“To think that you are still safe even after falling from that high wall—you have already become a monster that’s just no different from those demons after spending some time in this hell.”
The man—Ruslan—had his eyes all focused at Julia’s hands, which were still emitting some light. It seemed like he was currently looking at a hideous monster while not knowing what she might do in response.
Nevertheless, he still knelt down on one knee and held out his hand in front of her as if he was treating her as an esteemed guest. Instead, Julia just stood up all by herself as she ignored him before dusting the dirt off of her. The rejected man’s eyebrows instantaneously narrowed, but she tried not to mind it all. Still, Ruslan soon followed after her.
“His Majesty is very worried. A father’s feeling for allowing his beloved daughter to plunge into the underworld is deeply overwhelming and he kept on waking up every night while being deeply worried. The same goes for Her Highness Estelle, of course.”
Julia was silent. She knew that they wouldn’t be like that at all.
To the Emperor, Julia was the living proof of a shameful one-night mistake. He couldn’t bear to kill her off, so he imprisoned her in the palace and simply waited for her to die on her own. On top of that, Estelle’s hatred towards Julia needed no more mention as well.
Still, it was never Julia’s fault that she had been born.
Their hatred was absolutely painful and cold, but Julia could understand their feelings. But that didn’t mean that she forgave them all. She just wanted them to be happy and not look back at the past since Julia was gone now anyway. Then, she also thought that she would eventually be able to free herself from the bondage of the past in return.
The man scanned through the disbelief on Julia’s face, but didn’t really react much. He simply narrowed his eyes in such interest.
She, on the other hand, was feeling terribly dizzy. Julia avoided Ruslan’s fierce gaze while tucking her slightly trembling shoulders. There were more important things rather than listening to his made up stories right now. She had to quickly get to Bael as soon as possible.
“I’ll keep it as a secret that you came into the castle recklessly, so please return quietly.”
“Is this like a deal?”
“Whatever you think of it. I don’t want to get involved with you anymore.”
Julia came out strongly in her own way, but the man didn’t even bat an eyelid. With such a violent touch, he grabbed a hold of Julia’s bare shoulders along with a crushing force. A small groan soon leaked out from Julia’s mouth.
“Does the Demon King even know that you are just a mere fake?”
“What does that mean?”
The eyes of the man, who was waiting for Julia to get involved, began to curl.
“The fact that you are just a substitute for Her Highness Estelle.”
“The Demon King knows my real name—so do the other demons as well. So, if you keep on saying those strange things…”
“But aren’t you actually the real key in turning the Demon King into the Demon God? I don’t really know what kind of tricks that you’ve used to deceive those demons anyway.”
Julia tried to act as calm as could while she avoided Ruslan’s gaze. Nevertheless, the sound of her breathing could be heard to be trembling ever so slightly.
The eyes of the man, who was staring at her expression, soon turned dark. The stupid woman in front of him still didn’t know her true worth. He simply poked into that point just in case, but he had gotten it right.
“A lie can’t last forever. The fact that you’re a blatant fake will absolutely come out someday. Do you think that the Demon King as well as the other demons will treat you the way they do as of now? A mere useless human being?”
A blatant fake. Such garbage with no value at all. Abandoned from birth, a foreign object that no one in the world had ever wanted. Why was it that she had still been standing in front of his eyes when she merely lived her life without any sense at all?
Every word that Ruslan said had pierced into her head. And beyond the shaky vision, a cold tide suddenly rushed in instead. She wanted to run away, but her feet wouldn’t even step off the ground. She was completely submerged inside the deep water where she could no longer breathe.
“You don’t think that we came all over here just to simply negotiate an armistice with the demons.”
“Th, then, why…”
“The moment when your lie is finally discovered, the peace in the Human Realm, which was barely achieved with countless numbers of sacrifices, will eventually end. But if you were to return to the ground with us, the result might be a bit different. How can they possibly know that you’re a fake when you’re not even around?”
Go to the Demon King and tell him that you want to go back to Vestra. Say that you can no longer trust anyone but them—the man slyly whispered to her just like a snake.
“You’re a nuisance just by existing, Julia Vestra. We’re actually trying to patch up your lies for you. Just think about it. Has anything you stepped into ever worked out any well?”
“Please stop. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to leave this place.”
The man leisurely walked around Julia, who was still shaking her head in response. The voice of his reproach towards her kept on tightening up just like a noose around her entire being.
“Swordmaster Legion has followed you down to this hell too. He was a great war hero who will absolutely go down in history. He was going to be given the title of a Duke as well as a fiefdom and he would eventually marry Her Highness Estelle. He would also be delegated with the authority over a condominium—a political territory—in the future as well. Until he was suddenly bewitched by a certain woman and pointed his sword towards His Majesty.”
“What did you say?”
No way it actually happened. Julia, whose legs had ultimately lost their strength, staggered even more than before.
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