"I didn't know whether you had asked that question casually."
"But since you asked, I will honor my promise."
The moment Decayer finished speaking, the Little Demon host turned to look over, his face full of confusion. "Why does it sound to me like... this question might be very important?"
Decayer gently shook its head. "Whether it is important depends on who asks it, and... why they ask."
It paused, its enormous eyes turning toward Angel. "If you truly asked that question in passing, then it indeed is not important to you."
It stopped there, leaving the latter half unsaid.
Yet both Angel and the Little Demon host understood its unfinished meaning: if Angel had deliberately asked that question, then it was very important to Decayer.
The logic might have sounded strange, but it became understandable with a simple substitution.
For many people, the more important something was, the less they wished to tell those around them about it; yet they were willing to bare their hearts to strangers they had only just met.
It was, in truth, the same principle.
Angel understood Decayer's implication, but his expression remained unchanged as he continued to act as though he had truly asked on a whim.
Decayer fell silent for a moment and did not pursue the matter further.
Speak... then speak.
It had hidden this matter for a long time. Aside from the Lord God, no one knew.
The responsibility upon its shoulders had made it endure immense torment every day.
Since Angel had used this "favor" to ask about the reason behind it, and since, on the surface, Angel was a stranger entirely unrelated to it...
Decayer softly exhaled a breath of foul air. Within that breath, a trace of the heavy burden accumulated over many years seemed to leak