Becoming the Terminally-Ill Villain Who Torments His Disciples

When Cielo made a face as if he couldn’t understand, Ryan grabbed his hand. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Ryan climbed onto the bed and pulled Cielo into his lap.

The rhythmic patting on his back was just the right thing to calm his still-thundering heart. Cielo’s shallow, trembling breaths gradually steadied, and the tension in his body, stiff with unease, began to loosen.

“How’s your body? You still feel a little feverish.”

Rock, rock. The gentle swaying of Ryan’s large frame, like a rocking chair, brought a sense of stability.

For some reason, feeling strange, Cielo burrowed deeper into his embrace, and Ryan let out a low chuckle.

“Seems like you’re okay now.”

Cielo, who hadn’t answered until then, looked up at him slightly and asked,

“…What do you mean when you say I haven’t done that recently?”

“This. Scratching here. Sometimes you’d scratch here, or here.”

As he spoke, Ryan tapped the back of Cielo’s neck, the inside of his arm, and then his upper thigh.

They were the exact spots where Pielago had pierced him with a needle in the dream.

“Later on, maybe worried someone would see, you started covering them with things. You grew your hair out from that point, too.”

Ryan watched Cielo’s expression carefully as he shared one detail after another.

Though he couldn’t recall the face in his memory, when Cielo gave a look that showed he was beginning to understand, Ryan continued.

“It was a while ago, but back when we had just met, we shared a room for a short while.”

When they first entered the imperial palace, the new recruits, regardless of status, were randomly assigned rooms for three months to live together.

Back then, Ryan and Cielo were assigned the same room and lived together.

“I was like that even then…?”

“Yeah, it happened often. You’d wake up in the middle of the night a lot. Oh, and you had a ton of conditions for falling asleep. You know? You couldn’t sleep unless the lights were completely off, and you couldn’t sleep if it was cold. I thought you were a pretty picky young lord.”

Ryan pressed Cielo’s nose playfully and chuckled. Then he gently brushed aside Cielo’s long hair, checking carefully to see if there were any wounds on the back of his neck.

“…Ryan. By any chance, do you know much about the Esteban family?”

“Hmm… Not enough to brag about, but probably more than you do now.”

“Then, there’s something I’d like to ask… Am I an illegitimate child?”

“…What? Who said that? That you’re an illegitimate child?”

Ryan exhaled sharply as if he’d just heard the most absurd thing. Cielo, his eyes rolling anxiously, replied in a small voice.

“…The twin brother?”

“You believe those lunatics?”

“I don’t remember anything, so I was just trying to consider all possibilities.”

Since the novel never touched on Cielo’s birth, how could he know if the twin’s words were true or not?

“There’s no way you’re an illegitimate child. The Duchess of Esteban hasn’t left the mansion since she got married.”

“…What?”

“I heard that even before the marriage, the Duke of Esteban was obsessively possessive. He supposedly got jealous even when his wife held their child. That says it all, doesn’t it?”

That’s why, when the twins were born, the Duke entrusted them to others immediately. He had the children taken away from their mother.

“But apparently, you were a little different.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. There was a rumor that the Duchess secretly raised you until you were seven.”

Secretly raised? Why?

Cielo tilted his head, unable to understand.

But Ryan only shrugged, as if he didn’t know either, and gently rubbed Cielo’s back.

“The Duchess… I mean, is my mother still alive?”

“There hasn’t been any news of her death, so probably?”

At Ryan’s answer, Cielo touched his chin.

Now that he thought about it, the Duchess of Esteban hadn’t shown up even at Cielo’s coming-of-age ceremony.

If what Ryan said was true, then perhaps the Duke of Esteban didn’t even want his wife to show her face to others.

“They really are strange people…”

“Hm?”

“The Esteban family, I mean. The brothers are strange, and the father too.”

Should he say they’re obsessed with strange things?

If the Duke was obsessed with his wife, then the twin brother seemed obsessed with Cielo himself. Or more accurately, with the “toy” he could play with.

“Cielo.”

“Yes?”

“Did the twins… hurt you?”