MBYS 02

Chapter 2

Buy Me (2)

The moment she regained consciousness, the first thing that struck her was the smell.

Cold, acrid air seeped deep into her lungs.

A faint scent of sandalwood mingled with the metallic smell of blood, brushing against the tip of her nose.

Eveline slowly lifted her stiff eyelids.

What pressed down upon her vision was an endless darkness resembling an abyss, with a black silk canopy swaying ghostlike above it.

The surface beneath her back was far too soft, giving her an unfamiliar sensation.

……Am I alive?

She wiggled her fingers.

A tingling pain surged from her fingertips all the way to her shoulders.

“Ugh………………”

She tried to sit up, but her body groaned as though every joint were creaking.

Fragments of memory began returning.

The Imperial ballroom.

The pitch-black garden.

The man who had been losing his reason.

The horrifying pain that had spread throughout her body.

Why did I do that……?

Eveline turned her gaze, trying to determine where she was.

Thick blackout curtains seemed to envelop the entire room in layer after layer, completely cutting it off from the outside world.

“Awake?”

A deep, heavy voice drifted from the edge of the darkness.

Her heart plummeted at the unexpected sound, and dizziness washed over her.

In a space without a single ray of light, in the pitch-black darkness where she could not see even an inch ahead, only two red eyes glimmered coldly.

They seemed to carry the thirst of a predator.

Kailus Demian.

Eveline’s hand reflexively clawed at the bedding.

She pulled the blanket all the way up to her chin.

“………………Where is this?”

Her hoarse voice barely escaped her throat.

“The townhouse I use when I stay in the capital.”

With that brief answer, he rested his chin on his hand and stared intently at Eveline.

“You were unconscious and slept for two full days.”

A sigh that had been suppressed deep inside her finally escaped.

The arrangement with Viscount Visconti.

If her father found out about this, she could almost see the furious reprimands that would rain down upon her.

Kailus rose to his feet.

He walked toward the bed.

With every step he took, Eveline pressed herself farther against the headboard.

Her gaze unconsciously swept over his body.

The bloodshot eyes she had seen when they first met were now clear, and the bulging veins that had stood out across his body had calmed down.

“Fascinating.”

Kailus muttered under his breath.

“Something no mage or priest has ever been able to accomplish……………… and all you did was………”

Kailus reached out.

Eveline flinched and hunched her shoulders, but his cold hand had already seized her.

His rough grip clamped around her chin and forcibly tilted her head upward.

“What are you?”

There was an insistent quality to the thumb rubbing against her lips.

“Eveline Roa……….”

Kailus’s eyebrow twitched at her answer.

“Who asked for your name?”

At his words, Eveline nervously bit her lip.

“Eveline Roa.”

Her name fell coldly from Kailus’s lips.

“………………It’s a curse.”

Eveline’s voice came out calmly.

“A curse that transfers other people’s pain into my own body.

Your pain hasn’t disappeared.

I’m simply suffering from it in your place.”

“Prove it.”

Kailus extended his wrist.

“Prove that you really are taking my pain away.”

Her body was already at its limit.

If she endured any more pain here, she could truly die.

But she had no right to refuse.

She raised her trembling hand and carefully grasped his wrist.

The fierce pain she had expected did not come.

Perhaps whatever was happening inside him had settled down somewhat during the two days.

Instead, small but unpleasant sensations came rushing in.

Her wrist throbbed.

A constant tingling persisted.

As the pain transferred to her, the coldness that had settled over Kailus’s expression disappeared.

The trembling in his cloudy eyes subsided, and a long sigh escaped between his tightly pressed lips.

When Eveline hurriedly tried to pull her hand away, Kailus tightly seized her wrist.

“More.”

“P-please, stop………………! It hurts, too much…….”

“A doctor is waiting.”

The words were merciless.

Yes.

At least she wouldn’t die.

That was what he seemed to be saying.

How much time passed?

Once Kailus seemed satisfied that he had accomplished what he wanted, he released her limp wrist.

Eveline collapsed onto the bed.

Her emaciated body curled inward as she struggled to breathe.

Cold sweat trickled down her forehead and the back of her neck, while a buzzing sound rang in her ears.

Dizzy, she squeezed her eyes shut.

The pain that felt as though it were slicing through her flesh was proof.

Ironically, knowing that she could become someone this man needed brought her relief.

Just then, one side of the mattress sank beneath a heavy weight.

A huge shadow fell over her head.

Then, a rough, calloused palm settled over her limp hair.

His fingers slipped between her strands.

The touch was frighteningly gentle and slow.

