IBTHM Chapter 38

Aisha sat demurely, saying "Stay and sleep here," and there wasn't a hint of impure intent in her expression, but...

Hades's gaze suddenly caught on Aisha's attire.

The light chemise dress she always wore to bed.

There wasn't anything particularly revealing about it, nothing that should have made him unable to look, yet Hades flushed anyway, his cheeks warming with embarrassment he couldn't quite justify.

He had rushed over without thinking because he'd been worried about her pain, but even so—the image of himself embracing her and rolling around in a noble lady's bedroom was, belatedly, somewhat mortifying.

"What are you being so prudish about..."

"Prudish? You're the one who scolded me before, saying 'we'll be married soon, why act like strangers?'"

"That, that was then."

"Please stay and sleep. Should I sing you a lullaby?"

"What are you even saying?"

Aisha was persistent. She grabbed firmly onto the arm of Hades, who looked ready to leave at any moment, and thwacked the bed repeatedly.

The spot where Aisha's hand touched his arm suddenly felt hot as if burned, and Hades flinched in surprise.

It was still before dawn, the view outside the window hazy and dim, and they were alone in the room. On the bed, no less.

The heat rising from his arm and spreading through his entire body made Hades take a quiet, deep breath to calm himself.

Come to think of it, maintaining his sanity while holding Aisha on this very bed for six hours was rather miraculous.

She'd been in so much pain that there'd been no room for other thoughts, thank goodness.

But now that she was perfectly fine, if they were to lie side by side on this bed, Hades couldn't guarantee what might happen—even to himself.

He spoke firmly.

"I'm going to sleep in my own room."

"Aww, don't be like that."

Hades hastily peeled off Aisha, who had grabbed his collar and was clinging to him outright.

"Why is this woman acting like this?!"

He understood her feelings, not wanting to be apart for even a moment!

"Stop it, just stop!"

It was for her sake, ultimately.

Hades forced down the corners of his mouth, which kept trying to creep upward, and rose with feigned coldness.

"Your Grace!"

"Really..."

Only after turning away did the smile he'd been suppressing leak out.

His entire face smiled with every muscle, looking for all the world like someone deliriously happy, as Hades left Aisha's room.

That's when he encountered the flustered faces standing guard outside her door.

"Ah."

A small exclamation burst from Hades's lips.

Baron Esclife was waiting in front of Aisha's room.

Whether he'd come to see Aisha again from this early hour or had been insisting on entering the room, it seemed he'd been making a fuss. Guards stood firmly on either side, gripping his arms.

Having emerged from inside Aisha's room, Hades found himself face to face with the Baron and couldn't help feeling slightly flustered.

As the Baron's resentment-filled eyes stared at him fixedly, his gaze naturally fell to his own appearance.

He'd come out without straightening his clothing, everything disheveled, and because Aisha had just grabbed him, his shirt collar had slipped down, exposing his neck shamelessly.

Moreover, like someone who'd just finished something vigorous, his hair was drenched with cold sweat...

Hades admitted it inwardly. This was a situation that couldn't help but be misunderstood.

He tried to make some excuse, but the Baron was faster.

The Baron turned on his heel with his jaw clenched and trembling, and left.

"Ah..."

Hades's hand, reflexively reaching out to stop the Baron, fell helplessly.

If he put himself in the Baron's shoes, this was truly a lamentable situation.

To think there was a scoundrel confining his beloved, carefully raised daughter in her room and doing all sorts of wicked things as he pleased. And with such high status that no one could even reproach him.

"Haah..."

While he fully understood the Baron's frustrated heart, he had no words of excuse for the moment.

A long sigh escaped past Hades's lips.

After that arduous dawn—painful for both me and Hades—day broke.

I'd stopped taking the medicine and succeeded in hiding my core jewel, but the confinement order Hades had imposed remained in effect.

I was holed up in my room, frantically reading the core jewel-related texts Hades had brought me while organizing what I knew about this world's settings.

The ancient text written by an Earth-attribute Grand Mage contained detailed information about core jewels and awakening their abilities. It matched exactly with the novel's settings I knew.

How did he manage to pick out and bring me exactly the book I needed?

