I Became the Main Character’s Demon Sword

46

Despite having promised to contract with him when he became an adult, Arpel had never once thought that the standard for adulthood in this world might be different. His gaze slowly rolled over to Rohan, who wore a quite aggrieved expression.

‘He’s still… young.’

Although he acknowledged that Rohan had grown significantly in size, Arpel’s mind was still set on 20 years old. Rohan was already a kind and tender-hearted child, and after contracting with him, he would officially jump into the flow of the story and inevitably be caught up in various incidents, even if he didn’t want to.

Picturing such a future, there was no way he could feel at ease. Seeming to notice what Arpel was pondering, Rohan desperately grasped his hand.

“You promised… didn’t you? Please?”

Arpel’s eyes trembled slightly at the hand that grasped his as if entangling. Perceiving this uncommon sight, Lexia struggled to cover his rising smile with his hand.

Evelyn, sitting next to them, had a similar expression. With both hands covering her mouth, her eyes wide open, and her face slightly flushed, she seemed full of excitement as if anticipating the final scene of an eagerly awaited play.

“Anyway, when Rohan is all… no, when he’s grown more, you’ll cooperate, right?”

Arpel didn’t answer, but Lexia knew it was an affirmation. Of course, he received a murderous glare from Rohan that seemed to say, ‘Is that important right now?’

“Wouldn’t 20 be better then? Seeing as there’s been no movement so far, taking a bit more time to grow wouldn’t be bad.”

“Keep your mouth shut.”

“…How vicious.”

The gaze turned away from Arpel was sharp. It was a gaze so fierce that Lexia thought he might have died hundreds of times if looks could kill. Lexia laughed awkwardly.

Evelyn, who had bloomed into a bright smile, unlike her earlier outburst, now that she had received an answer promising cooperation, albeit not immediately, added:

“In two years, Rohan will be taller than Arpel, right?”

“……”

Even now, there wasn’t much difference in height, so it was clear that in two years, Rohan, who was still growing, would be in a position to look down on Arpel. Evelyn noticed a flash of consideration in Rohan’s eyes for a moment. Both of their gazes rippled several times as if suppressing laughter.

Although she didn’t know the exact situation unfolding, it was clear that Rohan wanted to look good in front of Arpel, no matter what. It was evident from his attitude, which was clearly different only towards Arpel.

The golden eyes, whose thoughts were unreadable, shook several times before finally nodding.

“In exchange, please grant me one wish.”

“A wish?”

“Yes, a wish.”

Arpel couldn’t understand Rohan’s thoughts in many ways. He couldn’t understand why Rohan, who seemed like he would stubbornly insist on making the contract no matter what was said, gave up his persistence at Evelyn’s single word. He also couldn’t understand why Rohan was bringing up the word ‘wish’ to him, who would grant anything Rohan said anyway.

Only after seeing Arpel slowly nod did Rohan seem relieved and take his eyes off him.

“I’m glad it worked out well! Anyway, we’ve agreed to cooperate, right?”

Evelyn clapped her hands as if to clear the atmosphere. Her beaming smile suggested she was in a good mood, having achieved what she set out to do today.

Arpel’s use of ‘adult’ as the criterion for the contract wasn’t based on any definite reason that it had to be so. He had simply assumed that since the body’s age would stop after the contract, it would be best to do it at the point when one became an adult and was likely to stop growing.

So if they had to go out and fight like in the original story, it was better to use adulthood as the starting point. They couldn’t roam outside, where potential enemies might be swarming, without even having made a contract.

Moreover, now, the vague plan he had set up had become concrete. It wasn’t just a vague commitment of ‘I should do this’, but a ‘reason why I must do this’ had emerged.

Given that they had the same goal, there was no reason to refuse, but… Arpel glanced sidelong at Rohan, who had been quiet all along. Regardless of the understandable reasons, Rohan’s will was more important to him.

Despite the subtle movement, their eyes met as soon as he turned his gaze. As if he had been watching him all along.

‘Shall we do it?’

Rohan mouthed. A faint breath escaped between his slightly parted lips. Because that caught his attention, Arpel, who had been looking at him for a moment, could only slowly nod after a bit more time had passed.

