Chapter 36: Chapter 36

After sucking his blood, Elysia raised her body with a fresh expression.

Cassian grabbed her wrists, which were escaping over his legs, and pulled her back. She peered back at him with a puzzled look.

“You...”

He buried his face on Elysia’s shoulder.

It was only after the cool temperature had reached his head that Cassian could ponder clearly. He doesn’t know if he can just let her not tell him.

With a calm look, she says she can’t have children, and that it was okay.

‘She can’t be okay...’

Is it really not because of the poison?

What the hell does he even know at this point?

She looked so precarious, unlike the nonchalant face speaking with indifference. Cassian couldn’t deny it any longer why his heart seemed to sink like this...

When he visited the temple earlier, he also felt similar emotions.

He didn’t even know when his heart started to feel this way. Until then, it was funny that he drew a line just because Elysia was likeable. He was so excited about her body.

‘I’m the worst. I’m going to regret something later...’

Regret was enough to realize one’s feelings late.

Elysia pushed him out with a puzzled face. She asked worriedly, “Cassian? I was sure I didn’t drink a lot of blood... are you okay?”

She raised her hand and glanced around, covering his face.

Since when did these cool hands come to have such warmth to him?

To be honest, he didn’t even know why he came all the way here today. Although he knew her resilience would detoxify the venom, he only remembered that he was just frantic with anxiety after hearing about the news.

If the poison would harm her life, Cassian had no idea what he would have done. With that thought, it seemed necessary to put Elysia in a safe place.

For example, his own house.

“Are you all right now?”

“Yes. I’m fine. I think it’s enough.”

Cassian frowned at the words.

It was because he thought she would say that even though she wasn’t okay, it was okay. Thinking so, he grabbed her hand that had touched his face and buried his lips on the back of the white hand.

With the kiss, he felt Elysia’s heart rate speeding up.

Cassian satisfactorily raised the corners of his mouth. As he tilted his head and smiled languidly, her heart rate was faster than before.

At that time, the voice of the employee was heard with the sound of a knock.

“My lady. It is said that the master will return home soon.”

“I understand!”

Elysia hurriedly released her hand from his holding as soon as she finished talking, and Cassian left the room with regret.

***

The next day, Cassian visited Duke Lowell.

Duke Lowell was uncomfortable with the fact that Cassian was in Elysia’s room the day before. Even if they were engaged, it is still before marriage.

“So, what do you have to say?”

“I want to take the Lady with me before the marriage.”

“What? What is that nonsense? Absolutely no.” Duke Lowell stiffened his back and raised his voice.

There weren’t just one or two things he didn’t like.

Of course, starting from the ridiculous wedding date.

“You must be well aware that the security of the Duchy of Esteban is better than the Imperial Palace.”

“She would go to the Duke’s in due course, anyway. Why the sudden rush?”

“Yesterday, the Lady almost drank poison.”

Duke Lowell roughly lowered the teacup and raised his body.

It was a fact he had no idea at all.

Cassian knew that Elysia didn’t want to let her family know that she had drunk poison. Probably because she doesn’t want them to worry. So, respecting her will, he changed the story slightly and said that she almost drank the poison instead, not already drunk the poison.

“Please, calm down. There is no problem with the Lady right now.”

“I have to go see my daughter. So, Duke, I’ll have to talk to you next time...”

“Why do you think I told you that the Lady is trying to hide it?”

At his words, Duke Lowell, who seemed to have a complicated head, went seated again. He seemed to think deeply about something, sweeping his hand down his face, though he didn’t seem to come up with a desired conclusion.

It was because he didn’t know that infertility was the purpose, so it was understandable.

“Is it because of this incident that you are taking her with you?”

He also knew that there are many employees who have recently entered the mansion on a temporary basis.

Duke Lowell glanced back at Cassian. The momentum of the Duke of Esteban was unusual. ‘Was he much more mindful of my daughter than I thought?’

“That’s right, and I don’t think it will end with this one time.”

“...If she agrees to go as well, then I will allow it.”

It wasn’t just rumors that the youngest of the Knights of Esteban could face the dozen of the Imperial Knights alone.

So, at least, he was sure that an assassination attempt would never happen again.

It was said that the employees also never easily accepted outsiders, and even ordinary maids were made up of only talented people who could sign as knights.

‘I don’t know if it’s all true, but... it’s a beastly family, anyway.’

***

Elysia was resting with Der on the ground of the back garden.

She was, to be precise, dragged by Der and forced to play. While Der is like an innocent cat... No, beast, chasing a butterfly.

“Nyaang! Nyaang!”

She doesn’t know if it’s meowing or crying. As time went on, Elysia was confused whether she has a cat or a dog.

Apart from the shrinking body, Der still boasted a shocking power.

The place where it swung its paws to try to catch a butterfly was ruined. A gardener watching from a distance was seen wiping away tears with his handkerchief.

