PMEVBO 137

Logically speaking, there was no better place for Iser to wait. After all, it was the most secluded spot in Chepony Castle.

But it was not exactly a place with a good history.

It was also where that portrait was…

More importantly, I didn’t want to leave Iser alone.

Just as I unconsciously tightened my grip on his hand, he wrapped his other hand around the back of my neck.

“Mmm.”

A moist tongue licked my lips. When I parted my lips to let him in, what invaded my mouth wasn’t a tongue, but the Power of Life. Those soft lips, which had gently sucked on my lower lip once, slowly pulled away.

“I thought you’d forgotten.”

“Haa… What?”

He smiled as he gently stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. Only then did I realize that the hickey there had disappeared.

Iser tended to leave a lot of marks during our intimate moments. He restrained himself from leaving them on conspicuous areas like my neck or hands, but since the day the brainwashing had worn off, that was no longer the case.

I almost showed the Pope something he shouldn’t see…

Just imagining it made my heart skip a beat. As I patted my chest in relief, Iser, who had just put my hood back on, tilted his head to one side and asked.

“I only removed the marks in visible places. Is that alright?”

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

After all, the places that weren’t visible would only be seen by Iser, so why bother removing them?

When I nodded in response, Iser smiled. Then, a kiss landed on my lips.

“Do your best.”

The sight of him smiling while holding onto the edges of my hood with both hands was so beautiful. In the end, I could only nod.

“Uh, yes…”

***

Iser saw Lucariel off to the entrance of the Tower of Serpents. By the time his figure disappeared from view, the smile had slowly faded from his face.

“……”

It was entirely intentional that he had Read onmanipulated status window to make the Pope the target of this quest. He had judged that Lucariel needed it.

Iser had already witnessed Lucariel’s downfall. It might have been the ruin he was destined to face someday. It seemed as though everything in that timeline had been arranged solely to destroy that one person. But it was the Pope, who had stopped coming to see him at some point, who hastened that ruin.

Every time Lucariel attempted a life-or-death escape, the Pope would descend all the way to Hell to see him. But one day, he stopped coming. Iser didn’t know the exact reason. After all, he hadn’t left Lucariel’s side for a single moment at the time.

However, there was one thing he could be certain of.

‘The Pope didn’t abandon Lucariel.’

If he were going to abandon him so easily, he wouldn’t have come down to check on him every single time a report of Lucariel’s injury came in. Moreover, when Lucariel was fighting for his life, the Pope couldn’t even bring himself to look at him properly. As if he were someone afraid of Lucariel dying.

The Pope’s attitude toward Lucariel was peculiar. However, in the end, the Pope’s feelings weren’t all that different from the feelings Lucariel harbored for him. Iser wanted to let him know that.

But.

‘……I don’t want to tell him.’

Because he still hated it when Lucariel held someone else’s hand… even if that person was his only family.

That was precisely what made him fundamentally different from people like Lucariel and Isabelle. Lucariel and Isabelle were the kind of people who would ultimately choose their family. On the other hand, as long as he had Lucariel, nothing else mattered to him.

“So I’d appreciate it if they didn’t interfere.”

With what I do with him.

─────────【 Report 】─────────

Soul Fusion Progress between ‘XXX Hayut’ and Mission Issuer ‘████’.

(5/100)

──────────────────────────

Even after receiving the report that the soul fusion had begun, the progress had been stuck at 0 the entire time. However, the moment he arrived at the wine cellar with Lucariel, he felt a wave of dizziness, and the number changed for the first time.

This was Iser’s second visit to the wine cellar. His first visit had been the day he followed Lucariel while disguised as a banquet attendant, and he hadn’t felt anything unusual then. Therefore, this strange sensation now consuming his entire body must belong to ████, not him.

He knew if he returned there now, he would be one step closer to uncovering ████’s true identity.

Iser immediately turned and headed for the underground wine cellar. The sound of his footsteps echoed through the dim stairwell. It was just as he reached the door.

