It was a beautiful day.

The sun was not as hot as he thought it would be, and the breeze was cool.

The entrance exam scheduled for today had passed without incident, as usual.

At the same time, he was in need of someone to help him with his chores, and Rhode contacted him to say that he would like to work with him sometime next week.

It was an uneventful day, to say the least.

This made him feel even more down and out. Not to mention the feeling of depression taking over.

Liel stopped walking and looked up at the sky. As if on cue, a stabbing pain shot through his ankle.

He wasn’t sure if it was the sunlight dazzling his eyes or the pain he felt.

Or both.

He lifted his head and frowned at the same time.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Liel lowered his head and looked straight ahead.

“You look like a sunflower right now.”

A short distance away, Lucy was approaching him, a smile warmer than the sun.

Curiously, Liel turned to her and took a step back.

“What are you doing, do you have a minute?”

Lucy’s pleasant voice made him glance back at the training grounds behind him.

“Why is it so hard to see your face when we work in the same place?”

But Liel’s gaze remained fixed on her.

“Huh?”

He was speechless.

He just stared at Lucy as she asked again.

Lucy’s face was as cheerful as ever, as if she knew what he wanted and refused.

But this was little comfort to Liel.

“I heard you have been in talks of marriage.”

He was pretty blunt, considering his hesitation. He felt his head grow cold as he rattled off his words.

“Huh? Uh…….”

Lucy replied, stopping in her tracks as she walked excitedly toward Liel.

The look on Liel’s face at this close range was enough to stop her in her tracks.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Despite the fact that it was nothing to be angry about, Liel lashed out at Lucy as if she had done something terribly wrong.

But up until this point, she hadn’t even realized he was in a bad mood.

“I was going to say no anyway……? And you’ve been busy lately, and I’ve been busy as well.”

At her reply that she’d been too busy to let him know, Liel narrowed his eyes.

Sensing something was amiss, Lucy spoke up.

“What have you been up to……. earlier, anyway?”

“So—-”

Liel cut Lucy off, shooting her a fierce glare.

“Is that why you rejected me?”

Lucy, who had only been blinking dazedly, slowly hardened her expression as she grasped the situation.

* * *

Call it moodiness, but the sunny weather didn’t seem to care about Liel’s mood.

The weather was still nice, and the center of his world today was Lucy.

It had been so natural, so imprinted on him since he first saw her as a child.

“Was I, after all, someone you were going to reject anyway?”

There was an edge to his voice.

A butterfly fluttered between Liel and Lucy. But neither of them gave the yellow butterfly a second glance.

“So should I have said yes under the circumstances?”

Should she have nodded in agreement when the duchess mentioned Liel as an illegitimate child and said she wouldn’t be embarrassed by it?

Should she have said yes to the woman who offered her marriage without asking her wishes?

A million words raced through her head, but none of them came out of her mouth. No, she couldn’t.

“Why didn’t you?”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you just do it?”

The look on Liel’s face as he said it was hollow. It was as if he had given up on something important.

Lucy didn’t like everything about him right now, from the casual way he said it to the look on his face.

Talking about himself casually was one of Liel’s bad habits that Lucy hated.

“Are you serious?”

To Liel’s ears, it sounded like she was asking him if he’d lost her mind.

“Yes.”

Even so, his answer was predetermined. Without blinking, Liel stared at the corners of Lucy’s mouth as they twitched.

A moment later, Lucy’s white front teeth bit her lower lip.

By now, her face had turned pale. Liel, still staring at her reddening bottom lip, spoke up.

“Dailor.”

“……?”

Suddenly, at the mention of a familiar name, Lucy’s eyes widened. Her expression was as if asking why that person’s name came out of his mouth.

Liel burst out laughing.

“Why did you call him to the mansion?”

If it was the usual Liel, if Lucy wasn’t the protagonist of this conversation, then things might have been different.

Liel might have used a cooler head and considered Lucy’s position.

He might have cared more about her position and Dailor as the leader of the Knights of Filia.

No, he certainly would have.

But right now, Liel was in no condition to do so.

His thought circuits were currently clogged with the shock of rejection and the pain that had been plaguing him since yesterday.

