David’s appearance remained the same, although everyone else around her seemed to be aging.

“You’re real.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. To be honest, time magic is far too risky.”

Even Evelyn, who knew nothing about magic, could understand because it didn’t turn out the way David had wanted.

“There’s only one chance…….”

David serenaded a low spell while holding a small bead of light in his arms.

Evelyn swapped quiet glances with him. It wasn’t astounding to her anymore. Because the landscape and people around her had all come to a halt like a painting after she died.

“It’s magic created from the tower.” David paused for a moment, staring at the light beads, “It’s hard for me to use this spell.”

Over time, both the tower and its guardians gradually lost their power. The evidence was in the fact that David had no successor. ​That’s why he didn’t have much choice but to use this forbidden magic.

“Wait, could you give me some time?”

Evelyn abruptly said something that grabbed David’s attention.

“Your time has stopped here. Don’t you see that?”

Fabian’s despairing face, the sobbing maids’ expressions all ground to a standstill.

“…… I’d like to take a moment to calm my heart.”

“Weird person… I’ve never understood the way you think.”

Evelyn had been impatient ever since Adrian was poisoned, so she always struggled to breathe at all times. It’s silly, but her impatience faded as time had stopped due to her death. After all, this was solely her choice.

“If you send me back by time magic, I can’t come back again, right?”

“Yes.”

“First of all…… I’d like to look at something more closely.”

Before she even heard David’s response, Evelyn approached Fabian, who was kneeling next to her frozen body.

Likewise, the 30-year-old Fabian didn’t look like he was eaten by the passage of time. On the other hand, his body appeared to be much more sturdy, and his facial features seemed to be manlier.

“I wish I could spend more time with him. Noble status, pride… It’s all for naught. Why am I so scared, like a fool?”

Regret seemed to be a never-ending cycle. Though the two of them had many chances to talk with one another.

Evelyn couldn’t reach out to him first because she was afraid of hurting herself. It was too late for her to realize how trivial it was in a marriage and in a couple relationship.

“Does that matter? Anyway, that man will forget everything. If you disappear from the axis of time, everything will never happen…… So why do you still have regrets?”

“Because I will always remember him.”

Evelyn replied while reaching out her hand to Fabian. His sad look, which seemed to be on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment, didn’t suit him.

Evelyn wanted to wrap her arms around him and comfort him once more. She tried to calm him by sweeping her hand over his cheek. But her touch only could brush Fabian unilaterally at this frozen moment.

“All that happened in this time dimension will be forgotten. And all of the memories would be the same as delusion.”

“But I will always remember.”

Evelyn couldn’t live without memories of Fabian and Adrian, no matter how painful it was. It was enough for her to live her life as long as those memories remained in her heart, even if only she could remember them.

“I don’t think you’ll ever be able to let go of your feelings for him.”

David’s words were too convincing for Evelyn to refute as he said logical things in his argument.

“Time magic is life threatening. If you have some doubt in your heart, even if it is just for a moment, you could get lost forever in the axis of time. I don’t want that to happen; After all, it was never my intention to send you there.”

“But no matter which time axis I return to. I’ll do the same.”

“Evelyn, a poor woman and the wife of the Emperor. … Do you have ‘something precious’ there?”

David couldn’t have sent the weak-hearted Evelyn back to the past without any preparation, and now he could pretty much find out why.

“You had sent me before…… But, because your magic isn’t perfect, I went back to when I was 20 years old.”

“You’ve said that.”

“After that, I asked His Majesty to divorce and leave …… at that time I was pregnant.”

David raised his eyebrows, his freezing purple eyes trembling, “The child shouldn’t exist in the first place.”

Evelyn gave him a resentful look. “That’s why you used him as a pawn and tried to kill him with demon’s poison,”

“Then, what’s more precious than your life?”

“My child’s life. My child there is dying of poison. I promised to return to the past with all of my memories to save him and then disappear. Because you said there was no problem as long as the Emperor and I didn’t meet again.”

“Yes… … I guess.” David silently nodded. “Even so, you still have lingering feelings. What guarantee do you have that you won’t do anything if you go back to the past without erasing your memories?”

Evelyn swiveled around to look at David when she realized she hadn’t given it much thought. Returning to the past with all of her memories caused David a great deal of trepidation. So he thought it was hazardous as Evelyn already knew everything that would happen in the future.

“There’s no way I’ll leave your memories intact … without any guarantees.”

“Yes….” Evelyn nodded helplessly. Her fear, which had been lurking in the depths of her heart for a long time, vaguely started to arise. “We’re happy. ……But, I can assure you that the thing you’re afraid of will not happen. Because it only happens when he’s depressed and feeling hopeless.”

David wasn’t a nice guy. He could be considered an enemy as well. He was a man who never judged a situation based on his personal feelings. His way of thinking was logical, and his sole goal was to prevent the Emperor’s madness, which he believed would occur. And Evelyn began having an uneasy and peculiar feeling after that.

“But you used every trick to seperate me from His Majesty. Then you chose my son as a target… you used the demons to kill him so that we could break up as enemies.”

Since they didn’t know each other’s true feelings, that heartbreaking incident took place. If Adrian had died because of the demon assault at that time after Fabian had forced him to do parental identification, Evelyn surely wouldn’t have forgiven Fabian.

