Chapter 29
* * *
Ludville sometimes had dreams like that.
Dreams where tomorrow never came.
The sun wouldn't set, time wouldn't flow, and no matter how far he went, he remained in the same spot.
Before his eyes lay an endlessly stagnant, rotten river.
Ludville knew.
That water was him.
Every day, it grew darker, murkier, and the stench spread, but no one noticed.
Unable to flow anywhere.
Unable to dry up and die.
A dream of rotting as it was.
A terrible stench emanated from his body, and no matter what he did, the smell wouldn't go away.
Outside the water, she always stood.
Her silhouette was blurry, but her blue eyes were clear and distinct...
Unlike him, she always stood on dry land.
In the dream, he tried to run.
He reached out, but couldn't touch her.
She collapsed in the same way every time.
Spitting blood, her breathing gradually weakening, looking at him with sorrowful eyes, before falling like a broken doll.
He couldn't move.
His water was too deep, too murky, clinging to his ankles like quicksand.
Covered in the stench, he stood there, watching the Blue-Eyed Woman.
At the closest distance, helplessly, unable to do anything.
"Lud, save me. Please..."
"I don't want to be in pain. I... I can't hold on."
"Take my hand... I don't want to disappear."
"I... I can't breathe well..."
She was always crying.
With a fragile voice that seemed about to break, she begged for help, pleading to be saved.
Someone he had to protect.
Someone he had to save no matter what.
But the more he struggled, the more the world seemed to mock him, inflicting even more terrible deaths upon her.
"..."
Waking up from that dream, he suddenly had a thought.
Wasn't this already hell?
Wasn't he already dead, bitterly reliving the punishment he deserved?
Looking at the clock, only an hour had passed.
But he was overwhelmed with a suffocating feeling, as if he had been trapped in a dream forever and had barely managed to wake up.
Ludville slowly raised his upper body.
His head was heavy.
The remnants of the nightmare, still not gone, clung to his shoulders like lingering thoughts.
He familiarly opened the bedside table next to him.
He took out a Cigarette from the silver case and put it in his mouth.
As the flame touched the end of the Cigarette, smoke flowed out with his dry breath.
The moment he took the first puff, his consciousness slowly began to sink.
Everything blurred, and the frantically racing heartbeat calmed down a little.
The gradual numbing of the fingertips was a common Normaline side effect.
"It's enough just to have you by my side. You don't have to say anything."
"I thought I was getting better. I guess not."
"I want to live, I want to be with you... I want to stay with you a little longer..."
The frail voice of a woman, wet with tears, gradually disappeared.
He roughly swept back his sweat-soaked hair, stared blankly at the empty air outside the window without any expression, and quietly exhaled smoke.
* * *
And he started another day as usual.
There was one thing different from usual.
While walking down the hallway in a daze, as he usually did in the morning.
He felt a presence.
A small footstep following as he moved.
It seemed they were trying to hide their presence...
Ludville narrowed his brow. Even in his dazed state, irritation flared up.
'What on earth are they doing?'
Unable to bear it any longer, Ludville stopped and turned around completely.
Odelia, who hadn't managed to hide herself, awkwardly popped out from behind a decoration.
Realizing she had been caught, she slowly came out from beside the decoration.
She didn't seem flustered.
"...Why do you keep following me?"
"You told me yesterday to prove that I'm needed."
Odelia replied nonchalantly.
With a brazen expression as if asking if she shouldn't stick close to him to show that.
Ludville narrowed his eyes.
His memory was hazy.
What did I say the day before?
"Did I say that?"
"..."
Odelia stared up at him as if examining his condition, then stood on tiptoe and placed her hand on his forehead.
It was 'that' again.
From her hand, a cluster of golden light, as if shrinking the light of the sun, spread out.
Soon, the memory that had been temporarily blurred by the Normaline side effects became clear again.
"You even said you were looking forward to it."
"..."
"Do you remember now?"
Odelia quietly added.
At those words, Ludville closed his mouth for a moment.
"...Yes. I remember."
It wasn't wrong.
He had approached her first, showing interest and provoking her, and she had simply responded to that provocation.
But more than that...
"What exactly is that ability? Healing ability? It seems different from divine power."
Could such an omnipotent ability exist?
Odelia had proposed a marriage of convenience and immediately cured Ludville's headache.
It was something that no medicine or anyone else had been able to do.
Even the High Priest had said, "There's nothing we can do about intangible pain."
But not only did she cure such headaches in an instant, but now she was even restoring memories forgotten due to drug side effects.
"Is it ancient magic? But I heard that only the head of the family and the heir can use that ability."
"..."
Odelia actually wanted to gloss over it with a lie.
'Ludville doesn't remember anything about me, but he knows that the Blue-Eyed Woman has an unfortunate background.'
If she revealed her ability, he might deduce things like what she had suffered in the Cardel family so far, or the connection with ancient abilities.
It would be troublesome if he recognized that Odelia was the Blue-Eyed Woman he was looking for.
What if he regained all his memories then...?
"It seems you don't intend to explain. Then never mind. I don't intend to pry. Not yet."
"...No."
In order to continue using this ability on Ludville, it was necessary to explain it to some extent.
It would be even more troublesome if she hesitated to see how things went and aroused his suspicion.
Odelia spat out the words she had prepared in advance.
"It's not a healing ability like divine power. It's a 'Purification ability.' In simple terms, it's the ability to make negative things harmless. Like removing the poison from a pufferfish before cooking it."
"Purification ability?"
"I'm calling it that for convenience."
"So, that means it's your unique ability?"
"That's right."
Because only one Purifier comes out in a generation.
Odelia answered, subtly hiding a huge truth with a small truth.
"Last time, I Purified the headache you were suffering from, and this time, I Purified the drug intoxication symptoms. That's all."
