Chapter 101
“That’s a relief. Then stay with me from now on as well.”
Promeon smiled brightly. Holding Hermane in his arms, he strode toward the bathroom. Without needing to set her down, he pushed the door open with his foot.
“Wait a moment. I’ll prepare the bathwater for you.”
“Okay, thank you.”
At Promeon’s gentle words, saying thank you now came easily to her. That was something Noxia Decan had already accepted as well.
While Promeon filled the bathtub and checked the temperature, Hermane sat on a chair in the corner of the bathroom and quietly watched him.
As Promeon turned his back to her, the smile faded from her face. With a dark, sunken gaze, Hermane fell into troubled thoughts.
‘Is it really okay for me to be like this right now?’
Of course not! A sharp voice screamed inside her head. Do you really not know the answer? Do you actually think this situation is acceptable?
Hermane, the great and just king. Hermane, who had already lived out her natural lifespan once, descended to the afterlife, and rested peacefully in paradise. Hermane, who was forcibly reincarnated through the schemes of an old lover, only to end that life by her own hand.
Could someone like her really laugh so innocently with that broken former lover now?
With the man who defied the order of life and death, who forcibly reincarnated her, who kidnapped her and drove her to suicide, who then burned six people to death before her reincarnated self.
When she was king, Hermane had been far too upright and fair to overlook such countless sins, even if the offender had been her one and only lover.
Moreover, Hermane had been the victim. Her soul, which had been resting whole and peaceful in paradise, had its tranquility stolen by that former lover who chased her even into the afterlife.
Of course, he, twisted by loneliness under the curse of immortality as punishment for stealing a divine relic, deserved sympathy. She had wanted to help him find a way to break the curse.
But it should have ended there.
‘Is it really right for me to pretend to be your lover so calmly? This is not my complete life. There are other, more important things I should be doing.’
Instead of spending time like this, the far more correct choice would be to search for a way to lift Promeon’s curse.
To free him from immortality, to grant rest to the ancient hero, and to allow Noxia Decan to fully reclaim her own life…
“Hermane, it’s ready.”
The moment Promeon turned back, Hermane immediately smiled again. He walked up to her and gently kissed her forehead.
“Go ahead and wash up. I’ll be waiting in the room.”
“Alright.”
Still smiling, Promeon left the bathroom. Alone, Hermane lowered herself into the bath. The water temperature was perfect.
The clear, warm water rippled softly, rising to her shoulders. When she lightly splashed the water, small waves formed and bubbles scattered.
‘In the past, Promeon used to bathe me a lot.’
Without realizing it, she drifted into a faint, distant memory.
In her previous life, when the two had been lovers, especially on mornings after they had passionately shared their bodies, he would always heat the bathwater himself, step into the tub with her, and carefully wash her.
At times, the bath would turn into another intimate game. While washing her, he would suddenly reach out to cradle her feet, slowly rubbing her ankle bones with firm fingers.
His teasing touch would move gradually, his warm palm gliding along her ankles, then up to her calves, gently stroking her shins before brushing just beneath her knees.
Each time, Hermane would instinctively tense her shoulders and draw her legs together. When she glared at Promeon, her face flushed at the dizzying tightness in her lower stomach, he would always smile with infuriating ease.
‘…Right. That’s how it was.’
Back when she had been the king of humans, and he the hero who protected her.
Though their physical contact now was nowhere near as bold as before, emotionally they were almost as close as they had been then.
Today, Promeon had smiled often. And for some reason, his smile seemed especially radiant.
Not because the curse of immortality that elevated him to a godlike state granted him outward beauty, but because his face was filled entirely with love.
Before that pure affection, Hermane felt suffocated in more ways than one.
Since Hermane had stopped sharpening her hostility toward him and completely lowered her guard, the twisted obsession had vanished from Promeon’s eyes. Only a gentle longing remained.
The loneliness that had tormented him for thousands of years was finally over. Resentment and anxiety had faded, leaving only happiness in his heart. That fullness and purity of joy showed plainly in his expression.
Hermane felt like crying again. As always, she hid the heaviness behind a smile so he would not notice.
It seemed as though the hearts of the two lovers, who had even overcome death, had at last touched.