“So you’ve decided to go back in time… with memories and convince me… to create a new future where the child is alive?”

“As long as Your Majesty does not love me, then, your goal will be achieved. And maybe you don’t even want to kill that innocent child again if there’s another way.”

“I don’t have such a feeling.” David cut her words coldly.

“Another you…… He told me to look at the truth.”

That raspy voice, whispering in Evelyn’s ear, kept ringing and couldn’t be erased from her head.

‘Go, see and hear the truth.’

‘And accept your fate.’

She was more or less aware of the terrifying fact that her return to the present through time magic had already altered several things and that everything about herself would be changed.

“Truth..huh? That’s the truth.” David fixed his eyes on Fabian, who stayed stagnant in place. “When you see the truth, all of your remaining feelings will disappear.”

The present David hadn’t lost his abilities, so he explicitly showed Evelyn what another David in another timeline couldn’t. And no one could remain silent when they saw that glimpse of the scene.

“That man, The man you looked at with such wistfulness, the Emperor … … is someone who doesn’t deserve your sadness.”

With beads of light floating in the air, David walked up to Evelyn, who refused to leave Fabian’s side. “What I do is always right, and I never make a mistake. So…… all I have to do now is show you the truth. And you will be able to understand anything.”

David flicked his fingertips through the air, and a tiny bead of light appeared in front of him. The light bead was very small and not as big as the first one, but it gave off a mystical atmosphere.

“If you want, I’ll show you then…..The ugly truth.”

Evelyn’s face was suddenly soaked with hesitancy. But she felt compelled to find out why she had to accept this fate. Why she had to abandon the two men she loved and why she had to go through the pain.

“……Show me. I’ll see the truth, no matter how ugly it is.”

In response to what she said, David raised his finger, and three tiny beads of light floated between Evelyn and Fabian. “As you wish.” One bead exploded along with his answer, dyeing the view in white light, and then disappeared. Evelyn saw Fabian moving again after the bright white realm surrounding them was gradually wiped away.

‘……No.’

Fabian’s figure and voice looked like a clipped recording from somewhere she couldn’t reach. That might explain why that low voice didn’t sound like him.

‘No …… this is not real.’

The death of Evelyn was too hard for him to bear.

‘Your Majesty, I apologize… … The Empress… she’s already passed….I..”

‘Brugh…!’

Philip’s neck fell to the floor and rolled around at an unfathomable pace before he could finish his sentence. The maids then let out a terrified cry. But the screams and commotion didn’t last long because Fabian slaughtered everyone in the room with his sword in a matter of seconds.

‘Evelyn, tell me.’ 

Fabian’s face was splattered with blood, and his eyes were empty as he frowned at Evelyn’s dead body.

‘Is the world a better place without you?’

Evelyn shook her head without realizing it. “Fabian… no..… please, don’t do that.” She had felt terrible fear up to this moment, but this wasn’t at all what she had imagined.

She had known for a long time that Fabian had a dark side of him. Yet, at this phase, he didn’t seem to be human. His deep black eye glistened heartlessly like obsidian, and in the midst of it, an ember of madness could be seen, which emitted an ominous light.

‘Yes, what’s wrong is this world.’

Evelyn couldn’t face it any longer.

‘Evelyn, don’t worry….. I……I can do it. I’ll fix this wrong thing.’

Fabian’s lips screwed dreadfully.

“No. Fabian, no…….” Despite her hoarse wails, Fabian couldn’t hear Evelyn, who was on a different time axis. Evelyn was only able to see him and hear his voice. But she was unable to intervene but sigh deeply because she couldn’t stop him.

‘So wait for me….”

Ctaar….

A bolt of lightning struck the dry ground. The reflection of Fabian’s side face, which illuminated coldly within the thunderclap, became a forerunner of the continent’s impending collapse.

‘I’m going to fix everything right and come to get you.’

Fabian swept Evelyn’s face with his bleeding hands. When her fair skin became dirty, stained with traces of blood, he lifted the tail of his mouth and smiled in an unusual way.

The figure of Evelyn, who had already died, ….. wasn’t reflected in his eyes.

‘Yes, until the end of this world… … .’

For him, the world seemed to be dead and had lost its lightness.

‘It won’t take long….. you only need to sleep for a while, Evelyn,’

‘What is the world like in Fabian’s eyes now?’ Evelyn shuddered at the thought of imagining something.

Fabian stormed out of the room, dragging his sword like a man possessed by a demon. The voice of people screamed in terror could be heard along the corridor where he was walking.

“Fabian don’t..!”

Evelyn shrieked, the room suddenly went pitch black, and no more cries could be heard. When she looked up, she saw David staring at her with the two remaining beads of light.

“This is the truth. When I don’t interfere that’s what the man you love will do. Is that vile person still deserving of your sympathy?”

“But, he looked very sad…….”

“You don’t care about other people’s lives? What a selfish woman.”

Evelyn’s feeling was ripped apart by what David had said.

“I can’t believe it, you’re willing to do anything for your child, but you treat other people’s lives so differently.”

Evelyn had no choice but to admit it that humankind was a frail being. A cowardly and faint-hearted being who always wished to be there for their loved ones until the very end, she was no exception.

“Then, I’ll show you the uglier truth.”

After he finished speaking, the second bead began to light up.