Stigma Effect

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Raphlet’s golden eyes, looking at Yuriel, clouded. His memory moved little by little and flowed back to the past when he first met Yuriel.

Raphlet met Yuriel, who was standing in the middle of the forest along the road from Mogris Castle.

Although he was young, he never received the affection a child deserved. Both Raphlet’s parents were deeply engrossed in alchemy, and they did everything to satisfy their alchemy knowledge.

Raphlet was a creature born from a mixture of human essence and monster core.

It was said that his mother conceived him through a fertilization method that was not common sense. Since he was born that way, there was no way he could have been loved like a normal child.

For the grand duke and his wife, Raphlet was nothing more than a means to satisfy intellectual vanity and lust for power. Still, Raphlet never suspected that he wasn’t human.

This was because the monster he saw was filthy, covered in dark skin and spewed venom. He was stronger than the average kid, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t human.

Although he was young, he did not need anyone’s protection.

The strange atmosphere of a child who was less than ten years old conveyed a strange displeasure to those around him. His parents, servants of Mogris Castle, and anyone who saw him, without exception, felt that way.

‘Are you in charge of Lord Raphlet? I, I’m not ready to serve Lord Raphlet yet… .’

The position of the exclusive servant of the heir of the grand duke, whom any servant would covet, was vacant whenever there was a chance. Even though Raphlet wasn’t doing anything wrong, the servants could not stand it and asked to change their jobs.

Raphlet was naturally estranged from affection, and he grew up unaware of positive emotions.

It was to Raphlet’s advantage, never to a detriment. Only those who knew the value of affection, seeked it. Raphlet, who did not know the value, did not feel lacking.

Raphlet was like that before he met Yuriel.

On the day he met Yuriel, Raphlet only followed the monster to clean up what the grand duke and his wife had done. It was always his job to deal with the mutated monsters from their experiments inside and outside the Grand Duchy.

No matter how the grand duke and his wife treated Raphlet, this was the place where he would live his whole life.

‘If it goes into the forest, it will not be able to stand it and it will die. There’s enough cores, so there’s no need to pursue it. A core from such a weak monster is useless.’

‘Because it is weak, it will die soon.’

They were not wrong. Winter in Mogris was harsh. It was a harsh place for a monster that had undergone various experiments to survive.

However, Raphlet could not stand still and treat the forest of the Mogris Territory like a dumping ground for monsters.

Especially if it was a monster that had a toxic mutation like today.

He was concerned about how it would affect the forest of Mogris.

At the place where he went to deal with the monster, Raphlet found Yuriel.

A terrified voice pierced his ears. It was a child’s voice.

The monster that the grand duke and his wife were experimenting with did not know the language. Raphlet was more sensitive to the screams that could not make sense to others, perhaps because he grew up listening to the sounds of the monsters without meaning.

Pressing down on his sensitive senses, he ran quickly to the place where he saw a child who was lying in front of a monster.

The moment when the fearful eyes looked straight at him came clearly into Raphlet’s eyes. It was quite an impulsive act for him to jump right away when seeing a monster rushing at a child.

The child under Raphlet opened her eyes wide and stared at him. Embarrassed by the eyes of a child looking at him as if possessed, he jumped away and dealt with the monster.

Raphlet, who had cleaned even the monster’s core, turned around to check the child. And he unwittingly raised his sword.

‘Should I kill her?’

He felt an unfamiliar feeling. It was a feeling of nausea and goosebumps.

He felt so reluctant to think that the servants in the mansion may be avoiding him because they felt this sense when seeing him. It was an instinctive premonition telling him that he would be in danger if the child was alive.

Feeling the chill on his back, Raphlet frowned. No matter how he looked, the child didn’t seem like someone who could harm him.

The child stammered, completely unaware that he was feeling uncomfortable.

‘It’s, it’s hurt.’

Hurt, where?

‘If you are attacked by a monster, you have to do a test. This is a poisonous monster.’

‘No, I wasn’t hurt… !’

He lowered his sword and looked at the child. The child hesitated and stretched out her hand towards him. It looked like she was going to point her finger at him, but Raphlet was a little quicker.

