Chapter 1923: [Bonus] That’s wrong switch, Bro!

He needed the right switch to flip.

Just… a perfect switch to flip!!

‘Come on, think, man… You have been with her for months. There has to be something you learned about her.’

Lackey thought seriously as he searched through every conversation, every reaction, and every little detail he could remember about Grace.

For once, he could not afford to bullshit his way out of this.

But all she had done was listen to his endless chatter while he desperately tried to get closer to her so she would not kill him.

That was all.

There was nothing else he knew about her.

Nothing—

‘Wait a second… I could use that!’

His eyes shot upward so suddenly that Grace was almost taken aback.

She tilted her head slightly, staring at him with a strange, confused expression.

“That’s what I want to know!” Lackey said, his expression suddenly becoming serious.

“What?” Grace tilted her head in confusion.

Lackey placed a hand against his chest, his expression becoming earnest as he looked directly at her.

“I tried my best, Grace. I really did. I did whatever I could to understand you, but my efforts always went in vain.”

Grace stared at him, honestly confused.

Understand her?

What the hell was he talking about?

Lackey continued before she could ask, his expression becoming more enigmatic and wounded.

“I tried again and again, yet I failed to understand even a single thing about you. No matter what I did, no matter how truthful I became with you, you never opened your heart to me.”

He lowered his gaze and bit his lip lightly, as though admitting that truth had genuinely hurt him.

“…”

Grace’s brows slowly furrowed.

Lackey raised his head again.

“YES, I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU!”

His sudden shout made Grace flinch slightly. ‘Wait… who is angry here again?’ before she could process her thoughts.

“But do you know why?”

Lackey’s voice immediately softened as he looked straight into her eyes.

“Because of you, my Grace.”

Since Grace could see through his illusions, not even Dora’s illusion mattered to her. She could see his true form even now, leaving him nowhere to hide behind another face.

Grace frowned.

“Me?”

A sudden sense of offence rose within her. The way he had pointed toward her made it sound as though everything was somehow her fault.

‘If he dares point at me again… I am going to fucking kill this maggot.’

Her murderous thoughts were almost visible in her expression.

A cold and lifeless aura began leaking from her tiny body, making the atmosphere around them feel noticeably heavier.

Lackey gulped.

He quickly lowered his hand.

“Yes… You.”

He paused for just a moment before continuing carefully.

“You never, ever shared a single thing about yourself with me. Did you?”

“…”

Grace fell silent.

She opened her mouth, apparently preparing to answer, but Lackey immediately continued before she could say anything.

“And I know what you are going to say. You are probably wondering, ‘Why should I tell you anything about myself?’ Correct?”

Grace’s lips twitched slightly.

She stared at him for a moment before reluctantly nodding.

Lackey gently smiled.

“Because… I wanted someone to reach out their hand and help me walk.”

His voice became quieter, and his eyes carried a vulnerability that was difficult to distinguish from genuine pain.

“And when I looked around, I realised that the only person who could do that was you, Grace.”

He placed his hand firmly against his chest.

“Only you.”

Grace’s eyes widened slightly.

“What?”

Lackey did not immediately answer. He allowed the silence to linger for a moment before continuing.

“Yes, we started on bad terms. I know that better than anyone. You hated me, I was afraid you would kill me, and honestly, I gave you plenty of reasons to do it.”

A faint, bitter smile appeared on his face.

“But then I started talking to you. I complained about the world. I told you about my problems. I told you things I probably should not have told you.”

He looked at her again.

“And you listened.”

Grace remained silent.

“You listened every single time!”

His voice became softer, almost intimate.

“You never interrupted me. You never told me to shut up. You never told me that my problems were meaningless. You simply sat there and listened, even when I kept talking about the same things over and over again.”

Lackey slowly clenched his hand against his chest.

“You were the only person who did that for me.”

He paused before adding, “Not even Mary would listen to me like that… even though I loved her with all my heart.”

Grace became completely silent.

She knew how much this bastard loved that insane woman. She had heard him speak about Mary countless times, enough to understand… he fucked up in his mind!

So for him to put Grace in the same conversation…

That meant something, right?

Her cold expression remained, but the sharpness in her eyes diminished slightly.

Just a little.

Lackey noticed.

Of course he noticed.

