“Acting as a hero?”
“Yeah.” Lyla placed her hand on Zich’s forehead and said, “You don’t have a fever.”
She took a potion from the magic box and looked at Zich caringly like a mother. “Here, why don’t you drink this first? Then we can go visit a priest or a doctor.”
“…I understand what you are saying, but I’m not hurt.”
“A patient doesn’t know what illness he has. Let’s talk after you drink that.” Lyla kept pushing the potion bottle into Zich’s hand. Zich scowled and lightly pushed her hand away.
“I told you I wasn’t sick.”
“There’s no way you would say that if you weren’t sick.” Lyla was firm even at Zich’s strong denial. Then, she wondered to herself, ‘Did Marilyn’s betrayal shock him too much?’ Worry filled her face. Knowing what she was thinking, Zich let out a light sigh. Thinking that this ridiculous misunderstanding would not be settled if he didn’t talk, he quickly spoke up.
“Don’t worry. I’m not saying this for some absolutely skin-crawling, dreadful reasons like ‘to enforce justice into this world’ or ‘save all the unfortunate souls in the world.’”Hearing words that finally befitted him, Lyla relaxed slightly.
“Then, what’s your reason for saying such chilling words?”
“It’s to fuck with Glen Zenard,” Zich said confidently. These words were very befitting of Zich.
‘Hm, I guess he really isn’t sick.’ Lyla elegantly threw all her worries about Zich in the waste pile in her mind. Then, she crossed her legs and flicked her head for him to continue explaining.
“It’s nothing elaborate on. I don’t know what his reason is, but it’s clear that Glen Zenard is obsessed with the title of hero.”
Lyla also agreed and nodded in response. “So, are you saying that you will steal this hero title from him?”
“Yes. I have to repay him for treating me so respectfully. It would be impolite otherwise.” Zich smiled. Lyla wanted to back away one step at this moment, but she persevered and gulped. As he smiled slyly, he encompassed the aura and terror from his Demon Lord days.
“…Well, I guess that means you don’t plan to kill him immediately.”
“Yes, since I don’t know when he will regress.” From Marilyn’s behavior this time, there was something Zich gained assurance in.
“You know how Marilyn tried her hardest not to kill me?”
“Well, that…”
When Marilyn was manipulating the statues and shadows at times she had the upper hand, it felt like she had pulled herself back.
“But isn’t it obvious why? For her, it’s much better to capture us alive if she can.” Then, Marilyn’s organization could use Lyla as the core again and extract information from Zich. However, Zich seemed to disagree with her.
“For that to happen, the regression ability is too important and risky. If they accidentally lose track of me, it would mean absolute trouble for those guys.”
“Hm, now that you mention it, that seems true. Is there another reason she didn’t try to kill you?”
“I think it might be because they fear my regression. Truthfully, I thought before that the condition for regression was death.” There was no special reason for this belief but that his body had been sliced in two at the moment of his regression.
“However, I can’t be sure that Glen’s condition is death. Yet, I felt like Marilyn wanted to prevent my death after finding out about my regression. It makes me wonder if she feared that I would regress again after I die. If that’s the case, that probably means that she also knows the condition of other people’s regression.”
In other words, that could mean Glen Zenard’s condition to regress was his own death.
“…If that’s really true, then I suppose we have to hold back on killing him—at least until we have determined that his ability has been blocked.”
If they carelessly killed Glen, everything could return like before. It would be ideal if Zich retained his memories even after Glen’s regression, but they couldn’t be sure of these factors.
“Yeah. So, I don’t plan on acting as a hero immediately. If I speed up things too fast and steal his hero title, he might kill himself because he isn’t satisfied by the current state of matters in this timeline.”
“Haven’t too many things changed for him to kill himself now? Shouldn’t he have done it ages ago then?”
“Certainly. I almost want to applaud his perseverance and not giving up on being a hero even in this timeline.”
Lyla thought Zich’s use of the word ‘applaud’ sounded very insincere.
“However, I still have no intention of letting him be. As soon as I block his regression, I am going to try to take the title of hero.”
Zich’s eyes turned icy. “I can’t let him die a peaceful death. He has to die only after I take what he wants the most.”
After hearing Zich’s declaration, Lyla was sure of this: no matter how outstanding Glen Zenard’s abilities were, whether he had some grand, secret ploy, or even if he had lived a great number of years, the last years of his life would be full of suffering.
* * *
Zich and Lyla stayed at the tomb for exactly 12 days. Like she predicted, Lyla spent exactly ten days researching the tree and in the last two days, she scanned the writings on the stone chambers that had survived the battle. In the meantime, Zich focused his attention on awakening his mana up through the Flame’s Tear. 12 days was both a long and short amount of time. Depending on the person’s mindset, it could pass at an extremely slow place or in an instant. Thus , 12 days was an extremely long time for Lyla. It wasn’t because she was in an underground tomb or was researching trees and stone statues.
The only reason why time passed extremely slowly for her was because Marilyn had revealed her feelings. After her disciple left to the surface and Marilyn died, the only ones in this quiet, deserted place were her and the person who knew about her feelings. Naturally, all kinds of thoughts rushed into her head. At first, she glanced profusely at Zich, but he didn’t mention the incident. Lyla thought that was fortunate. However, as more time passed, her anxiety began to grow.
