CH 154

Chapter 154

I hurriedly spread my arms out, shielding Hugo. Behind me, Hugo chewed his words out with a dry cough.

“Lily, run away.”

Even with that said, there was no way I could have left Hugo. If I leave this place, he would become just like Yulia at once.

Knowing that I had no will to run away, Hugo growled at Benny.

“Can’t you untangle this right now?”

Benny looked at me, not paying attention to the angry Hugo. He lifted his eyebrows as if he didn’t understand my reaction.

“I’ll show you just how delicately I can control it.”

“Stop it, Benny.”

“Why are you against it?”

“If you manipulated him with black magic, it’s not the real Brother Hugo.”

I spoke clearly and added my true thoughts.

“…Like I’m not the real Lily.”

Wherever my soul came from, it was in Lily’s body, so I wished maybe I could be Lily.

But I knew better than anyone. That’s nonsense.

Yet, Benny still tilted his head.

“I have manipulated the Third Prince for the past four years, but Princess called him ‘Michael’, didn’t you?”

At that one word, I completely froze.

Indifferent words flowed through my dazed ears.

“At that time, my abilities were not perfected, so I could only cast powerful brainwashing magic. Controlling is a different matter from brainwashing, so I wanted to test it out to see if it would go unnoticed.”

Benny turned his wrist as if loosening his muscles and strode past me.

“Thanks to it, I have a better understanding of black magic. I’m now able to easily make sweets with magic.”

Benny wiggled and twisted his hand. The obscure figures gathered in an elongated shape and turned to the heavily frowning Hugo.

Grab!

Just before his hand pierced Hugo’s heart, I grabbed hold of his still-human wrist.

Benny glanced back at me and whispered.

“If I do as I wanted, the duke will never leave you.”

Benny touched my cheek with a hand that was not demonized.

I thought of Alan, who no longer smiled at me. A sharp pain came into my chest as if it was stabbed with a spear.

Yes. I wanted to be loved by Alan. As myself, not Lily.

But that was impossible. There wasn’t a single day when I wasn’t hurt, but I couldn’t tell him that.

‘Because I’m a sinner.’

All this pain was the price of a lie I had to bear.

So, Benny spoke on behalf of the wish that I did not dare to express.

“Don’t you want to be loved?”

At the cool body temperature, my heart tightened at the words that stabbed my lungs. My body trembled as I leaned against him.

I was afraid of Benny. It was not simply the fear of overwhelming power.

He was looking right at the depths of me. What I dared to want.

“I’ll let you be loved.”

He whispered sweetly like a benevolent devil.

Whoo, whoo.

A great cry, like a storm, echoed through the wilderness.

I turned to the side where the sound was coming from and lost my words.

Countless black evil spirits were rushing in like waves and climbing the World Tree.

It was a sight that shook my limbs. Their behavior was different from what I knew.

The evil spirits moved irregularly like a marionette tied to a doll thread. And the one who controls them is probably…

“…Stop it.”

I grabbed Benny’s neck. The hand that was holding the vines was trembling softly.

“I have only one wish. Stop doing all this.”

“…It’s a little difficult to return evil spirits once summoned.”

“Lie.”

I cut Benny’s words like with a single strike of a knife, pulling him by the neck.

I kissed him. A cool breath came in through the tip of his tongue.

A few steps away, Hugo let out a swear word.

Yulia slammed onto his nape to prevent speech, and the silence was filled with the cries of evil spirits and breathing sounds comparable to those of evil spirits.

After a while, I parted my lips and growled like a beast.

“Do it now. I saw with my own two eyes the way you sent the evil spirits back to the bottom of the ground after you kissed me.”

“…I’ve misspoke. It’s impossible because I have no intention of returning them.”

“I’m not happy!”

I exclaimed without hesitation. I could have ended up irritating Benny needlessly, but I couldn’t stop it.

