Chapter 37 (1/2)

Under the Moonlight

“…good night, Ed.”

The moment they got home, Ed immediately fell asleep. After his fight with Gram, he barely had any rest, so his fatigue must have built up.

Seeing Edgar who fell asleep sitting down on a chair, Arisa giggled.

She carried Edgar to the sofa nearby and covered him with a blanket.

As she smiled gently, Arisa slowly caressed Edgar's cheeks.

“Edgar…my lovely, lovely Edgar…I really thank you for your hard work. Rest well.”

She pecked a kiss on his cheek before whispering, “…I love you.”

She licked her lips before heading into her own bedroom, but as she did,

“…ara,” Ellie was waiting on her knees.

“…Ellie, you should rest too. You're tired, aren't you?”

“—Thank you very much, Arissama.”

The bright cheerfulness Arisa and Ellie had when they were with Edgar were nowhere to be found.

The two weren't even trying to conceal their dark emotions flowing out. It was obvious why. They only need to do that in front of Edgar.

The two had no reason to hide anything from each other.

After all, they are in good relations.h.i.+p as an accomplice in their feelings toward Edgar.

When Arisa walked past Ellie, Arisa whispered;

“…I'm going to sleep already. Aren't you going to bid him a good night sleep?”

Towards Arisa's devilish smile, Ellie's chest throbs.

“…”

The moonlight pouring in from the window illuminates Ellie and Edgar.

As if drawn to him, Ellie inched closer to Edgar.

There she sat, in front of the sofa Edgar is sleeping on, thinking of the person in front of her as she gazes onto his sleeping face.

Edgar…

The color of his eyes and his hair is black, just like me.

He's quite taller compared to me.

The look on his eyes are somewhat scary.

Yet he's so kind.

He cares for his friends, and he's the one person Arissama had opened up to.

He had melted Arissama's frozen heart with that kindness of his. The same way he did to me.

But he also got some bad points too.

That laziness of his is also beyond me.

He's so catastrophically bad at doing ch.o.r.es that I felt like Arissama is spoiling him too much.

I need to be by his side a lot then.

Snicker, she giggled.

“What a stupid person you are, master~”

Master.

She wouldn't probably call him like that anymore.

It felt like it's been forever since they first met.

Even though it's only been several weeks since then.

But before she realized it, this man had made her open her heart to him.

Ellie gingerly stretched her right hand forward…and brushed Edgar's disheveled hair.

“Aah, so unkempt. Even though Arissama always made it look cool. It's because you fought for me that it became like this.”

A warm feeling gushes forth from within Ellie's chest.

“For someone like me…”

“For someone like me¹…”

“Someone…like me…”

The more she said it…the more tears came flowing down her eyes.

At the same time, the feeling of loving this person swells up.

The hand that brushed his hair stopped, and as it did, she brought Edgar's face to her chest and embraced him—gently as to not wake him up.

“…Thank you, Edgar.”

Her feelings toward that human man is a warm, suffocating one.

At first, it was fear.

Then it was the confusion from him suddenly crying.

And then it was anxiety.

And then it was despair.

But now, it was nothing but love and grat.i.tude.

If it's for him, I would do anything.

For him, who had saved my crushed heart.

For him, who gave a meaning to my life.

—Why did she change so much?

She didn't know.

But there are some things that are certain;

That this person thinks of me as a family.

That I am happy for it.

“…I love you…I love you², Edgar.”

That I finally found someone I can say these words to.

Just when she thought she had lost everything,

just when she thought she had fell into the depths of h.e.l.l,

—I'm thankful to this person

—and I'm thankful for the fortune that allowed me to meet him.

That evening, Ellie fell asleep while holding onto Edgar.

The fact that there were a bit of a commotion between the three is a story for another time.

A shadow stretched in the training grounds on Lord Gram's mansion after Edgar had left.

It was the shadow of a blonde-haired man in a butler outfit—Ludo.

“Hmm, I should say, I shouldn't expect less from the sorceress' disciple. It seems like even I would have a hard time with this”, Ludo said, looking around the battle-worn field.

Ludo is here to recover a certain something…or rather, someone.

After a while, he seemed to have found what he's looking for.

He walked up to a certain place; a place where Edgar finished off Gram.

“What a demon. I should say that your craving for life is truly something to behold.”

Where he stood, a small lump of flesh measuring only several centimeters meekly squirmed.

Ludo pulled out a vial containing emerald-green liquid from his pocket as he looked down on it, and finally he dumped the liquid onto the flesh.