Chapter 56: The Last Chance

Soon, the lower part of the bed touched my leg, and I climbed up, feeling around the bed.

I didn’t want to climb up so rudely, but I had no choice— I really couldn’t see anything, not even enough to guess the direction.

As I groped around the sheets, my hand touched something.

It was soft yet firm—someone’s body.

“Ray…”

I called his name while feeling around his body.

The situation was really strange, but I had no choice since I couldn’t see anything.

Judging by the feel of the skin that clung to my palm, it seemed to be his face.

He didn’t have a fever and was breathing properly.

I was worried that after lying down for a week, his body might have weakened, but when I felt the plumpness of his cheeks, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“Wake up, you idiot.”

Relieved, I lay down beside him.

If my brother saw me now, he would’ve freaked out, asking if I’d lost my mind.

But maybe because the tension was finally easing, I felt all my strength leave me.

‘I’m sleepy.’

Unlike my mind, my now-younger body felt sleepy late at night.

Especially today—I had stayed up nervously until late, so it was inevitable.

Come to think of it, I only thought about getting in.

I didn’t consider how to get out.

Would the knights still be outside?

I was just barely keeping my eyes open while thinking that, when—

I felt a gaze.

Ray couldn’t possibly be awake, so I naturally turned my head to check my surroundings.

“Gasp!”

There were eyes on the ceiling. I had seen them before.

Back then, they were golden, but now they were red—the color was different, but those were the eyes of the monster I saw in the fairy realm.

It was looking down at me with an intrigued gaze.

‘It’s looking at me… at me…’

Could that be the reason Ray hasn’t woken up?

Because of that monster, the one that said it was targeting me?

It’s because of me.

The moment that thought struck, I hugged Ray tightly as if to protect him and glared at the creature.

“Go away!”

I shouted, hoping someone would hear me and come inside.

What the hell are the knights doing?

Just guarding outside?

They didn’t even check that there was a monster inside?

‘I’m scared.’

Unlike the time in the fairy realm, I felt fear now.

The fairies had said it would be okay, but for some reason, this thing felt like it wouldn’t leave me alone.

It was terrifying.

The monster’s eye curved.

The gaze looking down at me seemed amused, and as the eye grew larger, it looked like it was coming toward me.

If I were alone, I could have run away.

But doing that meant leaving Ray behind.

There was no guarantee I wouldn’t be caught, and I didn’t want to put Ray in danger.

So even as I trembled, I continued to glare at the creature.

Ping—!

Suddenly, with a high-pitched sound, multicolored lights burst in front of me.

The air became soaked in brilliant colors, like watercolors dissolving in water.

— “You fool. Why didn’t you run?”

“Fairy…!”

The one who appeared with the light was the Fairy King.

With an irritated expression, he stood in front of Ray and me.

He glanced at me, who had called him, as if I were being rude, then turned his head and glared at the monster.

— “This is not a place for you. Begone!”

At his shout, light burst out once more.

The lights tore into the darkness-like body of the monster.

It looked like it had taken quite a hit, but the monster didn’t seem to be in pain.

Rather, it stared down at its tearing body as if it were amused.

Is it really okay?

I was worried, but though its expression remained indifferent, the damage must have been significant—it couldn’t maintain its form and melted away.

At the same time, the abnormal darkness dissipated, and the red, bloodshot eye was no longer visible.

Only then could I breathe a sigh of relief.

— “Poor thing. That thing saw you.”

“It saw me…?”

Well, it had eyes, so of course it saw me.

I stared blankly at the obvious comment, and he frowned at me like I was an idiot.

— “Now that it knows why time has turned back, there won’t be another chance.”

“What?”

— “This is your last chance.”

The fairy’s form began to fade.

I was startled and instinctively reached out, but he vanished like a mirage and slipped through my hands.

“Wait! If you could get rid of that thing—”

— “I don’t have that kind of power.”

“But…”

— “So be careful. Don’t let him be devoured by the monster—”

The fairy couldn’t even finish his sentence before disappearing.

“Him”? Who shouldn’t be devoured by the monster?

‘Could it be Ray?’

Is the monster trying to devour Ray?

I shivered, remembering the red eyes that had looked down on me.

Why Ray, of all people?

No—whether it was Ray or not, the fact that the monster was targeting someone was a tragic reality.

Feeling heartbroken, I hugged the body in my arms even tighter.

“Sei?”

Ray woke up in my arms.

***

Raymund, who had fainted, fell into a deep sleep.

