Becoming the Terminally-Ill Villain Who Torments His Disciples

“……What?”

“Do you remember that the worst of Oscar’s injuries was to his head?”

Cielo slowly nodded, his face stiff with tension. The memory of that day was still vivid—he had seen with his own eyes how Ryan had desperately tried to stop the bleeding, to no avail.

“…….”

“At the time, Pascius was struck by the monster’s swinging arm.”

Yet even after sustaining such a serious injury, Oscar never once cried out in pain. Instead, he kept enduring, repeatedly calling out Cielo’s name.

Because of that, Ryan, who had been holding off the monster from another side, did not realize Oscar had been hurt.

He only noticed when Oscar, unable to endure any longer, finally lost consciousness and collapsed.

“Pascius collapsed after the Crown Prince arrived at the estate.”

He only fell after the Imperial knights had completely secured the area. In other words, he didn’t allow himself to lose consciousness until the moment he was certain that the Imperial knights could protect Cielo.

He hadn’t rested at all after the attack.

That became the problem. The blow had struck his head, and because he couldn’t immediately rest, the poison had spread much faster than expected.

“Even before you arrived, he seemed to be gradually losing some cognitive function…”

Because Cielo had drawn on his powers to heal everyone, it was assumed that Oscar would recover completely as well.

But the real issue arose afterward—before Oscar had even made a full recovery, he used his ability on Cielo when he collapsed.

“…No way…”

Oscar had used his ability, but he hadn’t shown any signs of strain.

As a dominant, it was true that he could use his powers with less difficulty than most people. But that didn’t mean using his powers didn’t tax his body at all.

What’s more, during the fight against the monster, Oscar had already pushed himself to the brink. And even in that state, he still managed to heal Cielo’s dying body.

“It’s only speculation… but side effects from overusing abilities vary from person to person.”

“……”

“So we can’t say for sure whether the memory confusion came from overexerting his ability, or if the monster’s poison had already reached his brain before you healed him.”

The only clear fact was that Oscar’s memory had become confused. And that confusion applied only to Cielo.

“…It must have been the shock.”

Memory is closely tied to psychological trauma.

Even before this, Oscar had always struggled whenever Cielo collapsed after using his powers and began coughing up blood. Especially that time in front of the Esteban estate—Cielo had been prepared to die.

Could it be that all of this had been too great a shock for Oscar to bear?

“If not that, then maybe the residual effects that had been building up in his body all came crashing down at once.”

Cielo muttered and lowered his head.

He tried to act calm, to speak as if nothing was wrong—but in truth, he couldn’t come to terms with the reality.

‘Oscar… doesn’t remember me?’

The first person to reach out to him after he was possessed by this world. That precious boy now couldn’t even remember who he was. The realization hit Cielo hard.

“There’s a chance the memories could come back… or if I try treating him… but if it’s because of the side effects, then maybe they won’t return…”

Cielo kept mumbling, trying to accept the truth.

Ryan, silently watching, simply held him and gently rubbed his back.

Normally, whenever Oscar came up in their private conversations, Ryan would get openly jealous. But today, strangely enough, he didn’t say anything like “Focus on me right now.”

That made it feel all the more real, and Cielo’s heart grew even more tangled.

***

One week later.

Cielo was finally able to leave the infirmary and return to his room. Ryan had refused to let him go, insisting they needed to monitor his condition since the contract with the demon race had been severed for several days.

And in all that time—Oscar didn’t visit the infirmary even once.

Not to see Cielo, and not even to work.