A short while later.
After falling asleep, I entered Rastan’s mental world and found the memory lying carelessly in a corner of the ruins of his subconscious.
It was clear that when my dream demon ability had been extracted, his memories of me had also been pulled out of his consciousness.
‘It looks like someone pulled out a weed and just tossed it aside.’
I picked up the faintly glowing, root-shaped fragment of memory and examined it.
‘This is my first time trying this. Let’s see if it really works.’
I placed my index finger against my head.
Then, from my memories as a dream demon, I found the parts related to Rastan and tried connecting them with the memory fragment of Rastan that I was holding in my other hand.
Then, there was a part where the fragments of our memories fit together perfectly, like pieces of a puzzle.
‘Here it is!’
After confirming that our memories aligned into a single story, I looked into that portion of the memory.
The memory began from my side.
Between the two of us, I was the first to want to leave hell.
The weaker the demonic nature of a lower demon was, the more easily they could change due to internal or external influences.
The catalyst for that change was the feelings that had begun to grow in my heart toward Rastan.
The problem was that Rastan, a highest-ranking demon, had also come to hold feelings for me.
Though he had never confessed those feelings until the day I died.
‘What, so it was mutual unrequited love?’
As he came to hold me in his heart, he gradually became influenced by my own feelings.
The saying that people grow to resemble one another when they fall in love applied not only to humans, but also to spiritual beings.
‘So that was why Rastan came to want to leave hell.’
The reason he had wondered about — why he had begun to want to leave hell — was, in the end, because of me.
It felt strange to realize that I was the one who had completely changed the life of someone who had ruled near the top of hell.
‘Still… since it led us to dream of a life where we could go to heaven together, that means it turned out better, right?’
However, the Rastan in the memory seemed to be gradually weakening.
“If a demon comes to feel the emotion of love, then at that moment, they are no longer truly a demon.”
That was right. Just as it had been for me, Rastan too had begun to hold the faint emotion of love in his heart, and as a result, his power as a demon had weakened.
Since I had originally been a lower demon, even if I weakened, it would hardly have looked different to the higher demons.
But Rastan was different. He had been one of the most powerful beings in hell.
‘Because his power was so great, the difference was far greater than mine, and the change became obvious.’
In truth, the feelings Rastan had for me back then may have been nothing more than a step beyond simple fondness.
But even a single grain of love was enough to create a tiny crack in a demon’s soul.
The first crack was always the hardest, but once it formed, it spread without notice, eventually shattering even the strongest wall in an instant.
Weakened like that, Rastan had struggled to face several high-ranking demons at once…
What happened afterward was exactly as I had seen in the sword’s memories.
My existence as a dream demon disappeared completely, and all beings who had known me, including Rastan, lost every memory of me.
‘That’s why Rastan never knew what made him want to leave hell.’
Since he had forgotten me, he must have also forgotten that he loved me.
But it seemed that the crack in his heart left behind by that small love hadn’t disappeared.
Even after my existence was erased, the heart that had already been influenced by me led Rastan to long for heaven.
The mark I left in his heart hadn’t faded even after countless years, and when he met me again after I was reincarnated as a human, he was naturally drawn to me.
That was why, from the very moment he first saw me in my previous life, he had fallen in love without even knowing why.
“A demon, and someone who didn’t even understand love… and yet that feeling lasted so long.”
I murmured, pressing my warm chest.
“Now, I have confirmed everything Rastan asked of me.”
I found the place where Rastan’s memory fragment had originally been and carefully returned it.
With this, he would have regained his memories of me — the dream demon I once was.
‘Since he’s asleep anyway, shall I let him see this memory as a dream right now?’
I waved my hand through the air, making him see what I had just witnessed as a dream.
Then I decided to leave first and wait for him to wake up.
As I glanced back while leaving, the dream replaying those long-ago memories had already begun.
How long had it been since I woke up first and waited?
I had been looking at Rastan’s face — which remained flawlessly handsome even in sleep — and lost track of time, when at some point, his eyes slowly opened.
“Did you sleep well?”
At my greeting, he gave a faint smile and slowly sat up.
“You were already awake, Evelyn.”
“I did not wake you on purpose so you could fully see that memory in your dream. How were the memories you recovered?”
