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My Male Lead is in the Process of Being Corrupted (5)
“Well then, feel free to speak comfortably. You who intoxicates me with your body movements, your hands gestures, and your very fragrance… what should I call you? I can tell by a glance that you are a young lady from a noble family, but are you married? Ah, that last question isn’t particularly important, so you don’t have to answer it.”
I had no intention of answering any of his questions, but even though I desperately avoided making eye contact with him, my mouth opened on its own.
“My name is Anastasia Sincla-… heup!”
Wh-wh-what the heck?
I hurriedly covered my mouth.
Holy crap. Avoiding his eyes doesn’t work?
It was dangerous to allow that man to ask me questions.
Thinking of gathering some information and then bolting, I quickly said, “Where did Kylis go?”
The man made a regretful expression.
“You were still thinking about that? I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with that great king, but he has left you here unattended despite being aware that he himself drew you to this place. He wouldn’t come to your rescue even if I threatened to take your life. Although I would never do such a thing.”
I noticed one thing. That man was intentionally avoiding using Kylis’ name.
At any rate, I was well aware of the fact that Kylis’ personality was worse than that of the horse he rode.
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
I frowned for a moment as I mulled over his words, not knowing what I should do.
“Really though, you aren’t going to hurt me?”
He just said that he would never threaten my life, right? But he did hypnotize me…
“Of course. I don’t go around senselessly killing others. And soon you will realize that I am a far kinder and better person than that great king.”
I ignored his assertion and asked another question.
“Why did Kylis come here?”
The man smiled, glancing at my injured foot with a strange look in his eyes.
“For the holy relics. But he was unsuccessful once again.”
As expected, Kylis was still searching for the missing part of his body.
“I thought Kylis couldn’t leave the forest.”
“In general, it is safer for us to keep ourselves to a single place.”
Something felt wrong about his use of the word ‘us’.
“What are you? Are you also something that’s not human?”
“Keep asking me questions. Because I am quite interested in you as well.”
His words reeked of dubious intentions.
Suddenly shifting positions, he leaned in towards me and I met his eyes without thinking. Fortunately he didn’t hypnotize me again.
I needed to act. It was now or never. I jumped up, ignoring the pain coming from the bottom of my foot.
“S-sorry for troubling you. I’ll be going now.”
The man remained seated and said, “You don’t even know where you are, but you plan on going back on your own?”
“I-I am sure I can manage it.”
I was lying, of course.
“It will be difficult to walk out of the mansion with that foot. You should thank me, you know. If I hadn’t removed the divine power from all of those holy relics, you wouldn’t be standing here. Of course I didn’t do it for you, as I was unaware of your existence at the time. I was trying to aggravate that great king as little as possible. But it benefitted you in the end, did it not?”
His words… sounded like he knew that it was dangerous for me to come in contact with divine power.
“… How much do you know about me?”
The man smiled with his eyes.
“If you act as my conversation partner for a while, I will help you out. What do you think?”
He hypnotized me without waiting for a reply. The pull towards him felt stronger than before, so it was possible that he had the ability to control its intensity. The instant I sat back down on the sofa, the unique hazy feeling of being under hypnosis disappeared.
Seemingly uncaring of whether I glared at him or not, the man retrieved the teapot from the fireplace. The teapot emerged mysteriously undamaged after having been tossed carelessly into the roaring fire. But stranger still, his gloves hadn’t been scorched by the flames at all.
The man poured tea into my teacup first. Feeling on edge, I was too tense to take a single sip. But that said, I was also a bit curious. I glanced down at the tea.
Hmmm. The color is surprisingly decent, but… No, I’m not drinking it! Ever!
I did my best to ignore my thirst. Truth be told, the inside of my mouth had been completely dry for a while.
The man sat down on the sofa after pouring tea into his own teacup and gazed intently at my face. Resting his chin on his hand, he became lost in thought. I had no idea how long he planned on staring at me like that.
“You are truly beautiful, Anastasia. You seem to be made of the moon and clouds and delicate, foamy bubbles. I have never seen a woman whose appearance is as enchanting as yours.”
He was excruciatingly repellent. Unable to stand any more of his nonsense, I slipped Kylis’ helmet over my head.
Hmmm… I like it! I should have done this earlier!
This way, that guy can’t see my face and I can’t drink tea.
“… Did that great king give you his helmet for that purpose?”
“I won’t say that he didn’t.”
He seemed incredulous, but I responded to his question with nonchalance.
My statement wasn’t entirely false. I took Kylis’ helmet after he told me to cover my face.
The man chuckled.
“You have an amusing personality, but unfortunately you don’t have much time left. You will barely make it through this winter season.”
Huh? What does he mean by ‘this winter season’?
“Shouldn’t I have more than a year left?”
“That was the case before you came in contact with divine power. In fact, it is a miracle that you have survived this long. By the looks of it, you seem to have lost some of your life to that great king. Am I correct?”
I felt a chill run down my spine. It seemed this man was needlessly astute when it came to things related to the unwholesome thoughts that filled his mind.
“H-how do you know that?”
