episode_0043

“It’s me.”

Jeanne answered immediately to Eugene’s voice, which was reacting to the sound.

Since they were practically alone,

Jeanne did not give a long introduction to Eugene’s question.

“I know. I can recognize you just by your footsteps.”

Eugene was letting her know that he already knew it was Jeanne,

and the fact that he reacted with a “who is it?” already reflected that awareness of Eugene’s.

So it was direct.

“Then why are you asking who it is? Is that polite to your older sister?”

“…..”

Jeanne was the same.

“Why did you come?”

“Why else would I come, the other colleagues are too concerned about you being tired to drag you to the party. What else can I do but have me, the patient, come and take you.”

Eugene’s tone was even more prickly than usual.

He looked troubled.

But Jeanne, who had come fully aware of his troubled state, tried to accommodate him accordingly.

“I’m tired. I’ll just stay in the dorm.”

“Okay, if you’re tired, that’s understandable. Then I’ll just go into your room and rest with you. We can still talk while resting, right?”

Eugene was definitely not his usual self,

but Jeanne accommodated him one step further.

“No. I want to be alone. Just go.”

“What?”

To Eugene’s reaction of turning her away at the door nonetheless,

Jeanne finally snapped.

“…..”

But Jeanne held back.

If it were the old Jeanne, she might have immediately expressed her irritation with a grumble and turned away.

But since Jeanne had quite a bit of important information updated,

a different circuit than usual was working hard in her head, suppressing her temper.

“Is something wrong?”

The conclusion that the thought circuit derived,

it seemed that something problematic had happened to Eugene.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just really tired.”

But Eugene just kept repeating the same words.

“It seems like something is wrong. Right, I remember. It hasn’t happened lately, but when you were very young, you always reacted like that when you had something difficult going on. You just repeated that nothing was wrong. It feels exactly like that now.”

Before Eugene had fully adapted to the atmosphere of the Orléans family,

he kept saying he was okay without showing any discomfort.

The atmosphere of Eugene felt by Jeanne beyond the door now seemed very similar to that time.

Having finished assessing the situation like that, Jeanne

“I’m going in.”

Thud!

She immediately grabbed the doorknob.

“I’m really okay! Don’t come in!”

Then Eugene shouted even louder with a feeling he hadn’t had before.

But the nuance was definitely suspicious.

If it were Eugene before, it would have definitely contained a feeling of annoyance.

On the other hand, the voice he shouted out now was full of a defensive nuance, as Jeanne usually did to Eugene.

Clunk!

Jeanne, whose senses were keenly alert, recognized the nuance.

And since she had already made up her mind,

she didn’t care about Eugene’s reaction and opened the door without hesitation.

“What, why is it so dark? Hey Eugene Schneider! Are you in the corner? What are you doing in the corner?”

The magic stones etc. in the room were turned off.

But since the room itself wasn’t that big,

Jeanne immediately figured out where Eugene was.

“Haa…Jeanne, Jeanne…please listen…”

Eugene was crouched in the corner, covering his face with both hands.

“Why are you covering your face? Don’t tell me you got hit by Claymores in yesterday’s battle without me knowing? You’re supposed to be an Expert, are you going around getting hit?”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Jeanne, who had entered the room, walked towards Eugene without hesitation.

However, that step of Jeanne’s

Stop!

Stopped as if frozen after a few steps.

‘What is this feeling??’

Prickling!!!

This sense of alienation that felt like her hair and fine hairs would stand on end,

it was because a chilling sense of alienation seemed to envelop her body.

Eugene was still covering his face and crouching in the corner,

and an unknown energy was felt from such Eugene.

“So it’s come to this.”

Swish…!

Eugene, perhaps sensing Jeanne’s reaction, lowered his hands, which had been stubbornly covering his face.

“Eugene, you…!”

Like that Jeanne

“He’s become a demon eye.”

Flicker—!

She confirmed Eugene’s reddened pupils.

It wasn’t as much as a Claymore who had taken a stimulant,

but Eugene’s pupils in the darkness were emitting a not insignificant red glow.

‘As expected, Eugene was a demonkin hybrid. That’s definitely a demon’s eye with demonic energy!’

