Chapter 41 - Happy Birthday, Lotty!

I just hardened.

Kian, a Holy spirit, who I have known by that name so far. The disaster governing the monsters of this world is smiling softly at me.

How great would it have been if this moment was a nightmare?

As I wasn't receiving an apology that was pushed right in front of me, he turned his head obliquely.

"Didn't you like this?"

I suddenly remembered when he dropped a few apples from the apple tree when we met for the second time.

And I guess he thought I liked apples because of what happened then.

No, more than that. Why did you suddenly come to me?

"I guess I should have brought something else. If there's something you like, won't you tell me more? I don't know what human children will like. But····."

Kian laughed, dropping the apple he was holding in his hand as if rolling it on the floor.

"I'm glad to meet my little friend after a long time, but you don't seem to be glad at all."

"···········"

"I don't think you're happy to see me based on your expression."

Would I be happy?

What happened that day remained a complete trauma to me, and so did Kian's existence. There will never be another day in my life when I won't feel so afraid of the air of dawn.

"I ran here with joy because you thought of me after a long time. I'm a little disappointed."

"·······I, I thought of… Kian… I did."

In fact, I have thought of him a few times so far.

But if you think, "I didn't think about Kian, I thought about crown prince," it went well, but what brought you here today?

I was flustered. I already felt my hands getting cold.

"Rossette, should I not have come even though I knew my young friend was so sad because of me?"

As if I didn't understand, Kian smiled with the face of a beautiful and elegant boy and tilted his head on the railing.

"I was worried. I think you've been afraid of me all along. So I tried not to come, but your sadness felt too deep to just stay still."

So he came to soothe me, said Kian, whispering affectionately.

The group of lights floating in the night sky disappeared.

The feeling of the summer night's wind scratching the spine was quite cool. The light pink scent of the undarkened summer rose flew in the lukewarm night air.

In the dark clouds and moon shadows soaked in dark blue night colors like flooding waves, all the starlight in the sky was swallowed.

Starting from the balcony, the entire hallway behind my back was filled with darkness.

At some point, the air became so heavy that it was hard to breathe.

This night is when the disaster came.

The nightmare boy on the midsummer night is smiling.

"The time I didn't meet you was longer than the time I met you, and I was slowly trying to be good to you."

But it was you who looked for me first, I didn't intend to hear him out.

After being conscious of him for a while, I decided to run away because I saw a gap, and slowly began to step back.

There are still servants downstairs. Henriette is also a very light sleeper, so if I scream, he will come right away.

By the way,

"Can you please not make me do something I don't even want to do?"

It was the moment when Kian brought it up.

I stopped when I found strange things stepping into the garden under the railing on the balcony.

The creation of the garden, flower fields, tea tables, and beyond that, the main gate.

The glaring eyes through the night are lurking.

"This castle is now surrounded by monsters. Everyone in the castle is in deep sleep except for you. No matter how loud the noise is, no matter how much they eat their limbs, they won't be able to wake up."

Kian's eyes, smiling quietly in the dark, shined red.

"So don't run away."

I sincerely wanted to cry.

"….uh, how…"

"Didn't you guys call me the king of the Holy Spirit? As you said, it's not difficult to make things move even if I don't order them."

With that said, Kian gently lowered on the railing.

"I didn't want to scare you this much, Rossette."

"F, from me, what do you want?"

"I just want to have a conversation. Just the two of us, without being disturbed."

Immediately after what happened at dawn that day, Henriette went to the Tower of the Guardians and even strengthened his protection by offering prayers to the "woman with silver eyes."

Since then, the boundary of our castle has become much stronger. To the extent that it is no longer penetrated by the protection of others.

The security accumulated like that is now too easily breached.

Solely because of the king of that holy spirit.

One reason why he broke through the security of our castle now and had the monsters surround it.

"I've been wanting to meet you a lot."

A being called a living disaster continued to speak.

"And I also thought about how you can talk to me safely without being afraid of me."

You already failed that.

If he lets me run away, I think it will be less scary than now.

"First of all, how have you been?"

And it was scarier for him to ask as if he were a normal human being as he is now.

But I couldn't even bring it up. Because it's scary.

"Something bad happened? Either something sad happened, or······. Or, did you get hurt again?"

My gaze was still touching the glaring eyes over the balcony.

If I don't respond to his conversation here, our lives will be in danger.

"······· None, none. It was okay."

I answered slowly. Only then did Kian laugh happily.

"...knowing that I think of K, Kian, that's why you came. T, there, Kian, where are you from?"

