Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – Diverging Wishes (2)

Why would he say something so obvious? Erin looked at Gabriel in faint disbelief.

Who would ever trust an enemy’s words without question? Their relationship was one bound by near coercion, and she herself was his sacrifice.

Would there ever come a day when Erin trusted even a single word he spoke?

Never. The more she turned his question over in her mind, the more amused she felt, and she let out a quiet scoff.

“Of course,” Erin said.

To make it unmistakably clear, she stepped closer. Meeting his gaze head on, she spoke slowly, articulating every single word.

“I do not trust anything you say.”

For a moment, Gabriel said nothing. The face that was always smiling twisted slightly.

What displeased him? That she did not believe him?

What a petty ego. His faintly creased brow did not smooth out, yet one corner of his mouth lifted, as if he wanted to respond in a deliberately crooked way.

“Then you simply do not have to believe that I do not know how to kill the demon god,” Gabriel said lightly.

She had no need for pointless wordplay. Erin did not humor him and only looked at him in silence.

Yet, on reflection, it was not entirely wrong. Because she did not believe him, she did not need to concern herself with how he framed his words.

Thinking about it calmly, it seemed Gabriel was deliberately provoking her, watching how she would react.

Was this not also just another attempt to scrape at her nerves? Erin studied him quietly, then let a small smile form.

She did not know what he wanted. But there was one thing she was certain of.

“That is useless too if I do not believe it,” Erin said.

When she did not give him the reaction he wanted, Gabriel’s brow furrowed in clear displeasure.

“…When you put it that way, I suppose you are right. What would it take for you to trust me, even a little?” Gabriel said.

He let out a languid sigh and handed her something. It was the book he had been reading earlier.

“If I give you this, would you believe me just a bit?” Gabriel asked.

Erin looked silently at the book. It was written in ancient characters, yet strangely, a few words were readable to her.

[The Demon God’s Sacrifice]

It was a book related to demon gods that could not be found anywhere else. Erin simply stared at it, with no intention of taking it.

In the end, Gabriel placed the book directly into her hands. Holding the surprisingly heavy volume, Erin still did not lift her gaze from it.

How had he known that something like this existed here, let alone found it?

“…It is almost as if you knew from the beginning that this book was here,” Erin said.

The only response was his smile. As Gabriel looked into her eyes, he slowly spoke.

“…After living for several hundred years, one tends to know things,” Gabriel said.

He closed his mouth again. Uneasy, Erin tried to leave the book behind.

Even when she attempted to hand it back, Gabriel quickly pressed it into her arms again.

“Please, take it,” Gabriel said.

Erin said nothing. She could not understand him. Why go this far just to make her take the book?

Was it simply to make her trust his words, even slightly? For what possible reason?

Still, when she thought of it as another clue to killing the demon god, the matter changed.

Ancient characters could be deciphered by any means necessary.

In the end, Erin accepted the book, turned on her heel, and walked out. She could feel his gaze on her back, but she paid it no mind.

Breaking into the heart of the problem as quickly as possible and resolving this wretched situation was her foremost duty as the Holy Knight Commander.

For now, she had to endure. As she walked, the look in Erin’s eyes gradually hardened into cold resolve.

***

After Erin left, he spent the entire day reading.

Only after finishing the third volume did Gabriel finally lift his gaze. Lightly massaging his slightly tired eyes, he rose from his seat.

…As expected, there is nothing else here.

Was it truly that blasphemous? Gabriel smirked toward empty space, lifting one corner of his mouth as if mocking something unseen.

It did not matter. Had he not entered this place of his own accord for this very purpose? More importantly, now he could reach Erin with just a stretch of his hand.

He was now close enough to wrap his hands around that slender neck and squeeze.

Even with the verbal contract in place, there was nothing preventing him from killing Erin. He could strangle her at this very moment. Yet the other desire that kept reaching for her was a separate matter entirely.

Gabriel shifted his gaze elsewhere and began to walk. With a light snap of his fingers, the iron bars that filled the space outside the study vanished, and new walls began to rise in their place.

As the prison slowly transformed into a space that looked fit for habitation, Gabriel finally surveyed the surroundings with a more satisfied expression. A bitter taste lingered in his mouth at the sight, so dearly missed.

As he walked several laps around the now home like prison, another thought crossed his mind.

Sistus.

She too was searching for the same thing he sought.

Sistus’s attention would inevitably turn toward him.

If she knew where I was, she would have found me already.

Had that been the case, Sistus would have arrived here long ago to grate on his nerves. The fact that things remained quiet meant she was surely plotting something.

Nothing must happen yet. At least not until the moment when Erin’s suspicion, which might last forever, softened even slightly.

Until then, nothing could be allowed to happen.

***

In a village deep within the Unda region, the lowest province of the Perios Empire.

Not a single soul there still breathed. Amid countless corpses, one woman moved about with leisurely grace.

It was Sistus.

She stepped over the bodies she herself had slain, spinning here and there as if dancing.

Though no music played, it felt as though a chilling waltz filled the air.

The stench of blood carried on the wind was sweet as honey, drawing deep breaths from her lungs.

After wandering for some time, Sistus came to a sudden halt and slowly lifted her gaze to the sky.

“I really cannot stay quiet, can I,” Sistus said.

Crows, drawn by the scent of corpses, flooded the sky until even the night itself was obscured.

Was it not a magnificent sight? Sistus spread her arms wide, her blood smeared lips curving into a broad smile.

“Come now, death. Faster. Come closer,” Sistus cried.

The cries of the crows tickled her ears sweetly. Sistus gently stroked the neck of one crow that had perched on her shoulder.

“And then we will go deliver the message to him,” Sistus said.

He would surely be wondering why she had not appeared. So it would be best to ease his doubts by bringing him this news a little sooner.

You are not the only one who uses their head.

Laughing with clear delight, Sistus snapped the crow’s neck with the same hand that had been caressing it.

As if still unsatisfied, she bit into the limp bird and drank its blood.

Human blood was far more delicious than that of animals. Still, to regain her strength as quickly as possible, she had to drink far more blood.

Whether it tasted good or not did not matter. She had no luxury to be picky.

She had thought she was keeping a close watch on him all this time. How had he managed to hide himself so completely?

That damned whelp must have hidden what was mine.

Sistus tossed the crow aside without care. The smile vanished from her face as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Gabriel’s blood was more troublesome than she had expected.

If she drank his blood, she would not need to hunt for a long time, but the drawback was that magic would no longer work on him.

A double edged blade of a bloodline.

He must have made someone else drink that blood as well before hiding it. That was why she could usually find it anywhere. Yet this time, she could not trace even its flow.

Gabriel would have to pay dearly for making a fool of her.

That fox like bastard would have calculated even this.

Sistus turned and began to walk elsewhere. She only needed to rise slowly at first, then surge upward at the right moment.

With a light flick of her finger, the corpses strewn across the ground twitched.

“My toys, run wild,” Sistus said.

The moment her command fell, the bodies, now undead, scattered in all directions.

The distinctive shrieks of the undead were utterly grotesque. Sistus frowned slightly and covered her ears, then broke into a grin once more, clearly entertained.