Chapter 136
“My child, why do you keep wandering around?”
The gentle voice gradually brought his hazy consciousness back. When Ares pretended not to hear, thinking he must have misheard, laughter reached his ears.
“Are you pretending to be asleep now?”
Anyone could hear the clear delight in that voice. But the more Ares heard it, the more his mood darkened. As soon as he recognized it as a voice he’d wanted to forget, he thought he’d made the right choice pretending to be asleep.
“Yes. It’s better to stay still like this than wandering around needlessly.”
Along with the laughter-tinged voice came a light touch ruffling his hair. The touch was so cold it chilled him to his core, and Ares’s eyes flew open as he tried to grab the woman’s hand. But before he could reach it, he quickly jumped back, startled by what felt like an electric shock.
‘What was that?’
Though fortunately his hand was unharmed, he could see his sleeve had been burned black.
Raising his head with a confused expression, he saw the woman smiling so widely it looked like her mouth would tear.
“Darling, were you surprised?”
Despite her worried tone, her eyes crinkled into crescents. Her obvious doting manner left Ares so dumbfounded he couldn’t even manage a bitter laugh.
“If you’re going to go mad, at least do it gracefully.”
“That’s why you should be more graceful, darling. You get hurt because you harbor ill feelings toward me.”
“…”
Recognizing that conversation would be impossible with this nonsense, Ares closed his mouth and shook his head.
It was that room again. The room he’d been forcibly transported to and imprisoned in because of the magic circle. The only difference was that the woman had brought a lamp, making the room somewhat brighter.
“It seems it will take quite some time to re-educate you.”
“Get lost.”
“Your speech has become vulgar and your behavior rough.”
“Go die.”
“Why has our Aria changed like this?”
Seeing her muttering to herself while ignoring his words, Ares let out an irritated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.
“My, a grown lady shouldn’t behave so undignifiedly—”
“What exactly do you want from me?”
Though he knew a sane person couldn’t understand the words of someone who’d lost their mind, he wanted to know the reason.
As much as he hated to admit it, young Ares and Aria had shared many physical similarities. The pure silver hair, the clear blue eyes, the distinctively fair skin. Even their facial features were similar enough that he could understand why this woman was obsessed with him.
But not anymore.
To escape from his weak and helpless state, Ares had started exercising as soon as he escaped from the woman and returned to his family. He believed that by training his body, he would gain the strength to protect himself.
Thanks to that, he’d earned the honor of joining the Imperial Knights as their top recruit. Anyone could see he was now a well-built man.
But the woman remained obsessed with him. Even though she could see how much he’d grown, making it difficult to recall his childhood appearance.
“Do I still look like Aria to you?”
“…”
“You know I’m not.”
“Stop it.”
“I’m not your daughter.”
“I said stop it.”
The woman, looking at Ares with half-clouded eyes, cut off his words.
But Ares kept speaking, looking directly at her.
“Your daughter is dead.”
“I told you to shut up!”
Finally unable to contain herself, she lunged at him and started strangling him. Despite her wrists being as thin as brittle twigs, her grip on his neck was surprisingly strong. Just as Ares was about to roughly push her away as it became increasingly difficult to breathe—
There was a knocking sound from outside.
The woman must have heard it too, as she flinched and quickly removed her hands from Ares’s neck. Looking down at her own hands as if she couldn’t believe what she’d done, she then looked up at Ares and suddenly embraced him.
“Aria, Aria, Aria.”
“…”
Though her voice was tear-filled, Ares found it absolutely horrifying. Her sudden embrace made him want to bite off his tongue and die right there. He thought he would have preferred if she’d continued strangling him.
Just as Ares couldn’t take it anymore and was about to click his tongue and push her away—
“I’m the only one who can save you here. That man wants to kill you.”
‘That man?’
Before he could wonder about this unexpected statement, the woman caressed his cheek with trembling hands.
“Mother is on your side, okay?”
“…”
“You know Mother only has you.”
As she added that he could only trust her, Ares let out a “ha” and leaned against the wall with a sigh.
“Who is that man?”
“…”
“Who is this man who wants to kill me?”
Somehow, he felt he knew who it was.
But there was no proof. The only way to be certain was to confirm it with his own eyes.
“No. If you know, my child will get hurt.”
“…”
Seeing her shake her head with complete seriousness, Ares let out a bitter laugh and collapsed onto the bed.
‘That “darling” nonsense again.’
Listening to her mad rambling made him feel like he was going crazy too, so he turned his head away completely.
The woman gazed at him sorrowfully before sitting beside him and gripping his hand tightly.
“You only need to trust me.”
“…”
“If you just stay quiet and well-behaved, we can go back to how things were before. Okay?”
“…”
“Let’s live happily together, just mother and daughter, like before, Aria.”
Her desperate, pleading words finally made Ares understand what she wanted from him.
She wanted to take him back to that time—when he was imprisoned, unable to meet anyone or do anything.
“Do you really want me to stay quiet and well-behaved?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to live together? Like before?”
“Yes.”
As he watched her nodding, saying that was all she wanted, Ares deliberately put on an anxious expression.
“But what can we do? There’s someone who wants to kill me.”
He intentionally used formal speech.
When he was young, the woman had obsessively taught him that noble young ladies must have proper conduct and refined speech.
When he used formal speech as if returning to that time, the woman’s expression brightened.
“Of course Mother will protect our Aria.”
“How?”
In truth, more than how she would protect him from that man, he was curious about the man’s identity.
To confirm if it was who he suspected.
Just as he was about to ask who exactly this man was who wanted to kill him, there was a creaking sound as the door opened. At the same time, the lamp illuminated the room, allowing him to immediately recognize the face of the approaching man.
‘Ha, so it was true.’
Before he could even be surprised that his guess was correct, the spell he’d been holding back burst from his lips.
“Darling, help me.”
