Chapter 13: The Dagger Appears
“Nelly.”
Nelly had never hated her own name as much as she did right now.
Being called like that only made her feel disgusted and tired.
Waves of guilt washed over her. She gritted her teeth to hold back tears, her limbs stiff as she propped herself up, slowly twisting into an awkward sitting position. Her left ankle throbbed with pain, but she didn’t let out a single cry. Instead, she said in an unusually calm tone, “I broke our promise. I ran away.”
She had originally intended to confess about the red tea as well, but at that moment, Karsus squatted down to her eye level and said nonchalantly, “Nelly, you’re hurt.”
But Nelly stubbornly shook her head and was about to speak again. “I…”
Karsus placed his index finger on her lips to silence her.
His finger smelled of blood that hadn’t dissipated.
Nelly flinched, wanting to pull back, but his movements were as swift as ever. He picked her up, his cool lips pressing against her forehead, his tone still so faint it was gentle. “You’re hurt.”
“I know,” Nelly looked up and said through gritted teeth, “but I don’t want to go with you.”
Karsus finally stopped ignoring her. He stared at her silently for a long moment, his expression gradually changing. The fierce and crazed heat emerged from beneath his icy control, burning straight into her heart. His words were still gentle, but they were chilling. “Roland? Was it him this time? It doesn’t matter, he’s disappeared too.”
He smiled faintly, his lowered lashes and curved lips making him look breathtakingly beautiful. He leaned in and breathed into her ear, each word landing right beside it. “It’s alright, Nelly. No matter who it is, I’ll make them disappear.”
Can this even be called love?
At most, it was the self-righteous obsession of a madman.
Nelly couldn’t help but tremble. Tears welled up in her blue eyes, but they shone brightly with the anger in her heart, so bright they seemed about to burst into flame. She shook her head firmly, her voice crisp and cold. “It’s not about anyone else.” She mustered the courage to look him in the eye. “It’s that I can’t bring myself to like you.”
Karsus’s expression froze for a moment. Then, as if he hadn’t heard, he looked away and activated a teleportation spell, instantly returning to a room in the Demon’s Lair.
He placed Nelly on a soft armchair, half-kneeling to maintain eye level with her, and reached out to smooth her messy bangs. “Are you tired?”
He was avoiding the conversation.
Nelly wavered for a moment. Perhaps she shouldn’t be so clear right now. A rash break would only bring her danger. But… but when she thought of Roland’s brave charge, Karsus’s impassive, cold expression, and those cups of red tea, the last bit of hesitation quickly vanished.
Nelly took a deep breath and raised her voice. “Karsus.”
The black-haired young man’s movements paused. The cool pad of his finger lingered on her forehead, then slid down the bridge of her nose to her chin, forcefully tilting her face up. He tilted his head and pecked the corner of her lips.
At such a close distance, Nelly could see every flicker of light in Karsus’s eyes beneath his long lashes. But the undercurrents and emotions within were too incomprehensible and insane; even if she caught a glimpse of the surface, she couldn’t respond in any way.
She just felt disgusted and afraid.
Nelly turned her head away coldly, her voice tight. “Karsus, I…”
“Kal,” he stubbornly interrupted, his fingers caressing her jaw as if to turn her face back.
“Kal,” Nelly avoided his fingertips and forced out the words she had painstakingly gathered her courage for. “Your attitude makes me very uncomfortable, very uneasy, and very disgusted.”
She paused, glancing at his expression out of the corner of her eye. The demon king who looked like a young boy had finally stopped moving. His face was blank, but he was clearly waiting for her to continue. “Because you like me, you’ve decided that I’m your possession, and you’ve decided that I will definitely like you back, right?”
Karsus’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t deny it.
“But that’s wrong.” Nelly’s voice trembled at the end. She gritted her teeth and faced the black-haired young man directly, even taking his hand, which had quietly fallen to her lap. “I am a separate person from you. I have my own thoughts. You have no right to demand that I act according to your wishes.”
Karsus looked at her calmly and said, “But I gave you a chance to fall in love with me. We had an agreement.”
