TVRP 09

Chapter 9

“Why are you laughing?”

“No reason. I was just thinking about something else for a moment.”

“Hah.”

Eden let out a cold, hollow laugh.

“As I thought. You aren’t taking me seriously. Well, I suppose all nobles are like you.”

“Hm?”

“Was promising to help me escape just a momentary whim?”

Eden glared at me with his golden eyes.

Even though he had a pretty intimidating expression for his age…

‘His fur is standing straight up.’

Why did he keep reminding me of a wild cat?

‘Is it because his eyes are yellow?’

The fact that I kept seeing Eden as nothing but a cat was troublesome for me, too.

‘Comparing such an adorable creature as a cat to that psychopath who was obsessed with imprisoning people in the game would be an insult to cats!’

“Psychopath” wasn’t merely a description.

According to the setting, Eden had been cursed in his heart from the moment he was born, and as a result, he truly could not feel emotions.

No wonder the game was called The Demon King’s Companion. It really did have a suitably demon-king-like setting.

‘A curse in his heart….’

Without realizing it, I glanced at Eden’s chest. There was nothing particularly noticeable.

Well, of course. It wasn’t as though a curse would exist in some visible form.

‘Come to think of it, I wonder if I could get rid of that curse.’

The Eden I knew now was certainly pretty rude, but he wasn’t anywhere near what you could call an “emotionless psychopath.”

Wasn’t he glaring at me with that fierce look right now? At the very least, that meant he could feel the emotion of ‘anger.’

He clearly hadn’t been completely consumed by the curse yet.

‘If I could get rid of Eden’s curse and prevent the male lead from becoming a psychopath…?’

Wouldn’t the country that would eventually have to welcome this kid as its emperor become a much more peaceful place?

“Are you thinking about something else again?”

At that moment, the cat… No, Eden, angrily raised his voice again.

“Calm down, first.”

I held up both palms and made a calming gesture.

“And don’t worry. I have a plan of my own.”

“Hah.”

Eden gave another cold, dismissive laugh.

But his pupils, which were looking at me, widened slightly. Apparently, he was secretly interested.

His actions and expressions were so completely different that I almost burst out laughing again.

‘Ah, hold it in. Hold it in. He’s going to get angry again.’

“First of all, you don’t seem to understand, but getting you out of here is a huge project. Got it?”

“…….”

“You can’t leave this place using ordinary transportation. Do you think there are carriage drivers willing to travel all the way to a place this dangerous? I’d have to hire one separately. If I asked them to come all the way here, they’d probably be terrified and demand ten times the usual hazard pay. Do you have enough money to afford that?”

“…….”

Eden pressed his lips together and silently stared at me.

I patted his shoulder.

“This isn’t a simple matter. But this big sister has a plan for everything. You just have to trust me and quietly wait for the day you’ll be free.”

“……If it’s really that difficult.”

Eden finally spoke in a low voice.

“Why are you willing to go that far for me?”

“It’s not free, you know?”

I tilted my head.

“You’ll have to pay me back when you become an adult.”

“……An adult?”

“Yeah. An adult. I know a little about reading faces, and you look like someone who’s going to become very successful, you know? So make sure you repay me someday. In cash, no exceptions.”

I was going to run far, far away with Eloise and live happily on some remote island, so I wanted him to just transfer the money into my bank account.

I turned my attention back to Rossi and began humming.

“Hmm, hmm-hmm.”

I had a good feeling about this. I thought this modification would go well.

The color in the boy’s earliest memory was red.

The screams and despairing cries of people being torn apart and eaten by monsters. Painful groans.

For a child abandoned without either parent, the slums were a land where survival was nearly impossible.

If he wasn’t being chased by monsters, he was being chased by people.

When he had no food and chewed on the corpses of monsters, people called him a cursed child and pelted him with stones wherever he went.

Whenever he closed his eyes, the boy never expected that he would open them again the next morning.

His life had continued stubbornly despite everything, but even this unwanted stroke of luck would not last much longer.

The boy had never once imagined a future.

Children grew into adults as time passed.

But the boy knew that the world would not grant him much more time out of charity.

‘Children grow into adults as time passes.’

‘That is, if they don’t get chewed apart by a monster or have their heads smashed by a stone someone throws at them first.’

To the boy, ‘becoming an adult’ was a ridiculous joke.

It had been.

“You have to pay me back when you become an adult.”

A noble girl had made that cruel joke.

“You look like someone who’s going to become successful, you know?”

How presumptuous.

As though she actually knew something. Her arrogant attitude was so typically noble.

It was ridiculous how confidently she said it, yet for some reason, he couldn’t laugh.

Suddenly, a memory from several days ago surfaced in the boy’s mind.

The enormous woman who had barged into the noble girl’s room and raised a switch.

And the girl who had been about to obediently kneel before that woman.

More precisely, the familiar resignation that had appeared on the girl’s face.

At that moment, dark, murky purple smoke began to rise from the boy’s chest like a haze.

— You don’t seriously pity that girl, do you?

The haze whispered ominously.

— You? Hahahahaha.

— There are levels even when it comes to shared suffering. The head maid may be a little arrogant, but that girl is still a noble who lives in a magnificent castle, while you are… a miserable, filthy piece of trash.

— Trash. Mongrel.

Multiple voices became tangled together chaotically within the haze.

“Shut up.”

Growling low, the boy scratched at his chest until it bled.

— Kieeeek!

The haze let out a pained groan as though it were lying, then scattered into silence.

The boy gasped and looked around.

He couldn’t hear the voices at all.

Those voices that always tore into his mind until they were satisfied, only to disappear whenever they pleased.

“Huff…….”

The boy breathed heavily as he stared blankly down at his chest.

The ominously colored haze was still there, wavering in place.

Even so, the important thing was that he had managed to silence the voices, if only for a little while.

The boy gave a hollow laugh.

He couldn’t believe that the voices he had never been able to drive away no matter how desperately he struggled had disappeared the moment he recalled that girl’s words.

As though those words had somehow given him strength.

But it must have been a coincidence.

‘I never believed a boast like that from someone like her.’

Yes.

Not even for a single moment had he believed her. Not even for an instant had he been tempted to.

He had never once placed his hopes in such a foolish boast…… or so it should have been.

Even if those words had been the first ‘hope’ anyone had ever spoken to him.

In the miraculous silence, the boy nearly fell asleep without realizing it.

If not for another noise coming from outside the door.

“Really?”

A real human voice came from beyond the door.

“There’s going to be another competition?”

“Yeah. They say it’s starting soon.”

“Let’s go see. Lilyan, that girl, will be participating too, right?”

“She probably will. If she doesn’t even do that, the head of the family will dispose of her immediately.”

“Do you think she’ll fail miserably again this time? Last year, she couldn’t even hunt a small monster, so she had all her hair pulled out and cried her eyes out.”

“Heh-heh! It was hilarious back then.”

It was the sound of the young servants passing by, laughing and gossiping.

“Who knows.”

One of the boys chuckled quietly.

Although his voice was lowered as much as possible, Eden’s keen hearing caught it.

“This time, she might actually die.”

Eden froze in place.