"What? You son of…"
Demian uttered a harsh curse at the lamp.
『You have eighty times left.』
"Did it hurt their pride when the first thing the demon talked about was the arrival of the saintess? We know exactly where that information came from, and yet they announced it as the revelation of God?"
Demian was furious more than he was dumbfounded.
Through the black sorcerer that he had met in Hautean, he confirmed that it was the demon that made it known about the arrival of the saintess, not God. However, the Temple of Glory in the Empire was deceiving people as if God had given them the revelation.
It had been over 100 years since they stopped hearing God's voice.
『The temple made an excuse, saying that they wanted to wait until they found the saintess before disclosing that information to avoid confusion…』
"I don't think I'm going to be in Tarragon for the time being. I have a strong premonition that something troublesome will happen."
Though Demian was going to go back as soon as he found the saintess, he did not think that he should do that anymore.
Hearing Demian's refusal to go back, Acerus let out a sigh and mumbled.
『Good for you.』
"What?"
『You're free.』
"Be born as a slave then."
『…』
Acerus kept his mouth shut.
The lamp's light flickered.
They knew that they had not much time left to talk, nevertheless Acerus and Demian did not say anything for a moment.
The first to break the silence was Crown Prince Acerus.
『How's Hautean?』
"Now that I have got rid of two black sorcerers, the rest of them are all hiding. I think I will have to approach Sonnet Hautean."
『Sonnet Hautean? The Princess?』
"Yeah. According to them, the Princess is a strong candidate for being a saintess. They will for sure show up around her sooner or later."
『How are you going to approach her?』
"Of course through…"
Demian suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence.
Acerus, who had been waiting for Demian's next remark with high anticipation, burst into a fit of anger.
『What? Why? What is it? How are you going to do it? Hey, a bastard who stops in the middle of their sentence is the worst bastard in the world.』
"I will take care of that."
『Oi, you son of a gun!』
"Conversation over."
Acerus' loud grumbling voice disappeared with the sound of a click.
Demian put out the magic light on the lamp by blowing it off and returned the warehouse to its original appearance before walking outside.
"Goodman."
"Good work."
The innkeeper raised one hand and waved it roughly, signing that there was no need for any greeting.
Leaving him behind and out of the inn, there appeared an end-of-summer-sunset. The deep scarlet sunset spread from the end of the world. The dark clouds and red sunset contrasted strongly.
It was a bewitching sky.
Like Lara's eyes.
Demian climbed up the horse to go back, but he could not give a signal for departure.
His gaze continued to remain in the burning sunset.
He had to get her help to approach Sonnet Hautean.
Lara.
The woman who felt guilty for him and approached him to make atonement for her wrongdoings. Despite him being in front of her, she missed the Demian Drake—the one that he did not know—in her dream.
Somehow…
She might be the saintess.
At first, he thought Lara was crazy. He wondered if someone could be so deeply seized with guilt through a nightmare. But he acknowledged that her dream had some foresight. Because no one knew that Demian was a spy sent by Acerus.
Demian put aside the possibility that she was the saintess.
Lara neither served God nor did she have a trace of God. She could neither hear God's voice nor could she use God's power.
"You have become unfortunate because of me. Please use me to achieve your goal. I don't mind whatever you do. I will never betray you this time."
He was genuinely upset when she said that.
He did not know why. He did not even want to know the details.
Lara did not have to feel guilty towards Demian, he was not the Demian that she knew.
He did not have any intention to receive compensation for the misfortune that he did not even experience. Demian did not live that way. Although he was born a slave and lived on the battlefield, he was not cowardly enough of a human to be content with exploiting a feeling that did not belong to him.
"Crazy bastard."
Demian ridiculed himself.
"I could not even leave her side."
He knew Lara was avoiding him.
Because he said something he did not mean to relieve her guilt.
And now he could not even leave, he had to get Lara's help to solve his mission.
But why did that fact make him this happy?
This has been expected from the beginning. At the first meeting, where they only had eye contact, he felt pleasure that was close to euphoria. Lara may have thought that she had met the Demian in her dream, but it was the opposite for Demian. He always looked at the world like it was a play. The people were like mere actors who spoke and moved as written in the script.
He was the sole audience in this wide world.
Even when he talked with other people or made eye contact, it meant nothing to him. He felt like it was a fantasy that would disappear after the play had ended.
But there, only Lara saw him as a real person, not as her audience.
She walked barefoot down the stage and reached out to him who was in the audience's seat. At that time, he felt like his two floating legs had finally reached the ground. He realized then that the stage was broken. And that the world that he only considered as an object, was all organically connected and alive.
'Lara.'
Demian the slave was not acknowledged by anyone until he managed to kill hundreds of people on the battlefield. He just fought without knowing who was his enemy, who was his ally, which one was justice, and which one was injustice.
He survived by eating rotten meat and searching the pockets of the dead.
After becoming good at fighting, he was called to a more dangerous and violent battlefield by those who wanted to take advantage of him. They believed that the mere fact that Demian was a slave meant that he would risk his life for them if they gave him enough meat and alcohol. He became a man who did not want anything and did not dream of anything because the world was a terribly strange place for him.
The only person in Demian's life who treated him equally was Crown Prince Acerus.
But he was the son of the Emperor.
The heir to the great Tarragon Empire which covered half of the continent.
Those loyal to Acerus always frowned and clicked their tongues whenever Demian was around him. They were antsy to get rid of him from the Crown Prince's side.
Acerus was the first one who could not stand that situation anymore. He sent Demian to Hautean, a small country on the frontier, leaving him with a difficult mission to complete.
And he said this to him.
"It's okay if you leave here and do not come back for good. I want you to meet a girl and fall in love. I will erase all the records of you in the Empire. And then, I will completely forget that I had a warrior named Demian by my side."
Demian only laughed at him for that nonsense.
He said that it would never happen and that he was born to fight so he would die fighting.
Acerus was angry at Demian.
"Please get attached to life. Why do you think you have survived all those battles?"
"Because I'm strong."
"Because there's still fate that you haven't met with yet, you foolish bastard!"
Who is he to call me a fool?
Despite saying that to Demian, Acerus was also fighting to the death without getting married yet.
Demian thought out of the blue that he had to go to Lara.
Looking at the sunset, he wanted to meet Lara right now.
He would have to say it while looking at her eyes that resembled the sunset.
Don't be sorry to me because I'm not the Demian in your dreams. Don't think of other men through me.
Otherwise, I would feel like killing that bastard.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Konny informed Demian that Lara went to Eunice's party.
She also said that Lara was put on the spot because she did not have a partner to go to the party after fighting with Demian. They did not fight and it did not seem like Lara was really put on the spot because of that, but Demian did not make excuses and just asked about the venue of the party.
With a bright face, Konny told him the location of Eunice's vacation home.
Demian rode his horse there.
He heard Konny's shout telling him to at least change his clothes, but he just ignored her.
It was getting late at night.
It looked like it was going to rain ever since a few days ago so the sky looked unusual. The dark clouds repeatedly swallowed and spat the moon out.
Was the rain going to be a simple shower? No.
This was a sign of a typhoon.
As if provoking him, the unpredictable wind disheveled Demian's hair, rising high in the sky.