Chapter 206 – Feelings

000

Dump!

As the nightmarish scene quickly passed before his eyes his, it was the sound of something heavy falling to the ground that brought Cleon’s mind back to normal.

The surroundings were quiet, and the signs of the monsters felt around them had disappeared.

The changed body she had seen in his vision her had returned to her usual human form without any problems.

‘Is that… A dream…?’

It was an experience too vivid to dismiss.

It was mind-boggling to dismiss it as a bad delusion.

When Cleon thought that, he looked back in the direction of the sound, breaking out in a cold sweat.

There was Sasha, just as she was when she was born, without a single thread on her head and losing her mind.

At some point, the overwhelming force of her black magic that was felt in her body made her disappear, and instead, only her original aura her remained.

Cleon sighs in relief as she confirms that she and her own imprint her have properly reconnected, then closes her eyes and talks to her inside her.

[Ruben…]

Then, the animal ears growing upright on top of her head her twitched, and slowly, her regular breathing her changed irregularly and she opened her eyes.

Is it Sasha or Ruben who is controlling that body, or is it not ‘Sasha’ or ‘Ruben’ who were full of madness that we saw earlier, but ‘something’.

Cleon quietly reached out her hand her, and in case she showed her strange behavior her, she planned to prevent it in advance by imprinting it.

“Master… Mr. Cleon…”

It was ‘Ruben’ who raised his body while groaning in a dreamy voice.

“Haa… I’m glad.”

As Cleon lets out a sigh of relief, Ruben slowly raises her upper body, looks around her, and examines herself.

“…Why is it like this. The feeling of alienation felt in the stomach… Could it be that it was attacked from the outside…?”

When Ruben said that, Cleon shrugged her shoulders, losing her sense of humor at her words.

“It’s the ‘attacked side’ to be precise, but you.”

Ruben looked at Cleon for a while at Cleon’s answer her, and then Ruben widened her eyes as if she had remembered something, spurred her seat her and stood up to examine the ground around her.

“Yeah, that’s right! Sasha, he tried to pick it up, so I tried to stop him-“

“…That?”

Cleon senses something bad in her from Ruben’s words her, and follows her and drops her gaze downward-

There lay a black decoration that shone in her moonlight and exuded her own presence in her.

Pendant of Black Crystal – Lilim’s ‘Seal Orb’.

“Why is this here…”

When Cleon said that, Ruben once again groaned, crossed her arms over her, and tilted her head.

“Lilim. It was dropped when the woman was doing errands in the bush and returning to the carriage. When Sasha picked it up, it was in the pendant—I’ll call it ‘Black Lilim’ because it’s inconvenient. Anyway, that ‘ Black Lilim’s miasma. Because of this, the pendant controlled her body.”

“The pendant has that kind of power…?”

It’s hard to believe, but the sealing sphere that seals Lilim’s demonized part.

In other words, it is both a sacred object and a ‘cursed equipment’.

“Perhaps, the ones who can properly touch and transport this are ‘Mercury’ who used the sealing technique, and ‘Baekrilim’, who can be said to be the main body of the pendant. And-“

When Ruben says that and looks at Cleon, Cleon points at himself with his index finger.

“Me?”

“Yes. From the beginning, only Cleon-sama is recognized by Lilim as a mate. The way she controls other people’s bodies is to parasitize on Cleon-sama’s stamp of control, so the one who carves the stamp of control It means Cleon- sama is not under the control of ‘Black Lilim’.”

Cleon seemed to understand Ruben’s words, but felt a strange stir as he reached for the pendant that had fallen to the ground.

As she said, touching her crystal did not cause any sensation, and she then tried to hold her pendant in her hand, but only her silence flowed.

“Do you want to verify?”

“No… I’ll decline. Then, this means that I have to be careful so that only me and Baek Lilim can touch it as much as possible… Maybe I brought something annoying… I think it would have been better to keep it next to Mercury until the job is done.”

Mercury also thought about putting this object inside the barrier of his sanctuary and slowly purifying the soul inside.

Hearing that if he was away from Cleon, his black magic would gradually grow thicker and stronger due to that grudge, so he quietly entrusted it to ‘Baek Lilim’.

“However-“

“Yes?”

When Ruben looked at the pendant with the imprint of dominance in his sight, Ruben’s expression his slightly darkened.

He seemed to be feeling something inside him.

“Cleon-sama mixed with Sasha, who was fused with that pendant. Some of the magical power was absorbed into the pendant.”

“…That means- if you get more magic than you need, you can break the seal and the contents can come out?”

At Cleon’s words, Ruben nodded heavily.

“If someone fuses with that pendant, you have to pour magic power into it to regain the initiative of the imprint. Like it or not, when a woman uses that pendant, she will temporarily fuse with the ‘devil’ power inside to obtain powerful power. What will happen after that, as a result, I have to receive Cleon-sama’s magical power, so the seal will gradually weaken.”

