IBTHM Chapter 35

My pathetic conscience and guilt immediately made me shake my head.

"That's a bit... Your Grace's reputation will hit rock bottom."

"That doesn't matter. I've thought about this problem a lot on my way here, and once the temple investigation is complete and whatever crimes are revealed, it will all be resolved. So let's do it that way."

"Even so, I feel too sorry to make Your Grace go that far..."

"Aisha."

Hades closed his eyes firmly and called to me.

"Now and in the future."

"..."

"You don't need to feel sorry or indebted to me. It's a choice I made for you myself."

For you.

...Those words somehow lodged clearly in my ear, and I couldn't say anything.

After looking at me for a moment, Hades continued speaking.

"I've already sent a reply to the temple saying to visit in four days, so I'll be busy until then. First, give me all the remaining medicine you have."

Hades stood up, picking up the medicine from the table, showing he had no intention of delaying the temple investigation for even a moment.

I immediately nodded and rummaged through my luggage, handing over all the medicine I had to Hades.

Clutching the medicine packets tightly, Hades asked:

"Normally, how much time would be left until your next dose?"

"I should have taken it this morning, but I've already skipped once. I'm not in pain yet, but..."

"Good. From this time forward, you must not leave this room. The changes that occur in your body when you stop the medicine mustn't be discovered by anyone."

"Ah, yes. I'll do that."

"Not just the Baron—you can't trust the maid or guard you brought from Esclife either."

At Hades's firm additional words, I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Even Ann?

I was about to protest that Ann wouldn't know anything, but I just closed my mouth.

Of course I'd been confident that I knew everything about this world, but I might be wrong.

Hadn't it been sufficiently proven that the temple, which I'd been able to trust unconditionally, had been making me take suspicious medicine?

Right now, the only ones I could trust were the male lead Abel—whose 'sincerity' I could know because that period was narrated in first person—and...

"You mustn't trust anyone."

The character who had built up a certain level of reliable trust by throwing away his life for Abel in the original work.

The male lead's father, Hades—that was all.

The next day.

A 'no entry order' personally issued by the Duke fell upon the guest room at Ruvermonte Ducal Castle where the Esclife Baron's daughter was staying.

Not only was the door locked, but ten guards from the ducal castle stood before it so that not even a mouse could approach.

The only ones who could enter that room were the ducal castle's servants who had received Hades's permission, and even they could only enter three times a day when bringing Aisha her meals.

Baron Esclife, who had gone to find his daughter's room to persuade her, learned of this absurd situation around the afternoon of the next day.

"By order of His Grace Duke Ruvermonte, no one without permission may enter the young lady's room."

The guard who coldly refused his request to open the door had not a single expression on his face.

The Baron was flabbergasted.

"Look here. I'm Aisha's father. I don't know why Aisha is confined here, but when a father wants to see his daughter's face, whose permission exactly do I need?"

"You absolutely cannot enter this room without His Grace the Duke's permission."

The guard kept repeating the same words.

The argument had already gone on for over twenty minutes.

The Baron felt his head spinning.

When he barely had time to persuade Aisha and take her back to Esclife, what was this situation...

Just as he was turning to leave, thinking he needed to meet Hades directly—

"Ah! Your Grace..."

Coincidentally, Hades was approaching Aisha's room from a distance.

The Baron hurried toward him and said:

"Your Grace, what on earth is going on?"

Unlike the flustered Baron, Hades tilted his head with a calm face and asked back:

"Why?"

"Why, you ask? What are those guards lined up in front of Aisha's room, and no entry allowed? I-I'm not trying to doubt Your Grace, but anyone can see that's confining my child..."

"That's right."

"What?!"

"I'm saying it's correct that I've confined the young lady in that room."

Answering calmly, Hades smiled faintly.

The Baron's body swayed greatly once.

"That, that's..."

"You won't approve the marriage, will you, Baron? You're planning to take the young lady back to Esclife."

"E-even if you're the Duke, you can't do this!"

The enraged Baron shouted with a reddened face.

Until that moment, Hades's smiling face hardened frighteningly.

"Look here, Baron."

"If anyone outside learns of this, do you realize how they'll think of Your Grace?"

"You must not know the situation here well, living so far away, Baron."

Hades took a step closer to the Baron and raised his hand.

The Baron flinched at the sudden action.

However, Hades merely grasped the Baron's disheveled collar and slowly straightened it.

To outward appearances, the gesture seemed quite affectionate.

Looking down at the Baron from above, Hades met his eyes, smiled faintly again, and said:

"I'm originally this kind of bastard."

The shocked Baron's expression crumbled.

"No, Your Grace..."

"If you want to see your beloved daughter again in this lifetime, there are two choices, Baron."

"..."

"Either provide a reason I can accept for opposing the marriage and then approve it. Or just approve the marriage."

It was absurd. Weren't both just telling him to approve the marriage?!

