He remembered his mother’s stony eyes as she looked at the Duke of Marsen and told him she loved him.

He didn’t want her to look at him like that. So he thought he would wait until she liked him too. He thought that if he tried hard enough, one day he would see him.

He didn’t want to be like the Duke of Marsen.

But if that’s all it’s going to take, then he’ll be…….

Suddenly, all the days that had passed seemed so fleeting.

Liel suddenly opened his closed eyes. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared down at the floor.

For some reason, this didn’t seem so foreign to him. As if he’d known this would happen.

Are you okay now?

Just then, the snake that had eaten his heart asked. To the inaudible voice, Liel replied in a voice devoid of emotion.

“Yes, do as you please.”

There was a strange madness in his fearsome eyes.

He had given his body to the demon, but Liel hadn’t given up anything yet.

* * *

My heart was beating uncontrollably fast, like a man who had been running for a long time. My breathing was also excessive.

I entered my office, closed the door, leaned back against it, and breathed heavily. Nothing calmed me down.

My breathing was uneven, and my head felt like it was spinning.

In the midst of all this, I felt bad for leaving Liel alone. But at the same time, I was angry.

I was terrified of the lengths he would go to for me.

Gradually, my vision blurred. I felt dizzy, like I could collapse at any moment. I grabbed the back of the nearest chair to hold on to something.

“Lucy, Lucy. Don’t leave me…….”

Just before I collapsed, I suddenly remembered him as a child.

I’m sorry I left you.

But this time, I was really angry.

As I mentally apologized to him, an unbearable dizziness overtook me.

As soon as I closed my eyes, a pitch-black darkness engulfed my vision.

* * *

My eyelids didn’t feel too heavy as they were lifted against my will.

Opening my eyes without difficulty, a familiar ceiling pierced my vision.

The ceiling of the Duke of Marsen’s mansion, the hallway ceiling to be exact.

Why am I lying here in a heap?

I sat up, my stomach feeling a little better, and looked around.

“D, did you come to see me……?”

I heard Liel’s voice not far away. Naturally, my gaze went to the direction of the sound.

Sure enough, there was Liel, and, as if on cue, there was a young me.

As she handed the butler her robe, Liel’s eyes lit up with anticipation.

“Something like that.”

She replied dryly.

The temperature difference between the young me and Liel in the dream was still there.

A blush colored his cheeks as I wondered what was so good about that answer.

The younger me stared back at him with a blank stare, then pushed past him and moved forward.

“Follow me.”

She called out to him as if he were a child, but he followed her without a hint of resentment.

As if mesmerized by something, I hurriedly got up from my seat and followed them.

I must have been a few years old by then.

I followed them, trying to guess at an age I couldn’t quite remember, until we reached Liel’s room.

The young me opened the door and walked in as if it were her own room. Liel followed her in without a word of complaint.

It was a dream I hadn’t had in a long time.

I wondered if it was because I had argued with Liel. I hadn’t really argued with him the first and second time.

I don’t understand the rules for this kind of dream to happen.

By the third time, I was able to calm down and continue my thoughts.

I shuffled over and crouched down near two people less my size. They wouldn’t see me anyway, and I didn’t know when I’d wake up.

So I might as well wait and see what my younger self would do to surprise me this time.

“I don’t want to worry about you.”

“Yeah……?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

Despite her words of concern, her young face was filled with annoyance.

She was clearly annoyed with Liel, judging by the way she said she was here to see him and the dry way she answered his questions.

I stared at the younger me. She soon picked up her pace and approached the desk in the corner of Liel’s room. On the desk were two thick books.

A flash of interest flashed through the young me’s eyes.

I was more interested in the books than in Liel.

“Are you studying?”

She asked, lifting the thick book lightly. Liel replied yes, panting at her attention.

“Uh, yes.”

“Duchess, did she give you permission to study?”

“……No, I do it in secret with my sister.”

I didn’t like the younger me casually picking at Liel’s wounds, and Liel responding in a way that made me feel ashamed.

Something about their relationship seemed…….

Out of the ordinary.

I had only seen it three times, but it just felt like that.

“You can interpret all this?”

“Yeah…… my sister taught me, so I can read most of it, although there are some words I don’t recognize.”

“…….”

Listening to Liel’s answer, the young me was busy flipping through the book without even giving him a glance.

