, her head felt fuzzy, as if she had a fever.
Though no one was around due to the curfew in the evening, she was still scared of being caught with her wrist held like this.
‘Maybe, even being caught…’
Caiden briefly indulged in a girlish fantasy but soon shook her head to erase it.
‘What a foolish thought.’
Caiden had never thought of herself as a woman.
That’s how she had grown up and lived.
In fact, this was the first time she had been treated as a woman by this boy.
While Caiden found it unpleasant, a part of her heart felt strangely ticklish.
It was very confusing.
Being this scared, she couldn’t tell if it felt good or not.
“Wh-Where are we…”
Caiden asked, watching Leonhart’s expression.
“We’re close.”
Leonhart said calmly.
He even seemed somewhat indifferent.
Caiden found this kind of indifference, which she had experienced all her life, relatively comfortable.
‘I wish it would stay like this.’
Caiden earnestly hoped.
The place Leonhart and Caiden arrived at was a small lounge.
During the day, it was a place where furniture shone brilliantly in the sunlight coming through the large windows.
But now, the empty lounge looked vacant and chilly.
While Caiden was wondering why they had come here when they were supposed to be going to a hiding place, Leonhart moved steadily.
More precisely, he was counting the number of candlesticks.
“One, two, three. Here it is.”
Leonhart stopped before one candlestick, then lifted it by bending it upwards.
Then, the floor beneath the candlestick, which had seemed perfectly fitted, slowly pushed up.
“A secret staircase?”
Caiden asked in surprise.
“Yes. A place no one knows about. No one in this school.”
Leonhart took Caiden’s hand and led her down the dim staircase.
She wanted to resist, but the thought of defying Leonhart made her heart pound rapidly.
A place no one knows about.
No one in this school.
Those words sounded so unsettling that Caiden’s whole body trembled as they descended deeper into the darkness.
“Le-Leonhart…”
Caiden finally grabbed Leonhart tightly, her chin trembling.
“You’re shaking. Why are you trembling?”
Leonhart spoke in a gentle voice as he softly stroked Caiden’s head.
Did this boy really not know why she was trembling?
Caiden shivered finely but had no choice but to descend deeper into the darkness that looked like the wide-open maw of a beast.
She kept looking up towards the top of the stairs, wanting to escape.
Still, somehow, she could only envision a future where she would be caught immediately if she tried to run.
After descending for quite a while, the stairs ended in front of a black, thick iron door.
“Is this it?”
Leonhart created a light with magic and floated it upwards.
‘Room for Good Children’
That’s what was written above the door.
“This is the right place.”
Leonhart muttered as if somewhat pleased and grabbed the doorknob.
Creaaak.
The door, which seemed to have been built here long ago, pushed open inwards.
Inside was a single chair made of the same iron material as the door and a small room extending to the side.
Other than that, there was only a bed with just the frame remaining, without a mattress.
It was a desolate room with only these things.
Caiden had seen this kind of room a few times in the mansion.
This place had a structure like the punishment rooms or disciplinary rooms in Caiden’s mansion.
Such rooms where she only knew of their existence, finding it terrible and disgusting to see servants being punished.
“Wh-Why here…?”
Feeling suddenly anxious, Caiden asked while watching Leonhart’s expression.
Surely, he wasn’t planning to confine her here?
“I… I don’t want to go in here.”
Caiden’s words were more like a whimper than speech.
Her hand grasping Leonhart’s clothes was trembling finely.
At Caiden’s words, Leonhart’s eyes widened briefly in surprise, then curved gently as he smiled.
“Me, put you in here? Senior, you have quite an imagination.”
Caiden exhaled a long, trembling breath, relieved at Leonhart’s teasing words.
She didn’t know if she could trust this boy, but those words seemed to pat down her nerves that had been standing on end.
And the next moment, a question raised its head.
If not me, then…?
Who?
“I came here to check in advance because our paths might overlap while I’m moving you to a safe place…”
Leonhart’s eyes shone even darker than the gloomy look Caiden had seen from him so far.
“There’s someone else who really needs to become a good child.”
Leonhart’s voice cut chillingly across Caiden’s ears.
He’s crazy.
Caiden thought, seeing the madness that flashed briefly in Leonhart’s eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Senior, stay here. Just for a moment. I’ll come back to get you when it’s safe.”
I spoke as gently as possible after bringing Caiden to an empty room.
Caiden nodded, blinking her eyes, which looked like they might spill tears at any moment.
No, that’s… I’m trying to treat her kindly, but she seems too afraid of me.
It feels like the genre has changed for a moment.
Hmm, what’s the problem?
I thought deeply for a moment, but it didn’t seem like I would find an answer, so I smiled at Caiden and closed the door.
People’s emotions can’t be controlled at will.
I returned to Caiden’s room.
The shadow beast was still waiting for me in the dim room.
I sat comfortably on the sofa, patting the head of the beast as it approached, growling and rubbing its cheek against me.
Soon, someone who finds it strange that their beast hasn’t returned will come to this room.
“For mental illness, use mental illness.”
The treatment is what we call mirror therapy.
Now, I plan to kidnap Livia.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Just outmenhera the menhera. Genius strategy.