Chapter 18
Chapter 18
"Ah, I can't take it anymore."
Aslan's lips twisted ominously. His pupils turned a chilling crimson.
Vivian sensed something unnatural. His eyes were so obviously red, yet she seemed to be the only one who noticed.
It was strange, but she didn't have time to dwell on it.
"Aslan!"
Vivian clung to his arm. She had to make him regain his sanity, no matter what.
She didn't care if the Duke lived or died. But if he turned into a Demon Hand, even her most precious self would die.
If the curse manifested in the middle of the capital, there was no way they would let a witness survive!
"Hmph, I don't feel it's worth dealing with you anymore. Let go of me!"
The Duke seemed to sense that something was wrong as well. He suddenly shook off Aslan's arm.
There was no way the Duke could break Aslan's grip, which even she couldn't undo, but for some reason, Aslan let him go willingly.
The Duke hid his reddened wrist with his sleeve and stormed out of the banquet hall.
The resounding footsteps echoed down the hallway and quickly faded away.
"Aslan, are you alright?"
"......"
Aslan stared at the door the Duke had exited through, without blinking. The light in his eyes calmed down.
Like the calm before a storm.
"Now things are starting to make sense."
"Pardon?"
"Let me tell you, you will never marry another man other than me. If that ever happens..."
Aslan muttered something under his breath and then smiled sweetly. He stroked Vivian's hair and whispered gently.
"It's late, so why don't you stay here tonight."
"Are you sure? I thought you'd want to go back right away."
"Ah, something urgent came up. I'll be back soon, so rest first."
Aslan's eyes curved languidly as he looked at Vivian.
＊ ＊ ＊
In the Astaroth Empire, there is a lullaby like this:
'On the night of the red moon, demons appear. So don't open your eyes.
Never open your eyes...'
"Ugh, a, a monster."
"Krrr."
Aslan gleefully looked down at the man trembling at his feet.
He was completely different from his arrogant self from before. Just the sight of Aslan's true form made him pathetically roll on the floor.
He dared to insult Vivian, raise his hand to her, and even try to sell her off to an old pervert.
She was such a delicate and lovely woman that he couldn't even dare to touch her fingertip.
He was suppressing his boiling desires, carefully seducing her until she was completely his.
"Someone, anyone! Monster! A monster has appeared!"
"......"
"No, it's a demon. That's a demon. It's a demon!"
The Duke's screeching voice was annoying. Aslan pressed his paw on his neck.
"Guh, cough..."
He could vividly feel the artery throbbing under his paw. Aslan felt strangely new.
Whenever the curse manifested, he always lost his mind. He wandered through a bottomless abyss like a swamp, miserably begging for this terrible time to end.
If he was lucky, it would be a day, if he was unlucky, it would be more than a month.
'My mind is clear. I can control my impulses a little, and I'm much freer to use my power.'
Aslan thought of Vivian. Her desperate cry calling his name.
Whenever he was helplessly falling into the black swamp, she would grab his hand. Then, before he knew it, his vision would clear.
'I'm starting to think Vivian has the ability to suppress the curse... but that can't be.'
It didn't matter. If he could hold her small, delicate hand in human form.
"Krrr."
"Hee, hee! Save me, save me!"
Before the Duke's breath was cut off, Aslan lifted his paw.
Killing him so easily wasn't worth it.
When he received the report from his subordinate investigating the Eleonora Family, when he learned how Vivian felt when she clung to him, he vowed never to kill the Duke easily.
[The Duchess's poisoning]
The report began with this.
The late Duke Eleonora had no children to succeed him. His only daughter was excellent in all aspects, including politics, but she was too weak to take on important responsibilities.
The late Duke decided to adopt a son-in-law from a collateral line.
He wanted the son-in-law to take the position of head of the family, but the daughter would hold the real power.
Therefore, he deliberately chose an ordinary man from a collateral line. The one chosen was the current Duke.
It was a disaster for the Eleonora Family, but the real problem for Aslan was after the Duchess died.
[Continuous abuse and violence by the Duke]
[Seizure of the inheritance left by the deceased Duchess]
[Deliberately creating malicious public opinion about the Lady]
[Requesting an annulment from the Imperial Family to isolate the Lady from the outside world]
[The Lady's failed suicide attempt]
As each detail of the report came to mind, Aslan broke the Duke's bones one by one.
When the Duke lost consciousness from screaming, Aslan bit his limbs and shook them wildly. Red blood splattered on the bedroom walls.
Only when there wasn't a single intact part of the Duke's body did Aslan get up.
"Y, you, why are you, you...!"
