Prologue CHAPTER 01
When she was detained in the Demon King’s castle for having an ability that wasn’t particularly dangerous yet fairly useful, Xenia tried to hold on to just one thought.
“The hero will kill the Demon King and save the world.”
The day was not far off when the protagonist of a prophecy passed down through the Empire since ancient times would finally arrive.
So if she could just endure until then, the hero would save the world—and her life along with it.
…Or so she thought.
Xenia was left speechless as she watched the hero boldly chew and swallow a deadly poison right in front of her.
“That’s enough now, right? I can’t leave. Please treat me again.”
Reeling from the poison, the hero staggered over and dropped to his knees before her. Then, like a devout believer, he buried his face in her palm and whispered,
“Xenia needs me alive, don’t you? You won’t leave my side until I’m healthy again, right?”
Blue eyes gleamed with an unsettling intensity as they fixed on her face.
“I’m certain I’ve lived all this time just to see you, Xenia.”
The hero closed his eyes as if making a wish.
“Please don’t abandon me.”
She had thought the hero was strange. At some point, he had begun following her everywhere, trying to know her every move, bristling at everything around her.
But Xenia had assumed all of it was part of the hero’s scheme to deal with the Demon King.
That even though she was merely a maid, she was known as one of the Demon King’s closest aides—and that he was trying to win her over to obtain information about the castle.
She might have even felt a little sorry for him. Compared to the effort he was putting in, Xenia wouldn’t be of much help anyway.
But seeing those sorrowful eyes now, it seemed the hero’s true objective had never been the Demon King’s death at all.
