Chapter 108

Vincent reflexively accepted Aria, who collapsed without strength, but at the same time lost his center and collapsed.

"Ouch......."

He rubbed his arm as it hit the floor and pulled himself up.

Fortunately, Aria was not hurt because Vincent acted as the cushion.

"Sister-in-law?"

He made Aria sit back in his arms and patted her lightly on the cheek, but she didn't respond at all.

She was knocked out.

Surprised, Vincent lowered his head to listen to Aria's breathing.

He wasn't a doctor, so he couldn't tell the details, but it sounded strangely light.

"Damn, I'm going crazy. She's already weak, why...?"

Vincent could guess how deadly the song she had just sang was to her. Aria has never collapsed since she was ten years old.

He murmured nervously and then called out to the dazed navigator.

"Come on, raise the anchor!"

"What? Oh, yes!"

The navigator, drunk on the song, hurriedly raised the anchor and spread the sails. They were able to get out of the island quickly because the wind blew them strangely out of the island.

"Hmm?"

Cloud placed Winter roughly on the floor, then looked bewildered.

As he was about to climb up outer hull, the boat carrying the slaves started suddenly. However, the scenery on the ship seemed to shown them succeeded in recapturing the ship together with the slaves.

'Is this already resolved?'

Cloud scratched the back of his head. He quickly approached Aria's ship.

That was the moment.

Cloud was startled to find Aria lying on her back in Vincent's arms.

It was then that Lloyd came to his senses.

"Aria!"

As the slaves were building a bridge between the two ships, Lloyd jumped over it and passed over to the ship Aria was on.

And he hastily took her into his arms.

"Brother."

Vincent, who meekly handed Aria over to Lloyd, called him with a worried face.

"How did this happen? Why did Aria sing her song......."

"...don't you know?"

The moment he heard those words, Lloyd hardened his body.

He actually knew. He knew but he wished he didn't.

How was he supposed to accept the fact that Aria's life was devoured while trying to save him?

"Why why......."

Why do you....... Lloyd grabbed Aria's bloodless cheek with trembling hands.

It was Lloyd who told her to never sing her song. But in the end, Aria had no choice but to sing. It was because Lloyd was briefly engulfed by malice and lost his reason.

'Because of...... me.'

At that moment, he recalled a nightmare that was engraved like a stigma in his brain.

Even then, Lloyd tried to annihilate it with God's malice, but the malice ran rampant in his body. In the end, he eventually had to hold Aria in his arms, who was getting cold as she shed her blood.

Of course, it was just a dream.

Now is.......

"Easy to go crazy, easy to break..."

Lloyd muttered.

Upon hearing this, Vincent was startled. Because it was something he said when he was young.

"Brother, back then there was no meaning..."

"No, you always tell the truth."

Vincent looked complicated, neither affirming nor denying.

'Brother will be poison to my sister-in-law, and my sister-in-law will be poison to you.'

Obviously, his past self came to the above conclusion after a long analysis. Even today, that thought has not changed.

"There must be a way."

Vincent threw an unbecoming consolation.

He twisted his eyes and saw his older brother showing his cruel feelings, so he felt like he had to.

"......Aria."

Lloyd murmured in a whisper and hugged her tightly.

She was warm. She was still alive. He could hear her heart beating regularly.

Although relieved by that fact, it seemed that the dream would come true someday.

'If, like that dream, God's malice runs rampant someday.......'

Something incomparable to a momentary loss of reason will happen.

But even then, Aria was going to try to stop his rampage somehow with her own strength.

'With this weak body.'

No matter how strong and great the Siren's abilities were, they were no match for God's malice.

The god who created this world.

The source of the absolute world.

He bore the malice of that overwhelmingly great being in his body.

And, if the dream-like end came.......

'Can I survive then?'

Lloyd clenched his fists. He bowed his head down and whispered in her ear, unable to hug her tightly for fear of breaking her.

"Wake up quickly."

And hold her hand

As always.

How long has she been asleep?

She had a very long dream. A longing, painful and sad dream.

Aria felt hot tears run down her face to her ears. Although she felt a hotter touch wiping the dripping water.

Aria blinked her eyes.

The bed curtains filled her vision.

"Here..."

It was Aria's room in the Grand Duke's castle.

'Grand Duke's castle?'

Her half-dazed head was awakened in an instant. Her certain last memory was singing on the ship, but she doesn't know how she got here.

Has she been sleeping for so long?

Turning her head with a bewildered face, Lloyd was staring down at her. With a face that seems to have stayed up for several days and nights.

'I think something like this has happened before.'

Aria's expression, who had been scouring thoroughly as if observing Lloyd, suddenly hardened.

With a pale, weary face, she jumped up from the bed.

Lloyd pressed Aria's shoulder.

"Lay down."

"But, Lloyd, your eyes..."

Lloyd blinked his eyes. And fumbled around his own eyes.

"Why the eyes?"

"Your eyes have changed."

"What's so important about that..."

Lloyd didn't care whether his eyes were black or red.

But when he started to see the water in Aria's eyes again, he decided to pay more attention to the color of his eyes.

"How did my eye color change?"

"The color has faded. A bit gray."

But as Aria answered his question, she suddenly burst into tears. Lloyd wiped away Aria's tears with a sign of embarrassment that anyone could see.

"Why are you crying over something like that... um, then. I'm going to ask Carlin if there is any magic that changes the eye color to black."

"It's not like that."

Why does it matter if his eyes were black using magic? Lloyd's eyes were already starting to fade like Grand Duke Valentine's.

'It's still a little paler, though.'

Does it get closer to a pale gray color the more he gets stained with malice?

Aria placed her own hand over Lloyd's, wiping her eyes. And when she was licking her lips.

"Young Madam! You're awake!"

Marronnier, who had been dozing next to her, suddenly woke up. Then she ran with a weeping sound.

"The doctor is a quack, a stupid idiot. He says nothing is wrong with your body every day."

"N, no, there's really nothing wrong with that..."

The doctor Cuirre countered with a voice full of injustice.

But the reaction from the people was chilly.

Vincent, who had wide eyes like Lloyd, sarcastically spoke in a cold tone.

"Are you saying that a person with nothing wrong would have been unconscious for three days?"

"I'm also curious about that..."

Even today, Aria's innocent doctor was being bullied.

Aria was surprised that she had passed out for three days, but she soon accepted it.

'I've had such a long dream.'

Probably that's why she passed out and didn't wake up.

Aria beckoned Cuirre, who was about to cry because of the bullying, to leave. He left the room in a hurry.

And she looked at Vincent without a word.

"It doesn't matter."

Vincent quickly recognized Aria's gaze and shrugged his shoulders.

"But you'd better be prepared."

What?

"It was bigger than we expected, so the Grand Duke and his wife also got to know the details of this incident."

"......"

"Hear from Brother the details of what happened after that."

Their plan to sneak around while Tristan and Sabina were in the Imperial Palace was thwarted when Aria collapsed.

'It wasn't enough to go out secretly, I came back hurt.......'

Aria sighed, not wanting to make them worry for nothing. Yet she made them even more concerned.

Lloyd's eyes faded and Aria collapsed.......

"Why doesn't the handmaid come out with me?"

"What? No. Young Madam can't do without my devoted care."

Vincent pointed to Lloyd and whispered in a cruel voice, "Then he'll take devoted care of her himself.".

And dragged Maronnier, which had hardened like a frightened squirrel.

Aria was left alone with Lloyd.