"You're lucky. You don't often get a chance to see me like this."
As the huge Black Lion gradually returned to human form, the Duke's eyes widened in horror.
"Astaroth. The Great Demon Astaroth has returned!"
"Keep talking."
"A sinister demon in human form has been resurrected! It's a demon, a demon! I, I have to tell them this fact quickly! To His Majesty, to His Majesty quickly!"
"Do you think they can hear you if you shout like that?"
A perfectly sculpted nude body was revealed under the red moonlight.
As Aslan stretched languidly, his broad shoulders and deeply curved muscles rippled threateningly.
"Come on, I'll help you, so shout it out."
Aslan grabbed the Duke by the scruff of his neck and dragged him to the window. He smashed the window with his foot and threw the Duke onto the balcony.
"A monster has appeared. A filthy, hideous Demon Hand that pretends to be human!"
"Y, Your Highness, save me, save me!"
"But you should know one thing clearly. No one can dare to touch Vivian. She is mine. Only mine."
"Y, yes, take Vivian and save me..."
A pair of red eyes turned to the Duke. The Duke cowered like a mouse in front of a tiger.
"You have a very strange talent."
"Y, Your Highness?"
"How do you manage to touch my sore spot every time you open your mouth?"
Now he was really going to die, the Duke trembled in fear.
But Aslan shook off his hand as if he had touched something dirty. Then he got up leisurely.
"Do whatever it takes to survive. Spread rumors everywhere."
"......"
"Struggle as much as you can."
He muttered to the Duke as if brainwashing him and smiled gleefully.
Leaving the Duke trembling in fear, Aslan turned around.
A few days later, Duke Eleonora was secretly summoned by the Imperial Family. And he disappeared from the Empire forever.
＊ ＊ ＊
Aslan looked at his face in the mirror. He carefully checked every inch to make sure there was no blood on him.
"Is this good enough?"
In the mirror stood an attractive man.
Without a trace of the brutal slaughter, the outline of his firm muscles was revealed under the perfect suit fit.
Aslan had never cared about his appearance. It was as worthless to him as an ant on the street.
Until he thought about seducing Vivian.
"I hope she likes it."
He felt good for once. He smiled without even trying.
He didn't know that revealing his true self in front of others was such a liberating thing.
Like a person who had been trapped underground all his life and had just come above ground for the first time, he felt subtly excited.
But the best thing was that he had personally broken Vivian's shackles with his own hands.
It didn't matter if she didn't recognize it. It was enough for him if he could destroy Vivian's world and rebuild it anew.
After finishing his grooming, Aslan headed to Eleonora's Separate Residence with a nonchalant expression. The murderous glint in his eyes instantly turned cheerful.
Aslan stopped as he entered the garden.
'What should I do?'
It was so late, but the siblings were sitting in the garden talking.
A small bonfire crackled between them.
＊ ＊ ＊
After the Duke, who had been acting up, left the banquet hall, Vivian comforted Iris, who was in shock, with all her heart and returned to the Separate Residence.
But she was also shocked.
Not for any particular reason, but because she wondered where in the world there was such a crazy father.
"It's not like he's selling his own child. A fifty-year-old grandfather, what's that about?"
Vivian's eighteenth birthday was just around the corner. She would soon be an adult.
But even so, there was a limit. It didn't make sense to marry her off to a man more than thirty years older than her.
It wasn't like the Eleonora Family was short on money.
Recently, their political power had declined a bit due to the head of the family's incompetence, but their long-standing honor was still strong.
"I thought he was going to punish me severely for causing an accident with the will. But he threw a wine glass and raised his hand, and if I hadn't dodged, I would have been beaten to death by now."
Fortunately, dodging the Duke's attacks was easier than dodging falling leaves on the street.
The Duke was just a fat, squat man who didn't even know how to hold a weapon. She was dodging him while wondering if it was okay for it to be this easy.
"Hmm, what's this?"
Vivian, who had been sitting on the sofa, got up again. There was something caught under the cushion.
"A diary?"
It was an old diary, so worn that the leather was frayed.
Vivian wondered why it was stuck in the sofa. The place it should be was...
She naturally looked under the side table and tilted her head. She felt a strange sense of déjà vu, but she dismissed it as a mistake and turned her gaze away.
As expected, it was a diary.
But after only a few pages, her face gradually hardened.
"What is this..."
The diary began on the seventh anniversary of the Duchess's death. It was the year Vivian turned ten.
[A death notice came from my mother's family. My great aunt, who had retired from the front lines for medical treatment, passed away in a carriage accident.
My brother and I will inherit the estate.
Now, who will protect our siblings?]
