‘What…?’
Looking at the statue, Evan muttered.
“My masterpiece.”
He smiled proudly. As if he was the one who made this statue.
“Masterpiece?”
Oops. I should have only thought about it, but I was surprised for a moment and spat it out.
“Who’s there?”
I hid behind the wall so as not to be seen. Evan turned around, but couldn’t spot me. However, he let out a small sigh as if he knew who it was.
“…Evien. Come out. I heard your voice.”
‘Damn it.’
Since I was already caught, I showed myself in front of Evan with the feeling that it couldn’t be helped.
“Uh. It’s been a while.”
“….”
As I was scratching my head feeling a little awkward, Evan chuckled.
“You’re still the same. Playful yet elegant… and still beautiful.”
“I wasn’t spying on you, okay?”
“Who said you were?”
I was momentarily confused by his nonchalant attitude.
‘What’s this? Earlier he kept checking to see if anyone was following him…’
Evan stopped admiring the statue, turned around, and moved somewhere. Then he plopped down on the stairs.
“Come here.”
Evan patted the floor, motioning for me to sit next to him. Then he smiled to himself. He was now admiring me, not the statue.
“…What is it? You left without even answering me last time.”
“That was because of Havel. That mat put me in a bad mood.”
“Are you in a good mood now?”
“Yeah. Right now it’s just you and me. Because there are no interferences.”
“…”
An awkward silence flowed for a moment. I did want to ask something, but considering the circumstances, there was more than one suspicious thing. However, Evan brought it up first.
“Are you curious why I was looking at this statue?”
When I blinked in slight surprise, Evan smiled warmly.
“That’s a face that says you’ve been caught.”
“….”
“Evien. That thing, I made it.”
Evan pointed his finger at the statue he was looking at earlier.
“…Are you saying you sculpted it?”
“Haha, no.”
Evan laughed as if it were funny.
“I didn’t sculpt it, but I did make it.”
“No way. If it’s a joke, it’s not even funny.”
“It’s not a joke…”
Evan looked like a slightly sullen puppy.
“Evien. Do you still not remember?”
“Ah. What you mentioned before? I told you I’d forgotten. I don’t remember at all.”
“…Got it. Come here for a second.”
The place Evan guided me to was behind the statue I saw earlier, where the letters were engraved.
“Do you want to read it?”
“Ahn… Min.”
“That’s my name.”
‘Ahn Min’. No matter how you look at it, it’s a Korean single-character name.
“Your name is Evan Martinez, isn’t it?”
“….”
“What is this? Stop with the riddles and tell me the truth. It’s frustrating.”
What kind of huge story is he trying to tell by acting like this? Is he seriously saying he’s Korean or something?
“I’m actually from somewhere else.”
“Hmm. Since this is the Ravenwood Duke’s castle, naturally you’re from somewhere else.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m actually… Korean.”
“…What?”
For a moment, words wouldn’t come out properly, so I mumbled. Despite that, Evan focused and stared at me as if my reaction was amusing.
“You’re… Korean?”
“Suddenly using polite language?”
“Wh-what does that even mean.”
Finding my reaction very funny, Evan giggled.
“You don’t have to pretend not to know. I already heard everything from you.”
Something I don’t remember, but Evan remembers, is it possibly something like this? Since the topic came up, Evan frankly confessed all his secrets. The whole story of the incident was like this. Right before I attained enlightenment regarding the true ending. During the time I was helping Basileon with his human hunting. Because I felt guilty every time I saw Evan, I purposely avoided him. However, Evan said that my behavior piqued his curiosity, and he instead went looking for me.
“One day, I was following you so hard that I got exhausted and just flopped down on my back in the hallway…. But then you came over to my side.”
‘There’s no way I would do that in my right mind…’
Not only could I not remember it at all, but I couldn’t believe it either.
“It was strange. You were an evil spirit, but you were breathing heavily. As if you were experiencing a panic attack.”
* * *
“Whew…. Haa….”
According to Evan, at that time I was almost on the verge of losing consciousness.
“Evil spirit?”
Seeing my condition not looking good, Evan jumped up from his spot.
“What’s wrong… with you?”
