When the words I’d guessed flowed from Ruvlian’s mouth, I froze in place. I couldn’t understand what he’d been thinking to accept such a request. Only my head spun painfully and actively.
Because of a sense of justice? No way. Even if Ruvlian got called a bastard or a fucking bastard, he wasn’t someone who would participate in such a sealing out of a sense of justice alone. Rather, he tended to ignore dangerous and bothersome acts.
My head was dizzy. I wondered if he’d accepted the proposal to seal the Demon God just for that one reward of living in the same world as me. Among the stories I’d heard so far, that was the only benefit he’d be securing.
Of course, separate from thinking he was crazy, my mood was still good. Because it meant he liked me enough to take risks. I’d said it before, but I wasn’t in my right mind either. In the first place, having become a human who instantly kills demons and Demon Kings and uses unrealistic powers, it would be stranger to be in one’s right mind.
As if knowing my complicated feelings, I felt strength from our interlocked hands. When I turned my head toward Ruvlian who gripped my hand tighter, without a word he lightly pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth then withdrew.
“Because the corners of your mouth were stiffened into a straight line.”
Before I could even ask what he was doing, an excuse flew over. At the same time, he pulled down his risen mouth corners with the index finger of his free hand that wasn’t holding anything, and I couldn’t not know that this was an action asking me not to be angry.
When I made a deflating sound because it was absurd, Ruvlian kissed the other corner of my mouth once more. Then he softened his fox-like eyes as much as possible and imitated a docile puppy.
“It would be unfair if I only did one side.”
In that state, he even smiled gently with his eyes. His golden eyelashes drew attention as they rose lightly then fell.
Having been dazed for a moment, I soon came to my senses. A hollow breath burst out. How did he think of such words in an instant? That too was a talent.
“You feel like joking in this situation?”
“But if Sihyeon’s mouth corners are like this, it keeps bothering me.”
At the part where he said ‘like this,’ Ruvlian brought his index finger to his mouth corner once more. As the index finger pulled down his risen mouth corner, the area around it became concave and the flesh moved together. Even though I fully recognized this wasn’t the time, I couldn’t tear my gaze from that sight.
As if having known this about me all along, Ruvlian acted even more coquettish. Like pecking with a bird’s beak, he lightly pressed his lips to my lips, not the corner, then withdrew.
“What’s the reason this time?”
When I asked Ruvlian who was thoroughly scraping away even my remaining sense of absurdity, he brought his lips to my ear and whispered as if telling a secret story.
“If I only do both ends, the center gets upset too. Sihyeon wouldn’t have heard it, but it told me. Why don’t I do it alone?”
“……Now you even hear what lips are saying?”
“Yees.”
Ruvlian, who answered meekly, kissed my cheek. This time he spouted nonsense that my cheek was upset too. At the natural fooling around, I placed my hand on his forehead and pushed his face away.
“Do it in moderation. This isn’t the time for this. Why did you say you’d do the sealing? If humans can seal it, can’t gods do it too?”
Recalling Ruvlian who had been talking about deciding to seal the Demon God, I asked while firmly holding onto my sanity. The Demon God is usually something even gods can’t kill, so it seemed they’d chosen the alternative of sealing. But is there a need for us humans to do it?
“God will explain that.”
When Ruvlian passed off the explanation, God, whom I’d forgotten about because of Ruvlian until now, spoke up.
[I was watching well all along, ah that’s not it. Yes. It would be nice if gods sealed it, but that’s a bit difficult.]
‘Why?’
[To briefly explain the route to sealing, first Sihyeon and Ruvlian will go to the world from hundreds of millions of years ago. The time when the human realm, heavenly realm, and demon realm weren’t divided. You can think of it as the first world.]
Based on what Ruvlian had said, that first world was when various gods existed and because of that, religious wars broke out and the Demon God was almost sealed.
‘That world still remains?’
[Yes. Um, humans are existences created in imitation of gods.]
It was a rambling story. Since it wouldn’t be unrelated to my question, I stayed silent. I just pushed what was presumed to be a head against the skin and fine hair I felt on my shoulder.
[Usually gods, do you call it humanity? You’d think they don’t have that, but the Chief Deity and Demon God aren’t like that. They’re the most human among gods.]
For gods to be human-like. Unless they were at opposite extremes, seeing the two placed close together, they couldn’t be more unsuited. As if understanding my reaction, God produced a slightly more generous voice.
[If the Chief Deity and Demon God weren’t human-like, how could they have created you all?]
When put that way, it seemed right. I was oddly convinced.
[Anyway, what I want to say is that the most human-like Chief Deity still loves the Demon God and, missing those times, left that world behind. Even if it’s a world with no humans and destroyed temples, with nothing remaining but traces of war.]
I could fully feel the bitter emotion. I didn’t add other words. I only knew fragmentary situations and it was a god I’d never exchanged a single word with. Whether that Chief Deity still loved the Demon God or not, my only purpose was sealing.
