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Is the highlight of the banquet on the last day? (10) – unedited
The man did not make unreasonable requests such as asking me to stay since he already saw the Saint. Instead, he rummaged through his inner pocket and pulled out a pure white handkerchief and held it in my hand.
“Come see me when you have time. I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Yes, well. When the time comes.”
Waave!
The Saint finds the man and seems to wave her hand. The man approached her with quick steps. I ran full speed and left before the Saint’s gaze reached me.
I leaned back against the wall of the building and caught my breath when I heard the Saint’s voice.
“It’s a temple knight. In order to safely accompany me to the temple, he came all the way to Count Abitz’s mansion. Everyone please go back in and enjoy the rest of the banquet.”
I knew. That the masked man is not the temple knight.
I looked down at the pure white handkerchief in my hand. I noticed the gold leaf pattern of the Emperor was engraved in the center, and I felt my head spinning and dizzy.
“Today is an unlucky day.”
* * *
The Saint, riding in the carriage with the Emperor, had long since withdrawn the innocent smile of hers. Biting her lower lip, her eyes stared into the air as if in a different world of her own.
The Emperor took off his mask and stroked her cheek.
“Has anybody hurt your feelings?”
“There is. Not just anybody.”
The Emperor immediately recognized that it was the Demon King Kaylehartz. He didn’t know how they met at the banquet hall, but he didn’t even want to bother to know. This is because the Demon King was too far away for humans to understand. It was very funny that he felt jealous of the Demon King.
“What did he say?”
When the Emperor asked, everything that had happened in the banquet hall flashed through the Saint’s mind.
As soon as she first entered the Abitz hall, she saw Kayle and Erina. Kayle’s eyes were those of a sweet man who had fallen in love, and Erina’s eyes looked very comfortable, without fear of or respect for the Demon King.
She had never had eyes like that herself.
Bam! Her heart thumped. She lost control for a moment and had to endure a scream that almost came out.
As Erina escapes, the Saint leaves the nobles that were rushing to her, wanting to greet her even once, to approach Kayle. She has many eyes following her, so she made it look like she’s asking for something.
“Kayle. Why are you here?”
Kayle’s red eyes looked down at the Saint.
Flinch–
The first time she felt a strange murderous energy, she was sweating profusely. Why, why are you so angry? The Saint clenched her fists, pretending not to be frightened, and raised her chin.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes again.”
“… So how am I supposed to treat you?”
Kayle remembered the day Erina was shivering with fear and felt the blood rushing from his toes. He could barely stand his urge to strangle the Saint in front of him right away and throw her out of the window.
After forcefully recalling the memories of the Saint’s childhood following him as the ‘Demon King’ he faced Serdebella, who has become a mature lady now.
“There are many eyes seeing. Let’s move, Kayle.”
Kayle obeyed the Saint’s words, fearing that Erina would not be able to sleep at night because of her needless worries.
“Now, tell me. Why are you here?”
“Since when did the Demon King report his schedule to the Saint?”
“Kayle, I just don’t understand. Being with that woman, and dressing like this to entertain her!”
“There are degrees of being rude.”
“What?”
The Saint felt her head cold. She must have heard it wrong, so  she blinked several times. It was like the beginning of a terrible nightmare.
“If you want to complain , go to El.”
“… After killing my brother, are you going to abandon me too?”
“I didn’t even have you in the first place.”
The Saint forced the welling tears and swallowed them. She was tired of hearing words to push her away, even from years ago. She thought about it every time it happened.
‘If I become a little prettier, if I become beautiful enough to stand next to the Demon King.’
Because God has always been on her side, she has grown into a beauty that cannot be compared to any other human being, the Saint Serdebella. It was only a matter of time before even the heavenly deity, Eltrion, fell in love with the Saint.
However, the Demon King Kayle never saw her as a woman. Even though he is the person whom she wants to win his heart the most, he does not see her as anything more than an ‘object to be protected’.
Two years later, the cold, blade-like rejection she heard again breaks her heart and before the wound heals, it inflicts another wound.
“… Then what is that woman? Why are you next to her?”
“I have to protect her.”
Flash, she comes to her senses. A glimmer of hope bloomed amidst the frustrations. He said that it wasn’t love, but ‘protection’. That woman was just someone who was going through the same thing she did.
Yes, Kayle did anything for her when she first went to heaven. That woman will be the same too. And after a certain amount of time, she would be mercilessly abandoned.
It doesn’t matter what was the reason he was protecting her. All she had to do was be certain that the woman was going to be abandoned anyway. Then she will peel that woman’s skin off and throw her into a pit of fire.
The Saint’s expression became noticeably calmer. Her eyes, scorching with jealousy, subside, and the stiff muscles in her face relax languidly.
The Saint touched Kayle’s disheveled clothes. Her hand rested on Kayle’s body for a long time.