Chapter 45 - Volume 2 (1/2)

I smile and try to separate from him, only for him to tighten his arms, which have moved from my cheek to around my back in the blink of an eye. I don’t even have the time to tilt my head, ‘huh?’ before I’m tightly hugged just like that.

Despite him being thin, he has arms that you can clearly tell are a man’s. It’s a bit suffocating to be hugged by that strength, but more than that it’s comfortable. My body is filled with a warm sense of security. It feels like I’ll definitely end up falling asleep like this.

If I relax, it feels like that crying voice is trying to echo in my eardrums. But if I’m in these arms, it grows distant; that, coupled with my lack of sleep these days, makes me drop my eyelids.

「Filmina, wait. Don’t sleep yet.」

「……A-Alright.」

Feeling so good in his arms, I’m about to fall asleep but his voice brings my thoughts back to reality. I manage to somehow regain my swaying consciousness, slipping out of his now relaxed arms to look up at his face.

As I do, he thrusts his hand towards me, a small cloth bag in it. I blink in surprise. He continues, 「Give me your hand.」 I do as I’m told, reaching my hand out, and he drops it into my palm.

Judging from appearance, it looks like an ordinary talisman bag. The purple bag is tied up with a long string, probably to wear it on my neck. I can’t tell what’s inside just by looking, but judging from touch, it seems there’s something hard inside.

「May I open it?」

「Yes.」

Urged by his nod, I untie the string on the talisman bag, dropping its insides into my palm. The sight of the object takes my breath away, just like when we confronted the demon.

「This is…」

I can’t say anything else. My sleepiness vanishes in a second.

Inside the talisman bag is the octahedron that had fallen to the ground after this man destroyed that demon. Its surface gives you the impression that it’s smooth glass; it’s the same as that demon, a dark red color that’s difficult to call beautiful by any standards. Coiling around it over and over are thin white threads. If it was just that object, it could only be described as bad luck and ominous. But the white threads strangely alleviate that.

‘Why this?’ I can’t put that question in words, but it must’ve gotten through to him. He lifts up the object from my hand, putting it up to right in front of my eyes to show me.

「This is the core of that demon.」

「Core?」

I tilt my head, and he returns the object to my hand. I take it without protest, staring fixedly at it. The more I look at it, the more I can see it’s an object that gives an impression of bad luck to whoever looks at it.

It’s not glass, it’s not steel, it’s not even a kind of precious jewel. Just what is this octahedron object? I compare the man’s face with this object, in the end unable to do anything but tilt my head in confusion. He then says something inexcusable that I just can’t let pass.

「Yes, it’s the core. Or perhaps I should say, it’s where the demon’s life resides.」

……What’s with that ominous explanation? I can’t help but feel like hurling it out of the window. From that explanation, it clearly can only be something dangerous. Before I can object, he continues.

「I couldn’t find out the person’s name, but it’s a truth that that demon was connected to the person that cursed you. By all rights, I want to have that destroyed too, but since he didn’t say that. That’s why this core was left. This is a clue connected to the culprit. Although, it’s really annoying.」

He grandly clicks his tongue. I’m reflected in his sunrise-colored eyes, making a delicate expression. He probably can tell each and every single thing I want to say but I’m not saying. But he, my husband, purposely ignores them, tightening his otherworldly, androgynous beautiful face. He grasps the demon’s core in my hand.

「You probably don’t want to, but keep this with you. If you come in contact with the culprit, it’s going to respond without fail. I cast a charm on it.」

「Respond? How so?」

「You’ll know when it does.」

His answer clearly doesn’t have enough words in it, but he probably won’t answer me if I keep asking any more. If this man says 『you’ll know when it does,』 then that must be true.

「……Understood. By the way, what is this thread around the core?」

Perhaps it’s because the core is such an ominous color, it makes the beauty of the silver thread curled around it look all the more beautiful. It’s certainly not just a thread. Besides, I feel like I kind of remember seeing it somewhere. But I can’t remember what it is. As I squint at it, he easily says:

「It’s the princess’s hair.」

「……Huh?」

It takes me a moment to comprehend what he said. I raise my head from the core to state at his face. The princess’s hair…?

Just how and why did he get that? It’s completely impossible to understand. I know I respond a more than usual to things related to the princess, or about my father-in-law Lancent.

I can’t just let what he said right now slide like that. ‘What do you mean?’ I ask with my gaze. He lets out a sigh, as if implying he expected my reaction.

「While this may be just a core, a demon is still a demon. If you keep that with you all day and all night, I can’t say there won’t be a negative influence on you. This is a countermeasure against that. Since the princess’s hair alone, with the divine protection of the goddess, has plenty holy power in it. There’s nothing more sacred than this for an intermediary with a demon’s capture.」

「T-that may be true but, still, to actually receive the princess’s hair……」

「Calm down. I didn’t even have to ask her for it, she gladly offered it herself.」

「……Well, I’ll have to give my thanks to the princess once again.」