Ignoring the Baron's dumbfounded expression, Hades continued speaking.

"Personally, I'd prefer the former. I'm very curious about what makes me insufficient."

"Your Grace!"

"Baron."

Hades's face, which had been smiling as if amused, hardened frighteningly again.

Bending at the waist, Hades put his mouth to the Baron's ear and spoke in a small voice only he could hear.

"Even a country bumpkin wouldn't have lived his years for nothing, so you must have eyes to read the flow of things."

Gulp—in the quiet between them, the Baron's dry swallow was loud.

"Think carefully about who in this Empire you should fear."

Finishing his words, Hades straightened his back again and smiled as if nothing had happened.

The Baron stared at Hades blankly.

He both understood and didn't understand what was meant.

After Hades left with the medicine, I found myself unable to meet anyone, confined to my room.

I couldn't see Ann, who had attended to me constantly for 24 hours, or Hades, who must be investigating the temple, or even Abel, with whom I'd shared meals every day.

The ducal castle's maid who brought my meals that evening and three times today was everyone I'd met.

I casually asked if there had been any argument between Father and Hades over confining me, but received only the answer that the maid knew nothing.

It was frustrating, but for now I couldn't take a single step outside the room.

Since I'd stopped the medicine, I didn't know when the pain would come, and that state absolutely couldn't be discovered by anyone.

A full day had passed and dawn came again, but my mind was clear. I'd already slept so much during the day from having nothing to do that I was sick of it.

Dawn was deep but sleep wouldn't come, so my thoughts multiplied.

Was the title "Persona" really chosen for that reason?

No matter how I thought about it this way and that, no other answer came.

The author wouldn't have titled the novel that way out of boredom—there must be some meaning to it...

In a story about the kind and wonderful male lead Abel living diligently, experiencing various hardships, and finding love, what reason would there be to specifically attach the title "Persona"?

There had never been an episode in the work that made the novel's title understandable until the end, so my current suspicion was very reasonable.

Both the protagonist Abel and the readers following his life story—

Wasn't it an obvious hint in the title that they never reached the 'truth' even after the story ended?

Suddenly it's a thriller atmosphere!

I was shocked.

So the female lead was actually a deeply suspicious figure belonging to some dark mastermind, and the male ending was falling in love without knowing it until the end? Really?

The absurdity made my heart feel like it was tingling with an illusion.

"Huh?"

No...

It wasn't an illusion.

"Ah!"

Pain that I'd definitely felt once before began flaring up around my heart.

It was that unfamiliar agony, as if someone was mercilessly stabbing a red-hot needle into my heart.

"Ah! Ah!"

I'd known this pain would come sometime after stopping the medicine, and I'd resolved to endure it, but it was a level that was difficult to bear easily.

I immediately clutched my chest and lay flat on the bed, barely breathing.

"Huk, ugh... Uk. Ah..."

Crazy! It hurts!

It hurts so much!

Instinctively I thought of the medicine in my luggage, but I'd already given everything I had to Hades yesterday.

"Eohok. Eo..."

I knew it was pain that would eventually disappear completely if I endured it, but even so, the medicine felt desperately necessary—to the point where I felt like I might die if I didn't take it right now.

Only my hands, trembling as they clutched the bed sheets tightly, entered my vision.

"Huk! Eouk..."

Saliva I couldn't swallow flowed out of my mouth and tears leaked out. My vision spun round and round.

It hurt so much that I grabbed the pull cord by the bedside without thinking.

I knew I shouldn't show this state, but if someone didn't come right away, I felt like I would die.

Not long after, the sound of the door opening urgently rang out.

Without the strength to turn my head, I just lay on the bed gasping for breath.

"Aisha."

The owner of the voice I heard at my ear was Hades.

He immediately sat me up from my prone position and gripped my shoulders tightly so I wouldn't collapse.

"Your Grace... Keok! It, it hurts, keuk... so much. It hurts."

"Endure it. You have to bear it."

Hades spoke firmly.

"I, keuk, just, just if I'm not go-going to die anyway, medicine... if I, if I take it..."

"No. Endure it. Please."

Hades, who only told me to endure without reason, felt cruel.

The pain was so severe that right now I desperately wanted that damn medicine.

Whether I couldn't hide my core jewel for the rest of my life or whatever—to the point where if only I could make this pain disappear right now, it seemed better to just live taking that medicine.

"It hurts. Hok... So, so much. It hurts..."

In my barely opened eyes, Hades appeared blurry. He had an even more agonized expression than I did.

"Hok... It hurts. I said it hurts. It, huk, it hurts so much..."

That's when it happened. Hades, who had been silent, suddenly pulled my body into a rough embrace.

The inside of his arms was so hot it wouldn't have been strange to get burned.

The area around the heart, where chest met chest, was even more so.

In that moment.

The pain that had been tightly constricting my heart—as if it was moving somewhere else—

Subsided in an instant.