The Male Leads Were Stolen By The Extra [EN]: Chapter 21

The meal ended awkwardly.

After hearing his answer, Celonia silently chewed her food, avoiding asking what he meant.

She didn’t want to get too involved with him, nor did she want to feel even a little pity.

“Tell anyone when you want to eat. They’ll take care of it.”

Celonia said to him as she turned around, noticing he was following her. They had come out to the garden together because he said he had something to say.

“Do you eat with me?”

“No?”

“If not, there’s no reason to do it.”

‘What kind of trick is this now?’ she thought.

She looked up at him with a suspicious gaze.

However, his expression was as emotionless as ever, making it impossible to read his intentions.

“Eat with me.”

“No, I’ll just have them prepare it separately…”

“You… You want me to leave this place.”

“Of course.”

Celonia answered without hesitation.

As if he expected that, he chuckled and stared at her intently.

The first meal he had taken in a long time was quite good. Holding fresh vegetables in his mouth, chewing well-cooked meat.

The feeling of his emptiness being filled for the first time was quite nice. It was something he was experiencing for the first time.

He didn’t need to eat to survive, so he hadn’t even considered the act of eating. No one had ever offered it to him.

But what was this woman?

She informed him of the act of eating, which no one had ever suggested, something he didn’t even need to do, and filled his empty plate without hesitation.

It was a first.

From the moment he opened his eyes, there was no one in this world who knew of his existence. No one recognized him.

A life lived entirely alone.

Living without even knowing his own name felt like having his existence denied.

The feeling was so disgusting that he helped those in need. He tried to find meaning in his existence, even in this way.

But he couldn’t find it.

Like the tiresome morning that came even after writhing in pain all night, his meaningless life continued to extend.

Like a curse.

But today, for the first time, he felt a very small sense of meaning.

If he filled the days he had been simply letting pass with experiences like today, he wondered if he could someday find the meaning of his existence, his lost memories.

Right here, at this meal with this woman.

He was certain. If it was this woman, the one who erased his pain, she might be able to end his life, which was like a curse and a shackle.

“Help me. If you cooperate, I won’t do anything and will leave.”

“……”

Celonia was very taken aback by the completely unexpected proposal.

She had been worrying about how to kick him out, but he was saying he would leave on his own if she cooperated?

“What is it? What do you want me to help you with?”

If he would just leave on his own, it would be like having a painful tooth pulled.

As long as it wasn’t an illegal act, an inhumane action, or a threat to tell her who he was, she could do anything.

“You.”

However, the answer she heard was enough to leave her dumbfounded.

“……Me?”

Unable to understand, Celonia pointed to herself with her finger to confirm.

“Yes. You.”

With a red glint in his eyes filled with intense desire, he slowly reached out his hand.

Because he wanted to hold that hand once again.

The large hand grasped her fingertip floating in the air.

As she flinched in surprise, his long fingers dug between her fingers as if to form a pair.

Once they were perfectly intertwined, he smiled with satisfaction.

It wasn’t the time when he usually felt pain, but as expected, warmth spread the moment they held hands.

“You heal my pain. So…”

“……”

Celonia couldn’t believe her ears. What was this man saying right now?

She was so confused that she couldn’t hear properly.

After holding hands, he kept talking on and on, but she was so flustered that his voice sounded garbled.

The only thing she understood properly was that she was alleviating his pain.

“So, you help me.”

“Wait, just a minute.”

Celonia, who had come to her senses when he pulled on the hand he was holding, hurriedly spoke up.

First, she tried to pull out the hand he was holding, but as in the bathroom, he was holding her hand and wouldn’t let go.

‘Here we go again,’ she thought.

With no other choice, she put her hand aside for now and asked what she was fundamentally curious about.

“I get rid of your pain?”

“Yes. Should I whisper it in your ear again?”

His eyebrows arched crookedly in dissatisfaction.

“There’s no way…”

Celonia couldn’t believe it.

She hadn’t even used her healing ability. She had simply offered her hand because he wouldn’t let go.

But just holding it made the pain disappear.

“You know why, don’t you? You know me.”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

She naturally countered his assertion, which she had heard so often she was tired of it, with a lie.

So, to summarize what he said, the wound had existed since he lost his memory three months ago and opened his eyes, and the wound became pain every night that tormented him.

But when morning came, the pain disappeared as if it had been washed away.

Now she understood a little. His surprised expression when he grabbed her hand in the bathroom.

Even though morning hadn’t come, the pain disappeared just by holding hands, so it was no wonder he was surprised.

“You want to kick me out, right?”