Plop!

‘……The sound of water?’

It sounded like a drop of water falling onto a vast expanse of water. It wasn’t the kind of sound one would expect to hear in a cramped wine cellar.

The moment he opened the door, the space that unfolded before him was no longer a wine cellar.

It resembled a cave. Roughly hewn stone walls and gravel scattered across the sloping ground. One side of the vast cavern was blocked not by rock, but by an ice wall. Droplets falling from the ice wall created gentle ripples on a lake formed by glacial meltwater.

The dark blue ice wall seemed to hold the night within it. Sunlight filtering through the ice shattered into dark blue fragments. It shimmered like waves. It felt as if he were deep in the ocean.

Even though it was a place he’d never seen before, it felt familiar.

It was at that moment that he heard the sound of sniffling coming from somewhere.

Iser turned his head and saw a small child walking toward him from far away, his footsteps soft and muffled. The child, who came up to about Iser’s thigh, rubbed his red, swollen eyes with his sleeve and grumbled. With a front tooth missing, the child’s pronunciation was unclear.

“… See if I ever read it to you again…….”

The trembling voice gradually turned into a sob.

The child was dressed in a thin nightgown. Even that was buttoned incorrectly. The hands clutching the storybook to his chest were red and frozen. The child’s feet were in even worse shape. The tiny feet, walking barefoot across the gravel, were covered in cuts and scrapes.

One cheek was swollen, probably from a blow. His lips were split, oozing blood. Through the silver hair, which scattered like snowflakes, eyes the color of dawn could be seen. In that moment, Iser found himself reaching out to the child without even realizing it.

“……Lucariel?”

The child, who looked exactly like Lucariel, couldn’t see Iser and simply walked right past him. This was a familiar sight to Iser. After all, during the six years he had spent in another timeline, this had been a daily occurrence for him.

The child sat by the water’s edge with his knees hugged to his chest. He lashed [Read on]out at the innocent surface with his small hands.

Splash, splash, splash.

A sound similar to that of a cat drinking water echoed through the quiet space.

‘It seems to be Lucariel…’

But the child before him lacked the butterfly marks that should have been there since birth.

A tear fell from the child’s eye and landed on the water’s surface.

“Ugh…”

After roughly wiping his eyes once more, the child picked up a pebble. Then he flung it.

Plop–plop–plop–plop–plop–splash!

The pebble ricocheted off the water’s surface before sinking. After repeating this a few times, the child buried his face between his knees. Then, as if he had suddenly noticed something, he sat up.

“Huh, what’s that…?”

At the end of the child’s vision was an ice wall. More precisely, a black shape clinging to a corner of the ice wall.

Sniffling, the child stared at the black figure and picked up a pebble.

Thud.

It was a distance that even an adult man would have struggled to hit, but the pebble the child threw struck its target. At that moment, the black figure slowly turned its head. Bright blue eyes flashed in the darkness.

“Ah!”

The child covered his mouth with both hands and stumbled backward. He lost his footing. Without thinking, Iser reached out to catch him, but his hand never reached the child.

“Aahh!”

In the end, the child’s small body fell into the cold water.

Splash!

A spray of clear water splashed in all directions. The child, soaked to the bone, stood there helplessly, submerged up to his chest.

Just then, the black figure began swimming toward him. The child, whose shoulders had been trembling, closed his eyes and shouted.

“I’m, I’m sorry for throwing the pebble!”

Despite the child’s desperate apology, the black figure approached right up to the child. Only then could Iser properly see its form.

Its streamlined body and the way it swam, even the shape of its dorsal fin, resembled [stolen content]an orca’s. However, its size – barely that of an adult man – was far too small to be an orca, and it lacked the characteristic white markings.

Its jet-black skin and glowing blue eyes were just like those of a deep-sea creature.

Iser immediately realized. This creature was none other than ████.