CH 74

Memories tend to fade over time. No matter how difficult and painful the moment was, if you have enough time, you can forget it.

A lot of people say that, and Dante, who went through that ‘enough time’, has forgotten quite a lot.

But why are you not forgotten?

“…te.”

It could be that she herself wasn’t forgotten. However, it was both a blessing and a curse to Dante that even his feelings that he felt weren’t clouded.

He has lived long enough to describe to others the times he has lived and would live by eternity. So, would I have to live like this in the future, he wondered. Keep thinking of you who aren’t by my side, missing someone who won’t come?

“Dante.”

I don’t think I can live like this, Ei.

But that doesn’t mean I want to forget you. Of course, all you left me was memories. All I have left is a humble stone, but if my memories of you are gone, I…

“Dante!”

Dante opened his eyes.

It was an afternoon when the sun was brushing the grass and the wind was blowing his hair. The weather was cool enough to feel just right, the clouds drifting in the sky and the sound of birds coming from afar slowly awakened his senses.

He stammered and touched wherever he could, and he had been sitting in the shade of a tree for some time. Even though he hadn’t come to his senses yet, he could clearly feel the touch of the grass brushing his fingers.

He was staring blankly at the smell of grass, when he heard a voice calling him again.

“Are you sleeping here?”

The words slowly but surely pierced his brain like a thunderbolt.

An unforgettable voice and unforgettable eyes. He looked at the brown hair that was swaying in the wind, and their eyes met unexpectedly. Just as Dante remembered, Ei stood in front of him with a sullen expression on her face.

It was certainly no one’s fault that he stopped breathing at that moment.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you take a nap. Why are you sleeping in the woods? You weren’t home, so I came out to find you, yet you’re taking a nap.”

“…Why?”

“That sounds like something I should say. I couldn’t even eat lunch and went looking for you, Dante.”

Why are you so intact?

Without even giving a proper answer to the question that popped into his head, Dante only looked at Ei’s figure without even thinking about capturing his expression.

There were no scratches on her white arms. There were no signs of burns or torn sleeves. And crucially, it was hard to find even a fragment of the similar emotion of fear on her face.

There was no way this would happen. In his long years, Dante remembered at least every dream where she came out.

In his dreams, where Ei used to come out, he couldn’t be sane even with empty words. In his dreams of bombs exploding, someone calling someone’s name, and fireworks filling his eyes, he always met the same ending.

Both in his dreams and in reality, Dante was always in the state of losing Ei.

But why today? How can you be so intact? What has changed so that I can see something I haven’t seen for a long time, even in my dreams?

He thought it was the same as usual, but he stayed up all night for a few days and nights before he went to sleep when he was out of my mind, but what was the difference? Dante’s head was a chaotic mix of indiscriminate questions.

Even if he scratched his mind and thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a big difference…

“Ah.”

…Illinan.

Yeah. He saw Illinan.

A monster that wears illusions all over its body to protect itself. Although he expected it, that monster actually appeared in front of Dante in the form of Ei.

And it made Ei’s face as if she begged for him not to hurt her, as if she wouldn’t hurt herself either and she smiled at him.

Sensitive to mana, he knew that all of them were fake, thus he didn’t fall for the hallucination.

Until the end, he had failed to deal with the monster. Because the Illinan’s appearance reminded him of a peaceful time.

Because it reminded him of the time he was able to be by her side, and he couldn’t even hurt something fake in her form.

Even if it wasn’t real, rather an illusion made up of only his memories, the fact that it had been a long time since he saw Ei in good health had pierced his bones.

“Hey, are you… crying?”

This is the result. Ei appearing in her full form in a dream.

Dante really didn’t want to wake up from this dream, even though was going mad.

He wanted to stay forever in this moment when he didn’t feel anything that he would be wary of even if he was anxious. At this moment, the word ‘peace’ suited him more than anywhere else.

Above all, she was in front of Dante now. Seeing him cry, she hurriedly leaned over.

“What’s the matter? Are you sick?”

As always, Ei reached out to wipe away his tears. Dante didn’t answer, only took her hand.

Warmth touched his cold fingertips. Although it was only a dream, her body temperature, which was felt more clearly because of that, stayed in her hand and gradually moved to him.

Sensing the feel of her hand and the worried look in Ei’s eyes, Dante came up with something to say recklessly.

You’re dead. Some people set off a bomb in the village, and all the villagers, including you, are gone. The loss of a village became the starting point of the war, and the Empire and the kingdom are still at war. It’s not funny, talking like someone else. I would’ve been the one who killed the most people in the war.

However, none of the sentences he thought of simultaneously came out of his mouth.

Dante just pursed his lips and breathed, and Ei looked at Dante for a moment. Light brown eyes kept him still as he hesitated without saying anything.

It wasn’t long after that that she, who had been silent with Dante as if she was waiting for her, opened her mouth.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Shocked by the quiet words, Dante widened his eyes.

Ei seemed to have expected that response, and she continued her words as if to lightly bruise him.

“What kind of dream did you have to be so surprised? Sleeping in a place like this gives you nightmares. Look at this, you’re even sweating…”

“…The nightmares,”

“Enough, don’t tell me. Looking at your blurry eyes, you seem to have not woken up yet, let’s take a walk before going home.”

Ei did n’t shake off Dante’s hand, but rather grabbed his hand and pulled it. Still stunned, she urged him and shook her hand.

Dante, who finally regained his consciousness at that small sensation, replied in a small voice.

Still, it was a dull voice.

“…That’s right. I had a nightmare.”

“I knew it.”

“I kept thinking it was a dream, but it felt as vivid as if it were real…”

“It’s a dream after all. Don’t worry too much about it.”

He could feel the eyes looking straight at him along with the friendly voice.

“Don’t be so surprised from now on.”

At those words, Dante opened his eyes wide again, but then slowly broke his expression and smiled.

Ei must have told him not to be surprised by nightmares, yet it sounded different to him, knowing that this situation was a dream.

It was as she said. There was no need to be surprised at all the nights he was able to meet Ei because they were all his illusions.

However, even though he knew that, Dante would never be able to do that. Every time he encountered such a peaceful landscape in his dreams, and every time he saw her in it, he would be surprised.

It was almost a gut feeling, and indeed he did. At night when he couldn’t hold on and fell asleep, Ei always appeared in his dreams, and whether it was a burning village or a peaceful forest, he was surprised.

“Mm, I will.”

“You answered well.”

Still, Dante answered and laughed in front of his fantasy, and dreamed for a long time that the person he loved appeared.

When Dante woke up, he continued to hold Ei’s hand, and then he summoned the courage to ask for a hug.

How terribly the fact that he hadn’t been able to fully reach her even in his dreams had torn him apart.

Waking up, Dante easily fell into sadness, but from that day on, he no longer bothered to dream.

In some way, the fact that she appeared in his dreams, whether in a terrible landscape or in a clean landscape as if nothing had happened, made him happy.

Even if it was a dream in which all the people in the village die, he could see her in the end, so he even thought that it didn’t matter. Dante himself was aware that his condition wasn’t normal, and he had, in fact, thought so since the time he was about to kill people, yet those facts were now insignificant.

What if it’s not normal, the person he wanted to look good to was no longer in this world.

While Dante struggled with his dreams like that. Time passed steadily, and the chaotic situation was gradually being sorted out.

When the Empire, which had been gradually gaining momentum, was finally convinced of complete victory, and the Crown Prince gave a speech to the people of the Empire that peace had been restored.

And on the day Dante didn’t kill anyone for the first time since Ei’s death, the long war ended.