Monsters Wag Their Tails Only at Me

Phiren’s words were no different from a confession. Even so, the back of my neck went stiff.

I knew he would commit any number of cruel acts without hesitation to reclaim the throne. He had killed his elder brother and tried to manipulate his nephew however he wanted.

But I never thought he would even use his own son. He knew perfectly well what side effects death magic had, yet he had bound the servants’ lives to Days.

"How could you do that to your son... You were trying to put Days on the throne. Then why..."

The moment I met Phiren’s sharp gaze, I lost my words. Then I looked down at the collapsed Milo.

He had been similar to Leobin, but the servants’ behavior just now had clearly been different from his. At the very least, Leobin had intelligence, and he moved by his own will.

He, too, had tried to protect me with his life on the line, but he had not been a mindless puppet moving at my command.

"Haha... Did you upgrade it already?"

The army of the dead Phiren and Horace had tried to create.

It was not complete with nothing but corpses that charged forward without dying, even when killed.

Absolute obedience to their lord’s command. A mindless loyalty that could throw lives onto the battlefield as much as needed, even when the master did not have to be in danger.

And an experiment to create puppets required a puppet who would give orders.

"You really are trash."

At the words I spat out through clenched teeth, Phiren snorted. Without the slightest change in expression, he replied.

"Calling your uncle trash. It is uncomfortable to hear that, Ceryl."

Phiren raised his hand and gently stroked his son’s head. Days, startled by his father’s touch, rolled his eyes wildly.

He did not understand it in his head, but Days, too, had noticed the strange current. I could feel the trust he had in his father beginning to crack.

On the other hand, Phiren could not read Days’s emotions as they changed from moment to moment. He still lifted his chin with a shameless face.

"I will say it again. If you had not acted out, they would not have been hurt. You are the one who put everyone in danger, so why are you so confident?"

"...What?"

"Tsk, tsk. This is why there is no point in taking in someone else’s child. You do not even know the debt you owe for being raised."

The longer my conversation with Phiren went on, the more violently my emotions surged. My clenched fists trembled.

This was not the fear, anger, or desire for revenge that Ceryl had carried for so long.

As I shook inside a storm I could not easily define, Varen, who had been standing quietly beside me, slipped his hand over mine.

Varen lowered his head and met my eyes.

"Ceryl, should I kill him for you?"

"..."

"Is that what you want?"

From his words, saying he would kill Phiren for me as much as I wanted, I drew out the answer.

Looking into that affectionate gaze, I vomited up the truth that had risen all the way to my throat.

"...I’m furious."

"What?"

"I’m so furious... I feel like I’m going to die."

I was furious that I did not have the ability to kill Phiren. Rage burst through me at myself, unable to trample that man who was less than a bug.

And in the middle of that, the reason still screaming that I must not kill Phiren yet was loud. Even that made unbearable self-loathing surge up.

Had the Drunkard been here in my place. No, had I been an outstanding mage.

"Hngh... Ngh..."

"Ceryl, it’s all right, calm down."

Varen tried to calm me as he patted my shoulder, but the emotions that had once swept over me would not easily settle.

I grabbed my hair with rough hands. I pulled as if tearing it out and swallowed my resentment inside.

Ceryl Lavier. You come from such a great family, so why the hell are you this useless?

All you can do is listen well, so what makes you royal bloodline?

What can you even do with an ability that lets you hear voices carried on the wind and understand the will of magical creatures just by looking into their eyes?

"..."

As I was tearing at my hair, both my hands suddenly dropped. Then I lifted my head and faced Phiren.

Eyes of dark violet, as if covered in night fog. I stared straight into those eyes that proved he was Lavier.

"Phiren Lavier."

I called his name in a low voice. Then Phiren, too, could not take his eyes off me, as if nailed in place.

It was not my first time meeting someone’s eyes, but it was a mysterious experience.

The abyss each person had within themselves. It felt as if I were helplessly being sucked into that deep black hole.

My pounding heartbeat loosened. Instead, I felt the other person’s blood pulsing.

Unlike his shameless expression, I could feel his heart burning with impatience, the fear that wanted to flee like this, exactly as it was.

In that moment, I was certain Phiren and I were connected.

"You... cannot stop, can you?"

The words that flowed from my mouth did not feel like mine. I could not even tell whose will was moving my body now.

