Chapter 90

It was too fantastical. To rewind time, Sabina’s consent was needed. The only time mage was Sabina D’Vialis. No one else could rewind time.

And Sabina herself was someone who felt resistance to turning back time.

Helio had once threatened, “Are you going to rewind time?” but even then, he hadn’t believed Sabina would actually do it.

Disappointment filled the boy’s face, so Reyes grabbed his hand and shook his head.

“No, not that. We’re the ones who’ll use time magic.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If you take out Sabina’s heart, someone who isn’t the owner of the magic can use it.”

Goosebumps ran over Helio’s whole body.

He jumped up from his seat. The chair clattered noisily as it fell. Helio glared at Reyes, his face drained of color.

“You…!”

Reyes was saying the same thing as Ashton. 

In the end, was this the Prince’s goal too?

“Is there a better way? Is there a better way to protect Sabina’s mind and erase all of this?”

Reyes didn’t even blink at Helio’s growl. Helio stepped back hesitantly.

“Your Highness, you want my Master’s heart too…”

“It’s all for Sabina, friend. Calm down. For Sabina. We just set an appropriate checkpoint, erase Sabina’s memories, and go back to before. Got it? And make sure Sabina never meets Ashton Bryant.”

“How could you think…”

“Sabina won’t die!”

Frustrated by Helio’s lack of cooperation, Reyes shouted. But the boy wasn’t scared like last time. What showed on his face was anger.

Unable to suppress the boy by raising his voice, Reyes changed tactics. He began to soothe Helio.

“Have you ever painted? If you keep layering paint over a ruined picture, the canvas just gets dirtier. Sometimes, it’s better to just take out a new canvas.”

‘You don’t want Master’s heart for her sake. There must be some other purpose.’

Helio bit his tongue, resisting the urge to accuse. Reyes took Helio’s silence as an opportunity to talk freely.

“One spell is enough. There’s no need to pile on magic. That way, Sabina’s mind stays intact, and everything gets clean.”

Helio’s blue eyes wavered.

“…Is it true that someone else can handle Master’s heart? How do you know?”

“If it weren’t true, why would I tell you this? Kill Miss D’Vialis…”

Helio trembled at the word “kill.”

“Taking out the heart is dangerous. If it didn’t work, would I risk it?”

“…”

“It’s absolutely certain. I saw someone take her heart and use magic.”

“You just watched…!”

“At the time, I couldn’t help.”

Helio wanted to ask for Reyes to take off his gloves so he could read his memories, to find out what had happened.

But he held back.

He felt uncertain about how far he should go with Reyes.

***

“Sabina.”

Ashton called Sabina softly.

“Aren’t you going outside to see the New Year’s celebration?”

Sabina shook her head. She was clinging fiercely to Ashton. Since the last seizure, she hadn’t let go of him.

The shock of Ashton nearly dying while she went out to see the snow was immense for Sabina. From that moment, she couldn’t let Ashton out of her sight for even a second. Ashton felt heavier in heart.

Staying in this timeline was his wish. He wanted to be by her side until the end.

‘I was wrong.’

He finally admitted it, just before the end.

He had become too precious to Sabina, and she wouldn’t easily let go as he had hoped. Their parting would leave an irreparable wound.

Recently, Ashton wondered what would happen if he was born with time magic. How much of the world would he need to rewind to fix everything? He gave up, realizing even finding the starting point was difficult.

He wanted to be with her. So he became greedy.

This was the result.

Sabina clung to him like a rabbit seeing a predator. Her composure and calm were gone. She was breaking down.

Ashton wished Sabina wouldn’t break.

He closed his eyes and buried his nose in her neck, breathing in her faint scent.

Saying “it’s okay” meant nothing—it was obviously a lie. Ashton sensed the end was truly near. Sabina felt it too. Maybe that’s why she clung so desperately…

‘Sad.’

Ashton’s body temperature was dropping, day by day. And one day, he would be cold as a corpse. No, he would actually be a corpse.

