He seemed to be one of the people looking for Damian earlier.
The man approached Damian as if Lilian was invisible.
“You have to come with me quietly. His Majesty is already very angry, so you’d better keep quiet. Because no one will protect you.”
It was an arrogant threat, but rather than reacting, young Damian did nothing but show wariness and cower.
Seeing Damian like that made Lilian’s anger surge.
He dare…
Lilian jumped to her feet.
“I cannot allow it.”
“…!”
The man who appeared to be an attendant was surprised as if only seeing Lilian just now.
“You, who are you…”
“You don’t need to know.”
She knew this person only existed in Damian’s memory, but she couldn’t contain her anger.
Lilian stood firmly in front of the helpless Damian.
“Go away. I cannot allow you to take His highness away.”
“Ha, but His Majesty the Emperor ordered…”
“Once again, as long as I’m protecting Damian, I won’t allow anyone to lay their hands on him.”
Her patience ended there.
At that moment, she felt a hand gently grabbing the hem of Lilian’s clothes, radiating cold anger from her whole body.
It was Damian.
“Your Highness.”
Forgetting her anger, Lilian hurriedly turned around. Perhaps misunderstanding Lilian’s behavior, the child clung desperately to her clothes.
“Don’t go…!”
The child was hanging on. At the same time, the attendant who tried to take Damian also disappeared like smoke.
‘This is a success…right?’
The servant who was trying to take him to his father disappeared. It was proof that Lilian had succeeded in defeating one of Damian’s fears.
But she had no time to be happy. The priority was to appease Damian. Lilian answered calmly.
“I’m not going, Your Highness.”
“…”
“I said I came to see Your Highness. I have come to go with Your Highness. If I go with Your Highness, I won’t go anywhere by myself.”
“…”
The child did not answer. Lilian thought of what more she could say, then she remembered.
“Will you stay with me forever?”
Damian’s earnest voice when he asked in the barracks.
Lilian’s lips moved naturally.
“I will be with you for the rest of my life. Please trust me.”
The child who had buried his face in Lilian’s dress slowly raised his head.
Lilian knelt before him again.
“…I’m a monster. Wounds heal very quickly.”
“I know.”
Lilian smiled softly and nodded her head.
“I don’t want Your Highness to get hurt so I’m rather relieved that you can get well soon.”
Damian’s purple eyes widened. Soon he was taken aback and hung his head.
Lilian asked.
“Will you go with me?”
“…”
The answer was silence. After pondering for a while, Lilian sweetly tempted, mimicking the adult Damian.
“…I’ll stay with you from now on, okay?”
“It might be a lie…you don’t know that.”
Damian muttered intermittently with his head down.
Perhaps it’s because doubt and fear reared up in Damian’s mind, she began to hear the footsteps and voices of people searching for him.
“You said you’d stay with me… If you go…no. I’d rather just go now.”
As expected, it’s unreasonable to seduce him with one or two words in their first meeting.
She didn’t know that young Damian would be more impregnable than the Damian who pointed a sword at her. Lilian was in agony, but Damian’s words continued.
“My mother committed suicide because of me.”
“Yes?”
“My second older brother said that my mother hated me so much that she killed herself.”
“That…”
“That’s why the emperor is angry.”
The footsteps came a little closer. It was proof that Damian was very anxious.
“Even my older brother will abandon me now. Because I killed his mother.”
“It’s not!”
Lilian groaned. Damian’s eyes widened.
‘This.’
She had conflicting thoughts about not surprising the child and wanting to correct his wrong thoughts.
Lilian was as calm as possible but she strongly denied it.
“That’s not the case, Your Highness. Absolutely not. Your Highness did not kill your mother.”
“But…”
“Her Majesty decided to give up her own life. Your Highness did nothing wrong.”
Why?
Damian’s eyes were filled with transparent doubt.
“I’m a monster. Second Brother said that mother paid with her life for the crime of giving birth to a monster.”
