***
***
Lupinus hurriedly bowed his head.
He closed his red lips and was unable to speak for a while.
At the end of the silence where you could hear each person’s breath, his voice, so low as if submerged in water, came out.
“… It wasn’t your fault?”
He clenched his teeth like he was in pain.
Adelaide was not at fault.
Having to acknowledge this single line of truth was harrowing. The humans were at fault, and without realizing it, he alone has nurtured a hatred for his innocent friend. His decades of resentment were wiped out in an instant.
“No, it was my fault.”
Adelaide extended her hand to his face. Slowly, so that he can hit it if he wanted to.
“Because I left my friend alone for too long.”
Lupinus did not strike her hand. With his eyelashes facing down, he put his face in her hands. Adelaide smiled softly and smoothed out Lupinus’ tangled hair. Just like she did to him when he was young.
“I should have come much sooner. I was in a rush to take care of my wounds, so I couldn’t protect you.”
Her voice sounded as hurt as Lupinus’ did.
“How painful it must have been.”
Adelaide knew best what it felt like to be rejected by her own kind. It was probably the same for Lupinus.
“How scared were you?”
He died once and came back to life. He, who was just a young human, died at the hands of his people, and was resurrected without knowing anything.
Lupinus became a warrior thanks to her, but she couldn’t even imagine how terrifying and painful it was for the boy. He probably lived miserably.
Adelaide’s hand brushed past his hair then down his face. The eyelashes that the tips of her fingers touched were moist. She paused for a moment, but then without a word ran her hand through his hair again.
Was it because of the place or the color of his hair?
With his head bowed, she saw the figure of a young Lupinus again. The image of a boy hiding his face pretending not to be sad even though he was crying.
“…I.”
Lupinus said, spilling out what he had been holding back.
“I hated you.”
He slowly raised his head. Through the falling hair, shaking blue pupils were revealed.
“More than the warriors who spit on me and insisted that I be killed.”
Adelaide met his eyes with a calm face. The monstrous blue pupils were still blazing with ferocious emotions, but she wasn’t scared anymore.
“More than my father, who helped them tie me down.”
Her face contorted for a brief second. That lunatic participated in killing his son? A fire ignited within her. She shouldn’t have left him alive back then. No, she should have somehow found him and killed him. She bit her molars tightly as she regretted.
“You who didn’t come for me… I hated you so much.”
Lupinus had been thinking for the past three days. He had been trying to face the truth about that day. Why did he despise her so much? For decades, he craved to eliminate her. In the end, it all came down to this.
Whether she really slaughtered humans or tried to kill his father didn’t really matter to him. He just longed for her to come find him.
He would’ve been happy if she had come and said anything. He would’ve been fine if she insulted him, saying something like “Did they really think that a demon would be friends with a human?”. It was better than never seeing her forever.
But ten years passed, then twenty years, but Adelaide never showed her face once.
“It took me 10 years to come back to life and 10 years to control my half demon powers. Then I honed my skills for the last 10 years.”
So what on earth did he live so desperately for?
Although Lupinus wielded the sword thousands of times, he could not affirm its purpose. He was constantly reminded that it was for revenge, but the moment he first found Adelaide in the Greenville dungeon, he realized it wasn’t.
“Just to see you again.”
He just wanted to see her. And once he met her, he wanted to ask why the hell she abandoned him. Regardless of what would happen after that.
The confusion in his chest subsided in an instant. The world had become clearer when he acknowledged his heart.
Lupinus raised his hands and gently wrapped it around Adelaide. When she felt the rough touch of his palms, tightly covered in calluses, she felt her heart pounding for some reason. Once again, she realized the hardship this child in her arms went through as he grew up.
“… I’m sorry.”
He looked at Adelaide with guilty eyes and spoke in a low voice.
“I didn’t know anything but I treated you so recklessly… I’m sorry.”
Lupinus clenched his teeth again. He remembered strangling Adelaide and forcing her to kiss him. He shouldn’t have done that. Regret flooded in, but there was no way to undo what he had done.
“I’ll do whatever you want. If I have to rip my mouth off, I will. If you want me to live as a cripple for the rest of my life, I will do so happily. Or if you want me to die right now, I will do it.”
Adelaide’s eyes widened in surprise at his harsh words. His eyes were too sincere to be exaggerating.
“So… Please forgive me.”
“Please don’t hate me.” Lupinus closed his eyes and whispered.
His voice was so desperate that Adelaide unknowingly opened her arms to hug him.