“That’s the cat you talked about?”

Ramote changed his glasses and sat down next to Elysia.

“When did you come? I didn’t think it had been a month?”

“It’s because of that cat. I’m very curious.”

“Look at this.” He continued as he grabbed her hand and peered at the inside of her wrist.

Elysia trembled as her wrist ticked when Ramote let his magic flow.

“Do you know anything?”

“How many people know this pattern?”

“I usually cover it with magic. As for the people who knew, it’s the High priest and the Duke of Esteban.”

“The high priest? Are you talking about Arbel?”

Seeing Elysia nodding her head, he frowned his eyebrows.

The High Priest Arbel was the only one on the continent of the same age as Ramote. He muttered annoyingly.

“If that swindler knows... this must be a headache.”

“Swindler?”

“If he speaks ten words, you can take nine of those words as lies.”

Because he is the High Priest, the thought of him lying doesn’t match at all. Though Elysia nodded her head as if she seemed to understand for some reason.

“Then, we can’t believe everything the High Priest said? He seems to have other materials separately.”

“What material do you think he has? You can say that when you figure out what he was holding.”

“What about that humans can’t control it? Is it true?” She asked and leaned eagerly while pulling Ramote’s collar.

“It’s true. That cat is famous for being of the demon race. To be precise, it shouldn’t be in the human world in the first place.”

“What?”

‘Now, there are even demons?’ She had only read about it in a novel, but it was real.

Der was said to notice evil things faster than anyone else. Something unclean, someone like a human’s ugly mind...

“But I’m sure you’ve heard it in person. Still, I don’t know how you managed to be its master.”

“I don’t think the High Priest knows much at all... Is that a lie?”

“That’s the problem. You don’t know how much he knows.”

At Ramote’s words, Elysia again realized that she had picked up something far more troublesome than she’d thought.

Though on the outside, it might just look like a cute cat. But look at that, by now, the fence around the newly planted tree was terribly broken already.

The tree that Der’s pink jelly paws touched had been long broken as well.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Is there any way to get Der back where it should be? Look at that... I was wondering where the ignorant power came from, and now I understand a little.”

“Pfft. It’s like I’m looking at you. What do you think when your body changes and you can’t control your strength?”

When she listened to Ramote’s words like that, it seemed as if he was her master. At first, she wondered if he didn’t mean it like that, but glancing at him, he nodded, implying that what she thought was right.

“It was said that abilities and strengths vary depending on the master. All I know is that.”

There was no way to get Der back.

‘If you want to be alike, you need to be like Der... Though I don’t think we are that much alike.’

Five hundred years ago, there was an agreement that the demons would never enter the human world again.

Elysia opened her eyes wide to the words of an agreement that were made with the dragon, who was the watchman of the human realm. And since then, only some of the stories about the dragons and demons have remained as legends, and all materials have disappeared.

Because it all sounded unrealistic.

“How does Old Man know that?”

“Because I was present as a representative of human beings.”

“What...? I thought you were two hundred years old?”

“I never said my age out loud?”

“You’re a lot older than me! You’re Old Man, of course! You said no, but it was the right title.”

Elysia was transmigrated, and she was a hundred years old at best. So, to be fair, she barely reached adulthood by the standards of a vampire.

When she talked about age, Cassian came to mind. When it comes to humans, it seems like an elderly woman that followed the bachelor blood which was delicious.

‘No, isn’t that too extreme? I was a vampire that was barely an adult...’

“How was Der sealed in the temple, then?”

“That, I have to go see it myself.”

As she was mumbling how she only had her Old Man, she hugged his arm. Elysia didn’t even want to imagine what it would have been like without Ramote.

Her family was also a great strength to her, but Ramote was more than that.

He was the only one in this world whom she shared her secret to. Someone who helped her settle in this world...

“You’re only like this when there’s trouble.”

“Not something to be ashamed of.”

She raised her mouth. Then, Elysia peered at Ramote, who was rubbing his chin, and said, “Now, don’t grow a beard. If you grow it again, I’ll burn it all up. It’s a lot cleaner and you also look kinder like this.”

“If I go around like this, it’s annoying because I caught too many gazes.”

“You’re bragging about it, aren’t you?”

After what he said, she stared at him a little before looking away as if she had not heard what he said.

Elysia, who was playing around with the grumpy Ramote by her side, felt a presence entering the back garden.

‘...Huh? Who is it?’

It was a common practice that the employees of Lowell’s mansion would never go near Ramote and Elysia.

Though it was also somewhat her fault who frequently touched him, it was because of their familiarity of the times she had been learning magic from him until now.

So, knowing that there was a person who didn’t know that in Lowell’s mansion right now, it was bugging her.

As the presence stepped into the back garden, Elysia turned her eyes towards the direction.