The Candle with Our Names

Arisa keeps her face calm while everyone else leans on her to turn words into meaning. She translates for teachers, seniors, and classmates at the art club, then goes home with a cold ache that never leaves her hands. The ache has a reason. She has lived seven hero lives already, and each one trained her to match ice with ice until her heart stopped warming easily. Then Shion appears, tired, sharp, and far too honest for a demon lord who should be her enemy. He is the first person who speaks back to her without hiding behind a role, and that makes her care in ways she tries hard to deny. A shared key, a candle with both their names, and a borrowed dictionary in her gym locker keep pulling he...