Heal Me, But Never Love Me
Why you...? "Cough!!" After cursing, I immediately hacked up a rough cough. I'd strained my exhausted body by yelling so loud.
"Seres!"
"See, that's why you shouldn't yell!"
Hames and Viol grabbed me as I kept coughing and checked my condition. Meanwhile, only Sibylius showed no reaction. Her face was terrifyingly expressionless.
"Have we met somewhere before?"
As if giving me one last chance to explain, Sibylius asked, and I squeezed out a voice in response.
"No...."
I know you unilaterally, but you don't know me.
But...
"You're one of the people I hate the most...."
I couldn't muster a single kind word for Sibylius—I hated her that much.
"Unbelievable. Why do you hate someone you've never even met? Or do you believe those ridiculous rumors about me too? Like how, being half-demon, I secretly kidnap people and eat them."
"No, I don't believe that. You're not that kind of person...."
You're the one who's spent your whole life trying to devour just one person: Seres. That much I can swear to.
When I clearly conveyed that fact, Sibylius's eyes gleamed with interest.
"Then why?"
Why? Because you're the one who sealed away Seres's divine power and turned him into a terminal case.
Sibylius. The grand archmage, half-demon who's lived for centuries, whom Viol had summoned to heal Seres's body.
The divine power affinity boost using holy power that I'd attempted. The physical protection using mana. She figured them all out.
So at first, she and Seres weren't on bad terms. In fact, out of the four, she was the closest to him.
To Seres, she was the benefactor who fully healed his body and the one person among those lunatics he could actually reason with.
But that closeness became his downfall.
Despite her youthful appearance, this geezer who'd lived for centuries started obsessing over a much younger woman. Maybe because love had come too late in life for the first time, her fixation was especially intense.
And because of you, she awakened her demonic instincts and even sucked Seres's blood!
'I can't live without Seres now. So I'll make it so you can't live without me either.'
Saying that, she kidnapped Seres while the other male leads couldn't lift a finger, subjecting him to all sorts of magical experiments to bind him to her forever.
The aftermath left Seres unable to use his divine power.
He was rescued eventually, but by then it wasn't just his divine power that was gone—he'd been handed a death sentence from the experiments.
In truth, Sibylius was the one who dealt the final blow to Seres's life!
I'd cursed her out even while reading the novel—how could I stay calm now that I was Seres, facing her?
"Get lost...."
She was even holding a syringe, so I forced my unresponsive mouth to reject her.
"...Get out. Now."
"Very well."
Viol stopped Sibylius as she turned to leave without argument.
"If you leave without treating him, I'll kill you!"
"Do what you want. If he doesn't want it, I can't force him."
I thought she'd ignore the threat, not even look back as she left, but then...
"Triple it! No, ten times—wait, triple that to thirty times the funding!"
"I'll treat him."
She turned right back around.
"Why, why?!"
As I tried to question Viol, she held me tight, trying to reassure me.
"Seres, that woman isn't here to harm you. I called her to treat your mana rampage."
Mana rampage? Was that why I was in this state...?
"Seres, you need an expert for this. Even if you hate demons, accept it."
Hames was persuading me too, and she was right. If it was a mana-related illness, Sibylius was the safest bet.
Though she was the type who might lose her mind like in the original story at any moment!
Damn, damn it. I couldn't even resist physically like before.
Sibylius arbitrarily injected me, then ordered the two to move me.
"Take him to my residence. The better facilities there will make treatment more effective."
"Can't it be done here?"
"If there's someone here who knows magic better than I do, then sure, go there."
"...Fine."
Viol scooped me up herself.
"Let's go."
"You're carrying him personally?"
"Yes."
"Wait."
She started to protest as if it was absurd, but then...
"I'm coming too."
"High Priestess Hames, you as well?"
"Can't I?"
"Of course not!"
Sibylius staunchly refused to let the emperor and high priestess into her home, but the two were stubborn. In the end, she had no choice but to bring them along.
However...
"Don't come into my workshop."
She snatched me away at the door, trying to leave the other two outside.
Viol's eyebrow twitched at the door-block.
"You expect the emperor to just wait outside?"
"Generations of emperors never let me into their homes—why should I let you in? And honestly, you're just in the way."
Sibylius spoke coldly, then turned to Hames.
"Even you, High Priestess, are useless in this situation. The best you can do is step aside and not interfere."
"Can you fix Seres?"
"If you don't get in the way."
"Got it."
Hames nodded, and Viol cursed under her breath in frustration. With one agreeing, she had no choice but to stay too.
Unable to argue, she just watched angrily as I alone was carried inside by Sibylius.
Yes, me alone. Carried in a helpless state into the lair of the one who could turn me into a cripple.
...Why isn't she obsessed at a time like this?!
I resented the two for handing me over to her and not coming along, but it was too late.
Sibylius laid me on a bed in a gloomy room filled with magical tools and said,
"I'll start with an examination, so don't resist needlessly."
I waved my hands at her warning.
"No, get away...."
"Why are you freaking out when I'm offering to heal you?"
Her using magic on my body—even for treatment—was a minor trauma for me. It could lead to a terminal diagnosis if things went wrong.
"Don't touch my body...."
"Stop being annoying."
As I kept flailing my hands, Sibylius's face hardened in irritation. She grabbed both my hands and pinned them down.
Even as I struggled, her expression shifted to one of bewilderment.
"Even if it's eased, it should still hurt like hell—yet you're moving around just fine."
She sighed helplessly and said,
"Let's find a compromise we can both accept."
"What compromise...."
"You hate me, and I hate you. But to get that research funding, I have to treat you whether I like it or not."
She said she'd cooperate with any reasonable demands since she needed the patient's compliance for treatment.
"If you hate looking at me that much, should I wear a mask? Or swear never to have private conversations with you?"
It was a rare opportunity, but I couldn't answer rashly.
What do I even demand?
No, my body's too weak to think straight.
I went straight to the point instead.
"Don't... love me...."
"...Is that your condition?"
Sibylius looked dumbfounded, then smirked mockingly.
"You think I'd fall for you? After all the crap you've said to me?"
"If you're a pain in the ass, you might...."
"Truly the empire's greatest beauty! How many women have you charmed to assume that's natural? Our ways of thinking are worlds apart—it's almost admirable."
"..."
"But rest assured."
Sibylius leaned in close to my face as I lay there, locking eyes with me from inches away.
"I'm not like those idiots out there. I won't be bewitched by your pathetic looks. I won't ever fall in love with you. Never!"
"Damn it!"
Viol smashed a nearby rock to pieces.
Unable to enter because Sibylius said she'd be in the way, she couldn't contain her anxiety.
What if his condition worsens while I'm not there?
Worried sick about Seres, she couldn't calm down even after venting on rocks. She snapped trees with kicks and tore up the earth.
Unable to control her emotions, she kept smashing whatever she saw in the forest.
"...Seres."
Anyone else would have told her to maintain her dignity, but the only one there was Hames. Hames didn't spare her a glance no matter what Viol did. She just stared endlessly at the closed door Seres had entered.
As the two stewed in their own worlds...
"You?"
"Why you!"
A presence appeared, startling them both.
A beautiful woman with long blonde ponytail. Arios.
The empire's top knight, who shouldn't be here, had appeared—fully armed with her sword.
"Why are you here?"
Viol asked incredulously, and Arios met her emperor's gaze squarely, replying indifferently.
"To kill you."