Chapter 55
After finishing her meal, Eden headed straight for the train station.
“Why not rest for a day before you head out? The roads are dark at night….”
Viscount Raymond, who had been watching her buy a train ticket, tried to dissuade her with a concerned expression.
The Holy Knights accepted Viscount Raymond’s hospitality and decided to stay for the night. As he said, it was already late into the night, and some knights had already taken the captured demon worshippers to the capital, so there was no need to hurry.
However, Eden could not afford such leisure. She was as busy as she was famous. She had a commission scheduled for tomorrow, one she had accepted long ago.
“Well, we’re already at the station. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll head back first. If demons appear again, please call me.”
Eden didn’t forget to sneak in a little advertisement for her services, either. As she stepped onto the platform, the train let out a loud noise as if it were about to depart any moment.
Eden, who had Bezel board the train first, followed him up the stairs. Once inside the carriage, she looked out the window and saw Viscount Raymond waving along with his servants.
“How very kind of him.”
Eden gave a rough nod in place of a proper farewell.
The train departed. The moment the group seeing her off disappeared from view, Eden closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat.
It had been a busy day of nothing but traveling and fighting demons. Her exhausted body felt like it was glued to the seat, but in truth, that was nothing compared to the mental fatigue.
“Marbas…”
Just speaking that name made her throat burn as if on fire. Her heart throbbed so fiercely that it would not have been strange if she dropped dead from sheer fury.
Thinking more about it would not make things better and would only irritate her. She tried to calm herself, but the harder she tried, the clearer his name became in her mind.
Her blessed habit of falling asleep within three seconds of laying her head down was no use tonight.
Maybe it was better not to sleep at all. If she drifted off like this, she would only end up reliving the nightmare of that day seven years ago.
In the end, Eden gave up on sleeping and opened her eyes. She spread her fingers wide and folded them one by one to count the days, and sure enough, that day from seven years ago was right around the corner.
‘No wonder I’ve been feeling off…’
Around this time every year, Eden suffered from insomnia, which was uncharacteristic of her. Even when she managed to sleep with the help of alcohol, she would almost always end up dreaming of Marbas.
As if it were not enough that incidents had been breaking out every other day lately, now even the approaching date was adding to the mess.
Taking a strange man into her home was bad enough, and then finding out that Marbas was planning something ominous on top of that…. And with her parents’ death anniversary, which was terrible every year no matter how many times she had been through it, overlapping with all of it, everything felt like it had been piled onto her all at once.
Just as Eden could no longer bear the pounding in her head and was pressing her thumbs into her temples, she suddenly felt something cool touch her forehead.
“Eden, does your head hurt?”
When she turned her head to the side, Bezel was pressing his palm to her forehead as if checking for fever. Perhaps because something cold touched her, the rising anger and the headache pounding in her brain subsided a little.
“Just a lot on my mind.”
“If you are having a hard time, shall I treat the curse a little?”
Bezel lowered his hand from her forehead and grasped her hand instead. She was the one in pain, yet somehow his expression looked worse. With her free hand, Eden poked the furrow between his brows.
“And why are you making that face, Bezel?”
Only then did he seem to realize his expression, and he smiled as if embarrassed.
“I was worried about you without realizing it… I wondered if you were troubled because you ran into Johan earlier.”
“…I’m not sure why that man’s name is suddenly coming up.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I must have had the wrong idea.”
“Yes. I was just thinking about today’s incident.”
Bezel lowered his long eyelashes and gently caressed her hand.
“You’re not in a particularly great mood either….”
“What?”
When Eden asked again, Bezel shook his head as if it was nothing.
“I was talking to myself. Just… it occurred to me that there are quite a lot of things that bother Eden.”
And then, as if he had nothing more to say, he pressed his lips to the back of her hand.
Smooth lips without a single rough patch moved across the pitch-black skin. The moist flesh clung to her skin as if he had wet it with his tongue beforehand, and Eden promptly forgot all about his odd reaction.
Bezel’s treatment was, as always, effective. As the pain faded and her body felt lighter, even her worries seemed to melt away.
Ugh. Now she felt a little bad for thinking just moments ago that taking him in had been too much. To be more precise, it was mostly the matter of Marbas and the approaching anniversary, but she had bundled it all together, so it amounted to the same thing.
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