“Admund, did you see? Her shameless appearance.”

“……”

Aria explained the events before her eyes with a fervent expression.

Admund silently gazed at where her fingertip was pointing.

There sat a silver-haired woman with an unsightly smile that seemed vile.

Panting and wiping blood from her mouth with her sleeve, she was all too familiar to Admund.

It was Clea, who had exchanged rings with him and vowed to spend their lives together just hours ago.

Meanwhile, Aria spoke without waiting for an answer.

“She tried to betray and assassinate you because of her lover.”

He knew without being told who “lover” referred to.

Aria didn’t explain how she knew about the process. She just proudly stated that she had prevented the tragedy.

Admund, who had been quietly observing this, bit his lip and inwardly clicked his tongue.

He didn’t take his eyes off the slumped Clea.

Meanwhile, Clea smiled vilely and didn’t deny the situation at all.

It was as if she was admitting that everything Aria said was true.

“You see? She’s admitting her crimes. So quickly call the guards… What are you doing?”

However, Admund paid no attention and approached Clea.

Then he extended his hand to her.

Seeing this, Aria’s expression hardened for a moment, then she raised her voice at him.

“Admund! Get away quickly! She’s a woman who tried to take your life!”

“So what?”

“Admund?”

She had tried to take his life.

Given the circumstances, there was a small cut on his arm, and a bloodstained knife lay near Clea.

Yet Admund smiled at Clea.

“My life is already yours. So if you want to kill me, I’ll accept it too.”

He thought.

There was no way Clea would have really tried to take his life in the first place, but even if she had, it didn’t matter.

Admund was already prepared to give his life for her, so there was nothing he couldn’t accept in this situation.

‘If this were true, why does my whole body hurt when only my arm was cut?’

The bright red blood flowing from his arm seemed very real, but unfortunately, the pain was felt throughout his body.

That’s why Admund could tell.

That this current situation was all a fabricated illusion.

Right before his eyes was Clea, glaring at him with furrowed brows as if to kill him, looking at the hand he had extended.

She kept looking back and forth between Admund and the fallen knife.

As if she would stab him with that knife at any moment if she saw an opportunity.

So Admund reached out and grasped the knife.

“Why don’t you believe what I’m saying?”

Aria’s voice from behind him was subdued, unlike before.

Admund didn’t even give her a glance.

“I’d rather reconcile with Lloyd than believe your words.”

He already knew what kind of person she was, so he fully understood why this situation was happening.

All lies created by her.

Admund handed the sword he was holding to Clea, recalling his last memory with her.

“You’ll regret what’s happening now.”

Clea snatched the sword from Admund as if stealing it and stabbed him in the chest.

Admund embraced her.

‘Well, I think it would be better to look forward to who will regret it.’

He thought this as he slowly felt Clea’s warmth.

Although her body was cold and he couldn’t feel anything, he thought it made her seem more like herself.

Admund missed Clea even as he held her.

Clea was panting. She seemed flustered, not knowing what to do.

Admund kept her trapped in his arms, not letting her escape.

‘Again, a repetition.’

Because when he closed his eyes and opened them again, a similar scene would repeat.

The person who should have been stabbed and met death was clearly himself.

However, for some reason, it was always Clea who became the villainess, and if he did nothing, it was also her who was executed on the guillotine.

This time, she was standing on the scaffold.

By now, it would be hard to distinguish what was truth and what was lies.

Starting from the last scene, these scenes kept repeating whenever he closed his eyes.

“Admund, look. That villainess who tried to poison your food.”

It was the same this time too.

Even though he had chosen death because he didn’t want to see Clea meet her end as a villainess, the same situation unfolded again.

Admund knew why this situation kept repeating.

He quietly recalled his memories.

‘I received medicine from you.’

* * *

He wanted to wake up from this hellish dream.

He recalled Clea’s existence in his mind.

Everything was exactly as Aria had said.

When Clea briefly left her seat at the banquet, a letter arrived for him.

The letter stated that Clea’s life was in danger, and if he wanted to save her, he should come to where the sender was.

Admund knew who the sender was.

So normally he would have ignored it, but since Clea was absent and her life was being threatened, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

He went to find Aria with the thought that this would truly be the last time. Also to ask about a way to break Clea’s curse.

‘What would have happened if I had ignored you then?’

Admund thought she couldn’t do anything more.

