Chapter 91: The Fairy Entered My Bath Time [Part 2]

Chapter 91. The Fairy Entered My Bath Time [Part 2]

She sat on the tub side, looking down on me.

I studied her face for a moment before raising one eyebrow.

"What?"

Lily blinked innocently.

"Are you checking to make sure your husband is actually bathing, or are you planning to drown me with flower petals again?"

Her lips twitched, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. "No."

"No to which one?"

"Both." Her wings shifted softly behind her. "I’m checking if you’re okay."

I opened my mouth to repeat the same answer I’d already given downstairs, but Lily spoke first. "And don’t say you’re fine."

Damn.

She knew me too well.

Her gaze traveled over my shoulders, lingering on the bruises the hot water hadn’t hidden and the smaller cuts that remained despite the Health Potions I’d taken.

"I know most of the blood wasn’t yours," she continued softly. "But some of it was."

I exhaled through my nose. "I couldn’t exactly expect to enter an S-rank dungeon and come out without a scratch."

Her expression immediately sharpened. "S-rank?"

Ah, that part hadn’t been included in my note.

Oops...

I suddenly found the flowers very interesting.

"Rey."

"Hollowgrave has monsters ranging from B to S-rank."

"You went alone."

"I did."

Her wings gave one irritated flutter. "You should’ve brought one of us."

I shook my head. "I couldn’t."

"Why?" Her voice wasn’t angry. That would have been easier to handle. She sounded hurt.

Lily shifted closer along the edge of the tub, her bare fingers curling against the marble.

"We aren’t damsels, Rey. We can fight. All of us." Her eyes held mine. "Seris can fight. Ariel can fight. Nia can fight. Liora can fight. I can fight. You don’t have to disappear into dangerous places alone just because you’re afraid we’ll get hurt."

"I know."

"Then why?"

I looked at her. Really looked at her. The joking disappeared from my face. "Because what I went there to retrieve was more dangerous than the monsters."

Lily became still.

The only sound between us was the faint movement of water as another flower petal drifted against my shoulder.

"The thing I needed to take," I continued, "was something I couldn’t allow any of you to go near."

Her brows drew together.

For several seconds, she said nothing.

Then understanding slowly entered her eyes.

"Is it related to the Dark Lord?"

I nodded. "Yes."

Lily’s fingers tightened against the marble.

"I buried it there before." I glanced at the water. "It had been hidden for so long that even I almost forgot about it. But after finding out what the Light Temple intends to do, leaving it there stopped making sense."

"I heard some information from Nia." Lily lowered her voice. "It’s related to the Holy Relic, isn’t it?"

Another nod. "They intend to use it on me."

Lily’s brows drew together. "To check on you again?"

"That’s what they’ll probably call it publicly." I gave a humorless smile. "Another examination. Another precaution to make sure I’m fine and that there’s no corruption in my body."

Her expression darkened.

"But that’s not what they really want." My gaze hardened. "The Holy Relic can react to the Dark Lord’s curse inside me. They want to use that to control me. And if they can’t..."

Lily went still.

"They’ll kill me."

"Rey..."

"Or perhaps they’ll make it prettier than that." I leaned my head against the tub, staring at the drifting flower petals. "They could activate the Relic publicly and announce that it detected corruption inside me. Tell everyone Rey Valen was corrupted all along. That the Temple tried to save me, but I resisted."

My smile became colder.

"And once the public believes that, they can take me away without looking like executioners."

Lily’s fingers tightened against the marble.

"They get their monster," I murmured. "Then they get to decide whether that monster wears a leash or gets put down."

She stared at me.

I expected anger.

Instead, pity appeared in her eyes.

I hated it immediately.

I didn’t want pity. Not from her. Not from anyone.

I’d spent enough of Rey’s memories watching people look at him like a dying animal. I’d seen the sympathy disappear as his condition worsened, replaced first by discomfort, then fear, then disgust.

And Evan had known that look too.

At twelve, after my mana core was damaged, everyone had looked at me with pity. Teachers who once praised my potential lowered their voices around me. Relatives gave me sympathetic smiles. People told me how tragic it was, how unfortunate, how much promise I’d had.

Then, slowly, even the pity disappeared.

They moved on.

The talented child who had lost his future stopped being tragic once the tragedy became old news. I wasn’t hated like Rey was.

I was simply forgotten.

I didn’t need Lily looking at me like that.

Her hand rose.

Warm fingers touched my cheek.

I should have moved away.

Instead, traitorously, I leaned into her palm.

Just a little.

Apparently my pride had limits when my wife was touching me.

"I don’t understand," Lily whispered.

Her thumb brushed gently beneath my eye.

"You’ve proven yourself already. Your curse is stable. You’re not losing control anymore. You’re not mad." Her voice trembled slightly. "You aren’t hurting anyone. So why do they keep doing this?"

I remained silent.

"Why do they keep cornering you?" she continued. "Why do they keep forcing your hand?"

My eyes closed.

Because it had never really been about whether Rey was sane.

That was merely the easiest excuse.

"I did prove I’m sane, Lily."

Her hand remained against my cheek.

"But the people who accepted that proof were mostly the ones who hadn’t already decided what I was."

A pause.

"The public. Neutral nobles. Merchants. People who judge me based on what I’m doing now rather than what they expect me to become."

I opened my eyes again.

"The people who always saw me as trouble aren’t going to change because I smile more often and stopped screaming from the curse. To them, I’m still a problem. I’m simply a problem currently behaving himself."

Lily’s lips tightened.

"And someone they can throw away once you lose your value."

The words came out before I could soften them.