He drove a wedge as he looked down at her, who was lost in thought.

He decided to use her desire to kick him out to escape this pain.

If he did that, he might find out something.

That something she was hiding, the unknown feeling, and the way to end everything.

“That’s right, but you said I have to hold your hand to soothe the pain, right?”

Snapping out of her thoughts, she retorted sharply.

To hold hands, they had to be together. Every dark night.

It was an unappealing offer. There was nothing to gain for her.

“If you help me, I’ll leave without complaint in a month.”

“……”

A month was a long time, but on the other hand, if she thought about it, he would leave on his own after a month without her having to worry about how to kick him out.

However, there were risk factors because of the period.

It would be a disaster if he regained his memory within a month.

“If you don’t help me, I’m thinking of sticking around for good. Your father seems ready to get me a job here if I just say the word.”

As if he noticed she was worried, he threatened with a very relaxed expression.

“Or do you want to keep living with me? Because I’d like that.”

“Of course not? Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Why? Aren’t I better than that tiny guy you saw back then?”

He curled his playful eyes and chuckled as he watched her jump up and down in disbelief.

The tiny guy was referring to Ian.

No matter how big Ian was, he looked small when standing in front of him.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

Celonia had no choice but to agree.

As he said, if he asked, her father would obviously give him a position in the Duke’s residence.

It was easier for her powerful father than breathing.

He wanted to further solidify the Duke’s positive image by using the Beast of the Night, so there was no way he would refuse.

She didn’t like it, but it was better to hold his hand for a month than to see him become an employee of the family.

“But there are conditions. Promise me that you won’t touch me or anyone around me. The mansion as well. Then I’ll cooperate.”

Honestly, there was no reason to refuse since she could solve a nuisance.

“I won’t.”

“Keep your promise, really.”

“I will.”

“Then where will we meet? We can’t be sneaking into each other’s rooms every night. It’s just asking for misunderstandings.”

She slipped her hand out of his loosened grip and said bluntly.

It looked like an affair to anyone to see a grown man and woman meeting every night.

Even if he was in this mansion as the benefactor who saved her.

This was her house, but there were many eyes watching and mouths that couldn’t be controlled, so rumors were bound to spread.

“I’ll come to you at night.”

“I told you, not in the room.”

“Don’t worry. I have a way.”

He smiled as if he had a plan.

* * *

‘This was the way?’

Celonia stared at him standing in front of her with her mouth wide open.

“Ugh… hold me.”

He fell into her room like a bolt out of the blue and immediately reached out his hand as the pain surged.

“Are you okay?”

Her bewilderment was only momentary. She quickly grabbed his hand.

His forehead was already covered in cold sweat. It was the same figure she had seen yesterday.

That figure consumed by pain.

“Ugh…”

He swallowed a groan and gripped her hand tightly as if it were a lifeline.

The pain that had been swallowing his body like a tsunami was disappearing in an instant.

‘Was this what it felt like to be alive?’ he thought. He felt like he was alive again by holding her hand.

“Sit here.”

Celonia pulled over a chair that was behind her.

He was depending only on her hand with a face that looked like he was about to collapse at any moment, which made her feel a little sorry for him.

‘Is this really okay?’ she wondered.

Even so, was helping the Demon King the right thing to do?

She had agreed because she wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible, but she still felt uneasy.

But….

Celonia silently stared at the trembling hand desperately clinging to her.

Midnight, when all the light had disappeared.

The moonlight coming in through the window illuminated his pale face, and she could see his face swallowing the pain, biting his lips so hard that they were about to burst.

‘To make a small excuse, it was an unavoidable fate,’ she thought.

Slaying the Demon King, killing him, was the goal of the protagonists and the goal of the original story.

We had to kill him, and he had to be killed by us.

There was no guilt when we cut him down.

After all sorts of hardships for six months, we met him, and we simply defeated the evil that had caused us the hardship, the evil that would become the sin of this world.

With the death of one person, we became heroes and saviors.

There was no guilt. We were just doing what we had to do.

But seeing him alive and in pain like this….

“You look better now.”

Snapping out of her thoughts, she spoke to him, who had regained his composure and was looking at her.

“Yeah.”

“You’re not bleeding.”

The bandage wrapped around his chest was fine.

She was relieved. If he had even bled, she would have really felt guilty then.

“But you can teleport too?”

“I guess that’s what you call what I did?”

“And you didn’t even know it?”

Celonia shook her head and pulled out the hand he was holding.

Her heart was in turmoil.

The more she knew him, the less she could see him as a purely evil villain, someone who deserved to die.