IBTHM Chapter 40

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

"Stob da bleedib." (Stop the bleeding.)

"No, this woman, seriously..."

Flustered as he was, Hades didn't actually pull his hand away from my grasp.

When I licked the wound with my tongue, the blood that had been flowing quite freely began to slowly stop.

Between us—silent as death—the only sound was me lapping at his injury.

Hades remained caught in my grip like that for quite some time, eyes rolling around in utter bewilderment.

When I released the finger I'd been holding to check if the bleeding had stopped, he immediately yanked his hand back as if he'd been waiting for exactly that moment.

"No, seriously, what was that?"

"Folk remedy, Your Grace."

"Folk... Ha! Does everyone in Esclife lick wounds with their tongues? Are all your territory's people just some kind of primitive tribe or something?"

"You clearly don't understand. Saliva has antibacterial properties, making it quite effective for wounds. And I brushed my teeth, so don't worry."

"Who's worried about... Haa..."

Hades turned his head sharply away, his face flushed as red as his eyes.

He muttered something about stopping, about keeping quiet, but that resolution lasted less than a minute before he was yelling at me again.

"Don't do that kind of thing anywhere else! Got it...?"

"If I could just use my ability, I wouldn't want to do it either."

At my sullen response, Hades—who'd been fuming—paused mid-breath.

He let out a long sigh. "There's absolutely no rush, so I don't know why you're acting like someone being chased. Even if you could never use your ability again, it wouldn't matter to me at all. So stop being so anxious."

That's easy for you to say when you don't know you're destined to die.

Imagining Abel's Father's future—suffering in tremendous pain instead of Abel, then suddenly gone in an instant—I couldn't help sinking into gloom again.

To save Hades, I needed to master using the core stone as quickly as possible.

'But how exactly do I do it?'

Hiding the stone and using the ability seemed to be slightly different things...

I considered myself reasonably good at learning, but I couldn't grasp how to activate the ability at all.

Absorption.

If I could just learn to use the absorption ability...

In less than a year's time, could I really master this power?

I was losing confidence.

"Your Grace."

"What."

"Stay healthy."

"Haa..."

Whether he'd picked up on my worry for him, Hades narrowed his brow and rubbed his forehead briefly.

"I'm perfectly healthy."

"You never know what might happen to a person."

Abel would go berserk. That was something even I, who knew the novel's plot, couldn't do anything about.

Abel hadn't awakened his ability yet, but that awakening would inevitably be accompanied by a damned rampage.

The reason, though I'm explaining it a bit late...

'Our incredible Abel.'

It was because of Abel's attribute.

He took after Hades perfectly, but he wasn't fire attribute, or water, earth, wind, light, or dark attribute either.

A fact that right now, no one but Hades, me, and Abel knew.

He was a holder of the void attribute—treated almost like a legend within the story.

The void attribute was like an empty vessel that could contain anything, which meant there were no restrictions on ability awakening.

Abel Ruvermonte.

The one the author had piled with incredible settings and protagonist buffs could wield all four basic attributes except light and dark—the only ability user who could do so, and the strongest in the entire world.

'With something that amazing, there had to be a handicap.'

The author wasn't the type to hand out buffs without plausibility.

In exchange for manifesting all four attributes, Abel had to periodically endure rampages caused by those powers clashing within him.

One year from now.

The day Abel's ability awakened for the first time.

That would be the day Abel went berserk for the first time in his life, and simultaneously, the day Hades would die in his place.

"Ah, this is really driving me crazy."

A sigh escaped from my frustrated heart.

No one could help Abel on that day.

Basically, without the light attribute's first awakening ability of "cancellation," there was no way to eliminate Abel's internal injuries and mental collapse. Even then, it had to be a light attribute imperial citizen with enough magical power to withstand the magic he'd emit during his rampage.

Meaning I couldn't ask the current temple priests with their mediocre magical reserves—except for Deborah.

'It has to be me.'

Suspected of possessing unexpected magical power, a light attribute ability user, and I'd opened my eyes here right after dying. Plus, in my previous life, I'd been an enthusiastic Abel fan.

Somehow it felt like my becoming Aisha Esclife wasn't entirely coincidental, and I couldn't help developing an internal compulsion.

A compulsion that I had to do something for Abel, somehow.

"I miss the young master. When is he coming?"

When I suddenly asked, Hades shrugged.

"Who knows."

As soon as Hades had arrived in my room, he'd told me Abel wanted to see me and that he'd given permission for him to visit briefly after lunch.

In the midst of my gloom, nothing would make me happier than seeing Abel's face.

For some reason, lunch had long passed but the door showed no signs of opening. I was staring at it intently when—

Knock knock.

As if by magic, I heard knocking.

