Episode 251
"You're here? You're a bit late? Did something happen..."
"Shut up."
Frey, who had boarded the carriage prepared immediately for their date, replied in a cold voice as Serena stammered while glancing at him nervously.
"Haa."
After sighing and taking his seat, Frey gazed quietly out the window and began to sigh again.
'Why... am I acting like this? Why on earth?'
Since earlier, an incomprehensible impulse had been continuously goading him.
That emotion, which he had never experienced even once since birth, was entirely foreign to Frey.
'Why do I want to torment someone?'
For the first time in his life, he found himself genuinely wanting to torment someone.
Not the forced evil deeds from his first playthrough, nor the necessary evils committed to save the current world—he was desiring pure malice.
"Mmm..."
The signs had appeared when Isollet, drunk on alcohol, had burst into the hideout.
At that time, Frey had intended to relieve her week-long worries by explaining that as a high-ranking member of the Demon Lord's army, he had no lifespan issues, while simultaneously solidifying the hierarchical difference between them.
The judgment itself wasn't wrong, but calling her a 'doormat' or referring to her as a 'lewd tramp' wasn't part of the plan.
Yet somehow, saying those words made him feel both guilt and pleasure simultaneously, and from that point on, the situation spiraled out of control.
genuinely forcing himself on Miho—his fiancée's assistant and friend who already hated him—intertwining tongues and displaying possessiveness.
Saying things he didn't mean, mentioning he wanted to cheat on Miho, making his fiancée Serena get hurt and cry while clinging to him.
Verbally abusing and sexually harassing Isollet, someone he respected second most in the world, who had already been subjected to his cruel words earlier.
Treating Lulu, who always remained loyal and clung to him, coldly, even strangling her as punishment, and even biting her.
Of course, he had done similar things quite often before, but Frey was now feeling considerable confusion because he was committing these actions purely due to his own desires.
'Could it be... that I'm under a curse?'
Guilt and confusion clouded Frey's expression as he gazed out the window.
'I should contact Kania somehow...'
After agonizing alone for quite some time, Frey thought about consulting Kania, an authority on curse magic, and turned his gaze to the side.
"Frey."
"...Ugh."
At the same time, Serena's twinkling eyes, which had somehow pressed close beside him, came into his view.
'I want to torment her...'
Frey's mind, which had briefly calmed down, began to be eroded by evil thoughts again.
"Get away."
"...Hah."
As a result, Frey pushed Serena aside and spoke coldly.
"Maintain boundaries, Serena."
"B-but... I need to put this on you..."
"What?"
At those words, Serena quietly held out something to Frey, who tilted his head in confusion.
"Is this... a lens?"
What she held out was a lens emitting rainbow light.
"Yes, we need to wear these to see each other's faces..."
As Serena said, the two of them were currently in special disguise.
To help Frey, who was hiding after faking his disappearance, Serena had used a perception-altering magic passed down through her family for generations to change both her own and Frey's facial appearances.
Thanks to that, Frey and Serena appeared to be completely different people.
Of course, since only their 'perception' had been altered to different appearances, the innate charm they were born with remained unchanged.
"I, I've already put mine on. If our appearances look different, it feels like cheating... I, I'd rather be beaten to death than say this, but I like you the most..."
"......."
"N-now that I think about it... now I'm the only one in the world who can see your true face... hehe."
Serena, who had been muttering timidly, looked at Frey with enraptured eyes as she suddenly remembered something while he stared at her.
"I don't need that."
"...What?"
"Rather than your plain, unremarkable face, that appearance is actually better to look at."
".......!"
However, at Frey's shocking statement, the smile she had been wearing completely vanished.
"T-that's...!"
"So get that away from me."
"Mmm..."
Serena had become pitiful and wretched like a wet puppy, but ignoring her, Frey gave a cold command, and she lowered her head and began to mutter.
"T-then I'll go around in this appearance today..."
"Fine, finally..."
"N-no. From now on, I'll always stay in this appearance in front of you."
"Hmm."
"S-should I go around in this appearance even normally?"
Serena asked while looking at Frey with a trembling expression.
"It's been years since you last complimented me on being pretty."
"........"
"Even... even if my face changes, I'm still me... I, I can do anything as long as I can be acknowledged by you."
Hearing those words, Frey looked uninterested and turned his gaze back out the window.
"I, I'll schedule plastic surgery for tomorrow. To change my appearance to match this altered perception..."
- Whoosh...!
"Huh?"
As Serena wiggled her two fingers together and muttered, he suddenly snatched the lens she had set beside her.
"Huh? Frey?"
Then, still gazing out the window, Frey slowly put on the lens Serena had prepared.
"Don't misunderstand."
As Serena stared at him blankly with her mouth open, Frey answered in his consistently cold voice.
"I'm wearing it to hide my eye color."
"Hehe, hehehe..."
"Shut up."
Frey pushed away Serena, who was leaning her head on his shoulder with an embarrassing smile spread across her face, and quietly looked up at the blue sky.
"...Hmm?"
Frey frowned slightly and tilted his head.
- Rustle...
