“Once. I was betrayed. That’s why I became human.”

Come to think of it, Merem didn’t know about the incident between me and Enrique.

‘Should I tell him?’

While contemplating, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

There seemed to be no need to go that far with my words.

Merem still despised Enrique now, anyway.

‘If I reveal that I became human because of Enrique, Merem might root hatred in his heart. He would probably be angry about the fact that he caused me so much pain.’

I didn’t want that.

Since I only had to endure a few more days, there was no point in dirtying my Merem with the emotion of hatred towards Enrique.
“I won’t betray you.”

It was then.

Merem, who had been deep in thought, made a solemn vow to me.

“Forget the love you had before. Love me as if you’ve never been betrayed, as if you’ve never been betrayed once in your life. I will never betray you.”

“…….”

“It’s absurd that memories of betrayal are gripping you.”

I silently stared at Merem.

Then Merem met my gaze without avoiding eye contact.

“Just think about me. Forget about someone like him.”

If those simple words could offer comfort to me, was it a strange thing?

I had already forgotten many memories with Enrique.

The intense hatred I had for him now only existed as dust that would fly away when the wind blew.

Enrique, the human himself, had lost meaning to me.

But still, the scars of betrayal seemed to linger deep in my heart, and for some reason, my heart warmed.

“Right, what you said makes sense.”

With a raised corner of my mouth, I tightly held Merem’s hand.

‘Why does one word make me feel so relieved?’

Words are always changing.

They flow easily and scatter easily.

Even though I knew from experience that words couldn’t be trusted, I decided to believe.

Just like Merem said, as if I had never loved or been hurt before.

“Then what about you? How did you survive?”

“My childhood… wasn’t very pleasant.”

“Tell me.”

Now it was my turn to listen.

As much as Merem wanted to know about me, I also wanted to know about him.

“As you know, my brother tried to kill me but failed.”

“Yeah.”

“Since then, I’ve consistently faced threats to my life. But I survived every time. It’s thanks to Eldaim, but there was also another existence.”

“Another existence?”

I hadn’t heard such a story before.

I had always assumed that the Lord of Water Spirits would protect his contractor.

“Perhaps you won’t believe it, but there were supernatural phenomena. I had forgotten about it, but it suddenly came to mind not long ago.”

“Supernatural phenomena. My existence itself fits that word, so why wouldn’t I believe it?”

When I burst into laughter, Merem swept his nape with a somewhat embarrassed expression.

“Right. To put it simply, a ghost helped me every time I was in mortal danger.”

“A ghost.”

“I thought of it as a guardian spirit. Eldaim also said the identity was unknown.”

Could that be possible?

It wouldn’t be easy for the Lord of Water Spirits to be unaware.

Especially since the Lord of Water Spirits is also in charge of memories.

Another term for calling the Lord of Water Spirits was the god of memory.

‘It’s quite strange and unusual if the Lord of Water Spirits doesn’t know. An existence beyond the rules of the world.’

Unfortunately, I also didn’t know about that.

“I communicated with the guardian spirit through flower petals. It might sound funny, but I interpreted it as ‘yes’ when one petal fell, and ‘no’ when two petals fell.”

“It sounds childish.”

“I guess it was. We first met when I was around five years old.”
How lonely you must have been at that age.

As I recalled the small and lively Merem, my heart couldn’t help but ache.

“Just by watching the actions as time passed, I felt like I could understand the meaning.”