Chapter 112
The chains, responding to their master’s will, loosened their grip.
Cheshire, who had been tightly bound and suspended in midair, slowly descended along with the unraveling chains.
Thud. Her feet touched the ground.
Hailon and Cheshire stared at each other in silence for a moment.
Hailon was too stunned to speak, while Cheshire was at a loss for how to explain herself, her words caught in her throat.
As they simply gazed at one another, noisy footsteps echoed from outside.
The holy knights were rushing in to capture the intruder.
In the heart of the Holy Empire, no less—in the relic storage of the Grand Temple, discovered as a demoness.
The mere thought was horrifying.
‘I need to hide!’
Using the illusion realm would be simple, but it would involve too much power, leaving traces of fairy magic behind.
In her panic, Cheshire glanced around, searching for a place to conceal herself.
That was when Hailon grabbed her wrist.
He roughly pulled her body toward him and headed behind the crown display stand.
Hailon embraced Cheshire and crouched down behind the stand.
The chains clinked softly, cleverly creating a blind spot that shielded them both.
“Hailon, mmph…!”
Cheshire tried to say something to him.
But a large hand clamped over her mouth.
The texture of his leather glove pressed against her lips.
Startled, Cheshire’s eyes widened hugely.
From behind, Hailon whispered briefly into her ear as he held her.
“Be quiet.”
“….”
It seemed he was trying to hide her.
Cheshire rolled her eyes.
For now, she’d let herself be caught, then slip away when Hailon was distracted.
But this was the inquisitor who had relentlessly pursued demonesses countless times before.
Hailon could see right through what Cheshire was thinking.
Click.
The white chains wrapped around her ankle.
Her body shivered at the cold touch of the divine power against her skin.
A low voice reached her.
“Don’t run away.”
It was a clear warning.
Of course, just because Hailon warned her didn’t mean she intended to obey meekly.
Cheshire tugged at the chain around her ankle with her hand.
It seemed unbreakable unless she made a spectacle by wielding fairy power like swinging an axe.
Getting caught here would only disadvantage Cheshire.
With no other choice, she docilely relaxed her body in his embrace.
Then Hailon released the hand covering her mouth.
Instead, he firmly wrapped his arms around her waist.
Bang—the door burst open.
The sound of holy knights pouring into the relic storage filled the air.
They checked the unchanged, serene interior and grew flustered.
“The crown is still in place.”
“Where is Lord Hailon?”
“I heard he headed to the storage first….”
“He might already be pursuing the intruder.”
While the holy knights exchanged serious conversation.
Behind the display stand, Cheshire was dying from the effort to suppress her urge to fidget.
Strangely, she kept feeling tense.
‘The position is a bit… it’s really getting to me.’
Hailon was leaning against the display stand, seated, with Cheshire sitting between his legs, held in his arms.
Because of the flower crown, her clothes had transformed into a strange dress, and the fabric was far too thin.
As a result, the man embracing her from behind felt all too vividly against her.
She’d always thought his body was unusually large for such a pretty face.
Indeed, being this close made her newly aware of just how big Hailon’s build was.
‘Well, he’s tall, and his hands are enormous too.’
Earlier, when he covered her mouth, she thought he might engulf her entire face.
As Cheshire recalled Hailon’s long, straight fingers with no rough edges, she held her breath.
“…!”
Hailon slowly buried his face in the nape of her neck.
His inhaled and exhaled breaths tickled her skin.
Suddenly, somewhere deep in her belly grew warm.
The ankle bound by the chains itched unbearably.
Unable to endure it, Cheshire curled her body inward.
When she twisted her shoulder slightly, Hailon tightened his embracing arms.
He pulled her even deeper into his hold.
It was a clinging that was both tender and desperate.
As if, if he could, he wanted to lock her away in his arms forever….
Cheshire recalled a moment from the past.
Back then, too, Hailon had clung to her with such desperate longing.
