You, My Devil - Chapter 21
“I simply speak out of concern, as I’ve heard you’ve been spending much time with an astrologer from the western lands.”
Camille’s face bore an enigmatic smile, one Fessis couldn’t help but interpret as mocking.
“My dear brother, he is merely a slave.”
“Yes. I hope you’ll never forget what you’ve just said—that no matter how brilliant an astrologer he may be, he is still nothing more than a slave from a colony.”
Wrinkles formed between Fessis’s brows as Camille continued to speak without the slightest movement, his posture unwavering. Fessis’s fists trembled with rage.
“You’ve developed quite the habit of speaking carelessly. I came here concerned for my naïve little brother, and now you accuse me of treason?”
“That was not my intention.”
“Well, that’s how it sounded to me.”
Camille shook his head slightly, the faint smile never leaving his face.
Though he had already discerned Fessis’s true intentions, Camille was far too shrewd to be ensnared by his schemes.
“Calm yourself, Fessis. I will also pretend I didn’t hear what you said today. I only ask that you consider my position as a priest.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“That there must be no acts of sacrilege committed in this holy temple.”
Fessis’s expression grew darker, his features twisting with anger.
“If you disapprove of me seeking wisdom from others, why don’t you discuss matters of state with me yourself?”
Camille let out a soft laugh.
Camille tilted his head slightly and let out a low laugh. It was a laugh of disbelief.
“Take care, Fessis.”
His tone was dry and devoid of warmth, but the words were sharp, cutting like a blade. Blood rushed to Fessis’s cold face. The fact that Camille addressed him without any honorifics meant, from his position as high priest, that he was commanding him. It was an explicit dismissal.
Humiliated, Fessis spun around and stormed out. Only when the sound of his footsteps had completely disappeared did Camille murmur quietly to himself.
“Afraid of losing something other than your sight, how could you ever dare to speak the truth, Brother Fessis?”
The serene expression he had maintained moments earlier hardened. The situation he had feared was beginning to unfold. As soon as Yuri left, Fessis had begun scheming.
If things continued as they were, everyone’s lives would be in jeopardy. Fessis had referred to Emperor Nike as “an old lion whose claws had fallen out.” Yet Nike was not merely an emperor; he was the embodiment of the state itself and regarded as one with the divine.
Such a disparaging statement would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Should it reach Nike’s ears, it would cost not just Fessis but anyone their lives, even if they were his children.
“This is happening much faster than I anticipated,” Camille thought.
Fessis was no longer afraid of the emperor. His hatred for Nike, born out of jealousy toward Yuri, had now morphed into something far darker—a storm of bloodshed waiting to erupt over the desert.
Camille fell deep into thought.
“If someone as cautious as Fessis is moving so quickly, there must be a reason. I need to uncover who is inciting him.”
Through informants, Camille had learned that Fessis had been locking himself away in an underground laboratory for hours each night, engaged in secret discussions with an astrologer from Constance, a former slave.
Apparently, Fessis had gone to great lengths to keep this astrologer hidden, allowing no one to approach. Few had even glimpsed the astrologer’s face. Rumor had it that even when interacting with the maids serving his meals, Fessis required the astrologer to keep their face covered.
“If only Yuri were here…”
Camille sighed deeply. By now, Yuri had likely arrived safely in Constance. No doubt Fessis would stop at nothing to try to kill him, employing any method he could devise.
Camille began praying for Yuri, pouring out his desperate hopes to the gods.
Only Yuri, he believed, could prevent Nike from being engulfed in flames and destruction.
* * *
Drip—
The sound of raindrops collected on the ceiling dripping into a puddle stirred Heina awake. She slowly opened her eyes, greeted by the pale light of dawn filling the cave.
Peeking her head out from her sleeping bag, Heina blinked sleepily, her vision hazy. Near the entrance of the cave, she noticed the remains of last night’s fire—a pile of charcoal and ash. Spread out on a large rock nearby were her clothes, laid out to dry.
Heina gasped softly and looked down. Inside the sleeping bag, she realized with a jolt that she was completely naked.
“What… what happened?”
Fragments of yesterday’s events flashed through her mind. The memory of drinking the antidote, shivering uncontrollably in the cold, and the warmth of a body pressed against hers to share heat resurfaced.
Her face turned beet red at the thought. Fortunately, the person in question seemed to have left. Hastily, she grabbed her tattered clothes from the rock and dressed herself.
Her thigh, where Yuri had cut to remove the venom from the snakebite, was now wrapped in a clean bandage rather than the blood-soaked cloth from before. The wound ached dully with every movement, but she no longer felt the crushing heaviness or bone-chilling cold that had left her incapacitated the previous night.
Stepping out of the cave cautiously, Heina heard a sudden sound.
Neighhh—
“Ah! What… what is that?!”
Startled by the cry of a horse, Heina let out a small scream. Tied to a tree near the cave entrance was a black-maned horse. It was unmistakably the same horse that had bolted just before the rainstorm yesterday.
“…You scared me…”
Muttering under her breath, she clutched her chest to calm her racing heart. Unlike its exhausted state from yesterday, the black stallion now looked full of energy.
“Did he actually manage to find it in this vast mountain…?”
She passed by the snorting horse, which seemed content and in good spirits, and headed toward the sound of running water. Her body felt sticky with sweat, and she needed to splash some water on her face to feel awake.
Carefully parting the branches blocking her path, Heina finally reached the stream. The heavy rain from last night had swelled the waterway, and the stream now rushed powerfully downhill.
