The Heaven's Beloved Child - Chapter 4 :  The End of Love

Translator: Sunnyshies

Editor: Ryuubii

Chapter 4 :  The End of Love

Less than a few days later, the man showed up.

She was worried that he might get tired of the extra trouble she had put him through, so she was glad to see him again. After escaping from the Grim Reaper, her health had completely returned to normal and she was able to eat as much as usual.

“Can I have your attention, please? This time a fairy has taken a fancy to me. She wants me to be her mate.”

“It’s not uncommon for fairies to snatch up human children.”

Fairies sometimes kidnap human children. Some replace babies with logs or fairy children, or take them away as brides. Some fairies are deceitful, mischievous, and harmful, and they are of poor quality because they know no right or wrong.

The eyes of the fairy Etia met were like glass beads, showing no emotion whatsoever. It sent shivers down her spine in a different way than the demons and reapers who approached her with harmful intentions.

She didn’t want to be stuck with something she couldn’t understand any longer, Etia sighed.

“Is it the boundary of the priest that prevents them from entering the church hall?”

“What kind of power does a greedy priest like him have? The layout of this building, the shape of the decorations, the arches in the ceiling, everything is built according to the ancient sacred law. It is a sanctuary made by human hands.”

“So it’s not the power of the priests, but the wisdom of our ancestors.”

“Do you want to be a… fairy bride?”

The man’s voice sounded more hoarse than usual. Like the eyes of an emotionless fairy, she couldn’t read any emotion in the man’s eyes either.

Without understanding the man’s intentions, Etia was upset.

“No, I won’t. You’re annoying me. But I would have liked to be someone’s bride someday.”

“I didn’t think you had it in you to think of something so adorable.”

“You’ve misunderstood me. I’m just a young girl with a sweet dream.”

…

These pleasant encounters continued for several months, until one day, the man stopped coming.

Etia asked herself why, and whether there was something she had said that might have upsetted him, but the evening of the man’s last visit was just like any other, and there was nothing unusual about him.

She kept looking out the window, searching for a shadow of the man somewhere.

In a life where the only thing she looked forward to was eating, she started to leave meals behind more often than she would have otherwise. It’s not that she was not feeling well. It’s just that she couldn’t swallow them down.

In the midst of a life filled with nothingness and decay, a man suddenly appeared in her life.

‘I just wanted to see him.’

She told herself that she must never let the man know about this feeling. The man was only amused with Etia on a whim. If he was no longer interested, he would stop showing up.

The Church repeatedly negotiated with the lord to formally hand over Etia, but the lord never relented. So, he decided to cry to the court, saying that if the Church, the state religion, took in the angel’s beloved child, its influence might go over the royal family.

However, the appeal backfired and the king became interested in the existence of his beloved child. The king, who already had a number of mistresses in his service, heard the report about Etia and wanted to marry her.

The church and her father, the lord, were astonished that their expectations were not met, and they repeatedly pleaded with him to reconsider, but he would not listen.

…

…

…

“What’s all the fuss?”

Never would she expect to greet the man she had been looking forward to with such despair.

The man, who came under the cover of darkness as usual, tilted his head at the busy scene in the church hall. The way Etia looked at the man also seemed different from usual.

Etia’s mood had changed completely after not seeing him for a while. There was no shadow on her angelic appearance, but her beauty had become more lustrous and contained a hint of melancholy.

“I’m going to be the King’s concubine soon. Tonight will be the last time you will see me, as I don’t want you to see me as the miserable woman I will become.”

Ever since it was decided that she would become the king’s concubine, Etia had decided that the next night the man came to her would be the day she would say goodbye. She had planned to say goodbye with a proper smile, but she couldn’t smile as she had expected. Her eyebrows were lowered and her mouth was not raised. She knew she was giving an awkward smile.

“Why don’t you say no?”

“The king’s order is absolute. To refuse it means death.”

“You don’t look like you have much of a life to lose, though.”

When the man first found Etia, she was alive, but she seemed to be dead. She was the kind of girl who would have died as soon as he told her to die. He felt strange that the girl had obediently accepted the royal order.

“…the sea.”

“Sea?”

“They told me that the royal capital is near the sea.”

Nothing would change, except that the place where she would be confined would change from the church to the royal castle. If that is the case, she wanted to see the sea.

With the loss of Etia, the territory will not be able to generate income and will once again become a poor land. The church will lose the beloved child of an angel, and its offerings will be reduced, albeit temporarily.

She chuckled to herself, wondering if she had been able to give them a shot in the arm for taking away her freedom.

“Even though it was just to pass the time, I was glad that you came to see me in my loneliness. Thanks to you, I am no longer alone. Because of your visit, what I thought I couldn’t do has come true!”

“You want a friend.”

“You were never a friend to me. I like you.”

She didn’t make any friends, but her other dream came true. Etia, who had never been loved by her family, wanted to love someone with all her heart. She was able to fall in love, but it ended too soon.

As she walked forward, Etia gently touched the man for the first time. She buried her face in the man’s chest, making sure that he did not resist.

“You do realize I’m a demon, right?”

“I was always looking forward to the night when I could see you. I was sad that I couldn’t see you for a long time.”

She wrapped her arms around the man’s waist and hugged him tightly, then quickly pulled away from him.

“When I thought about you, I felt so happy and sad. I was not an emotionally active person, yet I was always agitated and shaken by your every action. And, for the first time, I could actually like that about myself.”

The man thought the tears flowing from her jewel-like violet eyes were beautiful. Without thinking, he reached out and touched both of Etia’s cheeks. Etia’s eyes widened at the man’s unexpected action, but she leaned closer to his hand like a little kitten.

“You don’t want anything from me?”

The man is a demon. He can make a contract with Etia in exchange for a price. However, Etia did not ask to no longer be the king’s concubine, nor to escape from the church.

“Forget about the foolish girl who fell in love with you.”

☼☼☼