Nursing (1)

As soon as my voice trickled away, a system window popped up in front of me.

System Message

[ A moment of danger has been detected.]

[ Determined the situation as life-threatening. ]

[ Skill: Desperation raised to EX-Grade. ]

And the moment she took in my words, she didnt move a single inch.

As if she had forgotten how to breathe, the atmosphere around her was so eerie that it was almost scary.

Master? Doesnt need me? Huh?

The look in her face made it as if her entire world had crumbled.

Colors gradually drained from her eyes.

System Message

[ Corruption Value of target Seras skyrockets! ]

[ She will soon definitively enter a Berserk state! ]

Master, isnt my Master?

Seriously, I just told her to stay away, but her mental state had shattered to this extent. So annoying.

Still

You heard me. Dont come within five meters of me.

I wouldnt back down.

If I didnt draw this line between us, she would actually stick to me all day long and cause all kinds of trouble.

Instead

Of course, I couldnt just push her away and do nothing, or else her Corruption Value would explode instantly.

And so, I added more to my words.

Dont stray beyond ten meters either.

The expression of Seras, or more precisely, the Purple Devil, was filled with confusion.

System Message

[ Corruption Value of the target drops sharply! ]

Since it was clear that my command didnt have the intention to push her away, her expression was brightened slightly. Not only that, her Corruption Value dropped as well.

But, I wasnt done yet.

And dont even think about meeting me every day.

System Message

[ Corruption Value of target Seras skyrockets! ]

Instead, Ill play with you one day a week. I promise.

System Message

[ Corruption Value of the target drops sharply! ]

But, when we meet that day

Every time I continued to speak, her Corruption Value repeatedly soared and dropped.

It soared every time I tried to push her away and dropped whenever I declared I would keep her close.

[What are you even trying to make her do then? You tell her to not come near you, but you dont want her to stay away either]

Im just trying to adjust the distance between us.

As I said before I came here

When dealing with the Purple Devil, my survival depended on us managing our distance.

Actually, I was the only one who decided on the distance between us, but it should be fine as long as I laid out all these terms clearly to her.

Instead, if you follow my commands well

Besides, I didnt want her to mindlessly follow my order.

What I wanted was to tame her so that she could fulfill my needs.

So, I had to treat her like a dangerous pet that was able to end my life in an instant if a single thing went wrong.

This kind of approach was impossible to do with other Devils, but it should work with this one specifically.

Ill give you a reward.

A reward?

Ill gradually allow you to come closer to me. Ill let you sleep a little less, and Ill gradually increase our playtime as well.

As I said this, I stroked her head, who was still on top of me.

The confused expression she had after hearing the series of words I spoke, melted into a beaming smile when I patted her head.

It was as if just receiving some attention from me was the greatest happiness in the world for her.

I guess its true that Devils are inextricably linked to Vessels.

That was the theory I had established before.

The relationship between the Blue Devil and Riru already half-convinced me that

Devils were more influenced by Vessels than I thought.

That was why

And most importantly. If you listen to me well

The words I was conveying to her now were

A message to both the Purple Devil and Seras.

Ill never abandon you.

Her face, which had been beaming with a smile, suddenly turned stiff.

The smile gradually disappeared, and she soon blinked her eyes while gazing down at me.

Silence fell for a while, as if time had stopped.

The words I just threw out

Was something that touched upon the very reason why she was striving to find a person to be obedient to.

Additionally, it also touched upon Seras past.

Is that a promise, Master?

After a long silence, she opened her mouth with hesitation.

It was hard to believe that this was the same person who kept reacting frantically to my words just now.

Yeah.

Will you stay with me and the Vessel, always?

Yeah.

Even to the very end, no matter what happens?

No matter what happens.

I literally declared that Id make the Six Devils happy.

If I couldnt handle her, someone who was similar to a large dog that was prone to cause troubles, how could I even begin to dream of achieving that?

Well, the scale of the troubles I was talking about was rather enormous, but you know

At any rate, I was a man of my word. I meant it when I said Id cover for those Devils, that included the one in front of me.

If so

When I firmly returned an answer filled with such thoughts

Seras, or more precisely, the Purple Devil controlling her, nodded.

Ill obediently listen to you.

With those words, she extended her pinky finger towards me while smiling brightly.

Pinky promise. Okay?

It was an unusually docile request for a Devil.

However, when seeing her childlike demeanor, it wasnt too difficult to understand why she did this.

Essentially, a Devils Fragment symbolized the deficiency that was suppressed and rejected by the Vessel.

To put it simply, this lively child symbolized something that Seras could never have.

As I thought that and made a pinky promise with her, she smiled brilliantly once again.

Then, Master.

With those words

See you next time.

Seras body flopped onto me like a marionette that had its strings cut.

