## Chapter 103 – Aser: The Demon Lord’s Castle Without Him
The sky of District 7 was tinged with ash.
Even in District 7, known as the district of the fallen, the Demon Lord’s castle could be proudly introduced as the oldest and most beautiful structure. Arwen had built it herself, and it had maintained its grandeur until now, but it was beginning to lose its luster for the first time. The once-sturdy outer walls were cracked in places, looking as if they would crumble at the slightest touch, and the neglected courtyard was overgrown with unsightly weeds.
Some of the vines even encroached upon the castle’s outer walls.
The marble fountain that always spouted clear water, creating a small rainbow—a sight that Number 25 particularly loved—no longer functioned. The dry fountain was filled only with the white, dried droppings of birds and greenish moss.
The former glory was nowhere to be seen. A gloomy desolation hung over the lifeless castle.
From the day Number 25 left, Aser had abstained from food and drink, locking herself in her room and only occasionally letting out mournful screams.
As Aser neglected her duties of managing the district, the small market that had thrived under her influence naturally began to decline. If Charlotte hadn’t intervened to the best of her ability, they would have been out on the streets long ago, reduced to the vagrants they were before Aser extended her hand.
“Haa…”
The cook had also left the Demon Lord’s castle. Charlotte was preparing a meal, gazing blankly at the wall, recalling old memories. A large pot was bubbling away, containing enough soup to feed about ten people. It was a simple meal, but the care put into it was by no means light.
Charlotte ladled the homemade soup into a bowl, placed it on a tray, and headed towards Aser’s room as usual. Holding the tray with one hand, she knocked on Aser’s door.
“Demon Lord, it’s mealtime.”
Silence followed.
Charlotte didn’t give up, standing like a statue in front of the door.
Then, she heard the rustling of blankets, and Aser’s sunken voice echoed weakly.
“I don’t want it…”
Hearing the cracked voice, Charlotte frowned and spoke with a worried expression.
“You still need to eat a little… It’s already been…”
Charlotte’s words were cut short. Without any warning or sound, the wall next to the door where Charlotte was standing vanished without a trace. The cleanly cut surface, leaving no debris, was a kind of warning, full of aggressive intent not to be disturbed.
Charlotte clicked her tongue at Aser’s attitude of even turning her blade against her, then said in a tone that was colder than before.
“I’ll leave it here, so eat it if you want. I don’t know anymore.”
Charlotte roughly placed the food on the hallway floor, sighed, and headed downstairs.
After Charlotte left, Aser, who had been silent like someone buried in a grave, suddenly clutched her head and wailed. Two years had passed, but she still couldn’t escape the pain of losing Number 25.
“Why… why… why, why?!”
The vitality of the past couldn’t be found in her hollow eyes, which were deeply shadowed, and her flowing golden hair, which had been like a bolt of silk, was disheveled and unkempt, sticking out in all directions. Aser scratched at her shoulders with her nails as if she were curled up. Blood dripped, but the pain of the flesh couldn’t surpass the pain of the heart.
Her day, from which the affection that had filled her heart had been forcibly cut away, began with a nightmare. The memories that lacerated her mind were a chain of hellish torment, grief, anger, and depression, ending with the agony of her own miserable powerlessness in being unable to do anything.
Aser, still not calmed down, screamed as if wailing in a voice mixed with tears.
“Why! Why did you leave…! Why haven’t you contacted me even once! Why haven’t you shown yourself even once… You could at least write a letter! A letter saying you’re doing well, that you miss me…!”
The pain of loss was not something that could be easily forgotten. It wasn’t the first time she had lost a loved one, but the pain of parting never became easier to bear, nor did she want it to.
She had even planned to go to District 2 alone several times, thinking that she couldn’t live like this any longer.
However, because she didn’t know Number 25’s condition, she couldn’t act rashly, fearing that her reckless actions might upset Row and harm Number 25 instead of herself.
After screaming for a long time and being immersed in the pain of the past, Aser barely got out of bed and moved with steps that seemed as if she would collapse at any moment. She passed by the meal that Charlotte had prepared and headed straight downstairs.
