CHAPTER 68………………..
On a soft bed, as though just waking from a dream, Asterios gasped and sat up. The world had changed around him in an instant, and he could no longer be sure of what had been real.
The witch’s forest—filled with birch trees patterned red, growing endlessly toward the sky.
And in this forest was the small house where Erica and Tenebres had once lived together.
That familiar place came into view.
“Tenebres! Are you all right?”
“……”
“My goodness, what did you see out there? Look at this sweat.”
The red-haired woman wiped his forehead again and again, studying his face.
Everywhere she touched, it felt unbearably real—her warm hands, her soft breath, her fragrant scent.
It was Erica, alive.
“……”
Everything felt vivid, as if he’d only just come to his senses.
As though the illusions he’d seen earlier had been nothing but a dream.
“You said you’d be time-traveling, but where have you been suffering like this? You look so pale.”
She looked at him with worried eyes.
And in those violet eyes was love and care. The very gaze he had adored, that had shaken him and stolen his heart—he could never mistake it.
“I’ve been waiting so long for you.”
“……”
The Erica he’d seen in the fog had been an illusion, without a doubt.
But this Erica before him now—was she truly alive?
Alive?
Her laughing face, so bright—it was undeniably her. A world apart from the mirage he’d seen earlier.
But that couldn’t be. Asterios pressed his brow.
So, what this claims is… that this is real?
That everything before had been false.
That what he had glimpsed was only a “possible future.”
And that everything before his eyes now was the true present—so real it left no room for doubt.
“Will you finally spend some time with me now? I’ve prepared a meal. What do you want first?”
Yes. Whatever you’ve seen, wherever you’ve been, that isn’t reality.
Almost as though whispering this, Erica behaved so naturally, so exactly as she had in the days they once lived together.
“Dinner? Or… me?”
Blushing, she smiled and reached out, cupping his cheek with warm hands.
“Are you listening to me?”
As though this alone were truth, Erica slipped into his arms with the same voice, the same mannerisms from the past. Soft lips pressed against his, and the scent he had ached for seeped into him.
Too real.
But that can’t be.
He had commanded Nox to reincarnate Erica’s soul into the future—so there was no way she was still alive here.
He pulled away, shoving her back from his chest.
“Ah! Why… why, Tenebres?”
Her face flushed with confusion, not knowing what to do.
“Is it because I kissed you first? Did you not like it?”
Even the crestfallen expression was exactly the same.
What are the odds I slipped back into the past without realizing it?
Not entirely impossible.
Because what he was experiencing now was something that had once happened with Erica in the past.
He had entered the Secret Fog, seen the illusions it conjured.
Surely, this too was another hallucination.
And yet, how could it feel this real?
My head and my heart are out of sync.
Everything he saw, felt, and thought screamed: This is real. You’ve returned to the past. Yet his heart refused to move.
“Tch, are you even listening to me?”
While he drifted in thought, Erica puffed her cheeks in a pout.
“…I thought you liked it when I kissed you first.”
Her sulking face quickly melted into worry again, her eyes softening.
“Sigh. You said you’d peek into the future for a bit because you had too many useless worries. Did it not go well?”
Not wrong. He had indeed done just that.
Many, many times.
But in all the futures he had seen, there was never once Erica.
“……”
To bring to life the one method he had discovered, he had tested countless possibilities. He had simply never told her.
“Well, I don’t want to keep waiting anymore. Just stay by my side now. Whether we’re together in the future or not—I don’t really care. I’m right here with you.”
Why won’t you look at me?
“As long as we’re like this together, isn’t that enough?”
Erica once again wrapped her arms around his shoulders, tilting her head to press her lips lightly to his.
“Hm? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Stop.”
“…What?”
He seized her slender arms and tore them away. His eyes, heavy and dark, locked onto her.
“That’s enough. I know this is false.”
“F-false?!”
Tears welled instantly in her eyes, her expression raw with hurt.
“This is just a hallucination the mountain is showing me.”
“What? A hallucination? Are you saying I’m fake? That I’m not real?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“How could you say that to me? You once said you couldn’t live without me! And now I’m a fake?”
As her emotions flared, a violet whirlwind surged around her like an aura. Objects rattled and some fell to the floor.
“You said you couldn’t live without me, but you left me behind! Did you ever even think of me?”
She repeated herself, sobbing harder until she broke into weeping.
He knew. The Erica before him was not real.
And yet—his heart ached with guilt all the same.
Did Erica cry like this when I suddenly disappeared?
The thought struck his chest like a blow.
Because these were words the real Erica would have said.
So I left her with wounds like this…
The realization burned bitterly.
“Someone like you dares to claim you have the right to love me?”
Her tear-streaked face twisted in fury as she shouted.
“How could you show me that despicable face again?”
A jolt ran through him.
Because those words—felt exactly like something Rosiana would say.
Yes. Now he understood.
This is what the hallucination wants to shake within me.
The guilt he thought he had buried long ago.
—Even if I win the competition, do I deserve to stand at her side as her partner?
Another voice echoed inside him.
A conscience, scolding him, taking form.
“You said I was the only one! That there was no one but me!”
Her cries filled his vision, each one stabbing into his chest.
Even now—it’s only you.
Even if your face changes, even if your name changes, even if your feelings for me shift.
It will always be you.
Forever.
—But in the end, all you’ve done is hurt her. You call it love, but isn’t it far too selfish?
Is my love selfish?
Nothing more than selfishness?
“I won’t accept your selfish love or your stubborn feelings.”
Erica, her face streaked with tears, spoke coldly.
Then is my stubborn heart, my desire—something that must never be?
“And just because you claim you’ll love me forever doesn’t mean I must do the same.”
That was true.
She had the right to choose another, to leave him. Even now, if she chose someone else, he would—
No…
He couldn’t.
There was no point in lying to himself anymore. This was why the hallucinations kept gaining ground against him.
He needed to be honest with his feelings. From the beginning.
“I only loved her in my own way. And I will continue to do so.”
For her, he would stake everything without regret. However long it took, he could endure, he could wait.
Because he had laid everything down for the sake of loving her. That was how deeply he truly loved.
She only had to make her choices, follow her path. And he would stand by her side, watching, loving, respecting her decisions.
“In the meantime, I will heal her wounds and comfort her as best I can.”
He would treat her better, draw even closer to her, and give everything of himself—so that in turn, he could take in all of her, until they became one.
He wanted to be her partner, to share love with her.
The wrongs of the past—he would seek her forgiveness. Mistakes—he would never repeat them.
Because the future they would share was far more important.
I sought to extend her life and her time so we could be happy longer.
Yes. That was why he had come this far.
Because there was no other way.
And then—
“!”
Asterios stiffened.
Not only because of what he had just said—but because of his mana.
A force that should not exist here pricked sharply at his nerves.
Her Highness is nearby!
He felt Rosiana’s mana faintly resonating with his own.
“Damn.”
He muttered softly, summoning his energy with effort.
Gathering every last trace of mana in his body, he unleashed the power of the black dragon, ripping through the illusion before him.
“Kyaaah!”
With a scream, the false world filling his vision vanished at once.
But—
Kuaang!
“!”
The violent backlash rebounded against him in a swift, furious counterattack.
