Episode 120
"Stop right there."
"Huh? Ah, yes..."
Lulu, who had been heading toward the entrance of the noble dormitory, began to look flustered when a maid guarding the entrance blocked her way.
"Commoners cannot enter the noble dormitory."
"Ah, that... um... don't you know me?"
When Lulu cautiously asked after a moment, the maid began to answer with a deeply furrowed brow.
"Whoever you are, rules must be kept. This is a space exclusively for nobles that commoners cannot..."
"...Let her in."
Her senior who was beside her sighed and interrupted, causing the maid to also become flustered.
"W-what do you mean? Why would you let a commoner..."
"She must be new and doesn't know. I gave permission, so just go inside."
"T-thank you..."
Lulu, who had been glancing around, quickly headed deeper into the dormitory, and the new maid asked with a bewildered expression.
"What... is going on here?"
"She's Frey's sex slave."
"...Ah."
At the senior maid's words, she immediately understood the situation and murmured in a low voice.
"How pitiful. Out of all those nobles, she had to be Frey's sex slave."
"You be careful too. There are rumors lately that he's even going after maids."
"...Yes."
Having finished their conversation, the two maids began to watch Lulu walking toward the dormitory entrance with expressions of pity.
'...What Frey did to me was just a kiss.'
Of course, it was quite unfair for Lulu, who had been listening to their conversation while pretending not to care.
Although Frey had attacked her before, frequently made physical contact, and even forcibly kissed her.
He had never crossed the line beyond that.
'...No, I mustn't be deceived. That's not him doing it for my sake, it's because he doesn't even treat me like a person.'
But Lulu shook her head and tried to brush away the thoughts.
"Huu..."
But, for some reason.
Despite trying to brush away the thoughts, her heart only grew more troubled.
Although he was the worst of men who saw her not as a person but as a pet.
The warmth she felt when he stroked her had quite satisfied Lulu, who had longed for human warmth.
And the same was true for the kisses he gave her every night.
- Thud, thud
As a result, Lulu's heart grew heavy, and she slowly headed toward Frey's dormitory while muttering to herself.
'Even so, I can't stop here... I can't stop, but...'
Frey is clearly a villain.
At the mansion, he would frequently assault the servants Cania and Irina, intimidate the cooks, and verbally abuse his own sibling.
He tried to rape the commoner students who had approached her, and even tried to legally make them his.
Moreover, even without these facts, if one listened to the rumors circulating in the Empire, the possibility that Frey Raon Starlight was a puppet of the Demon Lord's army was quite high.
That was why Lulu had chosen Frey as the one who would receive her misfortune and remove her brand.
Originally, if the vicious Frey, whom most people wished would die, took an interest in her, he would surely do terrible and ugly things to her as rumored.
If Frey became entangled in her misfortune, she wouldn't need to feel any guilt. That was her reasoning.
So, Lulu had deliberately broken his pottery to attract his attention.
And before she could even use the next operations she had prepared to get his attention, when she became Frey's pet, she was dumbfounded but honestly happy.
But.
'...Why does he treat me so well?'
Lulu, who had arrived right in front of Frey's room without realizing it, stopped in her place and began to tremble.
'Why... why doesn't he treat me roughly...'
Lulu stood there blankly in front of the door for a while.
- Grit...!
Finally, she bit her lip and murmured.
"...For now, let's check."
And she grasped the doorknob.
Thinking that there would be no one to nurse Frey anyway.
"...Hmm?"
However, his door was firmly locked.
- Crack!
"Ugh!"
When the magic eye she activated was blocked by a powerful anti-eavesdropping spell on the door, Lulu began to look around with a flustered expression.
"Excuse me..."
"What brings you here?"
"I want to go into Frey's room..."
When Lulu, who had been sighing in the hallway, found the head maid and asked in a small voice, she sighed and answered.
"You've come for the shift change, I see?"
"Shift change?"
"Earlier, Cania, the only one who was nursing him, left the room. So the next shift person should be coming, just like it's been since dawn."
The head maid, who had frequently witnessed Lulu going in and out of Frey's room every night for the past few days, thought she was the new shift personnel and quietly began to approach the door.
- Click!
"You really have a hard time too. Well, I'll go rest for a bit."
"Ah, I, that... I'm..."
"I'm sorry. I've been ordered to watch this place since dawn and not let anyone in. Thanks to that, I haven't slept a wink... Please take over."
When the head maid opened the door and looked at her with a pitiful expression before leaving through the hallway, Lulu, who had frozen in place for a moment, approached the door murmuring in a low voice.
"...I'm just going to look at his face and leave, it shouldn't be a problem."
Lulu, having said that, carefully opened the door.
- Creak...
"What is this, it was just an exaggerated rumor after..."
Lulu, who had entered the room, discovered Frey sitting slanted on the bed with his head lowered, and tried to turn around to quietly leave the room.
"Cough!!"
"...Ah."
But when Frey suddenly vomited black blood from his mouth, she froze completely.
"Huh? Uh, uh?"
Lulu, who had been watching him with a blank expression for a moment, began to walk toward Frey without realizing it.
"Fre, Frey-nim?"
"Ugh...!"
Lulu, who was greatly flustered and stroking Frey's mouth, began to break out in a cold sweat when blood once again seeped from Frey's mouth.
'...H-his body is this bad?'
His body, which she barely touched, was hot like a fire despite him wearing clothes, and black blood kept pouring from his mouth.
And his face was pale white like a corpse.
"H-his heart is beating...?"
Lulu, who put her ear to his heart with an expression of disbelief, confirmed that his heart was still beating and murmured with a trembling voice.
"Mmm..."
"...Frey-nim?"
