Episode 117: Empty Black
“Huh… hng… huh.”
As if gasping for breath, she expelled the violent emotions going through her with her sobs. The blood on her hands was still there, but the world before her eyes had completely transformed. Before she could fully grasp what had happened, a man with jet-black eyes rushed towards her.
At first, the man saw her and looked at her in disbelief. Unlike the cold expression on his face, he ran towards her with a sense of urgency, as if afraid of losing her. He looked terrifyingly focused.
It wasn’t like she had done anything wrong, so she wondered why it made her feel inexplicably anxious to run away for some reason.
“Muriel Storm!!”
His roar was indistinguishable—whether it was anger or if he was about to burst into tears, she could not tell. Nevertheless, her heart skipped a beat as if facing a lion’s roar, and she was overwhelmed, unable to move. Although his grip on her shoulders was painfully tight, she couldn’t even muster a small groan, let alone say that it hurt.
She stood frozen like a deer caught in headlights, trembling.
“Sob…”
The man urgently embraced Muriel. It was only right to push this strange man away, but she just let her hand drop limply and remained in his embrace. Her startled heart gradually calmed down… Ironically, she found herself breathing calmly in the arms of a stranger, feeling a sense of relief that made her dizzy, so she just stayed there, nestled in his warm embrace.
However, as Muriel’s breathing became calmer, the man’s breaths grew ragged. A suppressed sob echoed in Muriel’s ear, and she could feel the agitation of his large frame, which was bent to embrace her, through her skin.
“How could you forget me again?”
When Muriel’s hands refused to curl around his back and instead lay limp no matter how long he hugged her, he pulled her out of his embrace and grabbed her hand. It was smeared with blood.
“Why do you look like this?”
“Did we know each other well?”
At the familiar question, Kaiton felt as if his heart was pierced by a needle. Her face, which looked at him without any warmth, and her slightly dazed and exhausted expression — they all stabbed at his heart.
“I won’t tell you… Because you’ll end up loving me again… And if you find out that you left… You’ll be very hurt.”
“You’ve already said something similar, though. Well… It’s not surprising that we were acquainted.”
“You… Did you dream there too?”
Muriel looked at Kaiton quietly. Just a moment ago, he had blamed her for forgetting him, yet he seemed worried that she might have dreamed of him. It was a face she certainly did not remember, but it hadn’t felt unfamiliar from the moment she first saw him. As if she had seen him somewhere before — as if she missed it for a long time.
Perhaps, as he had said, the strange dreams she had every night were about him.
“It just… felt like the pieces of a puzzle fitting together. Did you give me this, too?”
Muriel showed him the black pendant necklace that hung around her neck. Kaiton nodded, and Muriel nodded in response too, as if she had expected it.
“I thought so. It felt similar… The feeling when you hugged me and when I held this necklace… They were similar.”
It was a sense of relief and comfort, feeling like she belonged there. When she was in the man’s embrace, she felt an indescribable emotion that was incomparable to when she clung to the necklace, but she couldn’t bring herself to say that.
“I’m not ‘you’… but Kaiton. Kaiton Ur.”
Had he said she would fall in love with him again? Were they lovers? Muriel looked at the man who sadly spoke his name in a low, subdued voice.
As the thought that what she had lost was this man, anxiety overcame her. When she was in his arms, she felt like for the first time, her feet had touched the ground, and that her heart was full.
But now she was afraid that she would never feel that way again if she couldn’t remember who he was. Why? Why couldn’t she remember this man?
“Kaiton Ur.”
She said his name in awkward pronunciation, and the black pendant shone, as if in response to her call.
“Ah…”
Then, it spewed out a dark, flickering light towards the golden light that appeared around Muriel. It happened in an instant, like storm clouds gathering. Surrounded by the darkness, the symbols lost their light and shattered, disappearing. Muriel’s body swayed and shook from the force.
Kaiten embraced Muriel’s body, but this time, unlike before, her arms wrapped around his back.
“Haah…”
With a short sigh, he embraced her more deeply. It was a little more intense than before. It was a hug from a lover. Wherever his eyes fell, he planted long, tender kisses. He touched her cheeks and caressed her body as if to confirm she truly was there.
“Hug me a little harder.”
Kaiton whispered in a voice soaked with emotion.
“I missed you. I missed you so much it felt like I was going crazy.”
Kaiton kissed Muriel’s lips arbitrarily as if biting them, entangled his hot tongue with hers passionately, stroked her face as if to confirm her existence, and planted small kisses all over her face, making sounds that were a mix of moans and sighs. Muriel, breathlessly receiving his hot kisses, took a moment to catch her breath and whispered during a momentary gap in their lips.
“…Did you notice that my memories returned?”
She hadn’t said a word about it, yet…
Muriel checked his face. The corners of his eyes were damp. As expected, he had noticed that Muriel’s memories had returned the moment the magic circle was broken.
Muriel thought that Kaiton had realized it thanks to her knowledge of magic, but in fact, Kaiton had noticed the change in her breathing, her movements, and the way she looked at him.
Ah… he thought. My Mure has returned.
It was a miracle. He thought he would never see these eyes again since Katrina Knox had died. They were the eyes of a comrade, a friend, a family member, and a lover with whom he had shared everything together.
“There’s so much I want to say… but let me start with this.”
Most important of all was a word. Even after falling into the demon world, surviving in a hellish place, and being reborn as a Demon King, it was something he never forgot. It kept him alive, let him breathe, and made his world seem real.
