Chapter 174,…………………………………………
[“…I never thought you’d get a fiancé, El.”]
Hearing Lismas’ voice, heavy with shock, I awkwardly chuckled to cover my embarrassment.
It was strange that Lismas, who could hear everything through the plants, seemed completely unaware of my engagement.
Yet, I couldn’t openly show my curiosity—his voice sounded far too gloomy for that.
“I wasn’t trying to hide it. The engagement ceremony was held at the imperial palace…”
Was it really okay to ask how he hadn’t known until now?
[“The El I remember was always mine.”]
“True, I am engaged, but that doesn’t change that I’m your contractor. So, in that sense, I’m still yours.”
I spoke gently, trying to soothe the sulking spirit, and he immediately transformed into his human form.
I could never get used to Lismas’ form—always exuding that lazy, intoxicating charm.
“You’ve changed.”
He reached out, gently cupping my chin, and looked at me with eyes so bittersweet, it felt as though honey would drip from them.
“You’ve changed too. Taller… your body…”
I glanced down at his broad chest, my cheeks flaring hot. I fanned them with my hands and turned away.
Perhaps sensing this, Lismas’ hand slowly moved away from my chin.
“So, now I see… my body was your type, huh?”
“Cough.”
Hearing him say such an embarrassing thing so casually made my ears burn.
I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly wearing such a confident expression, but right now, Lismas’ gaze clearly believed I was coveting his body.
“No wonder. I thought you’d changed too much from the person I knew.”
“The person you knew?”
Lismas clasped his hands behind his head and tilted it slightly in response to my question.
Even his haughty gesture looked beautiful—it was clear that a spirit was a spirit.
No human beauty, not even the famously handsome Rekanon or Repeinon, could compare to this aura.
‘Then why does Kyle…’
Lismas’ aura as a spirit radiated an untouchable power, yet recalling Kyle, I remembered he had an aura that could rival even a spirit.
“…I can’t tell you.”
That “I can’t tell you” secret again!
“Do you know what the Empire hates most? One is when someone stops mid-sentence, and the other…”
I deliberately didn’t speak, staring at Lismas, and he stared endlessly at the corner of my lips.
After a long pause, as if he finally understood my intention, Lismas’ lips curved coldly.
“Hah… I’m serious. As your contractor, it means I know a part of you that even you don’t know.”
I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t startled by his words. Every sense in my body became heightened, down to the tips of my toes.
‘What if the part he knows is really Elupe Infernala?’
My heart pounded. Every second spent looking at Lismas felt unusually vivid, as if it wasn’t mine to feel.
“What part of me don’t I know?”
Lismas twitched his eyebrows at my question. He stared at me as if unable to tell me everything, remained silent for a long moment, and then simply disappeared.
As if my soul were being sucked away, I fell into a deep sleep, powerless, and inevitably, my contractor appeared in my dreams.
The sharp, lonely Elupe Infernala, unlike the warm, caring one everyone knew, was waiting for the Spirit King, Lismas.
“Lismas!”
In the dream, I called out to him, and Elupe appeared precariously on a cliff, looking lost, like a wanderer with nowhere to go.
Lismas couldn’t answer, only watching over her from nearby.
“I love you.”
Though whispered softly, the words were undoubtedly a confession aimed at him.
As a spirit, Lismas had never received such a thing; he couldn’t easily comprehend the meaning of love.
Yet Elupe clearly attached love to his name.
‘Love?’
Elupe then moved her steps over the cliff.
Watching her fall, Lismas strained every nerve, even knowing this was a dream, foolishly catching her with desperation.
Just when he believed he had saved her from the edge, for some reason, she began coughing up blood.
Cough.
Elupe, bleeding, seemed as if she wanted to confirm Lismas’ presence.
Though he remained unseen, she frantically waved her hands through the air, as though trying to touch him.
‘How could El, who has spirit blood, not see me?’
Elupe, inheriting the blood of spirits, should have been able to see him, a contracted Spirit King.
A contractor should always see the spirit’s form. Yet somehow, in the dream, Elupe didn’t recognize him and panicked.
Seeing her empty eyes, Lismas realized fully that this Elupe here did not recognize him as a spirit.
“I knew it. My instincts were right. Haha.”
Elupe’s voice, metallic and cold, laughed in a way that seemed to have never felt emotion before, making his chest ache.
‘Is this really Elupe’s true form?’
The pitiful Elupe troubled Lismas.
It was nothing like the Elupe he knew in reality—the one like a hot summer, able to share warmth even with emotionally dry humans.
But this Elupe, here, was a barren, cold winter, as if giving up on life.
‘Why do I keep dreaming this? What is this dream trying to tell me? Why won’t it let me go?’
The Spirit King did not want to be controlled by such a wretched dream.
All living things were meant to die. Trees that ended their life would grow new mushrooms, and small insects would find homes in the gaps left behind.
This was the natural order.
For a forest spirit like him, fearing death or feeling pity was fundamentally unnatural.
‘Then why do I feel pain seeing El dying?’
Elupe’s lost will to live pierced Lismas’ chest. He even wished he could take her pain instead.
Knowing he shouldn’t feel such emotions, Lismas still couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“I curse this black magic. Lismas… if I could see you, I’d do anything. I’m sorry I can’t do anything for you.”
Elupe writhed in pain, tears endlessly flowing from her bloodshot eyes, as if she had lost something precious.
Lismas lingered near her, unseen, and finally opened his arms toward her.
‘El…’
He had already guessed he couldn’t hold her. Even if there was no chance at all, he still wanted to do this.
He couldn’t bear to just watch crying Elupe. The Elupe in reality and this one were completely different—it felt undeniable.
“If only I could see you again… even just once.”
He had never seen someone cry so sadly.
Even as the Spirit King, no one had ever longed for him so.
To spirits, no news was good news; they didn’t pursue shallow human love.
Friendship existed, but no friend would weep so bitterly from longing.
‘If I couldn’t see you, I’d feel sad too, contractor.’
He unknowingly spoke to the dreaming Elupe, who was crying.
Yet seeing her still wandering, unable to hear him, left him unsettled.
In that moment, a strange thought struck him:
Did all spirits who contract with humans share their hearts like this, or was he uniquely feeling this way toward his contractor?
[“Wake up now.”]
A voice pulled him from the dream.
Seeing Elupe in the dream, humiliated and broken, he couldn’t return to reality without her.
[“If you do not awaken from this deep sleep, Spirit King, you may not regain your full power. Please, open your eyes.”]
For the sake of the crying El, he had to return to reality.
‘Once we’re back, I’ll make sure you never shed tears again, El. I promise.’
With that, Lismas opened his eyes, leaving the crying Elupe behind.
