* * *
The flashback ended, and a world of darkness followed.
The Crown Prince was trapped in a space where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, gasping for painful breaths.
Now, finally, he understood.
Why he had impulsively proposed to Joel the day he summoned him to the Crown Prince’s palace, why he had been so anxious when Joel disappeared during the camp, and why his heart stung every time he saw the unconscious Joel…
Even though he had lost the memories of his past life, the regret and guilt he felt after letting Joel go had been engraved into his very soul.
As he struggled to steady himself from the massive shock hitting him all at once, someone spoke to him in a slippery, smooth voice.
“So, my dear Crown Prince. Did you enjoy the second chance you gained in exchange for your soul?”
The owner of that creepy voice was the demon, John.
He approached the Crown Prince, who was facedown on the ground gasping for air, and looked down at him with a mocking gaze.
Even in his confusion, the Crown Prince was appalled.
The preacher ‘John,’ who was said to have bewitched Sir Bennet, was the very same demon he had made a deal with.
The demon hadn’t even bothered to hide his identity, using the name John openly.
Yet, how could he have remembered nothing about him? It was utterly absurd.
When suggesting the contract in his previous life, the demon had treated the Crown Prince with a polite attitude, but now, he seemed to have no intention of showing even the slightest bit of courtesy.
He spoke in an arrogant tone.
“Why no answer? I am asking you a question, aren’t I? When you went back in time and met your fiancé again, did you shower him with love as you resolved to do, and protect him so that no one could hurt him?”
At the demon’s mocking question, the Crown Prince could not say a word.
After returning to the past, he had forgotten the fact that he had turned back time.
Therefore, he felt no gratitude for the miracle of meeting Joel again and had foolishly repeated the same mistakes.
He stood by and watched Joel be bullied, ignored the longing in Joel’s eyes, and forcibly took Joel in the forest once again.
How could he have forgotten that agonizing guilt and the time of bitter regret? The Crown Prince asked in a voice full of resentment.
“You… Why did I have no memory of the past at all?”
“Well, now. I only said I would turn back time; I never guaranteed your memory would stay intact. Wasn’t that left out of the contract?”
The demon replied nonchalantly to the Crown Prince, who was questioning him in a frustrated tone.
The Crown Prince let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. E
ven if the demon hadn’t guaranteed he would return with his memories intact, seeing as the demon remembered the past, he surely could have preserved the Crown Prince’s memories as well.
It wasn’t a lack of ability.
The Crown Prince couldn’t understand why the demon hadn’t properly granted his wish.
Was it simply because he was a twisted, wicked demon?
Moreover, that wasn’t the only thing the demon had lied about.
The demon went on to tell the Crown Prince that the time to pay the price for the contract was fast approaching.
“But, didn’t you say you would take my soul after I died? Was my lifespan really that short?”
“Of course, your original lifespan was quite long, but did you really expect to enjoy all those years after doing something as massive as reversing time?”
The demon threw the contract at him and said, “Check the contract carefully, you stupid Crown Prince.” The Crown Prince hurriedly unfolded the contract.
Before long, he found a clause at the end of the contract that read, ‘The price shall be paid when the returned time is exhausted.’
“This… This makes no sense! Back then, you spoke as if my death was a matter of the very distant future!”
“I keep repeating myself, but I never once said you could grow old with your fiancé. And more importantly, the time for you to hand over your soul is clearly written in that contract you stamped with your own thumbprint.”
To the Crown Prince, who still couldn’t accept it.
“Ho ho. It’s a pity if you feel cheated, but it’s your responsibility for not being careful. That’s why one must be cautious when making a deal with a demon, Mr. Crown Prince.”
Enraged, the Crown Prince drew the sword from his waist, but no matter how many times he slashed at the demon, he couldn’t wound him.
Not even the silver dagger, which was said to be a holy relic, could leave a scratch on the demon’s skin.
As the demon took the swings of the sword, he mockingly advised him not to waste his energy on useless efforts.
After swinging his sword several times, the Crown Prince finally realized there was no way out and slumped to the ground.
It was unfair, but he had to admit it was ultimately his own mistake.
At the time, he had been drunk—drunk on alcohol and drunk on the joy of being able to see Joel again—and it was his fault for hastily stamping the contract without reading it thoroughly.
“Do you still have lingering attachments to life? Of course you do. You haven’t achieved a single thing you intended to.”