“I love you.”
Muriel still seemed to hate him for recklessly trying to protect her and leaving her alone for so long. She struck his chest painfully and cried bitterly.
“I love you.”
Yet, those were the only words he could say. His life without her was like hell, it was as if the blood in his body had dried up during the time he couldn’t meet her, and how long he had suppressed an anger that wanted him to destroy the world – only he knew. There were so many things to say, and it would take as long as they had been apart to say all the unsaid words, but all those words paled in comparison to these.
“I love you. Let’s never be apart again. I can’t do that. I won’t be able to live otherwise.”
Me too. Muriel answered with difficulty between her heavy breaths, but it seemed Kaiton hadn’t heard her, so she tightened her arms around him, pulling him closer.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
“Have you heard? About Crawford. You know, that place used to be called the Ghost Estate. Apparently, the Demon King lives there. If you entrust your soul and make a contract with him, he lends you tremendous power.”
“What are you talking about? Where in the world is the Demon King? Are there still people who believe in such foolishness? And doesn’t the lord of that place who helps us tells us not to believe such things? The people who have received the gift of God serve that lord as their master. How could the Demon King live there if such a person is the lord? Are you saying our lord made a contract with the Demon King?!”
When the man shouted angrily, the man who had spoken looked embarrassed and tried to backtrack, saying, “No, that’s not what I meant.” Debbie, who had been on patrol and heard everything, looked at Kaiton, who pressed his robe a bit deeper and asked,
“I can offer you my soul. Will you make a contract with me?”
“Quiet.”
“…There’s been no progress in my research. What’s so terrible about a dark mage making a contract with the Demon King? If I make you my familiar, Kaiton, how about lending me some power?”
“…Be quiet. Don’t bother me.”
When rumors spread that Kaiton was the Demon King, there were signs of fear, but ever since he truly became the Demon King, Debbie had either lost all sense of fear or the obsessiveness of the dark wizard was triggered. Kaiton, who had been called a familiar by Debbie, clicked his tongue and pulled his robe even deeper.
“Muriel is waiting. Move faster.”
“Then how about signing a contract with the lord? If you become the lord’s familiar, you’ll be able to appear anytime, anywhere with a poof.”
“…”
“Um… you should have said ‘Don’t be ridiculous’ just now… You’re not seriously considering that, are you?”
“…You’re so loud.”
“But do you know? Lately, the lord has been studying with Sadie every day, saying she wants to make a familiar contract. Even if it’s not like Fen, she’s determined to sign a contract with a cute frost spirit.”
“…”
“Of course, you’re the Demon King Kaiton, and since you were human until recently, you might not have imagined ever being the familiar in a contract, but if you’re considering it, shouldn’t you hurry? If you’re too late, you’ll lose the seat next to Muriel to a cute frost spirit.”
“You…”
Oh, did she push too far? As Kaiton’s face turned grim, Debbie quickly grabbed the summoning stone connected to Muriel. However, instead of getting angry, Kaiton, who had become a fool who only ever thought about Muriel, flew away with a lame excuse, perhaps because his heart had grown warmer since becoming the Demon King.
“Finish the patrol by yourself. I have urgent… business to attend to, so I’ll leave first.”
“Is that really okay…?”
Debbie briefly imagined Kaiton becoming Muriel’s familiar, wagging his tail and acting coquettishly, then grimaced in disgust and shook her mind to clear it. To live a long and healthy life, one should only see and think about good things. Kaiton was generally not good for mental health, but especially so when he was attached to Muriel.
“Ah, spring is here. Those two are always in their own spring though.”
The kingdom still bore the scars left by the demons and Ur, but they were slowly healing. It was thanks to Muriel, Kaiton, and the people of the Ghost Estate, who never gave up.
There were still unappreciated wanderers in the kingdom – black magicians, different races, and even the Demon King, but with the Ghost Estate, there was no one who felt so lonely anymore.
Once called an abandoned land, the ghost estate was now known as Crawford. It was a place loved and respected by people.
<The End>
Hello, it’s your translator Ami again. This novel was my first attempt at translation – after doing a terrible job with my amateur skills, I initially dropped it for a year. I picked up and translated more novels, but this one always kept coming back to haunt me. I saw something in this story that I did not think I did justice the first time, so in the end, I came back to re-translate it from scratch.
Now, I can say I did for this story the best I could.
Muriel and Kaiton are a very complicated pair – I’m sure lots of you would call their relationship, especially their start, toxic, but that’s also one aspect of it that made their story all the more interesting.
I appreciate the author for keeping Kaiton’s character true to himself until the very end. I liked that he screwed up, had ambitions of his own, and was a human to the core – selfish, cowardly, unable to resist from love. Muriel’s love for Kaiton is also extraordinary. Muriel is not necessarily a good person, she has her own flaws, but at her core, she does her best to do what she believes in.
I think as the story progressed, we grew apart from Muriel. I personally wanted more time with her. If I were to make a criticism of this story, I would say the last arc was very rushed. Nonetheless, I do think this story is one worth reading until the end. Muriel and Kaiton’s story is one of struggle, compassion. They’re both very different people, but they work. Above all, their love for each other is a deep one.
There aren’t many that read this story, but if you did, I wish to thank you. Thank you for reading this story with me, and for going through all the ups and downs of it together with me. If I could ask one last thing from you, it would only be to leave a hopefully good review on this series’ nu page. I would love to read your thoughts here in the comments as well.
See you in another story ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡
