16 – re-prologue
The delicious scent of freshly made bread wafts through the streets, and children who smell the scent stop running and start snooping around the front of the store, drooling. I swallow.
From Noble mtl dot com
The streets at dawn were quiet, as if the smoke rising from Finn’s bakery was a signal.
Suddenly, it was filled with people bustling and the sounds of merchants preparing for business.
The stars that decorated the sky gave their place to the sun and went to bed late.
Kente’s market is bustling from early morning.
In this place where villagers and tourists from outside come together every day, the most talked-about person these days is undoubtedly Julius’s wife, Cecil Lionelta.
When I saw this beautiful woman who always smiled brightly and greeted everyone in an affable manner, and had the simplicity of a village girl and the fatal charm of a palace queen, I couldn’t help but be filled with admiration.
Moreover, her husband, Julius Tapnell, whom she was infatuated with, was the best heresy inquisitor this village had ever produced, and the villagers’ favor towards Cecil was skyrocketing with each passing day.
But even though she had been walking through her market since morning, no one in her market could even dare to talk to Julius’s wife.
“… Tsk.”
The gentle smile that was usually seen is everywhere, and even a faint sense of life is felt in the murky walls where beautiful eyelashes stand out.
The anger that can be felt in each step she takes as she walks slowly, clenching her fists, is nothing but an unknown fear to those who do not know why she is angry.
Looking at the direction she was walking, she was heading towards the only road leading out of Kentheme. Could it be that it was a couple fighting?
Despite her fears, Rosa, the owner of her clothing store, tried to talk to her, but she was unable to say anything as she was so overcome by Cecil’s anger that it took her breath away.
Just like that, she left, and the people who were preparing to sell in her market were all over the streets, so she could only quietly keep her mouth shut.
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‘Every minute and every second is a waste. How dare you call me out now?’
Cecil, who had been smiling happily as she looked at Julius’ sleeping face in the morning, frowned when she heard a whisper calling her from beyond the village.
At the call of someone who was unpleasant to even meet her in the face, she decided to walk on her own without even using her special skill of twisting space.
If Julius, who was sleeping while jumping through space, senses its energy and wakes up, the date we had planned for today may be in vain.
That is difficult.
That’s why Cecil began to feel a chill throughout the neighborhood in the morning and set out to meet it in person.
How long did it take?
The moment I took a step out of the village, the only road on the mainland entering Kente Village and the golden wheat fields decorating the road came into view.
With a feeling as if the world itself was shaking, Cecil found himself in a forest filled with black light.
A strange landscape in which tree branches attached to a pitch-black body, ready to break at any moment, are shaking as if hands are clapping, and the foggy mountains in the distance are wrapped around something large and unknown.
In her gloomy and empty space, her whisper calling to her rings out.
“Ah, thank you for coming. But I never thought you would take the steps and come here yourself.”
An eerie woman’s voice echoes as if from far away.
A strange sound that gives me slight goosebumps is heard later.
“Tsk, weren’t you participating in your dad’s fun plan in the capital right now?”
Cecil frowned as if she was displeased with the voice coming into her ears, and looked around the forest with her arms crossed and muttered quietly.
“Thanks to someone, my plan was disrupted. “You know better.”
A voice echoing through the black tree branches suddenly came from right next to me.
As I slowly turned my head, I saw something black and squishy that vaguely imitated the figure of the standing girl, as if she had been there from the beginning.
‘Echo of the Black Forest’, one of the 24 demons.
Among the high-ranking demons released on this earth through a deal with Saint Erman, they are one of the few special species that have given up on becoming humans.
“Your job is to make Julius Tapnel have happy nightmares in Kente. But if you keep leaving that place and wandering around somewhere else, it’s going to be difficult.”
“Do I have to get permission from people like you to date my husband?”
Cecile, slowly lifting her feet, kicked away her echo that was talking to her, and climbed on top of her demon, barely maintaining her girlish form, and carried her away. Began to trample.
“I will not forgive anything that stands in the way of achieving my love. “I will kill and destroy everything that tries to destroy the happy dreams for me, Julius, and our lovely Leila.”
In the end, the devil was unable to maintain its shape and slowly melted into the ground.
After looking at her for a moment, Cecil adjusted her clothes and turned around to return to her beloved husband.
“I’m not finished talking yet. “It’s a nightmare.”
An unpleasant echo is heard again from behind.
She stopped her steps and slowly turned her head to look in the direction from which her voice was heard.
“If you are trying to twist the deal with the saint like this, I have no choice but to tell this to Erman.”
“Nightmare never breaks a deal.”
Cecil lowered her head slightly and responded as if I was not a devil.
“You seem to be overly infatuated with her. “I just don’t understand it.”
“… Infatuation? No no. “You, like him, have a big misunderstanding.”
I am not a nightmare, I am his wife, Cecil Lionelta.
She is the name of the angel who sealed her long ago, Lionel Ta.
A faint flame begins to bloom in her hand as she says it is her name without any hesitation.
“… What are you trying to do?”
“This is salvation for you, the pitiful one who only imitates and lives an empty life forever.”
In her hand, a pure white flame grew stronger, and soon, with explosive force, it burned the forest with the wind and spread sacred and pure energy.
“W-what…Are you…Doing?”
“You who stand next to the saint will never understand this. “I live as a human being who grows in love as I live each day.”
An enormous divine power that could not even be imagined by a high-ranking devil burned the entire Black Forest, and now the devil’s voice, only faintly resonating, passes through Cecil’s ears.
“… Nir… Why.”
“Poor child, put down your evil ways and rest for a while.”
When the huge flame died down, the dark forest was already gone, and all that could be seen was the wheat field gently swaying in the wind.
