* * *
It felt like a dream.
A dream where a fiercely beautiful dawn strongly embraced him.
The morning haze lifted, and timely, clear light settled.
It was the most glorious sight he had ever faced, yet it felt familiar.
“Ashard-nim…?”
He definitely called him, but his voice wouldn’t come out.
He saw his figure in the distance and reached out, but he couldn’t grasp him.
He clearly saw Ashard looking at him and smiling, but that lasted only a moment.
Like a shooting star that shines briefly before scattering, wrapped in brilliance, his figure began to break apart.
Eren suddenly realized.
That was the ‘annihilation’ the man had spoken of.
It was instinct that made him tear away from the spot and begin running towards the scattering Ashard.
It was intertwined with the fear that if he didn’t catch him, he would never see him again.
His legs were clearly moving, yet the distance did not close.
It felt as though he was spinning around in the same spot.
Ashard was clearly there, but Eren just couldn’t reach him.
‘D-don’t go…’
He gazed at him, pleading.
As if he read that look, Ashard smiled faintly.
“I don’t regret it, Eren.”
‘What?’
Eren wanted to ask, but again, his voice failed him.
He only gaped foolishly.
“I protected you. That’s enough.”
He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
At that single sentence, his heart plummeted with a heavy thud.
He couldn’t understand what he was saying.
‘Protected me?’
Eren stared at Ashard with trembling eyes.
Ashard, who had no regrets because he had protected him, was fading away with a crimson glow.
His expression was calm and serene.
An emotion settled within the beautifully veiled smile: solitude.
Ashard’s lips moved.
He was clearly speaking, but just as Eren’s voice wouldn’t come out, his voice couldn’t be heard either.
As if realizing this, Ashard’s mouth moved in large, clear shapes.
‘I’m s-sorry…? Sorry for leaving you alone…’
With that, Ashard completely vanished.
The solid form crumbled and collapsed.
Simultaneously, a memory Eren had never experienced unfolded before his eyes as fragments of a vision.
“No! No, no, Ashard-nim…! Please… please open your eyes!”
A distorted scream full of pain was heard.
The owner of the voice was undeniably him.
It was none other than Eren.
The Eren in the vision, who looked out of his mind, was weeping mournfully.
Eren’s gaze dropped down.
The person held in his arms in the vision was Ashard.
But he was completely still.
As Eren said, his closed eyes showed no intention of opening.
As if all the blood in his body had been spilled, he had no color.
He was pale. Just, just like a dead person…
“A, aahh… No, no! Please, open your eyes, alright?”
‘What is that? Why is Ashard-nim…?’
Eren’s fingertips trembled violently.
It was a memory he didn’t possess, yet it felt as if he had experienced it.
Biiiii—
An intense ringing in his ears sounded.
Eren’s face contorted at the sensation of his head being violently stirred.
‘This… is the future…’
It was an instinctive realization.
Ashard would die.
His body would die, and his soul would be annihilated.
Because he had saved Eren yet again, because he had intervened again for Eren’s sake.
What he had feared so much would eventually become reality.
“No, anything but that!”
The voice that hadn’t come out until now burst forth, agitated.
Eren jerked up from where he was lying and looked down at his hands.
They were clean, without a drop of blood.
It was a dream.
Relief washed over him.
But that was momentary.
The death and annihilation of Ashard he saw in the dream felt terrifyingly real.
[Did you see it well, foreigner?]
“You, you know something, don’t you? Why did you show me this!”
Eren shouted angrily at the telepathic message.
The man said he had a way to save Ashard, but he showed him his death.
What was this if not deception?
“What are you trying to say? That no matter what I do, he will die? Is that it? Is that why you showed me this illusion?!”
[…]
“Just kill me instead. It’s all because of me! I’m the one who dragged him in, I’m the one who recklessly tried to change fate! Why, why must that person die because of me!”
[Carlyle, Helid, Julius. The three became my errors due to my mistake. But the first among them was that man. Since all are errors of this Sovereign, should only that man meet a different conclusion, child?]
“What are you trying to do now?”
Eren’s voice turned hoarse.
Violent fury filled his chest.
His usually bright blue eyes became cold and sharply honed.
[Child. Why do you think this Sovereign showed you this illusion?]
“What…?”
[I thought you were wise, but you are foolish. To so lightly judge this Sovereign’s true intentions. Have you forgotten? You are this Sovereign’s one and only contractor.]
The black wing pattern flared up on the back of his hand, burning hot.
That pattern, representing Ashard’s vitality and soul power, was the proof of the contract between the man and Eren.
[What you just saw is that man’s fate.]
“…”
[If you follow that fate, I would be pleased, but I do not wish to make you an enemy because of it. My — is all derived from you. So, why don’t you try to change that man’s fate, foreigner? That is what you can do best, is it not?]
“You mean… I can stop it?”
[That is up to you.]
Eren realized those were the last words of the conversation.
After that, the telepathic message was no longer heard.
Eren sat in silence for a while, then got up.
Only then did he realize he had been lying down somewhere.
The damp scent of vegetation stung his nose.
The villa, filled with old furniture, was quiet.
It was a place he had never been to before.
‘Don’t tell me…!’
Had Ashard found him somehow?
Eren’s face turned pale.
He frantically threw open the villa door, and lush greenery greeted him.
Eren urgently scanned his surroundings.
“You’ve woken up, Count.”
Eren’s head turned towards the direction of the voice.
Julius, who had been leaning against the wall near the door, slowly approached.
“Who are you looking for like that? It couldn’t be me… are you perhaps looking for Ashard Fridit?”
‘Why is this person here?’
Eren’s eyes shook greatly.
Relief that it wasn’t Ashard was immediately replaced by a surge of unease.
“It seems you’re curious why I’m here.”
“…Did you bring me here?”
Julius smiled, seemingly satisfied with Eren’s highly defensive reaction.
“He died, you know.”
A completely different answer was heard.
Julius snickered and leaned his head closer.
Although he spoke without context, Eren couldn’t help but know who he was referring to.
“Was that your doing, Count?”
Then, he shrugged and stepped back slightly.
Eren hadn’t answered, but Julius seemed to already know the answer.
Rather, knowing it, he still expressed a bored lack of interest.
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“…”
“Ah, I should correct myself. Should I say I’m angry that the Count coincidentally rolled right into my hands because they died? After all, my plan was completely ruined because of it.”
‘Plan?’
Eren’s eyes grew cold.
He didn’t fully understand what Julius was saying, but he knew it was the truth.
The smile that Julius always wore to mask his emotions had completely vanished from his face.
Julius met Eren’s gaze and tilted his head.
Then, he approached and roughly grabbed Eren’s jaw.
His grip yanked Eren’s head upwards.
“…Let go of me, right now—”
“Why are you looking at me with those eyes? The Count already knew this side of me, didn’t you?”
“How could I not know when you made it so obvious.”
Julius’s smile looked like a machine devoid of emotion forcing itself to smile.
His mouth and eyes were smiling, but his gaze was chillingly cold.
Whenever their eyes met, goosebumps rose all over Eren’s body.
The way he forced a smile, faking emotion without truly knowing what it was, seemed bizarre and even grotesque.
“Most people don’t know, though.”
A low murmur followed from Julius.
“It would have been better for you not to know. You should have pretended not to know, and pretended not to see, even when you did.”
The grip on Eren’s jaw tightened increasingly.
Eren frantically grabbed his wrist to pull Julius’s hand away, but even as his fingernails dug into his skin, Julius showed no sign of letting go.
‘You crazy bastard.’
Hatred settled in Eren’s cold eyes.
* * *