He was too busy pouring out his feelings.

“He’s okay, and I’m not?”

He asked, his voice icy and cold, but also desperate.

Lucy recognized the dual emotions in Liel’s voice, but she couldn’t bring herself to comfort him.

“First of all, Sir Dailor is an official of the Temple, and I had to be as polite as possible, so I refused in person.”

If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that Liel has uncharacteristically lost his cool. Lucy thought he was supposed to be the cool one at times like this.

It would only complicate things further if she reacted in kind.

“It’s not because he’s Sir Dailor, it’s because he’s an important figure in the temple, and even if he wasn’t, I’d do the same thing in a similar situation in the future.”

For some reason, she couldn’t help but feel like she was making excuses for Liel, but Lucy finished calmly.

Liel picked up on one of Lucy’s words and muttered to himself.

“Again…….”

Turning his head to the side, Liel’s throat heaved. He breathed slowly, as if swallowing his emotions.

Liel, who was used to venting his feelings like a herd, couldn’t do it so easily this time.

He clenched his fists and pursed his lips a few times, as if he had to hold back. The hesitation lasted longer than he expected.

Lucy tried to clear the air, but Liel seemed to have made up his mind before she did.

“Then all the more reason to marry me.”

“…….”

How could he come to that conclusion?

Lucy’s speechless eyes asked on her behalf.

“If, as you say, you’re going to be forced to deal with that for the rest of your life, I’d rather…….”

“Liel.”

Lucy interrupted him, as if to say leave it at that. But Liel didn’t back down.

“I know you don’t like me.”

“That’s enough.”

“You don’t, but at least I—”

He was about to say something when a voice, both familiar and unfamiliar, rang in his ear.

?”You like me?”?

The voice, dry and unmistakably Lucy’s, questioned his feelings.

But in front of him, Lucy was just glaring at him with her mouth clamped shut.

When he opened his mouth to speak again, a voice that sounded exactly like hers cut him off.

?”I don’t think so.”?

Despite the vagueness of her answer, there was a strong note of conviction in her voice.

?”I don’t know much about feelings like that, but you don’t like me anyway.”?

“Am I having this conversation with Lucy?” As he questioned, the snake coiled around his ankle tightened as if to stop him from prying further.

?”It seems like you’d do anything for me, so you’d have to do whatever I say, right?”?

Liel almost nodded his head in the affirmative. It wasn’t quite the right word, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either.

?As you’ll see, it’s not the kind of love you’re talking about…….”?

The tone was strangely demarcating, but Liel couldn’t afford to point out every detail of her voice right now.

?”It’s a feeling you’re supposed to have for me.”?

He thought he was supposed to love her.

Liel finally rebelled to the dry voice.

Then, as if he had done something he shouldn’t have, the snake began to get angry.

The snake at his ankle slowly slithered up his calf, making its presence felt.

As soon as he noticed the change in the snake’s behavior, Liel’s gaze landed on Lucy, who was frozen in place, looking at him.

Lucy was wallowing in her own sense of shame.

She had a fleeting thought that it wouldn’t be bad if it was Liel she marries when he sincerely answered. Despite her pride in wanting his happiness more than anyone else, in that moment, she prioritized her own feelings over Liel’s situation.

She had prided herself on wanting his happiness more than anyone else, but in that moment, she had put her feelings ahead of his plight.

She tried to accept Liel’s sacrifice as a matter of course.

Then Lucy whispered in a low voice, similar to the one Liel had heard.

“Even if I…… find myself in an even more embarrassing and troubling situation than I am now…….”

Not to him, but to herself.

“I won’t ask for your help in such a matter.”

With those words, Lucy turned away from Liel.

With that, Lucy turned her back on him and left him alone in the middle of the Marquis’s large garden.

So, it came to this in the end.

The snake had slithered up to his heart and opened its jaws to the limit.

Even though he knew what it was going to do, Liel simply closed his eyes.

Then he heard the sound of flesh being dug out. A series of gurgles and snaps followed.

He knew he was the only one who could hear it.

From this moment forward, to the fact that he can no longer live as a human being.