"Hmm..."
The faint touch against his cheek was feather-light, but it stirred Neron from his restless sleep.
He blinked against the dim glow of the room, his mind still fogged with exhaustion and grief.
For a moment, he thought he had imagined it—a dream, a trick of his sorrow-addled mind.
But then he saw her.
"A-ahh... y-you...!"
Lilith stood at the edge of his bed, her crimson eye glowing faintly in the half-light, hiding the black eyepatch that covered her other eye.
She looked serene, her usual mischievous smirk absent, replaced by an expression that was strangely tender.
Neron shot upright, his heart pounding.
"L-Lilith?" he stammered, his voice cracking with disbelief. "How...? You... you died. I saw..." Experience new tales on m v|l e'-novelhall.net
Her smile softened, and she raised a hand to silence him.
"Relax, Neron. I'm here. But keep your voice down, or you'll wake the entire palace."
He stared at her, his mind racing to make sense of what he was seeing.
"But how? The Martial Blade God... his sword... I saw you..."
"I know," she said, her voice calm but laced with a hint of guilt. "I know what you saw, Neron. But it wasn't real. Not entirely."
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice rising despite her earlier warning. "I watched him kill you! I saw you lying there, lifeless! How could that not be real?"
Lilith sighed, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. Her presence felt so normal, so familiar, that for a moment, Neron almost forgot the chaos of the past day.
"It was a trick," she admitted, her gaze meeting his. "A very convincing one. I needed him to believe he had won, Neron. If he thought I was still alive, he'd keep coming after me. He's been obsessed with fighting me ever since I beat him the first time. And if I kept defeating him, he'd never stop."
"What?" His eyes widened, panic flaring in his chest. "No, wait—"
~FSHUUUUU!~
Her magic surged before he could protest further, a gentle yet irresistible force that wrapped around his mind like a warm blanket.
His eyelids grew heavy, his thoughts growing sluggish as the spell took hold.
"Why...?" he mumbled, his voice barely audible.
"Because you deserve a clean slate," she whispered, her voice filled with an uncharacteristic tenderness. "And because I care about you more than you realize. That's why I have to leave."
Her smile was sad, something akin to tears glistened in her glowing eye as his confused face reflected in it.
As Neron's consciousness faded, he thought he saw a tear descend down her pale face.
"Goodbye, kid."
***************
When Neron woke again, the room was filled with the soft light of dawn.
He blinked, the remnants of a strange dream lingering at the edges of his mind.
Lilith's face, her voice, her touch—it all felt so vivid, yet so distant.
"Hmmm..."
He sat up, rubbing his eyes as he tried to piece together the fragments of his memory. There was something important, something just out of reach... but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't grasp it.
"Just a dream, I guess..." He muttered, though the words felt hollow.
And yet, as he rose from the bed and prepared to face the day, he realized something had changed.
The crushing weight of grief that had pressed on him so heavily the night before was gone. In its place was a quiet resolve, a sense of peace he couldn't quite explain.
He didn't understand it, but for the first time in what felt like forever, he didn't feel alone.