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“Can you not cure that?”

At Illyna’s question, Davey reflexively squinted. It wasn’t impossible for him to cure it; he knew the illness the princess was suffering from, and he could practically see the state she was in beneath her mask.

The girl flinched, feeling slightly surprised by the sudden influx of attention, but soon regained her composure. She calmed herself down and steadied her shaky hands, then made conversation with those around her.

“It’s not impossible,” Davey commented.

“Then can’t you do it?”

“You want me to go to her and tell her that I can cure her disease?”

“…”

“It’s just going to seem like a trick to win her over or something.”

“But…I feel so bad for her. She’s now an adult…”

“Still…” Davey’s face tensed up a little as he trailed off. “That disease should not be left in the world.”

Davey was determined; he didn’t care about other diseases, but he intended to erase every trace of that disease off the face of this world.

“Chuckle… You don’t seem like a dick when you act like this. Anyway, it’s getting pretty crowded.”

The large hall was spacious enough for all these people to roam around comfortably; however, only one part of the hall was busy now. All of the nobility had gathered near Aeria to speak with her. It looked like all the attention that Illyna initially had had shifted over to Aeria.

‘I’m seeing all kinds of things since there’s so many people at the banquet.’

As Davey was observing the chaos caused by the people’s uncontrollable intrigue, a nobleman gulped and began pushing past the crowd to get to Aeria. Then, as if it was a coincidence, he fell in her direction and flailed around, touching the part that was securing her mask to her face. The mask, which was tightly held to Aeria’s face, became loose. It fell to the ground, as if falling in slow motion.

Watching this, Davey pulled Illyna into his arms without hesitation.

“W—Wait?!” Illyna gasped, completely surprised by Davey’s sudden action. Her eyes were covered by Davey’s hand before she could feel him releasing his mana firsthand. Her jaw dropped open in surprise. Then, Davey moved the hand that was covering her eyes; what he was going to do was absolutely insane.

[Light-type Adapted Spell]

[2nd Circle]

[Light Absolute Block]

Davey used a magic spell that blocked the absorption of light toward some, and…

[Light-type Adapted Spell]

[4th Circle]

[Stun Grenade]

Yulis, Winley, and Princess Aeria, who was involved in this incident, were in the unaffected range. Illyna also wasn’t a problem, since Davey had physically covered her eyes.

Davey’s mana began to move after instantly forming an arrangement in the air. Soon, a huge flash of blinding light burst in the enormous hall. For a wide-range stun… A sun grenade did just the trick!

There were high-ranking individuals of various kingdoms at the banquet hall, and although this could be seen as terror…

‘Confucius once said, ‘Let there be light.’’

“Kyah?!”

“Ahh!!”

“My eyes!!”

The banquet hall fell into complete chaos. People began rolling around on the floor with their eyes covered. Some even struggled to walk away. Everyone reacted differently, but they all realized that they couldn’t open their eyes.

The light coming from light magic was also structured slightly differently than regular light. It shouldn’t be a problem, since the people’s sense of sight should return in about a minute and the side effects should subside shortly.

Davey could see Winley and Yulis looking around in surprise, as well as Princess Aeria’s big eyes of surprise. Her face, now revealed under the bright chandelier with her mask gone, was much worse than Davey had thought.

“Hup?!”

Davey met Princess Aeria’s gaze as Illyna flinched, realizing what Davey had done.

Aeria widened her eyes and slowly backed away. Davey couldn’t read the thoughts from her face, but she picked the mask off from the floor and ran out of the banquet hall.

“Hey… Hey, you lunatic…”

No one could believe that anybody would do such a thing in a banquet where royalty and high-ranking nobility from all over the world had gathered.

Illyna realized what was going on, and she muttered about how ridiculous everything was.

Davey immediately let go of Illyna and told her in a soft voice, “Sorry. I’m going to leave for a little while. Can you make sure that there aren’t any problems?”

The banquet was probably going to be put on hold, and the royal palace was probably going to go crazy over this incident. However, Davey didn’t regret the choices he had made.

To those affected with the ‘Melting Acceleration Virus’, their emotional trauma was unimaginable upon having others discover their ruined appearance. The disease did make people look that horrendous, but Princess Aeria’s face looked far worse than anyone else.

The man who took Aeria’s mask off was probably one of the Lyndis Empire’s nobility who despised beastfolks, and this was probably their scheme… Victims of any political fight never met pretty ends.