Lichesia had long wondered about the young apprentice knight who had helped her escape from the slave hunters.
Not often, but every now and then, she thought of him.
Whether he had survived against the slave hunters that day.
Whether he had truly become a holy knight….
Her longstanding curiosity was resolved with an unexpected reunion.
By then, she had gained infamy across the continent as a demoness.
The Holy Empire of Hilderd, no longer able to ignore the heretic’s existence, dispatched the holy knight order to eliminate the demoness.
Hailon was among the holy knights.
It was a reunion after several years.
He had shed his boyish innocence, standing on the boundary between boy and young man, looking unfamiliar.
Yet she recognized him at a glance.
That he was the boy from back then.
The boy from the past also recognized Lichesia immediately.
With eyes still clear and pure blue, he gazed at her steadily before parting his lips.
“Demoness.”
His low, heavy voice was completely different from the youthful tone of the past.
To the man who suited the holy knight’s uniform so well, pointing his sword at her, Lichesia smiled in greeting.
“Hello, Hailon.”
“….”
Hailon didn’t respond.
He simply looked at Lichesia with unreadable eyes.
But his hesitation was brief, and he swung his sword.
It was the holy sword of a knight punishing heresy.
The holy sword infused with divine power shone whiter than any she had seen, among the finest.
The boy who had been strong even in the past had grown unrecognizably stronger in the interim.
Just as Lichesia had grown.
Even for Lichesia, who feared nothing after awakening the illusion realm, it was a bit overwhelming.
Especially, the holy knight order led by Hailon was unusually tenacious.
At that time, Hailon wasn’t even an inquisitor.
It was shortly after his ordination, when he was a low-ranked ordinary holy knight.
Yet even knights of higher rank couldn’t treat him carelessly.
Rather, when the situation grew dangerous, they all looked to Hailon.
Waiting for him to give orders and lead them forward.
It was absurd, but to the knights, it seemed utterly natural.
It made clear what kind of presence Hailon was.
She trapped the holy knight order in the illusion realm and scattered flower petals to obscure their vision.
Piercing through the petals, Hailon thrust his sword, and she bound him with thorn bushes before asking.
“Are you the leader?”
Thrown as a joke, Hailon didn’t react.
He merely broke his silence so far with a short question.
“That day.”
“….”
“Why did you run away?”
The question dredging up old history made her feel strange.
She had wondered if perhaps only she remembered it.
It felt unfamiliar that he, too, remembered the past so vividly.
“Because I wanted to live.”
Lichesia answered him.
That was the end of their conversation.
The demoness had no intention of gently sending back the holy knight who had raised his sword against her.
“If you want to live too, you’d better run away starting now.”
The chess pieces of the illusion realm plummeted toward Hailon.
Along with the massive chess pieces pounding the board, brilliant flowers bloomed everywhere.
That day, she truly intended to kill Hailon.
But he was strong, and he stubbornly survived the fairy’s illusion realm.
From then on, Hailon began to pursue Lichesia with relentless obsession.
In the chase that continued for years, Hailon and Lichesia gradually grew.
Everything expanded.
Their power, bodies, positions and honors, and infamy….
Especially Hailon advanced at an astonishing speed.
Starting from the very bottom, each time they met again, he had risen at least one rank, and if they didn’t see each other for long, he’d jumped two or three ranks in the meantime.
Thus, in the year he came of age.
Hailon became a first-rank holy knight.
It was an unprecedentedly rapid, miraculous promotion.
Even for Lichesia, who had been forced to witness Hailon’s changes and growth through their tiresome battles, it was an achievement impressive enough to stir her heart oddly.
She thought that if they met, she’d at least say a word of congratulations.
Of course, after beating him into submission with flowers to keep him from getting cocky.
But when Hailon came to her.
Lichesia could do nothing.
“Demoness.”
Covered in blood from head to toe, with eyes utterly ruined….
“Kill me.”
Because he begged her to kill him.
