"Ar'en! But wait, how!? Sho told us you were sealed and that he was just following your orders! If not for him projecting an image of you, I would not have recognized you." Camlia was having a hard time understanding what exactly was going on. Her only guess was that at that time, Ar'en was still able to use his soul to talk with his subordinates who were soul contracted to him.
Sho was a demon who came from the sea of stars. He had escaped a great uprising. With him, he brought a young woman. The young woman was very weak at the time and was on the verge of death. Camlia who had nothing at the time was taken in by Sho to take care of the young woman, along with two others.
Sho was a good man and was very handsome. He had many suitors. But he only cared about one thing, and that was the order Ar'en gave him: 'Watch over my wife.' The young woman had three maids. Camlia, Shamile, and Yaya. But to the young woman, these girls were not her maids but her friends and family. She treated them very kindly and never ordered them around.
But who would have thought Shamile, who acted so kind to the young woman, would betray them. She was jealous. She was in love with Sho, but Sho never showed her any interest. He only cared about the well being of the young woman. Shamile lost herself in her jealousy and one day killed the young woman. Camlia had walked in at that time and witnessed the whole thing. Shamile could not allow witnesses, so she injured Camlia and set her to hell.
Sho had no solid proof without any witnesses, and Shamile put on a show, even injuring herself. But when things were finally figured out after Yaya tracked down Camlia, Shamile somehow got off easy with only being punished to a thousand years in the dungeon. "But now I am confused. How did you become Criege?"
"I used a forbidden spell right after being sealed that sent my soul into the river of reincarnation. The spell allowed me to use the body of someone who had just died to revive. And that body is the one you see here. Baldswin was the one who found me back then, so in order to keep those bastards from finding me, I created a new persona, which is the person you see now. I am no longer Ar'en but Creige, Kana's husband.
"Camlia, I only revealed myself to you because of your love and care for Kana. Out of the three who took care of my wife, Sho said you were the one who cared and loved for her as if she was your own flesh and blood, and even now, you still do the same. For this, I am very grateful, and I hope you will continue to do the same for years to come." Creige bowed his head to show the respect he had for Camlia.
"Isn't that a given? When Kana used her summoning spell, I could sense a familiar aura which made me check it out. But when I met Kana and saw that the soul within her was familiar, I couldn't help but be excited. You might not know this, but Kana and I, before she died, had pledged to be sisters for all eternity. She is and always will be my sister, my only family. But because she does not have her memories from that time, I did not wish to bring up any bad memories, so I could only act as if we had met for the first time and rebuild our relationship.
"But Creige, tell me. If you are indeed Ar'en, why did you let Shamile stab her in her stomach!?" Camlia asked. There was a hint of anger in her voice.
"To bring about her awakening. Only by her awakening to what she really is would she be able to survive the things that are to come. Plus, at this time, I do not have my full power. I am restricted by the realms. Were you also not excited to see her awaken? " Creige asked with a raised brow. If he remembered correctly, she was more excited than anyone.
"Humph! Your lucky things turned out the way they did, or I would kill you now, but since things worked out, I will let it slide. " Camlia said with a snort.
"Mmm… But I already knew things would work out the way they did. Otherwise, I would never have risked such a thing." Creige explained.
"You! Do you not realize how bad you look? If Kana knew all of this, she might just come to hate you! Even now, this incident, if you do not explain it to Kana right now, I will do it for you." Camlia got up and was about to walk away, but Creige stopped her.
"Wait! You know Kana as much as I do. If you told her now that her kids are off taking different trials, she would immediately find a way to get to them. I am watching those girls even as we speak to make sure that they do not die. It is better for them to take their trials, and then I will explain things to Kana. It already hurts enough to see Kana as she is now. But this is all needed. I will take any punishment she wants to dish out when it is all over. I will not hide the fact that I set this all up. But even you know that she is sheltering the girls too much." Creige hated this too. It pained him to see Kana crying and going crazy as she was. But he had to do it for his own kids' sake.
"All I can say at this time, Creige, is that you are a bastard. But you make a point. Kana does shelter them too much. But what is wrong with sheltering her children? In normal situations, they are not much older than a year. You could have waited to do this much further down the road!"