The Iudex's day off

Chapter 67 - I know

 Then this was...

 No.

 That was impossible.

 But...

 Still...

 Maybe...

"Wrio?" I called out cautiously.

 Perhaps this was yet another trick.

 Another way to give me false hope.

 It wouldn't be the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

 Even so, it was worth a try-

 "Who the hell else am I supposed to be?! You stupid lizard! Have you lost your fucking mind?!"

 It was him.

 This time I could feel it for sure. My own elemental energy pulsing with excitement.

 But-

 No.

 No, no, no, no.

 "You shouldn't be here. Why- How- How are you here?"

 There should have been no way for him to find me.

 No one can enter this place without my-

 Oh...

 The dragon.

 It had escaped.

 But why...

 Why bring him here when he knows neither of us can do anything?

 I took a step back, not daring to face him.

 I hurt him.

 I broke his heart.

 I took away his freedom.

 Why is he here? Why did he come?

 I took another step back and he took a step forward.

 I backed away and he followed without a word till-

 Thump.

 I found myself backed up against an invisible wall.

 Like this, I could no longer retreat and it took him only three more steps to stand right in front of me. 

 "Look at me."

 I didn't. 

 "Neuvillette, look at me right this instant!"

 And I did. After a while, I did.

 I looked into that pair of eyes brimming with tears.

 So full of fury.

 So full of pain.

 "I-"

 "You will shut up! Nothing more, nothing less! I don't want to hear another word before I'm done speaking!"

 And so I shut my mouth, not daring to open it again.

 "You- You- Neuvillette, you selfish son of a b*tch!"

 I flinched at his shout.

 It was different.

 It was so different when it was really him.

 Obviously, he misunderstood my actions because his next words-

 "And don't you dare tell that that insult is useless 'cause I don't fucking care! I don't care, okay?! Right now, I'm just gonna curse you however the hell I like, and you're gonna have nothing to say about it because you deserve every single fucking word of it!" 

 I do.

 I know I do.

 "You abandoned me! You left me without a word! Without a single word of explanation! You locked me up inside my own fucking prison! Well, isn't that ironic for someone who told me he didn't want to send me down there in the first place?!"

 He was right.

 That was...

 That was indeed...

 "I couldn't-"

 "Shut up! Just shut the hell up! What you couldn't bear to look at me. You couldn't bear to be reminded that I would one day die?!"

 Shock ran through me.

 How-

 How did he-

 Ah...

 The dragon.

 Or it might even have been Furina.

 "You just left and hid in your office before packing up and running off to god knows where! What a great plan! Great indeed! Greatly fucked up! I had to find out from Furina! It was that brat of an archon who told me why you had left! She had to tell me because you didn't! You didn't tell me anything! You just left without a word!

 Even if you couldn't watch me die, you could have watched me live. For years! Decades! Maybe even a century! Was what we had so worthless in your eyes that you couldn't even bother staying?!"

 "No! How could it have been worthless?! I-"

 And then it hit once more.

 The pain, for a while dormant, was back again, interrupting my words.

 "Ugh..."

 It was much worse.

 So much worse than before.

 It got so bad that within just seconds I felt my legs give out as I collapsed onto the ground.

 Or I would have.

 Before my body could hit the ground I was captured within his arms, lowered ever so slowly.

 "Neuvillette? Hey, Neuvillette? Can you hear me?"

 Yes...

 Yes, I could...

 I just couldn't say it.

 I couldn't open my mouth because if I did, I might start screaming.

 And then he spoke those words.

 The words I subconsciously dreaded, but never actually expected to hear.

 The dragon and I both agree that we couldn't go through with it so why?

 How does he know?!

 "Neuvillette, I know you have a way to keep me alive." He said softly as if afraid to startle me.

 But, it was already far too late for that.