episode_0063

Aria’s Warning

“Haaaaah….”

After Zeke and Aria left, at Merzel’s mansion in Grovel. Merzel sat at a table, savoring his lemon tea, and let out a deep sigh. At that moment, the door suddenly burst open, and Cecilia, beaming with a wide smile, shouted,

“I’m here, Merzel!! I’ve brought all my luggage!!”

“Ah… ah, Cecilia. You’ve arrived. I should have helped you…”

“Don’t worry about it. You have to manage and protect Grovel, don’t you? Anyway… where’s my room?”

“Go up to the second floor, and there’s a room on the left. You can stay there.”

“Thanks… but why do you look so gloomy? Are you upset that I’m living here now?”

“…Of course not. It’s not that… it’s because of Lady Aria, who was next to Sir Zeke.”

“W-wait… You’re not saying that Saint threatened you…? No way, that can’t be…”

“…”

Cecilia, who had spoken in jest, started to feel flustered when Merzel bowed his head, sighed deeply, and remained silent. Then, realizing from Merzel’s reaction that her joke was actually true, Cecilia couldn’t help but be shocked.

“W-what?! What?! It’s true?! The Saint threatened to kill you?! Sh-she threatened to kill you, seriously?!”

“Yes…”

“Why?! Is it because the Saint had no choice but to encourage you earlier because of Zeke?! Or is it because you ambushed Zeke, like I heard?!”

“Haa… well, you see…”

Merzel drank his lemon tea, recalling what had happened in the early morning. Merzel, who had been sleeping on the second floor with Cecilia, was awakened by a noisy commotion coming from the first floor. He then yawned and came out of his room.

“H-hey, Estur! Grab it there and…”

“What, here? Do I press it?”

“No, wait, not yet…!!! Aaaahhh!! It went in further!!”

“Oh?! It’s dented even more, damn it!! This metal is driving me crazy, damn it!!”

“That’s the staff *you* scratched!! Are you determined to completely break it?!”

“N-no, that’s not what I mean… how can I apologize for this… Can’t we try again?”

“Ugh, seriously… Fine, let’s try…”

“Hmph… What in the world is all this noise… *Gasp*?!”

The moment Merzel was grumbling and heading down to the first floor, someone from behind covered Merzel’s mouth with a hand, dragged him into a room, and locked the door. Something then passed by Merzel’s side and stuck into the wall. Merzel gulped and was shocked to see the object stuck in the wall.

‘Th-this… this is a k-kitchen knife?! Then this person, surely, has noticed Grovel’s presence….’

“I deliberately missed, you know?”

‘…!!! Th-that voice?!’

Merzel, realizing the identity of the voice he heard, was terrified by the face visible in the moonlight filtering through the curtains. Aria, her red eyes gleaming in the moonlight from behind the curtains, smiled at him, a sight enough to startle anyone. Merzel felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.

‘L-Lady Aria…?! Wh-what is this feeling…? I’ve never felt this way even with Estur-ssi…!?’

“I’ve been enduring a lot lately, Merzel-nim. So, I brought you to this empty room to give you a warning, you see? Of course, I won’t kill you. Sir Zeke would be very sad if I did. So, scaring you like this is alright, isn’t it? And since Estur-ssi is with Sir Zeke right now, this is a good opportunity.”

“*Muffled sounds*! *Muffled sounds*!!”

In inexplicable fear, Merzel instinctively tried to push away Aria’s hand covering his mouth, but Aria’s strength was so immense that his arm wouldn’t budge. And when Aria looked at him with a chilling smile, Merzel felt like he was losing his mind from the overwhelming terror.

‘W-what… what is this feeling?! S-scary… scary…!!! More than the fear I felt in the previous war…!? How can a Saint possess such pressure?!’

“You know what makes me really annoyed lately? Everywhere we go, Sir Zeke talks a lot with other people instead of me… This Aria felt very disappointed. But I kept enduring it. Because for the one I love, I suppressed and suppressed and suppressed my discomfort. Continuously.”

‘W-what is she saying?! And why is her strength so immense?!’

“Suppressing and suppressing and suppressing!!!”

“*Muffled scream*!!”

When Aria suddenly screamed, Merzel flinched even more. Despite the commotion, the people downstairs were unaware of it and continued to fix Aria’s staff, while Cecilia was sprawled on the bed. Realizing that no one outside knew Aria was threatening him, Merzel’s pupils dilated with extreme fear, and he unknowingly began to shed tears.

‘S-someone save me… Please, someone save me…!!’

“Still, I could bear that. That much was tolerable. However… you and Cecilia are entirely different. Cecilia tried to manipulate me to kill Sir Zeke and even killed Sir Zeke’s benefactor. And you ambushed Sir Zeke, and I was forced to encourage you.”