Cold wind entered through the broken windows of the hallway. The warm spring breeze was no different to Aser than the biting north wind that seemed to cut her skin. Aser tightened the white gown she wore instead of pajamas and walked unsteadily.
Few of the maids who used to greet her with bright expressions remained. It was only natural. In the first place, they had come because of Aser, who always cared for her subordinates and gave good pay, and because they could work comfortably, but with Aser in this state, there was no reason for them to stay. Relationships built on calculation, not affection, were easily broken by a single misstep.
The place Aser stumbled towards was the small room that Number 25 had used, at the end of the second-floor hallway. It was the only place she spent time other than her own room.
The only room in the castle that was cleaned, Number 25’s room didn’t have a single cobweb, a product of old rooms. The things that Number 25 had used were also left as they were. The items inside were not touched at all, so that he could use them right away if he ever returned.
The only place that hadn’t changed; seeing this place brought back memories of him.
“Number 25…”
Aser opened the small closet and held Number 25’s clothes, neatly arranged inside, in her arms. Her eyes stung and turned red. Something was rising from within her chest. The tears that had already reached the tip of her chin showed no sign of stopping.
Aser moved Number 25’s clothes from her arms to her face, rubbed her face, which had begun to be stained with tears, and then collapsed onto the bed where his scent had disappeared. She buried her face in the clothes that Number 25 had worn and pressed the pillow and blanket he had slept with all over her body.
His scent, which was disappearing day by day, tightened Aser’s heart even more.
It was gradually disappearing.
His scent, his warmth.
She should have gone out more often, she should have said “I love you” more often, she should have held his hand more often, she should have hugged him more often… Even though she had already given Number 25 a lot of happiness and light, she was blaming herself for not having done enough.
Aser, filled with regret and unable to bear the tearing pain in her heart, wailed again in Number 25’s room. The sobs soon turned into a lament tinged with grief. The long, mournful sound never stopped. The day Aser’s crying disappeared from the castle would be the day Number 25 returned to the castle; it was a great sadness that could not be hidden otherwise.
●
Charlotte leaned against Number 25’s door, which Aser had locked, and grimaced as if in pain.
Watching one of the people she loved, who had always been by her side since childhood, writhing in pain was not a good thing. The sadness she felt became Charlotte’s pain.
Moreover, it wasn’t just Aser who was sad. Charlotte had also lost the man she had first given her heart to, the lover she had promised forever to. She had been powerless to do anything as he was taken away. The last image of him, leaving suddenly after promising to be with her for the rest of her life, was still vivid in her mind.
But Charlotte’s situation was different from Aser’s. She wasn’t a Demon Lord who had to take responsibility for a district.
Loyalty to Arwen, and the memories and time she had spent with Aser since she was a girl, had become a strong leash, but it was ultimately her choice. Charlotte, who could be free at any time, could go anywhere if she wanted to.
But what about Aser, who would be left alone if she left like that? On the outside, she pretended to be strong and fully grown, but from Charlotte’s perspective, who had lived longer than her, Aser was still an endlessly fragile girl whose mind wasn’t fully mature.
It was different from Arwen, who had said her last goodbyes and given people time to prepare before leaving.
The current Aser was endlessly precarious. If someone didn’t stay by her side, she could collapse at any moment if she was touched even slightly. If even she, who was the only one who could support Aser, showed a weak side, who would take responsibility for her? Until Number 25 returned, or until Aser came to her senses, she had to endure somehow.
But this was bound to hurt. Hiding her sadness and pretending to be as bright and normal as possible was something that slowly rotted a person from the inside out.
There were days when she wanted to be held in the arms of a loved one and reveal her innermost thoughts. Charlotte listened to Aser’s tearful voice, which was gradually fading away from behind her, looked at the floor again, and let out a long sigh.
“Haa, I miss you even more today…”
The night of the two people who had lost their loved ones on the same day was cruelly long and dark.
