Chapter 53: Don't Go
Chapter 53 – Don't Go
‘Bellatrix… Think normally. I’m human, human… I’m human.’
Bella was applying medicine to Kiehl, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, expressionless. Inside, barely holding back the smell of blood flowing from Kiehl. She glanced up from time to time at him, and her face was red from a fever.
"Look. Didn’t I say that if you don’t treat it quickly, it will get worse?”
Anxiety acts stronger than the scent of blood. She placed her hand on Kiehl's forehead and sighed.
“It feels like hell here… No, it is hell.”
However, for Kiehl, this moment was heaven.
If he saw her, he thought that his longing to see her would calm down. Bella, whom he had longed for and longed for a long time, had blurred, and the thought that maybe even her heart that he loved was clouded.
Though this encounter enabled him to define his mind more precisely. Every single gesture of her hand, every single strand of her hair, was pulling him into a bigger swamp.
‘I thought it would be nice to just be by your side…’
As Bella put her hand on his chest and clasped it close to bandage it, it seemed that even his exhaled air had an embarrassing atmosphere.
‘I must be really helpless.’
Kiehl was embarrassed and covered his mouth with his hand.
—"Kiehl, take it off."
It must have been a meaningless utterance with her demonic eyes, though it was alluring enough to offer it if he was asked to sacrifice his empire.
“Kiehl…?”
Bella's voice suddenly called for him, and he panicked and answered.
“…Yes?"
“Sleep a little. One of the medicinal herbs is also used as a sleeping pill, so you will soon feel sleepy.”
Saying so, she stroked his hair as before and turned around. Seeing that, Kiehl grabbed her wrist and asked.
"Where are you going?"
Also, with a very anxious look.
“Take a rest. I will come soon.”
He gripped her wrist tighter, although Bella smiled and spread her fingers one by one.
Perhaps, the herbs were taking effect so quickly, Kiehl's body was losing strength and his eyes were closed.
* * *
While he was asleep, Bella came out of the villa and looked intently at the wrist that Kiehl had just grabbed.
‘…I never thought I would take it to heart.’
Even though she wasn't surprised at first because he was such a smart character, Bella never thought he'd use that head on herself.
‘Even if I tell you to go back first, he will never go back.’
Anyway, she had to go to the human world and see how much the novel has changed. Who would believe in a promise that was not sworn in…?
Kiehl now knew she was a demon, so he probably wouldn’t believe it.
Thinking that, she hurriedly tried again to radio with Jenkins. She did not know whether it was day or night in the human world.
“Jenkins.”
“Lady, it has been an hour and eighteen minutes since the last radio.”
“Did you curse at me now?”
“…Yes. It’s been sixteen minutes.”
Bella raised one corner of her lips and asked Jenkins as if exasperated, “Jen. Are you and Kiehl and Iwer all in the same place?”
“Oh, how much do you know?”
“How much? What are you fooling me with?”
Then, she heard Rinne’s voice, not Jenkins.
“Hello, Demon King! My name is Rinee, who is going to become an archmage!”
She was startled by Rinne’s sudden appearance and almost turned off the radio. After composing herself, Bella said her greetings back.
"Well… nice to meet you."
The awkward air was spreading beyond the summoning circle.
“Ask me anything. Grandpa Jen has suddenly collapsed!”
Frowned, she glanced at the walkie-talkie once before letting out a sigh. She thought that if it was Jenkins, there would be no way Rinne, whom she never knew nor seen, could fool her.
“Well then… Kiehl really doesn't need my heart, right?"
“Heart…?”
“Wasn’t he here to kill the Demon King?”
“Ugh, no. Somehow, I received a quest to summon the Demon King, and the client was an acquaintance of His Highness!”
‘…What kind of relationship do you have?’
“He said that he knew the Demon King and had to bring you along!”
The uneasiness that lingered in Bella’s heart disappeared at those words, and she opened her mouth again.
“So, when do you think the summons will be?”
Eventually, the moon went out and darkness came. One of the three days given to Jenkins has passed.
“It’s going to take a week, I used some big magic a while ago, and the magic hasn’t come back yet.”
At that, she recalled the explanation Jenkins had given her quite a while ago.
‘If it’s Rinne, there will be no problems with the vessel since she’ll become an archmage in the future…’
Summoning was, in a word, like moving water from vessel to vessel. Just as if you move a large amount of water into a small bowl, the water overflows and you cannot move it all. The size of the bowl has to be larger than the amount of water.
There were two ways for Bella to enter the human world.
There was a lot of water to let out, so it was either a vessel to hold it, or, like a genie in a lamp, she was contracted to only go out when needed. The method that Rinne had been studying until now was to use a magic amplification tool that greatly enlarges the vessel.