He deftly changed the subject once more.
“Shall I help you?”
“No.”
I reflexively turned him down. The man looked a little disappointed.
“Are you refusing without even listening to what I have to say?”
“… What do you want in return?”
Wondering if I had been too harsh, I pretended to hear him out, but he immediately revealed his trashy character.
“Your body?”
Ahhhh! This man is really crazy! I hate him so much!
I rose to my feet with determination. He shrugged.
“There’s no need to act so surprised.”
Kylis is a million times better!
Running out of the room, I tore off the helmet and frantically vaulted down the stairs.
Sadly, my stamina wasn’t robust enough to overcome my desperate situation. And worse still, the weight of the helmet was becoming too much to bear.
“Ah seriously… huff… this… holding… where… hufff… should I throw it…”
I quickly ran out of breath. After barely making it down the stairs on my trembling legs, I was nearly crawling as I approached the largest door, which I assumed was the main entrance. Using my whole body to push, I somehow managed to open the door. But I didn’t step outside. I couldn’t bring myself to.
A-am I seeing things right? Why is there some sort of giant cliff…
“You must think rationally. I am currently the only one who can help you. It is disappointing to see you run away from me like this.”
I heard the man’s voice as I sank down, my legs having given out. He strolled towards me at a leisurely pace, clicking his tongue at the sight of the vague trail of red smudges on the floor. It was blood from the wound on my foot.
Furious, I hurled the helmet at him as hard as I could. But I wasn’t strong enough. It fell well short of him and rolled along the floor.
Ahhhh! I’m so mad!
“I don’t need your help! Do you think I came to this place to see you?!”
“That great king wouldn’t be bothered in the slightest even if you were to die. I will give you some of my life force. Then you and your beauty will be able to live on for a long time.”
“No thank you!”
I didn’t want any help from that sly, blackhearted man.
And just to be clear, I didn’t like Kylis that much in the first place, so I’m not upset at all!
Crouching down in front of me, he acted as though his feelings had been hurt.
“To think you would reject me despite how modest and respectful I have been.”
What the heck is he saying?
Not wanting to even look at him, I turned my head away, but his carefree laughter still found its way into my ears.
“All right. I will allow you some time to accept the reality of your situation. I will wait 10 minutes. If that great king doesn’t come to save you by then, you will be required to converse with me.”
“Just 10 minutes?!”
“Your stamina seems to have reached its limit.”
Ugh.
Of course we both knew that Kylis would never come, but I had no other option but to wait.
Damn it.
I gingerly picked up the helmet that I had thrown earlier.
Looking into its long eye holes, I shouted, “Hey Kylis! If you suddenly force a sleeping person to come all the way here, you need to take responsibility for them! I know you can hear me right now!”
I wasn’t happy about having to talk things over while a stranger was watching, but I had something I needed to say to Kylis.
This is so unfair!
“Kylis! You… this is beyond cowardly! If you didn’t sound exactly like Adele, I wouldn’t have followed you! You tricked me!”
I was about to start swearing at him, but the pain in my foot had grown unbearable. I bit my bottom lip.
Uggghhhh. My foot hurts so much…
With some reluctance, I examined the wound that I had been stubbornly ignoring.
A small amount of blood was still oozing out, likely because I had run down the stairs. The man, who had been staring intently at me, suddenly perked up.
“Adele?”
I was startled.
“Wh-what?”
“You said he sounds exactly like that great king?”
“… Why does it matter to you?” I replied, guard raised.
It had seemed like a dream to me, so there was a pretty good chance that I had misheard his voice or simply imagined it.
The man muttered indifferently, “ Well, it’s probably nothing.”
Time continued to pass. I glanced towards the main entrance, which was just an arm’s length away. The cliff outside would make it impossible for me to leave without someone’s help. I swallowed hard.
“Young lady who shines more brilliantly than the stars in the night sky, your time is up.”
He spewed out nonsense with a bright smile on his face.
“The only thing left is to have some fun with me.”
I can’t let myself be hypnotized again!
Trying not to look at the man, I unintentionally closed my eyes for a brief moment. Something grabbed my cheek and pulled it.
Huh?
When I opened my eyes the man’s face was right in front of my own. His expression was playful.
Releasing my cheek, he said, “Kidding. How could I be mean to you when you are this frightened? Your skin is perfect, by the way.”
“L-liar.”
“Anyway, touching you now might lead to trouble.”
I cocked my head to the side, not understanding what he was talking about.
The man tore a long, white piece of cloth from his clothes. Holding it in his hand, he muttered in a language I was unfamiliar with. Then he showed it to me as if asking me to look it over.
“I will use this to stop your wound from bleeding, but in order for it to be effective I will need to be the one to do it. Bear with me for a moment.”
I was unsure of whether I could trust him or not. Under my suspicious gaze, the man used the cloth to wrap my blood-stained foot. As soon as the cool cloth covered my wound, the pain mysteriously disappeared. He gave me a warning as I sprang to my feet.
“Consider this as a type of help as well. Your wound has not actually been healed, so be careful.”