Though he thought he should wake up, his consciousness sank deeper and deeper—so he wouldn’t awaken.

To the time when he met Seiana, even further back, to when he was still loved by his family—Ray, as if tracing his memories backward, kept drifting into the past.

And when he reached a point he didn’t even recognize, time, which had been flowing backward, began moving forward again.

‘This place…’

It was the forest.

Where he had met Seiana.

Was he dreaming of that memory again?

Looking down in third person at his past self lying by the stream, Raymund felt a bit hopeful.

Because no matter what form she took, seeing her was always a joy for him.

He waited a while, hoping Seiana would appear—but things went differently than he expected.

‘Huh?’

For some reason, before Seiana appeared, he stood up.

His past self got up.

Looking around in confusion, he soon made eye contact with someone—Seiana.

But it was strange.

The moment Seiana saw him, she started screaming.

Just like the others.

‘Why…?’

Raymund was deeply shocked.

Of all people, he had believed with absolute certainty that Seiana would never react that way.

He was so shocked and confused that he couldn’t see how the dream continued.

By the time he came to his senses, Raymund was running ahead, dragging Seiana with him.

This, too, was different from his memory.

Soon, the knights who had been his escorts appeared and began attacking the two of them.

Again, this differed from his recollection.

The Count and Halo were supposed to appear and help them, but for some reason, they were nowhere to be seen.

In the end, Raymund was struck by one of their swords—unfortunately, across his eye.

Even so, he used his supernatural ability to defeat the knights.

Perhaps because the scene was so brutal, Seiana fainted.

Raymund heard someone approaching and left the area.

It seemed he was deeply conflicted about leaving Seiana behind, but having her near him would only put her in more danger.

They weren’t after her—they were after him.

So it was clearly safer for her if he wasn’t around.

Raymund didn’t get far before collapsing.

It was the aftereffect of using his ability multiple times in succession.

When he woke up again, he was in his palace chamber in the Imperial Palace.

‘Why…?’

Raymund was confused by the dream that contradicted everything he knew.

Was it just because it was a dream?

He didn’t understand.

Feeling uneasy, Raymund wanted to wake up from the dream, but things didn’t go his way.

That only made him more frustrated.

Regardless of how he felt, the dream continued.

The condition of his injured eye worsened.

Although the wound had been neatly treated, his vision deteriorated to the point where he could hardly see.

He could only distinguish blurry shapes and colors, but Raymund didn’t find it all that inconvenient.

In fact, it was liberating not having to see the faces of people who looked at him with disgust.

Raymund hoped Seiana would appear again in his dream, but strangely, she didn’t.

It was infuriating that he couldn’t control his own dream.

What made him even angrier was the behavior of another character.

‘Aries.’

That damned Aries Esteban had seemingly lost her mind and started clinging to him.

Even before, she had oddly stuck to him with a sense of kinship, but once Raymund returned with his injured eye, she volunteered to become his hands and feet.

Her obsession was suffocating.

Even though she felt uncomfortable around him as a fellow supernatural being, she wouldn’t leave his side.

Even though it was the dream version of himself experiencing her obsession, it drove Raymund crazy.

Aside from Aries’s obsession, Raymund’s life in the dream flowed rather smoothly.

He became an adult and officially started working as a supernatural ability user.

While the blindness wasn’t a major inconvenience, his fellow ability users would wave fingers in front of his face and jokingly ask how many they were holding up, so he ended up covering his eyes with a bandage out of annoyance.

As a result, he couldn’t see at all, but it didn’t matter.

One of his abilities involved manipulating air, so he could sense his surroundings with subtle tactile perception.

Rather than seeing vaguely, it was much more comfortable to rely on his senses.

Raymund was bewildered by the recurring dream.

The version of him in the dream didn’t seem happy.

He looked like someone living because he couldn’t die—a miserable existence.

The same was true for Aries.

It was as if her entire purpose in life was taking care of Raymund.

The more he pushed her away, the more obsessive she became, and eventually, she even accepted a marriage proposal to become empress, despite not truly wanting it.

Raymund didn’t agree, so it didn’t lead to an actual marriage… but even so, she was treated like a crown princess.

‘Disgusting.’

If the real Aries saw how obsessed her dream counterpart was, she would probably scream and throw a fit.

She’d say, “What’s so great about Raymund that I’d want to marry him?”

It was all so absurd that Raymund just wanted to escape, but the dream kept progressing, and he couldn’t wake up.

All he could do was endure the tiresome time by thinking of Seiana.