Then Sabina would wail. The hatred Helio planted would make her accept Ashton’s death as happiness, but the love realized through that hatred would bring loneliness.

If only Helio could fill that emptiness.

But Helio needed five more years to become an adult. If Sabina shattered beyond repair before Ashton’s replacement appeared, it would be a big problem.

He finally made a decision.

“Look at me, Sabina. Shh… It’s okay. Look at my face. Touch me.”

Sabina stroked Ashton’s cheek with trembling hands, confirming he was breathing.

“I’m alive, right?”

She faintly smiled and nodded.

Her eyes were gentle, even as hatred and affection fought fiercely.

Ashton smiled for her. He closed his eyes and kissed his lover.

And cast a spell.

Ashton didn’t give Sabina any time to prepare.

Even if he gave her centuries, she wouldn’t be ready.

Sabina was helpless against the sudden magic. Betrayal filled her eyes.

‘How?’

She seemed to say,

‘How could you do this?’

Ashton smiled bitterly. How could he? It wasn’t the first time he’d been selfish for her sake.

“You.”

Ashton whispered.

“Now you’ll go home. The moment you cross the threshold of D’Vialis mansion, I’ll become nothing. You won’t care, and you won’t hurt anymore.”

“What’s the point of this?”

“All of me will become blurry like fog, but you won’t question it. Not at all.”

“My feelings—give them back!”

He had no intention of returning them. He would vanish into the veil again, as he had been her mystery for so long.

The difference was, Sabina would no longer try to uncover the answer.

Sabina’s gaze grew cloudy. She looked at Ashton resentfully, then went down the stairs. If one listened closely, the sound of doors opening and closing could be heard.

Ashton leaned against the wall and sighed. He roughly tousled his hair, and on his wrist was a bracelet woven from blue thread.

***

Not long after Helio returned home, troubled from his debate with Reyes, the front door opened.

All the servants were inside. If the door opened without a bell, it was the homeowner.

Helio looked toward the entrance, tense.

“Have you been well?”

It was Sabina’s calm voice.

Helio stepped back when their eyes met.

Sabina’s face had not a single shadow.

Something was wrong.

***

A strange reversal occurred.

Sabina, who had acted as if she would die if not by Ashton’s side, now spent her days napping or reading at home. His imminent death no longer seemed important to her.

Meanwhile, Helio, who couldn’t stand seeing Sabina with Ashton, seemed most bewildered by the situation.

For three days, Sabina hadn’t visited Ashton and stayed home. She was mostly in her study or the living room. The abrupt shift from passionate to relaxed was so odd that no one dared ask her what had happened.

Sabina surely felt the servants’ discomfort, but she offered no explanation. It was bothersome.

Just as Helio’s magic had a flaw that couldn’t steal her sense of connection, Ashton’s magic had a flaw: it couldn’t give Sabina new motivation to live. So Sabina became aimless.

She didn’t think deeply about anything. She was under a spell, so her powerlessness was probably due to magic… but she had no will to resist. She didn’t want to think about anything.

Still, she was fine.

Her posture, always upright, slumped. She didn’t chew through books, just skimmed diagonally. She slept in the hall, didn’t assign homework to Helio, nor review Mitchell’s budget proposal. She simply killed time.

Helio paced around her. She really didn’t seem human now. The boy realized what it meant to manipulate someone’s mind at will. He was filled with doubt.

Unable to watch any longer, Helio approached Sabina.

“I wish we could do something together.”

Sabina, eyes closed in the winter sun, lazily opened one eye. Her annoyingly beautiful face broke into a casual smile. It was pretty enough to make anyone blush, but… Helio felt sick.

“Shall we? Want to clean?”

Of course, the maids had already cleaned the house before the new year. Sabina meant sorting through old things. Helio nodded slightly.

“Follow me.”

The boy carried a box his size and followed Sabina.

“We’ll sort things we probably won’t use anymore.”

Books she didn’t like, ink that hardened because she saved it for its color, a broken box—all went into the box. Even things she could fix with magic, Sabina had no regrets.

“If we haven’t used it so far, we won’t use it in the future.”