“Eveline Roa. The illegitimate daughter of Count Roa.”

At the dry voice, Eveline forced open her eyelids, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Her vision swayed hazily, as though submerged underwater.

“You made me an offer, didn’t you?”

“Buy you.”

“Fine. I’ll buy you.”

The corners of Kailus’s mouth curved upward.

“I don’t care how much money that man you call your father demands. And don’t worry about Viscount Visconti.”

His decisive words brought the uncontrollable anxiety inside her to a halt.

“But in exchange, you don’t get to choose even your own death.”

“You won’t get to be sick or hurt yourself without my permission.”

Eveline’s trembling gaze wandered through the air before meeting Kailus’s.

“Every night, take my curse away.”

“So that I can sleep peacefully.”

Kailus’s fingertips slid slowly along the back of her neck.

“As long as you remain useful, I’ll treat you better than anyone could ask for.”

“But if you try to run……”

His red eyes gleamed coldly.

“I’ll make the place your father tried to sell you to feel like heaven.”

Eveline slowly lowered her gaze.

Viscount Visconti.

That horrifying name flashed through her mind.

An old, greedy beast who had sexually abused all three of his former wives and driven them to their deaths.

If she had been sold to that place, she would have met the same fate.

But the man before her was different.

He did not want Eveline as an instrument of pleasure.

He wanted her as a “medicine” necessary for his survival.

Rather than being subjected to senseless violence until I’m thrown away like a dog……

I’d rather endure pain that comes with a price.

At least there was no hunger here.

And there was a promise that he would protect her.

Even if that promise was another shackle, the fact that she had become an “irreplaceable existence” to someone for the first time in her life gave her a strange sense of relief.

Eveline tightly curled her trembling hands into fists and steeled herself.

This was not surrender.

It was her own desperate choice to survive.

“……Yes, Your Grace.”

As though he had been waiting for that answer, Kailus let out a low laugh.

“This is kidnapping! It’s kidnapping! Give me my daughter!”

In the heart of the Empire’s busiest street stood Kailus’s imposing townhouse in the capital.

Inside its lavish reception room, the Count was shouting at the top of his lungs as though he were in his own home.

“Do you have any idea where you are to cause such a disturbance?!”

The butler who managed the townhouse stood in his way, making no effort to hide his displeasure.

But he was no match for the Count.

“You’re noisy.”

Kailus opened the reception room door and walked inside.

“Ghk!”

The Count was instantly hurled into the air before being slammed back down.

Kailus had sent him flying using nothing but his magic, without even moving a finger.

“Count Roa.”

At Kailus’s call, the Count hurriedly ran toward him.

“M-my foolish daughter is here, I was told…….”

His obsequiously trembling voice grated against Kailus’s ears.

As though there was no reason to hear another word, Kailus lazily raised his index finger.

At that languid, arrogant gesture, the Count’s mouth snapped shut.

“Visconti.”

Kailus sank deeply into the back of his chair.

“How much did that old man offer you?”

Count Roa blinked repeatedly with his pathetic eyes, unable to even comprehend the intentions of the predator holding his leash.

That stupidity instantly exhausted Kailus’s patience.

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

“I’m not known for my patience.”

At the low warning, the Count’s face turned ashen.

He hurriedly bent at the waist.

“T-the Viscount…… offered five thousand gold!”

The corner of Kailus’s mouth curled upward unpleasantly.

“Only……………….”

With a casual gesture from Kailus, the butler standing nearby moved swiftly.

“Never come anywhere near my residence again.”

“Consider your daughter dead.”

The Count accepted the check with trembling hands.

“Ten, ten thousand……!”

Joy filled the Count’s face.

There had never been even the slightest trace of guilt over selling his daughter.

Kailus watched the Count delighting over the check and muttered,

“I’ll see how well you live off the money you got from selling your daughter.”

His mutter never reached the Count’s ears.

“Th-thank you! Your Grace!”

“Get out.”

There was a chill at the end of Kailus’s words.

The Count fled the reception room as though running for his life.

“Your Grace. Do you truly intend to keep that woman by your side?”

“Her origins are unclear, and we have no idea what she might be plotting.”

“I don’t care.”

Kailus lowered his gaze to his own hand.

The place where that woman’s hand had touched.

Only there, an unnaturally cool silence lingered.

Whether the source of this sensation was black magic, some blood-soaked curse, or merely an elaborate fraud did not matter.

She was the only sedative capable of calming the madness of his uncontrollable magical power.

“If she can stop my pain, I don’t care what she is.”

His red eyes flashed.

“Even if she turns out to be poison.”