Chapter 91
“Come in.”
In the end, I let Dielro into my room.
If I had told him not to enter, he wouldn’t have.
But I didn’t want to bring further chaos to Argentia, not on the eve of war.
Still, just because I let him in didn’t mean my anger or confusion had disappeared.
Click.
Perhaps Dielro sensed that too—he opened the door but couldn’t bring himself to approach me right away.
I kept my distance and spoke first.
“I heard about what happened when Benia came—heard it from Rick.”
I tried to sound detached, my voice as neutral as possible.
I didn’t want emotions to cloud the truth I sought.
Dielro listened in silence, barely breathing.
Seeing that, I continued.
“But I want to hear it from you too, Dielro. Why you did it.”
Why you hid Benia.
I met his blue eyes squarely.
“Tell me everything. No hiding, no lies.”
Dielro nodded.
“…All right. I’ll answer everything you ask, Crua. I won’t hide anything anymore.”
Only after hearing that did I ask,
“I heard the real Pero came shortly after my first visit to House Alloge. Why didn’t you tell me then?”
He hesitated before replying.
“…I thought it was dangerous.”
That much I already knew.
Benia had suspicious water powers—and she’d tried to kill me.
He said he feared she might use her water ability to contact Duke Alloge.
“But more than that…”
Dielro’s words didn’t stop there.
“I didn’t trust myself.”
At that, my gaze instinctively shifted to his blue eyes.
They trembled faintly, like ripples on a lake—eyes that spoke only truth.
“If I’d revealed that Pero had arrived, and you and that woman had met, I’d have to pretend I didn’t love you.”
His voice wavered.
“I didn’t think I could do that.”
Pretend I didn’t love you.
“…”
His words hit me like a wave, and I struggled to steady my breath.
I mustn’t falter.
“You have to go to Duke Alloge once a month, don’t you, Crua? That terrified me.”
He lowered his gaze to his hands.
“If we’d followed the original plan—if we’d told the real Pero everything, and she’d only pretended to cooperate, secretly contacting the Duke…”
“There’s too much water in this world for us to block every path she could use.”
His brows drew together.
“I’d have to send you into danger without even knowing it. And I couldn’t bear that.”
Dielro’s lashes fluttered shut, then opened again. A faint blue shimmer lay beneath them.
“I was scared you might get hurt, Crua.”
…And that, I knew, was true.
Benia had wanted to kill me from the very start. She’d despised me, treated my life as expendable.
She wouldn’t have ignored an easy way to get rid of me.
“And then, I started wondering…”
He continued quietly.
“What did you wonder?”
A strained smile touched his lips.
“They say Pero is my destined one… but why is my destiny not you, but her?”
His voice was cool—almost cold.
“I can’t give my heart to anyone but you.”
So who decided that my fate should be with her?
Who, or what, chose that destiny?
He murmured, almost to himself,
“At the gathering, I told you, didn’t I? That I fell for you the moment I saw you, in the water.”
He stepped closer.
To the very edge of my private space—past the slight rise before the bed.
“It was true, Crua.”
My eyes widened.
“The day you came to the Fourth District with your knights.”
The Fourth District—that was when I saved Radius.
“The sea… it had never looked so dazzling before.”
He said the scent of the ocean, once suffocating, had tasted sweet that day.
“I couldn’t look away from you, Crua.”
From that day to this one.
I couldn’t look away from him either.
His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails bit into his palms.
“From that day on, it didn’t matter who became Pero. I could never awaken for anyone else. But you wanted me safe—you wanted me to awaken my Pero.”
Tap, tap.
Each of his approaching steps echoed loudly in the quiet room.
“So I thought… I need to find out the condition for awakening. I need to make you, the only one who can awaken me, become my Pero.”
I was at a loss for words.
Even in Argentia, that must have been unthinkable—a plan beyond reason.
To forcefully discover the condition and create a chosen Pero?
No wonder Benia had called him insane.
And yet, Argentia followed him.
Why?
As the thought crossed my mind, Dielro asked,
“If I had revealed right after Benia arrived that the real Pero had come, what would you have said?”
I hesitated.
“…I would have said, ‘The real Pero is here—then it’s time to fulfill the contract.’”
Dielro smiled painfully.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
He closed his eyes.
“I was afraid you’d tell me to love someone else—for my sake.”
He exhaled sharply, his voice trembling.
“I was afraid of that kindhearted worry of yours. I’d rather you became my Pero instead. So I told them to find a way—to find the condition.”
