<Episode 112>

After finishing her conversation with Crown Prince Ferite, Eveline immediately left the palace and headed for the pavilion where Elkais was waiting.

As expected, Elkais’s expression wasn’t good—he must have heard everything, too.

“Eveline.”

“Elkais, I want to walk a bit… but not in the palace. I want to go outside.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Though he looked troubled, he forced a smile as he looked at her. In response, she let out a soft sigh and took his hand.

Elkais felt a little less anxious than before. After all, in what she said to Euros, she’d expressed her desire to marry him.

Even if things were uncertain, as long as they faced them together, they’d be okay. With that thought, he headed for the deepest part of the garden.

“I said I want to go outside.”

“And we will.”

He spoke as he pulled open the door to the glass garden at the back.

“What is this…?”

“It’s the power of creation. You can open a door anywhere and set your destination wherever you want.”

“That’s a power worth coveting.”

“You don’t have to. You have me.”

At his words, Eveline smiled, took his hand, and stepped through the door with him.

“This place is…”

“Eldras.”

They had arrived in another country in an instant. Seeing the snow falling from the sky, Eveline realized they were in Eldras.

“It’s a bit much to walk in the snow—ah.”

As she blinked, a coat made of silver fox fur wrapped around her body.

“Elkais, you must be cold too.”

“Me?”

“I think you look cold, so make something. Something that matches mine—like a married couple.”

At her words, he quickly created something similar, though with a slightly different design.

Eveline wore a dress made of silver fox fur, while Elkais wore a cloak of the same color—and he was satisfied with that.

“It’s a little warm, actually.”

“Good.”

She intertwined her fingers with his, pleased with his response.

Elkais, feeling his heart pound, smiled brightly and looked at her.

“Every moment with you is truly special.”

“Me too. Even just standing in the snow with you feels magical.”

Eveline reached out with the hand that wasn’t holding his. At that moment, the glove she had on vanished.

“Did I do that?”

“You did.”

She chuckled softly, realizing the power that made the glove disappear was hers.

“I wanted to spend time with you somewhere it snows. Last time… we missed the chance.”

“Snow will fall again.”

“Sure, it will. But every year will be different, and every moment will be precious.”

At Elkais’s gentle words, Eveline looked down for a moment, then looked back up to meet his gaze.

His red eyes had once seemed as cold as garnet, but now they looked like flames—warm and burning.

“Wanna have a snowball fight?”

“…Sure.”

Elkais wasn’t sure what she meant at first, but after a pause, he agreed.

Then he made gloves for her again, just in case her hands got cold from the snow.

“Let’s start in thirty minutes. I’ll stay here, and you go over there.”

“Alright.”

Eveline dragged over branches and snow to build a wall.

Elkais watched her for a bit, then, feeling annoyed by the idea of building a wall, simply made a few snowballs and waited.

Sure, her wall was just snow and sticks and could be knocked down with a kick, but the fact that she was building one at all annoyed him.

He considered secretly getting rid of it, but in the end, decided to let it go since it was just a game—and if she was having fun, that was enough for him.

Eveline, however, seemed completely serious. She worked hard to stack up branches and snow, creating a huge barrier.

But every time her eyes met Elkais’s, and he looked at her with a faint frown or pity, her determination only grew stronger.

It was like he was saying, “No matter how hard you try, you can’t beat me.” So she doubled down and worked harder.

Snow kept sticking to her dress and freezing, and Elkais found it so distracting he couldn’t concentrate on making snowballs.

He secretly brushed snow off her clothes and, when snow fell on her head, summoned a transparent shield to block it.

Then thirty minutes passed.

“Shall we start?”

“Sure.”

Eveline glanced at the few half-hearted snowballs he’d made without any walls and let out a short laugh. Then she threw a snowball packed with divine strength straight at him.

Boom!

The snowball slammed into the tree he was hiding behind, and the tree exploded into ashes with a loud bang.