But that was too naive a thought.

Aria had been preparing something until the very end.

He still couldn’t forget. The bright smile she wore as soon as she saw him, and the words she whispered afterwards.

“She’s going to die today, Admund.”

Admund recalled his memories, ignoring the words he heard beside him.

Aria held out two medicines, saying that Clea would soon meet a miserable end.

She explained that one could transfer Clea’s pain to him.

If not transferred, Clea wouldn’t be able to endure and would die, she said.

She added that if given to Clea, the pain would transfer to Admund, and he wouldn’t die but just suffer to that extent.

And she said he had to take the other one to receive that medicine.

She explained.

If he took this medicine, he would surely look at her, and he would come to love her, she said.

From her explanation alone, he could tell what kind of medicine it was.

Nevertheless, Admund swallowed the medicine without hesitation.

Then he received the medicine to save Clea from Aria.

As soon as Admund was out of Aria’s sight, he vomited up the medicine he had swallowed.

Then he immediately went to meet Clea. Hoping that Aria’s words were lies.

‘But they weren’t lies.’

Clea’s complexion was gradually turning blue.

Is this how it happens when death approaches a person?

Admund didn’t have time to explain to her. He grew anxious seeing her gradually losing vitality.

So he skipped the explanation and forcibly made her take the medicine.

‘I’m really glad you won’t feel this pain anymore.’

Fortunately, Clea’s complexion returned after taking the medicine.

On the other hand, Admund collapsed feeling extreme pain.

As the pain grew, he felt relief rather than fear.

He was relieved that Clea had been freed from this extreme pain.

That feeling remained unchanged even now.

Admund could endure any physical pain. Because what really troubled him was something else.

It was his current state.

The situation where he wanted to wake up but couldn’t, and the recurring nightmares.

Admund was still in a terrible nightmare.

Aria smiled as she watched Clea suffering in pain while tied up.

‘According to your expectations, I should be slowly losing my mind because of you by now.’

Unable to distinguish what was real and what was false.

‘I threw it up and it’s this bad, what would have happened if I hadn’t?’

A witch’s potion that I thought only existed in fairy tales.

I wondered how it was possible to forcibly make someone with no feelings fall in love, but now I was going through that process myself.

But perhaps because he had vomited up the potion, fortunately, Admund did not develop any “love” for Aria.

He hadn’t even thought it would create such feelings.

It was also because he had let his guard down as things had gone too well.

For someone who would resort to curses, he should have expected something like this.

Admund wanted to see Clea. The real Clea, not the one dying painfully before his eyes now.

If she were by his side, he felt he could at least escape this gloomy mood.

‘Clea.’

However, as if absolutely unwilling to allow it, Aria suddenly approached Admund with a bizarre expression.

“What are you thinking about right now?”

Admund intended to ignore her this time as well.

Then she spoke to him, shedding tears.

“Look at me.”

She stared at Admund with a hardened expression.

All around, everyone was busy rejoicing in Clea’s death. Without sparing a glance at Aria.

In this discordant situation, Admund continued to ignore Aria’s gaze.

Then for the first time, a strange situation occurred.

“I said look at me.”

She, who had always kept her distance and just observed, came close and touched his face.

Admund reached out to push her away, but he couldn’t touch any part of her body.

The sight of Aria staring at him with a distorted expression was chilling.

“It’s strange, really strange. Why don’t you love me?”

“Stop it.”

“I’ve toyed with your heart and even tried to kill you! Yet you still like her?!”

“Please stop.”

By now, her hand had moved from his face to his neck.

As she strangled him, Admund felt his breath being cut off.

He tried hard to cling to his fading consciousness, but it was useless.

Admund’s vision slowly darkened.

“I will never give you up, Admund.”

As those words reached his ears, his heart felt completely broken.

“I said stop.”

“What, how did you…”

Someone’s voice was heard.

After Aria’s surprised voice, no more words were heard.

He was curious about how the situation was unfolding, but his vision was still dark.

“Hold on a little longer.”

“Clea.”

The voice in his ear was very familiar.

And then the sensation felt in his hand.

With her soft and warm hand, Admund’s anxiety from earlier disappeared as if it had been a lie.

“This is all I can do for now, but I’ll find a way to wake you up somehow.”

Suddenly feeling extreme fatigue, he smiled brightly and lost consciousness.