My Will Did Not Mean This

“Oh, I can’t take it anymore.”

 

Aslan’s mouth twitched ominously. The pupils turned an eerie red. Vivian felt something unnatural. His eyes were so red that it was obvious to anyone who could see them, but she was the only one who noticed it. He was strange, but she didn’t have time to think about it for long.

 

“Aslan!”

 

Vivian suddenly clung to his arm. She had to somehow get him to regain his senses. She didn’t care whether the Duke died or not. However, if he turned into a demonic beast, even himself, the most precious thing in the world, dies. A curse appeared in the middle of the capital, and there was no way the witness could be left alive!

 

“Okay, I don’t think it’s worth dealing with anymore. Let go of this!”

 

The Duke also seemed to sense that the atmosphere was unusual. Suddenly he shook off Aslan’s arm. There was no way she could solve Aslan’s grip, which even he couldn’t solve, but for some reason, Aslan let him go.

 

The Duke stormed out of his banquet hall, hiding his red, swollen wrists with his sleeves. The sound of footsteps quickly receding across the hallway.

 

“Aslan, are you okay?”

 

“…”

 

Aslan was staring without blinking at the door through which the Duke had left. His eyes calmed down. Like the calm before the storm.

 

“Now it all comes together.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I tell you, you will never marry someone other than me. If that happened…”

 

Aslan, who was muttering something low, soon smiled. He stroked Vivian’s hair and whispered sweetly.

 

“It’s late, so let’s stay here tonight.”

 

“Are you okay? I thought you were going to ask me to go back right away.”

 

“Ah, something urgent came up. I’ll be there soon, so rest first.”

 

Aslan’s eyes slowly widened as he looked at Vivian.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

There was a lullaby like this in the Empire of Astaroth.

 

‘It is said that the devil appears on nights when the red moon rises. So don’t open your eyes.

 

You must never open your eyes…’

 

“Ugh, what a monster.”

 

“Crr!

 

Aslan looked down happily at the man trembling beneath his feet. It was completely different from before, when the momentum was so strong. He rolls on the floor ungainly just by revealing his true self. He humiliated Vivian, put his hands on her, and even tried to sell her out to an old pervert on the subject. She was a delicate and lovely woman who he dared not even touch her with a finger. Suppressing and repressing his seething desires, she was carefully seducing him until he was completely hers.

 

“Who, is there anyone! It’s a monster! A monster has appeared!”

 

“…”

 

“No, devil. That’s the devil. It’s the devil!”

 

The Duke’s squeaking voice was annoying. Aslan pressed his neck gently with his front paw.

 

“Kkeok, kkeok…”

 

The sensation of the arteries throbbing beneath the soles of his feet was vivid. Aslan felt strange again. He always lost his senses when the curse occurred. He wandered through the same bottomless pit as the swamp, praying and praying miserably for this terrible time to end. One day if he was lucky, a month or more if he was unlucky.

 

‘Consciousness is clear. I can control my impulses a little, but I feel much freer to use my strength.’

 

Aslan thought of Vivian. Her desperate cry calling his own name. She held his hand every time he fell helplessly into the black swamp. Then, before he knew it, his eyes became clear.

 

‘It made me wonder if Vivian had the ability to suppress the curse… That can’t be possible.’

 

She was pretty good. If only he could hold her small, delicate hand in human form.

 

“Krrrrr.”

 

“Hee hee, hee hee! Please save me, save me, save me!”

 

Before the Duke’s breath expired, Aslan took his foot away. It didn’t suit him to kill so easily. When he received from his subordinate the report of the investigation into the house of Eleonora, and when he learned with what mind Vivian must have clung to him, he vowed never to kill the Duke easily.

 

[Poisoning of the Duchess]

 

This was the beginning of the report. The ancestor, Duchess Eleonora, had no children to succeed her. Although she excelled in all fields, including politics, her weak body made it difficult for her to take on important responsibilities. The ancestors decided to bring in her son-in-law as her collateral. Instead of the son-in-law sitting in the position of head of the family, she wanted the woman to hold the position of power. So, even in the collateral world, they chose an ordinary man. The person chosen was the current Duke. It was a disaster for Eleonora’s family, but the real problem for Aslan began after the Duchess died.

 

[Continued abuse and violence by the Duke]

 

[Theft of the legacy left behind by the deceased Duchess]

 

[Intentionally promoting malicious public opinion about princesses]

 

[Request for the royal family to break off the engagement in order to isolate the princess from the outside world]

 

[The princess’s failed suicide attempt]

 

As the contents of the report came to mind one by one, Aslan crushed the Duke’s bones one by one. When the Duke lost consciousness after screaming, Aslan bit his limbs and shook him wildly. He had red blood splattering on the bedroom wall. Only when there was no healthy part of the Duke’s body did Aslan stand up.

 

“Why are you, why are you…!”

