CH 133

“What are you going to do from now on?”

Zagnac could not answer Lane’s question. It was good until he learned that this feeling he had was ‘love’ in the human word. However, there was no particular solution. He, a devil, could not even confess that he loved Azela, a human.

Furthermore…

“I do not love you.”

More than anything, she said she didn’t love him herself. As he recalled what Azela had said to him, he felt his mood getting worse as his chest tingled.

…The person she should love was a fellow human being, not him.

“From now on…”

Zagnac carelessly removed Lane’s hand and grabbed his collar. He then uttered in a heavy voice.

“I have to find a way to release Azela.”

* * *

It was strange.

All that had happened lately was strange things. Azela tilted her head as she swung the sword lightly in the air over her, brushing off the blood. She lightly crossed the body of a fallen assassin and entered the mansion.

“Are you okay?”

Every day, day and night, assassins raided Zagnac’s mansion. Among them, there were talented people with excellent skills though there were also assassins who were very poor.

It wasn’t just the mansion. She didn’t know how they knew it, but it was also common for them to sneak up on him and attack him when he was out. Thanks to this, she had to move busily without time to rest.

“I’m okay.”

“…Your arm is bleeding. Aren’t you hurt?”

When Baharf pointed it out, Azela looked at her left arm with a casual face. There was a light wound that she didn’t know when it was cut. It seemed small wounds like this were frequent nowadays.

Azela replied with a smile as she looked at her wounds.

“Small wounds like this heal with saliva.”

“It’ll get infected. I will call the doctor.”

“I don’t think…”

Before Azela could finish her sentence, Zagnac appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her left arm with a rough gesture. Yes, that was the second weird thing.

“…Are you hurt?”

Looking at her scars, he frowned. As he was examining her wounds here and there, Zagnac crumpled his face and spoke to Baharf,

“Burn that bastard’s corpse right now.”

“Understood.”

“And call the doctor.”

“Yes.”

As he ordered Baharf, Zagnac grabbed Azela’s wrist and climbed toward the bedroom. Normally, he would have reacted calmly, but he had changed a lot lately.

He was very proud of her small wound, and sometimes, he cried that he was to blame for the wound. Though that wasn’t all… he used to nag even if she only tried to go down the steps and would show up from somewhere while being careful going down the steps.

Like she was a baby just starting to walk…

There were times when she tried to go out alone, and he would try to put an escort for her, saying that there are many bad people among humans.

To Azela, his escort knight.

“…What the hell is wrong with you?”

Before the doctor arrived, she asked, frowning at the sight of Zagnac agonizing over Azela’s injured arm. Yes, come to think of it, a few days ago, he gave her a money bag to quit being the escort knight and rather play and eat as Duke Ferial’s business partner.

“…What?”

“Why are you overprotective of me?”

“Me? When?”

Zagnac shrugged his shoulders.

Even at a glance, he seemed suspicious. There was no way that he, a devil, would have realized his feelings for her in the first place… so did she do something wrong? Or was he hiding something from her?

As she thought so, Azela glanced around at him with narrowed eyes.

“…Humans are too weak in our eyes.”

“What?”

“It looks like it will break if you touch it. So, as a contractor, it’s a simple matter for me to protect you.”

Zagnac looked at her bleeding wound with a bitter expression. As she followed him, Azela also saw the bruises on her arms.

It wasn’t a serious injury.

It wasn’t a wound so big that she couldn’t use her arm, and to exaggerate it a little, it would heal in a few days with saliva. While he may not know it, it was nothing to her because, in the past, she was more injured than this every day during training.

“Don’t worry. Humans are not as weak as you think.”

“….”

“How hard are these bones? We’re not a species that will break if you touch it like that. If we were going to break easily, we would have already gone extinct.”

Azela laughed as she removed her arm from him. Although it was subtly nice that he cared about her, she hated it.

There was silence for a moment at her determined voice. Even though he was worried for her, she wondered if she had told him off too sternly. When Azela turned her head slightly, he still remained the same.

‘Yes, it’s now.’

Azela wiggled her fingers.

From the day Livia left, there was something on her mind. She wanted to tell him what she wanted to say, but she seldom got the chance.

However, it seemed that she seemed able to do it now.

“I have something to say.”

“I have something to tell you.”

Zagnac and Azela opened their mouths at the same time, and the next moment, the eyes of the bewildered two met in the air.

Azela smiled calmly at the situation that seemed to only come out in books.

“What is this? Zagnac, you speak first.”

“…No, you speak first.”

He let out a light breath and held out a hand to her. Seeing that, Azela nodded her head without rejecting it. If not now, she didn’t know when she would be able to do it. It was something that may change.

Putting a smile on her face and laughing, she pretended to be as calm as possible.

“Zagnac.”

“Yes.”

“Marry Princess Livia. This is my request for you.”

Azela laughed as if she was glad she was able to erase the growing feelings in her mind.

“…What?”

On the other hand, Zagnac crumpled his face at her words. Perhaps he hadn’t even thought of it. She had already expected such a reaction from him, so it didn’t matter to her.

Azela continued her words with an unconcerned smile and casual tone as she had practiced.

“You said you would grant me anything I wanted?”

“It’s for our contract. I don’t think my marriage will affect our contract.”

“There are many assassins coming to kill you these days. This wound is also caused by that. If you marry Princess Livia, this won’t happen.”

When she spoke, holding out her injured arm, Zagnac had no words to retort. He pressed his lips together and frowned. She was correct if this was an assassin sent by the Emperor.

“It is not difficult. After all, the human lifespan is short to the devil. After Princess Livia dies, the emperor dies, and the person who knows all of this dies, you can start a new life again.”

“But I don’t like it.”

“Besides, if that happens, you will be helping Princess Livia. How nice. It’s good for each other.”

Saying so, Azela smiled and squeezed her injured arm. The wounds that had barely stopped bleeding were bleeding again though she felt no pain. It was because an even greater pain was crushing her heart.

“….”

Zagnac, who gave no answer, silently lowered his gaze and touched his own hand, which had been holding her arm a moment before. He thought maybe that was a good thing.

If he married Livia, the Emperor would no longer target her, and Azela would not be in danger. While she had been getting away with minor cuts on her arm or elsewhere on her body now, there was no guarantee that she’d stay that way forever.

“…I’ll think about it.”

After her brief reply, Zagnac raised his hand and gently placed his hand near Azela’s heart. Humans were too weak. Because if this heart were pierced, it would be over. All he could give her was ‘safety’ so that she could live a long, happy life.

Azela nodded her head, unable to bear a smile.

* * *

Eventually, after a few days, he invited Princess Livia to the mansion.

“Even if I was humiliated like that, I don’t have this much pride… Duke Ferial, you called, and I still came running like this.”

Those were the first words Livia uttered when she arrived at the mansion. When she said that, Zagnac laughed out loud.

“Let’s talk about the unfinished marriage matter again.”