Ch#118
His pulse, body temperature, and mana flow were all normal.
Medically speaking, he should have regained consciousness long ago.
Yet Rudville remained sunk in deep slumber.
This device sustained 'life,' not 'consciousness.'
"The reason consciousness hasn't returned... is still unknown?"
"I apologize."
The physician's report ended there.
The real name of the woman who had used the alias 'Adella' was 'Korin.'
Interrogating her had been easy.
Without even applying pressure, she had spilled the truth readily.
According to her, the one who gave her the perfume was a noble youth with red hair and green eyes.
'Gawin using an illusion artifact.'
He had cleverly disguised himself, exploiting her ignorance of magic as a commoner to conceal his identity.
The problematic perfume was a holy relic.
The moment one inhaled it, it connected to emotions sealed deep in the unconscious.
The most cherished memory.
The most desired past.
Or the moment of deepest regret.
That memory wasn't mere recollection but a complete hallucination accompanied by sensation.
Sensations from long ago revived vividly.
Scent, color, temperature, voice... even the feel of skin against skin.
The reason it was called a 'holy relic' was that its effect stemmed from divine power.
A forbidden ability that summoned sensations transcending time, mediated by the emotion of longing.
However, spraying it more than three times didn't just cause sensory confusion—it could plunge one into hallucinations and destroy the mind, making it dangerous.
But Korin had dumped the entire bottle on Rudville.
To drive him into a rampage.
Yet Rudville hadn't rampaged.
He had collapsed on the spot and lost consciousness.
At that moment.
The last gaze Rudville had fixed on Odellie was...
Shaking vividly, brimming with emotions on the verge of bursting, as if realizing something.
For the first few days, she had desperately hoped.
That he remembered nothing.
That he would wake as if nothing had happened, forgetting everything.
But days three, four, a week passed... time kept flowing, and now half a month had gone by.
Her wish that he not remember was born of fear.
Fear that he would recall everything, reignite with guilt and madness toward her, demand her life force again to save her, and rush toward death once more.
But now...
All those fears had become meaningless.
If this state continued? Living yet not truly alive, like this forever...
Odellie gently smoothed Rudville's disheveled bangs with her fingertips.
Brushing his forehead, stroking his cheek, her hand slid quietly along his jawline.
Odellie rarely left his side.
Meals were forced on her by the maids, and she barely slept at the foot of his bed.
Every day, she peered into his face and quietly called his name.
"Rudville."
No response.
Of course not.
"...You can remember everything. Just... please open your eyes."
Just come back to me.
A hot droplet fell onto the back of his hand.
* * *
Drip.
Something touched the back of his hand.
"...?"
Rudville glanced down at his hand.
For an instant, all his senses blurred in sharp clarity.
Clearly a hot droplet had touched it, yet nothing remained there.
Only the cold, faded sensation lingered like an afterimage.
It was right then.
"Rudville."
A voice like stifled sobs, on the verge of breaking.
Undoubtedly Odellie.
Not the young girl, but the low, calm tone of the grown woman.
Desperately, earnestly... calling him.
"...You can remember everything. Just... please open your eyes."
A hallucination?
Yet drip, again.
Another hot droplet hit the back of his hand.
A breeze brushing his cheek, warm morning sunlight, faint floral scent from the garden.
All sensations jumbled, the heat on his hand pulling his consciousness back once more.
Present senses clashed with past fragments, tangling together.
The moment that boundary warped...
"Rudville."
Odellie, sitting beside him, gazed quietly at her own empty left ring finger and asked softly.
"Who gave you that ring?"
What was that just now?
Rudville felt momentary confusion but answered nonchalantly.
His reality was right here before his eyes.
"I made it myself."
"Who for?"
"Me."
Made it himself and wore it alone on his left ring finger?
With nine other fingers available?
"...Liar."
She immediately pouted.
Ears red to the tips, brows furrowed deeply.
"You put it on with someone else. A woman, right?"
At her words, Rudville stared at her blankly for a moment.