Davey had instinctively taken action once he saw the deep sadness and shock being reflected in Aeria’s innocent eyes. He also couldn’t shake off the feeling that it reminded him of a memory, which was about someone he couldn’t quite recall. And although he knew it was pretentious, he didn’t really object to it. So what if it was an act or a truly good deed? An injury was different from a disease; a doctor was someone who healed everyone, including their enemies. For Davey, he would heal his enemies, even those deserving of death, of their disease before ripping them apart afterward. That was what he had been taught.

‘Unnecessary brown-nosing? Screw that.’

50. The Relationship Between Salvation and Hypocrisy

Pitter patter!!! Aeria, the Lyndis Empire’s youngest princess who was part fox, quickly ran away. She didn’t even think about putting her mask back on. Although she looked thin and fragile, her distinct agility and flexibility as a beastfolk were incomparably superior to humans.

Aeria headed toward the large garden that was behind the banquet hall; it looked more like a forest than a garden. And since it was empty as well, she had clearly chosen her escape route quite well.

“Sob… Sob… Kyahh!”

She ran, exhibiting the distinctly superior agility of beastfolks. Unfortunately, she fell helplessly onto the floor after tripping over the front of her skirt. Perhaps the dress was too bothersome. Normally, she would’ve quickly gotten up, but she just wept miserably like she didn’t even have the strength to get up.

“It’s all over…”

Aeria never wanted to show it; as a woman, she desperately wanted to avoid showing the hideous features of her current face. That was also why she kept her mask on even in front of the emperor. The only person who had seen her face was Baron Gorneo, the Coalition for Disease Control’s council member who said that he would cure her.

Aeria had a dream of some sort; after she was cured, she was going to thank the person who had saved her and get to know them better. It was kind of funny, but she wanted to befriend the man she had fallen in love with at first sight and wanted to have a serious relationship with him if possible. She didn’t even care that he could possibly be a commoner, since she wasn’t the type of person who cared too much about that. The unique coziness she had felt from him made her want to feel it even more.

For a moment, it seemed like her small wish was going to come true; her father, who was against it, softened his cold expression and gave her permission with a sigh. He said that he would follow her will. And soon after, a doctor came to her, saying that he could cure her illness.

Everything seemed to be going fine. If this went on smoothly, Aeria thought that she could maybe forget all the hardships she had gone through and get what she wanted. She wanted to be like the small number of royalty or nobility who married out of love. She wanted to show her skin like normal people and laugh. She wanted to be buried in the arms of the one she loved and share an innocent kiss. She wanted to smile as her children grew up…

She thought she could take another step toward her small dream, but it all went wrong from the very beginning: unlike what she had expected, her disease was not cured.

Aeria wanted to get to know the one who had saved her, or maybe just even thank him, but she didn’t have the courage to approach him with her hideous face right now. The only reason she had attended the banquet was because her father had said that she needed a stronger position in the palace to be able to confidently go and meet him. She couldn’t do anything if she hid in the palace like a ghost princess, so that was why she had mustered up the courage and had gone to the banquet.

However, since her mask fell off as soon as she turned up, her desire to live had been brutally diminished.

Aeria’s miserable weeping resonated throughout the forest.

‘It would be nice if I could meet him, talk to him, have a meal with him, and have a lively relationship with him. I wish I could exchange messages of love, and plan for the future, saying that we will be by each other’s sides no matter what. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say, ‘Cheers!’ with wine glasses in our hands under a bright night sky while we look at each other with smiles and a loving gaze? But…’

“How could that be possible? With this face… With thisbody!!!!” Aeria wept, almost screaming. The man who rescued her hadn’t seen her face, but this incident had driven her confidence down into the gutter. The courage she had tried so hard for was treated like trash and had closed her heart off.

If Goddess Freyja was watching, Aeria wanted to grab her and ask why she had given her such hardship. Even this thought itself was out of character for her.

“Right… Maybe it would be better if…” Losing any love she had for herself, Aeria eerily stared at the pin she simply pulled out from her pocket. “If I have to live this miserably, I would rather…”

“Are you going to die?”

A weak but nostalgic fragrance tickled Aeria’s nose; it was the simple scent of dogwood. Then, hearing a man’s voice, she slowly raised her head with a blank expression. She even forgot that she hadn’t covered her face with a mask. She met the gaze of a pair of warm, red eyes that saw her for who she was.

The gaze was completely different from the people who were disgusted by Aeria’s appearance. She saw the black hair and the red eyes that had been clear in her memory ever since their very brief encounter in the forest.