Chapter 39
Yuria paused and looked at Cain. Under that gaze, Cain’s expression changed at once. His eyes narrowed in displeasure.
“Wouldn’t you rather call him Cain, of course, only if he’s okay with it?”
At Yuria’s suggestion, both Fren and Cain’s faces twisted. It was better to call him by his name than to call him father. But it was just slightly better, not enough for either of them to want that to happen.
“My full name is Cainellian K’del. So I’d rather be called Cainel.”
Only Yuria could call him Cain. Not even his own people dared to call him by his first name, and they could never bring themselves to even utter the name ‘Cain’ that was close to a pet name. And no matter how much he was his son, Cain didn’t want to hear Fren calling him that. But since he couldn’t make the child call him by his full, long name, Cainellian, he thought it was best to call him Cainel, for short.
“Fren, is that okay?” It was Fren, not Yuria, who was going to call him like that, so his thoughts were important.
“Fren like Cain.” Recognizing the meaning behind Cain’s words, Fren spoke. The kid slowly opened his mouth to speak, his face sullen with frustration. It was very unpleasant and offensive for him to call that man by his name, but it was even sickening to know that he wanted Yuria to be the only one who could call him ‘Cain.’ He didn’t want Yuria to be special to Cain in any way, and even more, he didn’t want Cain to be special to Yuria. So, to prevent Yuria from being the only one, he had no choice but to call him Cain as well.
On the other hand, Fren’s reckless announcement created a slight misunderstanding. Instead of “I’d like to call him Cain,” it sounded like “I like Cain.” Of course, Cain didn’t misunderstand in the slightest, and even without further explanation, Fren’s demeanor made it clear that he didn’t like him.
Only Yuria looked at him in surprise. She had thought that the sharpness of Cain’s treatment of the child made Fren dislike him, but it didn’t seem like that? Maybe he was just uncomfortable with his father’s sudden presence.
“I see,” Yuria said with a small nod. It was a relief. Even if she didn’t want Fren to be close to Cain, still she had hoped he didn’t dislike him too much. They were father and son, after all. And contrary to what she’d expected, Cain hadn’t abandoned his son, but circumstances beyond his control had made it impossible for Cain to know of his existence or find him. Of course, that didn’t erase the fact that Fren had to live in the world all alone until now, but even so, there was a difference between being abandoned and not being abandoned.
At Yuria’s comment, Fren opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but stayed silent. He had a feeling that Yuria had misunderstood his words, but her expression seemed somewhat happy to deny it. Fren didn’t want to break Yuria’s happy expression. However, he couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied, so he pressed his lips together, frowning.
Seeing that, only Cain smirked as if he found the situation amusing. He hadn’t expected to hear Fren say that he liked him.
“Well then, Fren, you can stay with Cain for a while. I’ll get the food ready.”
“Fren can help?” He felt it was far more beneficial to help Yuria than to be alone with Cain.
“It’s okay.” Yuria stroked the child’s head affectionately. In response, Fren nodded with a gloomy expression.
Yuria felt a little sorry for him, but there was nothing he could do to help her. He had just woken up yesterday, and she wanted to let him rest rather than make him do things. Besides, starting today, Fren would be learning to control his energy from Cain. She didn’t know how Cain would teach him, but it could be hard as it was his first time learning.
Meanwhile, Cain had inadvertently ended up in a situation where he had to eat Yuria’s food again and looking somewhat flustered realized it was too late to stop her now. At that, Cain decided to bring his own food whenever he came to her house in the future. It was a good idea, he thought to himself. It would save her the trouble of cooking for him. Today, however, Cain realized that he would have to eat her food, so he decided to prepare himself.
While Yuria was away preparing the meal, Cain and Fren remained silent, neither saying a word to the other. Neither of them felt the need to speak, nor did they have anything to say.
Yuria quickly finished preparing the meal. Cain stared at the hot food on the table, and a determined look flashed across his face.
I just have to put up with it for today. So let’s be strong… Having tasted her food once already, he was able to finish the food today with relative ease. At that, Fren looked somewhat disappointed. If he frowned even once, he planned to say that he didn’t like the food Yuria made and would try to stop him from eating her food from now on.
