Are You... Damian...?(1)
I stared at Rumani in utter bewilderment as she licked her lips with obvious satisfaction and flashed a seductive smile. For a moment, the shock left me completely speechless, my mouth hanging open in a dazed expression. When our eyes finally met, she tilted her head just slightly and gave me a mischievous grin.
It was the smile of someone who clearly believed she had done absolutely nothing wrong. Seeing it actually made me laugh despite myself. I had no idea what she was thinking. Could she really not see Leticia's blatantly possessive grip on my shoulder or that terrifying smile on her face? There was no way she hadn't noticed. She had to be doing this on purpose. But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why.
What's she after? Is she just doing this for fun?
The already tense atmosphere seemed to drop several degrees colder. When I glanced sideways at Leo, who was looking back and forth between me and Rumani with an expression that screamed this is ridiculous, it was obvious she found the current situation just as incomprehensible as I did. Someone please explain what's happening right now. And I wasn't the only one feeling flustered.
Her grin, which somehow didn't match the heavy mood at all, made her look less like a vampire and more like a coquettish fox. It only made her even more alluring. So much so that I found myself swallowing hard even though I knew Leticia was right beside us. It was almost like my body was reacting despite not being male anymore. She really had a talent for bewitching people.
Rumani Tepes was overflowing with an inexplicable charm. If the situation had been different, I might have actually approached her to strike up a conversation. If we'd been alone, I probably would have fallen for her completely.
"…!"
Every little gesture Rumani made—narrowing her eyes playfully while claiming that the Queen's lips couldn't be bought with any amount of money—felt threatening to me. Even the married man—no, married woman now—Leo reached for her holy sword again, as if sensing the situation could explode at any moment. The fact that she still swallowed hard at the sight was impressive. Especially considering she'd seen Rumani multiple times before. She truly was a beauty that couldn't be captured in any painting; you had to see her in person to understand.
When I remained silent with my mouth shut, Rumani seemed to take it in a certain way. She put on an expression like a tragic heroine who'd just been rejected, lowering her eyes with a forlorn look while twisting her fingers together.
The haughty, dignified Queen from before was nowhere to be seen. If all of that was just an act, it was a hell of a talent. Her acting was good enough that she could have been an award-winning actress if she'd been born on Earth.
I stared at her with wide eyes, looking like an idiot as I raised a hand to my cheek where she'd kissed me. Thank goodness it had only been a light peck and not a deep, passionate kiss like lovers would share. If it had been the latter, things could have gone terribly wrong in more ways than one. Mostly for me.
Calm down. There's no need to get worked up over this.
I took a deep breath to steady myself, then decided to calm Leticia down first. She looked like she was about to hurl magic at Rumani any second. I gently covered Leticia's eyes with my hand and whispered softly into her ear.
"…Charlotte?"
When I deliberately whispered in a sweet, gentle tone, Leticia squirmed as if it tickled. Even though I was the one who'd actually been kissed, she was the one getting angry. I just looked at her quietly. She seemed surprised that I'd been the first to move and cover her eyes, her expression turning awkward. It was cute, but she couldn't hide the way the corners of her mouth were trembling with barely contained delight. Her cheekbones looked ready to ascend to heaven from how wide her smile was.
I narrowed my eyes. Like I'd said before, Leticia had been like this ever since I was first summoned. That incomprehensible obsession and affection. It was a twisted kind of love. I couldn't understand the feelings she had for me. Why was she so fixated on me? For what reason?
Was it to break Leo's curse? No. If it was something that trivial, there'd be no need for this level of obsession. To put it coldly, there was no reason to invest emotion or affection in a tool you could simply use and discard.
So far, there hadn't been a single reason for Leticia to become obsessed with me. Looking back, from our very first meeting she'd shown kindness to a complete stranger. For no reason at all. She had a decisive nature that would have led her to kill any summoned being who turned out to be a demon rather than a demonfolk, yet she'd kept me by her side. She'd held onto me. And not only that, she'd even offered a contract first. She'd explored my lips and rushed the contract faster than I had. Even though she'd wanted a legendary demon. Even though she'd wanted to summon 'me' from a completely different dimension. Even though she could have killed me easily.
