Nightmare
It had already been six months since I cast aside my life as a human and began my second existence as a demon.
I felt no lingering attachment to having left humanity behind, yet the memories of my days as Eternal remained rooted deep inside me, rising to torment me at unexpected moments.
Especially that final instant.
The scene of me howling in despair, shedding tears of blood, had become a deeply embedded, horrific nightmare. It transformed even this plush, warm bed—something I had never enjoyed in my previous life—into a sticky, freezing swamp.
I knew why. The reason my sleep tonight felt so unbearable was because of Miriam.
The nightmare had to be caused by the woman groaning in the underground prison far beneath my bedroom.
How could my bed possibly feel comfortable under those circumstances?
If I released the prisoner I had locked away, or simply took her life in a single moment, would the dream finally vanish?
No. That probably wouldn’t change anything either.
It was simply a burden I would have to carry for the rest of my life.
In the hazy dawn after waking from the nightmare, I drank the warm tea prepared by my bedside, then pulled the covers over myself once more and closed my eyes, hoping to fall back asleep.
But a nightmare that had already found me was not about to release its grip so easily.
“Inferno! Trust me! I swear I didn’t do it! You know that, don’t you? You know I could never do something like this!”
“You think I know? No. I don’t. I’m asking you for a reason right now, Eternal! No matter how many times you butted heads with the president, was that enough reason to kill her? You, of all people—a hero who should know better than anyone that this is unacceptable!”
“I didn’t do it! Please, believe me, Inferno!”
It was unbearable.
That was why I pleaded with such desperate passion.
Yet the situation in which no one would believe me felt like pure hell.
Accused of a crime I had not committed.
When the facts did not exist, what truth could I possibly offer?
By then the stigma of murderer had already been seared into me in vivid scarlet.
My longtime friend, my one and only partner, Inferno, no longer looked at me with the warm eyes I had known for years. Instead he regarded me with the cold stare one might give a criminal.
That hurt more than anything.
The knowledge that the friendship I had believed in my entire life was shattering to pieces.
“Inferno. We’re friends, aren’t we? You know me. You know better than anyone that I’m not that kind of person!”
“…Friends? Yes, we were friends. But surely you understand that friendship is not a shield against a situation like this. You, of all people, should know that your innocence must be proven by reason, not emotion.”
“Help me. Please help me, Inferno. Tell Miriam. She’ll know I was away fighting at the time. This is Ravilis’s doing! Who else would commit such an act?”
“Ravilis? Ha. You expect me to believe Ravilis could be bold enough to pierce the president’s chest and burn her alive? And then escape successfully? That’s nonsense, Eternal.”
“What? Pierced through the chest… and burned?”
“Are you pretending ignorance? Or are you trying to pin this on me now? The Miriam you mentioned will confirm my alibi, so have no doubt. I was with her at the exact time the president was killed.”
“…What?”
“I’m disappointed. To commit such an atrocity and then betray even our friendship. Still, I believed until the very end that you would trust me…”
Bound hand and foot, coughing up blood, I watched Inferno keep that icy gaze fixed on me until the last moment.
No—when he finally turned away, I thought I caught a flicker of mockery mixed into that coldness.
Alone in the prison where cold air flowed and not even a fire could be lit, I endlessly repeated Inferno’s words in my mind.
Pierce the chest and burn the body whole.
How absurd. I had only just learned how the president actually died, yet here I was, suspected because of my own power.
Yes, it made sense.
Aside from me or Inferno, no one else could have pierced the president’s chest and incinerated her entire body. That was why they suspected me.
The president was no ordinary civilian.
She had chosen the administrative path despite possessing B-Class strength. With her own power alone she could have fought an A-Class hero one-on-one without dying so miserably. Moreover, her body carried the water blessing her own sister Miriam had bestowed upon her. Burning her entire body was simply unimaginable for anyone below S-Class.
Therefore, an S-Class flame user would naturally be the prime suspect.
Yes. I had been a fool.
The problem was me—rushing out, declaring I would throw everything away and do what had to be done.
The problem was that I never knew the incident had occurred while I was striking Ravilis and saving lives.
Thoughts I should never entertain kept surfacing.
I didn’t do it.
I had never done anything of the sort.
Then there was only one possible culprit.
Inferno. Could it really be you…?
No. That couldn’t be right.
