Hmm—Geuru thrust his head out and observed the child.
The hood made it hard to tell, but it was definitely not a face he knew.
‘Don’t tell me… another new friend has appeared?’
Along with the anger boiling up inside him, the “Loner’s Wrath” Geuru had generated began to intensify as well.
At that moment, from the long shadow stretching out behind Geuru, black leaves began to ripple and sway.
As if swept up in rage, a stem imbued with a red aura shot straight upward.
“Hm?”
With a single pointed leaf, it wrapped tightly around Geuru’s wrist.
“Eh?!”
Suddenly yanked upward, Geuru’s mouth fell open in a triangle.
“Hieek?!”
“Kkyuuu!”
Luxifer, who let out a single scream, covered his mouth with his fluffy front paws.
*
His legs creaked.
‘Already?’
Mephisto flinched and stiffened his shoulders.
For some reason, the erosion of the “Loner’s Wrath” was devouring his body even more fiercely.
With legs that would not move as he wished, Mephisto struggled to pick things up with the tongs, then wiped his tear-blurred eyes with the back of his hand.
‘If I’d been born human like Uju, I would’ve managed this much….’
Suddenly, a dangerous thought flashed through his mind.
He could probably use his power one more time.
So if he altered Uju’s perception.
If he made Uju stop liking Geuru.
Wouldn’t everything become easy?
His sunset-colored eyes fixed on Uju, who was diligently picking up trash.
Mephisto’s pupils trembled.
Geuru wouldn’t notice anyway.
If it was just once….
“…….”
The hand that had been reaching toward Uju soon dropped limply.
Because he understood the feeling of liking Geuru, it was all the harder to tamper with Uju’s heart. It would have been better if he hadn’t known.
Tch. Mephisto frowned and turned around.
“Kkyuuu!”
Luxifer came hopping over and grabbed his collar, pointing in one direction.
“Huh?”
Mephisto turned his head, spotted Geuru wrapped in Fenbraum’s stem, and flung aside the tongs and trash bag in his hands before starting to run with a limp.
*
By then, Geuru was bound tightly in the stem, struggling to break free, but with a child’s strength, it was not easy to escape.
Meanwhile, Fenbraum was sniffing toward Geuru’s bag.
This is it.
Fenbraum’s stem moved toward Geuru’s bag.
“N-nooo!”
Geuru hugged the bag tightly, but the stem burrowed into his arms.
‘I can’t let it take it…!’
Just as Geuru was trying with all his might to block the stem—
Suddenly, Fenbraum shook its stem like an aspen leaf.
“……?”
Below Fenbraum, which was convulsing as if afraid of something, stood the hooded child.
Before long, Fenbraum prostrated itself at the monarch’s feet.
Fenbraum’s instincts, every single cell that composed it, were submitting before the child.
The child slowly blinked his long eyes and held out his hand.
In that instant, the chilling cold of a wintry snowfield drifted through the air.
[The monarch revokes the authority of his vassal.]
Thump!
Fenbraum answered the monarch’s command.
Its pitch-black stems, leaves, and roots melted down, becoming shadow itself as they began to disappear.
At the same time, soft, chick-yellow hair fluttered. To catch Geuru as he fell through the air, Mephisto flung both arms wide.
Crash!
Geuru, who had landed on top of the fallen Mephisto, found himself face-to-face with him.
The child’s hood had come off.
Snow-white feathers drifted through the air.
He was a boy who seemed to be made entirely of white, except for his red lips and sunset-colored eyes.
“Uh……?”
As Geuru let out a dazed sound and brought his face close, Mephisto’s eyes wavered.
“Mephi?”
“…….”
Mephisto flinched and parted his lips. For some reason, his throat felt tight, and the words would not come out properly.
Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day?
From the moment he had been newly born in this world and begun to form a sense of self, he had watched Geuru.
Now that he was looking at the child in the human form he had so long desired, the child looked even smaller.
A feeling of fullness filled his chest until it felt tight.
Mephisto curved his eyes into gentle crescents and took Geuru’s hand.
Like everyone else, he had wanted to wrap Geuru’s hand in his own like this.
Mephisto rubbed his cheek against Geuru’s enclosed palm like a small bird.
“Yeah. It’s me, Mephi.”
At that, Geuru’s eyes opened wide.
“How’d you do it?”