Despite Fren’s disappointment, the meal was over quickly. Cain barely had time to catch his breath before he and Fren were out the door.
If he was going to teach him to control his aura, it was better to do it outside than inside, that way he could prevent accidents from harming Yuria or destroying her precious home.
When Cain went outside to teach Fren how to control his energy without a moment’s rest, Yuria looked worried but didn’t stop them. Without the slightest complaint, Fren followed the man outside.
A moment later, the two stood facing each other in an open space behind the house. Cain looked at Fren as if upset, and Fren looked back at Cain, dissatisfied. Time passed in silence between them. In the end, it was Fren who broke the silence.
“Didn’t you say you were going to teach me how to control my aura?” Fren, suddenly back to his adult demeanor, said in a ragged tone.
“I’m just trying to figure that out, brat.”
Cain had never taught anyone in his life, so even though he had said he would teach Fren, he couldn’t quite figure out how. Normally, he would have learned by fighting demon beasts and other devils in the devil realm. But here, there were neither demon beasts nor devils.
“You were so arrogant but you don’t even know how to teach.” Fren sneered sharply.
“How rude.”
If other devils had seen Fren treating Cain like this, they would have been greatly appalled.
‘But he’s quite something, isn’t he?’
Even though he had crossed into the human realm that was draining his energy, normal people would have had a hard time even facing Cain. His body naturally exuded a sense of authority as he was King, and draining his aura didn’t make it disappear completely. Therefore, it was commendable that Fren had faced him so confidently from their first meeting, and had attempted to attack him.
“The only person I am polite to is Yuri.” He had no intention of being polite to anyone else. Unless Yuria wanted him to.
“You’re such a brat and you already know how to wear a mask. She should see this.”
That way, she wouldn’t say he’s cute or adorable anymore.
“…Yuri is always on my side,” Fren said, glaring at Cain provocatively.
“On that subject, you pretend to be a child in front of her. If you’re so confident, you shouldn’t have to hide it from her.”
“I don’t think I need to explain anything to you,” Fren said coldly.
“Tsk. Not cute at all,” Cain muttered to himself, clicking his tongue.
“If you don’t know how to teach me, there’s no reason I should be taught.” As if asking him ‘for how long will you be talking nonsense?’ Fren glared at him coldly.
“Who said I don’t know?” Cain said equally coldly, fired up by Fren’s challenge.
“Is it teaching me to stand there like a fool?”
“Definitely not cute,” said Cain, displeased by Fren’s harsh words.
“I don’t intend to be cute for you.”
Not to Cain, not to anyone. With Yuria was more than enough.
“Human children are supposed to be cute, aren’t they?”
“Unless you have a stone for a brain, I’m sure you know that I have demon blood in me.”
Even if he had just half devil blood in him, how could Cain ask him to look like a regular human child? Fren looked displeased.
“My bad.” Cain shrugged lightly, judging by Fren’s sharp reaction it seemed he had said something unnecessary.
“So what are you going to do?”
“There are no demon beasts here, and I’m the only devil, so I guess we can’t do much.”
There was no telling how well the little brat would use his energy against him, but there was no other way. The theory didn’t matter. Devils learn everything through practice. In the first place, manipulating energy wasn’t something learned just because someone told you that you should use it in this or that way. You had to see it, feel it, experience it.
Fren frowned, wondering what Cain meant.
“Think of me as an enemy, attack me, and see.”
“Well, I like that.”
It was very easy to think of Cain as the enemy. He was already an enemy to Fren. He was after Yuria, his most precious being in the world, and he might try to take her away from him at any moment.
Without hesitation, Fren lunged at Cain.
Yuria was busy doing chores in her home and had sneaked out for a moment. She wondered what was going on between Fren and Cain, and she was worried.
She had realized that, contrary to her earlier thoughts, Fren didn’t dislike Cain that much, but that didn’t mean they were on good terms. When Yuria stepped outside, she was horrified to see Fren and Cain fighting to the death.
‘No, I told you to teach Fren! Who told you to hit him?’
Yuria looked at Cain with a contorted expression.
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