VIP Chapter 398: “Are you satisfied now?”
“Young Master…?”
Iaar reached out to Will’s hand, only touching his fingertips, and felt a bone-chilling coldness. Even though he was sitting in the sunlight, Iaar felt only coldness when she touched his fingertips. In her memory, her Young Master’s hands had never been this cold. It made her heart grow cold along with them.
She raised her head and looked at Will, who was wearing black sunglasses that completely obscured his eyes. He slowly reached out his hand towards her face. His cold fingers touched her cheek, and she instinctively wanted to pull back, but Will’s finger pinched her chin.
“Don’t… go…”
A voice that sounded like a plea reached Iaar’s ears. She had never… never heard her Young Master speak to her like this before.
“Let me touch your ears. I always loved touching your ears. They’re soft, fluffy, and have great elasticity.”
Will’s voice was slightly different from before, and Iaar noticed it. Compared to his past voice, his current one sounded weaker, no longer as confident as before. Iaar watched his hand, starting from her chin, lightly touching her features, from her lips to her nose, all the way to her forehead.
Iaar’s tail began to sway slowly from side to side. Touched by his hand, her tail, which represented a “dog’s” emotions the most, wagged faster and faster. That cold hand finally touched her ear again. She stood up slightly, allowing Will’s fingers to rub between her ears.
“Young Master… are you… now…”
“Can’t see?”
Even Iaar wasn’t foolish. Seeing Will like this now, she could deduce the conclusion. The thought of this conclusion tightened Iaar’s chest, and she grabbed Will’s hand.
“…”
Will was silent for a moment, not replying directly.
“W-why? What happened? Clearly… clearly Young Master is back…”
Iaar anxiously stood up, wanting to reach out and take off his sunglasses to get a good look. Her hand was only halfway there when Will firmly gripped it.
“It hurts…”
Will’s grip was exceptionally strong. Before this, Iaar had never felt his hands exert such force. He was angry. Although he hadn’t said it, Iaar fully understood from Will’s forceful actions that he was angry, and not just a little bit. Iaar’s previously relaxed mood instantly plummeted into a cold abyss. Every beat of her heart even made her chest tighten.
Her Young Master had returned, he was willing to see her, at least she wasn’t a pitiable dog guarding a grave anymore. She had become a child who was wanted, she could be brought home by him.
“It’s not that I can’t see at all. I can faintly see blurry figures, but… it’s like looking at the outside world through ice, separated by a layer of frosted glass that I can’t touch or break.”
“!!!”
“And it’s not just a problem with my eyes.”
Will said this, tightly gripping Iaar’s hand, and then let go. His fingers slid down to his legs, gently touching his thighs, but he said nothing. He reached to his side and tapped the “chair” he was sitting on, silently drawing Iaar’s attention to the chair. Iaar lowered her head. More than the fact that he couldn’t see, her pupils slowly dilated as she saw…
A wheelchair made of metal, on which Will was sitting. The wheelchair, still gleaming in the setting sun, her legs that once carried her from the Hysterm Family’s room to the garden, were covered with a towel and unmoving.
“I can’t stand up now… Oh, not being able to stand up also brings…”
Iaar watched him raise his fingers in front of her, in the posture of conjuring fire, the most common magic. But… what was usually effortless for him, conjuring flames, failed to materialize. In an instant, the flames died out.
“!? ”
“I can’t use magic now, Iaar.”
Iaar realized. When Will spoke, his voice was cold, unlike any time before. His voice carried anger, humiliation, suffering, and hatred…
“Do you… do you know what this means, Iaar?”
“I can’t see the world before me, I can’t protect myself with sword skills like before, and I’ve even lost my most prized magic.”
“I’ve now achieved what you wanted… becoming the ‘trash’ who can only stay by your side…”
He leaned close to Iaar’s ear. Iaar listened to his voice, her ears and even her tail trembling slightly. She heard her Young Master’s words, spoken with heavy breaths—
“How is it? Are you happy?”
—and, love.
“That’s right. I’m back, Iaar. I’ve come back for you…”
“Because only you can take care of me, only you can help me kill that Fire Dragon, and only you can unconditionally accept me.”
Iaar listened, her ears on top of her head trembling slightly. Her grey eyes kept avoiding Will’s sunglasses—even though she now knew Will couldn’t see her expression, she still instinctively dodged.
“So… so Iaar… take me home. From now on, you don’t need to do anything… I can’t leave you anymore—”
“Young Master… Iaar… Iaar… should… should…”
Iaar opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her mind in complete chaos. When did her Young Master go blind? When did he lose the ability to stand? When exactly did he lose the ability to use magic?
“Should do what? H-how did it become like this… Iaar knows nothing!”
But… she could feel it, the strong “love” emanating from Will’s mouth and actions. Stronger than ever before, more direct than any time she had known Will at the Hysterm Family’s home, even more dependent on her than ever before… love. A love she had never experienced, from her Young Master, that she couldn’t escape from, that seemed to grip her throat, holding her tightly in the palm of his hand.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
She began to pant heavily.
“In the fight in the Dust Bone Corridor, I encountered a disaster large enough to determine my life and death…”
“I survived, but I lost everything.”
She touched Will’s knee and could feel an unabsorbable, terrifying frost-like magic gathering within it. This was why… this was the reason he appeared before her in his current state. Flustered, she lowered her head and found her tears falling one by one from her eyes onto the hem of her maid dress. She nervously stood up and fiercely shook off Will’s hand. It was only then that she realized how weak Will’s grip on her hand was. She hadn’t been able to break free before, only because of a usual inertia. It was like a dog, tethered to a small stake since it was little, would believe it could never break free from that stake.
She pushed Will away, pushing him back into the wheelchair.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
She was afraid. She was extremely, extremely afraid. She had never imagined reuniting like this. Her imagined reunion with her Young Master would never be like this. More importantly… she had discovered—
“I’m sorry, Young Master, perhaps… perhaps the current Iaar…”
The heart beating more ecstatically than ever before, the tail that swayed precariously despite her efforts to suppress it, the ears that perked up with excitement and anticipation, all represented that she had truly never “regretted”…
Even… the undeniable fact of her hidden joy.
“…is no longer worthy of being by your side…”
She fled in disarray.
