That was the reason why he didn’t give me the bouquet of flowers until nightfall.
I was dizzy with the noise that seemed to be in war. I struggled to come to my senses and brushed his shoulder.
“Answer me.”
“Ah! Now I remember.”
Garou lowered the metal lamp like tossing it on the stone floor.
“When I asked you to hold hands with me and start a rebellion, didn’t you tell me not to talk nonsense?”
“You didn’t say it so gently. You laughed at me for trying to break the alliance between the imperial family and the duchy.”
“Are you angry?”
Garou laughed again.
“…I’ve been taken advantage of, so there’s no way I’m feeling good.”
“No matter how much I play with you, it will be just a joke compared to what my mother did to the demons.”
The boy rested his head on one knee.
“My mother has been using demons for thousands of years. After killing her child, she resurrected the demons on his body, forced him to use black magic, and eventually killed him if he went insane. It was always the successor’s job to turn the obsolete heir to the throne into an evil spirit. As a rite of passage to prove loyalty.”
“If it’s the successor…”
“It means I killed Antonio, the former crown prince.”
Garou spoke simply as if it were someone else’s business.
‘Somehow, it feels a little strange.’
The numerous evil spirits that hovered outside the barrier were monsters that all the people of the empire hated.
But among them, heirs to the throne, who were respected during their lifetime, were mixed.
“If you die and become an evil spirit, you will be thrown out of the barrier, so you’d think it would be more comfortable than going crazy and suffering. Antonio also begged to be killed…”
It was a terrible story.
There must be such a cruel side behind Igdrasil’s graceful smile. Even though I didn’t expect anything from the emperor, a sense of disappointment rose.
“…But now that I think about it, I don’t know. Still, it might have been better to remain in a human body than to become an evil spirit. If I let him live, I wouldn’t be the only one alone, would I?”
Boom!
Fireworks lit up the boy’s smiling face.
“The main thing the demons did was control the crowd through brainwashing, but he had a different purpose.”
Garou climbed to the top of the tower.
The body of the well-proportioned boy staggered as if he was about to fall to the ground at any moment.
“…You mean the demon king?”
“Right. My mother found out before the demon king regained his powers, and this time, she wanted to kill him.”
Garou hung his arms across the bumpy hinges.
The loose sleeves fluttered in the wind.
“But so far, she hasn’t been able to actively pursue it. She sent demons that she thought had been tamed enough out of the barrier, but it was not uncommon for them to run away. Well, though every time she snatched it up and turned it into an evil spirit…”
“…….”
“At the same time, Benimus appeared.”
Garou looked back at me brightly as if he was dancing instead of walking on stones.
“A dog who, after running away once, comes back by his own feet and puts the leash on his own! Of course, my mother wouldn’t pay attention to it, would she?”
His eyes twinkled as if ‘dog’ was a good compliment.
“But there’s one problem. Another demon is holding Benimus’ leash, and of all people, it’s a precious princess, you. If it wasn’t for the Bauners, she would have taken you away easily… It was a disappointment for my mother.”
Apparently, the emperor knew from the beginning that I was a demon. Though, it was not surprising now.
“Well, it’s fine. After all, it’s a problem that would be resolved if you married me later. To test if Benimus really is a perfect dog…”
Garou suddenly looked at a distant place beyond the flame.
“The test was successful. That bastard, who was a demon, slaughtered the evil spirits that were once his kind and brought back the Western Continent, didn’t he?”
Without realizing it, I bit my lower lip. I didn’t know anything, but I made Benny do something too bad.
“…The day when I injected black magic into the treats to use you.”
Garou, who was walking along the outskirts of the tower, stopped near me.
“I found out that you are also a demon.”
He leaned back and looked down at me. His golden eyes gleaming with sparks shone like freshly crafted jewels.
“I was so happy! Really! I like all kinds of demons, but I especially like you a lot more.”
Then the tower shook slightly with a heavy sound.
I looked down. Benny, who had caught up with us, was exuding a terrifying aura.
Instead of climbing the steps of the tower, Benny stepped on the outer wall.
An elongated shadow slid over his heel and anchored his foot firmly against the wall.
Benny walked up the tower like that. Whenever I felt the heavy footsteps with my skin, my hair was slightly fuzzy.
“Lilietta. You.”
Suddenly, Garou, who came down next to me, touched a single strand of fluttering hair.
