“Could it have been done by another demon? Do you have any guesses?”
Rastan quietly shook his head.
“If another demon had done something like that, they would have been punished, and then there is no way I wouldn’t have known.”
Then who was it that turned back time? And why would they do such a thing?
Before, the ghost Frederick had said that I hadn’t been accidentally caught up in the incident where time turned back, but that I was at the center of it.
[Now that I see you, I understand. That time was turned back because of you.]
[That doesn’t mean you did it with your own power. It means time was turned back for your sake.]
Looking back now, everything Frederick said had been true.
‘About my ability, and about the fact that there are beings around me who are not human.’
Then, if time really was turned back for my sake.
‘Would it be right to think that someone turned back time to give me a new chance at life?’
Rastan had said that even a Demon God couldn’t recklessly turn back time.
Could it be that there was another being besides him who liked me enough to violate such an enormous taboo for my sake?
‘The only people who liked me in my previous life were Rastan, Sally, and… Rosie.’
However, all three were candidates with disqualifying reasons.
Rastan said it wasn’t him, and Sally, as far as I knew, not only had no mana, but in my previous life she had died long before I did.
‘Rosie also died just before I died…’
As I recalled the appearance of Rosie in the dream from before, suddenly, the figure I had seen in another dream not long ago came to mind.
The faint, mysterious green light that had been visible around the middle of the sleeping child’s collarbone.
‘Even if she did have mana, it doesn’t seem likely that such a small child would have enough power to turn back time…’
Even while thinking it couldn’t be, I couldn’t erase the image of the child that kept flickering in my mind. If I met her again, even in a dream, would I be able to ask if she knew something?
For some reason, a strange premonition quietly rang in a corner of my chest, telling me that I would see that child again before long.
“Evelyn?”
“…Ah, I am sorry.”
It seemed I had blanked out for a moment, lost in thought.
I came to my senses at Rastan’s call and recalled what he had said earlier.
“I see. But then why do you remember things from your previous life? I mean, the life before time was turned back.”
After regressing to the past, the only ones who remembered the previous life were myself and Frederick, the ghost in the underground crypt of the Lansval estate. But now, there was one more person.
Rastan’s answer to that question was simple, yet profound.
“Unlike humans, I exist independent of time.”
I suddenly recalled something Frederick had said before.
[Spiritual beings are not affected by the direction of the flow of time. I, too, simply realized one day that time had been turned back.]
Thinking about it, Frederick’s and Rastan’s accounts were similar. Both had said that they had ‘suddenly realized that time had been turned back.’
“It would be more accurate to explain it as not being bound to time.”
“What does that mean?”
Because only fragments of the memories from when I was a dream demon had returned, explanations about spiritual beings were still unfamiliar and fascinating to me.
“First, what must be said is that all beings with a physical body exist only within ‘time.'”
It was an explanation that we live through 24 hours a day, gradually age, and eventually die because we exist within the flow of time.
“But I do not. For example, suppose that you are floating in midair, a few spans above ground where water is flowing.”
“Ah.”
I had seen exactly such a being with my own two eyes before.
“Like a ghost.”
“Similar, yes.”
Rastan continued his explanation with a faint smile.
“Then even if that river were to flow backward, it would have no effect on you, since you are not in contact with the water. In other words, you are a being unrelated to the flow of that water.”
I nodded, thinking that it reminded me of the physical theory of time proposed by a very famous scientist I had heard about in my life in Korea.
“In the same way, I exist independently, regardless of whether time moves forward or backward. Since I am using a human body, the body’s age will change according to the flow of time, but the memories of the true self within continue regardless of the time period in which I remain.”
Fascinated, my mouth parted slightly without me realizing it.
“So that is why you still retain all your memories from your previous life.”
As I nodded faintly, I realized one fact.
“Time has turned back and everything has changed… but then that means you alone are the same person as you were in my previous life.”
For some reason, the fact that there was someone who remembered my previous life completely made the tip of my nose sting.
Rastan raised his hand and cupped my cheek, gently rubbing the corner of my eyes, which must have turned red, with his thumb.
“The feeling that you alone are different from the rest of the world is something familiar to me as well. You must have been lonely, thinking you were alone all this time.”
At his soothing, gentle voice, something hot welled up inside me instead.
“Hic…!”
I burst into tears and threw myself into his arms.
Rastan gently embraced me and spoke softly near my ear.
“Evelyn. No matter what point in time you go to, I will remain by your side in the form you know. Carrying the memories of the past that no one else remembers.”
At his warm voice, an indescribable sorrow surged over me, and I buried my face in his chest and cried uncontrollably.
“Sob… You… hic, you must not go anywhere…”
Rastan held me tightly without a word and slowly patted me.
***
“Wow, what is all this?”
Rastan had suddenly suggested that we eat dinner in the glass greenhouse in the garden, so I had come with him without thinking much of it.
On the day that had supposedly been Rastan’s birthday in my previous life — though I no longer believed that had truly been his birthday — this was the very place where he had invited me and the two of us had dined together.
We arrived while quietly sharing memories from that time.
But when we entered, the inside of the greenhouse was decorated far more lavishly than usual.
“Huh…? What is all this?”
It had been beautifully decorated even on that day in my previous life, but today’s decorations were on a completely different level.
Inside the greenhouse, tropical leaves hung down beautifully, and everything was filled with green.
Throughout the greenhouse, beautiful patterned lanterns containing candles had been placed here and there.
Not only that, but along long strings loosely stretched across the ceiling in various directions, small lanterns containing fireflies hung gently at intervals.
The table and its surroundings were, of course, completely decorated with beautiful flowers.
‘No, at this point, rather than decoration, it would be more accurate to say it’s almost buried in flowers.’
The cozy and romantic atmosphere made my heart beat faster for no reason.
“Wow… I have never seen anything like this before. It is truly beautiful.”
As I said this while looking around the greenhouse with enchanted eyes, Rastan lightly wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed a gentle kiss to my head.
“I am glad you like it. Since it is a dinner with the person who saved me, it should naturally be the most special.”
Since I had removed his curse, I decided not to react so strongly anymore when he called me his savior. After all, it was true to some extent.
The dishes that were soon served one after another were also far more luxurious than usual.
At this point, I began to wonder if today was some kind of special day, but Rastan didn’t say anything in particular even as the meal was nearly over.
Only after dismissing all the servants who had been attending to the meal were we able to have a private conversation alone.
“Oh, right. Come to think of it, the day we first met in this life.”
That day when, on my way back after winning money at the gambling house, I ran into my father’s debt collectors, and Rastan appeared out of nowhere and saved me.
At that time, he shouldn’t have known me, yet he had naturally called me Lady Krone right away.
‘It was such a chaotic situation that I had just brushed it off when he said I must have told him my name without realizing it…’
But now that I thought about it, Rastan had only met me again after just a few days.
“So you already knew about me back then.”
“That is correct.”
“And yet you pretended it was our first meeting?”
“Isn’t the same true for you?”
Rastan slightly raised one corner of his lips in a somewhat playful manner.
“I was actually just as flustered back then, enough to tell such a clumsy lie. It may not have shown on the outside, though.”
