CH 43

He didn’t know anything about himself, so he could even go as far as making a formula for destruction.

Before meeting Ophelia, Alei’s research was reminiscent of an attempt to build a house of sticks without any glue.

The formulas looked empty no matter what he did, but thanks to her, they started to fill up.

First of all, the fact that he could write ‘Alejandro Diarmuid’ rather than just ‘Alei’ at the end of the formula showed a great improvement.

As long as he knew his real name, his chance of accessing his lost memories also increased significantly.

If it were before, he could have been pleased with this progression.

But the words left by the uninvited guest kept lingering on his mind. It grated on his nerves.

This feeling continued until Ophelia woke up, and eventually, semi-forced, Alei had no choice but to withdraw from his research for now as he faced Ophelia.

But when he remembered that man again, Alei grimaced.

‘I have a bad feeling about that guy.’

That man clearly had a beautiful, sharp appearance, but there was also an inexplicable discomfort about him.

To Alei, it felt like he was looking at a beast pretending to be human.

And it’s like there’s something missing.

More than that, according to Ophelia’s explanation yesterday, he was the man loved by the youngest mermaid princess.

—That man is a means to meet the mermaid. He’s the one the mermaid princess loves.

Though he was such a man, Alei might have been more curious about his relationship with Ophelia.

Of course, there were some things that he could infer to some extent.

‘I think it’s said that there are a lot of dark-haired people in the north.’

Then he could be from the Principality of Ronen.

Alei knew that guests from the Principality of Ronen who visited Milescet had left Milescet’s ports a few days ago.

So there should be a possibility that one person got shipwrecked.

But this alone lacked as an explanation.

Like his other questions for Ophelia, there were many more again this time.

But even if he’d come to regret listening to the answers to them, Alei wanted to hear them.

“While you were asleep, that man came here. He acted as if he was close to you, and he said that if I was curious about your relationship, I should ask you directly.”

“Even when all that happened, I just slept through it? If someone came to visit me, you should have woken me up.”

“I didn’t wake you up because you looked tired.”

He didn’t add that he liked watching her sleep.

“I just wonder what you have to do with him.”

“Well… The short explanation is that he and I were together, but we broke up on bad terms.”

The ominous hunch was right. Alei regretted it. His expression deepened.

“Maybe you’ve already guessed, but that person is from Ronen. He’s the Grand Duke.”

“So he’s a big shot. Is this something you planned?”

“No, it’s a coincidence. I was surprised, too. I didn’t expect him to come.”

Of course to be exact, it would be right to say that the person she didn’t expect to see was this version of Ian who knew everything.

Ophelia moderately parsed the truth, then she spoke again.

“What I can do now is limited. As I told you yesterday, I learned about the mermaid after swallowing the scale, but…”

“Even though you found out, it sounds to me like you don’t know who the main character would be. Is that right?”

“Similar. Again, it was really unexpected.”

“When you said that you needed to hurry up, was it because there was someone trying to catch you?”

Instead of answering, Ophelia nodded. Thanks to this, Alei received, at once, the weight of the questions that he had been putting off.

‘It’s coming together.’

Grand Duke Ronen and Ophelia were once lovers. And the Grand Duke was trying to hold onto her.

Perhaps it was because of the disquiet he felt from this basis.

A question that he would normally have locked up was asked.

“Ophelia. Does he love you?”

When asked in such a straightforward manner, Ophelia’s expression hardened slightly.

“…Who knows. Why do you ask?”

“If the problem is that he’s trying to cling to you, rather than rushing the plan, isn’t it more natural to just let him change his mind? And there’s also a need to find the cause.”

The excuse sounded natural. Ophelia didn’t even seem to doubt it.

In fact, Alei’s words shocked her.

He was right.

‘Ian doesn’t love me.’

It was simply a one-sided obsession.

Since this was the case, should she make it so that he’d give up his obsession?

Ian might think that he loved Ophelia, but from her experience, that wasn’t it.

If there was even a moment that Ian had loved Ophelia, perhaps it was when they met at Ladeen for the first time before.

With eyes filled with pure desire and affection, a gaze that wouldn’t leave her—that was the only memory of love that Ophelia had.

At that time and even now in the present, Ian did his best to hold onto Ophelia, but they were clearly two different cases.

If the essence from the first time was love, then in the present, it felt like he was only being fixated with having her.

And she could see that the cause for this was her death.

However.

‘Is there a reason for his reaction to my death to be this much?’

If she knew the reason, she might be able to change Ian’s mind.

She wasn’t sure yet. If there was a way to do this.

‘Will it work?’

As soon as Ophelia worried about this, a tapping sound from the balcony could be heard.

When she turned around she saw Sante, who was dressed just to keep up appearances, fluttering his wings.

The golden wings that moved powerfully and delicately looked more beautiful underneath the sun’s rays.

At the splendid appearance, Alei frowned.

‘Is this a day dedicated to everything that annoys me?’

It was irritating enough to meet that uninvited guest earlier.

“Sante, come in.”

“You even opened the door for me. Why are you being so welcoming?”

“I didn’t know you’d come again today.”

As he folded his wings, Sante smiled as he shook off the feathers that were left on his shoulders.

At one glance, his charisma was apparent in the way that he had an eye-catching, gorgeous appearance and a fascinating voice.

The problem was that this attractive person suited Ophelia very much.

“So this is something that humans do at times like this. It’s a pleasure,” Sante said.

“Was it not enough that I showed hospitality through opening the door?” Ophelia asked.

“Ah, of course. When it comes to you, just opening the door isn’t enough.”

And Sante didn’t seem to even have the intention to hide his liking for Ophelia.

Alei didn’t know what this rude stranger wanted as he was seducing Ophelia with his handsome face.

‘He was like that yesterday, too.’

Ophelia herself didn’t respond to him that much, perhaps not noticing. But even so, in mere seconds, it felt like Alei’s insides were in flames.

In the end, he couldn’t stand it and split the two up.

“Isn’t that enough useless greetings? Why did you come?”

After Alei stepped in front of Ophelia, Sante blinked as though he noticed his presence only then.

Then, just as he did with Ophelia a while ago, his eyes curved up as he smiled beautifully.

“It’s you again, the cold-hearted Dian.”

“It had just been a day, but it seems that you’ve forgotten that I told you not to call me that. I don’t remember you.”

“Correction—I think you were kinder in the past. Back then, you were more relaxed and you at least had a sense of humor.”

“If you’ve lost your memories and spent five years like that, let’s talk about personalities again. Then I’ll be kinder.”

“Haha!”

At the sharp answer, Sante burst into laughter. Even if he lost his memories, he still had that temper.

‘I was worried a bit.’

Truthfully, Sante had intentionally been avoiding Alei.

When he came to Ophelia’s room yesterday, he was hiding not because he didn’t want to be caught by the young sirens, but because Alei might come.

Those efforts proved fruitless because he eventually ran into Alei.

If Alei thought about it a little bit, he could have easily noticed that Sante was acting quite strange.

He talked to Alei like they were close, and he heard about his friend after such a long time, but he wasn’t anxious to see him.

Usually, anyone would have asked to meet their friend right away. But Sante did not.