Neither Lucas nor Mathias cried, but I could see the two were pretty affected by everything that was going on. I was glad, in any case, that at least this time they managed to part in better terms than the last time.
We couldn’t stay more though, and after a few more words, Lucas and I left. We arrived home in silence. Luckily Thomas had a pretty deep sleep, so he didn’t wake up when Lucas entered the room. I, on the other hand, slept alone, and as time kept passing I found I couldn’t fall asleep. After turning and tossing a few times I finally gave up, and with a huff, I sat up, glaring at nothing in particular.
It has been a long time since I was last unable to sleep. I thought I had finally gotten over the initial shock of the beginning when the demon was first transferred to me, but with Mathias’ visit it was like all those feelings of insecurity and anxiousness returned. Or maybe they had always been there, but I had managed to occupy my mind with other things and push it back until Mathias’ sudden return brought them forward once more.
I sighed, turning my eyes to my nightstand. There, in the drawer, I had placed the invitation Mathias gave me. Without thinking much of my actions I opened the drawer and took out the invitation. I lied on the bed again and turned the brief over in my hands, appreciating once more the details and texture. I passed my thumb over the broken seal, feeling the edges of the stamp, before opening it and taking out the invitation inside.
I reread it, thankful for the bright moonlight that allowed me to do so and this body’s eyes that, unlike my previous’ one that was pretty much night-blind, were sharp. I put it away, wondering when exactly would be the moment for me to use it and what excuse I should use to go there without my parents making a fuss. One thing I knew though and it was that Lucas could not go with me, as much as it pained me. It would be too dangerous, especially since the duke knew the previous viscount quite well.
Pursing my lips, I decided to leave that thought for later. I put back the invitation and hid it again in the drawer, before staring at the ceiling sullenly.
My hand went over to my stomach, and without looking I started to run my fingers over my navel. I knew, because I’ve seen it so many times that it would be forever engraved in my mind, that right there was the proof of my downfall. Above and below the navel, two marks resembling a semicolon were forever imprinted. Like a burn, it was dark and glaringly obvious whenever I took off my clothes to bathe. I did no longer take baths with my mother, afraid she would see it and ask, but in any other aspect it didn’t really interfere with my life. I always used clothes that covered my belly, after all, not having many other choices of clothing in this time and place.
While outlining the mark without much thought, I wondered about the demon and the previous holders. There were those that, like the viscount, didn’t even think of making contact with it, but then there were others who tried to communicate with it. The accounts of those who did were not good. Most of the time holders who excessively tried making contact with the demon would find themselves being driven to madness or suicide. There was an account of a woman around two-hundred years ago who almost managed to have a conversation with it, only to wake up with a knife in her hands and her guts spilled on the ground.
It was a consensus not to interact with the demon, and even those who went over to the land of dreams where I saw the younger version of the viscount talked only with their ancestors and nothing more. Considering the lines blurred more and more the farther you dived into the collective unconsciousness, the more dangerous and prone to lose yourself you became. So it was obvious the new generations knew practically nothing, being unable to interact with the older ones.
But that didn’t take away the fact that I was curious. Of course, there’s no way I’m going to try and contact that thing and be in danger of losing my mind or life, but I did remember the viscount telling me I could speak with him if I ever needed help. I guess I did need it, considering what’s living inside me, and the books were truly not much help, but then again, if the books were written by those same holders I would try to contact, then diving into the dreamscape would prove futile as much as reading books.
So I was at a lost. What to do when you had almost no information at all? The main villains in the manga possessed the bodies of humans, true, but this was different. This thing had been passed down for thousands of years and it was not controlling us, we were its jailer. I understood the idea of talking with it and get some sort of truce would be appealing, but it obviously never worked, so what to do then?
Well, maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about it. After all, in a few months this thing wasn’t going to be my problem anymore, but Mathias’. And what he wanted to do after that was completely his decision. I would not lie and say I wasn’t curious, but at the same time…
Wait.
After the viscount died in the manga, where did the demon go?
…
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t remember the subject ever being brought up. The manga ended with a happily ever after. Adela became a top mage and roamed the earth. Mathias found peace and took on the title of his uncle after the latter’s untimely death. Lucas married and had a daughter. Isabella and Noah settled down together and had a son. And…
And there was a fucking stupid sequel set ten years after the end of the original manga where Noah and company embarked on a new adventure because something happened to Lucas' daughter and they needed to rescue her and don’t fucking tell me this demon was going to be the final boss in this new manga?! Of course, the demon menace has not been completely eradicated, I remember reading that in the previews for it. Everyone was excited because the main story had been over for ten years, so it came as a big surprise when they suddenly announced a sequel but I never managed to read it because Mio committed suicide before it was even out!
The heck!
Nooooooo! Why did you kill yourself Mio?! Why didn’t you wait until the new manga was out?! Whyyyyyyyy?!
The rest of the night I spent curled into a ball and crying.
Thanks for the chapter! So if the demon was the main antagonist of the sequel then that still leaves us wondering where it went after the Viscount died, but it is good to know it was not a completely unaddressed plot point. Too bad Elaine really got screwed out of that information. Looking forward to when the plot kicks into high gear.
Yep, that's the reason Elaine never knew anything about this demon. There is (obviously) an explanation for where it was all that time (the sequel was set ten years after the end of the main story, but the main story itself ran for around six-seven years in-universe, so that makes at least sixteen years the demon went MIA) but since in this story the demon went to Elaine, it is unlikely it will ever be known where it was and what it was doing in the original manga unless this author decides to tell.