Soon, she let out a smirk and threw the book down on the desk with a thud.

“I’ll come by often from now on.”

She smiled brightly, not sure why, but I found her smile strangely unnerving.

“Often……?”

Liel asked in a reminiscent voice, obviously pleased that she’d come to visit.

“Yeah, I was bored, so that’s good.”

She sounded like she’d just discovered an interesting toy. I looked at my younger self, her eyes full of mischief.

The graceful upturned corners of her mouth told me there was something else going on.

Is this really me?

The innocent-looking Liel, the one who came and went to our house as often as I did to theirs.

Neither was the other.

Except for one thing, my childhood self.

‘No way……’

A hypothesis flashed through my mind.

That the three dreams I’ve had so far could be the story of the original Lucy, not me.

* * *

Pook—

The foul smell of blood hit his nostrils as the claws dug into his flesh.

You told me to do as I please.

The snake hissed in annoyance, not liking Liel’s interruption of its course.

Instead of answering, he stabbed himself in the ankle again.

The pain was too much for him to bear, and his body crumbled to the ground. One after another, his grip on the knife dropped to the floor and he rolled under the bed.

Liel hit the floor in a cold sweat as his plan to block out one pain with another fell apart.

“Ugh.”

Muttering something no one could hear, Liel slowly closed his eyes. His lashes fluttered with a mixture of tears and sweat.

?”Be patient.”?

A memory that didn’t exist nagged at him again. Lucy’s voice reprimanded him for whimpering in pain.

Liel reached for the air. If he did this, Lucy would hold his hand. Surely, since she had held his hand before.

But he was alone in the room, and of course there was no one to hold his hand.

Soon, Liel’s hand fell limply to the floor.

His sweaty body felt heavy. He didn’t have the energy to crawl back to his bed.

He couldn’t die.

?”Is it because you don’t like me?”?

Because you don’t like me, you want me to suck it up when it hurts like this?

The Liel of his memories asked as he struggled, and it was Lucy who answered him.

?”I told you, it’s neither good nor bad.”?

Regardless of your personal feelings, this is a process you must go through.

It’s the only way to live.

Lucy’s voice said. So Liel endured the pain in silence.

He couldn’t tell anyone, so he had to live with it, as Lucy had said.

He didn’t dare to disagree with her.

The pain wrapped around his ankle, then spread to his entire body. Liel winced as the pain sliced through his body.

“Ugh…….”

A steady groan escaped his jaw as he strained against his closed eyes, and then, as if waiting for it, Liel’s vision reversed.

It wasn’t just his five senses that his shifting flesh drew upon; it forced him to recall memories from his past that any human would have forgotten.

Soon enough, an old ceiling appeared before him, one that could have fallen down at any moment.

Liel was wrapped in white cloth and held by someone.

Liel rolled his eyes and looked up at the person holding him.

The dead Arinel was looking down at him in disbelief.

Seeing his mother for the first time in a long time was strangely unwelcome. His attention was elsewhere.

?”I have spared your child, as promised—”?

A low, eerie voice came from not far away. It was far too eerie to be human. Nevertheless, Liel wanted to see the owner of the voice with his own eyes.

He rolled his eyes, this time to the other side.

And there it was—

?”I suppose you’ll have to grant me my wish.”?

A giant shadow, blackened from head to toe, curled up inside a narrow, low house. A large wing sat on its back, and its right leg appeared to have already been severed.

Then its wings twitched. So did Arinel’s arms around Liel. With trembling eyes, Arinel glared at the demon that covered itself with giant wings.

For a moment, a tear slipped from the corner of her forced upturned eye. The drop soaked the cloth wrapped around her.

Liel blinked them away.

Just then, the black figure turned to look at him. Everything was black, but its eyes were blood-red.

As its long, slit pupils turned to him, Liel opened his closed eyes and gasped.

“Hehe……! Ha, ha, ha…….”

As he made eye contact with it, a feeling of indescribable satisfaction spread through his body. The kind of satisfaction that could make him forget the pain that plagued him, if only for a moment.

Liel’s fingertips trembled slightly, as if he hadn’t yet recovered from the shock.

His red eyes shone brightly amidst the blackness of his body. A body that was dwarfed by its massive wings.

Ecstasy flashed across Liel’s face as he recalled the creature’s form from the far reaches of his memory.

It needed no explanation.

It was his origin.