‘W-what…?! She still… me….’

Merzel was more shocked by the fact that Aria was still hostile towards him than by Cecilia’s past actions. At that moment, Aria pulled the kitchen knife from the wall and held it to Merzel’s throat, saying,

“You and Cecilia… you’re disgusting. Just looking at you makes my stomach churn and my head ache. How dare you not only steal my time alone with Sir Zeke but also commit such acts… You, especially, just now, made me feel so frustrated I thought I’d go crazy.”

“*Gasp*!! *Muffled gasp*!!”

“So, I will warn you. After we leave Grovel, if you ever appear before my eyes again… I will probably kill you or Cecilia, even if Sir Zeke would be sad. Do you understand? Do not appear before my eyes again. Do you understand?”

“*Muffled*… *Muffled*!!”

Merzel painstakingly managed to nod his trembling head. Aria then smiled sweetly and removed the kitchen knife from Merzel’s throat. When she finally removed the hand covering Merzel’s mouth, Merzel immediately slumped to the floor, grabbing his throat and coughing.

“Cough cough… *Cough*… *Gasp*… *Gasping*…”

“Ah… lately, I feel sad because I don’t have much time alone with Sir Zeke… I really want to talk a lot with Sir Zeke, just the two of us.”

“Cough… Wh-what are you…?! F-for a Saint to do such things… isn’t that against the teachings of God…?”

“God? Teachings? Hmph…”

When Merzel mentioned the Saint’s duties, Aria suddenly began to laugh maniacally. Merzel was startled, gulped, and slowly moved his body towards the wall behind him. At that moment, a breeze from the window blew the curtains open, illuminating the room with moonlight, and in the center of it, Aria laughed and said,

“God, you say? Estur-ssi’s explanation and your own past should have told you, shouldn’t they? That the god who gave those teachings was trash.”

“But that was the previous Kaju, wasn’t it?! After all, having a heart that considers and cares for others is indeed a good thing…”

“Indeed, you say? And what does that have to do with me? There is no place for anything like a god in my heart. Only Sir Zeke can reside in my heart. A heart that considers others? That’s none of my business. For love, I don’t care if my hands get stained with blood. All of my heart is for Sir Zeke…!”

Cecilia, having heard everything that happened in the early morning, realized that Aria had mentioned her and immediately slumped to the floor. She then shivered uncontrollably, as if seized by a chill, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Th-the Saint said that?”

“Yes… That’s why I felt relieved when Lady Aria left here… What exactly is her true identity…? The killing intent I felt from her was even deeper and sharper than Estur’s… even sharper than any killing intent I felt during the War of the Heavenly Demon…. For such killing intent to come from a Saint…”

“Aria scares me too….”

“By the way, Lady Cecilia, what exactly did you do to Sir Zeke and Lady Aria…?”

“Ah… well, about that… I deserve to be hated by the Saint… but I didn’t know she’d hate you too.”

“If we ever appear before Lady Aria’s eyes again….”

At Merzel’s words, Cecilia imagined what would happen if she appeared before Aria’s eyes. The result was that both of them would be miserably killed by Aria, and she felt a chill. Then Cecilia sighed and said,

“You know… even though I did something wrong… the Saint might be determined to kill me first…”

“Huh? Why is that?”

“Actually… I… I mean… I mean…!!”

“….?”

“I’m actually… a demon who can meddle with l-love… I… I fell for Zeke…!!”

“….Eh?”

At Cecilia’s confession, Merzel stared at her, dumbfounded. Then, a few seconds later, when Cecilia showed a shy reaction, Merzel was startled, realizing the confession was real.

“W-what did you say?! Ce-Cecilia, you… you l-like Sir Zeke?!”

“Yes!! I made a mistake, but Zeke forgave me… I couldn’t forget his warm words, and ever since then… Ugh… I fell for Zeke….”

“B-but weren’t you a succubus, Cecilia? Why would you, a succubus, fall in love with a human…?”

“Exactly!! There’s a misunderstanding about succubi in this world, but… s-succubi don’t usually fall in love with others easily… but I went and fell for Zeke… And what’s more, the Saint knows I’ve fallen for Zeke….”

“Oh… then….”

Merzel imagined how Aria would react if Cecilia confessed to Zeke. When he came to the conclusion that Aria would completely dismantle Cecilia, Merzel was greatly horrified and shouted at Cecilia,

“Y-you’re in big trouble, aren’t you, Cecilia?! Lady Aria definitely won’t leave you alone…!!”

“I knowwww!! *Aaaahhh*! What do I do now!! This feeling of loving Zeke won’t disappear!! I-I tried to do bad things to Zeke to forget him… but I don’t know why my heart pounds and my mind goes blank whenever I think of Zeke!! Take responsibility, Zekeeeee!!!”