The moment Geuru asked, Uju’s voice cut in.
“Geuru! Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Mephi caught me.”
Mephisto, who had risen at some point, wrapped his arms around Geuru’s body.
The white child rested his forehead against the tiny shoulder and rubbed his soft hair against it as if acting spoiled.
Seeing that, Uju, whose anger shot up, took Geuru’s hand.
“I’ll help you up. Hurry, take my hand.”
“Ah, okay.”
Geuru grabbed Uju’s hand and sprang to his feet.
Uju glanced at Mephisto, who was getting up on his own, then sharply turned his head away.
“……?”
Looking at the subtle current flowing between the two, Geuru pressed his two index fingers together and twisted them around before hesitantly opening his mouth.
“But…… what were you two doing without Geuru?”
“Uh, that’s……!”
“He said if I wanted to play the prince, I had to pick up trash, so I was picking it up.”
While Uju hesitated, Mephisto quickly answered.
Does that guy have no shame? Uju forced himself to hold back his anger as he watched Mephisto act confident from start to finish.
“The prince role?”
“Uh, that…….”
Uju nodded, his ears turning red.
“It wasn’t anything weird, just…… I wanted to participate in the play.”
Even though you were thinking weird things.
Mephisto shot him a sidelong glare, and Uju grumbled with the shape of his mouth, ‘What? What’s your problem?’
“Ahh, so you wanted to do the play. You should’ve told Geuru too…….”
It was then. Behind Geuru, whose lips were jutting out, the shadow began to boil.
“……?!”
As if part of Fenbraum remained, stems grew from the roots and were pushing against the floor as they rose.
At that grotesque and horrific sight, Mephisto furrowed his brow.
It seemed the eroded parts had already been contaminated and were able to escape his command.
‘If I use my power again, then…….’
He might not be able to maintain his human form.
But he could not leave Geuru in danger.
Just as Mephisto made up his mind to use his power again—
Poke!
A pink fork stabbed the shadow.
“Kiiiik!”
Poke! Poke! Poke!
The fork efficiently stabbed the remaining stems.
Before long, Geuru, who had been calmly watching Fenbraum drip down like oil, turned his gaze toward the two and blinked.
Uju and Mephisto were struck speechless by Geuru’s outstanding fork work, without him so much as blinking.
As if he had no idea why they were acting that way, Geuru tilted his head and asked,
“What’s wrong?”
“No! Are y-you okay?”
“Geuru, you’re amazing.”
At the same time Uju asked, Mephisto clapped for him, his loose sleeves fluttering.
Hmph.
Geuru smugly lifted the tip of his chin at an angle, then spoke as if something had suddenly occurred to him.
“But about the prince role. Do you really wanna do it?”
“Yeah. I want to.”
“I’m doing it.”
Uju and Mephisto answered at the same time.
Huh? Geuru’s eyebrows drooped into a worried slant.
“Even though the prince only has one line in this play?”
“What?”
Geuru rummaged through his bag and pulled out the script.
[Snow White the Hero]
Craaaack—
After checking the title of the script, both of their faces froze like ice.
When they hurriedly checked the contents, far from the prince waking the princess with a kiss—
[Prince: I have fallen for your swordsmanship, Hero Snow White!]
He had only one line.
*
“Please buy one of this old woman’s apples, benevolent hero.”
On the theater stage where they stood to practice “Snow White the Hero.”
Gu Huiyeon, dressed as an old woman, held out an apple.
Then the dagger at Hero Snow White’s chest gave off a clear metallic gleam.
Geuru sliced the apple at a firm, disciplined angle.
Slash! Slash!
“No! How did you know this was a poisoned apple?”
As Geuru put the sword back into its sheath, he said solemnly,
“I am Snow White. I am a child who does not eat food given by strange adults!”
“Snow White the Hero” had been adapted into an instructive story that instilled caution in young children.
Of course, since Snow White never ate the poisoned apple and collapsed, there was absolutely no scene in which the prince woke Princess Snow White with a kiss.
As he watched the practice scene, Mephisto clapped in dazzling fashion, while Uju leaned back against his chair as if all his strength had left him.
‘……That’s what kind of play this was?’
Gwak Nabi, who was directing the play, asked with a smile,
“Now then, who wants to play the prince who becomes Hero Snow White’s disciple?”
Mephisto smiled brightly and pointed at Uju.
“…….”