“I have nothing to say about being helped by that of the demons.”

All the violent thoughts that he had just uttered flashed through his mind. He was just cursing and resenting Julia’s choice as he even decided to put an engraving on her heart that could never be erased for the rest of her life. That mere thought was absolutely so cruel that he would have to apologize to her for the rest of her life.

“Yes… I haven’t been able to save Julia yet, so I can’t just die like this.”

Julia’s strands of hair that were in his hand felt exceptionally warm.

He then took a deep breath. He could feel that the power which had been raging through his body while being regurgitated in pain was slowly returning to its proper place.

Instead of the mana that had been completely drained from exhaustion, the newly filled power reconstructed his whole body. It was similar to the mana which Legion originally used, but still a little bit different. It had a warm and friendly feeling—definitely, it was a power that had been similar to that of Julia’s.

After a long night, the dawn finally began to rise. Legion slowly closed his eyes as he watched the sky soon dyed in crimson.

* * *

“…I was the one who stole it.”

The boy, who was lying on his stomach under the bed while holding his breath, instantly widened his eyes. Due to his low vision, he could only see a limited number of places, but he could clearly make out the small hand that trembled while clutching onto the hem of her own skirt.

The men who had been searching the room quickly gathered around the girl. One of the knights snatched up the jewel that had fallen by her feet and with the help of a cheap candle light by the old bedside, he confirmed that it was the missing item from earlier.

“Why did you do this?”

“I thought that Estelle wouldn’t mind if things that she wouldn’t even notice were gone. Plus, today is my birthday too, so it’s a bit…”

“Did you steal just for that mere reason? The goods which had been presented for Princess Estelle herself?”

“You’ve really got a thick face. To be greedy for your own sister’s things—even a street bum would be more proud than this.”

“No matter what you say, that was still too much.”

“It’s not like I said anything wrong anyway!”

The conversation between the men who were surrounding the girl gradually became more harsh. As they closed in on a girl who was less than half their size, they never even hesitated to make threatening remarks without any sort of consideration at all.

“If it’s like this, can we really get credit for finding out who the thief truly was? We should just keep quiet and bury all the tricks that this girl did after all!”

“It’s not something that I can’t actually say anywhere else though.”

“If you were a commoner, you would have been beaten up already, but this kind of thing is also of imperial blood…”

“Stop!”

For the first time ever, a hint of bewilderment was mixed in the man’s voice.

This birthday party was actually a golden opportunity to impress the powerful people who had been in control of each field throughout the entire Empire. He understood the unfair feeling of not being able to attend such a meeting, but the ‘imperial blood’ that his colleague had just mentioned actually came from nothing other than the highest dignity itself.

If such a story was relayed to the upper ranks, their lives could definitely be in danger, so he glanced at Julia before rubbing his forehead in a troubling manner.

“No one will truly believe what you say anyway. They’ll just think that you’re uttering nonsense. I’ll advise you not to say anything in the meantime.”

“You, you don’t have to worry…”

“Many soldiers have already been punished for not managing the gifts that were brought to Her Highness Estelle properly. Now, even the Imperial Guards are searching the entire Palace. Just because of some greed that some light-headed people were never able to handle at all.”

His voice as he spoke in low, muffled words had been far more menacing and horrifying than the other man who was just shouting loudly.

After he took a half step back, he then returned to his normal knightly face. But before she could even have the time to adapt to the rapid change, the man simply continued.

“I’ll just report this back to His Majesty and Her Highness immediately. Just keep quiet inside here until someone else comes.”

With his final verdict as a signal, the knights then left the place and the man who had been murmuring until the end eventually left the room as well. As she felt exhausted from all the tension, the girl plopped down on the floor helplessly.

The boy, who had been holding his breath all the time under the bed, got up with his head all jerked about. The girl’s crouched back seemed to induce a subtle feeling of guilt inside of him.

If those men’s eyes were needles, he thought, she might have blood oozing out of her very body. He lifted his head with feelings of pity in his heart as she was now suffering only because of his own fault.

However, he was born and lived in the streets all his life. He had never heard or even handed such warm words to anyone. Therefore, the boy’s voice came out rather bluntly.

“Who is actually sympathizing with who now? Did you think I would appreciate it if you cover up for me like that?”

“…”

“Well, you’re no different from me anyway. No—even you have the cursed blood!”

For that single moment, the boy began to hesitate. Tears had already welled up in the girl’s wide eyes as she slowly looked up at him in silence.

“Why, why are you crying! Are you trying to blame me instead now?!”

“…”

“Are you dumb? Say something!”

The expression which went something like a thief whose feet went numb (T/N: an idiom that means the state in which someone felt automatically uncomfortable because of their guilt when doing something wrong, just like a thief who was going to steal) could probably be used in this case. The boy started pacing around the room restlessly. On the other hand, the girl kept her mouth shut as she uttered nothing at all, but still, her teary eyes continued to follow his movements instead.