Blinded by the excitement caused by having to outwit a mage opponent and the tiredness caused by the way she had used her mana, Sae had forgotten about Leran and why she was avoiding him. As such, she blew her cover unconsciously. The book, after all, only ever mentioned the name of Narion -- never the name of others -- and told about his experience in a detailed way, but only because its author had been there to participate in the events and didn't really know any name outside the former demon king's. It didn't take long for the current one to understand it had been the white-haired girl that had written it after her own experience, since she had used the same spell as in the book. So, he thought she was the girl that his brother had hopelessly fallen in love with and tried to conquer the world for.
Now that he had made such a connection, everything suddenly made sense in the brain of the demon. While there was still room for doubt -- the fact they both knew the same spell wasn't actually useful proof -- Leran's emotions were blinded by that occurrence and it was only the beginning of a train of thought that made him really understand why Sae tried to avoid people. When Jerome had said there were no longer any flowers, did he mean that she kept regretting her carefree attitude that let Narion do so many evil things? When she avoided others, was it because she felt guilty of causing the war with the demons? Was that why she blew her cover to everyone in the world back then and let her presence as a top mage be known only when the demons were invading the world? Leran couldn't know the answer to these questions, but Sae's face that was showing tears gave him a good answer.
"I... I'm sorry." That was all she said as more and more tears fell down her eyes. "I-I locked up y-your old friend, but even before... I was the reason w-why he became so hostile... I-I threatened this world, it's my fault if he was so interested in it..." The Ice Mage explained regretfully, then added: "I don't know if you can forgive me after you know this. It's the r-reason why I push everyone away... I don't deserve their friendship. It's not that I'm distrustful... it's just my punishment, that I must be alone. W-without the flowers I once loved so much." Those were the last words that the girl whispered, almost if her voice was about to disappear soon after, before she put her hands up.
"My mana won't be enough to defend myself. Do what you have to." Sae announced, her voice lost. There were no more tears in her eyes, just acceptance. What she didn't realize was that she was the only person that had such a hateful, disgraceful and pathetic view of herself. Instead, the demon king was just processing the words inside his head to make her understand how he felt about her.
And so, feeling just like the girl he was talking to would disappear so fast, he took her hand and ran away from the cemetery with her following him just barely, then immediately reached a house nearby with the girl's hand still held in his strong grasp. On the spot, he changed her position, moving her in front of him and pushing her to the wall, so that she'd not leave.
Of course, the reaction from Sae was more of a shocked one. As she still couldn't process what was going on, she heard the beginning of heartfelt words from Leran's mouth.
"What are you talking about?" That was the first sentence that he said. It was not like he hadn't understood the situation, he just wanted her to know just how wrong her view on herself was.
"Since when is the victim to be blamed?" That was the first rhetorical question he posed to the white-haired sorcerer, keeping her hands locked in place so that she could only look at him as she spoke. And while Sae gazed at his red eyes that weren't angry, weren't pained and weren't sad, but had a hint of care and affection in them, she questioned herself for the first time.
"It's not your fault if you got manipulated. You're still the person you once were. You don't need to punish yourself, really, I don't blame you. I don't think anyone here, in this village, in this world, would. If you're the reason why my brother invaded this world, then so be it. He is the person who chose to do so and he did it to keep you in an even bigger stranglehold, so how can you say it's on you? You should have been reassured, you overcame the feelings inside you and defended the world and saved it. And don't say 'that's the least I could do.' Not everyone has the power and courage to do that." As Leran stopped saying those words, the girl in front of him was so moved that tears came out again from her azure eyes; still, the world 'brother' kept ringing in her head. But this time the tears were understood by the demon king, who hugged her on the spot.
Surprised by such a reaction from the white-haired man, Sae's eyes were wide open. And as he began to cuddle her to calm her raging emotions, for the first time she felt like he cared.
Soon enough, the Ice Mage went back to being completely calm, but wouldn't forget about how Leran saw every flaw in her and didn't even hesitate to show how much he cared. He didn't back away. That was a first in her entire life -- it made her heart beat fast, and the girl herself didn't really understand why -- and it felt nice.
"Alright. I believe there's some information you should know before we leave. Let me tell you about what's not written in the book, which isn't finished. The story about the demon king that invaded the world, the first one of his kind." Sae announced, her voice now steady and cold as it had always been. Leran nodded as everything had turned back to normal; he felt a bit sad because of that, he liked the weak and emotional mage but knew it was only a side of her much more controlled personality.
It'd be easy for him to blame her for being trapped in the coffin for so many years and killing her while she was weak. But he didn't do that -- he knew it wasn't her fault.
"You know, I had no idea he was your brother. I'm sorry I'm the reason he betrayed you -- sorry, that wasn't what I should be talking about." Sae corrected herself before she'd cry again, thinking of all the effects that her existence caused. The sole reason why she hid her existence, so she wouldn't cause the same issues to human kind. "Narion's mind spiraled. He didn't only betray you, he attacked the entire group because they were the only people that knew about my existence. Soon enough, some of them ran, some of them were forced to hide to avoid losing their life. But he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more, he wanted a world with only me and him. And so, he decided to use the magic he had learnt to create a portal to the Spirit Realm to bring as many demons as possible. So many that the world would've been easy to conquer. All of them wanted to get stronger, gaining emotions from humans, while all he wanted, all he asked for was my love."
"But it didn't work. He was a powerful mage, had a good magic sense and was very smart, but had a fatal weakness to him. He thought he was the best at everything." She casually explained. "He asked to fight me one on one. Me, who had practiced what had been taught to him for many years prior. Who had perfected those spells. Who had created them. He felt like he could win, it was then that I realized just how pitiful I must've seemed to make him think that." The Ice Mage said, her voice cold.
"And so, his face was one of surprise when it only took me two spells to end that battle. It was only a hard fight because I refused to kill him, so I had to put a lot of mana to lock him up for long." The girl explained, shrugging it off. "The problem wasn't the war itself. Narion's arrival caused many deaths of mages, that I could never accept. It's why I removed myself from history. The reason why you could even read about the story of the demon king, something I personally erased, was because that was my book. I wrote it." The white-haired girl explained, then stopped talking and got close to Leran again to test if the things she had said made him angry. She wouldn't be mad at such a thing -- it was only normal in her eyes.
But quite the contrary happened.
Something that she'd never have predicted was the mischievous curly-haired demon coming towards her with an expressionless face, then suddenly embracing her. But he wasn't satisfied with only that.
"She feels so ethereal. As if she'd disappear at any point. Is that what my brother felt?" He asked himself as his strong embrace made sure that she didn't really fade from his view, but also worked to calm the sorcerer a bit more, as she once again had strained herself by talking about a matter she didn't like too much.
And then, as if compelled by the situation, he put his lips in front of hers as she gazed at his face coming closer.
What not even Leran expected was that it was Sae herself who kissed him then. While she would've asked herself later why she had chosen to do so when she didn't feel that strong of an attraction towards the demon quite yet and was usually a rational person, something that she knew from the beginning was that he was the best thing that had happened to her so far. A person that wouldn't judge, that didn't only care about the part of her which could be defined as perfect and that gazed at her flaws and still stayed, a person that had all the reasons in the world to hate her but didn't.
As she looked at his satisfied face, she could feel her own becoming extremely red as realization of what she had just done arrived to her mind and she immediately looked away from Leran, who laughed at such a reaction from the Ice Mage. But even he, who was compelled by his emotions to get near to her cute face, was extremely embarassed by how she had reacted.
Soon enough, both became so embarassed at the situation that they just decided to head back to the mountain and didn't speak another word for that day.
