A startled maid spoke with a tearful face.

“M-my lady! I-it’s… hic!”

“Tell me. What’s happening here?”

“H-His Grace…”

The maid, trembling with fear, couldn’t finish her sentence before fainting. In this confusing situation, Elisia looked up.

‘What did Derick do? What could have happened to cause all this…’

Everyone looked as if they had seen a monster, making even her feel afraid.

After hesitating, Elisia carefully looked up at the mansion.

‘What should I do?’

After a brief moment of consideration, she cautiously entered the mansion with determination.

Derick hated Elisia to the point of loathing. She didn’t want to approach him first when he found even making eye contact with her repulsive. But now she had no choice.

Showing a righteous image of going to save people would also help improve Elisia’s rock-bottom reputation.

“M-my lady! It’s dangerous!”

Despite the warning, Elisia moved forward, assuring them she would be fine.

The mansion was silent as death. Elisia looked around to assess the situation.

The eerie atmosphere was followed by silence. She unconsciously swallowed.

Crack-

Just then.

The sound of something cracking came from somewhere.

“Haa, ha.”

At the same time, rough breathing was felt nearby.

A voice that was both cold yet feverishly hot.

“Huu…”

A man who brushed back his black hair, disregarding the blood on his hands, walked toward her.

His eyes, darker than usual, were unfocused. Moreover, his usually neat clothes were tattered or had buttons undone.

The beautiful man appeared strangely rough and even seductive. If he normally looked like a gentleman, now he resembled a demon.

At that moment, her gaze locked with his blood-red eyes filled with madness.

The king of predators.

That was her immediate impression upon seeing him. Goosebumps ran from her head to her toes, filling her with fear.

Elisia froze like a statue. Derick, exhaling deeply, was clearly not in his right mind.

She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his unusual blood-colored eyes.

Had he been in a fight? His white shirt, stained with blood, was half undone.

His chest muscles, rising and falling with rough breaths, were enough to mesmerize anyone. Above them, partially visible, was a mark.

Two snake heads, looking alive and vivid, faced each other with their bodies intertwined. The bodies were pierced by a single arrow.

‘Get a grip, Elisia.’

Bang-

As she averted her gaze, Derick slammed his clenched fist against the wall. With a crack, the wall fractured. Elisia glanced at the crack, moving only her eyes.

‘What is all this about?’

Just moments ago, he had been walking in the garden, glaring at her. But now his hazy gaze seemed unable to even recognize who she was.

Moreover, dark energy fluctuated around Derick’s body.

Carefully observing with an ominous feeling, Elisia quickly realized what the energy surrounding him was.

“Kuk…!”

And why this man was destroying the mansion in his deranged state.

‘This is definitely…’

Half-demons, not being full demons, often had defects.

Short lifespans, losing their minds, inability to feel emotions, and so on. They always lacked in at least one area.

Among these, in extremely unfortunate cases, the human blood and demon blood would continuously fight within the body.

‘Derick was one of those rare cases.’

The constant conflict eventually led to magical power going berserk, causing madness. That was Derick’s situation.

“At the young age of nine, Derick killed five innocent people due to his magical power going berserk.”

A passage from the novel flashed in Elisia’s mind.

Madness took away reason at the slightest relaxation of vigilance. Where thought ceased, only the instinct for destruction remained.

Devastating the surroundings was just the beginning; it drove one to eliminate all living beings nearby.

In other words, becoming a k*lling monster that moved only by instinct.

‘What am I supposed to do here?’

Elisia felt like a trembling herbivore before a carnivore.

Suddenly, she noticed the man who, despite being covered in blood here and there with hazy eyes, appeared outwardly normal.

The strangely beautiful yet strong man who captured her gaze was indeed the Derick Elphias she knew, though it was hard to believe.

A demonic figure so enchanting it could bewitch anyone.

‘At first glance, he doesn’t seem different from usual.’

But the overall atmosphere surrounding him was extremely dangerous. Elisia was overwhelmed by the pressure he exuded.

One wrong move and she felt she would be devoured by him.

She quickly racked her brain. So, in the original story, what did they do when Derick’s madness erupted?

“Eating the bright red twin fruits that grew only in Minotas, the land of demons, could suppress the madness. However, humans maintained a cold war under the guise of a truce with demons. Since humans couldn’t set foot on Minotas land, Derick resorted to drinking diluted deadly poison as an alternative to control his madness.”

There was a solution, after all.

But right now, she had no access to the twin fruits, let alone diluted poison.

Instinctively trying to avoid danger, she stepped back. This caused his already red eyes to widen wildly. Simultaneously, the black energy began to fluctuate with k*lling intent.

“Grrrr.”

A growling sound emanated from Derick. Elisia froze again in fear.

‘I’m scared. Am I going to die by this man’s hand after all?’

The fate of Elisia, ultimately dying at Derick’s hands, flashed through her mind. Elisia bit her lip and swallowed dryly.

His cold crimson eyes, looking at her like prey, held her feet in place. The tension between them was so thick she couldn’t even turn her head.

It was a critical situation. It seemed like this menacing man might pounce on her and strangle her at any moment.

And, as she predicted, Derick approached her at high speed.

His arms, veins bulging as if ready to strangle her, came right before her eyes. Elisia shut her eyes tightly in fear.

But what he grabbed was not her neck but her wrist.

As if to crush her wrist, no, as if it were a lifeline. That’s how Derick gripped Elisia’s wrist, almost twisting it.

“…go.”

At that moment, a strained voice brushed past Elisia’s ear. Sweating and breathing heavily, he was now looking at her.

“…What?”

“Get… out.”

At Derick’s muttering, Elisia’s eyes widened.

‘How did he regain his senses?’

She couldn’t understand why, but it didn’t matter. Elisia inwardly swallowed a sigh of relief at being alive.

“Kugh! …I said get out!”

Despite his face contorted in pain, he still managed to bark at her. As absurd as it was, she couldn’t follow his order.

‘I know I should run.’

But she couldn’t obey this man.

She had come this far to save people. She didn’t want to leave without doing anything.

“People outside are scared. Try to calm down.”

“Do you… want to die? Well. Huu… you’ve always wanted to die.”

“…”

“Just to get some attention…”

Grinding his teeth, Derick barely spoke as he ran a hand over his face. It seemed he was at his limit.

“D*mn it…”

With a low curse, Derick suddenly vanished from where he stood.

‘Where did he go? He was right in front of me.’

As she hurriedly looked around, something pounced on her.

Thud-

“Kyaah!”

Knocked to the floor by the sudden impact, Elisia screamed and shut her eyes tightly.

But soon, feeling a warm sensation, Elisia opened her eyes.

At that moment, her gaze met Derick’s, who was now on top of her. His ruby-red eyes were fixed solely on her.

His firm thighs pressed down on both sides of her legs, and his arms, frighteningly powerful, trapped her beneath him.

His gaze became clouded again, as if once more dominated by madness. Yet, as if held back by something, he merely stared down at her.

“Why to this extent…”

Either he had forgotten to take his diluted poison, or he had developed immunity to it. One of these must be the cause.

“Haa, haa…”

Rough breathing flowed from Derick. He looked tormented, yet at the same time, as if yearning for something.