Chapter 81

Chapter 81

A voice filled with self-mockery.

In the end, I couldn’t hold back and approached him.

I called out to him again, but Adam didn’t move.

“Adam. It’s not that you failed to protect me! I’m right here.”

Adam’s head lifted slightly.

Then, dropping his head again, he muttered blankly.

“You must be an illusion.”

Your Eveline is standing right here in front of you.

Frustrated, I tried to speak to Adam, but it seemed he couldn’t hear me.

Whatever was blocking his sight and hearing was the problem.

I wasn’t sure what it was.

But it was clearly having a negative effect on Adam.

Whether it was a reaction from the holy relic or not, the arm that touched the black smoke prickled.

It was a sensation I had felt not too long ago.

When was it?

Ah—when I touched Abraxas after bringing the holy relic.

After that, he had rolled around the floor of the Demon King’s castle groaning in pain, completely forgetting his dignity as a high demon.

And then…

‘Was it Ahern?’

Anyway, that wasn’t what mattered now.

The reason the holy relic was reacting was because Adam wasn’t in a normal state.

I grabbed Adam’s face, who couldn’t come to his senses at all, and knocked my forehead hard against his.

The impact was strong enough to make my head throb.

Gripping his cheeks tightly, I shouted.

“Look clearly! I’m alive and well! Why did you think I was dead?!”

Slowly, focus returned to his eyes.

My reflection finally appeared in those golden irises I knew so well.

Even so, I couldn’t relax and continued to watch him.

“Eveline?”

When he called my name dazedly, I nodded with relief.

Adam’s legs gave out, and he collapsed where he stood.

His clothes were already dirty anyway.

So I dropped down in front of him too.

“What was that just now?”

That strange black smoke that had surrounded Adam was something I couldn’t just dismiss as a trivial matter.

I had seen it on his body several times.

The holy relic was trembling as if in fear.

Unlike before, this time it couldn’t shake it off immediately.

It was growing larger and larger.

To the point even the relic couldn’t suppress it.

Carefully, I reached out and held the tips of Adam’s fingers.

They were a little cold, but I could feel his warmth, and unlike earlier, sparks didn’t fly—there was no rejection.

I opened my mouth and said to him.

“You looked like someone who wasn’t the hero at all.”

“…That’s…”

Adam parted his lips, trying to say something.

But seeing him frown in pain, I felt like I’d touched a nerve I shouldn’t have.

“If it’s something I’m not supposed to know, you don’t have to tell me.”

I could always ask through the message system, and even if not, Adam looked far too worn out right now.

It was the face of someone who wanted to give up on everything.

I gently let go of the hand I had been holding.

“No… you have the right to know…”

Adam hastily grabbed my hand.

Even so, Adam didn’t give up.

His eyes, gleaming with an unfamiliar light, were solely fixed on me.

“This is a trace—or perhaps a curse—left by the Demon King.”

“…”

I took a deep breath.

The Demon King hadn’t died in vain.

He had left a curse on Adam before he died.

“After killing the Demon King, I realized something had gone wrong.”

“If you kill me, you’ll regret it, Hero. You’ll gain neither honor nor power. Instead, you’ll be killed by the very ones you tried to protect!”

“Kill everyone you love, and bring about your own destruction.”

“Until now, the Demon King has appeared many times, but each time, the hero of that era killed him. And what happened to those heroes afterward?”

Well. According to the early game setting I know, Adam is the seventh hero, which means there were six before him.

And about them… I knew nothing.

They probably killed the Demon King just like Adam and brought peace to the Empire.

‘And then…’

And then, what became of them?

As if to answer that curiosity, Adam continued.

“All of them went mad and died.”

“…”

“The Demon King’s power, something like a curse, seeps into the hero. At the slightest provocation, their mind loses control and they are executed. That’s why the Demon King wasn’t afraid of me in the slightest.”

No one fears a fool who will destroy himself anyway.

That must be why the Demon King always greeted the hero so boldly.

The Demon King in the game had a face that seemed detached, beyond arrogance.

Black hair and crimson eyes.

Adorned in red and black, he personally welcomed the hero into the Demon King’s castle.

“I tried to avoid everyone and keep myself in a calm state, but this is how it ended up. It seems the Demon King’s curse really can’t be avoided.”

“Still, we should at least try to find a way to break it!”

“There’s nothing in any records—maybe because all the heroes collapsed helplessly to the curse.”

That’s when I remembered the books Adam used to read in the Demon King’s castle and the temple.

Recalling how he immersed himself day and night, I realized he had tried hard.

But at some point… he stopped trying to break the curse.

Now, Adam seemed like someone who had given in to fate.

“I don’t want to be left alone anymore.”

“Then…”

Just as I was thinking I should find Adam’s other companions—

“Don’t go.”

Adam said in a voice so thin it might snap at any moment.

My throat tightened at those words.

Adam had always seemed indifferent to others’ deaths.

Why was that?

I didn’t know the exact reason.

But what I did know for sure was that Adam was suffering.

He reached out and placed his hand over the back of mine.

A faint tremor traveled through his skin into mine.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how much pain he must have felt when he thought I had died.

“I didn’t want to see you leave me too. But if, like you said, no matter how many times I let you go, the result’s the same… then can’t you stay by my side?”

He leaned his head against me. His short hair, soaked from the sudden downpour, dripped with water.

Soon, the shoulder he leaned on became wet.

But it wasn’t cold like raindrops. It was warm.

Was he crying?

“I’m the one who’s done everything wrong.”

He hadn’t cried even when stabbed or betrayed by his comrades. I’d always wondered what it would take to make him cry.

I didn’t expect it to be now.

At the sudden tears, I forgot how to breathe.

“So please…”

Adam’s voice, pleading so desperately, made it impossible for me to move.

I couldn’t coldly push him away, nor could I bring myself closer. I just sat there in silence for a long time.

“I won’t go.”

…For now.

I swallowed the rest of the sentence and tried to reassure him.

I couldn’t leave Adam, who had no one else to lean on, just yet.

I had to help him gradually build a foundation where he could be happy even without me.

‘Right now, I’m all he has. That’s why he’s mistaken…’

Finishing the brief thought, I smiled and looked at him.

I didn’t tell him that I was only staying to prepare for when I leave.

‘But once the quest ends… I have to go back…’

Even I didn’t know how I truly felt.

Every time I saw Adam’s smile, I wavered endlessly, and yet—I still couldn’t leave his side.

* * *

The one who broke the moment was an uninvited guest who arrived shortly after.

“Gasp…”

He seemed to recognize Adam at a glance.

It was the man we had met earlier.

And also the most troublesome person in this village.

‘That noble from before.’

Everything the nobles had said about Adam had been negative.

It would probably be best not to let them meet.

Lindel seemed to think the same, as he stopped in his tracks.

The hand holding his crutch trembled aimlessly.

The haughty noble I had seen earlier was nowhere to be found, and his eyes shook like a sailboat caught in a storm.

He covered his mouth as if afraid a shrill scream might escape, yet his gaze remained fixed on Adam.

“Your Imperial Majesty the Former Emperor…?”

…Huh?