Cecil stood still for a moment and closed her eyes.
There is no trace of the echo that spoke to her earlier.
‘I probably won’t be able to open my eyes for a while.’
Even if you kill a high-ranking demon, it will simply disappear for a while and come back to life someday.
Killing the ‘Echo of the Black Forest’ was ultimately a temporary measure.
Cecil slowly walked back the way she came and gently covered the corner of her mouth.
The fishy taste of blood rising from within me.
She thought as she forced herself to swallow it again.
Perhaps the day will come when she will have to kill the saint, her own father.
The sun looks down from the sky at Cecil, who is thinking such scary thoughts,
Without saying a word, I just wrapped my arms around her with my warmth.
***
“So? “If you treat me like that, you’re saying that cooking is easy, right?”
When I woke up, Cecile was sitting in her chair with a sulky face, rubbing her mouth.
He wore his long blonde hair loose and tied it neatly, looking at the face of his wife, Cecile.
“Why is there a fight all of a sudden this morning?”
“If you refused my lunch box, doesn’t that mean you’re a good cook?”
“… Enough to make a living.”
“Lie! “You were at the same level as me when you lived in the capital!”
What about living in the capital?
Julius, looking at her calmly telling her story before her death, shook her head slightly and stood up.
“How many years do you think has passed since then? “I can at least cook now.”
“What can you do well in just 5 years? “Even if I tried for 10 years since I was young, I couldn’t succeed!”
Cecil stood up, knocking over the chair, and became angry as she pointed a point at him.
“Then, you cook the food we will eat on our date today. “You’re not going to say you can’t do it, right?”
“… I understand. “Let me prepare.”
Julius nodded his head gently and confidently walked out of the room.
Do you really think you learned how to cook in 5 years?
Praying that Julius had become really good at cooking, Cecil followed him and trudged into the kitchen.
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“… So this is cooking?”
“? “What’s the problem? If you’re going out to eat, isn’t something simple better?”
“This is simple, but it’s too simple!”
In the kitchen, there were simple bread, vegetables, thinly sliced ham, and jam.
Julius, who was cooking bread with a flame, glanced at Cecil’s face and smiled slightly.
“It’s obvious that you won’t be able to do this properly, so it’s not simple.”
“… Have you said everything? “I can do something like this!”
Cecil rolled up his sleeves and jabbed Julius’s waist once with his elbow.
He started making sandwiches with fancy hands.
And some time later.
“… So is it like this?”
“… ….”
A few minutes later, as Julius sighed when he saw all of her ingredients being pulverized in her hands, Cecil had no choice but to droop her shoulders and leave her kitchen.
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After making a sandwich and wrapping it in a cloth, I came out of the kitchen, and there was only a black basket in the living room, and next to it, unlike last time, a faint but pure flame with a black energy was intertwined like a skein of thread, twisting the air like a door and a door. It had the same shape.
Julius, who had packed the food into the basket, slowly put his hand into the crack, and at once felt the sensation of his body being pulled and was sucked inside.
“…Why are you so late?”
The culprit who pulled his hand was none other than Cecil.
She clasped her hands in Julius’s, puffed out her cheeks, and nuzzled his mouth.
“I was just late because I was making food.”
She gently lifts the basket, but her mood shows no signs of easing.
She lowered her head and just stayed in Julius’s arms.
He stroked her hair once and looked around her.
The gentle scent of flowers wafts from the tip of your nose, and when you turn your eyes, you see a field with colorful flowers and a small hut standing on top of it.
Is this what it would feel like if there was a paradise just for the two of us?
After staring at the fantastical scenery for a moment, a small sound was heard from Julius’s arms.
-Exciting
I can feel the heartbeat in my wife’s body.
Proof that she is alive and breathing.
He is still just wandering around without any certainty.
Is it really my wife who is here with the soul of the devil, or is this also just a cunning trick of the devil?
But Julius wanted to enjoy this moment.
Even if it is a trap or a betrayal.
Because in the end, he was a weak human being.
“… Stop getting angry… Honey.”
“…? “Are you just telling me?”
Cecil, who was pretending to be angry in Julius’ arms, even forgot that she was pretending to be angry and looked up at him with wide eyes.
In the cloudy blue eyes, I see Julius smiling as if he was looking at himself from back in the day.
“…Okay.”
“Hmm, hmm. Are you finally starting to admit it? Yes, all you have to do is throw away your unusually serious worries and live a happy married life like me.”
Her humming, a clumsy imitation of her congratulatory song that she sings whenever she is in a good mood, resonates.
The woman escaped from her husband’s arms, her light brown skirt fluttering, and she began to walk through the fantastical garden I had created. Beautiful flowers of various colors, blooming with petals regardless of the season, followed her brisk steps. It flutters in the wind.
Red, purple, white, blue, what you see is a colorful paradise just for the two of you.
If you look there, in the distance, you will see a devil in the shape of your wife, with your lovely brown hair fluttering around.
No, his wife, wearing the devil’s mask, looks at him and shouts.
“Julius, come here! “It’s really beautiful to see the wild flowers in full bloom.”
My lovely wife who died 5 years ago.
“Don’t stand still, come quickly, it’s here.”
My wife came back to me with the spirit of the devil.
No, maybe… The devil may have come to slyly tempt me.
So, Lord, please give your Lamb unwavering faith.
Give me the wisdom to find out the truth without being deceived.
Please tell me that my poor wife is truly alive.
“Even if it doesn’t, give me the power to turn this beautiful dream into reality.”
Give it to me.
Please, your foolish servant,
I beg you.
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This is the story of a devil and a servant of God.
Achieving a love that could never come true,
This is a story of hope moving toward a happy future.