“Wow…”
Limping slightly, she made her way across the pebbles to the water’s edge. The icy-cold water stung her skin as she splashed it on her face, but it left her feeling refreshed and alert.
She was in the middle of washing her face for the third time when something white and large suddenly shot up out of the water in the distance.
“Ahhh!”
She let out a startled cry, stepping back instinctively.
It was Yuri. Emerging from the water, he slicked his wet hair back from his forehead and called out to her with a smirk.
“What’s this? Were you spying on me? I didn’t think the former princess of Constance would have such secretive hobbies.”
He laughed heartily, his white teeth glinting as his broad shoulders glistened in the morning sun. Yuri began wading toward her through the water, and as more of his bare body surfaced, Heina’s face twisted in horror. She quickly turned her head away.
“You and I, haven’t we already seen everything there is to see?” he teased. “We were rolling around naked last night, holding each other for warmth. Why act so shy now?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?! H-Hey!!”
Heina snapped her head back to retort, only to immediately regret it. She squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she caught a glimpse of his completely nude form. Yuri, amused, burst out laughing and climbed out of the water.
After roughly drying himself off and putting on his clothes, he approached Heina and crouched in front of her. Taking her hands, which were covering her face, he gently pulled them down, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.
“Open your eyes,” he said, looking directly at her.
Yuri gazed at the delicate bridge of her nose, scrunched up in irritation, the slight wrinkles making it all the more charming.
“The show’s over. You can look now.”
“I wasn’t watching!”
Heina’s eyes shot open, but she flinched backward in surprise. Yuri’s wet face was so close to hers that she nearly fell over. His gray eyes, lightened by the sunlight, locked onto hers.
“How’s your body feeling?” he asked suddenly.
Heina blinked, unable to answer. She remembered his grave voice from last night, the one she had thought was just a hallucination as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
“You’re not going to die, Heina. You won’t die.”
The seriousness and worry in his voice from then felt miles apart from the teasing man now sitting in front of her. She struggled to reconcile the two images of Yuri in her mind.
“I found the horse and waited for you to wake up.”
“You didn’t think I might run away?”
“Do you think I wouldn’t be able to find you if you did?”
Yuri’s words were sharp, and he drove his point home, his voice cold and cutting.
“If you try to run again, you’ll die by my hand before a snake ever gets to you. By now, you should know me well enough. But I guess your head isn’t working all that well, is it?”
Of course. Why had she even allowed herself to hope, even for a moment, that he might have a shred of humanity? Cursing her own foolishness, Heina shot to her feet, anger blazing in her chest. She pushed past the bushes, stomping forward in a huff. Behind her, Yuri let out a playful whistle.
“Good to see you’ve got your energy back.”
They rode the horse tirelessly for the rest of the day, galloping without pause. By the time dusk began to settle over the horizon, they finally emerged from the dense wilderness of Mount Knompen.
In the distance, the sprawling streets of Battus, the Fifth District of Constance, came into view. Smoke from cooking fires rose gently from the chimneys of houses, backlit by the fiery glow of the setting sun.
Heina gripped tightly onto Yuri’s clothes, her hand trembling as she took in the sight before her.
‘I’m back.’
Tears welled in her eyes, hot and overwhelming.
‘I’ve finally… finally returned.’
The profound relief washed over her like a wave. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, her feet would touch the soil of her homeland again.
The year was Nike 25. A year and two months had passed since the war had ended, and Constance had become a vassal state of Nike.
* * *
Just before entering the city of Battus, a sandstorm rose beyond the distant horizon. Heina, who was riding on horseback, fixed her gaze on it.
“What is that? Could it be another attack?”
The memory of the sudden assault by unidentified guards in the desert resurfaced in her mind, and her body instinctively shuddered. On that day, even amidst the chaos of the ambush, she had seen it clearly.
The symbol of the sun engraved prominently on the chest plates of their armor had unmistakably belonged to the royal family of Nike. If her guess was correct, it was certain that a power struggle over the throne was unfolding within the inner halls of the Nike Imperial Palace.
She couldn’t help but regret not studying more diligently back when Arzen had taught her about the political dynamics of neighboring countries. Knowing more about Nike’s situation would undoubtedly be of great help to her now.
Behind her, Yuri sat calmly, steering his horse with an air of composure.
What on earth is he planning to do? How can he remain so relaxed?
Heina whipped her head around to face him. His cold, gray eyes met hers.
“Looks like soldiers are coming,” she said.
“In that shallow vision of yours, even you can see that much, huh?” Yuri retorted, his tone dry and cutting.
“What are you going to do? Are you just planning to die here?”
“Who knows? The only thing I’m certain of is that it won’t be me who dies a pointless death. Anyone who attacks me will lose their head,” he said.
A chill ran down Heina’s spine at Yuri’s emotionless voice. The sandstorm grew closer by the second.
Why is everyone around me an enemy? And more importantly, who are these soldiers?
Heina bit her lip, her mind racing. At this spot so close to the city, she couldn’t think of anyone who would openly attack Yuri.
Could it be…?
Although this was technically Nike’s colony, it was still the land of Constance. A faint glimmer of hope crossed Heina’s mind—perhaps the soldiers riding toward them were from Constance.
“Survive at all costs, Princess Heina. Until Lord Arzen arrives.”
The memory snapped her back to reality.
Could Arzen be among them?
Her heart began to race. If the soldiers were truly from Constance, and if they ambushed Yuri, who was alone and without any men, they might be able to kill him.
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Lala
Ahhhh no more chapters