IBTHM Chapter 19

After the girl who treated his wounds left the room, Abel still held his breath.

If he didn't hold it back, the grief felt like it would burst out of his mouth any second.

He forcibly bit down on his clenched fist. His teeth dug into his hand painfully, but he endured it.

"Ngh..."

Crying sounds leaked out through the gaps he couldn't quite block.

When he squeezed his eyes shut, the tears that flowed soaked the pillowcase thoroughly.

Abel had heard every single word of Aisha's murmuring as she stayed by his side for a long time after treating his wounds.

She'd cried for a while, and only when that crying finally stopped did her tear-broken voice become clear.

'Don't get used to loneliness. Don't accept it as natural that people hate you.'

'Abel, you...'

'You're the most lovable child in the world. I want you to be loved and happy.'

'I'm probably not enough... but still, I'll always love you. Even if you do something hateful, even if you say something mean, even if you hate me...'

'I'll definitely stay by your side. So...'

'Cry, laugh, shout, throw tantrums at me like a child. I wish you'd act a bit more like a naughty kid. Because...'

'I'd find that version of you lovable too.'

Abel had never once heard anyone say such things to him.

"Hic, sob..."

His father Hades always told Abel, 'You don't need to try harder,' but he'd never taken those words at face value.

He didn't want to be a blemish to his father, and he hoped his existence wouldn't be a burden to him...

So at some point, everything became natural.

The contemptuous looks sent his way, the cold pointing fingers, the disregard, the loneliness that came with growing isolation whenever he was alone—things like that.

It was hard, but he thought he could endure it reasonably well, that it didn't really matter.

But it had all been an illusion, Abel realized.

If that weren't the case, he wouldn't be shedding tears like this at Aisha's warm words.

He wouldn't be thinking that he wanted to get up right now and throw a tantrum while nestled in her embrace.

I'm really lonely.

And it's been hard.

Can you hold me?

He wouldn't be wanting to say things like that.

"Ah, ngh..."

His chest swelled with emotion. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

It just felt like the small lump deep inside his untouchable chest had been gently caressed by someone.

So precious.

So careful.

Abel kept turning over Aisha's voice in his mind—the voice that had cried while touching his wounds.

For a very long time.

Unable to sleep until the darkness outside turned dimly bright.

When the room had somehow brightened, he was surprised anew.

For some reason, that night—which had never once not been frightening—hadn't felt long at all.

Setting aside all his busy work, Hades had recently been frantically digging through old books.

He'd told Aisha not to worry because he'd protect her, but the fact that she couldn't hide her core stone was a serious problem.

While investigating whether there had been other Crescenta natives like Aisha who couldn't hide their core stones, Hades had no choice but to look into the Esclife family.

The Esclipes had been a family that had worked hard for generations to maintain white attributes.

Since children were unconditionally born with the dominant attribute between different attributes, the Esclipes—in order to maintain the white attribute, which was the most recessive of the six attributes—only accepted those with the same attribute as family members.

Why had they bothered to maintain a white attribute that had no viable magical power and was useless?

At first, he'd thought it was just for the family's symbolic significance, but upon further investigation, that wasn't it.

'This is practically superstition.'

About 500 years ago, along with the temple's establishment, the woman who was named the first saint was an Esclife ancestor.

At the time, her abilities were so remarkable that she was even praised as a celestial being—not only could she freely manipulate attribute abilities, but she also had miraculous prophetic abilities that allowed her to read world events large and small with uncanny accuracy.

The last words that saint left before dying were:

『I shall return as an Esclife saint and save the Empire from the brink of destruction.』

That was it.

'Are they primitive people or what? Why are they revering the ridiculous oracle of someone who died 500 years ago?'

Hades was dumbfounded.

Judging from the current situation, unless some natural disaster occurred that sank the entire continent, the Empire would remain intact for at least several more centuries.

Therefore, the time for the saint's return seemed unlikely to ever come, but the Esclife family had steadfastly believed in her oracle all along.

While investigating, he also discovered an absurd fact related to Aisha.

For some reason, Aisha, who had been hovering between life and death, had opened her eyes just before they closed the coffin lid, barely avoiding being buried alive.