“If you turn the people of the empire, the citizens of the duchy, the brothers, and the duke into fakes… I am not happy at all.”

“…….”

“I know my happiness. So listen to me.”

Benny hardened for a moment at my harsh remarks, then lowered his eyebrows sullenly like a puppy in the rain.

“…You can never know for sure.”

“What does that mean? I told you…!”

“Even when I followed my mother’s words, she wasn’t happy at all.”

Benny slowly shook his head.

I swallowed what I was about to say. A ripple of sadness lingered in his indifferent eyes.

“When the Bauner assassins came to kill my mother, she told me to hide. I listened.”

“…….”

“If I had ignored my mother’s words and ran away, I could have saved her…”

Benny’s voice was low and muffled. He whispered softly, barely audible.

“I couldn’t protect my mother.”

“…….”

“At that time, all I knew was that if I did my mother’s will, nothing would happen.”

Benny turned his purple eyes at me.

“I know. Princess must hate me.”

Benny got a little gloomy, but he didn’t back down. He spoke plainly, but firmly.

“But I believe that one day this decision will make Princess Happy. We are immortal.”

Benny came one step closer. His voice sounded like hypnosis.

“If you live with the real thing, you will only get hurt in the future. When those who are alive eventually die, the longing will hurt you even more.”

“…….”

“In that case, it would be right to hold onto this moment of happiness for Princess forever.”

Benny slowly raised his right hand.

“I am not asking you to forgive me right now.”

His fingertips turned black, and eventually turned into the hands of demons that devoured evil spirits.

“Just thousands of years… Maybe tens of thousands of years later.”

“…….”

“If the years pass so much that the memory of now fades away…”

Benny’s voice was distant and dull.

“I believe you will understand me then.”

“…Benny.”

I grabbed his shoulder. My eyes were hot. I couldn’t control the tears that came up.

Benny ruffled my hair as if comforting me.

“…I.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped onto Benny’s sleeve.

In agony, Benny gently patted my back.

“It’s all right, Princess, if you just close your eyes…”

“I’ve warned you…”

Benny suddenly stopped talking.

I slowly lifted my head. Benny’s beautiful face fluttered in the blurred vision with tears.

His amethyst eyes slowly descended and touched my claws that pierced his body.

“I don’t want to do this. I’m telling you.”

Uh, uggh.

A shrill sound came from his throat.

I didn’t want to do this. There was no way I wanted to harm Benny, the boy who helped and loved me.

But I didn’t apologize.

“I’ve told you. If you try to hurt my dad…”

Benny leaned back slowly.

I wrapped my arm half-round through his body so that I wouldn’t miss him. The cracking of the bone was vivid.

Uhuuk.

Blood gushed from Benny’s lips.

The moment I saw it, I couldn’t help but wail.

“I have to kill you.”

I swallowed my hoarse sobs. Each time Benny’s blood flowed out of his arms and scattered everywhere.

“I’ve definitely said that.”

I lifted my face that was covered in tears.

Then, the crumbled ground fell between the branches of the World Tree.

Thump, thump.

What sounded like an explosion reverberated through the wilderness.

The forest that had fallen from the mass of land was burnt.

Even if the aftermath of a storm swept over my body, the evil spirits continued to tear the barrier.

Light and darkness mixed and crumbled. Everything I could see was ruined. It was a scene I didn’t want to believe.

A man with a hole in his heart looked at me in the midst of the devastating chaos.

Without a single frown, he was as still as running water.

It was as if his very existence was a great end.

I barely caught up with my clouded mind. The noise that seemed to tear the eardrums faded away, and the loud heartbeat filled my ears.

The hand that pierced the man’s body felt like it was about to explode.

I had been through a lot of things, but it was the first time I stabbed a person.

Benny didn’t resist.

It was probably because he believed that demons wouldn’t die no matter how much they get hurt.

I bit my lip to bleed and commanded myself.

‘Strike the neck like this.’