Unlike the Claymore, who flashed Sharingan eyes in the goblin cave, the size of the pupil was intact,

but the red color filling it was clear.

Furthermore, the subtly radiating red glow was definitely that of a demon.

Eugene Schneider’s changed face was exactly consistent with the appearance of the demons that Jeanne had seen in books,

and the appearance of the demons that she had only seen once in her life in the outer walls of the millennium.

‘Really…Eugene had demon blood…’

Jeanne’s eyes widened to the point where they became round.

Certainly, there was a world of difference between speculating in her head and seeing actual physical evidence.

Throughout the conversation with Priscilla,

and even on the way here, Jeanne contemplated and prepared how to treat Eugene, a demonkin hybrid.

But the moment she saw the demon’s red eyes directly,

it really felt like her head was going blank.

“Yeah, I’m a demonkin hybrid, Jeanne. What the Claymore guys said in the goblin cave is true. I honestly don’t know much about the Berserker stuff. Anyway, excluding that, my mom was a demon, and she married my dad and gave birth to me. As you know, my mom passed away as soon as she gave birth to me.”

Eugene Schneider turned on the magic stone lights on the table next to him.

Jeanne’s mental state, where her head had gone blank, was visible to Eugene through her face.

Then, Eugene began to reveal his secret with a rather open-hearted expression and voice.

‘This is better. It’ll get more complicated if Jeanne can’t understand and doesn’t believe me.’

Because it was something he couldn’t hide,

Eugene had been contemplating all day, and the whole time he was holed up in this room, how he should explain his situation to Jeanne.

“But honestly, I don’t think I can ignore that Berserker thing they said. My abilities have grown too rapidly. Not only that, but I’m saying this now, but while fighting those guys, I gradually realized that my body condition was changing strangely while directly cutting people. In the end, even demonic energy manifested like this.”

That’s why, as if prepared,

as if he had been constantly rehearsing how to speak if the same situation as now with Jeanne was created,

Eugene continued to speak as if reciting a script.

“So.”

And Eugene

“I’m going to leave.”

Had even determined his specific future course of action.

“What? You’re leaving?”

Jeanne, who had been unilaterally listening to his words with a flustered look after seeing Eugene’s demon-like glowing eyes,

reacted immediately when that decision of Eugene’s was mentioned.

“I can’t cause harm to you and the Orléans family. They’re the people who became my family after I lost my father. Even if something like a Berserker doesn’t happen, my current state itself will cause great harm.”

He was going to leave.

The situation of the Orléans family being massacred that he had seen in his dream,

because he was so afraid of it, Eugene would leave their side.

But since he couldn’t say that directly,

Eugene Schneider was just explaining it in a roundabout way like this.

“So…you’re leaving?”

Jeanne’s eyebrows twitched subtly when she heard that she was leaving to avoid causing harm to the Orléans family.

“Yeah, that’s the right thing to do. There’s no other way.”

That appearance of Jeanne’s felt like she was about to explode any minute.

That’s why Eugene poured out an even more resolute expression and tone, driving a stake into his determination.

Clench! Clench!

At that moment, Jeanne’s hands, which were clenched with a lot of strength,

“Don’t talk nonsense. Where do you think you’re going? Do you think I’ll let you go?”

Jeanne was the same,

after learning that Eugene was a demonkin hybrid,

she was filled with a desperate desire to help Eugene,

and as a result, she spared no effort, worrying to her heart’s content even during that short period of time.

Given that Jeanne was like this, how could she let Eugene leave her side, even if she had shown a surprised face just now?

It was Jeanne who spat out her clear will about that to Eugene’s face in an almost teeth-gritting voice.

‘As expected, I didn’t think she’d let me go easily.’

Eugene stared at such Jeanne silently for a few seconds.

Demon,

in the Imperium Empire, demons are a forbidden subject, to the extent that even Ulysses, who was expelled as a Sword Saint, had to hide his demon wife.

Even if they were in a deep friendship, it was an element that they could only acknowledge the reality of and keep a distance from.

But Eugene knew very well what kind of woman Jeanne was.

If it were her, even if his dark secret was blocked by the reality of the forbidden subject,

she was the kind of person who would not let go but would stick closer and try to be together even more.

It was because she was the one who even tried to fold up the signboard of the Orléans Dukedom, saying that she would take care of him through mercenary work.