As Cecilia shrieked, Merzel averted his gaze and sighed. At that moment, I suddenly felt my ears itch and was scratching them.

“Ugh… why are my ears so itchy?”

“Hehehe… That’s because I’m repeating to myself how much I like Sir Zeke, Sir Zeke…!!”

When Aria said this, looking at my face with such joy, I almost kept a straight face unconsciously. Why does she seem so happy? It definitely couldn’t be because we can explore again…

“You look happy, Aria? Did something good happen? Or is it because Estur-ssi and I worked hard to fix your staff?”

“Hehe… It’s true that I’m happy because Sir Zeke’s touch is all over my staff. But… above all, I’m so delighted to finally be alone with Sir Zeke…!”

“Huh? We’ve been alone plenty of times before, haven’t we?”

“That’s true! But lately, Sir Zeke hasn’t talked to me much… so Aria felt a little sad…”

Ah… that’s true. Lately, there have been many encounters, so I haven’t had much time to talk with Aria, who was right beside me. Realizing that I had barely talked to Aria at all, what with the World Tree incident and talking with Merzel and Estur in Grovel, I unfolded my map and checked the distance from our current location to the next destination.

“Hmm… the next destination seems like it’ll take a while. About… three days of walking, I guess.”

“Is that so?! Then… Hehehehe…”

When Aria, having learned it would take three days, suddenly let out a sinister chuckle, I covered her face with my hand and said,

“If you try to pounce on me, I’ll leave you, so keep that in mind.”

“….?! Why?!”

“It’s not that I’m interested in that kind of thing… but I also don’t like being pounced on, you know? So if you pounce on me again like last time, I’ll leave immediately….”

Wait. Leaving aside the leaving part… if I were to leave Aria, would she really not be able to find me? Because of the Saintly Ring of Brilliance’s awakened ability from the World Tree incident, Aria can immediately sense where I am. That is to say…

‘Even if I secretly run away, Aria can immediately chase after me…?!’

“Ugh… Understood… Instead, promise me you’ll only look at me.”

“What? Uh… for three days, there won won’t be any encounters, so…”

“I can never be at ease with that. Encounters could suddenly happen, you know.”

“Hmm… Are you perhaps jealous? Of the people I talked to besides you?”

“J-jealous?!”

When I asked if she was jealous, Aria was startled and flapped her hands, shouting at me.

“Th-that’s impossible!! Me, jealous?!!! I know for sure that Sir Zeke loves me, so…!!”

“I haven’t accepted you as a girlfriend yet, though? Don’t you remember? I’m not interested in romance.”

“…B-but…!! Still, for Sir Zeke to prioritize me…”

“Aria?”

“Yes… Yes!”

I called out to the flustered Aria, and when I called, Aria hastily replied to me. Then I caressed Aria’s hair and said,

“Are you upset because I’ve been neglecting you lately?”

“Th-that’s…”

“Well… it’s true I’ve been preoccupied lately. Ever since we arrived in the Kriton region, I’ve been caught up in big events. Cecilia, the World Tree, Estur. So it’s true that I neglected you due to being busy.”

“…”

At my words, Aria bowed her head and looked dejected. I understood that Aria had endured it all this time because I knew well that she wanted to spend as much time as possible with me and that she didn’t want to complain to me like that. Understanding her feelings, I smiled sweetly and lifted Aria’s head with my hand, saying,

“Still, I’m not thinking of completely abandoning or forgetting you, Aria.”

“…!”

“Because you’ve helped me a lot. You know I have no intention of completely forgetting you, don’t you? Right?”

“Th-that… Yes… Yes! That’s right! I trust Sir Zeke!”

At my words, Aria’s dejected face brightened with renewed vitality, and Aria raised her hands with a flourish, shouting. It’s a relief that she’s energetic again, but… hmm…

“…Still, don’t try to pounce on me. Understood?”

“Yes!… Um… Sir Zeke. By any chance…”

“Hm?”

“By any chance… can I… hold Sir Zeke’s hand while we walk?”

“Alright. Here.”

When I held out my right hand, Aria happily took my left hand and started walking forward. She was even humming, so it seemed Aria was in a very good mood. But wait a moment… the fact that Aria had held back and didn’t express her dissatisfaction until now…

‘That time she tried to pounce on me… could that have been Aria suppressing her disappointment until she couldn’t take it anymore and it burst out…? Th-if that’s the case….’

“Sir Zeke~ Your hand is so soft, it makes me feel happy!”

“I-is that so? Well, that’s good then… Hahaha….”

Seeing Aria happy while holding my hand, I let out a hollow laugh and made a silent promise to myself. I must never make Aria feel lonely again… Because if Aria feels even a little lonely or disappointed… she’ll definitely pounce on me again….