Chapter 3
I remarried.
The hair of my dead wife, glistening under the starlight, would catch the eye no matter the hour of the night. It was too beautiful to ignore, and in a empire where hair color varied so wildly, it stood out like a rare gem.
It wasn’t only the color of her hair that drew me in. The skin of her arms, rough from the dirt where she had once rolled, was stark white, untouched by even a single sunbeam. Her golden eyes shone brighter than gold itself.
Her straight nose, the same as I remembered, and her red lips. The face I knew all too well.
My wife. Yuria.
A chill crawled up my spine. I clenched my fists to stop the urge to rush forward and simply touched my cheek instead. There was no way this could be real.
Reviving the dead was impossible, no matter the method. The only explanation was that some mage had used illusions or dark magic to play tricks on me.
“You’re Zach, right? Zach? What happened? You look so thin. Did something happen to your face?”
That voice I hadn’t heard in years, now stroking my cheek with warm fingers. My breath caught in my throat. My fingertips trembled, my heart pounding like a drum.
No. This couldn’t be her.
I had asked doctors, priests, even black mages. They all gave me the same answer: it was impossible to bring back the dead with our current medical technology. The Church said only a saint could be resurrected by divine will. Some even claimed the soul itself refused to return to a decaying body. They had given me hundreds of reasons why the dead could never rise again. So I knew the truth. A dead person could never be saved.
Therefore, this woman could not be Yuria.
“Hey, you grew your hair out really fast. What shampoo did you use? I told you it would look great on you. But if you’re going to grow it, just grow it. What is this? This?”
Yuria stretched out her index finger and poked my nose and chin playfully. It seemed she didn’t like the faint stubble there.
“Why? The research institute director gave me a position, so I was just imitating those uncles working there. It doesn’t suit me at all. I’m shaving it off right now. I’ll do it for you.”
Looking at her made something dirty and possessive tighten around my chest.
Illusions? Maybe a dark mage was just toying with me? But there she was, right in front of me.
That kind of impossible temptation made my mind spin. No, I couldn’t allow it.
I turned my head away from the dead Yuria and said firmly, “If you’re trying to deceive me, stop. Who are you?”
“Who am I? I’m your wife. Yuria. Ah, was today a role-playing day? Should I call you Master? I forgot my place for a second.”
Yuria giggled, her smile reaching all the way to her cheeks, revealing even white teeth. Her folded eyes were soft, and her long eyelashes were lush. The appearance was identical to how she looked before death. The voice, the way she spoke, it was definitely her. Even with the soul perfectly preserved in a body, there was no way to maintain such flawless detail with magic alone.
If that was the case, it had to be an illusion or some dark magic prank.
I immediately began to chant Dispel. Blue mana swept over the woman in front of me, but nothing happened. I blinked in surprise.
“What are you doing? More importantly, why am I here? What were we doing?”
Yuria remained exactly where she had been all along.
From a realistic standpoint, if it wasn’t dark magic, then whatever had been done to me must be something I didn’t know. ‘Congratulations. Whoever you are, if this is real, then you succeeded.’
While Yuria had been gone, my blood had dried up day by day. Now, with my body and heart weakened together, I was more fragile than ever. So if this was a prank, I had no choice but to let it go.
I pulled Yuria into my arms. She was much smaller than me, and I held her tightly against my chest. Her scent filled my nose, her body heat pressing back against me.
“What happened to you? Are you okay? Is it a big problem? Are you in a lot of pain right now?”
“I’m fine. I’m completely fine.”
“You say you’re fine, but why are you crying?”
“I’ll tell you everything after a little while.”
Yuria stroked my hair, letting me act spoiled for once. I held her for a long time, crying until my tears ran dry, savoring the warmth of her body and breathing in her scent with every inhale.
“Aha ha. What are you doing? Acting like a puppy?”
I chuckled, and Yuria laughed softly, whispering into my ear, “It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Remember when I was seventeen? Do you remember that day? The day the lab exploded during the mage-stone fusion experiment. It was all over, right? Dad was going to kick you out. But it all worked out in the end, didn’t it? Whatever happened, it’ll be okay.”
New information spilled from Yuria’s lips. If she knew that, then she must know the other thing too.
“Do you remember when I threw up on your back?”
“Ah.”
Yuria’s smile faded. She pressed her lips together firmly and punched my shoulder with a fist. “It’s because of you.”
Watching her punch me lightly, I smiled, but then I realized something important: if a black mage could recreate Yuria this perfectly, they could also extract memories from a corpse. So I should stop doubting her.
There was just one more thing I had to do.
“Do you remember when your body was hurting?”
“Yeah. Ah. But now it seems better? I don’t have a fever. It can’t be, right?”
Yuria took my hand and pressed it to her forehead. Her temperature was definitely lower than mine.
“The fever is gone. Good.”
“Maybe you recovered from the illness? It hurt so much at the end that I couldn’t even move.”
I swallowed hard. I deliberately met her eyes and spoke slowly, one word at a time. “You died.”
Yuria blinked at my words.
“You died six years ago. Today is your anniversary.”
“Aha ha. Why do you look so old? What happened in six years? Six years isn’t long enough to look this old.”
“I’m not joking.”
“I know. I know. Seeing your appearance and mine, I thought something must have happened. But I’m surprised you died. Surprised and happy.”
Yuria looked around and said, “I suddenly woke up in a coffin, wearing rags. You grew a beard that doesn’t suit you at all. No matter what happened, you were tough. I was preparing myself, but… this is bigger than I expected. That I died and came back to life… that’s surprising. Surprising.”
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. It’s shocking, but since you’re here… I think I’ll be fine.”
I finally accepted it. This Yuria was real. Whether it was a divine miracle or someone’s prank, Yuria had truly resurrected.
I could face anything together with her.
“I love you.”
Yuria clung to me. Accepting that she had died and come back in an instant was hard for anyone. I accepted her as well, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her tight against my chest.
“Me too.”
It was the dream I had always longed for. Meeting Yuria again. Living life together once more. The miracle I had prayed for my entire life had come true.
The tears that had been stopped began to pour down. My shoulders shook, my legs gave out. In the overwhelming joy, one problem surfaced. It wasn’t a happy moment, but something that still needed to be resolved. Something Yuria especially needed to know.
“There’s something I need to confess.”
“Wait.”
No matter the size of the issue, I always opened my mouth to explain first. Because of that, Yuria quickly covered my lips.
“What is it? I’ll listen to almost anything. Just wait for the right moment. I’ve told you before. Everything should be done after checking the atmosphere.”
“It’s not something small.”
“I’ll listen to even the most outrageous things. Just stay like this for now.”
Yuria’s voice grew smaller, but because she was whispering right next to my ear, it was still clear. At the end, she sounded like she was pleading as she held me tighter.
If this was a performance, it was the most dramatic moment so far. The highlight scene of a dead wife’s reunion. The audience of shining stars in the sky would clap enthusiastically.
That was why I wanted to follow her words. If everything would be solved if she forgave me, I would have done it immediately.
But it wasn’t. In the end, I opened my mouth again.
“I remarried.”
“Huh?”
“Because I need to continue the lineage… I’m sorry.”
Yuria fell silent, and I closed my mouth.
An awkward silence settled between us.