An unexpected reaction had popped out from a direction he hadn't imagined.
Odellie flushed deeper and grabbed his hand.
"Take it off. That ring. Right now."
"...".
"Don't want to? Then I'll remove it."
"Wait, Odellie."
She was already serious.
Grasping the much larger Rudville's finger with both hands, she strained to pull off the ring.
"Why won't it come off! Your finger got thicker!"
"Stop, you'll hurt yourself."
"That ring! It's not one you shared with me!"
"...".
This ring was the first thing Rudville made every time he regressed.
A kind of milestone he periodically crafted as he grew.
On the battlefield, doubts sometimes crept in: Was all this an illusion? Was he trapped in delusion, going mad?
When reality faded like that, he always looked at this ring.
To cling to the one truth: that he had turned back time to save Odellie.
To not lose his mind.
To not go insane.
It was merely a device for himself.
Yet Odellie was yelling 'It's not one you shared with me,' genuinely jealous of it.
'Cute.'
So cute...
Rudville turned his head slightly, avoiding her gaze, and murmured unwittingly.
"Can't wear it with you..."
Odellie's mouth fell open in shock.
"...You're just a kid."
"...!"
She had sensed being treated like a child for a while.
But to outright call her a 'kid' like this.
Unbelievable.
Odellie was truly furious.
"Want to test that with this kid?"
"...Anyway, not until you're an adult."
"Why exactly?"
"Pangs of conscience..."
What was that supposed to mean?
'Pangs of conscience' from a fifteen-year-old's mouth.
Odellie was dumbfounded, at a loss for words.
"I did make it and wear it alone. But I'm not deceiving you."
"How will you prove that?"
As Odellie narrowed her eyes suspiciously, Rudville finally quietly removed the ring and handed it to her.
She snatched it and examined it closely in her palm for a long time.
Then, spotting the engraving inside the ring, she froze on the spot.
[ODELLY]
Confirming her own name, she stiffened.
"My name..."
"Yes."
It was the moment Rudville's heart was proven in visible form for the first time.
Her face flushed as if about to burst.
This ring—he always wore it.
That meant her name had been engraved in his time even before they met.
"You knew about me?"
For some reason, it felt like something Rudville would do.
He always knew everything and accomplished everything.
"You're really weird..."
"Sorry."
"I'll... I'll wear one too."
"I'll make you one when you're an adult."
"...".
As Rudville kept mentioning adulthood, Odellie irritably puffed her cheeks.
She spun around and declared,
"Do whatever. I'm confiscating this until then. You can wear it when you're an adult too."
Her logic: If I can't wear it, neither can you.
Rudville chuckled softly and let her do as she pleased.
As he didn't chase after to reclaim the ring, Odellie turned back with a puzzled look.
"...You really don't need it?"
That ring? He didn't need it anymore.
Now that he had her.
He had worn it constantly on the battlefield, fearing he'd lose his way.
With her as his milestone, he no longer needed it.
Small, fragile child.
One day she might collapse from illness,
One day be sacrificed at someone's hands,
One day simply have her life's light fade quietly before him without reason.
But it was okay.
He had already endured countless deaths.
One more held no terror.
Rather, the moment he saw her alive and smiling again.
He realized how luxurious a miracle this present moment was.
"...It's fine."
He whispered, lips stiff.
"I've met you, and you remember me."
That was enough.
That was enough to endure the eons of despair ahead.
In the next life, and the one after.
For her sake,
He wouldn't fear crumbling countless times, going mad,
His heart tearing, even death.
Because he was already filled with the conviction that 'you alone are enough.'
He had resolved to live that way.
And the moment his heart lightened.
"Don't die. Rudville, I... I came back to save you."
Rudville heard Odellie's voice again.
For some reason, he glanced down at the back of his hand, where a stinging sensation like a burn lingered.
'...To save me?'
Who saving whom.
You, me?
As that word burrowed into his consciousness.
The instinctive response that surged in his mind was one.
No.
You mustn't save me.
