My Childhood Friend the Demon Knight Hates Me - Episode 38: Reiss Edition
38 Reiss Edition
Translator: Lioness
Editor: Arya
I was alone in my room when I heard the voice.
All at once, the memories that had been sealed away rushed through my head, and before I had time to remember everything,…, I found myself holding my beloved dagger in my hand.
“What !?”
“Did you ask? I wondered if you have a loved one. It’s hard to move because you’ve come to an unpleasant place where the spirits are strong, but your body fits well with the devil. Did you remember the contract? If you remember, you’ll understand. ”
“When I have loved someone from the bottom of my heart … Kill that person with my own hands and dedicate the soul to the devil inside me …”
The devil laughed with a crouching voice saying, “That’s right.”
The devil who woke up tried to take over my body and move it.
As per the contract, I was required to kill the one I cared about … and it was Suria, then put the silvery dagger in my hand in order to kill her.
“No, no, no! No, no, no! I don’t like that woman! Stop!”
I quickly said no, and resisted the demon inside me.
I rampaged through the room and the impact shattered the pendant that Suria had given me, but I couldn’t give up my body to the demon.
I repeatedly just denied my emotions and slashed my arm, letting the pain keep me sane. The broken pieces of the pendant reflected my anguished expression and my bare chest.
There was a black upside-down butterfly pattern floating on it.
Suria, who had come to check on me, rushed over to me, looking anxious, but I told her, “Don’t come!” I chased her away. The moment I saw her, I felt my inner demon’s murderous intent swelling.
—- I saw the twisted smile of that woman who made me possess a demon.
The woman’s prediction came true.
This was certainly a brutal and painful curse more than anything else.
After that, I deliberately avoided Suria.
Without thinking of a gorgeous coping method, I kept killing my emotions and surpassing them in order to suppress the devil aiming at her. I wasn’t even able to talk to anyone about it because my contract was placed in the way. The only way I could find to resist the demon was to deny my feelings for her with words.
Suria, who still cared about me, squeaked at the centre of my emotions, which had not yet been robbed by the devil.
I’m sure I’ll never be able to touch her again.
One of the people whose hand I accidentally grazed, cried out in surprise, My hand was cold. Apparently, when a demon was awakened, its energy would flow throughout the whole body and lower the body temperature. “She would never be able to look at me again and say, “Your hands are so warm, Reiss.”
The days were getting shorter and shorter.
However, I had a bad life, but I still couldn’t give up my desire to be near Suria, and I was looking for a way to regain my days with her.
… It was foolish of me trying to overcome the demon by staying close to her with such half-hearted hope.
I’ve hurt her so badly because I had been so naive.
It was my 14th birthday.
I was summoned by several girls under the big tree in front of the orphanage, and they asked me about my relationship with Suria. “Are you in love with the Barrett girl, Mr. Reiss?” they asked.
As if pointing towards the girl’s voice asking this, the demon inside me asked me again about my feelings for Suria.
It demanded that I kill her and give him her soul.
The demon’s voice, which had been spinning an unpleasant, shrill sound, was gradually transforming into ‘my own voice’. I later learned that this was due to the progress of assimilation between me and the demon.
With all my emotions gone, I turned my cold eyes half to the girls and the other half to the demon and spoke falsely.
“‘In love’? Stop fooling around. —- I dislike that woman. I hate her. I truly hate her.”
In order to control the demon that was still screaming, I continued to use every means at my disposal I could think of to humiliate Suria.
I’ve never thought of her as crass or plain looking. And there was no way that I was going to be annoyed with her for a long time.
I got more from …… Suria than I could ever repay in a lifetime.
But I kept my mind shut, locked the door, and anchored myself to the bottom of the water.
As Suria’s Uncle had said, ‘when you say it out loud, there is power in it’. Once I put my feelings for her into words and give them shape, I’m sure I won’t be able to fool the devil anymore.
I can tell as many lies as I want.
The words I really wanted to say were settling in my heart.
When the demon finally started to calm down, the girl who wasn’t here earlier suddenly shouted in surprise.
I turned around and saw Suria with tears in her eyes.
Something hit my cheek the moment I realized I put terrible words into her ear that I didn’t intend for her to hear. A thing quietly fell to the ground with a clunky sound. When I followed the red flower with my eyes, it was the handkerchief with embroidered Ricola, and I was shocked because I felt a sudden jolt to my abdomen, but more than that, I was stunned by the word “I hate you too!” from Suria and her crying face for the first time.
I had sworn to protect —- her, but now I had hurt her and made her cry.
After this incident, Suria stopped coming to me.
It was at this point that I had to let go of my unrequited desire to be next to her again.
All I had to think about was protecting her from the demons inside of me.
That was all.
What I lacked in order to protect her was the determination to completely abandon my comfortable place and the existence that I wanted to be near her.
Even if I couldn’t be with Suria.
No matter what happens, … I won’t let her be killed by my own hands.
And I offered to the director to take the Knights’ admission test.
For some time, a man from the royal capital, who was a subordinate of the director’s knighthood, bought his abilities and asked if I would accept it.
There were several reasons why I wanted to join the Knights, although I had previously refused, saying I was not interested.
First of all, it would allow me to get away from the Arlvaire territory … and be close to Suria, immediately and naturally.
Originally, I wanted to leave the country and cross the continent to a place where I would never see her again, but the demon, if I remember correctly, said that it was hard to move because I came to a place where the spirits were strong and unpleasant. Considering that the demons were still under control because we were in this country where the Queen of Spirits lived, it was not a good idea to leave for another country.
And perhaps, once my body was taken over by the demon, physical distance would seem meaningless. That Possessed Woman suddenly appeared in front of me, distorting the space. Even if I and Suria were far away from each other, the demon could sense the location of its prey, Suria, and move in an instant.
If that was the case, I should stay in this country where I could limit the demon’s movement even slightly, and look for a way to kill it in the capital where there was a lot of information.
For this purpose, the status of knight could be used.
I heard that if you become a privileged knight, you were able to get permission to enter the restricted archives of the royal castle. There was a good chance that there would be some useful literature on demons there.
Fortunately, my mind and swordsmanship skills were not bad. In addition, with the power of the demon I had awakened, I was able to join the Knights without difficulty.
The former subordinate that Uncle Alan entrusted me with, was a good man, and he listened to my selfish request and prepared a temporary home for me near the dormitory, instead of the dormitory where most apprentice knights live.
Living alone was more convenient for me as a demon possessed person.
Nevertheless, my former subordinate often came to check on me with gifts, and one day he gave me a ‘Treasure Chest of Spirits’, saying that it was a popular item in the capital.
He told me that if I put my precious things in this box, I would get the blessings of the spirits and would have good luck.
I don’t believed in such tales, but when I heard about the important things, I put the parts of the pendant that Suria gave me, which I kept in my hand under the eyes of the … demon, and the handkerchief with embroidered red flowers that she threw at me that day, into the treasure chest.
I could not throw away the hope of my future with her, but I also could not throw away this.
“…… ‘Happy Birthday, Reiss,'” she said.
I also put away in the back of the box the peaceful memories of those distant days that I was not even allowed to miss.