Chapter 1 : Agnes Levadein (6)
Chapter 1 : Agnes Levadein (6)
Agnes Levadein was a sickly woman.
One could say the Demon Flower Extrias rooted in her heart was the reason, but she was like that even excluding it.
From the moment Agnes emerged from her mother's womb, there was not a single moment she wasn't sickly.
In her childhood, she couldn't walk for more than 30 minutes.
It was because her heart would break down if her pulse quickened even a little.
Even though she was in a position to eat all sorts of delicacies, she couldn't eat anything.
Her stomach was so sensitive that it couldn't accept stimulating food.
Above all, she couldn't stand under the sun for long.
Her skin, pale to the point of being white, wasn't sturdy enough to withstand the heat of the burning sun.
She was born a weakling.
God had taken away her health in exchange for bestowing upon her breath-taking beauty.
Therefore, she was pitiful.
Therefore, she was a bird in a cage.
Agnes Levadein was a woman who could be described as a beautifully crafted glass ornament.
It was a truly unfortunate fact, but Agnes herself was the one who knew this best.
She knew she possessed a body that wouldn't live long.
It was perhaps natural that she became an inorganic person, having grown up with pity as her nourishment instead of love.
She was apathetic to everything.
To be precise, she was a person who couldn't get immersed in anything.
Agnes had tried to obsess over something out of fear of herself, but it wasn't easy.
Going to flashy balls, stuffing herself with delicacies knowing she would throw them up, or visiting travel destinations full of all kinds of spectacular scenery—none of it could satisfy her.
The few outings she had didn't offer her much.
One was the acceleration of death, and the other was the words praising her beauty.
With just seven outings, she became the 'first love of all.'
[Agnes Levadein must be the most beautiful woman in the history of the continent.]
It was praise that had reached the point where such words had turned into an absolute truth at some point.
However, this, too, could not satisfy her.
Agnes just waited to die.
She had no fear of it, no curiosity about the afterlife, and no desire for her remaining life.
Deltain Hebron was the man who appeared in the midst of all that.
"Demon Flower Extrias. That is the name of this disease. No, should I call it a curse?"
The only man who grasped the cause of her accelerating death.
An infinitely arrogant and great man.
Agnes became interested in him on the day he attempted to cure the curse for the seventh time.
"Won't you give up?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I don't know failure."
It was the day she learned that the reason he was so obsessed with a life that wasn't even his own was because of his pride.
Agnes felt a raw shock.
She felt an unspeakable light of life in his burning eyes as he asserted his success.
That was the first 'beauty' Agnes Levadein had ever felt in her life.
That was the reason Agnes provoked Deltain.
"Another failure."
To make the beauty she had finally witnessed burn even more brilliantly.
To feel the heat that bloomed more intensely than anything else the moment his pride was wounded.
Agnes realized pleasure.
She still had no attachment to life, but it was quite pleasant for her that the path to the end didn't become boring.
...That was the case until today.
For Agnes, today was a day when she really didn't like Anya's smile, which bloomed brightly whenever she talked about Deltain, who had been missing for three consecutive days, and because of that, it was a day when her mood was buried at the very bottom.
It was also not a pleasant day when Deltain, who finally appeared, chased Anya away looking haggard.
"Hey, you, take that off."
Until he said those words.
"...Did I hear that wrong?"
"No, you heard it right. I'm going to touch your body. Below the left breast, the ribcage part. I need to press that area with my hand."
The life of Deltain, who spat out those words, was burning so brilliantly.
His golden eyes, as if he had embedded the sun into them, were shining more dazzlingly than ever before.
This was an incredibly intense stimulus for Agnes.
So, she followed his words as if possessed.
It was an emotion more intense than pleasure.
Agnes judged that she should use the word 'ecstasy' to express this emotion.
That was it.
Everything was ecstasy.
Him unbuttoning her clothes without any mood, him touching her bare skin without hesitation, him chuckling while injecting mana.
And the pain that followed, as if her whole body was burning up.
While her thoughts were floating blankly and her breath was catching in her throat.
Agnes, who was enduring it with furrowed brows, learned a new emotion that would cover the ecstasy she had felt until then.
"I told you."
Her body felt lighter.
Her body, which had always only deteriorated, was reversing toward life for the first time.
Her chest felt a little tight, but the returned vitality awakened her senses more vividly than that.
"I may make mistakes, but I don't fail."
The life of the man who had performed that act burned so brightly it made her eyes ache.
Agnes thought.
He must be a man truly close to the essence of the concept of life.
His red hair reminiscent of a burning fire, his golden eyes as if he had embedded the sun into them, and the smile he bloomed vividly without hiding his emotions.
Everything that made him up, including those, touched upon the concept of life.
Agnes felt her heart drop.
The current him had the most beautiful form Agnes had ever seen in her life.
It was different from admiration or awe.
The moment Agnes saw that smile, she just reached out and grabbed it.
She brushed her index finger under Deltain Hebron's eyes.
Even though dark circles had emerged, his pupils were brilliant.
Even though he was stiff and blank, and his expression was distorted, he was dazzling.
"Pretty."
Agnes felt a thirst for it.
Facing this burning life, she felt her throat parching.
Agnes, who had never properly faced the sun, faced the sun for the first time in her life at this moment.
Her heart pounded and her breathing grew rapid.
Someone might call this love, but Agnes's thoughts were different.
'No.'
It wasn't such a lukewarm emotion.