“Don’t be stubborn. It can’t be helped. It’s demon blood. At least in this Imperium Empire, it’ll destroy everyone around me, not just one person.”

That’s why he had to leave even more.

Because not only Jeanne but also the women of the Orléans family were beings who would not even be afraid of embracing himself, who had a great danger,

and falling to the very bottom of that hell.

Tremble…! Tremble….! Tremble…!

Jeanne, with her fiery temper, couldn’t control her anger at Eugene’s words that he was going to leave.

Not only were her clenched fists but her whole body was trembling with resentment,

it was her heart that could not tolerate the emptiness she would feel in a world without Eugene Schneider by her side more than the bad influence that demon blood would bring to her.

‘My heart hurts so much. She’s Jeanne, who wanted to be with me until we die of old age…’

If it were Eugene in his usual state, he would have comforted Jeanne, who was at a loss in resentment, with a glib manner and a joke.

But now Eugene can’t do that. He just has to watch like this.

Such Eugene’s heart aches as if cut by a knife.

Because he knows how much she wants to be with him for the rest of her life,

he feels sorry and heartbroken that he has no choice but to notify her of this decision towards such her.

But he hates it so much that such a good person, Jeanne, is troubled because of him, to the point where he would regret it even at the moment of death, beyond his whole life.

“You definitely promised. That if something happened to you, I would definitely protect you. You also said you would accept that promise. So we have to put our heads together, you son of a bitch.”

Jeanne mentioned the promise she made in front of the campfire at this base camp two days ago, with lips trembling in resentment.

Jeanne, who had been conscious of her shortcomings since she was young,

had therefore busily appealed her presence to the people around her.

It was from a desire to be recognized as someone who was needed by you.

And each time, Jeanne felt the Orléans family and Eugene accepting her without being bothered by her busyness, and she was so happy.

But Jeanne also knew in her heart.

That they were just matching her rhythm as a loving family,

and that’s what she felt,

so she struggled and started more work as time passed.

Then, a situation arose where she could perhaps truly use her existence for Eugene.

So, for Jeanne, rather than being afraid of the word demon, she couldn’t help but be filled with motivation.

But Eugene was saying that he would deprive her of that opportunity.

It was Jeanne’s appearance, mixed with the desperation of not being able to let go of the obsession she had clung to during her life, and the anger at the reality that was trying to take it away.

“Yeah, I promised. And I’ve always kept my promises to you until now. Because that brought you happiness.”

Jeanne, who had begun to explode her obsession, was like that of a child.

She was that pure.

Eugene had been building a relationship with her, trying to protect that purity and not hurt it.

For her happiness.

“But, keeping that promise you just said as it is now is not for you, Jeanne. It’s something that makes you unhappy. That’s why I’m going to make a different choice this time than I have until now.”

Because Eugene, who had been all about Jeanne’s happiness, was trying to break his promise with her for the first time.

“Lies…the words that it’s for me are lies, you bad bastard…why are you leaving if it’s for me, you bad guy…”

Then, tears welled up in Jeanne’s eyes, which were full of anger.

It was because, as she listened to Eugene’s words, Eugene’s efforts from the past passed through her head like a panorama, stirring her heart.

Because it was such a decision from Eugene, who had lived like that,

she was overwhelmed with the feeling that she was helpless and couldn’t reverse his decision.

“I’ve been thinking about it since last night and until today. This is all I can do for you. So Jeanne, will you help me to be able to do that…?”

Smile…!

Eugene, finally feeling that Jeanne had also prepared her heart,

gave a request that was like a final farewell, with a warmer smile than ever.

Although he had pretended to be so logical, it seemed that his feet would not fall unless Jeanne sent him off.

“Fuck, don’t be ridiculous, there’s a way.”

Swish! Swoosh! Swish!

However, Eugene’s thoughts were wrong.

Jeanne had not given up.

She had just made a decision,

cursing full of that resolve, she began to roughly roll up her top.

“My body! I can turn you back with this body of mine!”

Swaying! Swaying!

She wasn’t just rolling it up, she was taking it off.

Jeanne took off her bra all at once,

and as a result, her huge and beautiful breasts appeared, swaying angrily.