Nelly pulled her hand back and gave a hoarse laugh. “Yes, I promised that if I fell in love with you, I would stay. But…” She bit her lip uneasily, hesitating for a moment. This was her last chance to turn back. She had a premonition that if she finished this sentence, the paper-thin facade between her and Karsus, which was still somewhat intact, would shatter beyond repair.
If she used casual words to skate lightly over this paper-thin ice, was it possible to get along peacefully, and in the days to come, reform His Majesty the Demon King and make him understand the meaning of respect?
Nelly had always been an optimistic and compassionate person, but she had no confidence at all.
Perhaps Roland’s death had crossed her bottom line. Before that, she had not witnessed Karsus commit any real evil acts. Deep down, she still believed that he had some unspoken difficulties, which was why he so desperately sought the love of others. It was because of this soft compassion and his dubious reputation that she had agreed to that pact.
But not only had Karsus broken the pact by tampering with her first, he had also killed an innocent hero in front of her.
The moment the sword pierced the white cape, this one-sided affection completely exceeded Nelly’s limits of acceptance. While she believed in the goodness of people, she definitely did not have the saintly tolerance to forgive everything.
A cornered rabbit will bite. She was the type of little white rabbit that, when cornered, would bite, scratch, and ram its head forward, regardless of whether there was a bottomless abyss ahead, seeking only mutual destruction.
She chose to tell the truth, even if it meant eternal damnation. “You tampered with the red tea.”
The last word left her mouth, and the air seemed to freeze.
Karsus still looked at her silently, but something even more terrifying than the coldness from before gradually appeared in his deep red eyes.
Nelly spoke before he could. “You broke the pact first, Kal.”
He lowered his head, but it was not a gesture of apology. His fair, slender fingers clenched into fists, pressing on the arms of the chair so hard that his knuckles turned white.
He suddenly slammed his fist on the armrest, his words seeming to drift from the deepest part of his throat. “Why? Why don’t you understand? Why?”
Nelly instinctively shrank back, her back pressed against the chair with nowhere to hide. Karsus stood up, leaned over, and trapped her in the armchair, his nose almost touching hers.
There was a wicked fire in his eyes, a terrifying red.
She gritted her teeth and glared back fearlessly, her eyes as cold as ice.
“Why don’t you understand?” Karsus’s voice was hoarse, the ends of his words rough, as if each one had scraped a bloody mark on his own heart. His eyes were pained and desperate as he stared at Nelly, as if searching for a path to salvation in her. But he couldn’t find it. He could only slam his fist on the armrest again, leaning in even closer, a charming yet sinister smile on his lips. “No one will ever love you more than I do.”
The pad of his finger traced a path up her cheek, lingering tenderly.
Nelly closed her eyes, her lashes trembling uncontrollably.
Karsus took the opportunity to place kisses on her brow, the tip of her nose, her lips, and her cheeks. He paused after each kiss, as if observing Nelly’s reaction.
But Nelly just kept her eyes tightly shut, her face pale, neither responding nor looking at him.
Karsus, however, didn’t mind at all. In fact, he became even more ardent. A blush appeared on his pale cheeks, and his eyes roamed, finally settling on Nelly’s slightly parted lips.
“Accept reality, Nelly. This is your reality now,” he said, his voice laced with seduction, breathing just inches from her lips, each word carried in with his breath. “You are mine. You can only be mine, Nelly.”
The black-haired young man’s tongue deftly pried open Nelly’s lips and teeth, teasing her. The brown-haired girl, her eyes shut tight, trembled a little more violently, her breathing becoming more rapid. He was clearly very satisfied with her reaction. He narrowed his red eyes, then took her lips into his mouth, gently but meaningfully grinding against them.
Nelly’s cheeks gradually flushed, and her hands, hanging at her sides, clenched into fists, her nails digging into her palms.
Karsus was very, very close to her. All she had to do was stop pressing herself against the back of the chair, and she could fall into his chest.
And she did just that. Her right hand rested on his shoulder, then moved down in a half-embrace.
Karsus’s movements paused for a moment, then he cupped her face and deepened the already long and suffocating kiss.
Nelly’s eyes flew open, and a blue light flashed in her hand.
It was a dagger, thrusting toward Karsus’s heart from behind without hesitation.