Claude Rupenwein, you son of a bitch.
Lilian swallowed her curse and shook her head.
“Never, absolutely not. First of all, Your Highness is not a monster.”
The noise subsided a bit…
But grew again.
“No, I am a monster.”
Stubbornly saying so, Damian took a step away from Lilian.
“Shall I show you?”
The adult Damian would have tried hard not to let it be seen.
He had gone through too much for him to have any hope that Lily might love him even knowing his secret.
Instead of holding hopes in vain, he would rather hide the truth and capture Lilian forever.
However, this young Damian did not have such self-control.
Young Damian wanted to test Lilian. He wanted to be sure that even if she knew he was a monster, she wouldn’t run away.
Lilian instinctively noticed that this was Damian’s last test.
Slowly, Lilian nodded her head and young Damian raised his hand.
The short, cute childlike hand began to change right in front of Lilian’s eyes.
“…!”
Gnarled veins welled up and began to curl up, like a monster running rampant.
If Damian on the battlefield had grotesquely beautiful arms that looked like they were wearing armor, the young Damian’s hand had a slightly more rough- and therefore more bizarre- shape.
Lilian refrained from looking surprised as much as possible, but she couldn’t fool Damian. The child muttered gloomily as he let his arms hang down.
“Are you going now?”
Lilian finally came to her senses. She managed to shake her head.
“No, I’m not going.”
She spoke with strength and Damian’s eyes widened.
“I told you, I can’t go alone. I have come to fetch Your Highness.”
“But…”
“I was surprised because it was the first time I saw Your Highness’ arm change, and I couldn’t do so. I can’t help but be surprised when seeing it for the first time.”
Lilian pushed hard.
Young Damian looked confused.
This was the right time. Lilian decided to let go.
“If you come with me, I will be with you for the rest of my life. But if Your Highness doesn’t like me, you can refuse.”
“If Your Highness says no, I’ll step back and make sure I don’t appear again.”
“No!”
Young Damian was startled and grabbed Lilian. And he was shocked that he had put his monstrous arm on LIly without even realizing it.
“S-sorry! I, I, I didn’t do it on purpose. If you hate…”
…the words he was trying to plead with didn’t come out.
It was because Lilian held Damian’s hand with all her might.
“I told you I’m not afraid.”
“Please go with me, Your Highness. Don’t stay here anymore. It’s not like you’re here because you like it.”
Young Damian stared blankly at his hand on Lilian’s.
It was strange. This woman was not afraid of him. He used to get sick when his arm changed like this, but it didn’t hurt at all when this woman held his hand.
Indeed. It always hurt when his body changed like this. Even when he cried in pain, no one felt sorry for him. Everyone ran away, saying he was a monster, and his mother, the Empress, screamed at him. There was even a time when she screamed to get rid of him right in front of him.
His father confined Damian to the palace and his second brother rejoiced while pouring out curses. The only one who didn’t run away or get angry was his eldest brother, Idoel. However, even when he was happy on the day Idoel took the time to read him a storybook all night long, he was still sick. He was sick and even he couldn’t help it.
Besides, Idoel was busy and couldn’t give him much time.
Come to think of it, this woman had some resemblance to his older brother.
“…are you really going to stay with me for the rest of your life?”
“Yes.”
“You said you would protect me.”
“For a lifetime.”
Damian couldn’t stand it any longer. In fact, as a child, it took quite a bit of courage for him to endure this far.
The child was finally in Lily’s arms. Lilian welcomed him as if she had waited.
“You cannot abandon me. I might kill you. Because I’m a bad monster.”
“Your Highness.”
Instead of correcting Damian’s misconceptions, Lilian decided to reassure the child.
“I am from Turin. Turinians don’t take back words once spoken.”
“…”
“For the rest of my life, I belong to Your Highness, and you belong to Lily. Please trust me.”
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