My Former Disciple Wants Me as His Bride

“Steal it? That’s my money!”

“No, it isn’t. That money is mine.”

“What kind of b******t is that?”

“…….”

“Wait, are you with that little bastard too?”

Apparently, he wasn’t getting it. Eris moved slightly closer to the man and lowered her voice so only he could hear.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m the owner of that money pouch. It was stolen from me, and I chased it all the way here.”

“What? You expect me to believe that?”

“If you don’t want to believe me, go ahead and try taking it. But are you sure you can handle what happens afterward?”

“What the hell is there to handle? You really want to die too? You think you can do whatever you want just because you’ve got a pretty face? Get that thing away from me!”

“If you take so much as one more step, I’ll put this blade through your throat. Unless you want your corpse turning up by Lake Melbourne tomorrow morning, I suggest you stop here and get lost.”

The man’s eyes flicked toward the boy.

Sensing that he might try something, Eris pressed the blade more firmly against his neck. Perhaps the chilling touch of cold steel finally got through to him, because he sucked in a sharp breath and froze.

“I suppose my face is pretty enough that you thought I couldn’t kill someone. You’d be wrong.”

“J-just calm down! Fine, I get it. I’m leaving! That’s all you want, right?”

“No matter how broke you are, don’t live this pathetically.”

Eris withdrew the dagger and slowly stepped away.

Sweat was streaming down the man’s face, but the moment the blade left his throat, he glared at her with open hostility. There was something almost like a promise in his eyes, that if they ever met again, he would settle this properly and make sure she died.

He backed away the way he had come without taking his eyes off her. Just before disappearing completely into the darkness, he even curled his lips into a slow smile and ran his tongue over them.

The look in his eyes and that final gesture were enough to send Eris’s mood plummeting straight to the ground. If they ever met again and he came looking for revenge, she would make sure he could never look at her that way again.

Eris put away her dagger.

‘All this trouble over one stupid money pouch…….’

Her mind returned to Ciel, teasing her about becoming friends and comparing her to a cat.

She still blamed him for all of this. If he hadn’t started spouting such embarrassing nonsense in the first place, she never would have been distracted enough to get robbed. Even if she had somehow lost her pouch anyway, she certainly wouldn’t have come all the way here just to escape an awkward situation.

She had let Ciel throw her off balance far too much. It would be so much easier to deal with him if she could simply forget who he was.

Now that things had come to this, she found herself both annoyed by and envious of Ciel, who seemed perfectly comfortable after forgetting her entirely.

‘I just have to think of him as someone else. Too much has changed anyway. I can’t keep letting him affect me like this.’

Just as Ciel had forgotten her, Eris resolved to somehow forget the boy he had once been.

When she turned around, she found Ciel crouched in front of the small boy, examining his condition.

The child must have taken a vicious beating in that short span of time. His face was mottled and swollen as though he had been bitten by a venomous snake. He could barely open his eyes, and his unfocused gaze wandered as his body swayed unsteadily.

Ciel firmly gripped the boy’s shoulders, his brows drawing together.

“I think we should take him to a doctor.”

There was no trace left of the cold detachment with which he had drawn a firm line earlier, insisting the matter had nothing to do with him.

With a serious expression, Ciel simply scooped the boy into his arms and began walking silently through the dark street.

“Give him to me. I’ll carry him.”

Coming belatedly to her senses, Eris hurried after him and reached out, but Ciel firmly refused.

“It’s fine. Just show me the way, Miss Eris. I don’t know where the clinic is.”

Eris decided that finding a doctor quickly was more important than arguing with Ciel, so she led him to a clinic near Elves.

* * *

The red-brick building looked thoroughly worn with age. Most of the paint had peeled from its sign, leaving the lettering almost impossible to make out, while the tightly shut wooden door looked so fragile it seemed liable to fall apart at any moment.

The only thing confirming that the place was indeed a clinic was the bundles of dried medicinal herbs hanging among the thick green ivy climbing the outer walls, their distinctive scent lingering in the air.

“Here?”

After giving the dilapidated building a doubtful once-over, Ciel turned a suspicious look on Eris.

“…Yes. The building may look like this, but the doctor is actually quite good.”

“Then let’s go in.”

Eris and the doctor here were fairly close, as far as such things went. She herself had been treated here more times than she could count, so if there was one thing she could personally guarantee, it was the doctor’s skill.