Jella opened her mouth with a bewildered face.

“You, what do you mean……”

Pause.

Suddenly, her lips stopped.

‘Right. What’s important to me now isn’t that… I need to retrieve the god’s heart quickly…’

A purple light seemed to pass through her red eyes, and Arne’s soul clouded her reason.

As if he had noticed this change in her, Niel smiled gently and whispered to her.

“Tell me what you want.”

It was a sweet voice, as if he would give her anything she asked for.

“The heart……”

Jella slowly slid her hands down from his collar.

“Where is my heart?”

Niel’s eyes narrowed at the unexpected words.

“Heart?”

“The god’s heart that Yupheon Arne stole. You all divided it up and took it.”

“……”

“I need to have the heart, here……”

Her hands, which had slid down, fumbled over his chest.

“……”

Niel gazed down at the top of her head as she concentrated on feeling around his heart area.

‘How does she know about that?’

Only three people, the dragon Helasio, and Arne, who had ambushed them in that moment before being subdued and fleeing, knew that fact.

The two men wouldn’t have told her about it. The dragon couldn’t approach her due to the prohibition Cail had placed. So the only one left was…

‘The god approached her…’

Niel tilted his head slightly as he pondered, soon reaching a fairly reasonable conclusion.

‘Is he attempting resurrection?’

He had made a showy proposal earlier today where people’s eyes were gathered; perhaps the god judged that using her would allow him to recover the heart.

If so, it wasn’t a bad strategy.

Just a moment ago, when she said she wanted the heart, he had felt like tearing out his own heart and placing it in her hands.

Unfortunately, it seemed she hadn’t come here wanting a mere human heart.

Niel asked in a gentle voice.

“Why do you need it?”

“……”

Jella lifted her head slightly.

Her eyes sharpened as she noticed him testing her, and then she roughly pushed his body down onto the couch.

“Just answer the question! Where is the heart!”

Jella, who immediately climbed on top of him, painfully squeezed his neck as she pressed him.

Niel’s eyes twisted slightly at the grip strength that far exceeded that of ordinary people.

When he still didn’t answer, Jella bit her lower lip and tore at Niel’s chest.

Thud. Thud.

The shirt buttons fell down from her rough handling.

Between the opened front, his thick chest muscles were revealed.

Jella scratched at his heart area with her nails and muttered.

“It should be here. But why……”

The skin was scratched and blood seeped out.

Amidst the sharp pain of her tearing at his flesh, Niel thought again.

If she were in a rational state, she would have cleanly drawn a knife and cut open his chest. These clumsy movements weren’t like her.

Of course, before that, she wouldn’t have kissed him either…

‘Well. Should I be grateful to the god, or resent him?’

The moment his thoughts reached that point, he couldn’t help but smile.

Swish.

Niel slowly reached out and stroked her hair. It was a surprisingly tender touch for a woman who was tearing at his flesh.

“Ga-eul.”

“……”

“Jella.”

At the second call, she raised her head to look at him.

“Do you want the heart?”

When he asked kindly, her expression turned pouty. Niel couldn’t help but smile again at that expression, which seemed to be asking what kind of question that was, and demanding that he hand it over quickly.

The prim young princess would often make such an expression when things didn’t go her way. It was a face he hadn’t seen since she passed adolescence and ascended to the imperial throne…

Even though her body had changed, that expression was still pretty.

The fact that he still found her pretty even in this situation made him wonder if perhaps it wasn’t her mind that was confused, but his own.

“The heart isn’t there.”

Niel explained in a gentle voice, trying his best not to provoke her.

“I’ve already used it.”

“Used it…?”

Jella blinked for a moment as if she didn’t understand his words.

“That’s impossible!”

Immediately, Arne’s soul, which had taken over Jella’s body, shouted.

That heart was the source of his power, condensed by taking hundreds of thousands of lives in ancient times.

Although those wicked human men had split it into three pieces, even one piece had enough power to shake the world.

There was no way such great power could be exhausted in just a few years…

“Yes, how could that be possible……”

As Arne’s soul barely calmed its excitement, her body collapsed onto Niel’s chest.

Jella looked at him with resentful eyes.

“You’re lying because you don’t want to give me the heart, aren’t you?”

“Jella.”

Niel firmly grabbed her swaying body with both hands.

“I don’t lie to you.”

He said, looking straight into her eyes.

“I’ve always been sincere.”

Her eyes trembled slightly.