Inferno was not that kind of man.
I could not suspect a friend I had known for more than twenty years.
Yet despite that, the seeds of doubt continued to bloom relentlessly inside my head.
President Sena.
Do you know?
Do you know who killed you?
That morning when I left you with a final greeting, I never imagined it would be our last.
I should have held you one more time.
I should have given you a little more strength.
If only I—if only I had been by your side.
Would things have been even slightly better?
It was all my fault.
The sin was mine for daring to love two women when I already had more than I deserved.
You loved me even while hating me for loving both the older sister and the younger. I miss you so much.
Ah… I had even pushed the grief of your death to the back of my mind.
The one who woke me as I slammed my head against the cold floor in agony was a voice so icy I had never heard it in all my life.
“If you’re going to slam your head, do it harder. At least then there’d be no chance of surviving.”
“…Ria.”
“Don’t call me that. It disgusts me.”
Ria—no, Miriam.
She had erased the warm gaze she once reserved only for me and now looked down at me as if I were her mortal enemy.
“It wasn’t me. You know that, don’t you? I was in the middle of battle at the time.”
“Yes, that’s what I believed. If only your torn clothes hadn’t been found in my sister’s hands.”
“…What?”
“Are you really going to pretend you don’t know? My sister is pitiful. How could she have fallen in love with a man like you? She died writhing in betrayal and agony. It’s so heartbreaking I can barely stand it. I wish you would just die. That would be the only atonement you could offer her.”
“Ria…”
“I told you not to call me that!!!”
The blue chill wrapped around Miriam’s hand was honed sharper and colder than I had ever seen.
“Hero Eternal. This is the last mercy I will grant you. No matter that you have become my enemy. Because of the affection we once shared and the achievements you accumulated, I will not kill you myself. Thank Inferno. It is all thanks to his persuasion.”
“……”
“I hope we never meet again. Though once the investigation is complete, you will be dead and we will have no chance to meet anyway. Eternal—no, I should not call you that anymore. You are no longer a hero. You are a traitor.”
Miriam turned and left without a backward glance.
I no longer had any strength left to offer her excuses.
In this world where even she refused to believe me, I felt utterly, completely alone.
In the end, I had been left with nothing.
Despair. Depression.
The filthy memories that polluted my mind kept tearing me apart.
When would these horrific thoughts ever stop?
They probably never would.
I no longer had any means to prove my innocence. I had lost the woman I loved and been abandoned by everyone.
Until the day my breath finally stopped, I would never escape this hell.
It felt so empty.
As if all my past efforts had been forgotten.
As if the life I had lived was now entirely invalidated.
I had rarely ever slept in a warm, safe place, but the cold that made me long so desperately for Sena’s embrace was a first. Sleep would not come easily that night.
“…zar! …Cezar!”
“……”
“Cezar! Please wake up!”
“Mm… What time is it?”
“It is already ten in the morning.”
“Ah. I overslept.”
The one who pulled me from the sticky discomfort of the bed was Anima.
Unlike her usual composure, she stared at me with wide, panicked, worried eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Are you all right, my lord?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were groaning heavily in your sleep. You sweated profusely as well. I have prepared cold water. It would be best if you drank some first.”
“Thank you.”
Only after hearing Anima’s words did I realize how parched my throat had become.
Indeed, after drinking a full glass of cold water, the burning heat inside me slowly began to settle.
“Did you have a nightmare? I will have the bedding washed immediately.”
“Please do. I suppose I wasn’t feeling well.”
“…If anything troubles you, please call for me anytime—even if it is the middle of the night. That is my duty.”
“I’ll do that from now on. Thank you for worrying about me.”
I had once been betrayed by trust, yet here I was, trusting someone again.
I did not know what outcome it would bring, but some lifelong habits were simply impossible to break.
Or perhaps anyone with genuine emotions would have done the same.
“You must have been very worried. I’m sorry.”
“…I was worried. It is only natural. You are our new Cezar, after all.”
“Haha, that seems a bit excessive for just that. I’ll have to take better care of my health.”
“Please do.”
In her eyes there was nothing but concern, worry, respect, and affection directed solely at me.
The expression she showed only to me—the one she never revealed to anyone else, always maintaining a cold gaze toward the outside world.
Even while knowing I was repeating the same mistake, I was a fool who could not help but walk the same path once more.