“Unlike that brat and me… You’re not crazy.”
“What are you talking about. What do you mean Benny is crazy?”
“Even though you have more prophetic powers than I do, even now, knowing all the truth, you’re still not crazy.”
Garou, as usual, said only what he wanted to say.
“I don’t know how you can do that. I thought that all demons had no choice but to go out of their minds…”
The boy’s gaze toward me was very tender.
“So I like you.”
Boom, fireworks exploded non-stop.
I glanced at Garou’s innocent smile and asked.
“You initially tried to kill me, didn’t you?”
Garou did not deny it. He sighed and recited it as if reading a book.
“The marriage proposal was rejected and the alliance was broken. Meanwhile, the princess was poisoned, and it’s suspected that it was the work of the Imperial House. That’s how I start a war between the two families.”
The rebellion plan that leaked through his thick lips was definitely something he was going to commit before I knew I was a demon.
“When the war has progressed to some extent, I’ll approach the House Bauner to help. Of course, it’s just a picture of me absorbing the weakened duchy, though…”
Garou put his elbows on the stone wall and let out a refreshing sigh.
“That was a good strategy. If you were a real princess, I would have succeeded.”
He was originally trying to brainwash me, not Michael. It would have been easier for him to poison the decoction, or to frame it as the Imperial House’s work.
And I was able to avoid tragedy because I was fake.
“…You can kill me, even if I’m a demon..”
I frowned. There was still something I didn’t understand.
Just because one was a demon didn’t mean one was immortal.
If he tore my body to pieces that could not be regenerated, he could kill me according to his original plan.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“How can I do that to you?”
Garou smirked as if telling me to not to say nonsense.
Boom!
The tower shook.
Benny was about half way up the tower. Garou clicked his tongue as though he was looking at a troublesome child.
“I didn’t know you would drink the medicine even though you knew it was poisoned. I even gave you a silver ring to make a little fuss.”
“…….”
“I just wanted to instill the suspicion that ‘the Imperial House tried to assassinate the princess’. I can’t believe it’s so hard…”
Garou grumbled like a child.
“I didn’t know that the illegitimate child would say nothing though the brainwashing magic was done. When I entered your dream, I thought I was well disguised as Mother… No matter how I look at it, you must have noticed that the imperial family and the duke family were trying to separate, right?”
“…It all happened because you saved me.”
I gently lowered my eyes. No matter which angle I saw it with, there was one reason why Garou’s plan went wrong.
He abandoned the most important part of the plan: the assassination of the princess. Since it was a detour from the simple and reliable existing method, there was no choice but to have hiccups.
“However, I was surprised that the illegitimate child even risked his life!”
Garou laughed haha as if his failure was not regretful.
“Either it’s because he’s too loyal. Or… “
He squinted at me and bent his eyes like half moons.
“…There’s something he wants to protect.”
Boom!
Benny was close. The sound of rough footsteps seemed louder than the explosion of a flame.
As I was about to beckon to him, Garou stuck close to my back.
“I told you I had something to tell you when he wasn’t here, didn’t I?”
Garou grabbed my shoulder and pressed his lips to my ear. As his hot breath warmed my earlobes, I got goosebumps.
“The fact that demons die only when they are torn to pieces to the point that they cannot be regenerated… It’s actually the evil spirit’s story. If it disintegrates faster than the rate at which it regenerates, it can no longer return to its original form. Of course the consciousness remains, but…”
Come to think of it, Alan used to crush evil spirits with his sharp claws. The evil spirits that moved even when their bodies were shattered became silent only after they were trampled on by him.
“Even demons die in the same way, but there is one other weakness that demons have. That is, cutting off the core that controls black magic. When it enters the body of another race, the magic core usually stays in the part that dominates that body.”
Garou took a step away and tapped his temple.
“The head.”
My nape was getting cold. Just like the day when I predicted the future of dying under Alan’s hand.
“If you want to kill a demon, you can cut their heads off at once.”
Boom, boom! The explosion grew louder. It seemed that the fireworks were slowly coming to an end.
I glanced alternately at Garou and Benny, who was about ten feet below us.
“Why don’t you tell Benny?”
If the demons had a major weakness, he had to tell Benny as well. But Garou sighed and put his index finger on his lips.
“Let’s say it’s a gift for you.”
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