“Trying to kill me, are you?”

“Hahaha! This is amazing!”

She grabbed another snowball and threw it.

Elkais hid behind another tree.

KABOOM!

Another thunderous crash—and another tree turned to ashes.

Elkais started to think she might be serious. He considered letting one hit him… but it felt like it might knock him out for days.

Boom! Boom-boom! Boom!

Explosions filled the forest with ash, snow, and debris.

Elkais was supposed to attack her too, but he just couldn’t bring himself to.

Even though she was throwing snowballs packed with the power of destruction, she was still his strong, delicate, beautiful future wife.

Thwack!

“Urgh…!”

He let one hit him on purpose. And the force stunned him—it felt like being whacked with a club. In a duel between two trained fighters, no less.

Thwack! Thud-thud! Smack-smack-thwack!

Eveline relentlessly pelted him. Elkais endured the pain.

“Hahaha!”

It hurt, but hearing her laugh with such joy made it bearable.

“Why aren’t you fighting back?”

Finally, she stopped laughing and asked with a gentle smile.

“How could I?”

She dropped her snowball and walked toward him.

“I’m tired now. Let’s stop.”

“Okay.”

He smiled warmly and wrapped his arms around her.

“That must have hurt.”

“It did.”

“Then why didn’t you dodge?”

He rubbed his head against her chest and replied.

“Because it was my wife throwing them. And besides… you’re feeling better now, aren’t you?”

At his words, Eveline hugged his head tightly. Her heart felt full—but also heavy, and she sighed deeply.

“I want to have a child.”

“But…”

“I just don’t know what to do with this power. I thought… maybe after I took the divine power, if you ever reincarnated again, I’d try to be with you then.”

At that, Elkais embraced her.

Held tightly in his arms, surrounded by snow and the steady thump of his heartbeat, she finally felt a sense of calm.

“But I can’t give you up, Elkais. There’s no guarantee that a future you would be the same as you are now.”

“I feel the same. I can’t give you up in this life either. If that’s the choice, I’d rather die.”

As his embrace tightened, Eveline held him just as tightly.

“Let’s try making the vessel. I don’t want to be a god… but it seems like there’s no other way.”

“Alright. We might have to wait a bit before having a child… but this is the better path.”

Elkais also felt sad about delaying their plans for a child. But Eveline’s decision came first.

He wanted to marry her, build a family, give her a peaceful life—even if it took a long time.

“Maybe someday… we’ll have, like, twenty kids? We’ll live forever anyway.”

“Twenty’s too few. If we’re immortal, shouldn’t we have at least a hundred?”

“But during recovery periods, we can’t do anything… so that’s ten years gone each time!”

“…That’s a tough one.”

He spoke like he’d fallen into a deep dilemma. Eveline burst out laughing, looking at him with affection.

“Let’s tell my brother too. The three of us should talk.”

“…Yeah.”

And just like that, they spoke to each other as if making vows—and held each other close for a long, long time.

* * *

“You’ve fully absorbed Yulias’s power, haven’t you? I can tell—distorting time to keep my words from reaching the other gods.”

Ferite smiled as he looked at Abellard. Abellard had kept it hidden until now, but he had fully made Yulias’s power his own.

It made sense—Yulias, the goddess, was never one to cling desperately to her power. She was born a god and lived a god’s life, so that was her nature.

And Abellard had been someone she cherished, so he didn’t resist the bond or the transfer of power.

“I want Eveline for myself.”

“Weren’t the three of you already marked?”

Ferite grinned, clearly amused, and looked across the table at Abellard, who was silently staring into his black tea.

“We were. But back then, we had no choice.”

“And now?”

“Now it’s different. Now… I just want Eveline to look at me and only me.”

At those words, Ferite gave a troubled smile and asked,

“So, what is it you want my help with?”

“I want to kill Elkais. I’ll break Euros’s seal for you—so help me.”