Chapter 38
Wiping the thin streak of blood from his cheek with his index finger, Igor made a fuss over the sting. But Eredite, glaring at him with blazing eyes, simply raised her blade high once more.
In the end, clicking his tongue, Igor leaped straight onto a tree branch and looked down at her.
Silhouetted against the moonlight, his black cloak billowing in the wind, his figure looked somber enough to make even the demonic beasts tuck their tails and flee.
Yet the words coming from his mouth still carried the same whining tone.
“Hey, Eredite. Must it be like this? It’s still a fact that I saved your life, tch. And I just saved you again a moment ago! Put the sword down a bit and let’s talk.”
Having grumbled sullenly, Igor—seeing that Eredite only stood seething with her fists clenched—landed one step lower, as if wanting to talk closer.
Then, his eyes folding into an amiable curve, he chattered again.
“Eredite, you got your memories back, right?”
After stealthily checking the top of her head, he shrugged his shoulders.
“As expected, your memories are back… ack!”
Fwit—!
This time, the silver-white sword aura shot from the tip of her blade menacingly grazed the tip of his nose before bursting with a pop.
“You’re really angry, huh, Eredite…?”
Seeing the lord of the Grand Duchy put on a dejected, pitiful expression, Eredite narrowed her eyes.
The skin under her eyes twitched with fury as she seemed about to scream something—then ultimately clamped her mouth shut.
She truly wanted to screech, “I’ll kill you, Igor!” right now.
But seeing the brat dodging her attacks with ease and taunting her, she judged it wiser not to get tangled up with him and suppressed her temper.
No matter how he acted, the brat was the Grand Duke of Belluk. And it was obvious he possessed power she could not easily overcome.
Eredite herself knew that Igor was merely humoring her—she who had only spent long years at Watch Tower, her abilities mediocre at best.
And above all… seeing Igor again, strange emotions she hadn’t expected churned inside her chest.
Sensing a faint joy beneath her fury, she could only clench her teeth and glare at him. Otherwise, it felt like countless questions would helplessly burst out.
Before her thoroughly exasperated self could declare ‘Get lost, or face my blade formally,’ Igor struck first, catching her off guard.
“Hey, Eredite. My uncle’s gotten more depressed.”
At the words he spoke while kicking at the rocky ledge with his toes, Eredite flinched again.
“You’re really not coming back, are you?”
At this absurd question, she finally had no choice but to explode.
“You’re insane, Igor. Do you still see me as your toy?”
“It’s Grand Duke. Grand Duke Igor.”
Seeing Igor arrogantly lift his chin, deliberately pointing out the difference in their ranks, Eredite could only shake her head.
“So. What do you want from me, Your Grace.”
Judging that Eredite had calmed down a little now, Igor hopped onto a closer rock and whined.
“Come back, Eredite. You’re just going to end up as expendable fodder for Haldegard here anyway. For your whole life.”
At the words that struck a nerve, her brow twitched. Igor continued.
“Honestly, Lucy—no, Eredite. You were happy when you were with us. Anyone could see you were happy. We had fun, too.”
Unable to endure it any longer, Eredite sent out another fierce sword aura, which blasted away nearly half the oak trunk Igor had been leaning against.
“Shut up, Igor. You toyed with me. From start to finish, we’re just enemies.”
Having sidestepped the tilting tree trunk, Igor pouted his lips and protested.
“That’s a hurtful thing to say. When I said we had fun too…! I didn’t mean we toyed with you… well, it’s true I meant to toy with you at first, but later on…!”
Rambling, Igor scratched his head, thinking he should have properly studied rhetoric once in a while.
“Anyway, don’t just be angry—think carefully, Ete. My uncle’s mood has hit rock bottom. He ought to just return to the capital, but instead he’s just squatting here, not going back, crushing everyone.”
These words were true. The dark energy Laegar was emitting had been tightening around the throats of everyone in the Grand Duchy. He was leaking that dense, dark demonic power daily, with only the man himself unaware of it.
“Shut up.”
But Eredite only grew more enraged at words that still seemed to treat her as nothing more than a toy to brighten their mood.
She lunged at Igor, but once again met only empty air.
Igor had already vanished.
“Get back to the guard post safely, before you get surrounded by beasts again.”
He left behind only that measly, worried-sounding remark, drifting like wind past Eredite’s ear.
She whipped her head around, scanning her surroundings.
Before she knew it, only the cold, bitter wind and the desolate moonlight quietly filled the space around her.
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