Chapter 171: Aftermath (3)

“Um, I’m still here, you know…”

In my joy at gaining another family member, I’d momentarily forgotten Nana was present.

Julia, who’d also just realized this, blushed and reluctantly pulled away from me.

“…We’ll continue this later. And Julia, don’t use formal speech with me. It feels weird.”

“If that’s what you want, I’ll do that. To be honest, I thought I was going to die from the awkwardness.”

Nana, who seemed to have found using formal speech with me awkward too, initially refused but then agreed so readily it was almost deflating.

“Alright, I’ve got somewhere to be for a bit. Julia, you rest for now. You, come with me.”

“Okay… See you later…”

I left the room with Nana, just as we’d entered. We walked to a secluded part of the mansion, far from Julia’s room, before I stopped.

“Hey, be honest with me. What’s that old man thinking? Why’d he turn his own daughter into a maid and send her to me?”

If I were the king, I’d have disguised Julia as my illegitimate child, arranged our marriage, and tried to recruit me into the royal circle.

The king was the first to know about this situation and could manipulate it however he wanted, so even the princes couldn’t do anything about it.

So why strip away Julia’s royal title and just send her alone? I honestly couldn’t understand it.

“At first, His Majesty intended to do just that. But Julia said she’d rather kill herself than become a shackle binding you. This arrangement was the compromise.”

“…She threatened to kill herself?”

“Yes, and if I hadn’t stopped her, she surely would have. Her resolve was that strong. This setup is an attempt to at least earn your goodwill, given Julia’s unwavering determination.”

I got the gist of it. But still, even for the sake of the country, to so readily sell off one’s child… Do royals have a fundamentally different mental structure from ordinary people?

It was a stark contrast to how Jessica’s father, though not royalty but a high-ranking noble, doted on his daughter.

“And you came along as a package deal with Julia, I take it… You’ve had it rough too.”

“Compared to Julia, who’s lost her royal status, it’s nothing… Anyway, I’ll be in your care along with Julia from now on. My sword may be feeble compared to yours, but please make good use of it.”

“…Right, I’m heading off then.”

“Hm? Where are you going?”

“There’s someone I need to placate. This whole situation’s made her pretty angry.”

“Ah…”

Nana said nothing more, just patted my shoulder as if to say “good luck.”

Heading upstairs to the bedroom, I found the door tightly shut, like the entrance to a final boss room.

Opening the firmly closed door and entering, I saw Jessica’s back, her face buried in a pillow as if she couldn’t bear to look at me.

“Jessica.”

I called her name and sat down beside the bed. Jessica turned away, avoiding my gaze.

Worried she’d keep her back to me, I gently placed my hand on her hip. Jessica swatted it away and looked at me.

“…What do you want?”

“Finally, you’re looking at me.”

At those words, Jessica sat up abruptly, her face contorted with anger as she shouted at me.

“Did you come here to mess around?!”

Well, anger was better than being ignored. At least if she was angry, she was still engaging with me.

“I’m not here to mess around. I’m here to keep a promise.”

“Promise?”

Taking advantage of Jessica’s surprise at the unexpected word, I moved in closer.

Caught off guard by my sudden closeness, Jessica retreated. I pressed forward and kissed her.

“Mmph…!!”

Surprised, Jessica initially accepted the kiss passively, but as she regained her composure, she tried to push me away.

She shook her body violently, struggling and even trying to hit me with her fists to break free. But I persisted, kissing her relentlessly until she finally gave in.

“Haa…”

After a long kiss, I finally pulled away as Jessica wanted. Her face flushed, she glared at me.

“What do you think you’re doing?! You think this makes everything okay?!”

“No, I told you. I’m here to keep a promise. Remember? I said if I did anything with another woman, I’d do the same with you.”

Understanding my words, Jessica grew even angrier. She raised her hand to slap me, but for some reason, she lowered it again without following through.

“…Am I not enough for you?”

