episode_0107

“Iris?”

“Hmm? What’s up?”

Iris looked up at me with sparkling eyes. As if containing the universe, her pupils twinkled even in the darkness.

“You should go to your room and sleep.”

“But… I’m scared to sleep alone…”

“How about sleeping with Lily then? Let me go ask…”

As I tried to quickly get out of bed, Iris grabbed my clothes. I turned my head to look at Iris.

“No…?”

With tears in her eyes, Iris looked at me.

“There’s nothing wrong with family. Haha.”

The weak comedian succumbed to lying on the bed due to the tears of the pretty girl.

“Yes, Iris and I are family!”

Thinking hard in my mind, I showed my back to Iris and lay down. Then…

Pat.

Iris stuck close behind me. Her ticklish breath spread on my back, a scent similar to Jess but different brushed my nose. Even though we used the same shower products, our scents seemed different.

“Oppa, it’s cold.”

“Hmm? Should I get another blanket?”

“No.”

Iris’s hand lightly brushed against my waist and then she hugged me from behind. As our bodies pressed together, I unknowingly tensed up.

“Let’s sleep like this.”

“…Okay.”

I am just an ordinary pillow.

I am just a pillow that breathes.

I held onto my sanity tightly, afraid of having strange thoughts even towards Iris, who was like a daughter.

***

Even if Iris had reached high school age, the awkward atmosphere would have lingered for a long time. Since Iris was now in middle school, Lian fell asleep as if fainting not long after.

It was also thanks to the preparation for leaving Cardisan.

“…”

“Oppa..?”

Listening to the regular sound of his calm breathing, Iris cautiously called out to Lian. Deep in slumber, Lian showed no response.

“…”

Iris pressed her ear against Lian’s back, listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart. After escaping the arena, she had nightmares almost every day.

Piercing Lian’s heart with a dagger, the dream ended with his body chilling.

Looking down at Lian’s stiff body in the trash-like corpse processing facility, she cried as if blood would spew out due to the putrid smell.

During those times, Iris obsessively sought out Lian. With her sensitive senses, just being in the same space allowed her to feel Lian’s heartbeat.

Iris blinked slowly.

With each breath Lian took, his chest and abdomen gently rose and fell, and his slow heartbeat echoed rhythmically.

She blinked blankly, then rolled her eyes slightly upward to gaze at Lian’s neck just above her. Looking at his exposed white neck through his collar, a scene she had seen a while ago flashed before her eyes.

“I feel bad.”

Cardisan is one of the realms ruled by demons. This means all kinds of cruel things happen there.

To survive in a place where unimaginable horrors occur daily, humans who have lived a normal life needed to learn dirty and cruel knowledge.

Because knowing might help you avoid it.

Having attended classes with children due to their young age and lack of common sense, Jess and Iris learned countless such knowledge over three years.

Among them was included ‘sex education.’

It would have been a cautious class in a peaceful world, but in Cardisan, where one could be kidnapped and treated like livestock at any time and place, it was a class that needed to be learned as a matter of common sense.

When Iris took that class, she didn’t think much about it. If she had to pinpoint a thought she had while taking the class, it was that she felt bad for being there.

The content covered during sex education was mostly about preparing for crimes, so it was filled with content that seriously violated human rights.

One piece of cruel knowledge she had learned to survive in Cardisan suddenly came to mind: the roughly sketched drawing she had seen during class looked exactly like Jess and Ryan, which was why.

During class, the teacher emphasized multiple times that while being forced into sexual crimes by someone could be a terrible wound, if it happened within a loving relationship, it could lead to obtaining the most precious treasure in the world.

Thus, she heard that they would become a true family.

‘…He’s my brother.’

If Jess and her brother became a family, what about me?

She couldn’t understand the discomfort bubbling around her neck area.

Even though Iris knew that Iris and Ryan wouldn’t become strangers just because Ryan and Jess got married and became a family, the fact that someone other than herself could become a family with Ryan made Iris uncomfortable.

Iris hugged Ryan’s waist tighter and recalled the image of Jess and Ryan.

