‘Believe in myself? How can I believe in myself when I can’t do anything?’
Iris grumbled to herself, but her expression wasn’t sour.
The voice in her dream had been so clear and warm that just thinking about it made her feel at ease.
That voice had told her to believe in herself and the person she loved. It said she was the only Hero who could save Gyodam City.
Who did that voice belong to? Could it be the Enraka Goddess? If it was the Goddess who had chosen her, she felt like she would have such a beautiful voice.
‘Is it really you, Goddess? You might as well have told me how to get the power of the Relic back before you left. How could you leave after only giving me a pep talk!’
She cried out desperately in her mind, but no voice answered back.
Disappointed, she carefully chewed over the words she had heard in the dream, wondering if she had missed an important message.
She understood the part about believing in herself, but the person she loved…
At that moment, Senior Teresa and her Grandmother’s faces came to mind. However, because Johannes’s face flashed by along with them, her pale cheeks flushed a bright red.
Senior Teresa and her Grandmother were obviously people she loved. But what about Johannes? Did she love Johannes?
‘Is it… love? It’s a bit much to call it love yet; maybe it’s just a crush? I like that Johannes likes me, but…’
Thinking about never seeing him again made her feel gloomy. However, she wasn’t sure if she could call this emotion love.
She felt like her feelings would become clearer if she saw him one more time, but would she ever have the chance?
Johannes wouldn’t know she was locked up here. At that thought, her eyes grew moist, and a sigh escaped her lips.
‘Whew, now is not the time for this. Let’s try something.’
Come to think of it, there was something she hadn’t checked yet. Even though she didn’t have the Relic, wouldn’t the power she gained from it remain?
Even when her Ring was taken by Laika, the power she had gained from it had stayed with her.
She called for her **[Status Window]** several times just in case, but disappointingly, nothing happened.
‘The **[Status Window]** won’t open. But my power might still be there.’
After struggling for a long time to break the shackles, she eventually let out a sigh as if giving up on everything and lay down on the bed.
Once she confirmed she had lost her power, her future looked bleak. Feeling a sense of helplessness as if her body were sinking endlessly, her eyelids began to grow heavy.
Surrendering herself to the god of sleep, she slowly closed her eyes.
‘When will the Ritual be held? They won’t kill me until then, so before that, I have to somehow… find a way to escape… Is there even a way…?’
***
She didn’t know how many days had passed. In the meantime, Iris had tried everything, but she couldn’t escape the prison.
Every time a Watcher visited, she pretended to be asleep, so they didn’t give her food.
She hadn’t eaten anything, to the point that her belly was sticking to her back, but she didn’t even feel the hunger.
It was because her despair over the situation was so great.
‘The dream where the Goddess appeared was just a pipe dream after all. Believe in myself and believe in the person I love? How can a miracle happen with just belief…?’
As she blinked slowly, clear tears rolled down her cheeks. She had tried everything she could.
Now that things had turned out like this, a wave of regret for her foolish past washed over her.
When Abellus said he would give her the necklace as a gift, she should have doubted him instead of snatching it up…
What was the point of regretting it now? Things were already like this.
Just as she was about to give up on everything, a voice she thought she would never hear again reached her ears.
“Iris!”
‘I’m finally hearing hallucinations. To hear Johannes’s voice… I might be going crazy.’
Iris lowered her eyebrows pitifully with her eyes closed. Johannes wouldn’t even know where she was, so how could he find her?
It might be better to lose her mind in a situation like this. That way, she wouldn’t feel the pain.
However, a voice too clear to be an hallucination struck her ears again.
“Iris, wake up! Iris!”
“…Huh? Johannes? Johannes!”
Iris sprang up, her eyes wide. Johannes, whom she thought she would never see again, was standing behind the iron bars, teary-eyed.
His eyes, with the skin around them redder than his pupils, elicited a sense of pity.
He reached his hand through the iron bars, but then looked as if he had realized something and fumbled through his pockets.
