“Not to k*ll me, but to save me?”

David bent down and looked at my face with gentle eyes. I nodded vigorously. I felt like a child in front of him all of a sudden.

“Ugh! Hic! I’m going to save you. I said I’m going to save you.”

My emotions overwhelmed me and the words came out jumbled. Even so, David didn’t rush me. He simply looked at me, wholly and completely. That gaze was so beautiful and true that I swallowed without meaning to.

“Alright. Don’t cry.”

Even in the middle of all this, David was worried about my state. I wanted to clear up his misunderstanding and opened my mouth again.

“Hic……! Have you heard this? That the soul sword can not only hold souls but also trap evil things?”

“…… Evil things? You mean evil spirits?”

“Yes. Evil spirits.”

The spirit of desire was, by anyone’s measure, an evil spirit that devoured people. That was why the absolute good spirit was using Achilles to eliminate David, its host.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and set my expression with resolve. David had started to reach toward my face, then realized he wasn’t wearing gloves and slowly pulled back.

How many times had his hand come close and then retreated like that.

Thinking about it made my chest ache. Still, looking at David’s expression, it seemed the misunderstanding had been cleared up to some degree. This was better than driving a sword into David’s chest while he knew nothing, and then suffering alone with the guilt.

David looked at me with a genuinely curious expression.

“How exactly? How does one trap it?”

I spoke as calmly as I could, laying out what I knew.

“I was told you have to pierce the chest. Since it’s trapping something evil, it’s quite a dangerous method.”

I watched David’s reaction. He showed no surprise and no fear. He simply crossed his arms calmly and stared into the air. He seemed to be thinking.

He might think it was absurd. But would he believe me?

Tense, I gripped the soul sword tightly and pressed my lips together.

David’s gaze came back to me. He looked straight into my eyes and slowly removed his jacket. Then he pulled off his cravat with rough hands.

Even the act of undressing, moving from slow to fast like a piece of classical music, was enough to make a person’s heart ache.

What, what is he doing?

I slowly covered my face with one hand. But my fingers kept spreading apart.

Thud!

Before I knew it, David’s jacket, cravat, and shirt had fallen to the floor.

Peeking through my fingers, I could see his sculpted body. A well-defined abdomen, thick chest muscles, and striking square shoulders.

Seeing his bare torso in such an unexpected place made my face heat up without my permission.

David, apparently not embarrassed in the slightest, spread both arms wide to his sides with complete confidence. His lean arm muscles were as beautiful as a carefully carved stone statue.

He’s showing me his chest without any hesitation.

I looked at him with wavering eyes.

“What are you doing?”

So…… you’re telling me to stab you right now.

No matter how I looked at it, that was what it meant.

I held my breath and slowly took the soul sword in both hands. Drawing a sword in front of David made me feel like a true enemy.

But there is no knight in the world who trembles like this.

“You really want me to do it?”

David nodded at my question.

“As you know, I drain other people’s energy. There’s clearly a parasite inside me.”

A parasite. That was an accurate description. The spirit of desire was truly a wretched thing.

David tilted his head with a calm expression. It meant come closer, quickly.

I slowly put one foot forward. David’s voice rang in my ear.

“That parasite…… deserves to be gone.”

He said it lightly, as though talking about someone else. Even knowing how dangerous it was to be pierced in the chest.

“You believe me?”

At my words, David turned his head to the side and let out a short laugh. To think that he could laugh in a moment like this. He truly was a remarkable man.

David spoke in an unwavering voice.

“I’ve found that belief is a matter of will.”

“……”

“So you too…… believe that rumor you said you’d only heard. A real miracle might happen.”

A miracle……

Trapping an evil spirit with the soul sword was a device that had come from the novel. I knew the probability of breaking the curse was very high, and yet I was still frightened. I had never inflicted a serious wound on another person’s body.

On top of that, I was someone who despised violence because of a terrible trauma, and being thrown into a situation like this felt cruel.

David had been watching me tremble continuously, and spoke to me with a startled expression.

“Wait! You don’t have to be the one to do it……”

His voice was very urgent.

“Pardon?”

“You have to be the one to stab me, Lady Seraphina.”

What?

I twisted my eyebrow slightly at his use of my title.

“You called me Roa just a moment ago.”

David was flustered by my sudden words. I pressed on with my complaint.

“That night…… you called me Roa.”

Now it sounds like I’m asking him to call me Roa!

But I couldn’t stop my lips from moving on their own.

A moment later, words like something from a dream slipped from his mouth.

“I…… have always wanted to call you Roa.”

“……”

“Roa.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to do something this terrible. You’re already…… struggling.”

That word held every meaning.

It was true that I was struggling. It felt like facing the phrase live to die, die to live. Try to live and you will die; try to die and you will live. What more fitting expression could there be.

Even with David urging me to stop, I gripped the sword tightly and cried out.

“I can’t leave it to someone else!”

David looked like he couldn’t understand.

“…… Why?”

“That’s because……”

I recalled a line from the book.

[Through Moz’s desperate love, David’s curse was broken.]

It might simply be the author’s metaphorical expression. Or perhaps the former Grand Duke’s love had saved him. But that sentence kept nagging at me.

Could I truly be an alternative to Moz? I closed my eyes briefly and breathed deeply.

Moz isn’t here anyway. There’s only me.

I steeled my heart and spoke.

“This is something I have to do.”

And I slowly brought the tip of the sword to David’s chest.

Tremble, tremble, tremble!

My hands shook as though I had a tremor. My throat seized up and I couldn’t breathe.

I narrowed my brows and stared only at his chest.

David didn’t move at all, showing no fear. When I kept hesitating, David looked at me with a pained expression.

“Why go this far……”

“I’m going to do it. I can do this.”

But in that moment, the image of young me being slapped by my father and falling backward was overlaid onto everything. I scrunched my face hard.

Get out, get out! This wretched vision!

I’m trying to save him. I can break his curse.

Like Moz. No, even more than Moz……

Because I might be in love with him.

Even as the world spun before my eyes, I refused to let go of the sword.

The moment I finally moved to pierce his chest with the blade, David took one step forward.

“Kyaaah!”

The sharp tip of the sword tore through soft skin. Bright red blood began to flow down his chest muscle.

Ah, David…… David!

David’s face only creased slightly, but the one who was completely undone was me.

Was the curse broken?

No, wait. It was David who moved into it, not me. Do I need to push it in deeper?

All manner of tangled thoughts swam through my mind.

But I couldn’t push it deeper. David was already wounded.

Clang!

The strength left my hands and I dropped the soul sword. David grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“Roa, Roa!”

David’s voice reached me, but I fainted on the spot. The sight of a sword, even briefly, lodged in David’s chest was the most harrowing thing in the world.