“Miss, I have a question for you.”
"Yes."
“You can’t come out of the Demon Realm until you absorb all the power of your predecessors, right?”
While inheriting the power of the previous demon king from the demon realm, Bella also increased her understanding of the demon realm and magical powers.
After fifty years or so, the previous Demon King would disappear by itself, and she would become the Demon King. However, if she went to the human world, she couldn’t guarantee when she would return to the demon realm.
“If you will get all the successions, we will have to recalculate from the beginning… We need to have more amplification tools…”
“Isn’t that how you calculated it from the beginning?”
"Look…! Old Man! Didn’t I say we should do that?”
Rinne’s lively voice could be heard over the walkie-talkie, and Bella's feelings grew even worse.
‘Do you think that Kiehl will go to the human world first?'
Pausing for a moment, Jenkins asked Bella in a dying voice, "That… Or how about reducing your power a bit?”
“Are you crazy?”
She hung up the radio, but Jenkins' words continued to stick in her mind.
‘Reduce power… It's not like there's no way at all.'
Theoretically, there were several possible methods. Nevertheless, if she makes a mistake, she could go to the human world and used no power like a non-demon human for a while. Worst of all, she could have lived in the human world for a while as a cat.
‘Should I do everything I can do for now?’
Bella spread her wings and glanced north of the Demon King's Castle.
‘…It must be the first time I see the face of the previous Demon King.’
* * *
As the moon rose, Bella quietly opened the door to the villa. She turned her neck several times as she yawned.
“I can’t do this either.”
Sighing heavily, she wiped her body with a towel before turning her gaze to Kiehl, who was sleeping on her bed.
‘If told him to go to the human world first, he wouldn't, right…?’
With that thought, she approached slowly and sat slightly next to Kiehl, gazing intently into his face as she opened his mouth slightly.
‘I raised you beautifully to kill me.’
A smile spread across Bella's lips.
‘You make me live.’
His face was so pretty that she forgot her hard work last night.
‘As expected, you’re also my favorite character. Now that I see it, you have grown up very nicely.’
Was it because he is the male lead of the novel? Bella was even proud, as if she had all the good things.
“Ummm…”
Then, as Kiehl flinched and sweated, she slowly placed her hand on his arm and tapped it to the beat of her heartbeat.
‘…Is he having nightmares?’
Just like when he was a child and patted his back to sleep in her arms, Bella reached out to touch his hair and leaned forward a little more.
* * *
Kiehl's had fallen asleep in the dark.
“Take a rest. I will come soon.”
Bella spoke kindly, though as she lifted her fingers one by one from his grasp, she pushed him away. As she slowly turned back and walked away, he could barely utter to her.
“Don’t go…”
For a moment, the memories of entering the demon realm through Iwer and the memories of meeting and hugging Bella felt more and more blurry and like a story from a distant time. Just like when they kept drugging him in the imperial palace.
And, the sad dream that was always repeated came back.
He was locked up at the top of the tower, unable to open the window alone.
— “Animal kingdom… Is there such a thing?”
— “Naive. Is that how you plan to become the Crown Prince?”
Those who distrusted him insulted his mother by talking about ‘legitimacy’ from behind.
— “If it is not now, it will be difficult to cut the sprout.”
As Kiehl holds them, they crouch in front and hire an assassin from behind. The face of the assassin who came at night resembled the face of the nightmare he had as a child.
— “Are you like me?”
— "You are alone, too."
Next to the ghost was young Bella, organizing the novel in the library. The ghost smiled and whispered in Kiehl's ear.
— "She says she doesn't need you."
— "Bella is gone."
— "Young master! Please, pretend you didn't see it!"
And, he went back to his childhood cage again, and Bella reached out her hand.
— “If you have nowhere to go, would you like to come with me?”
If he stretched out to grab her hand, it would break, and if he ran to grab her, she got farther away…
* * *
He slowly opened his eyes as he was sweating as his body was burning.
‘Bella…’
Kiehl, who had just woken from his dream, had no idea where he was. Even the fact that he had come to the Demon Realm felt as if it had never existed. Like a memory from a long time ago, like a dream.
“…Kiehl, are you awake?”
The echoing hallucinations were clearly audible. He gazed at her through his trembling eyelashes and smiled inside.
‘I'm really crazy…’
The vision of Bella, who had always seen hazy, was this time dressed in color and as an adult right before his eyes. It was also very beautiful and clear.
Placing his hand on the back of Bella's neck…
‘…You are my imagination.’
He was terribly lonely and missed her. Even though he knew those lips would break like air, he slowly pulled her towards him.
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