He had spent months learning how to survive around dangerous people, and Grace was perhaps the most dangerous person he had ever dealt with. He knew better than to waste an opening once it appeared.

His expression became even more vulnerable.

“The only person who listened to my cries, my nagging, my complaints… everything. You listened to all of it.”

He swallowed quietly.

“And maybe you never realised what that meant to me.”

Grace’s eyes shifted slightly.

Lackey continued before she could respond.

“Do you know what happens when nobody wants to listen to you? Eventually, you stop talking. You just keep everything inside because you already know nobody cares.”

His fingers slowly loosened against his chest.

“But whenever I came to you, I could talk.”

He looked directly into her eyes.

“And you stayed.”

Grace’s expression changed almost imperceptibly.

Lackey lowered his voice further.

“You could have ignored me. You could have walked away. You could have killed me and ended the problem altogether. But you didn’t.”

He allowed another brief silence to settle between them.

“That is why I kept coming back to you, Grace.”

Inside, however, his thoughts were moving considerably faster.

‘Come on… Take it!’

He knew exactly what he was doing.

And he was not inventing her importance.

He was simply taking every small truth between them, arranging those truths into twisted form and giving it to her.

So… he was not wrong, right?

Grace parted her lips, ready to tell him that she had never actually chosen to listen to him. He was the one who had forced his way into her life, constantly talking to her until she had no choice but to hear him.

But before she could say any of it, Lackey suddenly interrupted her with a serious, trembling voice.

“Even when you were trapped inside that cage… you used your powers to stop the blood and flames from hurting each other. You did it to protect me…. Me?”

Grace’s expression paused.

Lackey lowered his head, his voice becoming increasingly emotional.

“I… I was so happy when I realised you had protected me. The man who had put you in that cage… the same man who was supposed to be afraid of you… I used to lie awake every night thinking about the fact that you still chose to protect me.”

His voice cracked slightly.

“And yet… I still chose to keep you inside that cage instead of releasing you.”

Lackey’s shoulders trembled.

“How fucking wicked am I?”

His eyes began to glisten as tears slowly gathered in them.

“Sniff… sniff…”

Grace’s face became awkward as she watched him.

She had expected excuses.

She had expected him to joke his way out of it.

She had even expected him to try running away.

But this?

Seeing him genuinely break down in front of her made her anger hesitate.

He must have been hurt by it… right?

Grace hesitated before finally saying, “Then you could have simply told me that the cage could be opened.”

Lackey slowly lifted his head and smiled through his tears.

“How could I do that?”

“Huh?” Grace tilted her head, genuinely confused.

Lackey lowered his head again, his expression filled with shame.

“Initially, I was only worried that if I released you… you would kill me. So, for my own protection, I hid the truth from you.”

Grace nodded slightly.

That part, at least, she could understand.

If he had been afraid of her, hiding something like that made sense.

“But as the days passed…” Lackey continued, his voice becoming quieter.

“The more you started listening to me, the closer I grew to you, and…”

“And?”

Lackey clenched his fists against his knees.

“I…”

He struggled to continue, as though the words were difficult for him to admit even now.

“I was scared you would abandon me.”

“…What?”

Grace’s eyes widened slightly at the revelation.

Lackey nodded slowly, his face filled with unmistakable pain.

“If I unlocked the cage, you would leave me, and I would be alone again. I didn’t want that.”

His voice trembled.

“I didn’t want you to leave me. I wanted my Grace to stay there with me. I wanted you to listen to my cries, hear my stupid complaints, and teach me things I didn’t know.”

He swallowed hard before continuing.

“I know how selfish that sounds. I know what I did was wrong. I know I had no right to keep you there simply because I was afraid of being alone.”

His eyes lowered.

“But I couldn’t stand the thought of you leaving me, Grace.”

Grace stared at him without saying anything.

Lackey let out a small, hollow laugh.

“T-That’s why… I hid the truth.”

He wiped beneath one eye, though another tear had already gathered there.

“But after everything I have been through, I finally understood just how selfish I had become. So if you want to punish me, then I will accept it.”

He looked directly at her.

“Whatever punishment you give me, Grace… I will accept it.”

For a moment, he said nothing.

Then his expression changed.

His eyes became wet and vulnerable, almost like those of a lost child who had no idea where to go next.