Cleon looked down at the pendant for a moment at Ruben’s words, and recalled Sasha’s power her that overpowered him earlier.

With her black magic her all over her body her, her strength and speed her, unleashing her wildness and rampaging, were beyond Cleon’s imagination.

However, she could n’t let someone else use this item, which she had the risk of having to temporarily fuse with the devil even for that power.

“…Tell everyone, let’s never touch this thing.”

“That’s a wise decision.”

At Cleon’s words, Ruben nodded her head and then shuddered at her.

“Sah, Sasha. No matter how light you are dressed, tore your clothes off. Isn’t it cold because your body calms down…!”

To Ruben grumbling like that, Cleon handed over the top of the dress she was wearing.

Thanks to this, Cleon’s upper body her was naked, but his top her was large enough and wide enough to reach just above Sasha’s knees her.

“Sniff sniff…”

“Hey, stop sniffing.”

Cleon’s jacket her with a lot of sleeves was brought to her nose her, and Cleon scolded Ruben as he sniffed her.

“Whoops. Isn’t it nice? It’s a warming scent to me. It’s like when I’m being hugged by Cleon-sama-“

“Yes, yes. Let’s go back to the carriage.”

Saying that, Cleon puts Galatea back on her waist and moves her steps one step ahead of Ruben.

Ruben also ran out of the woods, hurriedly following Cleon.

001

The next morning, when everyone in the party woke up and told what had happened to the pendant from last night, Layla hardened her face a little and looked at the pendant that Lilim, who had decided to call ‘Baek Lilim’, was wearing around her neck.

“So to speak, it’s a really cursed artifact. There is a story that an item sealed without completely defeating the demon will gradually corrupt the owner… But the problem with this is that it goes beyond that.”

“But if you try to separate it from Cleon, you mean the curse will become stronger?

Aruru also nodded in agreement with Quon’s words.

“If it’s a dangerous item, it might be safer for us to keep it. If anyone knows that something with demonic power is hidden in the valley, there will be someone looking for it.”

“Destruction… Is it difficult?”

When Amelia asked that, Layla answered her after holding her mouth shut for a moment, examining her pendant without touching it.

“To be honest, it’s not such a good method. If you simply physically destroy it, it’s no different from breaking the seal inside. Even if you try to approach it magically, if you have such a strong curse, you can’t do anything hastily… Truly, a cleric higher than an archbishop. You’ll need strength. Even that will take a long time.”

“More than Archbishop… Someone like ‘Esca’?”

At Quon’s words her, Laila nodded her head.

Of course, just like wizards and knights, it is said that the higher the priest, the more power they can exert in that field.

Especially within the Order of the Protection of the Holy Spirit, it has become a tradition to support promising priests from a young age and raise them to high positions in the Order.

Naturally, it was a prerequisite for priests in the class of bishops or higher to be able to use high-level divine magic called miracles.

Although the current Quon is a cleric at a level just below that bishop, her potential her is high enough that she has the aptitude of a saint, and when she is living in her ‘Elesia’, she gives her a formal title in front of her royal road. I was even advised to get an education.

Of course, at the time, as an adventurer, she had circumstances in which she could not leave Alessia, so she rejected all of them.

“Escar Tology is a person with unprecedentedly strong divine magic in history. Certainly… She might be able to purify this pendant.”

At Lyla’s words, Cleon quietly remembered Esca’s face her and shut her mouth her.

“…First of all, let’s put that on hold.”

“Why?”

Layla looked back at Cleon, who was unwilling to practice it even though a solution was presented.

“That-“

“…Is it because it seems difficult to hide what happened here from Esca-sama?”

When Cleon blurted out her words, Quon quietly asked him a question.

At Quon’s words, Cleon remained silent for a moment, then quietly nodded his head.

To her her Cleon her, Esca is one of the few people who, like her her Lesia her, knows about her own childhood her, and Cleon himself is the same as her mother her.

If she was going to explain anything about Lilim, she would have to talk about things in the valley or things that happened to her.

Being emotional in hers allowed her to take out her unnecessary words hers and get her involved.

There- Esca is a person who fought directly with the demonic sword emperor ‘Cain’ along with Lesia.

When Esca learned the truth about herself, even her Cleon her felt a little afraid.

However, even if she and her colleagues acknowledged the break her with her past her, it was just a story between them.

“The fight against demons is officially unrelated to the Church… So we can’t use our personal relationships to get the entire Church involved. There are things about Amelia that shouldn’t be known.”

“If you’re talking that far… I’m sure it is. I’ll think about if there’s another way. It’s literally ‘Kamala’ in the dorm.”

“If the demon knew about the pendant, he would never take it…”

Should Kamala ever come into contact with the pendant, she may try to resurrect her body using the dark magic in the pendant.