“……”

Hearing the tears in her voice, I couldn’t answer immediately. I just held her.

Reflexively saying “no” without any consideration wouldn’t earn her trust.

First, I hugged Jessica to calm her down, then asked her quietly:

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you keep adding more women!! This time too, you kissed that woman… no, Lady Julia, and then came here…”

“It’s not like that. And this time, it wasn’t because I wanted to. More importantly, I couldn’t just leave Julia alone.”

Knowing Julia’s circumstances, Jessica couldn’t deny or affirm this. She just buried her face in my chest.

“…You’re really not tired of me?”

“I’m not, I swear. Besides, I was unconscious the whole time. I didn’t even know things would turn out like this.”

“……”

It seemed she’d been so preoccupied with the thought of me getting a new woman that she hadn’t considered this aspect.

Embarrassed, Jessica snuggled deeper into my embrace. I held her gently.

——

“Is this the place?”

“Yes, that makeshift shrine you see there is where the demon’s corpse is sealed.”

After sorting things out at the mansion, I returned to the forest with Hori and Marina.

At the site where the demon’s body had been, there was now a tofu-like building made of pure white bricks. Holy knights in white armor guarded its entrance.

‘Looks like they didn’t have time to worry about aesthetics when building it in a hurry.’

I supposed as long as it could serve as a shrine, its appearance didn’t matter much. But still, it seemed too simplistic, even for a rushed job.

“Ian and Hori, you said you’re going to make an elixir from the demon’s heart, right?”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“It depends on what kind of elixir you’re making. I don’t intend to stop you, but be careful. Any medicine made from that is bound to be… unorthodox.”

As she said, demonic energy was seeping through the cracks of the building, despite the shrine supposedly suppressing it as much as possible.

The problem wasn’t with the construction. Honhuld’s power was so immense that even a shrine couldn’t completely contain it.

“If you’re going to make an elixir or whatever, you’d better do it quickly. There have been cases of dead demons reviving, after all.”

Moreover, the slowly leaking demonic energy was gradually killing the surrounding land.

I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if someone were to destroy the shrine and fully release the demon’s corpse.

“…Shall we go in then?”

“Yes!!”

If I were alone, I wouldn’t have bothered with precautions, but Hori was with me now. I held Wolffang out in front as we moved forward.

Naturally, the demonic energy leaking from the shrine was incomparably weaker than when the demon was alive. It barely seemed worth blocking.

“…Welcome.”

As we reached the door, the holy knights who made eye contact with me bowed slightly and stepped aside.

Inside the shrine, Honhuld’s corpse was left nailed to a circular altar. The candles on the walls made it look like the scene of a suspicious ritual.

“…You said you needed the heart, right?”

“Yes! And if possible, I’d like to get some blood too.”

“Alright.”

I placed the sealing chest I’d brought to transport the heart next to me and positioned myself, gauging where the demon’s heart might be.

‘Even for a demon, the heart should be in the chest.’

There was no description in the story of the heart being in a different location, so I trusted that assumption. I used my Baldo aimed at the center of the chest, revealing the demon’s dark blue heart.

“Ugh!!”

The moment I extracted the heart, a chilling wave of demonic energy burst forth, making me involuntarily cry out.

I tossed the heart into the sealing chest like I was throwing away a used tissue, and quickly closed the lid before more demonic energy could escape.

“Hah… You said you wanted blood too, right?”

“Yes! Here’s the syringe!!”

After extracting several vials of the demon’s blood, I put them in the sealing chest as well. I then hoisted the chest onto my back and stood up.

“Hori, how long do you think it’ll take to make this elixir?”

“The process itself is simple, but it’s a time-consuming medicine. Plus, given the unique ingredient, there’s a lot I want to test. You’ll have to wait until winter at least…”

“Winter, huh…”

No, if winter was the minimum, it might even take until next year.

But since I had plenty of time on my hands anyway, I could afford to wait that long.

“I can wait that long. Do whatever experiments you want.”

“Yay!!”