“But…”

His voice barely rose above a whisper.

“Don’t leave me, Grace.”

Sshh!

It struck her like a sudden wave of cold air.

Grace’s eyes widened as she looked into those lost, pleading puppy eyes.

Her body trembled faintly.

There was something pathetic about the expression on his face, but not in a way that made her despise him.

It looked as though he genuinely believed that if she walked away, he would have no idea how to find his way back home.

Grace’s anger began to falter.

Her wings, which had been radiating that faint glow, slowly dimmed.

She remained silent as she looked at him.

Only then did she realize the kind of effect she had been having on him.

Perhaps she had become something important to him without ever realising it.

Perhaps all those ridiculous conversations, all those times listening to his endless complaints, and all those times she had simply remained beside him had meant more to him than she had ever imagined.

The murderous aura surrounding her had almost completely disappeared.

Lackey quietly watched her expression.

The tension in his shoulders eased ever so slightly.

‘Hehe… Everything is going according to plan.’

He had not actually lied.

That was the beauty of it.

Everything he had said contained some truth. He had been afraid of Grace. He had become accustomed to her presence. He did not want her to leave him. He genuinely valued the fact that she had listened to him.

He had simply arranged those truths in a slightly more convenient order.

And, more importantly, he had successfully pulled her attention away from the one subject he absolutely did not want to discuss.

The bait.

That was what had truly pissed her off in the first place.

As long as Grace forgot about that little detail, Lackey was confident he could survive the day.

‘One final push… Just one final push, and I will escape from Judgment Day.’

Lackey thought, carefully watching Grace’s expression from the corner of his eye. The murderous aura that had surrounded her had already weakened considerably, but he knew better than to become careless.

One wrong word could bring everything crashing down again.

So he decided to deliver the final blow.

He slowly shook his head, forcing his expression into one of resignation, as though he had finally accepted that there was nothing more he could do.

“I understand… I-If you want to le-leave, then… yeah, go ahead.”

His voice trembled slightly.

“But I-I cannot watch you leave.”

He lowered his gaze, allowing his shoulders to sink.

“S-So… I… I’ll go.”

Lackey slowly raised his hand and pointed toward the door, his expression filled with exaggerated sorrow.

“I think it would be easier if I leave first. T-T-TThat way, I won’t have to watch you walk away from me.”

He turned his face slightly, making sure she could see the sadness in his eyes.

“I don’t want to make things harder for you, Grace. If staying beside me has only brought you trouble, then perhaps I should be the one to leave.”

His voice became even softer.

“Just… don’t think that I am angry with you for choosing to leave.”

Without waiting for her answer, Lackey turned around.

Then he ran.

He ran toward the door like a girl who had just been rejected by her lover, his shoulders trembling dramatically as though his entire world had just collapsed.

‘Hehe… I escaped from literal death!’

Or so he thought.

“Elder Sister.”

He was only a few steps away from the door when a strangely familiar voice came from behind him.

[+800]

[+800]

[+800]

“Huh?”

Lackey froze.

He tried taking another step, but his body suddenly refused to move. An invisible force seemed to wrap around him, holding him firmly in place.

“What the…?”

A cold realisation slowly crawled up his spine.

‘No.’

His neck stiffened.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Very slowly, Lackey turned around.

[+800]

[+800]

[+800]

Grace was still sitting comfortably on the edge of the bed, resting her cheek against her tiny knuckles.

Her previous murderous expression was gone.

Instead, her cheeks were faintly red, and there was a strange, almost arrogant satisfaction in her eyes.

She tilted her head slightly.

“Call me Elder Sister, boy.”

“…”

Lackey stared at her.

His brain completely stopped functioning for a moment.

[+900]

[+900]

[+900]

[+900]

Grace’s lips slowly curled into a small, sly smile.

“You said you wanted me to stay beside you. You said you wanted me to listen to you, teach you, and be there whenever you had nowhere else to go.”

Grace’s smile widened slightly.

“Kiss my foot, boy, and I… might consider acknowledging you as my little brother.”

She lifted one tiny leg and casually turned her heel around her toe, revealing a beautiful pale foot that had never touched the ground.

[You flipped the wrong fucking switch, Motherfucker. ?? Hehehe~]