On the other hand, Kimaris, who always had a dark expression on him, knelt down on one knee by the bedside and brought himself to her eye level.
“Julia, are you actually going to tell me—anything at all?”
“I was just feeling frustrated and so, I wanted to get some fresh air.”
“You were dragged away by the Demon King and left the castle all night before disappearing once again in just a span of a few hours. In any case something were to happen to you, I…”
Kimaris was quite suspicious. Even though the delicate Julia had been going through such severe hardships because of Bael, was she still deliberately lying in order to protect him?
Bael was cruel and relentless with his hands. He had been the kind of demon who was capable of tossing Julia to the beasts and happily watching her die. Of course, he wouldn’t go that crazy since he needed the key right now, but still, they never knew.
“The Demon King is far more despicable than what Julia really thought. I feel rather uneasy.”
It was rather dissatisfying that Julia kept on giving her side to Bael. His heart felt heavy every time he saw some different emotions other than fear lingering in her eyes, such as an intense feeling of pity or even an absolutely tiny tinge of intimacy.
Even if it couldn’t be himself, at least he wished that it just wasn’t Bael. He hoped that this concern of his was just for nothing instead.
“You’ve become noisy as well, Kimaris. You can’t just make such noises in front of the sick. Just sit quietly next to Lerazier or go outside and cool your head instead.”
It was Agares who had cut off the endless thoughts in Kimaris’s head. While he was uncharacteristically biting his lips in front of Julia, he suddenly relaxed his expression and gave a silent smile.
“Julia, you can simply forget what I said earlier and just focus on getting well soon. I was being too short-sighted.”
“I know that you’re worried about me.”
“I’ll be just outside the door, so call me if you need me.”
“But you really don’t need to…”
“I want to get some fresh air.”
As he turned and left the room, his shoulders seemed to have drooped a bit for some reason. However, before Julia could even pay much attention to it, Agares spoke up first.
“Anyway, all the men here are useless, aren’t they?”
“Haha…….”
Agares slowly stroked Julia’s cheek as she smiled awkwardly. Then, as Julia had already woken up, Agares was about to leave the bedroom while taking Lerazier and Barbatos in tow so that Julia could rest in peace when Julia suddenly held onto her.
“Excuse me, Agares.”
“Huh? Why—”
“I haven’t been able to see Legion for the past few days, so I actually wonder where he had gone…”
She hadn’t seen him ever since she rescued him from the top floor of the tower. She wondered if it was because he had been held captive by Bael as she had fallen asleep for a long time. But as a matter of fact, Legion was not afraid of anyone at all. If he had wanted to, he would have already broken down even the Demon’s Castle’s own door.
At first, she was nervous that a fight would break out if he really did break in. However, looking back now, she wondered if he had truly left the Demon’s Castle already.
‘I was being too selfish. I shouldn’t have worried about the Demon King right in front of Legion who simply loathes demons. I’m pretty sure that he was disappointed in me.’
In her head, she knew that it was only right for him to leave. But when that really happened, she kept on thinking about things that she would eventually regret.
“Your human friend? Well, I was busy taking care of someone who had just inspected the cave of death. Shall I look for him now then?”
“N, no.”
“Hmph, I’ve seen that damned swordsman go out in the middle of the night just about a week ago. Judging by the fact that he still left all his belongings here, it doesn’t seem like he truly had left.”
“How do you even know that?”
“No, I don’t really know. I was just going to mess with his stuff.”
Lerazier slowly showed his charred left hand with a nervous face. The shape and size of the wounds were really similar to the books that Legion had often read. Therefore, just by looking at them was truly enough to explain it all.
Agares and Barbatos glared at Lerazier with their extremely pitiful eyes. Alternatively, Julia simply scratched her chin awkwardly before looking away in the end.
* * *
A dry sandy wind was softly brewing from over the horizon. Legion raised the collar of his coat and began to frown.
As a matter of fact, the real reason why he was so adamant to remain in the Demon Realm had been due to his other thoughts besides wanting to be by Julia’s side. And seeing that Julia had run straight to the Demon God’s tower just a week ago, his thoughts instantly hardened with much conviction.
‘Must prevent the Demon King from turning into the Demon God at all costs.’
The moment Bael awakened as the Demon God, Julia would have been dead. And the reason why she would die wasn’t just because of that bright red mark on her chest. Of course, that thing was definitely very malicious as well.
On that day, the very day he fought the demons in the wilderness of the Demon Realm, Legion had woken up to such new memories. To put it more precisely, it was more like a kind of ‘instinct’ rather than just a mere memory.
Instead of being completely depleted of mana, his body was filled with magic power. It was the most primal and fundamental product of anything that had been born from the Demon God. His body, which got shattered and broken down due to the backflow of mana, was eventually resurrected by magic.
As he looked back at the terrible memories of that time, Legion’s eyes widened all of a sudden. He could feel a rather familiar presence not too far away.
“That’s actually the tree of death.”
Amidst the desolate and dried up land, a huge tree had stood proudly as if it was boasting of its own majesty. There would have been no nutrients since the ground where the tree was rooted had definitely been barren, but the leaves on the branches were as green and fresh as a garden on a summer day.
“No, does it even have enough nutrients?”
Legion’s gaze eventually turned to the roots of the tree that were above the ground. Originally, the roots of an old tree would be as complicated as its years, but the tree of death was a tad little different. It had been none other than the devilkin itself that was entangled amongst its roots.
Once alive, but had now become only such shriveled corpses—just like those mummies—that were tightly entangled within those layers of roots.
