If You Tell a Pickpocket to Save the Male Lead

A flustered Estribal grabbed Ciello’s shoulder. Yet, he felt no sensation in his hand.

“Ciello. What on earth did you do? What is happening?”

He questioned Ciello with confused eyes. But even this change was a relief to Ciello.

“It’s…changed.”

Ciello faintly smiled and grabbed his wrist. However, her hand transparently passed through Estribal.

“Ah…”

“Ciello!”

Estribal shouted sharply. Compared to his sharp scream, Ciello’s figure was too blurry.

“What is this…”

Estribal hurriedly looked around. The color that Ciello had given was all gone, and the room was entirely black and white. Ciello also licked her lips with a bewildered expression.

“What should I do? Have to…I have to catch it. This time, for sure…”

“This time…you say?”

Estribal, who realized the situation, asked in a trembling voice.

“Don’t tell me. You…turned back time?”

Ciello nodded weakly. Estribal took a deep breath.

“How could this be, Serpiente…How many times have you turned back…”

“I don’t know…”

Ciello closed her eyes slowly. Estribal finally shouted harshly.

“Why!! Can’t even handle it…Such a foolish act!”

Estribal jerked up Ciello’s collapsing shoulder. Each time, Ciello’s red hair faded to gray and shook like smoke.

“Were they…so precious to you? Enough to stand against me like this?”

“No…”

Ciello shook her head. But Estribal’s eyes were already completely flipped over. Estribal clenched his gun and shouted as if spitting out.

“That’s right! I was not wrong after all. I have to kill them all and tie your hands so you won’t leave me…”

“It’s really not!”

Ciello shouted back with all her strength. Even at her mosquito-like voice, Estribal was startled and paused. Ciello said.

“I…saw it. In that future…”

Ciello bit her lips tightly. From the tightly closed teeth, Ciello’s voice leaked out.

“The Duke was disappearing.”

Tears welled up in Ciello’s eyes. Estribal opened his mouth blankly.

“I… am disappearing.”

Ciello nodded hard.

“Am I going to die? There’s no way…”

“Of course, the Duke came back. You probably killed all those people.”

Ciello cut off his words.

“But that…broke the Duke too.”

Ciello put her hand on his chest. Estribal froze.

“That’s not the way the Duke wants. Right?”

A very faint sensation seeped over the heart that had been hardened for a long time. The heart throbbed numbly.

“Can’t we go a different way just once?”

A woman who was losing all her color and disappearing was shouting towards a man who wanted to disappear with all his might. Finally, Estribal dropped the hand holding the gun.

“Ciello…”

A faint smile hung on Ciello’s lips. Ciello’s hair, which had been becoming transparent, began to dye from the end again. But at that moment.

“Uh… Ugh!”

A groan mixed with pain spurted out of his mouth. Startled, Ciello opened her eyes wide and looked up at him.

“Duke?”

Estribal tore his shirt collar with a pale face. His pupils were blurring. Ciello shook his shoulder.

“Duke! Duke, please come to your senses. Okay?”

Estribal staggered to his feet.

“I have to…I have to go. That’s the command I received…”

“Duke, we decided not to do that!”

Ciello grabbed his arm. But Estribal shook off Ciello.

“Ah…!”

Ciello was pushed away weakly. Estribal leaned against the wall and supported his body, groaning.

“…Sorry… Ugh, I’m sorry. So get out of the way. Stay away from me.”

“Why, why are you doing this, suddenly why…”

Ciello approached him, staggering. He took a deep breath and looked down at Ciello.

“Duke. Please stop now. Okay?”

Ciello hugged his waist tightly. Estribal’s body twitched as if convulsing.

“Ciello, please…”

“I can’t let go. I don’t want to. Okay?”

Estribal let out a deep sigh.

“You…finally want to see what’s inside.”

Estribal pulled and loosened the cravat that was wrapped high around his neck. Then he unbuttoned his buttons, click, click.

“Duke? Suddenly…hiss.”

Ciello gasped for breath. A thorn as thick as a finger was digging into his neck over his scar-filled body, visible through the open shirt.

“What…what is this…”

Ciello’s lower lip trembled in astonishment. Estribal faintly lifted the corners of his mouth.

