I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

I was so surprised that my heart stopped beating as it should, and it started to play variations on its own accord. It felt like it dropped to the floor and then soared to the sky.

There wasn’t time for me to register that his face was moving closer. Before I knew it, something burning hot came rushing in.

I gasped for a breath, desperately grasping the hem of his garment as if it were a lifeline.

I pushed. But it didn’t budge.

I turned away my head. But he dug deeper and stole away my breath.

When the strength in my legs weakened and my knees buckled, he gently lifted up my legs and wrapped them around his waist.

He raised it all with one arm while holding the back of my head with the other.

Even though this was the vast sea, there was no corner of escape as we were so tightly pressed together; there wasn’t even a tiny gap.

The man, who would immediately apologize whenever he noticed any signs of discomfort, was nowhere to be seen.

The desire that he had suppressed down to the limit violently battered me like a sudden downpour and left me drenched.

Even though I was only soaked for a moment, I already had an intuition that I wouldn’t be able to handle the incoming turbulent storm.

‘I don’t know. I really don’t know. I’ve never done this before.’

I was terrified of the unfamiliar, raw feeling that would swallow me from head to toe. The stimulus was too powerful. I felt like I was swept away by the tsunami-like pleasure he gave and was about to shatter into pieces.

“I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to break you. I’m going to kill you.”

I had already received numerous warnings. It was hard to count them all with my fingers.

Nevertheless, I ignored it. Instead of pushing him away, I stimulated and clung to him.

I was like a foolish person who ate the forbidden fruit despite knowing what it was.

At some point, I placed my arm around his neck as if I had become lost in the moment. A faint moan trickled out of his mouth. He made a low growl and pulled me closer. I shuddered and tensed up my legs.

I wasn’t even aware of when I had started to cry.

When the frantic kiss ended, he took a deep breath and leaned his forehead against my shoulder.

My heart was beating so rapidly that I felt like it was about to burst. My body sagged like a soaked cotton ball, and my limbs twitched as if convulsing.

Even so, it didn’t seem like I was doing it out of fear.

“I told you. I’m not qualified.”

He guided my body so that I was leaning against his solid chest.

I thought I was finally going to relax, but instead, I felt my body become hotter than before.

The phrase that kissing was a prelude to a particular action suddenly crossed my mind.

Felix cut off my thoughts with a shaky breath. His action caused my sensitive body to flinch.

“Ah, it hurts.”

“Does it hurt?”

‘But why would you do this if you’re in pain?’

Felix rebuked me by licking the corners of my tear-stained eyes gently. My eyelids quivered.

I turned my head because it tickled and clenched my jaw.

He asked, “Are you scared?”

“…”

For some reason, I couldn’t deny it right away.

My fear of entrusting myself to the foreign stimulus was greater. No matter how much he was devoured by the devil, I mistakenly thought that he would still be a gentleman.

His desire that I experienced through my body was immensely animalistic and sensual.

Felix had always emphasized that the desire of the devil was incomparable to humans.

“I thought you had no fear.”

Felix muttered languidly, exhaling a damp breath into my ear. I squeezed my eyes shut as his hand passed my waist and continuously climbed up.

“Then don’t chase after me.”

“…”

“If you come after me again, I’ll assume that you want me to continue. And then…”

“…”

“Let’s plummet to the bottom of mankind together.”

“I’ll show you what it’s like to fall to the abyss and what true hell is to the point that you’ll curse me.”

He murmured grimly with a blazing gaze of madness and lust.

It was not a threat to intimidate me.

It was a notification that he would sincerely let it become like that and that he would no longer be holding his patience.

There was an inhuman tinge to his deep-blue eyes.

Even though those words came out of his lips, I doubted my ears.

A quarter of the devil’s soul. The extent of that change painfully struck my heart.

Felix placed me on a rock so I could sit since my legs were weak. And, this time, without glancing back, he really left.

He really didn’t look back.

Even if I wanted to chase him, I didn’t have the strength to do so. Moreover, he disappeared so rapidly that I felt like I wouldn’t even be able to catch up with him even if I tried.

Felix was an idiot. Who the hell could chase after him if he walked like that?

Not even a runner, let alone me, would be able to catch up to him.

He was purposely doing that, so I would never catch up.

‘My sweet angel, why don’t you turn around again and pat me on the back while confessing that it was all a mischievous joke?’

‘When will you return? Will you even come back?’

I laid flat on the rock as it was.

I just laid there and mirthlessly waited until the sun went down and the sea, which swallowed up the glow of the sunset, was dyed red.

A miracle did not happen.

* * *

“Please develop your mana resistance without anyone knowing.”

Irene came out of nowhere and said this to him during their first encounter.

As soon as Felix heard that, he suddenly thought, ‘How long has it been since I heard the words ‘mana resistance’?’

Other than learning about it in a liberal arts subject at the Academy, he’d never heard those words ever since.

And this was Felix – the person praised as the unsurpassable sorcerer of the Empire and the greatest sorcerer of all time.

‘Mana resistance.’

That magical skill had disappeared since ancient times as it had become obsolete.

It was the first time someone had spoken about it, so Felix couldn’t help but attentively examine Irene.

Before he could even consider her outward appearance or attire, he received the first impression that she seemed very serious.

At the same time, he noticed that her confident voice brimmed with determination. She looked like a knight who was fighting a million enemies alone.

Meanwhile, Felix had a bit of an odd idea.

‘Her mouth is like a triangle…’

The stray cats he often fed had triangular-shaped mouths, but this was the first time he had seen a human’s lips form a triangular shape.

Come to think of it, those golden eyes were glimmering too brightly for a human.

Felix thought up to that point but soon realized that he was acting too disrespectful. He instantly erased the idea of the triangular mouth and the golden eyes from his mind.

There was no reason to refuse.

After all, one could never get enough of learning. The moment Felix told her that, the round golden eyes that brilliantly glowed as if it embraced a swarm of dazzling lights soon curved.

His expression instantly hardened as he thought he was momentary hallucinating. Despite that, Felix felt a strange sensation of this moment being engraved into his mind.

It was the first time Felix became interested in the topic of devils that he had never cared about before. Well, it wasn’t exactly the devil; he just wanted to know how he could make those eyes look like that again.

The next time he met her was at the Chamberlain mansion. Felix, who returned from work, saw Claudia happily chatting with someone.

It had been a really long time since his sister made such a cheerful expression. He studied his opponent while thinking so.

It was the girl from back then.

Claudia must have made a friend.

Not wanting to disturb them, Felix just stared at the girl, and coincidentally, their eyes met. As soon as that happened, Irene’s face hardened, and she avoided his gaze.

It was a completely different look from when she earnestly urged him to work on his mana resistance, so Felix was inwardly puzzled. However, he didn’t think much of it.

Such encounters continued several times.

Irene often visited the Chamberlain mansion.

However, even if she were smiling lovingly in front of Claudia, the instant she saw Felix, her tail would puff up, and she would quickly widen their distance by moving away.

‘Cat…’

He couldn’t erase the rude thought from his mind.

It wasn’t just the outward element that was identical; the behavior was exactly the same.

* * *

T/N: Thanks for your patience, everyone! (Sorry about the late post). As you can see, Felix has left T_T (*sobs*) :< but, at least we got a kiss right?

P.S. There’s a fan art illustration for this scene, so if you’re on the Woopread Discord, don’t forget to check the “novel discussion” channel since I’ll be posting the illustration there! (I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to post it here so, I’ll just do it on Discord. Hope you all don’t mind! >_<)