“Even when I requested to break off our engagement, even when I said I would kill you with these hands when you bore the Shunaibel name, I was always sincere.”

It was a plain voice that seemed to contain not a hint of falsehood.

Jella suddenly felt anxious.

It seemed like something terrible would happen if she couldn’t find the whereabouts of the heart now.

“Th-then where? Where did you use it?”

She asked in a desperate voice, grabbing Niel’s arm.

“My heart, where is it now?”

She had been referring to Arne’s heart as “my heart” all this time, but was not aware of it.

‘What to do about this…’

Unfortunately, as an ordinary human, Niel didn’t know how to restore her mind.

It seemed like he would need Yupheon or Cail’s help, but…

‘I don’t want them to see her in this state.’

It was while Niel was looking up at her with a seemingly troubled expression.

Suddenly, when their eyes met.

-Tell me the whereabouts of the heart now.

Flash.

He felt like he should tell her the whereabouts of the heart right away. His heart swelled as if doing so would give him the entire world.

No, not just the world. A powerful urge boiled up, making him feel like he could dye her from head to toe with his scent.

Niel knew what this power was. It was the god’s power that Yuria had used.

“When crossing the dimension……”

Niel’s mouth opened slowly. He was answering her question without realizing it, then stopped in surprise at himself.

When Yuria had used this power, it had never been like this, why…

“Why did you cross the dimension?”

“Because I had to bring someone……”

But before he could be surprised, his mouth answered on its own.

D*mn it. Just because she had become the subject of the power, he was having difficulty controlling his own body.

“Bring someone? Who?”

“……”

Having belatedly regained control of his body, he pressed his lips shut and looked at her.

-Answer me now!

Indeed, it was the same as before. The activation condition for this strange power echoing in his mind was eye contact.

And if there was something different from then…

-I’m waiting for your answer!

Five years ago, the voice had referred to Yuria in the third person, but now the voice was referring to Jella in the first person. Also, unlike before, when it seemed to be observing from a step away, the current voice even conveyed impatience.

“Niel Alpenhayer.”

When Niel gave no answer and remained still, she slightly frowned and called his name.

Niel, who had been staring at her intently, drew in a short breath.

The sharply upturned corners of her eyes. The red eyes looking up at him with an anxious expression.

And even her small, soft hands still gripping his arms…

He understood why he had lost control of his body and been swept away for a moment.

She was truly a much stronger stimulus than any divine enchantment echoing in his head.

‘…This is maddening. Really.’

It had been too stimulating from earlier, enough to make him think such vulgar words he rarely used.

Jella.

She, who by her mere existence made him fall into the most intense excitement in the world, was holding his arm with her delicate hand and looking up at him with those lovely eyes.

Not stopping there, she even called his name with that beautiful voice.

His sense of smell had long been numbed by her scent, and the sweet taste that had stimulated his tongue when he bit her skin was still floating throughout his mouth.

The sensual excitement that his grandfather had always warned him to guard against was stimulating all his senses and invading his nerves one by one.

What was amusing was that while he had always been wary of and avoided all temptations that stimulated him, he didn’t dislike the stimulation she gave him at all.

Rather, he felt affection and tenderness.

…He loved her.

He loved her.

He loved her densely in every moment.

“Who… did you bring?”

At this moment, she asked once more.

“……”

Niel, who had been staring at her face, belatedly realized that Arne’s voice that had filled his mind was gone.

The stimulation she gave was so great that he hadn’t even noticed the voice had disappeared.

But even with just eye contact like this, he could tell her state.

This question now was being asked by her own will, without the god’s interference.

Indeed, weren’t those beautiful eyes of hers, resembling red jewels, trembling lovingly?

Her muted red eyes were filled with confusion.

Niel remembered when he had seen such eyes from her before.

“Ga-eul…!”

The day she died.

That is, the day he had to witness her second death before his eyes.

She had looked at him, the one left behind, with just such eyes.

Feeling as if his throat was being blocked, Niel gently caressed her eyes that looked like they might cry at any moment.

“…I had to save you.”

But the one whose voice sounded like they might cry wasn’t her, but him.

“Your physical body was already decaying and couldn’t be saved. So I crossed dimensions to find a healthy body that hadn’t decayed.”

The corpse of the deceased, the soul prevented from departing to the spirit realm, and even the breath of a god.

All three conditions for resurrecting the dead were met, but she couldn’t be revived.

Because her body had decayed in the meantime.