Chapter 134: Red Eyes (7)
I stood blankly in front of the tightly shut door.
I had knocked on it several times, but there was no response from inside.
Normally, I would’ve just left by now, but…
Starting from the incident a few days ago when she was hospitalized to what happened just yesterday—I simply couldn’t walk away.
And to top it off, it was the first time she’d ever asked me for a favor. That, too, made it hard for me to leave.
‘…Did she go somewhere else?’
Maybe something urgent had come up and we just missed each other.
I’d kept waiting, thinking she might come back soon, but…
I couldn’t just wait around forever.
Just as I was about to turn around and leave—
Clatter.
A faint noise came from inside.
My foot stopped dead in its tracks at the sound.
Then, I heard someone sharply inhale.
It was Yuran’s voice.
“…….”
I knocked on the door again.
“Yuran?”
Still no answer.
But I could hear rustling sounds from inside.
Then, I sensed someone carefully approaching the door.
The doorknob moved slightly.
But the door didn’t open.
No, to be precise, the doorknob trembled as if someone inside was holding it tightly.
She was gripping it from the other side, making sure I couldn’t open the door.
“Yuran.”
Even when I quietly called her name, she didn’t answer.
After a moment, a low, weak voice barely slipped through.
“……Caught a cold.”
Her voice was intentionally rough, as if she were scraping her throat.
It was hoarse and slightly trembling.
“…….”
I paused, thinking for a moment.
Even if she had a cold, it was strange for her to firmly lock the door and even hold the doorknob to prevent anyone from entering.
“A cold? Are you alright?”
“Uh… I think I’ll be fine if I rest a bit.”
“If that’s the case, may I take a quick look? I think I can help. Miracles are known to be effective in treating colds, so—”
But before I could finish my sentence, she responded urgently.
“No, no!”
A flicker of confusion crossed my face.
Was there any reason for her to refuse so strongly to let me in?
Wasn’t it she who called me here in the first place?
And it seemed she, too, realized that fact.
She took a breath as if to steady herself, then forced a calm, composed tone as she apologized.
“……Sorry for shouting.”
“No, it’s alright. I suppose you have some difficult circumstance?”
“Uh…”
Yuran hesitated for a moment, then replied urgently.
“It’s not actually a cold. It’s a local disease from our village. A very strong illness. Highly contagious, too.”
Her voice was lower than usual.
And though usually her words were slow but understandable, this time she was completely incoherent.
But more than that, what bothered me was her absolute determination not to open the door.
She was holding the doorknob so tightly it was still trembling.
I silently watched the trembling doorknob.
Perhaps fearing that I might pry further, Yuran quickly added,
“Magic doesn’t work either. Nor do miracles. It’s a strange disease… Only time helps.”
She kept adding excuses as if trying to justify herself.
“…So just go for today. Sorry for calling you. But please understand.”
“…….”
There was a faint tremble at the end of her voice.
Eventually, I let out a short sigh.
“Understood.”
I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed she had a reason why she absolutely couldn’t face me right now.
I had come all the way here for nothing, but I nodded quietly.
Based on how she’d been so far, she wasn’t someone who spoke nonsense.
If she was asking me with such clumsy excuses, then perhaps the right thing to do now was to leave as she asked.
“I’ll come again another time. Please take care of yourself.”
“Thank you for understanding. And sorry, as well.”
Just as I turned to leave after that response—
Cough, cough.
A harsh coughing sound erupted from inside.
I hesitated for a moment, but then turned and walked away.
Behind me, as if following my back, came the raspy coughing sounds of a throat burning dry.
Just a few steps later—
Thud.
A dull crashing sound rang out.
Instantly, I turned around.
“……Yuran?”
I rushed back and knocked on the door again.
There was no response.
No breathing sounds, not even the trembling doorknob.
An ominous feeling surged up.
Without hesitation, I flung the door open.
It wasn’t even locked tightly. With a bit of force, the door swung open limply.
The room inside was dark.
Just like yesterday, the curtains were drawn over the window, blocking out the light.
In the middle of the dim room, Yuran was collapsed as if she had fainted.
The mask she always wore lay discarded on the floor.
“Yuran!”
Calling her name in urgency, I rushed to support her.
But the moment my hand touched her, a strange sensation tingled at my fingertips.
There was a small protrusion on her forehead.
“What is this…?”
A bump?
No, it was a horn.
A pair of small but distinct horns rose from her forehead, asserting their presence.
At that moment, I understood the events that had unfolded from yesterday to today.
‘No way…’
The horns on her forehead.
And her eyes.
Why had she covered her eyes with a blindfold yesterday?
‘Red eyes. The red eyes must’ve appeared.’
Now it all made sense in my head.
Why she wore a blindfold yesterday, why she suddenly postponed our meeting claiming illness, why she tried so hard not to open the door—
It was all because traces of the Dragon had surfaced.
“Hoo…”
Whatever the case, if anyone saw her like this, it would cause a lot of problems.
First, I carried her inside and shut the door.
There was no bed since it was a professor’s office, but there was a sofa.
I gently laid her down and began casting several basic miracles on her.
“…….”
Yuran groaned in pain.
As I gazed quietly at the branch-like horns on her forehead, I fell into silent thought.
‘…She still can’t control the Dragon’s blood?’
Maybe that was it.
After all, neither Cecilia nor Allen could control their power at this point, either.
But Yuran was several years older than them, and since she had shown fragments of her power before, I thought that perhaps, if not perfectly, she was at least able to control it to some degree.
That was what I had hoped.
‘But…….’
The way she had panicked excessively and been so flustered yesterday and today was more than enough to shatter all my assumptions and expectations.
