Romei’s lips curved into a gentle smile that shone like the sun in the darkness.

The smile was so beautiful that Barmas felt afraid. It reminded him of the calm before a storm.

He wanted to refuse the bet, but Romei was quicker.

“You can decide the terms of the bet however you wish. It doesn’t matter what they are. You can even take me to the t*rture chamber. But if I lose, you must consume my soul.”

“…Are you insane? Absolutely not. No, I absolutely won’t do it. Do you think I would do something like that?”

Barmas responded with a slight delay after hearing her words. The outrageous proposal had left him speechless.

When he jumped up and firmly refused the bet, Romei kindly reminded him of something he seemed to have forgotten.

“You told me before. In exchange for letting you set the terms of the bet, you would accept any bet I proposed.”

“…I did say that. But this is different. No, I can’t do it.”

“Then why do you want me?”

Romei, unable to understand his behavior, finally asked in frustration.

“You keep saying the same thing. You have no intention of discarding me or killing me. You especially don’t want to consume my soul. You just keep repeating these words.”

“…”

“I told you I would become the most useless existence to you. The Barmas I know would either try to correct my behavior or discard me in anger, but you say you won’t do either.”

“…”

“Why are you acting like this? Why do you want me by your side? What are you clinging to me for?”

Barmas didn’t answer. He merely blinked blankly, like someone who never expected such a question.

When no response came even after a long while, Romei decided to give up on the conversation.

There was no point in talking to someone who just repeated the same things like a parrot—they would only end up going in circles.

‘He seems to want me for some reason, but even though he’s clinging to me now, he’ll eventually get annoyed and discard me.’

His behavior seemed more like the desperate actions of someone about to lose a toy they’d enjoyed playing with. Losing a familiar toy would be quite a loss for him.

But a toy was just a toy, easily replaceable. He would probably discard her as soon as he found a new toy, tossing her away like trash.

Feeling Barmas’s grip on her hands loosen, Romei quietly withdrew her hands from his.

She was about to turn away from the dim light illuminating the room when Barmas’s voice held her back.

Incredibly, it was a quiet confession that matched neither his previous words nor actions.

“I… love you, Romei.”

At that moment, Romei froze. She remained still for a moment with her back turned, then rolled over to face Barmas again.

Then she asked:

“…What did you just say?”

“I said I love you.”

Romei couldn’t help but burst into laughter at Barmas’s response. Though she had no will to live and only desired death, she couldn’t help laughing.

It was such an absurd excuse.

“Not funny, but an amusing answer nonetheless. This is the first time in my life I’ve received a confession, and I never imagined it would happen like this.”

“…”

“I wish you had come up with a more convincing lie…”

“It’s not a lie.”

Barmas responded seriously to Romei’s dismissal of his confession as a mere lie.

He knew he had done terrible things to Romei, and he understood this wasn’t exactly the best timing for a confession.

But that didn’t make his confession any less genuine.

“It might seem ridiculous to you… Even to me, I sound like a madman, but I’m serious.”

“…”

“I won’t ask you to love me back, just don’t leave me.”

Romei quietly observed his desperate confession before pulling one corner of her mouth into a crooked smile, much like Barmas often did to her.

Then she said:

“Did you think I would fall for such seduction so easily?”

“…What?”

“It was quite convincing, though. I’ve heard some devils control people through love—this was truly seamless.”

“Romei…”

Barmas uttered her name with a hollow expression.

It seemed both like an appeal to her to believe his sincerity and a despairing sigh at her refusal to believe him.

But Romei cared neither for his sighs nor his appeals to sincerity. What she wanted wasn’t his love or sincerity—only death.

Moreover, devils were beings who would use any means necessary to get what they wanted, so his words were likely just another performance to manipulate her.

‘Still, that was quite a passionate confession. An ordinary person might have been fooled.’

Inwardly impressed by Barmas’s acting skills, Romei continued:

“Since I said I couldn’t serve you, you’re trying to control me in a different way, but your deception no longer works on me.”

“…That’s not it. What would make you believe me? What should I do?”

When Romei completely refused to believe his sincerity, Barmas grabbed her shoulders and pleaded. He looked ready to jump into a pit of fire to prove his love.

But what Romei wanted wasn’t for him to jump into a pit of fire.

“Do you really love me?”

“I really do.”

“You said you would do anything for me, right?”

“Yes. I’ll do anything for you if you just stay by my side. I can give you armfuls of dazzling jewels and expensive clothes, or power so great that no one would dare challenge you.”

“Then why won’t you kill me?”

Barmas, who had been offering everything that might tempt an ordinary person to prove his sincerity and change Romei’s mind, was struck speechless by her question.

Romei continued:

“If you can do anything for me, why is my death absolutely out of the question? Because you love me?”

“…”

“No. You’re not saying you love me because you actually love me. You’re just saying anything to appease me because your favorite toy is about to disappear, and nothing else seems to be working. That’s why you’ll do anything except let me go.”

The hands gripping Romei’s shoulders went limp. His arms fell limply onto the bed like deflated balloons.

While Barmas was deeply shocked—he hadn’t expected Romei to interpret his confession this way—Romei consoled him in a kind but completely emotionless tone.

“Your performance just now was quite convincing. Someone who knew nothing about you would have fallen for it completely.”

“…”

“I don’t know who will come here after me, but you should try that approach with them. They’ll never be able to escape you. Oh, should I not be saying this?”

Suggesting that someone else might come here after her implied that another person would be lured and dragged here by the devil.

It was something she shouldn’t say as a holy knight who should protect people from devils, and it was quite disrespectful from the perspective of someone serving him.

Romei pondered briefly, but then smiled brightly and added:

“But I’m no longer a holy knight, and I’ve decided to become worthless to you, so it should be fine.”

“…Romei.”

“Let me know if you change your mind later. About the bet, about discarding me. I’ll wait unchanged.”

Having said her piece, Romei closed her eyes to go back to sleep, ignoring Barmas calling her name. It was clearly a gesture refusing further conversation.

Barmas stared dejectedly at Romei’s face with her eyes closed.

He had expected her not to believe him easily given everything he had done, but he never thought his feelings would be so completely rejected.

More painful than that, however, were her words. With each statement she made, it felt like his solar plexus was being stabbed with a red-hot poker.

She didn’t curse at him, nor did she mock or insult him. She simply didn’t believe anything he said, and that was excruciating.

The fact that this was ultimately the image he had created for himself made it even more painful.

As he was contemplating how to regain her trust in the suffocating silence, Romei suddenly spoke. Her eyes remained closed, and her voice was soft.

“…When you think about it, isn’t it selfish?”

“…”

“Saying you love me but refusing to give me the one thing I want most.”

“…”

“I don’t see the meaning in saying you’ll give me everything except what I want most. Excluding what would cause you pain means you’re only interested in your own happiness.”

Because Romei’s words were true, Barmas had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths. It was true that he was completely avoiding the pain of losing Romei because he couldn’t bear it.

So despite knowing that Romei wanted to leave him, Barmas was selfishly clinging to her to prevent it.