Lulu, who had raised her head to examine Frey, began to speak while carefully shaking him.
"P-please wake up. Frey-nim."
"...Ugh."
"Eek."
But what returned from his mouth was not an answer but black blood.
"W-what on earth is this..."
Lulu, who didn't know what to do and was stroking the completely limp Frey.
- Thud, thud.
".......!"
Suddenly hearing footsteps from outside, she jumped up in fright.
"U-ugh..."
Frey's room was being watched by the head maid to prevent anyone from entering.
And currently, her hands were stained with Frey's blood.
"...Gulp."
When the footsteps stopped in front of the door in that situation, Lulu, who was in a panic, suddenly turned her gaze to the side and swallowed hard.
In her field of vision was the door to the bathroom, the only place in this room where she could hide.
.
A little before Lulu heard the footsteps and fell into panic.
"Irina-ssi, you were here."
"...Cania?"
Cania, who had come out of Frey's room, was speaking to Irina who was blankly looking out the window at the end of the hallway.
"You didn't come at the shift change time, so I came to find you directly."
"I-is that so? Has it already been that time?"
Hearing Cania's words, Irina stepped back from the window with a flustered expression.
"Wait a moment. If you're not with Frey, he'll vomit blood... I'll quickly bring a hemostatic agent..."
"That's not necessary. In this situation, we need to draw out the young master's blood."
"What?"
When Cania said this, Irina showed a surprised expression, and Cania sighed and spoke.
"Due to the shock of my soul mixing with the young master's soul... black magic power entered the young master's body."
"T-then isn't that dangerous?"
"There's no problem. The bad energy of the black magic power has been mostly expelled along with the young master's vomiting of blood."
Cania, who said that, sighed and spoke.
"And rather than stopping the vomiting, it's better to let him vomit."
"W-why?"
"Because new blood regenerated by the 'Star's Blessing' the young master has is pushing out the dirty blood. In other words, the young master is vomiting blood now not because he's in pain but because he's trying to become healthy."
"Phew... then there's no need to worry about him collapsing from anemia."
Irina, who had been extremely worried about Frey who had been vomiting blood since dawn, breathed a sigh of relief at those words.
"Then, let's go."
"Yes..."
When Cania, who was looking at such Irina, quietly turned and began to walk down the hallway, Irina, who had become unusually hunched, quietly asked a question.
"By the way... then there's no need to stay with Frey anymore, right?"
"No, not always, but in the future too... we need to be in contact with the young master for a long time."
When Irina tilted her head at those words, Cania quietly stroked her stomach and spoke.
"Because fragments and traces of the young master's soul still remain. It seems we'll need to carefully return them while being in contact with the young master for one to two weeks."
"Ah..."
Hearing those words, Irina looked at Cania who was walking ahead and quietly murmured.
"...If only I had a little more black magic power."
"Irina-ssi, thank you."
"H-huh?"
To her, Cania said with a smile.
"For developing the magic that protected the young master's lifespan."
"Ah, no... it wasn't even perfectly activated."
"No. If it weren't for the magic you developed, the young master's lifespan would have been cut in half again. And we wouldn't have discovered the identity of the system either."
"...Yeah."
"I will report everything about that part when the young master wakes up. Thank you again truly, Irina-nim."
Irina, who was looking at Cania who said that, glanced at the magic circle drawn on her stomach and spoke.
"Does it hurt or anything?"
"Hmm... a little bit."
"Then, shall I move the magic circle back to my stomach?"
"N-no. I will handle it."
When Cania, who said that, began to approach Frey's room where she had arrived, Irina quietly stopped in place and spoke in a low voice.
"...Then, will you help me make the blood oath to him today?"
Hearing those words, Cania frowned while opening the automatically locked doorknob.
"Please stop that."
"Why?"
"Aren't you trying to offer your soul to Frey-nim with that oath?"
Cania, who said that while opening the room door, spoke in a low voice while kindly opening the door.
"You know well what it means to offer your soul to a mere individual who is neither a god nor a demon. So, there's no need for you to do that."
"No, I'm going to offer it."
"What?"
Irina, who answered in an equally low voice to her, quietly entered the room and closed the door.
'Frey, who received a curse that damages both his mind and body because of me... and even had his lifespan cut.'
Approaching Frey who had vomited another handful of bad blood while producing healthy blood, Irina began to mutter to herself.
'And, the lifespan is...'
Irina, who hesitated for a moment, quietly took out a measuring device from her bosom and looked at it.
"2 years and 2 months. That's the remaining lifespan you have, Frey."
Then, quietly embracing Frey, she spoke in a clear tone.
"........Ugh."
"Even if you've become terminally ill with only a few years left to live..."
Irina, who opened her mouth again.
"...I will offer my soul to you."
She began to whisper so softly that only she and the sleeping Frey could hear.
"My body, my heart, even my purity... I will offer everything to you. Frey."
"Heh."
Irina, who finished speaking, looked at Frey whose expression had somehow twitched with love, then turned her head to the side.
"Do you know why?"
Irina looked at the seedling that had been planted a few months ago when she wasn't yet certain about Frey, as a test for him.
And now it was growing vigorously on his desk and had somehow bloomed.
"Puppy love flowers."
"I love you."
She whispered in Frey's ear with a quiet smile.
"...since I was very young."
Beside such Frey and Irina, the puppy love flowers were swaying.
.
"What... is that sound just now?"
Meanwhile, at that time.
"2 years and 2 months...? Terminally ill...?"
Lulu, who had quietly pressed her ear against the bathroom door where not a single ray of light entered.
"Surely..."
Hearing the words that only reached her ears, she trembled and murmured.