When his eyes opened again, they were dark, like the depths of the sea.
“…And if you failed?”
If the plan failed, what would become of Argentia?
I couldn’t help asking.
Surely they must have considered that possibility. Surely not everyone agreed.
After a long silence, our gazes met.
Then he spoke quietly.
“Then I was going to give up on the awakening altogether.”
“…What?”
My eyes widened.
He said it so calmly, but it was anything but a calm statement.
He’d thought it through for a long time—he spoke without hesitation.
Give up on awakening Pero?
And the elders of Argentia accepted that?
“Then Argentia—”
“Everyone who knows the truth of the Pero plan already knows this.”
He said it had likely been passed along through Radius.
“They didn’t oppose it?”
Dielro gave a faint smile.
“No.”
“But if you don’t awaken Pero, Argentia’s power would be weakened—how could they accept that?”
That was a matter of survival.
I stood abruptly from the bed, unable to contain my shock.
“Partly because we’d already narrowed down the conditions early on,” he said smoothly.
“But mostly because they knew something else.”
His voice was calm, steady.
“Because they knew I would never give my heart to anyone but you.”
I froze.
His gaze was unwavering, piercing straight through me.
“That’s why,” he said softly.
And then, he smiled faintly.
“Besides, if a new Pero came, I’d only lose the precious woman I love.”
He gave a small, bitter laugh.
“Everyone could see that—everyone but you, Crua.”
My beloved priest.
So beloved that it hurts to love you.
So radiant I can’t look away—my priest.
His low voice wrapped around me, tightening like vines.
I couldn’t look away from him.
Standing before me, he reminded me of vines growing over ruins—vivid life entangling lifeless stone, unable to let go.
And the one thing he refused to let go of—
…was me.
“What was the condition, then?”
I exhaled shakily and asked the last question.
He looked at me quietly, hesitant.
Was the condition… strange?
He’d wanted me to be his Pero, so he must have shaped the condition around me.
I couldn’t let it go without knowing.
“You said you’d tell me everything, no hiding.”
He sighed softly.
“…You’re right.”
After a pause, he said,
“In Argentia’s case, one of the conditions was… having faced danger in fire.”
His eyes narrowed.
“That’s the most decisive factor.”
“What…?”
My eyes widened.
So, to become his Pero, I’d have to be trapped in a fire?
I suddenly remembered the child from my dream—the dark-haired one trapped in a burning house.
Was that the kind of scene he meant?
Dielro had once been trapped in flames with Benia.
As I thought this, he continued.
“…But I never intended to let you face danger like that.”
Our eyes met again.
“Then what?”
Didn’t he just say the condition had to be met?
His words contradicted themselves. I frowned slightly.
He hesitated, then sighed deeply.
“You said to speak without hiding.”
I nodded.
Then he stepped closer, and at his fingertips—
Fwoosh!
—a small flame flared to life. Sparks flickered and vanished in the air.
The firelight cast deep shadows across his face, darkening his eyes.
It was hot.
Even at a distance, I could feel the warmth brushing against my skin.
“If this flame feels hot to you… if it could so much as harm you—then even this tiny spark would count as being threatened by fire.”
He paused.
“If that’s enough to meet the condition, then… you, who live in this house of fire, might one day become my Pero.”
Something about that didn’t sound right.
“If simply standing beside you near fire could fulfill the condition, then… it’s not like the Pero would be chosen by random draw, right?”
Dielro’s lips curved in a faint, pained smile.
“You’re right, Crua.”
“My wise priest,” he murmured.
“The one who’s faced the greater danger… is the one most likely to be chosen.”
“Then…”
Before I could finish, he blew out the flame.
Whoosh.
The light vanished, leaving only his faint, rough smile.
“So, I thought about it,” he said.
Because I wanted you—wanted you so badly—I thought about it.
His voice trembled with heat.
“When a Pero dies… a new one is assigned, isn’t that right?”
His blue eyes gleamed—calm, rational, and yet trembling, as if barely holding something back.
And I was the one who had told him to hide nothing. I’d opened Pandora’s box myself.
His suppressed thoughts spilled out.
“I could keep trying… until the one assigned as Pero is you.”
He tilted his head slightly.
At some point, he’d crossed the final bit of distance between us—standing just beyond the low railing inside the room.
Then, suddenly—his hot hand lifted my chin.
Our eyes met, so close that I could see my reflection in his.
“And you, Crua?” he asked softly.
His eyes shone with unguarded sincerity, blazing like the heart of a flame.
