For Luise, dreams were not fantasies, but memories.

Not hollow illusions or impossible visions, but the replay of experiences she had truly lived.

For one who must live eternally, they were repetitive reminders, forcing her to revisit old days lest she forget them.

And among the many nightmares that came to her was the final day of Ideana.

Perhaps because of time, her father’s face in the dream was blurred. Yet even so, Luise feared it.

For on that day, his face had borne more fury than she had ever seen.

“Count! The House of Lester has declared war! They’ll join with the Holy Army and arrive in Recherdam soon—!”

“What?”

“They accuse us of heresy and treason!”

“How could they possibly know—!”

Count Felix Ideana raged at the messenger’s words, then suddenly turned his head.

At the end of his gaze stood Luise, silent, lips pressed shut.

“This is all your fault.”

It was the first time Luise had ever seen her father’s eyes turn so murderous.

That day, the moment after her heart was first pierced, the kind father she had known vanished, as though he had never existed.

No… had such a kind father ever truly existed at all?

“This happened because you smuggled out that slave!”

Felix roared at his daughter, who met his fury with defiant silence. His voice was the roar of a beast.

He had been furious ever since Luise had freed Shed Lupus.

Using her own power, she had silenced the knights and smuggled the slave Lupus out of Ideana’s lands.

By the time Felix realized and sent men after them, the swift merchant ship of the Vitel Company had already departed the harbor.

That his daughter could be capable of such cunning—his sense of betrayal cut deeper for it.

“Do you see? They’ve sent an army. They’re invading our lands!”

“…It was bound to happen anyway.”

“What…?”

“We committed crimes, and now we must pay the price.”

Luise met her father’s rage-filled eyes, her tone dry and calm.

Felix’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me… you leaked it yourself?”

Had she sent proof along with the slave?

At his question, Luise held her silence.

When she refused to deny it, Felix gripped the back of his neck, his veins standing out in relief.

Then—smack.

His large hand struck across Luise’s cheek.

Her body swayed violently, but she quickly steadied herself, standing firm.

Looking down at his daughter, who stood unfazed even after being struck, the Count’s lips twisted.

“By now, something like this shouldn’t even hurt, should it? Hm? With a body that regenerates endlessly, a slap across the face must feel like nothing more than a tickle.”

Felix muttered as he watched Luise’s cheek swell red, only to subside in the blink of an eye.

Before him, Luise bit her lips tightly.

‘No. It hurts, Father.’

The unspoken truth burned bitter at the tip of her tongue.

Just because her wounds healed quickly did not mean she had lost the sense of pain.

So every time he struck her, it hurt.

From a paper cut to her father’s sharp words and that unfamiliar, hostile gaze, everything hurt.

But Luise endured. She had to endure.

“Please stop, Father. This is wrong.”

“…Truly, you are a child who never listens.”

Felix’s clenched fist trembled.

Luise feared he might hit her again. Her heart pounded as though it would burst and she struggled to breathe.

Instead of hitting her, however, her father turned and strode towards the cabinet at the side of the room.

Startled, Luise instinctively scanned the cabinet for knives or other weapons.

Was he going to fetch a blade to stab her again?

But there were no weapons in sight.

Instead, Felix opened the lower drawer of the cabinet.

“Fine. Since you started this, you’ll be the one to finish it.”

From inside, he pulled out a green vial.

It bore the star of the Temple, the kind of vessel usually used to hold holy water.

Luise had no idea what her father was thinking.

Holding the vial, he approached her.

“Better this way. With this, we can deal with those Lester bastards and those idiot priests all at once.”

Felix twisted open the cap of the green vial lazily.

In that instant, Luise’s instincts told her what he intended to do.

Terrified, she tried to flee, but Felix ordered the knights to capture her.

“No!”

Luise thrashed around violently and screamed as a surge of power erupted from her body. The chamber shook and the windows shattered outward.

Felix gazed down at his daughter with cold, ice-blue eyes.

“Ha. So you won’t kill them—but you’ll let your family, your retainers, and your people die instead?”

At his words, Luise shook her head desperately.

‘No, I don’t want that. I won’t kill anyone.’

But while she faltered, the knights bound her with ropes soaked in holy water.

The instant they touched her, her skin seared as though burned.