I had seen what happened back then as well, but Rastan had been the other person directly involved. Now that he had regained his memories, I thought he might be able to describe his feelings from that time more accurately.
“I remember everything.”
Rastan slowly blinked, as if organizing what he had seen in his dream, and then spoke.
“At some point, my attention was drawn to a dream demon who existed in hell, yet did not seem to belong to it.”
He said that the aura I emitted had been subtly different, which made me stand out.
“You had probably already begun to wish to leave hell at that time. Even that small change was faintly perceptible to me.”
At first, his attention was drawn to how the small and weak soul of a dream demon gradually became tinged with a color that didn’t belong to hell. And that attention, which began as curiosity, slowly turned into interest.
“As I continued to watch you and thought of you more and more often, before I knew it, my gaze was constantly following you.”
“This part matches my memories too. I was the same with you.”
We looked at each other and smiled faintly.
“That is why, on the day I was attacked, I was actually very surprised when you suddenly jumped out.”
Recalling how Rastan’s expression had barely changed back then, I looked at him anew.
“To be honest, I expected them to use you as bait to threaten me, or torment you simply to vent their anger.”
Since he had never anticipated that they would extract my ability, he had been unable to stop it in that moment.
“But now that I think about it, I feel that it was fortunate that I could not stop them and ended up keeping your ability within me.”
“Fortunate…?”
After learning that the curse which had tormented him for so long was actually a part of me, he was confessing that even that pain had become precious to him.
“Even if I had stopped them and saved you at that moment, we would have eventually died meaningless deaths in hell.”
Since he had awakened to the emotion of love, which didn’t belong to his nature, he would have continued to weaken afterward, so it was inevitable.
“But I survived that crisis because of you, and you were reincarnated as a human because your ability was extracted. In the end, it was because I was cursed by your ability that we were able to meet again like this.”
Rastan gently pulled me closer and held me tightly in his arms.
“That must be why, from the moment I first saw you in your previous life, I was drawn to you without even knowing why.”
He murmured softly by my ear, saying that although his mind had lost its memories, his soul had remembered my presence.
I raised my arms and embraced his broad back in return.
“Come to think of it, you witnessed my death twice. And both times, you could not confess your feelings to me.”
“…Ah. That is true.”
The heavy emotions that had long been lodged in his chest melted into that single sigh.
“But this time, even if you are the one to leave first, I will not be as shaken as before. Because it will no longer be a permanent farewell.”
I nodded, then pulled myself out of his embrace and faced him.
“That is right. You, me, and our child will all meet again in the same place someday.”
Then I gave him a deliberately coy look.
“So make sure you manage your good deeds properly.”
As a human, my chances of going to heaven were vastly different from Rastan’s, who was still a demon. He looked at me smiling teasingly and returned a fond smile.
“That is true. It seems I just need to do my part well.”
I stared at the beautiful smile on his handsome face as if entranced, then suddenly remembered something and asked,
“Oh, right. Since our child is half demon, will they need to make special efforts like you in order to go to heaven?”
Rastan looked at my lower abdomen with warm eyes and shook his head slightly.
“If they live as a human from the beginning without accumulating evil deeds like I did, going to heaven will not be so difficult.”
That made sense. Rastan was working to offset the evil deeds he had accumulated over a long time as a demon.
I let out a small sigh of relief and gently stroked my lower abdomen out of habit.
“That is a relief. I hope our child will just be an ordinary human. It is fine even if they have no special abilities.”
“They carry my blood, so that may be unlikely… but I hope so too.”
As I quietly nodded, I suddenly realized that I was worried.
‘To think I’m already worrying about a child who hasn’t even been born yet.’
The child was the result of a love that had finally come together after such a long journey. Even all the time in the world wouldn’t be enough to pour love and blessings upon them.
Lightly reproaching myself, I spoke as if making a promise to myself.
“This child will grow up surrounded by overflowing love. And nourished by that love, they will choose the right path on their own.”
“It will surely be so.”
“…This time, without regrets, I will give all of myself to love you. Both you and our child.”
Rastan smiled and reached out, gently tucking my hair behind my ear. The touch of his fingers brushing past the tip of my ear was endlessly warm.