He carried the child on his back, unaware that there was blood on his back. As the child touched his body, his senses rose more sharply.

He might have tossed the child out of displeasure if he hadn’t heard her speak haphazardly to him.

‘Thank, thank you for saving me. Hey, if you tell me your name, I’ll be sure to repay you.’

A voice full of goodwill was awkward for him. Raphlet spoke his name bluntly, and the child rolled his name into her mouth a few times and said her own.

Yuriel.

It was the name of a saint in mythology. Whoever named her, it was an undeserved name for a child who wore worn-out clothes.

Raphlet grabbed Yuriel’s waist, who was struggling while talking loudly, and went straight back to the castle.

‘Lord Raphlet, this is the direction to the castle!’

The corners of his lips went up a little because her confused voice was funny.

It was still clear how she had her mouth wide open when she saw the servants and knights who entered the castle and surrounded him.

When she learned that Raphlet was the heir to the Mogris estate, she couldn’t come closer and groaned.

The other servants, like Yuriel, hesitated in front of him, but the underlying emotions were different.

Yuriel could hardly approach Raphlet because of her longing for him.

‘Lord Raphlet.’

The voice calling his name was always excited. Raphlet thought that whenever his own name came from Yuriel, that short word could be a spell that made him smile.

When she called out his name, Yuriel’s face filled with laughter.

Raphlet forgot the reluctance he felt when he first met Yuriel and fell for her.

It was a time when his personality, which was quiet about everything, changed. It was a very small change for Yuriel, but he definitely changed.

The grand duke and his wife were interested in Raphlet’s change. Raphlet, who was not swayed by lust for material, appetite, or affection, showed interest in the person opposite him.

Raphlet, who caused people discomfort, and Yuriel, who attracted affection even though she was a commoner with no origin. Just by observing them, the grand duke and his wife could recognize the change in Raphlet.

In Raphlet’s world, which looked achromatic like the skin of a monster, only Yuriel brought a different color into his world.

Yuriel poured her affection on Raphlet and just a word from him seemed to give her the strength to pour out her affection again.

It was a very beneficial relationship for Raphlet too.

All he gave away was the little things: a cozy bed and a thick winter coat. Yuriel laughed as if she had received the world even if he gave her something that was meaningless.

‘Thank you, Lord Raphlet.’

‘Tell me if you need more.’

Raising the collar of her soft cloak, she buried her face, smiled shyly, and thanked him. When he asked if she needed anything, she shook her head and gave a sad look.

‘Do you need more clothes? Oh, you’ll need gloves. I’ll prepare some for you.’

‘Oh, no…. That’s not it….’

When he saw her fingers wiggle she was mumbling passively, it was unlike Yuriel. Then, as if she had made a very big decision, she raised her head and muttered inaudibly.

‘Can you hold my hand…?’

Raphley learned that Yuriel loved his touch more than anything else.

While receiving the clothes, she smiled as if she had received the world, and when he held out his hand, she held it tightly and stopped breathing.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could do anything to save Yuriel and even kill.

Affection, trust and awe. All good feelings he learned from Yuriel.

‘Lord Raphlet is kind.’

When Yuriel said that, Raphlet worked to become such a person. Be kind and affectionately, so as not to deviate from Yuriel’s expectations.

Yuriel genuinely believed he was a kind and affectionate person, and Raphlet didn’t think his transformed self was bad.

He was satisfied with the situation until Yuriel confessed her feelings for him after their relationship became more comfortable.

‘When you saw me for the first time, you stopped monsters. Do you know what I was thinking when I saw Lord Raphlet?’

Raphlet, who was lying on the same bed to comfort Yuriel from her nightmare, turned his body and laid down. Yuriel carefully stretched out her hand to Raphlet’s hair, as black as a monster’s skin, and spoke hazyly.

‘I thought a monster came to eat me.’

‘What?’

Raphlet, who had been thinking in advance of all the compliments Yuriel usually said to him, frowned.

Raphlet touched his hair and thought about pulling Yuriel’s hand away, but he didn’t move and looked at Yuriel.

Her eyes looking at him were clouded as if she was looking at someone else.