He then took a key out of his pocket, opened the door, and walked in.
“Iris…”
As soon as Johannes stepped inside, he hugged Iris tightly without hesitation.
Feeling his warm body temperature, her anxious heart vanished and her tension melted away. Iris rubbed her head against Johannes’s broad chest and shed fat tears.
If this was a dream, she hoped she would never wake up.
“Johannes, it’s really you, right? This isn’t a dream?”
“It’s not a dream. I’ve come to save you.”
“It’s not a dream… It wasn’t.”
Johannes calmed her down, stroking her thin, trembling back.
Iris wiped her tears and grabbed Johannes’s hand, asking, “But how did you know to come here?”
“That’s… ‘That One’ called the officials of Enrakakyo. And after hearing news that you were here, I pretended to help with the Ritual until I caught an opportunity to come here today.”
“Whew, you’ll be in trouble if you get caught.”
When Iris asked with a worried expression, Johannes covered the back of Iris’s hand with both of his and said, “It’s okay. James is guarding the outside. And those guys are in the middle of a party right now. When I left, they were already drunk. They won’t have the spare energy to worry about this place.”
“A party? That means they think the battle is already won.”
Her honey-colored eyes burned with fire. To think they were having a grand old party after putting her in this state.
She had already disliked Abellus, but now she was beyond just disliking him; she was utterly revolted.
If that bastard were human, if there were even a shred of affection left from the night they spent together, he should be sorry to her, but instead, he was busy enjoying a party.
She felt like spitting on him if he were right in front of her.
‘If I find my power, I’ll crush this bastard Abellus first, regardless of whether he’s some minor ghost or an Evil Spirit.’
After trembling with her two fists clenched, Iris belatedly realized she had made a slip of the tongue and glanced at Johannes.
Saying “they think the battle is already won” was as good as revealing that she was the opponent they were fighting — in other words, the Hero.
“Uh, about that…”
“It’s okay, Iris. I know you’re the Hero.”
As Iris’s eyes widened in surprise, Johannes curved his eyes softly. He then carefully kissed her forehead.
For some reason, unlike before, it wasn’t hard for him to approach Iris.
He just wanted to let her know the depth of his love.
When his moist lips touched her forehead for a moment and then pulled away, Iris froze as if she had been paused, then clamped her mouth shut.
Her honey-colored eyes expanded as far as they could. Was Johannes always like this?
He was someone who couldn’t do anything in front of her; he was definitely like that…
‘When did he become so manly? He’s… kind of cool…’
Iris’s two cheeks were dyed rosy. Before, she had thought he was cute when he trembled in front of her.
She thought his charm was his innocence, which was almost frustrating.
But this version of Johannes wasn’t bad either. In fact, she felt like she liked it even more.
Feeling her heart beat rapidly, Iris replied shyly.
“Yeah…”
“And… I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
Her heart, which had been beating pleasantly until just a moment ago, dropped with a thud.
Why was Johannes saying he was sorry?
She became anxious, wondering if he was about to deliver bad news.
For example, that he wanted to take back the confession he had made before.
However, the momentary delusion melted away without a trace as soon as she saw his eyes, which were filled with love.
Johannes still liked her. No, he loved her. She felt certain of it.
When Iris squeezed his hand to indicate he could speak, Johannes opened his mouth with a determined expression.
“I read your heart before with [Mind Reading]. The thing is, I… I’m not a Villain. I might have done things that warranted it in the past, but in the future, at least to you, I want to be a Hero, not a Villain.”
“Johannes…”
Iris’s heart overflowed at the confession she was hearing once again.
Johannes met her eyes gently and unlocked the shackles on Iris’s wrists with the key.
Iris, unable to withstand her overflowing emotions any longer now that her hands were free, pulled Johannes’s arm and kissed him.
Her red lips opened, and a soft, moist tongue slid into her mouth like flowing water.
While enjoying the sweet and thrilling kiss, Iris’s brow furrowed.
‘Huh? What is this…?’