“It’s okay, Lupin. You and I just didn’t know anything. Don’t be sorry.”
Lupinus’ lips trembled slightly at the soft touch that wrapped around his skin. Oh how much he missed her. The days he spent with her hugging, laying around on the bed, and talking about trivial things. When he removed the hatred from his heart, his intense longing for her filled the void. His love for her was as great as his hatred for her.
“Let’s start over.”
Adelaide smiled as she pushed his shoulder slightly.
“If it’s okay with you… I want to continue to be your friend.”
“Now that you are a legendary warrior, it would be difficult to get along with other demons.” She added, blinking her eyes naturally.
Lupinus stared at her smile like a man possessed, and slowly raised his lowered eyelashes.
“…Yes.”
He answered her, wearing a faint smile. Legendary warrior or not, the title meant nothing to him. He just had to build up his strength to cross the border to go see Adelaide. He was someone who once died at the hands of humans. After hearing that they were trying to harm her, he no longer felt any kinship towards humans. In the first place, he was neither human nor demon.
“Let’s start over.”
The eyes looking up at Adelaide curved slightly. His words were spoken in a voice full of greed, different from the intention Adelaide’s words held.
“From friends.”
[T/N: To what Lupin???? XD]
“Yes! Great!”
Unfortunately, Adelaide was not able to read the real meaning of his words. She just smiled at the thought that they had resolved the misunderstandings and that she had regained her first friend.
On the other hand, Lisianthus and Caladium, standing by the door, recognized the subtle difference like a demon and hardened their faces.
‘F*ck, no that’s…!’
Caladium raised one eyebrow and pursed his lips. Lupinus looked through the cracks in the door, and the emotion he was most wary of gleamed clearly.
Ha. Caladium laughed. What he said for Adelaide’s sake instead invited more rivals.
[T/N: When he explained what happened in the past to Lupin.]
Lisianthus also looked at Lupinus with a cold gaze, perhaps thinking the same thing. In fact, he had guessed it to some extent. That such a degree of hate was an emotion based on so much love.
However, even though he had already expected it, seeing that scene made him feel indescribably dirty. Could he work with Caladium to annihilate him without Adelaide’s knowledge? He struggled to suppress the instinctive desire for murder.
Adelaide, unaware of what was happening behind the door, sat next to Lupinus who continued the conversation.
“How have you been living up to now?”
In response to Lupinus’ question, Adelaide told him the story of her own life. She was kicked out of the Association, inherited the dungeon, met her own demons then grew in size. He looked more relieved when he heard that Adelaide had overcome her wounds and lived a pleasant life.
“By the way, Lupin. You’ve grown a lot. You used to be very small, but now you’re a lot taller than I am.”
Curious, she scanned his body. He was so tall that she couldn’t believe that Lupinus was human. He was on par with Lisianthus. In addition to his height, his torso was also quite huge. His shoulders were wide, his chest was large and firm, and he was thick from the side too. Perhaps because he was a sword-wielding warrior, his muscles formed beautifully.
When did my kid grow up like this?
Adelaide looked at Lupinus with motherly eyes and smiled happily. Lupinus answered with a smirk.
“You’ve become very small. Are you eating properly these days?”
“What! I got smaller? It just looks like that because you got bigger. And, I eat very well these days. Our dungeon manager is incredibly good at cooking.”
“Manager?”
“Ah, that pretty silver-haired devil you saw last time.”
“The one you fought with last time”… Adelaide added with an awkward smile.
“You mean one of the two devils standing outside.”
Lupinus moved his gaze towards the door indifferently. It was quite extraordinary to see devils surrounding his house, but he did not blink an eye.
During the battle in Greenville, his eyes narrowed for an instant as he recalled the faces of those protecting Adelaide. It was also because he immediately recognized the name of the deep emotions the devils had.
“Adela, do you remember?”
Lupinus tilted his face toward Adelaide. As the distance narrowed, Adelaide flinched for a moment at the thought of him kissing her, but she quickly asked back casually.
“What?”
“When I grow taller than you, you told me you’d do whatever I want.”
She blinked her eyes. As she listened to him, she seemed to remember. She didn’t know why he suddenly brought this up.
“You said I could get even twice as much.”
Lupinus raised the corners of his lips and smiled.
“I remember clearly. Baths, kisses, everything.”
***
Can’t believe it’s been 100 chapters already!!! sniffle sniffle. Thank you all for reading this with me and to our sponsors for all the support!!! ???