"Oh, all the things that belong to darkness are my territory. Isn't it night just in time? So it's easy to bring those things like my authority through the darkness,"

Kian smiled with his eyes.

Apart from the situation, he has a really creepy pretty face whenever I see him.

"Have you been happy staying here?"

"Of course, I'm… happy. K, Kian, what are you going to do with me?"

"The distance between me and you is wide enough now. But you must not be very relieved."

Instead of answering, he asks the obvious.

I closed my mouth tightly and took a step back. Kian didn't stop me.

However, he smiled coldly with that pretty face.

"Instead of tying you in my territory and making you go nowhere, destroying this territory, or… killing all your family members to do something that you're afraid of, aren't I acting so well?"

Kian took a step closer with his pale hands sticking out toward me in a theatrical manner.

"Why are you afraid?"

I took another step back, startled.

Then Kian came two steps closer this time.

When I stopped in panic, he stopped, too.

Kian squinted and smiled openly. He has a cold smile on his face.

"It won't actually happen. I don't accept it. Rossette, I'm your friend, and I still have as much power to protect the young Rossette. Just like that day."

Let's be calm.

Isn't there a saying that even if you go into the monster's mouth, you live as soon as you wake up?

I slowly ruminate over his words.

As I said before, does Kian really want to be purely friends with me?

Well, if he was going to eat me, he would have done it earlier.

Even if a kid like me resists, it won't even bother an adult man who tears and kills with his bare hands.

However, there is a fact that does not change here.

That he is dangerous.

"No one will ever put you, protected by the king of the Holy Spirit, in danger again. I'm just looking out for you, that's all."

Kian spoke in a very soft tone as if he were trying to soothe me.

"Of course, only if you want to, Rossette."

From the balcony to the spine on my back, the darkness in the hallway began with the shadow under Kian's feet.

Once again, I thought while swallowing my dry saliva.

Let's really, really calm down…

I'm the only one who can protect the people of our castle.

"Do you really think of me as a friend? Kian is a holy spirit. You eat people. I'm, I'm a person. I'm not a monster."

"Of course, Rossette is a human being. Couldn't you think or talk, or make eye contact with me? You know how to make me interested."

Interest.

Yeah, that's it.

He didn't really think of me as a friend. It would have been just interest.

For sexual marriages, the criteria for being friends cannot be completely the same as humans.

"...making me wait and anxious."

Kian finally pulled out his hands that seemed to be reaching out.

"However, will you not test my patience anymore? I've already been waiting for this moment for a long enough time."

A fragrant smell was mixed through the air.

It was the scent of summer roses blooming in the garden and the scent of apples dropped by Kian.

When Kian stepped on the apple and broke it, the scent deepened.

"I can devote this patience to my lovely little friend, but I don't know if I'll let go of this boredom in the meantime."

The darkness outside shook.

Under the darkness of the night, the shadow under your feet, and the shadow of the dark clouds, all the dark things are gradually fluctuating under the shade of starlight and moonlight.

I'm still scared of him. But now I know well what I have to do.

"Do you want to continue to be friends with me?"

"Of course, right?"

"Then, p, promise me."

I could see Kian's expression brightening little by little.

I took a big breath.

"Oh, don't hurt anyone. M, my family, my maids, a, and knights. Ghosts and me. We shouldn't hurt each other."

In the end, I couldn't stand fear in the child's mind, so I began to cry little by little.

The reason for the smile on Kian's face was great.

I didn't want to cry, but tears kept dripping down my cheeks.

"T, then, I'm not going anywhere, I'm not going, *sob, K, Kian, continuously, I'll be your friend."

Hey, I want to talk more properly, but I can't stop crying, it's annoying…

I was annoyed and cried more.

Kian stared at me, and suddenly approached me.

There was no time to back down. He gently wrapped his hands around my face, tilted my head at an angle, and hugged me.

Then he started patting my back.

"G, go away Kian."

he said quietly and pushed him away slightly, and Kian unexpectedly put me down and gently stepped back to the distance.

"I didn't mean to make you cry…"

He opened his mouth after taking a moment.

"Rossette is more scared than I thought,"

Said Kian and laughed. At that moment, I was furious, so I stopped wiping away my tears and spit out almost impulsively.

"Kian! i, it's scary!"

"… Are you scared?"

You're not asking because you don't know, are you?

"I'm scared."

"What can I do for you to not be scared?"

The ending I had written suddenly came to mind.

But, the end of this world hasn't happened yet.

And what is in front of me now is the disaster that leads to all of that.

Maybe, I thought I could change all of those things.

"…with me, deal with me."