DM Chapter 182

← The Doomed Mercenary’s Last Chance

But Kinain had no intention of repeating time like this.

“Stop it!” Kinain shouted.

“What did I even wish for? What was it that made it like this?”

Kinain only knew that he’d made a wish as Asad’s mate — he didn’t remember exactly what its contents had been. He merely guessed that, since from the moment he’d met the lover he’d thought dead his wish had been only one thing, he must have wished for that.

…But what if not?

Had I, in too much pain at the time, asked to be sent back to the past? Asked to forget everything and start anew?

If he’d made the wrong wish, he had to stop it here. And if he’d truly made such a wish, he wouldn’t be able to hide his disappointment in himself. That had never been his true heart.

At that moment, the crumbling world came to a stop.

“…….”

At the bizarre spectacle, as if time itself had stopped, Kinain held his breath. He couldn’t let his guard down, not knowing what might happen next.

Before long, a small fragment slowly floated up before his eyes. At first it was just like a shard of transparent glass. But as Kinain watched, a shimmering shape began to appear, like a sunken leaf rising to the water’s surface.

This is…

The figures reflected in the fragment were himself and Asad. Seeing his own body, held in Asad’s arms, breaking like a porcelain doll, Kinain realized when this was.

When he’d made the wish.

My wish is…

Kinain’s lips, held by Asad, moved.

Send me back to the past, or make what happened to me never have happened. There were many wishes the suffering Kinain might have made, recalling only his painful memories.

But at the very last moment, as if some strength had surged up from his utterly shattered soul, he said,

“My wish is… Asad, for you to be happy.”

The moment the floating fragment sank into Kinain’s body as if absorbed and vanished from form, he fully recovered the memory of that time. He had clearly made the proper wish.

Which left him all the more bewildered.

“…But why did it turn out like this? Did my wish really come true?” Kinain demanded of someone he didn’t even know, but no answer came back.

“Is this Asad being happy? I’ll have to see it with my own eyes. Just know that until then, I have absolutely no intention of going back to the past again.” Kinain said stubbornly, frowning.

In truth, this was a calculated act on his part.

When he’d said stop, the world had stopped; when he’d asked what the wish was, it had immediately shown him the past. This magic might be following his will to some degree.

Even if it wasn’t, there was no other way.

Kinain waited with an anxious heart for what would happen next. Before him appeared something familiar.

It was the light-dust he’d seen at the Dragon Palace.

Once again the light-dust led somewhere, pointing in a steady direction. Kinain realized that just as it had guided him to Asad at the Dragon Palace, it was trying to guide him somewhere again now. But he wasn’t confident that what waited at the end of this light was the being he sought.

*It led me to the wrong Asad last time, after all.* But there was no time to hesitate.

With a faint cracking sound, the halted fissures began to spread little by little again. Seeing the speed quicken, it looked like they’d completely shatter before long. Then he would surely be sent back again.

He couldn’t guarantee he’d even know he was being sent back to the past, the way he did now. If his memories vanished, he would live on having completely forgotten all of this, just as before.

In the end, with no time to think further, Kinain began running blindly after the light.

As time passed, the fissures gradually widened, and the surrounding scenery shattered and crumbled away. The gaps in the broken landscape were pitch-black — instinctively, he knew falling into them would bring nothing good.

But the moment he thought he had to be careful, as if thoughts became seeds, his foot sank downward.

Kinain’s face went pale.

“…!”

His chest went cold, but though he waited, nothing happened. Kinain cautiously opened his tightly shut eyes. And belatedly realized his foot hadn’t fallen into a gap at all.

“Wh-what… water?”

Hastily pulling his leg free, Kinain looked down. His bewildered face reflected like a mirror.

The light-dust continued into the water.

Kinain took a deep breath and plunged his face into the water. He opened his eyes and looked below, but it was deeper than he’d thought — the bottom wasn’t visible.

Pulling his face back out, he wore a contemplating expression. After a moment, he removed his shoes and outer clothes, took another deep breath, and dove into the water.

How long did he swim, following the light. Soon Kinain discovered a rock huge as a mountain. The light was flowing from a crack in this rock.

What’s this?

Stepping on the rock to try prying the crack wider, the moment he touched it, the rock crumbled like powder.

“Huk!”

Startled, Kinain unconsciously inhaled and swallowed water.

This is bad.

He tried hastily to swim for the surface, but was soon distracted by what was happening before his eyes.

Starting from where Kinain had touched, the rock’s surface crumbled more and more; the light weakened, and instead a pitch-black, ominous energy began to flow out like ink.

At last, the firmly hardened shell peeled away.

What revealed itself was a monster so hideously disgusting that anyone would scream and flee.

But Kinain neither fled nor fainted.

Instead, smiling brightly, he stretched out his arms with all his might and embraced the monster.

***

Long after the doll holding his mate’s soul had completely crumbled, the dragon remained sitting there.

His face, covered in pitch-black scales, showed no particular expression — it looked almost indifferent. But the hand gripping the doll’s remains trembled finely, as if enduring terrible pain.

No matter how tightly he clenched his hand, he couldn’t stop the powder pouring through the gaps. After a moment, when he opened his palm, nothing remained upon it. Asad’s eyes, beholding it, were hollow.

How much time passed. He staggered to his feet and went outside. Before leaving, he gazed for only a very brief moment at the ice that still shone transparently — but that was all.

Asad knew his mate would never return.

The place where Asad stopped his steps was the lake where he and Kinain had exchanged rings. Gazing blankly at the scenery, he soon walked to the center of the frozen lake.

After a moment, a roar like the world collapsing rang out, and the frozen lake shattered like a broken mirror.

The dragon sinking to the lake’s floor did not rise again.

Asad felt the demonic energy covering his body, but did not resist. He didn’t want to open his eyes ever again like this.

Because if he closed his eyes, he could see Kinain.

Though Kinain was no longer by his side, Asad could still feel his soul. The phenomenon the world called *imprint*.

Kinain’s soul no longer existed in this time period, but the trace of his connection with Asad faintly remained. Because of that trace, Kinain seemed to feel questions at times even after returning to the past.

That can’t be…

Watching Kinain mutter vacantly before the village where they’d met, Asad felt relieved that he still remained in his heart. And thought himself loathsome for it.

But the imprint’s trace was temporary. With time, the trace would vanish, and Kinain would no longer feel any dissonance at all. That very moment was when Asad would lose his mate forever.

Dreading the day that would soon come, Asad kept watching over Kinain’s life.

That Kinain would come to repeat time multiple times was unexpected. But in no timeline did Kinain meet Asad. And so there was no having his body stolen by his brother, no suffering insults and slander, no suffering hunger and cold.

The sickly-pale face, the body full of scars, the self-mocking smile he sometimes wore… those no longer existed in this timeline. His black eyes sparkled like morning stars, and his face held a healthy color. His body was strong enough to lose to no one, and his confident bearing made people look up to him.

Kinain was happy.

Confirming that fact brought Asad terrible sorrow.

But strangely, another emotion bloomed within the sorrow.

It was joy.

Kinain had regained the life that should originally have been given to him. Watching that, at last Asad knew Kinain’s wish had come true.

Asad was happy.

…But then, why was Kinain — who should have been enjoying a happy life there — here now?

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