Olentia frowned at him, and Dimidius continued.

“I felt divine power. You may not be aware of it, Lady, but you definitely possess innate divine power. As I am a half-demon… I can clearly sense whether someone has divine power or not.”

“That, that can’t be. I’m just an ordinary person.”

Olentia looked down at her hands and tilted her head. No matter how much she thought about it, divine power didn’t seem to suit her at all. The only questionable thing was becoming Pieta’s contractor. There was nothing else.

Seeing her bewildered, Dimidius spoke in a low voice.

“Since you say it’s not so, let’s go quickly. It’s late at night.”

As it turned out, he had torn the hem of his cloak when entering the forest and tied it to a branch. Olentia had mindlessly followed the white light and entered.

Olentia fearfully followed closely behind him, worried she might lose her way.

“Ah! Let’s go together!”

Then her feet got tangled and she stumbled on a rock, her body swaying. With her vision darkened, she could only flail her arms.

Her body fell down, kept falling down. At this rate, her face would directly hit the ground. The beautiful face she had cultivated for 23 years.

That’s when it happened.

A large hand wrapped around Olentia’s waist and lifted her up. His strength was as powerful as a fisherman hooking a shark.

Finding herself suddenly in Dimidius’ arms, Olentia gasped for shallow breaths.

Brilliant moonlight poured over the two.

The sharp scent of trees.

His perfume scent and broad chest were still the same.

Was this the third time already? Being absurdly held in a man’s arms like this. She feared she would appear too irresponsible.

Olentia couldn’t open her eyes out of embarrassment.

Still in his embrace, she fidgeted with her hands placed on Dimidius’ chest. Somehow, it felt like her heart would burst.

That’s when Dimidius brushed aside Olentia’s disheveled hair and said,

“I can’t carry around such a clumsy lady in my pocket either.”

Only then did he seem like the usual Dimidius she knew.

‘Why is my heart pounding? And what does he mean by carrying in his pocket? Who… could it be, me?’

Olentia was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t even stop him from brushing her hair. She just blankly looked up at Dimidius. With her hands on his chest and her head raised, it felt strange.

‘This is just… like someone expecting a kiss.’

She had no experience, but felt like she had seen a scene like this in a romance novel illustration.

Startled belatedly, she pushed Dimidius’ shoulders strongly.

“Get away!”

Then Dimidius, who had merely saved Olentia from tripping over a rock, grumbled.

“You’re being too harsh on the person who caught you. Just now, the face you’re so proud of nearly got scraped on the ground.”

Olentia rubbed her goosebump-covered arms with both hands and said,

“This won’t happen again in the future.”

“…What do you mean? Are you saying you won’t trip and fall again?”

“That’s right. I won’t stupidly trip. I’m saying I’ll take care of everything myself!”

Olentia’s voice, sensitive to the extreme, was filled with agitation. As she huffed, her chest heaved up and down.

She hated constantly receiving Dimidius’ help. If Sokol saw this, he would have treated her as someone who needed to be protected again. She was utterly sick of that.

“It might be better to just let me fall. Then I’ll come to my senses at least! Don’t you think?”

By getting hurt, healing, and facing such situations again, she might gain the strength to face Sokol.

What Olentia wanted was to become a wonderful adult and gain power.

But right now, there was no reason at all to be angry at Dimidius. As he said, Dimidius had done nothing wrong and had only helped her.

In the end, she had done something pathetic again.

‘Ah, why did I do that… I suddenly got upset.’

As the embarrassed Olentia bit her innocent lips, Dimidius, who fit so well with the tranquil forest, said,

“If you’re left alone or let your guard down, you’ll get hurt like before.”

‘Before? When?’

Noticing Dimidius’ gaze directed at her neck, Olentia laughed hollowly.

“Ah, this… it’s fine. It didn’t seem like a serious injury, so I didn’t call the Odor Count Family’s doctor. Even Uncle had no idea, you know? Whether there was a wound on my neck or not. It’s really too much. Even Uncle. Not knowing what happened to his only niece on the train.”

Fortunately, it had only been a slight stab. Even if the wound lasted long, it didn’t seem like it would leave a scar.

As Olentia finally smiled a little and returned to her usual self, Dimidius started walking again. She followed him, but suddenly, Dimidius’ torn cloak was placed over Olentia’s shoulders.