‘Shouldn’t I say at least a few words?’
However, even while these thoughts continuously piled up inside her mind, Lyla perfectly completed her research on the tree and tomb. She had incredible concentration. When Lyla finished her research, the two began exiting the tomb. The tomb’s former grand and awe-inspiring sight was gone, and they walked up the long stairs while leaving behind the now crumbled and destroyed tomb. During this time, Lyla’s dissatisfaction and anxiety reached their pinnacle; her discomfort was clearly visible on her face.
Zich glanced at her face and smirked. “Are you unhappy that I’m not saying anything even after knowing about your feelings?”
“Hm, what?” Lyla was startled. She didn’t think that Zich would choose this specific time to bring up this topic. Her embarrassment, which had been repressed by discomfort and anxiety, began to raise its giant head. Lyla’s face reddened.
“W-what are you talking about?” Lyla tried to reply as calmly as possible, but her voice was at least three octaves higher than normal. Her voice cracked two times as well.
Lyla’s face became redder, but she didn’t give up on her calm act. “Cough! Hm! I think you and Marilyn seem to have misunderstood my feelings because I don’t like you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
“I got it. It seems like I misunderstood. I’m sorry. I won’t ever mention this topic ever again.”
‘What?’ Lyla was taken aback and stared at Zich’s back as he climbed up the stairs as if nothing happened.
Lyla was startled that Zich so calmly accepted her denial, which she quickly made out of embarrassment. The two climbed up the stairs in silence for a while. Zich saw that Lyla’s face was full of dissatisfaction.
He smirked and said, “I did what you wanted me to, but why is your expression like that?”
Lyla did not reply; her gaze merely became even sharper.
Zich stopped walking and turned back. Lyla also stopped while putting a certain amount of distance between them.
“What?” Lyla’s voice was full of discontent.
Zich bent his knees and matched his eye level with Lyla, who was a few steps away from him. “You’re flustered by the new emotions you suddenly feel, right?”
Lyla was about to instinctively deny his words, but she closed her mouth because his eyes looked extremely serious.
“I think it’ll be especially confusing for you. You have a lot of knowledge, but in regards to emotions, it’s not far off to say you’ve just started developing emotions. It’s understandable that you will be flustered by the emotions that are very different from the emotions that you usually feel.”
Lyla steadfastly listened to Zich.
“Don’t try to immediately deny your feelings. Try to slowly explore and observe how you feel and then take your time trying to figure out your emotions. I’m sure that you won’t take long before you can face your emotions head-on. When that time comes, I’m sure you’ll be able to naturally think of things you want to do. Then, it won’t be late to act on those thoughts.”
Zich straightened his knees and fixed his posture. However, his eyes were still fixated on Lyla’s eyes.
“Originally, I hoped you would slowly get used to those emotions, but due to Marilyn’s unexpected shock tactic, it became like this so I understand your confusion. But as I said before, this situation is not bad either. I’m sure you’ll be able to get through this well, so you don’t need to be so anxious.”
Lyla mumbled as if she was looking for something to say and quietly said, “…I don’t think this is something for you to say.”
Zich laughed out loud. “Of course. I’m telling you about what I felt soon after I was kicked out of my family. It’s something I felt when I still hadn’t gotten rid of my Steelwall self. These days, I’ve been looking back on my memories before my regression, especially the memories I had before becoming a Demon Lord.”
‘Ah!’ Lyla was able to immediately understand what Zich was saying. He was speaking based on his past experience with love. As soon as Lyla realized this, she felt something pour out of her heart. It was definitely jealousy. However, even before Lyla realized what this emotion was, the feeling of pity filled up Lyla’s heart. Lyla also knew that there were many incidents that changed Zich from Steelwall to Moore, and she knew that those incidents were not good memories for him at all. Considering this fact, Lyla could easily predict that Zich’s love probably did not end well. For that reason, Lyla did not ask him about this.
“Unexpectedly, you’re telling me all this nicely.”
“It’s because you’re my comrade.”
Comrade. It was a word that once described Tim Platt and Marilyn Frill. This word probably brought up the most complicated emotions for Zich right now, since he recently ended the lives of two of his four subordinates. Lyla also didn’t linger on this topic as well.
“I got it.” Lyla continued, “I’ll try to do as you said. It doesn’t seem like bad advice for me.”
“Yeah, good thinking.”
Lyla secretly glanced at Zich and said, “I’m just asking, Zich.”
“Yes?”
Lyla hesitated, but she finally asked, “When I face my feelings with certainty, if I confess…or do something like that, will you accept it?”
Zich laughed; it was a very annoying laugh. “It’s one hundred years too early, dummy.”
“…Wasn’t the timing right for you to just nod considering the flow of the conversation?”
“Do you think it’s easy to be next to a great person like me? If you want, you can make me fall for you. There’ll be a lot of chances in the future.”
His self-confident smile was so annoying that Lyla wanted to punch him. Lyla stuck out her lips and climbed up the stairs while passing Zich. He followed her from behind with a smile on his face.