[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke novel Chapter 100

Chapter 100: Blue...

Xion had returned to his room and now Darius found himself staring at the reflection of his hair.

Darius traced a finger over the petals woven into his hair.

Xion had done his hair so carelessly, so naturally, as if his actions were just everyday things.

How amusing. How foolish.

And yet, Darius found himself unwilling to touch his hair. They were decorated with flowers. Not just one, but many, and of various different colors as well, but blue was prominent.

"Blue suits your hair." That was what the yawning Xion told him before trotting away.

Blue...

"I’m going back to my room. Noxian is alone," Xion had yawned again, rubbing his drowsy eyes as he forced himself upright. "Good night. Have a sweet dream... and don’t forget to dream about me."

Xion smiled tiredly at the silent boy before giving a small wave.

Darius remained seated in the same spot, watching as the black-haired male disappeared into the dark corridor of the mansion.

How long had he stayed there, the archduke had no idea. It was only when the howling wind made a loud swishing noise that he stood up and slowly returned to his room.

Even for a young child, Darius knew the meaning of the word fleeting. If there was anything that had made a big impression on his little mind other than legacy it was the inevitability of loss.

Every moment was just fleeting, rushed. They dissolved into the past as quickly as they came.

Things seemed to rotate and change at intervals. His servants, his maids, the decor of his room. Even the assassins that came to kill him were always different.

Well, he killed most of them with his own hands, and the rest were handled by Ray.

The few who managed to escape? They never returned.

Darius almost wished they would. Just once, he would have liked to see a familiar face.

There was a brief period in Darius’ life when he had desperately tried to hold on to the few things that brought him even the smallest joys. Like when he tried to save his nanny. Or when he thought he had made his first friend.

He had been naive. Foolish, even... to believe that Ethen was truly his friend. He had treated him the same way his mother treated Talia.

In his young mind, friendship meant something precious, something constant. His mother and Talia were inseparable, just like a friend was supposed to be.

"I like your clothes. Can you give them to me? After all, we are friends, right?"

"Can I have your bracelet?"

"I like your new shoes!"

"Can you lend me your power?"

"Can you kill that person for me?"

"Please do it for me. We are friends, right?"

At some point, such words became normal. Expected.

And Darius? He had been ecstatic. Finally, someone who stayed. Someone who didn’t flinch away from him like the servants did.

Back then, that had been enough.

Then he heard it. Ethen talking with Talia.

"He is a devil! I am only close to him because he is your cousin! I only care about you!"

Darius didn’t react. He didn’t confront Ethen, didn’t let on that he had heard every word.

But when Ethen reached for his favorite flowerpot, expecting to take it as easily as everything else, Darius refused.

Later, he gifted it to Talia instead.

The bright smile that lit up her face was all the confirmation he needed. She had wanted it.

Ethen was just trying to please Talia, just like he had been doing with Ethen.

He understood one thing that day, people only stayed with him when they wanted something.

Friendship could just be a prettier way of saying "usefulness." And once that illusion broke, there was nothing that could ignite his desire to hold back his powers.

That night, an explosion ripped through the archduke’s mansion. Most of the servants died. His instructor, too.

After that, Darius stopped caring about what people whispered to his parents. It didn’t matter. They would believe whatever they wanted to.

"Devil." That was what they all called him. So why not become one?

There was no constant in his life, and thus Darius did not believe in any promises. After all, they were a thing of the future, and no one dared to return to him.

So when Xion, with his wide, innocent eyes, told Darius that he would be his friend, Darius hadn’t taken him seriously.

Yet now, as he stared at his reflection in the mirror, he wondered... was this what constancy felt like?

Darius didn’t know what it was, but he knew one thing for certain. It wasn’t Aurora.

Possessiveness had always come naturally to him. What was his belonged to him, and Xion, his so-called friend, should be no exception.

Shouldn’t Xion treat him differently? Specially? Why was that boy holding something so similar to his gift?

He was the Archduke. He was someone even the nobility would not dare to treat lightly. And yet, here he was... overlooked, given something so cheap, a mere copy of what was given to the servant boy.

At least he knew Xion was devoted to him. Well, it was rather his health, the sweet male was dedicated to, but it was still his health.

The black-haired boy had been the first to show his sympathy to him. In the future, Darius would make sure that Xion continued to do so.

It had only worsened Darius’ mood. But just one smile from Xion had been enough to spare Ethen for now.

Marquis Roberto Vaelis. The father of his Xion and also the father of Soren whom he was planning to beat to death.