I blocked Ruvlian who was slyly clinging again and returned to the original point. It seemed I’d have to ask what I wanted to ask all at once later. When I dug into a fact that raised doubt once, the story kept going down side paths.
‘I get it. But what do we have to do after crossing to that world?’
As God said, that world had no humans and everything was destroyed. It seemed to only serve the purpose of reminiscing. If there were traces of a sealing attempt there, it would be more efficient for God to go to that world and seal it.
Seeing them propose it to us humans, there must be some reason they can’t find traces of the sealing even if they go there. Earlier I was focused on the fact that Ruvlian had accepted such a dangerous proposal, so I hadn’t thought that God couldn’t proceed with the sealing and therefore asked humans.
I felt like I was gradually becoming stupid when with Ruvlian. Because my entire head was filled to the brim with him.
[That’s…… Ruvlian has to use magic to go to the past from hundreds of millions of years ago.]
Since it wasn’t heard by ear but a voice piercing into my head, though I couldn’t have misheard, I doubted whether my brain had properly recognized those words.
Around the time I could hear the sound of eyeballs rolling while God hemmed and hawed without saying anything, I admitted it. I’d heard correctly. God had gone crazy.
‘Are you in your right mind?’
[Listen to the end, Sihyeon!]
Perhaps noticing that I might not avoid anger at this rate, God stopped me. Biting my lips tightly, I distanced myself from Ruvlian who must have already heard this method. I even used binding magic to block him from approaching me with a docile and puzzled face.
How could it even be plausible for a human to go to the past from hundreds of millions of years ago? Just reversing a specified time period, a short amount of time, I’d felt that cold sensation of dying. Going to the past was also related to time, so it wouldn’t be much different.
[That…… I know what part you’re worried about.]
‘You know, but what? Explain properly.’
God’s voice trembled as if facing the cold wave of midwinter in short sleeves. God, who kept repeating only sounds like ‘that is’, ‘uh’, ‘no’, ‘mm’, took a beat’s rest and slowly spoke.
[……Ruvlian will sacrifice his life to send Sihyeon to the past.]
I was angry. I wondered if he’d really gone properly crazy. Heat rushed to the top of my head.
[B-but this! Sihyeon? Sihyeon?]
Ignoring God who was trying to continue speaking, I glared at Ruvlian who was staring at me while docilely bound by magic. As if having inferred where I’d heard up to, his lips opened.
“I think I know what story you heard, but don’t be angry. Your mouth corners that finally relaxed are stiffening again.”
“Those words come out now?”
“It’s because of my life, right?”
Ruvlian, who undid the binding magic, approached me. I moved away as much as he approached, but the space was limited. Having finally caught me, he placed his hands on both my cheeks and fixed my gaze on him.
“It seems you didn’t hear the story after that. When Sihyeon goes to that time period and figures out how to seal it, go to the Chief Deity of that time period.”
“……”
“Since gods can see the past, they’ll immediately notice. Being the most human-like, they’ll send Sihyeon back to the original time period. After that, please reverse time. To exactly this situation right now.”
It was a nonchalant attitude as if his own death was nothing. That’s why I couldn’t hold back my anger even more. He told me to cherish my body, yet I wondered if he was even in a position to say that. Knowing I held him dear, I also wondered if it made sense to make such a request.
In the end, unable to contain my anger, I sharply spat out words.
“……You trust the Chief Deity? If that god doesn’t send me back to the original time period, you. What will you do? What about your life? And you want me to just sit and watch you dying?”
Rarely, my voice trembled. A change occurred in the tone that was always monotone and plain. I bit down hard enough to taste blood on my lower lip. The area around my eyes stung.
Ruvlian stared at me, who couldn’t calm my emotions at all and was revealing them intensely, with his eyes rounded into curves. He seemed to find my worry sweet. Then when he tried to kiss me, I escaped from his large hands and avoided it. This crazy bastard was really trying to kiss in this situation.
“I know you’re angry.”
Ruvlian, who caught me again after I’d escaped, kissed the corner of my mouth. The lightness from before disappeared, and he rubbed his lips for a long time. As if telling it to rise.
“I’m sorry for making you see my death.”
After apologizing, Ruvlian, who also earnestly kissed the other corner of my mouth, put his forehead against mine. Then he rubbed gently while matching gazes and smiling. It was the smiling face I liked, but my mood had been on a downward trend for a while. I absolutely couldn’t smile back.
“But I’m someone who draws the future rather than the present, you see. I want to continue being with Sihyeon in the future too.”
Ruvlian, who spoke gently, turned his head and this time overlapped his lips with mine then rubbed as if crushing. Before I could spit out the words asking what if you’re not in that future because God doesn’t keep the promise, he continued speaking again.
“And since we concluded a definite contract staking God’s existence, I trust the contract rather than trusting God. And rather than that contract, I trust you who will revive me again.”
His eyes, like a clearly cleared sky and like the transparent sea beneath that sky, were shining with certainty.
That upright gaze, that affectionate voice, that touch soothing me told me that Ruvlian sincerely believed I would succeed and reverse time.
