“You…”
The pouring rain and the chilling wind. The sound of fallen petals rolling on the ground.
“Why that look?”
Unlike me, who was frozen in place, Redian was faintly smiling. But,
“Master.”
The raindrops falling from his silver hair down his cheeks looked almost like tears.
“I told you, no matter where you are, I will find you.”
His eyes, looking at me, were flushed red, and his forcibly lifted lips were trembling…
“Nia, you should have hidden deeper. If only I had found you at the edge of Hell’s cliff…”
His darkened eyes flickered as if trying to focus, then shook uncertainty.
“Then you might have understood my love. I could have laid my heart bare before you.”
He called me ‘Master,’ then ‘Nia,’ and seemed to suppress his anger. Yet his words trailed off as if pleading.
“I could have shown you my love and my sincerity…”
In short, he seemed on the verge of collapse at any moment.
“Please answer me, Master. What more must I do?”
His rain-soaked voice grew colder. However, Redian couldn’t bring himself to reach out or come any closer.
“Master, you were waiting for me.”
“…”
He was just blocking my way enough, so I couldn’t see outside or escape.
“You already knew I would do anything to find you.”
“…”
“Why did you come here, even deceiving me?”
I quietly watched Redian, who kept questioning me. It wasn’t surprising or frightening that Redian had found me once again.
“What have these people done for you?”
All I could see was Redian’s gaze, mixed with anger and despair.
“Did they roll in the mud and abyss like I did, or did they endure and wait for thousands of years, embracing the scars you left behind?”
But his face wasn’t accusing me of deceiving him.
“What more can I do? What else must I do…?”
It was a desperate and persistent gaze as if he could do anything.
“Please, tell me what more I can do, Master. You know I can do anything.”
But,
Exactly. The earnest questions and situations that should have made me uneasy felt too calm to me. It was as if I had seen these scenes repeated in my countless lives.
“Your face looks very worn.”
“…!”
Thus, I couldn’t help but stroke Redian’s cheek.
“You look like you haven’t slept at all.”
Having come to me through the barrier, enduring rain, and darkness, yet unable to lay a hand on my body as always.
“Master, come with me.” Redian, cradling my hand against his cheek, whispered softly. “Come back with me, Master.”
But I stepped back. It wasn’t to avoid him or to run away.
“Come inside first.”
“…?”
“You hate the rain.”
I just wanted to dry off his thoroughly soaked shoulders.
* * *
I was sitting on the small bed with Redian kneeling in front of me.
“How did you know I was here?”
The sky drowned in rain, mist, and darkness, and the village was silent as if time had stopped…
“Why do you have Daisy’s communication tool?”
Only the faintly glowing lamp lit both me and Redian.
“Redian.”
“…Master.”
But,
“You called me all the way here because you were worried about me.”
Instead of answering, Redian lifted his head to meet my gaze.
“So it’s not how I found out, or about that trivial communication tool, but…”
His gaze seemed like it could strangle me at any moment.
“Why did you deceive me? Why did you leave me alone? You should tell me that first.”
Yet, he couldn’t quite close the gap and come to me as if handling a fragile piece of glass.
“…”
As I continued to watch Redian in silence,
“No, no. I won’t ask why you deceived me.” Redian shook his head as if unsettled by my silence. “Just come with me. Don’t abandon me, Master…”
“Rere.”
Eventually, I reached out again to caress his cheek.
“I’ve already left and deceived you so many times.”
At my touch, Redian flinched noticeably.
“You’re always too weak in front of me.”
“…Master?”
Facing those emotion-filled eyes, I couldn’t think of anything.
“Why are you still the same?”
I didn’t know what I was saying, where I was, or who I was.
“Do you… recognize me?”
The words ‘How could I not recognize you?’ rose to my throat, but I couldn’t utter them.
The heavy silence made my ears ring and my vision blur.
“Come with me, Master.”