I approached Phiren one step at a time, but he still did not move at all.

"You reported your parents and drove them to their deaths, killed your own elder brother with your own hands. And now you have even used your son... Still, what can you do? Your greed swallowed you whole."

"..."

"Phiren, you needed a doll that listened well to you, but humans cannot become dolls."

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of Phiren.

There were certainly several people here, including Varen and Margon.

And yet I could not feel any of them. It was a sensation as if only Phiren and I existed in the world.

"You said it was for the family, but in the end, it was all for you. Even as you said you would place your son on the throne, you yourself wanted to sit at the top of this country."

"..."

"Because you can simply have another child. Right?"

I stretched out both hands and seized Phiren’s cheeks. The moment my hands touched him, his breath stopped.

Without taking our eyes off each other, Phiren’s face and mine drew closer. When our foreheads lightly collided, it felt as if an electric current flowed through my entire body.

In Beljena, with Ordin’s help, I had awakened the mana my body held. And a few days ago, after falling into the sea spirit’s sea, I had recovered all of Ceryl’s memories and abilities.

My overly heightened hearing made me hear even things I did not want to hear. They reached my ears without any need for me to make an effort.

Then, if I tried to listen, how far could I hear?

"Phiren, you will have to let me hear it. Everything you know."

I was looking at Phiren with both eyes, but unfamiliar scenes flowed before me. His life played back like a flash before my eyes.

Then a groan escaped Phiren’s mouth.

"Ngh... Ngh..."

All of Phiren’s memories and experiences, the knowledge and truths he knew.

Not a single thing was left out. I could see it, and I could hear it.

If Ceryl’s memories had come to me as a sensation of being overlaid, Phiren’s life pooled in one corner of my head.

"Ugh, nngh..."

"Phiren, do not resist."

The same Lavier bloodline resisted me violently. He struggled not to have his memories taken away.

But it was already useless. Like water falling from high to low, everything that made up Phiren flowed into me.

Just a little more. Just a little, just a little more...

"Ceryl, stop!"

Then someone embraced me, shattering the world where only Phiren and I existed.

The silence where I had heard only Phiren’s voice cracked, and in an instant, a commotion loud enough to tear my ears apart rushed in.

"Ngh... Aaaagh!"

I screamed as I clamped both hands over my ears. I had no idea where the pain was coming from.

Varen pulled me into a fierce embrace as I thrashed violently. A gentle warmth came from every part of me that touched him.

"Ceryl, it’s all right. Look at me. Ceryl..."

Varen, who had been frantically soothing me, hurriedly pressed his lips to mine. I sought him out as if I had been starving for a long time.

I opened my mouth wide and gulped down the dragon’s energy greedily. Each time my throat bobbed as I swallowed, my body, which had been like a time bomb, quieted.

Varen touched me as if putting out an urgent fire. Hot skin that had somehow slipped under my clothes swept down my back, soaked with cold sweat.

After kissing him for a long while, I gently pulled my lips away. My still-unsteady breathing burst out roughly.

"Haa... Haa, Varen..."

"Ceryl, you’re all right now. It’s all right, so stop."

Stop what? At the words I could not understand, I slowly blinked.

The sense of reality I had briefly turned off was slowly returning. Then what I sensed more sharply than sight or hearing was smell.

Frowning at the fishy scent, I asked Varen.

"It smells like blood... Varen, are you hurt?"

"It’s yours."

"...Mine?"

With an utterly displeased expression, Varen swept his thumb over the corner of my mouth. After wiping the saliva that had soaked his hand onto his clothes, he wiped my eyes and the area around my ears again.

Each time he did, red blood stained Varen’s hand. Only then did I realize blood was flowing from my eyes, ears, and mouth.

"Why am I... bleeding..."

"If a human tries to hold something their body cannot contain, of course they burst."

"...Ah..."

Come to think of it, Horace had also collapsed bleeding after trying to steal Varen’s mana.

I had tried to hold three people’s worth of memories in one body. The pain as if my head were about to burst had not been an illusion.

Varen’s lips touched my sweat-damp forehead, then fell away. Strangely, the pain subsided wherever he stroked me.

Feeling my body become far better, I turned my head. There, Phiren lay collapsed as if dead.

"I... know everything."

Varen, understanding what I meant without a long explanation, spat out the words.

"Then that human is no longer necessary."

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