The emotion currently running wild beyond control was not that kind of gentle thing.
'I want to possess it.'
She wanted to possess this life.
She wanted to make it her own.
It wasn't just a desire to be with him or to capture him.
For that, Agnes's life was too short and insignificant.
Deltain Hebron is a great hero.
A demigod blessed with all the mana in the world.
He would continue this brilliant life for a time unimaginable by human standards.
What Agnes wanted was to dominate everything in his long life.
Agnes wanted to leave a brand.
A brand that would not be erased from his heart even after her insignificant body turned to dust.
Thus, a chain that would bind him for the rest of his life.
A master who would place his life under her feet.
"...What are you doing."
She wanted to be the only truth that this arrogant man looked up to.
"Pretty. So pretty."
Agnes smiled.
Deltain stood up abruptly, feeling goosebumps for some reason at that demeanor.
His face was flushed bright red to an indescribable extent.
"...It's late, so I'm leaving. I'm going to sleep for a few days, so don't wait."
He said that and left the room.
However, Agnes was busy savoring the heat still remaining on her fingertips.
'I want to possess it.'
Agnes awakened to an emotion she hadn't understood until now.
An obsession that comes from the heart of wanting something.
She had realized that emotion, which she had always scoffed at and ignored.
Agnes was still indifferent to her own insignificant life.
She was indifferent to all the glory she enjoyed.
However, now there was something she could not be indifferent to.
Agnes put the thumb that had been brushing Deltain's eyes just a moment ago to her lips.
And she smiled.
'I want to possess it.'
Agnes wanted not to be everyone's first love, but Deltain Hebron's eternal love.
To do that, there was something she had to do first.
"Young Miss...?"
Anya entered through the slightly opened door.
*
Anya Willink was an ordinary woman.
Her appearance, her ability, her family.
Becoming Agnes Levadein's personal maid was purely because her father had been loyal to the Duke of Levadein for a long time.
Anya was in a position that ordinary people couldn't even dream of, but that was rather like a curse to her.
Unlike Anya, who was ordinary in everything, Agnes, whom she had to serve, was special in everything.
Agnes Levadein was beautiful, pitiful, and noble.
Anya Willink had been with her since she was very young.
That was why Anya Willink had mistakenly thought that she, too, was special.
To know her place and status, Anya Willink was not a woman that smart.
Anya judged that she could have everything Agnes had.
She didn't reach out directly, but she could prove that emotion by the fact that she had collected the items Agnes had thrown away one by one since childhood and used them as if they were her own.
Perhaps, even the futile delusion of trying to achieve romantic feelings for Deltain Hebron might be an extension of such a past.
She was entertaining the thought that if Agnes were to fade away, that empty spot might become hers.
That was why Anya was flustered.
By the moans that had been coming from the room she was kicked out of.
By Deltain, who had left with a bright red face after it subsided.
And by Agnes, who was smiling with her upper clothes off in the room she had entered.
"Young Miss...?"
Agnes's gaze turned to Anya.
Anya felt her heart drop.
More than anything else, it was because a brilliant smile, which she had never seen in her dozen or so years of life, was blooming on her face.
"Anya, come here?"
Anya felt anxiety.
It resembled the instinctive fear that a sentient being feels toward the unknown.
However, she couldn't run away.
Even as Anya, who wasn't that smart, she knew that Agnes's command was absolute.
"Ye, yes...."
"Good."
Agnes gently pulled Anya, who had approached, into a hug.
And she said in a voice that still hadn't lost its laughter.
"How was Deltain?"
"He, he left...."
"His face?"
"He seemed... a bit flustered."
"Is that so?"
Agnes's laughter deepened.
Anya felt her body trembling slightly at that.
"Anya."
"Yes...."
"I really like you."
Agnes's hand brushed the back of Anya's head.
"Because you're cute. You work busily all day, you know how to be happy about even the smallest things, and you listen to my words perfectly."
"Th, thank you...."
"That's why I let it slide."
Clack-.
Anya's body stiffened.
Agnes was still smiling as if she were pleased.
"Collecting the things I threw away, thinking of them as yours, and waiting for when I might throw things away."
Agnes was talking about Anya's deviations.
At that, Anya felt her tongue drying up.
She had to make an excuse.
No, she had to explain.
Before Anya could open her mouth with such thoughts, Agnes's mouth opened first.
Agnes whispered quietly into Anya's ear.
"But Deltain is a no."
The blood drained from Anya's face.
Agnes released the hug.
And while holding both of Anya's cheeks, she made eye contact with her.
"I won't give you Deltain. Not while I'm alive, and not after I'm dead."
Agnes was smiling.
However, it was still gloomy.
The shadow of death that had always encroached upon her was not the kind that could be lifted by merely delaying the growth of the Demon Flower.
"Anya, there's a good position at our estate. They're hiring a new head maid, and they say they're looking for a young girl who can work for a long time. But oh? A young and experienced maid is right in front of me. I was worried about how to repay you, but isn't this perfect?"
Anya's body trembled.
It was because something came to mind at Agnes's smile, which was deeply shadowed yet flawlessly beautiful.
"Thank you for serving me until now. Be happy, Anya."
She was infinitely similar to death.
She was truly a woman in whom fear and beauty were in perfect harmony.
Anya didn't think long.
"...Yes."
Not being smart wouldn't necessarily mean being dull.
Anya simply nodded at the mercy she was bestowing, expressing her gratitude.