Far from controlling the Dragon’s blood, her condition seemed rather...
‘She doesn’t even know there’s Dragon’s blood in her body.’
Just as I was lost in thought—
“Ugh…”
Before long, Yuran slowly opened her eyes.
Through her blurred vision, the first thing she saw was me sitting beside her, looking at her.
“……!!!”
The moment she recognized me in front of her through the haze, she jolted up in shock.
But her body didn’t seem to obey; she wobbled as she tried to raise her upper body.
I slowly raised my hand to calm her down.
“Please calm down, Yuran.”
I repeated myself gently.
“Calm down.”
Even so, Yuran breathed roughly.
Though my intention was to soothe her, my composed demeanor only made her more anxious.
“…….”
Her gaze was filled with a chaotic mix of emotions.
Wariness, shock, despair, confusion, embarrassment.
And suspicion.
“…You.”
She swallowed and murmured.
“How are you so calm?”
Yuran muttered, biting her lip.
“Even after seeing me, like this.”
I quietly stared at her without saying a word.
She too looked at me, but unlike me, her eyes trembled faintly.
How could he be calmer than me?
Even after seeing me like this… as if he already knew.
No, surely not…
“…You knew from the beginning, didn’t you.”
The Forest of Secrets.
Yes, back then, among the duplicates that had appeared, one of them had red eyes just like hers.
I had brushed it off at the time, but I should have suspected it then.
“Ha.”
How could I make such a mistake?
Yuran let out a bitter laugh.
The trust I had unknowingly placed in him made the laugh sting even more.
“What happens to me now?”
“Pardon?”
I squinted at her cryptic question.
“What are you talking about?”
Yuran exhaled quietly.
It was already too late for her.
Even if she tried to break through by force or silence him, she was already in a situation from which she couldn’t escape.
The more she resisted, the worse it would become.
She chose to accept her fate.
“…My Master has nothing to do with this. So please, don’t harm him.”
“Huh.”
I let out a short breath, as if I couldn’t comprehend what she was saying.
I could sense right away that she was misunderstanding something.
“Yuran, I think you’ve got the wrong idea… I don’t know what exactly, but that’s not what’s happening.”
“This is more than enough.”
She muttered bitterly.
“Stop mocking me. I know what your kind, the Holy Sun Church, does when they find evidence of demons.”
With a self-mocking laugh, Yuran flicked the horn on her head.
“Anyone can tell it’s real. Congratulations, follower of the Holy Sun Church. You’ve fulfilled your duty.”
“What the…”
Now I understood why she was acting like she had given up on everything.
Yuran didn’t know she had the blood of a Dragon.
She believed everything that had happened to her was evidence of being a demon, and even thought I had set a trap for her.
“Sigh…”
Frustrated, I raised my hand and ripped off the emblem from my collar.
The cross that symbolized the Holy Sun Church, proving I belonged to Crooks.
I placed it before her with a heavy thud.
“I, Lian Gwendil, swear here and now in the name of the Lord.”
At those words, Yuran flinched and lifted her gaze.
“I have no intention of harming you, Yuran.
Nor do I have any intention of putting you or those around you in danger.
I didn’t know what hardships or suffering you had endured.”
I spoke calmly, yet with unwavering conviction.
“I want to be of help to my friend—Yuran—and that is the absolute truth.”
I glanced at Yuran, whose face was blank with disbelief, and finished my words.
“I swear all this before the almighty Ilionel. If what I have just said is false, then even if death awaits me, and my soul is barred from your side, and I am left to howl in agony across the desolate wilderness, I will accept that fate with humility.”
As my words ended, silence fell.
Yuran couldn’t say a word.
“Uh, uh…”
She, too, was a servant of the divine.
So she understood better than anyone how heavy a vow in the name of God truly was, and how harsh the chains of law and oath could be.
She knew all too well what would happen if that vow was a lie.
“…….”
Instead of replying, she was left speechless by the sheer weight of my declaration.
“S-Stop…”
She finally spoke in a trembling voice.
A different kind of tremble from before.
“Th-that’s enough. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“I… No… it’s not… I mean…”
Yuran began fumbling as if looking for something.
Realizing what she was searching for, I handed her her mask.
“I’m sorry for misunderstanding… Something must’ve clouded my mind for a moment…”
With those words, she pulled the mask over her face.
Not to hide her horns, but her face.
‘You idiot…’
To have doubted someone who made such a firm vow to the divine without the slightest hesitation.
Her face burned with shame, and she couldn’t bear to look at me.
…Surely it was shame and guilt, she thought.
“Anyway, for now, let’s talk—”
Just as I was about to speak—
Step, step.
Footsteps echoed from afar.
Heavy steps interspersed with solid thuds.
As soon as she heard it, Yuran’s head shot up.
“It’s Master’s footsteps.”
“Professor Shagas?”
“Yes. But… there’s another with him.”
At her words, I looked at her and said,
“Let’s hide your horns first.”
Yuran nodded quickly.
I stood up and said,
“I’ll go and try to buy us some time.”
I immediately walked outside toward the sound.
Before long, I encountered Professor Shagas and a middle-aged man walking beside him.
“Hmm? Isn’t that you, Gwendil?”
“Good day, Professor. Pardon the intrusion.”
“Seems you came to see Yuran.”
“I had just finished and was on my way out. And this gentleman is…?”
That was when it happened.
“Ah, this man is…”
Professor Shagas began to speak, but I couldn’t hear a word of it.
A sense of discord I couldn’t quite describe.
But I already knew exactly what it was.
Rahma.
The masked demon who had read my fortune.
It was the same sense of discord I had felt from those two.