It was clear that the Devil controlling her body had retreated back into the depth of her Image World.

Haaah

I let out a deep sigh.

One piece of good news.

Today, once again, Dowd Campbell had lived to see another day.

Anyway

I could say that it was a rather successful endeavor since I didnt get split in half again.

[Will you be okay, though?]

Huh?

[You know, the promises you made earlier Will you be okay?]

Ah, that.

To summarize all the promises I made with the Purple Devil into one sentence

I would be stalked by the continents top assassin, who would maintain a certain distance from me for most of the day.

Well, obviously there were other things, but that was the biggest one of them all, at least for me at the moment.

Alright.

So thats how itll be, huh?

Its manageable.

[How?!]

I mean, even if the Devil doesnt do it, the Vessels would anyway.

[]

Seeing that he shut his mouth, it seemed like he agreed with my words.

[Somehow, even though theres a separate Devil of Obsession, the real chaos is happening here.]

With that one, shes just a little more obsessive than normal, she wont do anything completely unreasonable.

That said, the White Devil wasnt any less dangerous either.

After all, the moment all the Fragments gathered and I showed my bare face, an uncontrollable major incident would occur.

Still, compared to that, the Purple Devil managed to torment me to this extent despite only possessing a single Fragment.

And as I walked down the corridor with such thoughts

My head spun.

I staggered and barely managed to regain my balance by grabbing the wall.

Cold sweat dripped in abundance. My vision blurred slightly.

[Hey, you good?]

Yes, well.

In fact, I was also startled by this situation. I checked my condition on the status window, but there was nothing wrong with the Fallens Seal, nor was there any malfunction in any part of my body.

But then, what was this?

What was the reason behind these sudden symptoms?

[Have you been resting lately?]

Ah.

Right.

Because I had to run around everywhere to handle various tasks, I could barely sleep.

Including the time I spent in the Forge of Struggle, I hardly had a moments rest for a long time.

I have to study, manage the Devils, awaken Faenols emotions, and prepare for the events derived when the Empress visits the academy

Just listing it out already overwhelmed me.

It was a problem that unavoidably occurred because there werent just one or two events to prepare for.

They all had to be dealt with simultaneously and to achieve the best results, I couldnt neglect a single thing.

Not to mention that I always had to consider the variable known as the Prophet

[Thinking like that wont solve anything, you punk.]

Caliban clicked his tongue as he threw such words at me.

[You have to deal with what you can, one by one. Trying to handle it like youre doing now will just make things worse. And youll just wear yourself out.]

Thats strange. Youre actually giving me constructive advice?

[Your state is more awful than usual these days. Especially after you fell off that precipitous tightrope youve been walking on. Following that one mistake, you seem to be more cautious than ever too.]

He was right

It was already proven that I couldnt always perfectly handle everything, especially after I got bisected in two.

The problem was

If I make a mistake, other people might die.

The main scenario continued to derail like an uncontrollable runaway engine; Something I had already experienced several times.

And it was clear that I was the cause of all this.

That was why

If I made a mistake, I wouldnt be the only one whod suffer. Those absurd events that occurred because of me would also sweep other people into it.

And even among those, the most important thing was

Eleanor is the most important.

I let out a sigh as I said that.

The Prophet had been targeting her the most, this was the undeniable truth.

As such, I had various plans prepared for that, but

I do want to see her at least once.

The problem was that she wasnt even thinking of meeting me right now.

I tried to talk to her through various means. Just a single exchange of words would be fine for me. But, she always firmly rejected me, so I hadnt been able to see her face.

Since we parted ways in the Forge of Struggle, I had not encountered her even a single time.

Theres something I have to tell her directly, but Ive been so tired lately

I muttered weakly before pushing myself off the wall.

The severe dizziness and vertigo that hit me had disappeared, that was why I did this, but

As soon as I made such an action, I realized.

Ah.

It wasnt that I had recovered, rather, my strength just returned for a second before my body collapsed.

I guess this was similar to how your life flashes before your eyes when youre about to die, huh?

[Huh? Hey, Hey! You punk?!]

I heard Calibans voice, but I could not control my body.

My head fell straight to the ground.

Dowd? Dowd! Dowd, look at me!

Right then

A familiar voice faintly reached my ears.

At the same time, beyond my blurry vision, I could see a rather familiar hair color.

Huh?

Eleanor?

The timing of her appearance was a bit too coincidental. It was as if she popped out as soon as I collapsed.

Did she happen to overhear our conversation?

Wait, wouldnt I have looked like a madman since she couldnt hear Caliban?

No, more importantly, I didnt say anything that I shouldnt say, right?

Such fleeting thoughts crossed my foggy mind.

System Message

[ The Guilt of target Eleanor intensi-]

Before I could even finish reading the message that abruptly appeared

My vision went dark.

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