"Gasp!"

I leapt up excitedly and shouted.

"Young master!"

At my welcoming voice, the door creaked open and Abel poked his head through.

Oh, this couldn't be...

Abel seemed to have become ten times more handsome in the time I hadn't seen him.

He'd just been cute before, but growing differently day by day, Hades's handsome face was becoming more visible in him...

"Hup."

Covering my mouth, deeply moved, I ran to Abel in one breath.

It had only been two days since I'd seen Abel's face, but it felt like two years.

Abel grinned broadly at me, who'd come running in sheer happiness.

"I missed you, Young Lady."

"You said you'd come right after lunch, so why are you this late? I waited so long...!"

Abel startled, making an apologetic face.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Did you wait long? I couldn't come see you right after eating. I had to brush my teeth..."

Ah. Our ever-mannered Abel.

These shameless hands of mine are trying to get all grabby again.

"Did you go brush-brush?"

"Yes, brush-brush. And..."

Abel, who'd knelt down to match my eye level, held out something he'd been hiding behind his back.

Hm?

It was a bouquet of flowers. Looked like he'd picked them from the greenhouse garden.

"Wh-what? Young master."

"Hehe..."

"This, ohhh... D-don't tell me you made this to give to me again? You went to the garden after eating?"

"Yes! Because you like flowers, Young Lady."

Abel said with a shy smile.

Have you ever experienced your eyes getting misty from being too moved? That's me right now.

"You don't have to get me things like this, snff, like this..."

As I floundered, not knowing what to do with myself from being so touched, Abel quickly pushed the bouquet closer into my arms as if telling me to take it already.

Behind the prettily color-coordinated bouquet, I could see Abel's face with flushed cheeks.

Ah...

How many baptisms of adorableness is this now?

The Jerusalem believers who met the Messiah resurrected after three days among the dead probably felt less moved than I do right now. This is certain.

There will never be another devoted fan like me.

"Thank yo- hm, thank you. Young master. Really... it's really so pretty."

"No. You're prettier, Young Lady."

What is this?!

'No, Abel... Please... My heart won't survive this.'

You're a mere ten years old. How can you already be picking up points that make readers' hearts flutter with such ghostly precision?

The Abel I knew had that lovable, tongue-tied charm where even after meeting the female lead Deborah, he was too shy to properly say a word to her, but this is good too.

Actually, either way, Abel would be lovable.

Because he's Abel.

"Really, so..."

I was briefly pondering how to express this emotion in words when Abel's small hand suddenly entered my vision.

"Young master?!"

Wedging the bouquet between my knees and chest, I grabbed Abel's hand with a startled face.

A droplet of blood had hardened on the tip of his right index finger.

"What is this?!"

"Ah..."

Abel smiled awkwardly. "I found a newly planted flower in the garden, but I didn't know it had thorns. While picking it..."

"Ah! What happened! How upsetting!"

Of all things, he'd gotten hurt picking flowers for me.

As someone who didn't actually like flowers that much, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the guilt washing over me.

"Then, then you should have gotten it treated first before coming. What is this. Good heavens. It looks like the thorn went in pretty deep? This needs to be..."

That was the moment.

From where I touched Abel's cute-as-a-button fist, a slightly unfamiliar sensation traveled up through my hand.

After feeling the strange sensation of sucking something in, I had the illusion of something crumbling away from my left wrist where the core stone was embedded.

Wait?

No.

It wasn't an illusion after all.

An exclamation burst from Abel's mouth as he blinked his surprised eyes several times.

"Wow!"

Abel's right index finger—which had been swollen from the embedded thorn and covered with dried blood—was now completely healed as if it had never happened.

'Eureka!'

I got it!

I figured it out!

"Young Lady!"

"Good heavens!"

Abel and I looked at each other and simultaneously let out exclamations full of emotion.

Abel jumped up and down with a face as excited as mine.

"H-how did you do that? You just used the core stone's ability, right? Then does that mean you succeeded in hiding it now? Right?"

"Yes, yes! Actually, I succeeded in hiding it early this morning!"

"Wow! Thank goodness! Really, wow, really thank goodness."

Abel seemed happier about me succeeding in hiding the core stone—which I'd been anxiously keeping outside my body—than about me using my ability.

This absolute angel.

Really, I felt like tears might come. Wiping my nose, I turned to Hades.

"Your Grace! I..."

I'd turned to him to share this moving moment, but for some reason, Hades didn't look happy at all.

Or rather, it wasn't that he wasn't happy, but more like... an expression where I couldn't tell what he was thinking?

'What's with him.'

But I soon understood why.

Blinking slowly a few times, he raised his right hand and looked down at it.

"Ah."

Unlike Abel's, there was still an injured hand.