Finding herself abruptly wearing an enormous cloak, Olentia looked at Dimidius with dumbfounded eyes.

“I’m not cold, you know?”

Dimidius shifted his shoulders as if uncomfortable and said,

“The cloak is a bit inconvenient. I’m giving it to you, Lady.”

‘He’s always like this when he talks!’

Honestly, it didn’t seem like he found the cloak inconvenient and was discarding it now. It appeared her light attire had bothered him. Her clothing was indeed extremely light as she was in a protected area where no one could enter.

Olentia pondered what to do, then just wrapped the cloak tightly around herself and walked briskly. Wearing Dimidius’ cloak, she resembled a snowman. A snowman made by the people of the Belial territory, the only place in the Bonu Empire where snow fell.

Olentia’s hair fluttered wildly in the spring breeze as she emerged from the deep forest. The inside and outside of the forest were completely different, as if she had visited another world.

Olentia considered herself fortunate to be wearing the black cloak and said to Dimidius,

“The villa where I’m staying temporarily is right ahead. I’ll be going now.”

Suddenly, a fierce wind blew, nearly flipping up her thin dress. She couldn’t let such a sight be seen in front of Dimidius.

Meanwhile, hearing Olentia’s words, Dimidius frowned and spoke.

“Are you talking about that villa right in front of the daisy field? The inside is clearly visible.”

“Ah. Yes, that’s right. Most of the living room is a large window.”

As if entranced, Dimidius approached the villa closely. Olentia followed behind him with a puzzled expression.

“You don’t have to escort me there, you know?”

At Olentia’s innocent words, Dimidius looked back at her and let out a short sigh.

“Sigh… I thought it was quite terrible when I heard the news. Why on earth are you staying in such a place? Aren’t you the niece of Count Odor?”

‘What news did he hear?’

He seemed displeased about something, placing his hands on his waist. His expression couldn’t be seen because of the mask, but he was likely frowning as well.

Olentia replied with a sullen expression.

“Well, that’s because a guest more important than me arrived at the Odor County first.”

“……”

“And this entire area, including the forest and the surroundings of the daisy field, is a protected zone where not just anyone can enter. You’re the odd one out, sir.”

Surely, just like when he conveyed his voice in her head. Just like when he subdued the masked man.

He must have secretly entered using his demonic powers.

Thinking that, it felt even more bizarre to have met Dimidius in the middle of the night. Honestly, it gave her goosebumps, making her hair stand on end.

Feeling the coldness in her fingertips, Olentia said one last thing to Dimidius before entering the villa.

“I won’t say anything to Uncle. So please don’t mention that I can see the light of the fantasy grass either.”

In the forest where flowers with straight stems swayed, Olentia stood pure and innocent like a single blossom. Long hair reaching her waist, a thin body wrapped in a white dress, brown slippers made of kid leather.

As if absorbing all the white moonlight, she was sparkling.

If Olentia saw light from the fantasy grass, it seemed he saw light from Olentia.

Even after returning to the mansion, that image didn’t leave Dimidius’ mind for quite a while.

But in fact, there was another important reason why he was thinking about Olentia. As expected, it was her ability.

Dimidius stroked his chin inside the mask with one hand and muttered.

“The white light from the fantasy grass must be the waves of strong divine power. To think she can even see that?”

It meant that Olentia was indeed someone who possessed and could handle divine power. As expected of someone from the Apricot family, Armeniaca.

Dimidius recalled the time 5 years ago, after he first unleashed his demonic powers, when he couldn’t stop his demonization with divine tools.

At that time, he roared like a monster out of anxiety that he might become a demon.

‘Bring it right now. Bring me a proper one!’

With even the whites of his eyes completely turned red, Dimidius’ body was swelling up as if it would almost burst. His back squirmed as if demonic wings would sprout out, and the ominous energy was so strong that even the Belial knight members who usually trained couldn’t approach him.

He would feel pain and growl like a beast.

Whenever he felt the power of demons and heard the voice of demons, he felt exactly like becoming a different person.

Even when using divine tools that opposed demonic powers like before, his demonization wouldn’t subside at all. It was because a few days ago, during the attack on the Grand Castle, he had used demonic powers for the first time.

Dimidius felt a black desire welling up inside him, telling him to just accept this power. It was extremely tempting. It seemed like his mind would spin around at any moment.

‘Should I just become a demon? Then I could become even stronger.’

Such thoughts.