Rather Than The Son, I’ll Take The Father

“Did he aim for Regen because I was in the castle?”

Aedis’s eyes contorted.

“Eve, it’s not your fault.”

He saw into my heart.

The blue eyes were so cold that it was terrifying.

But knowing that it wasn’t anger towards me, instead of shrinking, I just became honest.

“I know. Just. I’m so angry.”

I put my twitching hand on the table.

The day I came back from a tour of the territory, I suddenly remembered Regen, who followed me and raised both hands on the table.

“……Aedis, why did it happen outside the castle? You said that you’re sure it’s that person’s work? I didn’t feel that kind of gaze in the castle, so I thought it was strange.”

“It’s my ‘base’. Just as he cannot exercise influence in Cyclamen Castle, I cannot enter the desert, his stronghold. There are such restrictions. That’s why we wait for him to approach Gilbert and Regen to retrieve them.”

The Red Desert is another desert within the desert.

To get there, you have to cross the continent.

It was shocking to see that he was holding Regen from such a distance.

How the hell am I supposed to get revenge on that bastard?

It was not easy to control my emotions. My eyebrows and eyes kept trembling.

There may be a possibility if I use all the blood of the beast I have at once, but…… it would be better to leave this as a last resort.

Hooo.

I sighed and exhaled again.

Aedis looked at me as I was trying to calm down and said.

“Eve, I have something to tell you.”

“……”

I opened my eyes to the fullest and set my gaze on Aedis.

My husband had a sculptural face. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Stay away from me until I deal with him.”

I cut off his words.

“Aedis, if you say that one more time, I’ll kiss you.”

Aedis pursed his lips.

I glared at Aedis very intently.

“I’m not getting a divorce. Don’t even die. Don’t do anything. I’d rather be locked up in a castle. I won’t become a burden.”

Soon, Aedis’s eyes softened.

“I didn’t mean to get a divorce. Of course I didn’t mean to stay in the castle. And if Wife is a burden, what would be the position of my first son, who is the real burden? Please withdraw your words.”

I don’t know what Gilbert’s position is.

I didn’t break the boundaries.

“Then where were you going to send me?”

Aedis smiled as he raised his lips beautifully.

“I was trying to teach you how to whistle. Shouldn’t there be a slave wherever you go?”

A slave.

“Paimon is my friend.”

Even though I forced Paimon to sign the contract without telling him the details, Paimon was my only spirit friend.

My husband, who knows as well as I do, made fun of me, saying that the terms in the contract were not to harm people.

“I’ve been thinking about it, but aren’t the words Wife and conscience the most distant in the world? It’s no fun for me to see Wife like that.”

“Hey. Why is the conversation going like this?”

Aedis grinned and returned to the subject.

“Are you really okay? I’m confident he won’t hurt Wife, but I’m not confident I won’t hate him. I am so sorry that I have the same blood as him.”

Aedis speaking with the title of ‘him’ felt unnatural.

“It’s okay. You are my husband, and if you give me a chance, I will drain all the blood in his body. By the way, there is something I want to ask you.”

“Please speak.”

A smile oozed out of Aedis’s voice.

“It may or may not be insignificant…… “

“Anything.”

Aedis nodded his head. He suddenly seemed to be in a good mood.

Hmm, I think Aedis’s comments sounded pretty good too.

I asked what bothered me.

“May I ask why you are calling him back? Do you have any other reason?”

If I had felt that it was simply because he didn’t want to call his brother’s name, I would have moved on.

However, Aedis was more calm than expected, calling him ‘he’.

Aedis replied with a glance that said ‘my wife is also sharp’.

“Yes. I’m not telling you on purpose. His name has a restriction. Just like mine.”

……Like what?

“It seems that the restriction imposed on mine did not work on Wife.”

Of course, I didn’t really understand what this meant.

“Did you have a restriction on your name? Why? How? Since when? Who placed it? Can’t you remove it?”

How many times have I called Aedis’s name so far?

……All I know is that there were too many to count.

“Eve, you have too many questions.”