As expected of our accomplished Duke, whose only flaw is his excessive self-consciousness.

'Less than a year left. By then, no matter what.'

I would absolutely demonstrate the white attribute ability I possessed.

I had to...

"You're studying quite diligently."

As if he knew I was thinking about him, Hades spoke from across the table in a satisfied voice.

He'd brought the mountain of documents from his office to my room instead, reading them here.

He'd said something about his office being hot or whatever, but I could easily tell he was worried I'd be lonely holed up in my room alone.

"So sweet..."

"What?"

I propped my chin on my hand and observed Hades quietly.

I was newly amazed.

Handsome, strong, highly capable, overflowing with power, rich... At this level, you'd expect at least his personality to be off, but even that wasn't the case.

Admittedly, his narcissism was more severe than most people's, but seeing it now, it wasn't incomprehensible.

If I were that perfect, I'd probably suffer from self-consciousness overload too.

As I continued gazing at Hades with fond eyes, he tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

'Should I make merchandise with Abel's and His Grace's faces on it?'

It was a thought that suddenly occurred while looking at Hades's flawlessly perfect beauty, but it seemed like quite a good plan.

Instead of my poor skills, if I hired professionals to create handkerchiefs embroidered with Hades's and Abel's faces and sold them, I could make money and recruit fans—killing two birds with one stone.

After all, fandom's value and sense of achievement multiply when there are many people sharing it.

'I'll be busy!'

There was much to do.

I had to be faithful to my fangirling, and I couldn't slack on core jewel training to prevent the disaster a year from now.

Following my example as I opened the book again, Hades also returned his gaze to his documents.

What he was looking at—though called documents—were actually confidential papers difficult to obtain casually.

I'd sneaked a peek, and they were related to the temple, and the saint from our family who apparently existed 500 years ago, things like that.

'The saint...'

Aside from the fact that our family had maintained the white attribute in accordance with the prophecy of the saint's return, there was no information I knew about the saint.

Even in the novel, the story of this woman who'd been revered as a saint 500 years ago and was apparently quite famous hadn't been described in a single line.

That too was truly suspicious.

She seemed like a fairly important figure, yet the book didn't mention her separately.

As I was wondering about this, Hades asked.

"Aisha."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"About Saint Abella Esclife, who was your ancestor—have you heard any particular stories from the Baron?"

Hades's eyes were sharp as he asked the question.

I shook my head.

"Just that our family has been maintaining the white attribute because of the prophecy that she would return to our bloodline. Other than that, I don't know anything either. Was she such a great person?"

"It seems so. I didn't know much either, but she was the only woman recorded in the history books. The one who fully awakened the white attribute ability."

"Ah..."

That did sound fairly impressive to me, knowing the novel's core jewel settings well.

The author of Persona deserved the nickname "setting enthusiast" that fans had given them, having devoted considerable effort to the worldview in the book and the core jewel settings of the Crescenta Empire citizens who formed the story's backdrop.

Basically, Empire citizens with red core jewels had fire attributes and controlled flames, those with blue core jewels had water attributes and controlled water, and so on...

But looking more closely, there were levels to using those abilities.

Simply put, even among fire attribute Empire citizens, there were people who couldn't use their abilities worth a damn, and then there were people like the great Duke Ruvermonte.

Core jewel ability manifestation had stages: 1st Awakening, 2nd Awakening, and the final 3rd Awakening. Which stage you awakened to depended on the individual's magic power level.

In other words, the stronger your magic power, the greater the potential for final awakening.

Of course, Duke Ruvermonte, who was apparently perfect from birth, was an ability user who'd long since completed his core jewel's final awakening.

"This is my speculation, Aisha."

"Yes."

"The reason the temple suppressed your magic power from manifesting... I think it's probably related to the prophecy of the saint's return."

"In what way?"

"Usually you gauge magic power levels by seeing how far someone can awaken their ability, but even just from the pain you experienced when you stopped taking the suppressant, I could roughly sense how much magic power you have."

"And how was it?"

"You were in enough pain to die, so you should know."

Hades raised an eyebrow as he spoke.

He'd mentioned it in passing once before, but Hades seemed to think the level of magic power I possessed was tremendous.