Lowering himself to match the frustrated Crown Prince, the demon spoke as if teasing him.
He added in a secretive, whispering tone.
“However, you are a very lucky man. Because I am about to give you one more chance right now.”
“Ha, is this another trick to deceive me? You’ve already taken my soul; is there something else left to take from me?”
The Crown Prince, having been tricked once, intended never to trust the demon again.
But when the demon cunningly coaxed him.
“Listen to me first, you have nothing to lose anyway, do you? If you feel like making another deal after hearing me out, you can just look at the contract carefully this time,” his heart couldn’t help but waver.
He jerked his chin at the demon, telling him to go ahead and speak.
“If you give me the soul inside your fiancé’s womb, I will let your soul go.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
He thought perhaps it was a great opportunity, but as expected, it was trash.
The Crown Prince rejected the absurd proposal immediately.
However, the demon’s eyes widened, as if he hadn’t expected him to react that way.
“Are—are you really going to refuse?”
“Of course. What parent in the world would trade their child’s life for their own?”
“But the thing inside your fiancé’s womb isn’t a complete being yet, is it? You can have another child, but this is your last chance. Don’t you want to get another chance at life and do the things for your fiancé that you couldn’t do?”
“And for that, you want me to kill my child? If it were a matter of paying money to extend the time I can stay by Joel’s side, that would be one thing, but I cannot accept such an outrageous proposal.”
The Crown Prince truly felt that way.
No matter how much he craved life, he couldn’t sacrifice an innocent life—especially his own child’s.
Furthermore, with what right would he return to Joel’s side by sacrificing their child?
He responded coldly and turned his back.
As if anxious by the Crown Prince’s attitude, the demon began to circle him, pleading.
“No, Crown Prince. Think about it. Isn’t it a shame to die like this? Even after turning back time, you stood by while your fiancé was bullied and let him be abused by his stepfather. And was that all? You even pinned down the fiancé who came to save you and cruelly raped him on the dirt floor!”
The Crown Prince, who had been letting the demon’s words go in one ear and out the other, suddenly felt something was strange.
Only he and Joel knew the fact that he had forced himself on Joel in the forest.
How did that demon, who lived stuck in the ground, come to know that?
There was a possibility the demon had overheard rumors, but wasn’t the public rumor the exact opposite—that Joel had jumped him?
Even Abe, the captain of the Crown Prince’s direct knight order, initially thought Joel had held a rock to threaten the Crown Prince into bed.
The demon’s certainty that Joel wouldn’t go to heaven in his previous life, and the way he knew the internal affairs of Joel and the Lucas family—which were treated as state secrets—too well… looking back now, there were many suspicious things about this demon.
Meanwhile, the demon, blinded by greed and preoccupied with persuading the Crown Prince to get the baby’s soul, didn’t notice the Crown Prince’s expression hardening subtly.
“Don’t you want to stroke your fiancé’s lovely cheek again? Don’t you want to whisper ‘I love you’ into that soft ear? Isn’t it truly, truly a shame! Remember the desperation you felt in your last life!”
“Aha, so that’s why you made me return to the past with no memories? Because if I had no memories, I wouldn’t be good to Joel, and that would make me obsessed with life? Enough to even sacrifice my child’s life.”
When the Crown Prince finally realized the demon’s true intention and snapped at him coldly, the demon shut his cunning mouth with a look of being caught.
Even after that, the demon continued trying to persuade the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince didn’t give him the time of day.
Of course, it was a shame that he would remain a heartless lover to Joel until the end and that he had to leave without even seeing the face of the baby in the womb, but he had no intention of giving up his child’s life as the demon wished.
“The only thing I can give you as payment is my private property left on the surface. For every day you extend my life, I will pay one hundred gold coins.”
“Ha! You think I’ll be moved by a few coins?”
To the demon, who strongly insisted he wanted nothing but the child’s soul, the Crown Prince responded coldly, “Then the negotiation is over,” and turned his back.
His lingering attachment to life remained, but he did not regret giving up his soul to turn back time.
The Crown Prince decided to be satisfied with at least being able to save Joel.
Furthermore, wasn’t there a life growing in Joel’s womb?
Since there was a child, even if he went missing like this, his father would no longer be able to reject Joel.
The Crown Prince decided to think as positively as possible, since things had already turned out this way.
* * *
oh yay he’s not drunk this time!!