In the dim room, her brother lying on the bed covered by Jess.

As she thought about it, the word “marking” suddenly crossed her mind.

‘Marking…’

A mark left by a vampire on something precious to them.

She had taken vampire classes a few times for vampire children. The information she had learned then came to mind. Iris gazed quietly at Ryan’s white nape.

It felt like looking at a snowfield where no one’s footprints remained.

“…”

Swiftly, Iris released the hand wrapped around Ryan’s waist and pulled herself up.

Ryan’s soft breathing drew closer. Iris fluttered her long eyelashes and lowered her head towards Ryan’s nape. And -…

***

“Did I…do something wrong?”

[Maybe they’re trying to hunt you. The neck is a vital spot.]

“Oh…it can’t be, right?”

Ryan traced the clear bite mark on his neck with his fingertips, his expression pained. The bite mark was vivid from the strong bite that had drawn blood.

It would probably disappear quickly with time, but it seemed like it would last longer than usual due to the painful wound caused by the fierce bite.

With a voice full of excitement, the dagger, who had been sucking blood from Ryan’s thigh, said,

[Aren’t they aiming for when you’re asleep? Haha, now even the night isn’t safe. So from now on, make sure to sleep with me!]

“Why do I have to sleep with you?”

[So that when someone attacks at night, I can appear dramatically and save the day with a swoosh and a slash!]

“Well, then, there’s no need to sleep with you, right? You could just put it under the pillow…”

[Your partner might forget in their sleep! Besides, a detective sleeping with a sword…isn’t that quite cool?!]

“Okay, okay.”

[Then you should sleep sitting up!]

Listening to the dagger’s nonsense with one ear and letting it flow out the other, Iris stepped away from the mirror. She returned to the room and opened a first aid kit that had confidently taken over one side of the room at some point. She took out a large bandage and stuck it firmly on her neck.

The bite mark was so big that the bandage was also large.

“I hope it doesn’t hurt when I detach it later.”

Thinking of the pain of removing the patch and gently rubbing the area where the bandage was attached, Magem urgently called out to me.

[Partner! I finally remembered!]

“What is it?”

With Iris away to manage the children, I was alone in the room. As I comfortably answered Magem, a voice mixed with flattery could be heard.

[The partner’s blood is clotting in the throat… It must be due to molting!]

“Molting…?”

[Yes. Remember the red-haired spy at the restaurant last time? He was molting with bones. Since they are of similar age, they must be in the same molting period!]

“But the last time you’re talking about was three years ago.”

[If it’s three years ago, it’s as good as yesterday, isn’t it?]

Perhaps because he had lived for so long?

Magem’s sense of time seemed warped. Sometimes he would say that three years ago was just like yesterday, and other times he would rampage as if he hadn’t been fed for ten years over a missed meal.

“It seems like he just thinks as he pleases.”

Having frivolous thoughts, I tidied up and got up.

“…Is it really molting?”

I knew that Iris had long passed the molting period, but it was more comforting to think that she had started an advanced molting rather than thinking she was hunting me or assassinating me.

“Should I look for molting supplies?”

Muttering to herself, Lian pulled out Magem with a familiar touch and then dismissed him. Though Magem whined that he wanted more, there was no time to finish preparations for the journey within the remaining week.

Confirming that her thigh had quickly healed, Lian left the room.

***

“Are the preparations going well?”

A heavy and pale voice echoed through the large hall. A black-haired girl wearing a white mask sat on the throne with an indifferent face, looking down at someone.

A man kneeling on one knee in the middle of the hall bowed deeply. The man with long hair and a monocle spoke in a calm yet firm voice.

“All preparations are perfect. So – … the corpses will form mountains, blood will form rivers, and the continent will fall into the hands of the Demon King.”

The man spoke with ecstasy, as if singing a hymn. His monocle glinted ominously.

“There must be no mistakes. Ervorn.”

“Yes, Demon King.”

Ervorn, known as the Demon King’s right-hand man, smiled like a snake and bowed even deeper.