Even with the two’s obvious gazes right in front of him, Rohan only calmly nodded after getting an answer from Arpel. Evelyn’s gaze watching the two was peculiar.

In the end, she smiled again anyway. Whatever the case, it was a good thing for her as she had achieved a satisfactory result.

“It would have been difficult without you two. Given my position, I couldn’t openly ask the temple for help… and with talks of spies, I couldn’t fully trust the priests.”

With her wearing a relieved smile beside him, Lexia couldn’t help but smile as if resigned. Her face, relieved of worries, bloomed vibrantly.

The tea in the pot had decreased considerably. At some point, Rohan, who had been using Evelyn’s increasingly chatty words as background noise, suddenly asked:

“Does the Emperor dislike the temple?”

It was quite an abrupt question, and it didn’t match the topic, showing that he hadn’t been listening to what she had been saying. The person in question didn’t seem to mind much, though.

“Well… I’d say it’s not just dislike, but more like utter loathing? It seems there was a pretty bad incident between His Majesty and the temple when he was the crown prince. I don’t know the details, but I think I heard something about his grandmother passing away because of the temple… I’m not sure about anything else.”

The teacup was empty, and he had gotten the answer he was curious about. Arpel, meeting Rohan’s eyes, noticed that he wanted to leave and put down the cup he was holding.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes.”

It was a very firm answer, unlike the question dripping with reluctance. Evelyn pouted. It was an action that would have scandalized people who knew her status, saying it undermined the dignity of the imperial princess, but no one in this place cared about such things.

Arpel, smoothly ignoring Lexia who was waving goodbye, turned his back and added:

“If you’re looking for branches of the Salvation Church, be suspicious of places where you can feel holy power and magical energy. There should be some traces left by spies.”

“Hmm… I wonder if they were trying to make us suspect each other. Thanks.”

As an added note, she said she would ask some friends she knew on the temple’s side. The two turned their backs without any lingering attachment.

Not long after they opened the door and went downstairs, there was a tinkling bell sound from below. Guessing that the two had completely left the tea house, Evelyn rang the bell placed on one side of the table.

A waiter who came in skillfully tilted the teapot to pour warm tea into the empty cups. Except for the disappearance of two cups across from them, the table where they were sitting returned to a state similar to when they first arrived.

“So, are you satisfied?”

“Very much so. They seemed quite difficult to approach, how did you become friends with them?”

“We’re not exactly friends, but…”

He thought perhaps the two years he spent showing them around various parts of the empire had paid off. Lexia shrugged with a pleased expression.

“Ah, right. You seemed to be disliked.”

It was an honest assessment. Evelyn giggled at his dejected expression. At the same time, she recalled the image of the two who seemed to care for each other to the point of tenderness.

“Are those two always like that?”

She asked, slowly rubbing the round handle of the teacup with her thumb. The warmth from the steaming tea was faintly felt on her fingertips.

“They were. Even in the past, they were inseparable.”

“Hmm.”

It’s really amazing, even blood-related families find it hard to be like that.

Her muttering voice resembled a sigh. Lexia’s gaze briefly turned towards her. The silence continued, but perhaps feeling awkward about the atmosphere that had become subdued because of her, Evelyn belatedly put on a mischievous smile.

“By the way, why did you change it?”

“Change what?”

“You were originally planning to observe a bit longer, weren’t you?”

“Ah… that.”

It was a sudden change of topic, but it was quite natural between the two of them. Lexia, who immediately understood what she was referring to, calmly drank his tea. A bitter floral scent lingered in his mouth.

Originally, he had planned to just promise cooperation and discuss further what roles to assign. While he was confident in Arpel’s combat ability, he couldn’t be certain about Rohan who came with him. The strongest factor was a powerful intuition that if he assigned a difficult task and Rohan got hurt, it might be his head on the line.

“He’s grown a lot. He used to be just a small kid.”

The small child who used to be depressed about not being able to go with Arpel was now just a memory in the corner of his mind. Both his grown body and the look in his eyes towards Arpel had completely shed their childhood appearance.

Even just earlier, hadn’t he acted so viciously just because of one interrogation? Just by seeing how sharply he reached out, Lexia could be sure that he would be helpful, not a hindrance in terms of skill.

Only Evelyn, who had no way of knowing Lexia’s inner thoughts, wore a disgruntled expression.