She knew she could break free if she unleashed her power—but she was too afraid to use it.

The knights gripped her face, forcing her jaw open.

Felix came close and poured the liquid from the green vial into her mouth.

“Ugh—kugh…! Khh!”

The fl*id flooded down her throat, seeping deep into her body.

Luise did not know what the potion was.

But the moment she drank it, she felt heat spread violently through her body.

It felt as if her entire being had been engulfed in flames. Lava flowed through her veins, turning her brain to blackened ash. Then her world went dark.

All that remained was isolation and emptiness. It was as if she had been carved out of existence.

Even her body and mind no longer felt like her own.

The sense of ‘I’ was severed from the world, falling away — existing yet not existing — swallowed by unbearable loneliness.

When she regained her senses and opened her eyes, she saw a city blackened by corruption and stained crimson by death.

It was a land of death, where not a single living thing could be found.

There were collapsed temples and fallen walls, and bodies crushed into the ground — including her father.

“Ah… ah…”

Luise panted, staring down at her hands.

Her trembling palms were soaked in blood, dyed red.

Her frantic gaze turned wildly about—and there, beside her, loomed a great stone tablet.

『 God created mankind upon Paradise.
But the demon cast a black shadow over Paradise,
And so mankind came to know sorrow and rage, fear and hatred. 』

The ancient words, carved upon the ruined temple wall, stood tall amidst the wreckage, watching her.

Only then did she grasp what she had become.

For an instant, she wanted to tear herself apart, to annihilate her body entirely.

She hurled herself into death, screaming.

But nothing changed.

The legacy that her father had left her was terrifying in its enormity.

She lived.

Endlessly, eternally.

Before her eyes, she saw sin overflowing, and she cried for a long time.

She had never wished for this.

Not this ending… No, not this never-ending ending.

She wished she could turn back time to when she knew nothing.

She wanted to rip the memories from her mind and crush them beneath her heel like worms.

But the immortal are powerless.

Powerless against all sin, and powerless against all memory.

Luise realized she could never escape the yoke of this dreadful life.

And so the demon fled.

Fled from those she had once loved most.

Fled from the Paradise now draped in black shadow.

Thus Luise Ideana vanished, and in her place remained—

“…Mo… Mommy…!”

A sorrowful voice whispered by her ear.

Ah, yes.

Even in a life she had once longed to abandon, Luise now had a reason to live.

“Mommy, don’t die…!”

Warmth spread through her fingertips.

Luise clutched that small sensation with all her strength.

‘It’s all right, Eve. Mommy will protect you for as long as I live…’

With an effort heavy as lead, Luise lifted her eyelids.

“Mommy!”

Through her blurred vision, she faintly saw the small, golden-haired face.

She forced her stiff lips to curve upward.

‘Eve.’

She mouthed his name, but no sound came—only a faint breath slipping past her lips.

Then warmth rushed into her arms.

Wherever the child’s body touched hers, sensation returned, life grew vivid once more.

The suffocating nightmare that had crushed her faded instantly before this small child.

It was like light breaking through.

“Mommy, I thought you were going to die…!”

Between her trembling words came the sound of a sniffle.

At that quavering voice, Luise summoned what little strength she had left to whisper.

“Mommy isn’t going to die…”

Her words escaped in a leaking breath, her laugh faint and weak.

Yes. She had to live.

As her vision cleared bit by bit, she looked at Eve—who had climbed up close, clinging tight against her chest.

“I had a scary dream…! I—I…”

sniff

At her words, the hand she raised to soothe her faltered.

‘You too… you remember it all.’

The memory of rending the flesh of those she loved, of biting until their flesh tore away, of being drenched in their blood—she remembered everything.

Luise pulled Eve close into both arms.

“It’s all right, Eve. It was only a dream…”

“I’m scared. It wasn’t a dream. It felt real… Mommy, you’re hurt right now. It’s because of me…”

Burying her tear-stained, snot-streaked face in her chest, Eve’s voice trembled with confusion.

Memories so real that they blurred the line between reality and dreams, raw sensations and her mother’s pained body before her, making the nightmare feel real.

Luise kissed the top of her head.

“Look at me, Eve. See? I’m fine. Just a slight fever, nothing more.”

When Luise forced a smile, Eve’s lips trembled, but she nodded.