* * *
One must have the will to protect oneself in order to be on guard.
The Sean in his dreams was prickly, desperate to survive no matter what.
But the Sean that Raizen had known was different.
He seemed to bury everything deep inside himself.
The answer came faster than expected.
‘Because he learned resignation.’
No matter how cautious he was, misfortune would eventually strike him down.
He knew that even if he bristled and fought back, he would only end up more wounded, and life wouldn’t change.
So he resigned himself.
Gave up.
But he couldn’t die, so he simply lived.
Because he was alive, anxiety would inevitably creep in.
But even that, he endured—pushing it down, burying it deep.
“Sei.”
Sean and the late Marquis and Marchioness of Kreveta looked eerily alike.
Even the Sean from the other world in Raizen’s dream had been the same.
Black hair, black eyes—but their faces were identical.
It was a fact Raizen had overlooked until now, but suddenly, it surfaced vividly in his mind.
But the Sean before him now—he was a soul from another world.
A soul that had taken root in Sean Kreveta’s body.
It was a strange thing to consider them as entirely separate beings.
By all logic, there was no reason for them to look exactly the same.
“Hmm?”
Sean responded, his voice carrying a slight tremor, as if he had been crying.
Raizen hesitated, lips slightly parted—a rare moment of hesitation for him.
Soon, Sean’s questioning gaze met his.
Only then did Raizen finally voice what had risen to his throat.
“Did your original self… look exactly the same as you do now?”
Sean’s breath caught.
He bit his lower lip, releasing it only to bite down again, then slowly nodded.
“…Yeah. I looked the same.”
So it hadn’t been some symbolic device that made the Sean in his dreams appear identical to the one before him.
It was simply… the truth.
Maybe that was why Sean had been so fixated on confirming whether he truly resembled his parents.
Because to call it a coincidence felt far too deliberate.
A hypothesis formed in Raizen’s mind.
‘Could it be…? Could it really be…?’
Suppressing his rising urgency, Raizen asked calmly,
“I want to know more about your original self.”
Before, he hadn’t particularly cared.
To him, the only thing that mattered was that Sean was here, by his side.
But looking back, that was just an excuse—a way to hide his own unease.
Because if he learned about the previous Sean, he would be forced to acknowledge that Sean had a place to return to.
The mere thought of Sean leaving this world and returning to his original one sent a rush of cold dread through Raizen.
He had avoided anything that might remind him of that possibility.
The fact that he was now curious about Sean’s past almost felt absurd.
“…I…”
Sean started, his voice strained.
He put down the mirror he had been holding.
With a flick of his hand, Raizen returned the mirror to its original place.
A heavy silence settled between them.
Raizen didn’t rush him, simply waiting for Sean to speak.
After a long moment of contemplation, Sean ran a dry hand down his face.
“I was just… ordinary. Nothing special.”
That couldn’t be true.
Raizen thought so, but he didn’t say it aloud.
A single careless word might shut Sean down completely.
Though he couldn’t explain why, Raizen was certain of one thing—right now, Sean was mustering a great deal of courage.
“…Just… just an average kid…”
Sean’s words rang hollow, even to himself.
He glanced at Raizen, as if waiting for something.
‘Is he… expecting something from me?’
It was hard to understand what Sean could possibly be hoping for in this conversation.
And yet, Raizen couldn’t shake the feeling that something about that gaze tugged at him.
Still, he didn’t voice that thought.
“I…”
Sean swallowed hard.
The sound of it echoed in the silence.
“I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but…”
“I will.”
Raizen replied immediately, as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.
Sean still looked uncertain, but the hesitation in his expression eased, even if only slightly.
“…So… I’m the real Sean Kreveta.”
Raizen felt the world slow around him.
Sean continued cautiously,
“I only recently came to be sure of it. I was meant to be born as Sean Kreveta. But somehow, I was born in Korea instead—in the wrong world.”
The moment he heard those words, Raizen felt as if time had started to move sluggishly.
Sean’s story spread through his mind at the same measured pace.
The Sean before him was the real Sean Kreveta.
That explained why their appearances were identical.
It also explained why the previous Sean Kreveta had always seemed empty—like he was missing something.
Because the soul that should have belonged to that body had been born in another world instead.
And then—
‘Korea.’
The name of that place clicked into place in Raizen’s mind with a strange, jarring sensation.
It should have been an unfamiliar word, yet somehow, it carried an odd sense of recognition.
As if something was just on the verge of surfacing—only to slip away again.
‘Korea…’
Raizen instinctively understood that it was the name of Sean’s world.
He wasn’t sure if that knowledge had always been there or if he had merely reasoned it out.
“This world… this is where I was supposed to be.”
Sean said, offering a small, awkward smile.
Where he was meant to be.
That was how Sean described this world.
Which meant that, by extension, everything about his life in Korea had been a mistake.
Under normal circumstances, Raizen would have been satisfied with such a conclusion.
But right now, something felt different.
‘Then… what about all the years he lived there?’
Even if that life had been “fake,” Sean still carried all of those memories.
Those experiences shaped who he was.
He had learned to resign himself, to endure.
And… above all else, there had been that man.
The one who had been Sean’s solace when he was at his lowest.
Raizen reached out, taking Sean’s hand gently.
“Did that truth… make you happy?”
What he had originally wanted to ask was whether there was anything in that world he still cherished.
Whether he had any lingering attachments, despite being unable to return.
But instinctively, the words changed on his tongue.
Sean gave a faint smile.
“I still can’t fully believe it, but… yeah. I think I’m happy. It would’ve been better if my parents were still alive, but…”
He trailed off, as if there was more he wanted to say.
Raizen was curious, but he didn’t press.
Even so, his lingering doubts only grew stronger.
‘Then… do you have no regrets?’
“…Doesn’t it make you sad? That you can’t go back?”
The words slipped from Raizen’s mouth, carefully chosen yet entirely instinctive.
Sean blinked at him, as if surprised by the question.
His sky-blue eyes, brightened by the sunlight, shimmered.
Slowly, deliberately, Sean shook his head.
It was a measured motion, but firm.
“…Not at all.”
“……”
“Did you know, Hyung? My parents in Korea… they looked nothing like me. But here, everyone says I resemble my parents so much. I never really felt it before, but when I looked in the mirror just now, it hit me. And… apparently, even my birthday is the same. At first, I thought the gods were playing a trick on me.”
It seemed like something Sean had been holding in for a long time.
And now, he was letting it all spill out.
“Honestly, it was a bit ridiculous. I felt wronged, too. All these good things were supposed to be mine in the first place, so why was I born in another world instead? Now they’re telling me that everything was always meant to be mine, but that doesn’t erase the time I’ve lived. My parents… aren’t here either.”
Sean, who had been speaking at length, let out a deep sigh.
“Anyway… I’m not sad. I don’t have any lingering regrets, either. If there’s anything I feel…”
His words trailed off as he fixed his gaze on Reisen.
“If there’s anything?”
Without realizing it, Reisen echoed the question.
Sean didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he looked at Reisen for a long moment before finally smiling faintly.
“No, there’s nothing.”
“…….”
“What matters is the present.”
* * *
