“In regards to Legion, I never knew that the Demon King had hated the humans so much. I heard that you hadn’t said anything special about it and possessed no interest in the war as well… It wasn’t my intention to be with Legion at all.”
“It was not intentional.”
Oddly enough, Bael’s low voice seemed rather sarcastic. He had never shown any kind of emotions under any circumstances in the first place.
“Isn’t that not the case though? You must have escaped from that young dragon’s nest after learning that the human Sword Master was still in this Western Land. To escape with him, you then cleverly put on a face like this.”
Bael’s finger brushed against Julia’s widely opened eyes and soon went downwards. There seemed to be some destructive longing hidden at the tips of his fingers that were sliding down her cheek and her throat too.
‘Did the Demon King hate Legion this very much?’
He didn’t kill Legion though. She heard that even a Sword Master at the pinnacle of mana control would be helpless in front of the Demon King’s power. So, if Bael truly meant it, he would have already killed Legion before.
Julia eventually thought that Bael’s generosity stemmed from such indifference.
“When did you awaken your ability? Did that human Sword Master teach you?”
“It really has nothing to do with Legion at all. I’m sure that I had fallen asleep in Paimon’s mansion, but when I woke up, the surroundings were all mountains instead…”
“Go on.”
Julia stopped talking once his touch had reached her collarbone. And Bael’s fingers kept on moving dangerously as if it could dig into her chest at any moment.
“I was so scared and I didn’t even know why I woke up in such a place all of a sudden. But still, I thought about moving around and eventually met Legion. And that was all. There was nothing to worry about.”
“You’re lying to me.”
“What?”
“There’s no way that the magic crystal would have kidnapped you quietly. The Mountain of Death is nothing more than a mere shell that had been made by the magic crystal. Just like the Demon God’s tower that continues to protect the magic stone.”
As she looked up at Bael, Julia slowly realized that he was actually staring somewhere outside the window. Julia soon followed his gaze and became hesitant. The huge mountain that was facing Paimon’s mansion had now disappeared without a trace.
Julia’s chin was suddenly grabbed and turned back in an instant. Bael’s red eyes proceeded to scan her quivering pupils carefully.
“Don’t think that you’re just a mere key. All the magic crystals that are scattered underground will soon be targeting you. It means that you may experience something like this many more times from now.”
“But I… are the magic crystals not simply artifacts that just contain magical power?”
For a moment, she almost said that she wasn’t the real key at all. The real key had been Estelle Vestra—not Julia Vestra—and she, herself, was just a foreign object that shouldn’t even have existed in this world.
Bael raised his eyebrows as if he was suspicious when she changed her words all of a sudden, but he didn’t react any further.
“Magic crystals are fragments of the magic stone. They inherit the will of the main body, but not everything is exactly like that.”
“Does it mean that the magic stone has an ego or even its own self?”
“Let’s just say… there was. Right now, it’s just a remnant that got driven by the state of inertia.”
The hand that had been gripping Julia’s chin soon loosened without a sound. Julia, who was looking at Bael, subtly turned her body around and gazed down once his hand had completely dropped down. As she was still sitting on Bael’s thighs, it made her have the same height as him, so their eyes eventually met directly together.
His gaze was very deep and hot. Even though it was just a gaze, it was burning as if they were all on fire instead.
As Julia let out a sigh, she finally realized that something was wrong. From the time she opened her eyes, the sore and swollen throat as well as the pain between her legs had completely subsided. Not to mention, the big and small wounds that she had while wandering through the mountains and fighting the magic crystal had disappeared too.
“Demon King, by any chance, did you heal me?”
Bael, who had a rather unconcerned face, was just silent. However, Julia did not avert her gaze this time. It would be a lie if she said that she wasn’t scared at all, but she had hoped that perhaps she could somehow discover the real being behind his insensitive shell.
“There will be no next time, so don’t leave my side ever again.”
Was it strange that his answer sounded more like ‘to never get hurt’, rather than a simple desire to possess a particular object. When a lovely smile was just about to form on Julia’s lips, a loud shout echoed through the tightly closed window.
“This damned brat—would you get out of here right now?!”
“You insignificant human being! If you ever step into this body’s nest even with just a single foot, I will definitely burn you black and throw you straight into the lava!!”
Surprised, Julia’s eyes instantly widened. As soon as she woke up, Bael was already in front of her, so she had no time to think about Legion at all. But there was no way that he would ever leave her alone.
“Oh, really! What kind of a child has this kind of a personality!”
“A child? Did you just treat this body like a snotty child?!”
“Then, why is your height so low to the ground? Is this actually a child as well as an adult?”
“I won’t let you go. I won’t let you go. I won’t let you go. I will kill you!!”
A huge fireball instantly erupted beyond Julia’s bedroom on the second floor. She was rendered shocked before jumping out of bed at once and began dashing frantically out the door.
“…”
As he was left alone in the bedroom, Bael proceeded to look down at his empty hands.
If it had bothered him that the key went to the human man, he would just have to lay her down again by force. But strangely, his hand didn’t move at all. Instead, the key’s arm that came into his eyes was much thinner than he had thought. It seemed like she would instantly burst into tears while saying that it hurt even if he had touched it ever so lightly.
“What a strange thing indeed.”
Whether or not the key would cry had nothing to do with him in the first place. She was only required to be alive and then it would already be enough for the plan.
Bael slowly shook his head. And before long, the key’s back had already disappeared beyond the hallway altogether.
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