After finishing her bath, the two went out together. Hermane had said she wanted to see the sunset by the sea, and Promeon gladly accompanied her.
He carried Hermane so she would not have to walk to the shore herself. It was something Noxia Decan would have detested, yet Hermane accepted it willingly.
They arrived at a deserted beach. It was not the common shore near the village, but a stretch of sand reached only after walking a long distance.
Promeon gently set Hermane down on the sand. She removed her shoes and socks, stepping onto the soft, grainy surface with bare feet. Promeon held out his hand.
“Give those to me. I’ll hold them.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Hermane naturally handed him her shoes and socks. After rolling up the hems of her pants a few times so they would not drag in the sand, she walked forward lightly.
Watching Hermane enjoy the feel of the sand like a child, Promeon looked on with deep contentment. She was so lovely he felt close to tears.
It did not matter that she now had chocolate-colored hair and dark green eyes, so different from her original appearance. Nor that her height, hairstyle, and build were all different.
No matter what anyone said, she was his perfect lover, the ancient king he loved.
Promeon repeated that truth to himself.
“Wow…”
Hermane stopped, letting out a quiet breath of admiration. With wonder-filled eyes, she gazed at the sparkling horizon. The entire world was submerged in orange twilight. Rosy sunlight painted both sky and sea.
While Hermane lost herself in the magnificent scenery, Promeon watched only her, as if enchanted.
He felt that even if this moment were frozen forever, he would have no regrets.
If he could bear the curse of immortality like this, then perhaps the punishment that had lasted thousands of years would not feel so terrible.
“Aren’t you too cold?”
Promeon asked. Unlike him, who no longer felt heat or cold, Hermane, bound to a human body, stood fully exposed to the harsh sea breeze.
Though it was summer, the late hour made the wind quite chilly. The salty air from the ocean lashed against their skin.
Without waiting for her answer, Promeon removed his coat and draped it over Hermane’s shoulders. She turned to him with a soft smile.
“Thank you, Promeon.”
Each time she smiled like that and spoke his name, Promeon felt a sweet, overwhelming fullness, as though he had swallowed a bowl of sugar water.
“You’re thanking me for that?”
He leaned down and kissed her hair, still faintly scented with soap. Hermane closed her eyes briefly.
They remained on the beach for a long time. After the sunset, they watched the stars scattered across the dark night sky, picked up pebbles, skipped them across the water, and spoke of many things.
Only now could Promeon converse freely with Hermane.
Without needing to be mindful of her present-life identity, he could draw out stories of the past and exchange words openly with someone from his own era.
When they had exhausted all shared memories, Promeon guided the conversation toward stories of his own.
What he had seen, heard, felt, and learned while wandering the world after leaving the kingdom following his own formal funeral, once he realized he no longer aged.
Where he had gone and how he had spent the endless years after Hermane’s first death.
At times, the mood inevitably grew heavy. Even hearing an abridged account of Promeon’s loneliness was often painful.
Hermane eventually shed tears several times. The more she understood the feelings that drove him to descend into the afterlife to find her, and later to linger beside her reincarnated self, the more her heart ached.
“I’m truly sorry, Promeon. I’m sorry…”
To resent and hate someone who had become so emotionally ruined, and to end her own life before his eyes.
Hermane herself had not been without wounds at the time, but looking back now, it felt unbearably cruel.
“It’s alright. I’m sorry too. I’m sorry for pushing you that far.”
Promeon soothed his tearful lover, his eyes filled with genuine regret and sorrow.
If only he had acted differently then. If only he had not recklessly kidnapped her, imprisoned her in isolation, and tried to bind her so she would look only at him.
He knew he had not been in his right mind, yet now he could finally reflect with calm, bitter remorse.
“Back then, I truly couldn’t think of any other way. The thought that you might fall in love with someone else and marry them made my mind go blank. I couldn’t just stand by. I couldn’t… I…”
“I know. I understand now.”
“I’m sorry. Truly sorry.”
“It’s alright now.”
For Promeon, those words meant it had not been alright then. Tears welled in his eyes.
Seeing him cry, Hermane was startled. He, whose human emotions had long dulled, rarely shed tears.
Until now, she had seen Promeon cry only twice — both times when she died.
Now, for the third time, he stood there with tears streaming down, looking more human than he had in ages.
