“I’ve been trying to observe what you’re thinking, but I can’t figure it out.”

Beleled closed his eyes and opened them as if exercising patience. Then he said,

“What on earth are you thinking?”

―Thud.

Was he getting anxious? Unlike the relaxed appearance of last night, he changed his posture and leaned on the railing right next to her.

As if to prevent her from escaping without giving an answer.
“You seemed uninterested in cooperating with the temple when I saw you. Moreover, you even paid attention to each servant.”

His gaze touched the area where Kilatia would be, then fell away.

Now it was a place shrouded in darkness and silence, as if nothing had happened.

“You were treating demons and humans alike, not with contempt like the priests.”

“……”

A cold fingertip brushed lightly against Beryl’s slightly parted lower lip.
Beryl’s body shivered. She was confused whether it was due to the chill the cold air brought or the prickly sensation she felt thinking of last night.

“If you really have no intention of cooperating with the temple. If, instead of looking down on the servants, you can treat them as individuals with dignity.”

At least if you can treat us as equals rather than considering us lesser beings.

“How about moving with us?”

“……!”
Beryl’s eyes widened. This was an offer she had never considered.

Of course, she had thought that if given the opportunity, forming an alliance with Bain would be possible. No, it would be the best course of action.

The issue was that she was the Holy Maiden, and they didn’t trust her. Yet they were the ones to make this offer first.

“My suggestion must seem suspicious to you.”

It was as if Bellede had read the flow of her thoughts.
“If you’re thinking, ‘What might these demons do next to bewitch people?’—I’ll speak frankly.”

He slightly opened his eyes.

“Every day, I look at my end in the mirror. My form turning into a monster, losing reason due to insufficient magical power, just like Kyratia.”

There was no room to be surprised by the new fact that changes occur when magical power runs low.

“But since you’ve arrived, my end has changed.”

At Bellede’s words, Beryl’s eyes widened.
“That’s why you drive me mad with concern. My end, after your arrival, isn’t death.”

A mysterious fervor lit up in his eyes.

“The farthest end I can see for myself after you came is…”

His hand trailed up, grazing the tips of Beryl’s hair. The fingertips that came up with her teal-colored hair caressed her earlobe.

“A woman with this teal-colored hair,”
The fingertips that had traveled down her body touched the inside of her clothing, the snowy white part.

“It was an image of lying atop the hem of a snowy white dress and smiling. Not death.”

“…Teal-colored hair?”

It was not a common hair color. Moreover, hadn’t he said that his future had changed since she had arrived?

She didn’t know exactly what his ‘end’ that he had seen was, but it was clear. The woman he had seen and she were related.

Perhaps that meant…
“Could it be you? The thought is driving me insane.”

He bit his lip.

“It feels like you’re going to change something in me. In my monotonous life, it feels like you’re going to change the predetermined end.”

A sound seemed to emanate as strength flowed into his hand that was leaning on the wall.

“If you denounce this place as demonic and leave, will my future revert back to death? If that’s the case, I can’t let you go. That thought is driving me insane.”
Beleth’s words lacked any semblance of ease.

“What about you?”

Like a person lost in the middle of the desert encountering an oasis to quench their parched throat.

Like a person who didn’t even have the leisure to determine whether it was a mirage or not.

“I…,”

“Don’t you already know everything? Yet you still wrote this letter.”

His gaze once again turned toward the letter.

“It appears you have no intention of denouncing us to the temple, do you?”
Even if she wanted to deny it, if he already knew everything up to her past life, she couldn’t refute it.

Even if she didn’t know what exactly he had seen, if he had seen her second death, offered as a sacrifice at the temple, it would be easy to understand that she didn’t trust the temple.

In the end, Beryl nodded. The corners of Beleth’s mouth lifted.

“If you are aware that the temple has betrayed you, and that they too are just another group of demons chasing desires as we do.”
The grip around Beryl’s waist tightened.

“If what you’ve seen is the hell of the human world, then perhaps,”

His resonant voice left a lingering echo in Beryl’s ears.

“How about the real hell as your ally?”

If anywhere is hell anyway. At his words, Beryl’s eyes widened.

Ally?

“I’ve never been so drawn to a single person before. Yet it’s strange how I’m so infatuated with one person that I can’t do anything else.”
He smiled.

“Seize this opportunity.”

It felt like too much information was flooding in all at once. Beryl struggled to sort through her thoughts.

“Use me,” he said.

“How can I…”

He is Duke Velede, and in this land, he is the most powerful demon Velede.

How could I use someone like him?

At that, Velede laughed.

“You just have to stay as you are.”

Because then it seems like I’d be the one bewitched.
“Stay by my side. Not only the desire to live, but as a confidant who wishes to protect you—something I couldn’t have in my past life—I can satisfy even the desires of last night.”

“……!”

At the mention of ‘last night,’ a vivid memory surged, making Beryl’s face flush.

Velede embraced her warmly, pulling her into his passionate arms. As he did so, his presence seemed to radiate an even more distinct warmth.
The hand touching him also seemed to grow warmer. It felt as if every point of contact was heating up.

Unknowingly letting out a breath, Beryl heard Velede whisper to her.

“With me……”

The hand of his that enveloped the back of her head touched the back of her neck and shoulder blades, spreading warmth.

The forceful fingertips making contact below her arm also drew warmth from her, along with the mysterious pleasure that intoxicated her last night.
The firm fingertips seemed to prop up her body so it wouldn’t collapse. Yet, on the other hand, they seemed to hold her so she couldn’t escape.

As if he could provide her with endless such experiences, Velede whispered to her, caressing her tenderly.

“Open the gates of hell, Beryl.”

Who else could make such a proposition to a saint? Beryl’s breath halted.

But Velede appeared confident.
“The demons you’ve seen, haven’t they been less like humans than you thought? Or maybe it’s that humans have come to resemble demons.”

He narrowed his eyes and then lowered his body to lift her fingertips to his lips.

Much like a knight would greet a saint. However, the one standing before her, tempting her to open the gates of hell, was a demon.
The softness of his lips lightly touched the inside of her finger, then moved up to the back of her hand, leaving a small trace.

His slightly lifted gaze looked up at her.

“One thing is certain, we only want to rise through our own power, rejecting divine rule. Any harm that comes to humans is actually due to God’s curse.”

He spoke with a firm voice.
“I can prove everything. Unlike that faith which can’t be proven.”

His lips twisted.

“If they, the humans, really were virtuous and just, they wouldn’t have married you off to someone suspected to be a demon.”

They wouldn’t have forced you to be a sacrifice, nor used you merely as a tool.

He was right.

As if piercing through her thoughts precisely, Beril unconsciously gripped his shoulders tightly at his refreshingly candid words.
“So tell me, Beril. Will you live in a hell made for you, or will you—”

Open the gates of hell with me, or else…

“Live in a heaven made for them?”