The fact that she seemed so desperate to keep someone she'd only known for less than a day made me think there had to be something more. From the beginning, saving a half-demon hybrid she supposedly didn't even like and forming a contract with them was strange in itself. It was as if she was trying to bind something she could never afford to lose by her side.
For a moment, I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Haaah—."
I let out a shaky breath. Dark, unsettling thoughts flooded my mind. Hadn't Goddess Lucifel also spoken with a hint of laughter right before the summoning? She'd warned me to be careful, saying that the magic used to summon demons was mixed with another spell meant to call forth a specific someone.
Leticia… don't tell me you knew who I was from the very beginning…?
Gulp.
I swallowed dryly.
"Charlotte?"
When Leticia asked in a worried tone, I shook my head vigorously. Right. There wasn't any annoying quest popping up, and I couldn't hear the System's voice telling me to choose an option. It was all just needless worry. It had to be.
I gave Leticia, who had let out a short sigh, a reassuring smile before turning my gaze toward Rumani. Anyway, that had definitely been a provocation. She might not know about Leo, but seeing how Leticia treated me like something precious, she must have been testing the waters. After hearing that the Sage was a half-demon who'd formed a contract with demonfolk blood, and then watching her act like she cherished that 'filth,' it would have been impossible for Rumani not to grow curious.
It made sense. Vampires had been like that from the start due to their racial traits. The vampire who'd proudly declared herself a noble—the one I'd fought to the point of exhaustion in the past—had been the same. Vampires who pretended to be lofty and noble while treating humans like livestock were creatures who mostly acted on their own whims. Especially those called Apostles, the Demon King's right hands. They were all abnormally powerful but lacked any semblance of normalcy. A gathering of eccentrics, if you will.
To make it easier to understand by mixing in some fantasy terms, it was like having twelve legion commanders. It was a group perfectly aligned with the demonfolk ideology that strength was everything, where even non-nobles could join if they were powerful enough. The previous Demon King's Apostles, who had slaughtered people with expressionless faces, were all monsters through and through.
…A place where you have to become a monster yourself to defeat monsters. That was the war against the demonfolk.
We killed and killed again. Every day was a slaughter. Sleep was a luxury, and we always had to stay alert in case of a surprise attack from the demonfolk. Just the fact that a peace treaty had even been possible showed how mentally exhausted even the demonfolk—who believed only in fighting and strength—must have been.
The war had broken me so thoroughly that doctors in this world had shaken their heads and said normal life would be impossible. The only thing that had kept me going through those years was the single belief that I would return to Earth and see my parents again. I never imagined I'd end up in this kind of relationship with Leticia. The fact that I'd managed to adapt after returning to Earth was a miracle in itself.
And getting back to the main point, it wasn't even her lips. It was just a cheek. A kiss on the cheek was something you could do even without being lovers, right? Besides, Leticia and I weren't lovers. There was no need for her to get this worked up.
Even when Leo drew her holy sword and spoke in a menacing tone, Rumani didn't seem frightened at all. She simply shrugged.
"Crazy bitch."
"…Tsk."
Leo looked at Rumani with an exhausted expression as the vampire burst into giggles. She hadn't expected self-deprecating father-bashing. When I stared at Rumani with a somewhat dumbfounded look, she glanced sideways at Leticia before speaking.
"I don't need it."
When I firmly refused, Rumani snorted as if she found it amusing and added,
After leaving behind that ominous warning, Rumani transformed into a bat and vanished without a trace into the darkness. I frowned, turning her words over in my mind, until Leticia tugged on my sleeve and snapped me out of it. Then I got chills for an entirely different reason.
I forced my stubbornly closed mouth open and called her name. Her eyes had lost their light.
"Leticia?"
"…L-Leticia?"
I really didn't want to. Because Leticia's face was absolutely terrifying. Those words rose in my throat, but in the end, I chose to keep my mouth shut.