“Did you put it on each other?”

“Not that.”

Aedis continued to laugh and my eyes turned into grumpy triangles.

Aedis seduced me with a voice that seemed to have been coated in sugar.

“Eve, would you like to come closer?”

……Th-this is.

It was a waste of time to answer, so I slipped onto Aedis’s lap.

“Thank you.”

As a married couple, I was a bit skeptical about whether I should be thanked for getting on his lap.

Aedis wrapped his arms around me to keep me from falling and continued explaining.

“Remember when I said that the experiment he had done on himself was a failure? Immediately after that, he was going to do an experiment. To get perfect immortality. He has a success story like myself, so I guess he thought it would be okay if he just got the materials again.”

“The material is……”

“Everything that makes up the magical beast, including the abilities.”

I felt my body stiffen, so his hand was placed on my back.

He gently rubbed my back.

“Relax, Eve. That was 500 years ago.”

“……”

“He headed to the north, where there were far more demons than now, and I pursued him. All I had to do was kill him. I didn’t even notice the corpses of the beasts around me or the rivers of blood.”

“……”

“But when I overtook him, I saw something.”

Aedis buried his head on my shoulder. I could feel his soft hair.

“The existence seemed to have misunderstood me and my brother as accomplices. It certainly seemed to have grasped our blood ties. However, I had no intention of explaining it, so I ignored it, and then suddenly we were caught together. Our names were restricted, and the places we used as our bases will not be able to be invaded.”

I leaned towards Aedis and listened to the story, then tilted my head.

“It must have been incredibly strong enough to still be effective?”

Aedis was the strongest in the background in〈Esmeralda’s Crescent〉, and his brother was tough.

But 500 years ago, there were more people?

Considering that the first Grand Duke Kalakis was also active around that time, it came to me that it was an unusual era infested with monster-like humans.

Aedis laughed softly.

“It was not human.”

I-it tickles. My ear…… Don’t laugh in my ears.

My face felt like it was going to get hot, so I leaned back a bit and asked.

“Really?”

“It wasn’t a beast. It wasn’t even a spirit.”

“……”

“But it seemed to fit all three descriptions.”

What was it?

Not a human, not a beast, not a spirit, but it was possible for it to put a ban on Aedis and his brother that won’t break even after 500 years?

I can’t get the feeling.

Even Aedis had a light tone, as if saying not to take it seriously.

“Maybe Paimon doesn’t even know. Even then, Paimon was in Eire Forest with the spirits under his command, so he must have picked up something.”

Lately, I have been missing Paimon a lot.

I resented my tongue for not being able to whistle, and remembered what Paimon had said.

-Why are you asking such a thing all of a sudden? Well, of course he came here. I need his help to completely break the seal.

– He?

-Yes, he. But I don’t think he is here now. I guess he went somewhere else.

Ahh.

Could it be that the ‘he’ who could unlock Paimon’s seal and the being Aedis spoke of are the same person?

There was a possibility as it was easy for Aedis to break the seal placed by the first Grand Duke.

– Who is he?

– Both a spirit and a beast…… No one knows his true identity.

Hmm, I guess that’s right.

But even then, I thought about it, but again, it was an explanation that didn’t help much.

“Have your questions been answered?”

Anyway, I nodded my head, realizing why Aedis didn’t call his name.

Also, I feel like I shouldn’t be curious about his name.

It was okay to call Aedis’s name, but there was no guarantee that I would be okay when his brother’s name was called. I don’t want to take that risk. Aedis looked at me as I rubbed my ear where his voice had reached.

“I have a question for you, too.”

“What?”

Somehow, I couldn’t help but prepare myself.

Aedis hasn’t asked me yet, because I drank the blood of a beast to save Regen.

But my husband, who was going somewhere I didn’t know, asked a completely different question from what I expected.

“If I give you a bribe, will the duration of staying in our own rooms be shortened a little?”

Uh…… A bribe?

Waiting for my answer, Aedis had a very serious expression.

More than when talking about his brother or talking about the restrictions.

“…It depends?”