Of course Burn knew what Morgan was upset about.
Not because she found out that Burn had killed and eaten two mythical creatures, or that it made him despised by the elves. It was because the man she called ‘husband’ in front of them was a real villain who indeed killed and ate two mythical creatures.
She was angry that this was the man she held hands with in front of the elves, who called her “Her Holiness”.
Oh, she wasn’t angry that he made her lose her appetite after they told her that he ate the flesh of two sentient beings, she was disgusted that the man she made love with ate two sentient beings.
And so, she couldn’t even touch her al.
And so, she cried.
And so—“Caliburn… do you even know what you’ve done?”
She questioned him.
“I know what I’ve done,” Burn, his face dark and cold, continued in a voice as deep as the abyss, “And I don’t feel an ounce of guilt for it.”
Her defense crumbled to pieces as she wept silently in front of him. Only the image of her in this state had ripped his heart apart.
She finally saw the glimpse of void inside him.
But as much as he wanted to embrace her, hiding her broken form from the world, he knew she would push him away in disgust, knowing what he had done.
So he sat in front of her, witnessing every second of tears rolling down her cheeks, knowing full well he was the one who caused it. Knowing full well he was tortured along with it.
“Why didn’t you tell …?” she begged to know once again.
“If I told you, would you co this far with ?” Burn coldly asked.
"What do you an? What are you talking about… Caliburn? If you had told , I would've done sothing about it—" Morgan sobbed, her shoulders trembling vulnerably. "Why didn't you tell that you used to have Soulnaught Syndro...?"
Burn stopped breathing.
Sothing was not right.
He then rembered how she had held his hand the entire ti the revelation unfolded. Unconsciously, he must have thought about his illness when the unicorn and the rfolk king were ntioned—and Morgan had read his mind.
"My Burn—" Morgan bawled as she hugged Burn's head, forcing him to bow to her height. "Did you suffer so much...? I didn't know, and I cursed ti under your na—"
Between her soft weeps and whimpers, in her embrace, Burn froze.
“It doesn’t matter,” Burn said when he slowly regained his voice.
Hearing that, Morgan sniveled, “Did you bla ?” she asked. “Your soul seed fine, so I didn’t know—”
“I’m fine. My condition was cured after I ate the unicorn and the rfolk,” Burn whispered.
“But what if you relapsed?” Morgan started to bawl again. “Did you even realize what you’ve done? You’ve forsaken your humanity once and ate two sentient creatures, and you said you’re fine…?”
“Of course I’m fine. I’m alive thanks to it,” Burn stroked her back, feeling her frustration.
“Don’t lie to . When was it?” Suddenly, she turned stern and released her embrace, forcing him to face her. With a face red and stained with tears, she demanded, “Tell .”
“It was 15-16 years ago, I forgot,” Burn answered, not counting the ti he spent in the loops.
“You were ten?” Morgan almost broke down once again, her eyebrows creased, and her blue eyes watered with more tears, but she held her sobs and squeezed his hands. “You were a child…”
“I was at least eleven. It just happened. I’m fine now,” Burn insisted gently, even though traces of confusion still lingered in his eyes.
“You are not,” Morgan said, her voice trembling but firm. “You stupid... ugh—for God’s sake…”
Witnessing her trying to stifle her tears and stop her own whimpers, Burn felt dull. He was lost. Everything he thought about her was false, and everything he predicted she would say or do was wrong.
He thought people operated under a clear set of rules, predictable in their perspective and view.
But Morgan, in her ultimate kindness, only saw the truth. And her response to it was simply... insane.
“I thought you were going to leave ,” Burn said expressionlessly.
Morgan tearfully scoffed, “I am about to if you keep this up. I’m going to break the curse and leave.”
Burn didn’t realize it, but his eyes faltered. “Are you threatening ?”
“Don’t tell you’re fine now that I found out that you killed and ate two people when you were ten just to survive your illness,” Morgan’s last tear fell to the ground. She sighed, “God—”
She took a long, deep breath and, after a long silence, firmly said, “I won’t let this curse harm you more than this. After this loop, I will fix the spell and break it.” Continuing her plan, she added, “Don’t worry about the mythical communities. I’ll tell them that you needed their flesh to survive. I’ll go to the rfolk Kingdom and speak to them too.”
“Are you leaving?” Burn asked again. Now, his voice sounded sowhat innocent and light, but still deep and dark.
“Do you even understand what I said?” Morgan asked, frustrated.
“Do whatever you want, but don’t break the curse,” Burn said.
“What do you an?!” Morgan couldn’t help but yell.
“If you break the curse, then you have to marry . I want a full magical contract. I’ll make Yvain officiate it,” Burn calmly said.
Morgan was speechless. Why did it feel like they weren’t talking about the sa thing since the start?
“Or, don’t break the curse, and also… marry ,” Burn slowly, softly said, “I love you.”
Now those repeated loops beca a regret for him. If he had stopped being so stubborn much earlier, he would have co to know her much faster.
His Morgan.
“Please don’t break anything between us,” Burn said. “And if we die, let’s just die together.”
Morgan was never disgusted by him, nor did she reject him. She cried for him, felt anger on his behalf, and sensed betrayal that he hadn't disclosed the most important thing—about himself.
“Caliburn…” Morgan closed her blue eyes, now filled only with sadness. Her hand slowly moved to her face, a vivid display of her pain and frustration.
But Burn just wanted to smile.
It was strange.
The feeling that soone actually cared for his perspective, the sensation that soone understood his side of the story without him needing to articulate it… was amazing. He had never entertained the idea that such a person existed for him.
“Are you leaving , Morgan?” he whispered.
He asked three tis. First, when he feared she might leave, second, when he wished her to stay, and third, now that he knew she wouldn’t leave.
“This is so unfair,” Morgan whispered back.
“Good. Life is unfair. You can't leave even if it's unfair,” so what if Burn was about to rob the rest of her eternal life just for him?
He didn’t know that Morgan was talking about how unfair it was to be born with Soulnaught Syndro, while she was born with an infinite soul. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.
As he said, life is unfair, after all.
“I know that you’ve decided to help the elves and the other communities too. I’ll help them too, as long as they don’t cross the line like today,” Burn said. “If any of them dare to pry into sothing unnecessary again…”
Like sothing that led to his past illness or other pathetic things about him—or sothing that would upset her—
“For example, what the Inkian said to the elven princess,” Burn’s face darkened. “Just then, I’ll do the easy way and destroy everything.”
Explaining himself took too long. Talking to them to coax them to his side took too long. It was easier for him to be a villain in the end.
The elves had a succession problem. The queen only had two daughters; the first one was ill, while the second one was too radical in her liberalism, thanks to her fascination with human society and her enrollnt in the academy.
It was quite a miracle that she hadn’t seen the rotten side of Inkian society, believing everything they said. Or maybe soone was deliberately manipulating her. Through her, they attempted to manipulate the elves to go against him too.
Burn knew that there were at least two ways to solve this problem. One, they cured the first daughter sohow, or second, they opened the second daughter’s eyes to reality.
But that could wait until tomorrow.
Right now, he had one pressing matter to solve. "You haven't answered any of my questions yet," Burn stated.
Morgan raised her face to him.
"You haven’t even responded to my one important declaration," he continued.
She still refused to say a single thing.
"Fine. I’ll just make you speak," Burn sighed, his patience running out. He lifted her up his shoulder, and she squealed in surprise before he brought her to his tent.
Looking around, Burn closed the tent's entrance. It was a good thing his n had enough tact to stay away from the quarreling imperial couple.
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