“The Emperor’s dog. This is my life now.”

“That’s impossible…”

Ciello’s face twisted in despair.

“The Emperor has already commanded me. To kill them all. And I can’t resist that command.”

As if to prove his words, the thorn glowed with a sharp light. Ciello was in pain as if her breath was being choked.

“Ciello, you said you saw my future. That I’m disappearing.”

Estribal sighed deeply and continued his words.

“But do you think this is the first time I’ve received such a command? Absolutely not. And every time, I wore out, broke, and disappeared, leaving only a shell, just as you said.”

He tilted his head with a desolate expression and scoffed.

“That empty shell is me now. How can you…”

Estribal clenched his teeth without being able to continue the next word. An indescribable expression appeared on his face.

“How dare you…”

Ciello couldn’t answer. His past, which couldn’t be persuaded by the depth of the future she had seen, was separating the two.

“You said it too. I’m a dead end. So don’t try to come into me.”

Estribal removed Ciello’s hands, one by one, from around his waist.

“What has already happened…cannot be erased.”

What happened.

The moment she heard those words, some intuition flashed through Ciello’s mind.

“Wait…just a moment, Duke.”

Ciello grabbed him urgently.

“Duke, you may not know, but killing those people is something that has already happened, right? Just as you said.”

Estribal nodded silently.

“Then the command is over, isn’t it?”

“What?”

Estribal’s eyebrows twitched.

“The Emperor commanded, and you did as you were told. Then it’s over! The Emperor never told me not to turn back time!”

“Such nonsense…”

Estribal frowned. But Ciello shook her head desperately.

“No. Serpiente said the same thing. What has happened…never disappears from the world.”

Ciello shouted, gripping his arms tightly.

“So you’ve already obeyed the command. It’s all over!”

“Such… there’s no way…”

Estribal stood nailed to the spot, with saliva dribbling down his chin. Ciello glared at the thorny vine wrapped around his neck and spoke.

“Hey. Duke, you’re not going. Got it?”

Then the sharp light seemed to listen to Ciello’s words and swelled from his neck. The light threatened and reached out towards Ciello.

“Ciello, stop it!”

Estribal shouted in surprise.

“You’ve done enough. I can bear to add one more sin to a myriad of sins. I’ve already given up being human…”

Ha. Ciello cut off his words.

“Don’t joke. Why isn’t Duke human?”

Estribal pounded his chest as if suffocated.

“How can a body that can’t feel any sensation be human!”

“Liar. You said you could feel everything in front of me!”

Ciello gripped the thorny vine on his neck with both hands.

“Ah… Ah!”

Ciello screamed in pain. Blue flames spurted from the thorn that pierced through the palm of Ciello’s hand and the back of her hand.

“Ciello, stop…!”

But Ciello closed her eyes tightly and pulled the thorny vine. He staggered and collapsed towards Ciello. Ciello bumped her lips against his.

“Ciel…!”

Estribal’s eyes widened. It was a lip that had never been touched by anyone else’s.

Soft things, rough things. Wet or dry things. Sweet and bitter things. Things that boil below the waist with a desire to conquer, yet make you want to kneel under your feet.

He couldn’t avoid it anymore. He suddenly hugged Ciello’s body and swallowed her lips. The sensation rushed through his nerves.

“Ah, Duke. Heup…”

Tears of unknown origin flowed between their lips. It was a moment in his long life, but now he was definitely existing as a human.

“You… ha, you finally…”

At that moment, the turquoise light wrapped around Estribal’s neck twisted his body. The light that had been pierced by the thorn was released and escaped into the air, drawing a long path. As if it too had been trapped.

The lips of the two who felt this slowly fell apart. Estribal still couldn’t believe it and dumbly felt his neck.

“It’s… gone.”

The thorny vine was still there, but the power of the command was no longer felt. Ciello smiled and licked her lips.

“See, I’m… right?”

Ciello, drained of strength, collapsed into his arms.

“I’ll just sleep a little. Just a little bit…”

Ciello slowly closed her eyes. Ciello–ello. Estribal’s voice calling out in agony faded away. Instead, a familiar voice brushed through Ciello’s mind.

–You, quite…have a good head.