 

“You are lucky. It’s rare to get a chance to see me like this.”

 

Watching the giant black lion gradually return to its human form, the Duke’s eyes widened in astonishment.

 

“Astaroth. The Great Evil Astaroth has returned!”

 

“Talk more.”

 

“A wicked devil disguised as a human has been resurrected! It’s the devil, it’s the devil! I need to tell you this quickly! Your Majesty, hurry to your Majesty!”

 

“Can you hear me shouting like that?”

 

Under the red moonlight, a perfect naked body like a sculpture was revealed. As Aslan relaxed, his wide shoulders and deeply curved muscles like sculptures twitched menacingly.

 

“Hey, I’ll help you, so shout somewhere.”

 

Aslan grabbed the Duke by the scruff of his neck and dragged him to his window. He broke the window with his foot and threw the duke onto his balcony.

 

“A monster appeared. A dirty and hideous demon has appeared, pretending to be a human being in an abominable manner.”

 

“Please, Your Highness, save me, please save me!”

 

“Still, it would be good to keep this in mind. No one dares touch Vivian. She is mine. Just mine.”

 

“Yes, yes, take Vivian and save me…”

 

A pair of red eyes turned to the Duke. The Duke flinched like a mouse in front of a tiger.

 

“You have such an amazing talent.”

 

“Um, Your Highness?”

 

“Every time you open your mouth, how dare you pick on my evil face.”

 

The Duke trembled with fear, thinking that he was about to die. But Aslan shook his hand away as if he had touched something dirty. Then, he slowly got up.

 

“Do anything to survive. Go around talking here and there.”

 

“…”

 

“Struggling as hard as you can.”

 

He smiled happily, muttering several times as if he were brainwashing the Duke. Aslan turned away, leaving the Duke trembling in fear. A few days later, Duke Eleonora was secretly summoned to the royal family. And he disappeared from the empire forever.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Aslan looked at his face in the mirror. He looked around carefully to make sure there was no blood anywhere.

 

“Is this enough?”

 

There was an attractive man standing in the mirror. There were no traces of the brutal slaughter everywhere, and the outlines of strong muscles were clearly visible beneath the perfect suit fit. Aslan never cared about his appearance. It was as worthless to him as the ants on his street. Until he decided he wanted to seduce Vivian.

 

“I hope she likes it.”

 

He felt good for the first time in a while. He smiles without even trying. He had no idea that revealing his true self in front of others could be so liberating. He felt subtly excited, like someone who had been trapped underground all his life and had come to the surface for the first time. But the best thing was that he cut off Vivian’s shackles with these hands. It didn’t matter if she didn’t recognize it. If Vivien’s world was torn down so he could build anew, that was enough.

 

After finishing his dressing up, Aslan calmly headed to Eleonora’s villa. The life-like glow in his eyes changed to dull in an instant. Aslan entered the garden and suddenly stopped.

 

‘How will we do it?’

 

It was this late at night and the brother and sister were sitting in the garden talking. A small bonfire crackled between them.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

After the Duke, who had been behaving badly, left the dinner party, Vivian comforted Iris, who was in shock, with utmost sincerity and returned to her villa. But she was equally shocked. It wasn’t for any particular reason, it was because she wondered where in the world there was such a crazy father.

 

“It’s not like running a business with children. What’s wrong with a 50-year-old old man?”

 

Vivian’s eighteenth birthday was just around the corner. She will soon become an adult. 

But even so, she has a degree. It made no sense for her to marry a man who was over 30 years older than her. Eleonora was not from a family that lacks money. Recently, her political power has declined due to the incompetence of the head of the family, but the honor passed down from generation to generation remains strong.

 

“He thought I was trying to punish him harshly by writing about the accident in my will. But he threw the wine glass and raised his hand, and if I hadn’t dodged it, I would have been hit and killed by now.”

 

Fortunately, avoiding the Duke’s attack was easier than avoiding fallen leaves on the street. The Duke was just a fat, stocky guy who didn’t even know how to hold a weapon. Even though she was avoiding it, she was doubting whether it could be this easy.

 

“Um, what is this?”

 

Vivian, who had been sitting on the sofa, soon stood up again. She had something caught under the cushion.

 

“A diary?”

 

It was a diary so old that the leather was worn out. Vivian wondered why this thing was stuck in the crevice of the sofa. The place it should be… She naturally looked under her nightstand and tilted her head. She felt a strange sense of déjà vu, but she thought she must be mistaken and quickly looked away.

 

When she opened it, it was a diary, as expected. But after a few pages… No, her face gradually hardened.

 

“What’s this…”

 

The diary began on the seventh anniversary of the Duchess’s death. It was when Vivian was ten years old.

 

[An obituary report came from my mother’s family. My great-aunt, who had retired from the front lines to recuperate, died in a carriage accident. My brother and I were to inherit the inheritance. Who will protect my siblings now?]

 

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