“Ugh… Pant…”
“Are you hurt? Do you want to lie down here?”
Evan offered the spot where he had been resting for me. Perhaps because I was out of my mind, he said I naturally laid down there like a human.
“Ugh…”
“You’re not even human, so why on earth…”
He couldn’t understand it at all, but Evan stayed by my side because he was worried about me.
“….”
He waited and waited until I stabilized. After that, having regained stability, I unknowingly fell into a peaceful sleep.
“Are you telling me you even sleep?”
According to Evan, he started trusting me from the moment I fell asleep. He said he felt a comfortable and intimate emotion because of an atmosphere no different from a person’s. As soon as Evan had that thought, my appearance gradually changed and I became a silver-haired woman.
“Wait a minute. You, what are you.”
When my appearance completely changed, Evan was startled. And.
“Uh…”
Not long after falling asleep, I talked in my sleep.
“Please don’t do that…”
“Don’t do what?”
“It’s hard, now. I hate everything. I want to die.”
“….”
After that, I continued to pant heavily and endlessly spewed negative words.
“But you’re already dead. You’re an evil spirit. Although your appearance has changed a bit now…”
“I didn’t want this. I didn’t know I would possess someone like this… I hate the evil spirit. Why do I have to be like this…”
“Possess?”
“Hic. Hic…”
It must have definitely been sleep talking, but Evan said it was so natural as if it wasn’t.
“Wait. By any chance, did you possess someone in this game too?”
“Yeah… I was playing the game when suddenly numbers appeared, then I lost consciousness… and when I opened my eyes, an evil spirit…”
“…!”
Evan said he truly felt like he had met a comrade.
“Me too. I was definitely doing something too, but suddenly I became Evan. It’s a very distant story though…”
“Yeah, Evan… A kind and righteous character…”
Evan opened his mouth, full of excitement.
“Right. He’s a character I worked on! I was in charge of the 3D graphics work. And, well, you see…”
He wanted to confide this and that about himself, but he couldn’t. Because there was nothing else he remembered.
“…Damn it. At this rate, I’ll forget my own name too.”
Hearing Evan’s muttering, I suddenly sat up abruptly. Even though I sat up, my eyes were still closed.
“What’s… your name…”
“Ahn Min.”
“Your name… is pretty…”
“I’m repeating it a thousand times a day. Because I don’t want to forget my name, at least.”
He said he was afraid of forgetting his own existence at the time.
“Ahn Min. It’s pretty, your name… I’ll remember it for you.”
Evan almost forgot his own existence, but I reminded him of it.
“…Really?”
Evan said it’s an absolutely unforgettable memory because I called out his name. From then on, he started getting butterflies every time he saw me, but Evan tried his best not to show it.
“Tell me your name too.”
“I can’t do that… I really hate my name.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have a single good memory of it… They weirdly modified it and just used it to make fun of me…”
I cried again, recalling painful memories.
“Ugh…”
I sobbed and tossed and turned for a while. Evan quietly watched my everything.
“…I’m sorry. For asking unnecessarily.”
“No. It’s hard here too… I wish no one had to suffer, but Basileon doesn’t seem to have any intention of doing that… I thought it was just a game… But looking at it now, it’s no different from reality.”
“….”
When I brought up the topic of Basileon, Evan was a little displeased.
“That person named Basileon. I mean, the Duke of Ravenwood… why is he going around inviting innocent people, locking them up, and killing them?”
“You said you made this game… You’re pretending not to know, why…”
“I’m not pretending not to know!”
To think I said all that. It’s understandable that he mistook my sleep talking for me actually being awake. It was just nonsense babbled by a person intoxicated with sleep, but Evan got angry at it.
“I can’t remember. Other than being Korean, my name, gender, and that I was a graphic designer. What kind of life I lived, who my family is, and how old I am. I can’t remember anything at all.”
“Ah…”
“I was definitely ‘Ahn Min’, but now I’ve truly become ‘Evan Martinez’…”
He said that after that, he couldn’t talk any further because Basileon was nearby.
Hi! Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to support this novel by giving it a good rating on Novel Updates. Thank you! ^^ ❤︎
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