At Cleon’s words, Layla nodded.

“I know. Don’t worry, I don’t intend to show you the pendant directly.”

After those words, the party got up from where they had gathered and started preparing for departure again.

The horses have returned calmly, escaping from the beast’s fear, and the temporary accommodation is transformed into a carriage again.

In the meantime, Cleon calls for Lilim who sleeps peacefully and Amelia, who has been looking at the pendant hanging around her neck her for a while.

“Amelia.”

“…Yes.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of the pendant so it doesn’t fall into anyone’s hands.”

At Cleon’s words, Amelia looked up at Cleon with her wry smile on her face.

“…I believe in Cleon… The part I’m worried about, that’s not it.”

“…Then?”

Amelia clutches at the wing-shaped pendant hanging around her neck, which contains the power to transform into the Saint Princess.

“Her her previous fight her-the fight her with Lilim when Mr. Cleon was losing her mind. I felt, to my shame, her ‘killing intention’ her towards her.”

Amelia says so.

“As a Saint Princess, I have been fighting demons until now, and I have felt anger at the cruelty of the demons and the horrors of the victims… But I only thought of purifying the demons and saving people. There was no `.”

Fleshy. The desire to kill others with one’s will.

It’s a familiar feeling to adventurers, but it was so unfamiliar to Amelia at a young age.

“It is said that clerics learn to control their hearts and practice never to have murderous intent, no matter how wicked the opponent is. Murderous intentions easily bring about darkness in the heart, and darkness in the heart weakens divine magic power.”

Could it be that he himself was trying to enter the wrong path? Her shame her and her wariness her about her own depravity her were palpable in her words her.

Cleon listens to it quietly and talks to Amelia.

“…To be honest, I hate Lilim.”

It was her true intentions that she could hear from Amelia.

“Even in her royal capital her, her heart her fluttered every time she saw her. Unlike her other demons her, she definitely harbored dark feelings for her.”

That she had that side of herself, Amelia didn’t want to admit.

Acknowledging the darkness in his heart her was not fitting for a guardian of the royal capital.

However, Cleon looked at Amelia like that and thought about her for a while, then she quietly opened her mouth.

“I myself once acted with the intention of hating someone with all my heart and destroying them.”

Amelia looked a little surprised at Cleon’s words her, and she turned to him.

“I devised a plan to take everything he had and give him the same despair I met… For revenge.”

“Revenge…”

Amelia repeated Cleon’s last words and put them in her mouth. It was a word I had never thought of before.

Amelia would want to take revenge on Lilim and Ishtal.

Life was twisted by them, and many precious people lost their lives.

But she is ‘Saint Princess’. As a holy guardian, she kept her private feelings aside as much as possible, and fought the night of the royal road.

“Many people teach that ‘revenge’ is ‘evil’. In the end, if you don’t break the chain of hatred, the tragedy will only repeat itself. To take revenge is to fall into the same position as the other person. “

Cleon said and squeezed his hand her.

“If having murderous intentions for revenge is ‘evil’.

“…Cleon doesn’t look like that.”

When Amelia answered that, Cleon also answered Amelia with a smile.

“…I don’t see Amelia as ‘evil’ either.”

“…”

Amelia closed her mouth, widening her eyes at Cleon’s answer her.

“I’m not forcing you to take revenge. Amelia is the only one who decides. However, I don’t think she has to worry that much.”

“…Why?”

Amelia asks as if she doesn’t know.

Then Cleon answered her with her kind voice of hers.

“That’s right. Amelia is also human. Hatred is the opposite of goodwill. Betrayal is the opposite of trust. Human emotions don’t arise by themselves. In order to protect something, we try to exclude threats to it. That in itself is something anyone can do. I think it’s normal.”

“…”

“The Saint Princess is also a human being, not a perfect guardian from the legend… As a human guardian, it’s important to understand human emotions, right?”

At Cleon’s words, Amelia nodded her head, remembering her Mercury her.

She acted after receiving instructions from Trismegistos to lead humans.

Due to her own inability to understand human emotions, she created triggers for various events, including her previous life factor.

And, by acquiring the human body and emotions, she realized her own mistakes and felt that she was trying to improve to some extent.

“It’s okay to be a little more faithful to your own greed. Amelia. That’s because you’re human.”

“Thank you, Cleon.”

At Cleon’s words, Amelia smiled as she felt her heart her lighten a little.

It was the first time in her life that she had been comforted in this way, since there were no adults around her with whom she could talk honestly.

“-It’s a secret from Aurelia-sama. She’ll get scolded for teaching strange things.”

“Whoops. I understand.”

At Cleon’s words, Amelia smiled and walked to the carriage that was ready to move.

A little of her was looking at her, her step her lightened, her quiet raising of the corners of her mouth her.