But when he felt a ticklish sensation near his legs, he slowly lowered his gaze.
- Wiggle, wiggle...
Somehow Serena, who had lain down, was slowly wriggling her way into his space.
"Hehe."
Having successfully infiltrated his space, she lay with her head on his lap and looked up at him with a foolish smile.
"It's Frey... hehehe..."
In her eyes, she could see the face of the most handsome man in the world, one that only she could see now.
"...Plain indeed."
And in Frey's eyes, who had turned his gaze at some point, Serena's face came into view, smiling foolishly while looking at him.
"Nothing to see, plain, and no distinctive features."
Muttering thus, Frey pouted and tried to remove her from his lap, but then shook his head and leaned back, closing his eyes.
"Seriously, I really don't like it."
After a while, the carriage that had left the hideout began to slowly travel along a forest path.
- Rumble, rumble...
The carriage carrying Frey and Serena, who had been riding for a while, began to sway with a pleasant rattling sound.
"Ahh, uhh..."
Serena, who had her head on Frey's lap, seized the opportunity to slowly rub her head against his legs.
"Oh my..."
Then, pretending to be pushed by the carriage's swaying, she turned her head and buried her face in Frey's lower abdomen.
"Mmm..."
Then, the sensation of his skin and body temperature beneath Frey's thin shirt transmitted to her.
- Rub, rub...
Since opportunities to be this close to Frey, who usually didn't even allow skinship, were rare, Serena rubbed her face around here and there with the determination to fully enjoy this opportunity.
"Hmm?"
But suddenly, Serena's expression, who had been burying her face in Frey's stomach in bliss, darkened.
"This smell..."
Then, with dead eyes, she began to touch Frey's shirt.
"...Surely."
A woman's scent was wafting from the shirt Frey was wearing.
Though he always cheated in front of her, she knew well because she had secretly smelled his clothes every time.
While there were often scents of perfume, soap, and cosmetics, she knew that a 'woman's scent' had never appeared even once.
But the scent now wafting from Frey's shirt was definitely a woman's scent.
"......."
Serena, who had narrowed her eyes and analyzed the wrinkles and scent of the shirt, quickly reached a conclusion.
"That damned old spinster..."
Serena had been regularly organizing files on the danger levels of people targeting Frey.
That was why Serena could quickly realize that the perpetrator of this intense activity was Isollet, who had recently been promoted to the top of the file.
"Soon... I need to settle the ranking..."
Serena quietly promoted Isollet's danger level to the highest in her mind, gritted her teeth quietly, and then began to look at Frey to shake off the uncomfortable feeling.
"Are you asleep? Frey?"
He still had his eyes gently closed.
- Poke, poke...
Serena, who had been staring blankly at his doll-like face, cautiously poked Frey's face with her finger.
"It's soft..."
Serena, who had been poking Frey's soft cheek while blushing for a while...
".....Huh?"
Suddenly changed her expression to cold when the carriage began to wobble.
- KABOOM!!
But before she could even respond, it happened.
"Kyaaa!!"
A loud roar rang out, and the carriage they were riding in swayed as if it would flip over.
'An accident? No. Even though the path was rough, it wasn't enough to flip the carriage.'
Serena, who was slightly floating in the half-tilted carriage, quietly sank into thought.
'Then... it's an ambush.'
She wiped away the foolish smile she had been wearing and began to assume the cold and terrifying expression of an assassin.
'It's not the royal family, then is it the Order? Or the Hero Party? No. Whatever happens, first...'
Operating her brain at maximum capacity while grabbing Frey, who was floating in the air with her, she pulled out a fan from her bosom and began to shine her eyes.
"Eek!?"
But then, she made a foolish sound and blushed.
- Embrace...!
It was because Frey, who had been dozing and suddenly opened his eyes from the shock, unconsciously wrapped his arms around Serena.
"Ahhh...?"
At Frey's bold action, which had always ignored her since childhood, Serena's brain, which had been operating precisely, broke down.
- Crash, thud...!
And so, the carriage flipped spectacularly with Frey embracing Serena.
'What do I do, what do I do, what do I do...'
Serena's mind, with her face buried in Frey's warm embrace, began to turn completely white.
.
Meanwhile, at that time.
"...Hmm."
Vener, who had been sitting at the head of the table with his chin resting on his hands, was quietly watching the projection magic tool floating at the front of the situation room.
- Fzzzzz...
On the monitor displayed by the projection magic tool, a carriage was shown flipped over and raising clouds of dust.
"U-um..."
In the situation room where no one was speaking at the tragic sight, someone raised their hand.
"I... I came because I heard Frey... Frey was here...? I am...?"
The person wearing a miserable and haggard expression was none other than Rosewin.
"Ah, well..."
Vener, who had been looking at her with sharp eyes, was about to speak with a cold expression when...
"Actually..."
- Creak...!
"....?"
Suddenly the door to the situation room opened and someone entered, causing him to stop speaking and tilt his head in confusion.
"What is this..."
Frey's younger sister who had become the temporary head of the Starlight family.
"...what are you all doing?"
Aria Raon Starlight revealed herself in the situation room.