After learning this fact, Hades couldn't speak for about ten minutes.

...Did the Esclipes not even have a physician?

They tried to bury her in the ground without even being certain whether the person was dead or alive?

If Aisha had regained consciousness after they'd closed the coffin lid, how horrifying would that have been?

He briefly wondered if all the Esclife territory residents were primitive tribes, then finally shook his head, recalling Aisha, who was no different from ordinary people.

'What a peculiar family, anyway.'

As a result, he'd found no useful information about Aisha's condition of being unable to hide her core stone, and was just nursing a headache.

The view outside the window was already turning hazy and bright.

When he closed his weary eyes and pressed firmly on his brow, all the accumulated fatigue hit him at once.

However, Hades wasn't allowed even a moment's peace.

As if she'd been waiting for daybreak, Agatha barged into his room at the crack of dawn.

She was extremely angry.

"You...!"

With a haggard face and dark circles as if she hadn't slept a wink, Agatha ground her teeth in frustration—and Hades was puzzled.

She'd rarely shown emotion like this, given how much she valued appearances.

"Where on earth—where did you bring such an ill-mannered wench from!"

Agatha immediately started shouting with a furious expression.

Hades thought for a moment before answering.

"Surely you're not referring to Aisha in such a manner?"

"Ha."

At his unusually familiar way of addressing her, Agatha let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.

She thought her brother had completely fallen for Aisha.

Otherwise, he couldn't treat her like this, not after what happened in the dining room the other day either.

How did it come to this?

Until he'd produced Abel, Hades had never given her any trouble over women.

He'd refused marriage even past marriageable age, but Agatha hadn't been particularly concerned.

Being a man, she'd understood his desire to meet many women in his youth.

Warming beds and parting ways in one-time relationships—that wasn't her business to interfere with...

She'd thought that after enough time passed, she'd install a suitable young lady from an appropriate powerful family by his side as the mistress who could properly manage Ruvermonte's household affairs.

But five years ago, Hades had brought home a bastard who'd dropped from the sky and shamelessly shared the Ruvermonte surname with him.

Blood with no roots, whose mother was unknown.

He should have just given her some gold and sent her away somewhere, but he'd made things complicated with misplaced responsibility.

When the bastard's existence became known—and Hades even declared he'd make that child his heir—Agatha had been so humiliated she couldn't bear it.

After all the effort to protect and build the Ruvermonte name...

Already struggling with plotting to expel the bastard, Agatha simply couldn't understand Hades's decision that added fuel to the fire.

That insolent face that revealed its true colors the moment they were alone in the room...

Agatha screamed like a madwoman, recalling Aisha's face.

"Throw that wench out immediately! Right now!"

"Are you insane? Get out."

"Do you know what that thing said when it came to my room yesterday?"

Agatha, who'd rushed over with a furious expression, slammed her palm down on Hades's desk.

"That old hag in the back room shouldn't meddle in Ruvermonte's affairs anymore. She said to keep my hands off the young master's education too."

"What?"

Hades, who'd been dismissively listening, thinking Agatha was just throwing another hysterical fit, was a bit surprised.

Aisha did?

"You think that's all? She threatened me, saying that when she gets the title of Duke's wife, I should be prepared—because I was rude in the dining room. Said she'd split open the soles of my feet. Ha, really..."

At Agatha's excited, rambling words, Hades's eyes narrowed.

"I clearly told you. That wench is definitely hiding sinister intentions. How can you not see it?"

"..."

"Beat her and throw her out immediately. I won't tolerate such a rude, stupid thing staying in my ducal castle for even one more day."

"Agatha."

For some reason, Hades's voice dropped so low it was chilling.

Agatha flinched for a moment.

Hades quietly looked at his sister.

He'd never thought from the beginning that Aisha would have visited Agatha and caused a scene for no reason.

There must have been some trigger.

And Hades, listening to Agatha's talk about the young master's education and something about feet, suddenly felt certain about a suspicion that had occurred to him.

During the time when he'd received heir education from his sister, the memory of being beaten on the soles of his feet so badly he couldn't even go outside and walk was still vivid to him as well.

Hades asked through gritted teeth.

"...Did you hit my son?"