Chapter 70
“Eh…?”
I looked at him with a dazed expression. Kaiden, undeterred, grabbed his sword.
“Lift your sword, Marion.”
Wait, hold on. Didn’t you just say you were about to die protecting your loved one?
I was on the verge of losing my mind from curiosity about what that meant, but a large lava rock fell with a loud crash right beside me.
Kaiden immediately jumped to his feet. I stood up as well, but the moment for asking had passed, and it didn’t seem like the right moment anyway. But still, I was curious.
Who was he talking about? Could it be me? Or his family? Ah, do I count as family too?
The meaning of his words was driving me crazy, and I just wanted to survive this and come back to ask him.
“To perform a miracle…”
Kaiden chuckled softly at my mumbling.
“That’s a good attitude. Shall we go?”
“Yes…!”
“Yes…!”
Alright, let’s give it a try.
Stella, who had been watching us, slowly stood up. I widened my eyes.
“Saint?”
“Following the will of the two Swordmasters… I will try to save as many people as I can.”
“……”
She smiled faintly. Then, Lucas also struggled to get up and muttered.
“As the Prince of the Empire, I can’t just stand by. I’ll save as many as I can.”
“Your Highness…”
The four of us exchanged looks for a brief moment.
“May there be light in your future.”
With Lucas’ words, we turned our bodies. Kaiden and I headed toward the Demon Lord, while Lucas and Stella went to help the people.
“My daughter, Roselyn… I didn’t see her body. So she’s not dead.”
The Demon Lord’s condition seemed serious.
Kaiden and I stood confidently before the Demon Lord, floating high in the air. It seemed pointless to hide, especially against someone who had torn the sky open.
We had a plan.
After swallowing, I shouted loudly.
“Oy Demon Lord! Please! Stop the lava rocks from falling!”
The first plan was persuasion.
At that moment, a lava rock fell directly above my head. Kaiden clicked his tongue, infusing his sword with aura, and struck the rock, shattering it into pieces that scattered everywhere.
“Do you know my daughter?”
The hairs on my body stood on end. In an instant, the Demon Lord was right in front of me.
“Marion!”
Kaiden shouted sharply. I jumped backward, widening the distance. My heart pounded uncomfortably.
“If, if you come this close, I’ll be scared.”
I barely held back a curse. The opponent was the Demon Lord, whose mind seemed slightly off. I didn’t want to provoke him and hasten my death unnecessarily.
“You’re a redhead. My daughter also had red hair when she was born…”
It seemed the Demon Lord had a daughter with a human. If I thought back to what the sorcerer had said, it seemed like both his wife and daughter had died…
I didn’t know the details, but no matter how I looked at it, if the Demon Lord had lost his daughter when she was young, her chances of survival seemed slim.
Bled, though a dragon, had become weaker without the Demon Lord’s power, and a half-blood with humans would be even weaker.
But I didn’t voice these thoughts. Life was precious, after all.
“Why don’t you search slowly?”
The Demon Lord stared at me. His red eyes sent chills down my spine.
“I’ve searched the entire continent for 20 years.”
If a being like the Demon Lord couldn’t find her after 20 years, she was definitely no longer among the living.
“It seems that every time I see a red-haired child, I think I’ve found her… You must have seen her, too. But I don’t know who my daughter is. No matter how much I look, I can’t be sure. Who is she? Who is my daughter?”
He was confused and grabbed his head. He must have seen me as a child?
I looked at Kaiden, also confused. He just shook his head.
The Demon Lord was clearly mad. I felt sympathy, but the first priority was to calm him down.
I saw that the falling lava rocks seemed to slow down. It looked like the persuasion was working. I was glad my red hair was actually an advantage.
“O Demon Lord, if… if your daughter is still alive, wouldn’t it be terrifying to have these lava rocks falling from the sky?”
I cautiously asked him. I tried to speak as softly as possible, so as not to provoke him.
In fact, when we were making the plan, Kaiden had wanted to step forward and do the talking. But I strongly opposed it.
It seemed unlikely that he could naturally adopt a respectful tone and posture for someone of higher status like the Demon Lord.
I kept my stance humble as I watched the Demon Lord. He looked at me with empty eyes.
Why wasn’t he saying anything?
Fortunately, the lava rocks had stopped falling for now. Was this a success?
But that was an over-optimistic thought.
“I hate humans.”
“Eh…?”
“I hate demons too.”
“…O Demon Lord…?”
The tension in the air grew.
“Why are humans so weak? Why are they so weak that they just die, leaving me behind?”
I realized. He already knew that the people he loved were all dead. But he couldn’t bring himself to accept it, so he was just avoiding it.
I had spoken recklessly, asking if his daughter would be scared by the falling lava rocks, as if I were mocking him.
Once I realized this, I quickly tried to signal Kaiden.
“If everyone disappears, I won’t have to feel this pain anymore.”
With that calm statement, a black aura suddenly exploded from the Demon Lord’s body.
“Ugh!”
“Marion!”
I barely dodged, but I saw the blood soaking through my left sleeve. I must have been grazed.
“Are you alright?”
“Please, stop the bleeding, Duke.”
Kaiden hurriedly approached me, and with practiced hands, he tightly wrapped my arm with a handkerchief.
“Damn it, I should have been more careful…”
“Duke, I’m fine. But…!”
We both looked up at the sky. The Demon Lord was already floating high above, gazing down at us with an emotionless look.
Kaiden and I both knew.
It was coming.
With a tremendous roar, the bombardment of lava rocks began again.
Kaiden and I split to the sides, signaling each other.
The second plan was to launch an attack.
We used the falling lava rocks as footholds to leap into the air. Kaiden struck first with an aura-infused slash, followed by my own attack.
The Demon Lord deflected both without even blinking.
I gritted my teeth. While avoiding the lava rocks, I kept stepping on them to get closer to the Demon Lord, launching attack after attack. I
repeated this process dozens of times.
But the longer it went on, the more I felt powerless. We couldn’t even cut a single strand of his hair.
“Damn it! Stop already!”
I cursed and launched another desperate attack with my whole body, but the Demon Lord only glanced at me and flicked his finger.
Black magic shot toward me.
“Marion!”
In the blink of an eye, Kaiden collapsed. His fall played out in slow motion in my mind.
Kaiden took the magic blow meant for me.
The bracelet on my wrist snapped and flew into the air. My eyes filled with tears.
“Duke!”
Before Kaiden hit the ground, I managed to catch him, softening his fall. When I carefully laid him down, I saw black magic and blood oozing from his abdomen.
“Duke!”
I could do nothing but call his name. Blood, so much blood, poured out. I could see the life draining from his face.
Kaiden was dying.
No, this can’t happen. I was supposed to die a day earlier than the Duke.
I didn’t know what to do, so I roughly tore my outer garment and pressed it against his abdomen to stop the bleeding. Tears flowed from my eyes uncontrollably.
“Please, please! Kaiden!”
At that moment, the Demon Lord grabbed my wrist and jerked me up roughly.
“Where did you get this bracelet?”
The Demon Lord glared at me and held the bracelet up in front of me. It was the germanium bracelet Kaiden had bought for me when we went to the jewelry shop to pick out our wedding rings.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
I still hadn’t heard who he loved. If it was me…
I wanted to tell him, but…
“This is my wife’s bracelet.”
I looked at Kaiden. His face was growing paler by the second.
The Demon Lord shouted at me.
“I asked where you got it!”
“Am I your daughter, then?!”
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