“…”
“Look. Even if you’ve forgotten everything else, you still remember me.” Redian’s voice sounded as gentle as in happier times. “You have only me, Master.”
As the flickering candlelight illuminated his face,
“Lucifer.”
“…”
My lips parted. “My Lucifer.”
Redian lifted his gaze slowly, staring intensely at me. But my mind was completely empty.
“I remember all the scars I left on your body with my own hands.”
I just felt sad seeing so much darkness in those blue eyes I once loved.
“I also lived thousands of times for you.”
I wanted to tell him. That I had already forgiven him and that I was spending all my life to save him again.
“Still…”
But I had to swallow all those words and ask just one question.
“Do you resent me?”
It was after a long silence between us.
“Of course…” His lips, reddened as if bitten hard, moved. “…I terribly resent you.”
His gaze clung to my entire body.
“I hate you as much as I resent you.”
And simultaneously, my eyelids become unbearably heavy. So,
“And I love you as much as I hate you.”
Eventually, I closed my eyes.
“Still, even now, I love you.”
“…”
As my legs gave way and my consciousness faded, I felt myself being embraced in strong arms.
“So…”
Amidst my darkened vision, only one voice reached me.
“You must stay in my arms forever.”
Deep sleep enveloped me, as sweet and warm as that embrace.
* * *
It was the moment Redian arrived in Pronaea. He watched the barrier tearing apart before his eyes and smiled. Ah, as expected…
The space was blessed by the goddess’s love, and that solid wall crumbled as if it had been waiting for him.
“Master must love me the most.”
Without hesitation, Redian walked into the sleeping streets of Pronaea.
“Peidion, this is a land under the goddess’s protection, and you dare!”
But no one could stop him, and the darkness followed him.
“…Dare?”
“Ugh!”
“Not only have you been stuck in this peaceful land, losing your divine power and memory, but you’ve also forgotten the existence of your master.”
“Keugh!”
“Now, you ‘dare’ to invoke the goddess’s name in front of me,” Redian muttered low as he passed by the paralyzed Julius.
Not for a single moment did he forget her. He fell into hell for her and rose to a higher throne for her, so who dares…
Siani, his goddess, his Nia, who bestowed equal love to all, gave him pain. It was proof that only he was special to her and her true love. Proof that among all in the world, she loved only him.
“Milord.”
Before he knew it, the darkness that followed him had completely engulfed Pronaea.
“Give us your command.”
As the shadows filling the streets knelt before Redian,
“Erase all their memories.”
Redian walked on as if he already knew where his master was.
“So that no one…”
The once vibrant and peaceful neighborhood sank into silence.
“Should recall memories about master.”
“Understood.”
With that command, time itself seemed to stop. Michelle, lighting a candle, fell to the floor, and Shannon, about to have a late meal, froze in place. One by one, lights went out, and the fog creeping in… invaded their dreams, stealing all memories.
“Lucifer.”
Siani called him by his true name, as if she still remembered that name, even though it was completely erased from her mind.
“…Ha.”
As Siani, unconscious in his arms, was laid on the bed, Redian felt a thirst being quenched.
“Master.”
Redian carefully placed Siani on the bed. He wished to hold her tightly, hidden from all eyes, but his touch remained gentle. It was as if protecting something more precious than himself from breaking further.
“Wherever you go, wherever you are, wherever you hide.”
Then, brushing her wet hair aside,
“Eventually.”
He lightly kissed her forehead, marking her with his presence.
“You will come back to my arms.”
The kiss, a promise of eternal loyalty, grazed her lowered eyelashes and…
My love, my light, my hatred, and my anger.
Hovered perilously close over her red lips.
My everything.
Redian didn’t avert his gaze from her shallow breaths but didn’t move closer.
“Even if you say you don’t love me…”
Instead, he whispered low enough for her to hear even in her dreams.
“It’s okay because I love you more.”
So, don’t forget me, even in your dreams, my Nia.
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