Late at night, when everyone was asleep.
Rashiel sat alone in the study, repeatedly drawing and erasing a magic circle around a device that blocked magic.
Astaire’s necklace was hiding Elsez’s power for now, but it wouldn’t last long.
Rashiel planned to figure out the device’s principle and modify it into a tool that could reliably conceal Elsez’s power.
But even as a high-ranking mage, he was specialized in offense, so the modification was giving him a headache.
Just then, a knock sounded in the silent room.
“Come in.”
Rashiel assumed it was a servant and gave permission.
But the person who opened the door was Elsez.
“Ruel?”
“I thought you might still be awake, so I came.”
Elsez sat down beside Rashiel and looked at the anti-magic device he’d been fidgeting with.
“Let’s do that tomorrow. Why not get some sleep tonight? Astaire made that necklace, so we don’t have to rush.”
It wasn’t exactly early, but she must be tired.
Rashiel stared at the necklace Astaire had put on Elsez and spoke.
“It doesn’t feel good to see the man your loved one wears a necklace from.”
When those words “your loved one” slipped out of Rashiel without hesitation, Elsez cleared her throat.
“…Are you jealous?”
“I’m just a little narrow-minded.”
His frank admission made Elsez laugh in disbelief.
Rashiel watched her quietly for a moment, then took her hand.
Watching his fingers fiddle with her hand, Elsez brought up the real reason she’d come to the room.
“You know, Rashiel.”
Rashiel’s gaze, which had been on her hand, rose to meet her face.
“There’s something I should tell you in advance.”
“…When you pause like that, it’s usually bad news.”
Elsez smiled bitterly.
His prediction was exactly right. But it was something she had to say.
“When this fight is over, I might return to the world I originally came from.”
Rashiel’s red eyes wavered at those words.
Elsez brought this up because of the main quest she’d received after being reincarnated in the second loop.
[The Cruel Ruler of This World]
You have been reborn as the reincarnation of the Demon God Rezantia. Eliminate the obstructors and conquer this world!
Failure penalty: Death
Final reward: ???
This time, the system demanded “world conquest.”
In the first loop it had asked her to “deal with the Demon God Rezantia and restore peace to the world.”
That earlier quest had a clear completion condition.
Defeat Rezantia, and the quest was cleared.
“But I have no idea what ‘world conquest’ actually means.”
When she was a hero in the first loop, clearing the quest meant defeating the Demon God. Now, as the vessel of a Demon God, did she need to kill Dike, the opposite force?
“Or there could be another condition altogether.”
Maybe destroy a nation, or kill a certain number of people…
The system only showed the failure penalty; it didn’t reveal the reward.
“If killing Dike is the condition….”
If the reward were the same as last time, maybe she’d return to the real world.
Against her will.
“For now, the most likely clear reward is a return to the real world.”
When Elsez and Rashiel had been trapped in a dimensional rift, she’d seen a rift that led back to reality.
Yoo hana’s body, thought dead, lay unconscious in a hospital bed.
But she had come back to this world anyway.
After all, Yoo hana’s body was only flesh; there was no family, no reason to cling to it.
“But if I fail to meet the quest condition and die as the penalty….”
If death could send her back to reality, the system wouldn’t have offered a return to the real world as a reward in the first loop.
“That means death would be final.”
She wouldn’t return to reality, nor remain in this world — she would truly die.
And even if she died after losing to Dike, the outcome would be the same.
“Either way, it’s hard to stay in this world.”
Even if she died, she wouldn’t regret choosing to remain in this world.
But there was one thing that weighed on her heart.
“If that happens….”
Elsez stared into Rashiel’s eyes as she spoke, then faltered and continued.
“Forget me, and live your life.”
The moment she said those words aloud, she realized anew.
How much her feelings for him had grown.
Just imagining the possibility of “what if” made her heart ache until it felt like it might burst.
Forcing her emotions down, Elsez spoke firmly.
“You mustn’t touch black magic because of me. And you mustn’t become a criminal.”
Ever since learning that Rashiel had once resorted to necromancy and black magic after her death, it had weighed heavily on her mind.
She couldn’t bring herself to say she might die again.
If she did, he would surely say he’d follow her in death.
But no wound stays open forever.
Any wound dulls with time.
At first it would be painful, but in time he too could forget her and live happily.
Just as she could live while still missing her grandmother.
She wanted him not to throw away his future because of the pain of losing her.
“Forget you?”
His eyes, fixed on her, were icy and heavy.
Not the answer she had hoped for, but exactly as she expected.
“…You say that so easily.”
“I don’t say it lightly. I just want—”
“You know what it cost me, in the rift, to let you go back to that other world.”
Rashiel interlocked his fingers with hers, binding her hand as though to trap her.
“I’ve already let you go once.”
His voice dropped to a chillingly low tone.
“And you came back to me of your own will.”
When his red eyes lifted to meet her golden ones, twisted with sorrow, it was as if he anchored her gaze in place.
Cupping her cheek, he held her eyes to his.
“If you wanted to run from me, that was your last chance.”
“…”
“Because now, I won’t let you go.”
Wherever you go, I’ll find you — whether it’s the afterlife, or another dimension.
Looking into his eyes, Elsez realized he was not just angry — he was deeply unsettled, anxious in a way that was unlike him.
But this time, she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted.
He shut his eyes, swallowed a heavy sigh, and when his throat bobbed sharply, he opened them again to ask,
“…What about your heart?”
Elsez blinked, not understanding what he meant at first.
Rashiel explained.
“Saying you might end up in that other world… it means it could happen against your will.”
He could read in her unspoken words what she had meant.
“I’m asking about your heart. Do you want to stay here, or do you want to go back?”
“…”
“If you want to stay, I’ll do whatever it takes to bring you back. If you want to return, then I’ll come find you there.”
“I…”
Elsez couldn’t answer right away.
She didn’t want him to live clinging to the torment of false hope.
But neither of the choices he gave her fit what she truly wanted to say.
And the moment she realized how desperately he had narrowed it to just those two choices, the truth she had tried so hard to bury spilled out.
“…I just want to be by your side.”
Even knowing how selfish that truth was.
When Elsez saw Rashiel’s red eyes tremble at her answer, regret stabbed her — but it lasted only a heartbeat.
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
His hand slid from her cheek through her silver hair, closing firmly around the back of her head.
And then his lips closed over hers.
Elsez slowly shut her eyes as the heat of his lips pressed against hers.
Their slow, tentative exploration turned quickly into a desperate yearning, like people gulping seawater in their thirst.
Through parted lips, hot, breathless sighs mingled.
This time, it was a real kiss.
Not just lips brushing lightly together, but hotter, dizzier, sweeter—
The kind of kiss that made them wish, despite knowing it was impossible, that the moment could last forever.
Their first true kiss.
Comments (0)