Chapter 73
When the man in the black mask disappeared, Lisbeth immediately pulled aside the peach-colored drape and stepped into the room he had come from.
What she encountered inside was something she had never anticipated. It was so bewildering that she could hardly comprehend what she was seeing.
After scanning the room for a moment, Lisbeth doubted her own eyes.
‘I haven’t done anything yet…’
The room had a large mirror covering one side of the wall.
The man she had been searching for was sprawled out on the floor, stripped of his pants and mask.
‘Who on earth…’
No, there was no need to wonder.
Lisbeth turned back, retracing the steps of the man who had brushed past her earlier.
A sense of foreboding crept over her.
Left alone, Elysia waited for the Emperor to arrive.
All the while, the frown etched between her brows never eased.
The unfamiliar atmosphere and the constant exchanges with strangers weighed heavily on her, exhausting her to the core.
‘Maybe I should take a break until the Emperor arrives.’
The bright vermilion lights stung her eyes.
Eventually, unable to bear it any longer, Elysia turned to slip out to the terrace.
“Ah!”
She let out a short gasp as she collided with someone behind her.
“I’m so sorry.”
Her nose hurt where the mask had pressed against it.
Elysia lightly lifted the mask from her nose with her index finger and winced as she apologized.
Once the pain subsided, what filled her vision wasn’t a face, but a chest.
A black suit and crisp white shirt stood out vividly before her eyes.
He seemed tall.
Embarrassed to be staring at his chest instead of his face, Elysia parted her lips awkwardly.
Then, slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet his eyes.
“……”
Their eyes locked.
The man said nothing in response to her apology.
He simply looked down at her in silence.
Tilting her head slightly, Elysia stepped back.
Normally, she would have just muttered another apology and walked away.
But she couldn’t—not after seeing the color of his eyes behind the mask.
‘Purple.’
The same as Eden’s.
That old, bad habit of hers reared its head again.
Startled, Elysia froze for a moment.
The man continued to gaze at her in silence, the corners of his lips slowly curling upward.
Since his mask only covered the eye area, his mouth was fully exposed.
When his lips curved into a beautiful arc, Elysia’s body stiffened as if she couldn’t breathe.
Was it because of the strange aura radiating from him?
No, that was only a secondary issue.
What truly rattled her was the sudden appearance of a band-like scar just below his jaw, right on his neck.
‘That wasn’t there before…’
Purple eyes and a prominent scar across the center of his throat—
They reminded her of someone.
No. That couldn’t be.
Back then, what Eden wore around his neck was a choker, not a scar.
Though it was possible an untreated wound had turned into a scar… she had never confirmed it. It could just be her imagination.
Elysia blinked once. The scar that had shocked her so deeply was gone.
“……?”
She pressed a hand over her mouth, her body trembling uncontrollably.
The first question that filled her mind was Why?
Was the scar’s sudden appearance and disappearance just a coincidence? Or was it his mistake?
Perhaps it was all in her head—but it felt as if the man had shown it to her on purpose.
‘Could it be… could it really be…?’
Elysia felt as though she knew who the man behind the mask was.
The man in the black mask seemed almost to be asking her to recognize him.
At least, that was how it felt to her.
But at the same time, she denied her own thoughts.
It couldn’t be.
The man standing before her could not be Eden.
Elysia clung to that denial, but then the man spoke, as if sensing her resistance.
“I’ve missed you.”
His slow, deliberate tone carried a voice that pierced through the surrounding noise, sweet and soft.
And the words themselves were just as sweet.
But Elysia’s trembling didn’t stop—it only grew worse.
“Ah… ahh…”
Tears welled in her bloodshot eyes.
She could only stare up at the man before her, lips parted in shock, unable to speak.
After quietly watching her for a moment, the man turned his back.
Elysia’s shoulders shook violently.
As he melted into the crowd, Elysia hurried after him.
Though she was the one doing the chasing, she looked like the one being chased, her movements frantic.
“Why… why…!”
Unlike the man who moved gracefully forward, Elysia struggled to push through the people around her, each step a battle.
“Excuse me, please… excuse me. I’m sorry.”
But her efforts were in vain—she lost him.
Scanning her surroundings desperately, all she saw were masked faces.
For a moment, she wondered if giving up would be easier.
“Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe it was just… an illusion.”
After all, how could a scar appear and disappear like that?
She began rationalizing, praying that he wasn’t Eden.
Then suddenly, a new thought struck her—and she despaired.
‘He seemed to recognize me. But I told Pi to erase Eden’s memories…’
Eden didn’t seem to have forgotten her at all.
If that man really was Eden.
‘Why didn’t you forget? Why do you still remember me?!’
The thought that Eden had lived all this time with his memories intact filled her with guilt and pity.
She wanted to run away.
And yet, she kept searching for the man she believed to be Eden…
—I’ve missed you.
Because of the first words he spoke when they met again.
Elysia finally broke free from the crowd and gasped for breath, lifting her head.
Just as she was about to despair at having lost Eden for good—
“!”
She spotted him heading out toward the terrace.
Quickly composing herself, she hurried after him.
At the terrace door, she stopped for a moment instead of stepping out.
Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t calm down.
Several deep breaths later, she slowly reached up, drew aside the curtain blocking the terrace door, and pushed the glass open.
“……”
Outside, in stark contrast to the bright lights inside, it was dark.
Elysia stepped onto the terrace, glancing around for Eden.
“E…den?”
The terrace was empty.
Not a single person—not Eden, not anyone. All she heard was the rustling of leaves in the breeze.
Had she really imagined it all?
“…Ha… haha…”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
She felt like a fool.
“…Phew…”
After standing there for a while, laughing weakly, her expression hardened.
Just as she turned to go back inside—
“Leaving already?”
A sudden voice stopped her in her tracks.
“……”
There had been no one on the terrace a moment ago. Yet the voice came from right behind her.
So I wasn’t mistaken.
It didn’t sound like the Eden she remembered.
But of course—back then, Eden had been a boy.
Years had passed since then. Just as she and Ariel had grown into adults, so had he.
Slowly, Elysia turned around.
“…Eden.”
At the sound of his name, Eden removed the mask covering his face.
What lay beneath defied all her expectations.
The radiant, jewel-like eyes beneath snowy lashes almost made her believe he was casting a spell on her.
There was a reason everyone in the original story had praised Eden’s beauty.
Elysia closed her eyes briefly to steady herself.
As her reason returned, a surge of darkness rose within her.
“Why… why do you still remember me…?”
He was supposed to have forgotten her. So why?
Burying her face in her hands, Elysia trembled. If Eden remembered her, then he also remembered the violence of his father—the abuse.
He had carried those memories all these years?
The thought sent a chill through her.
Elysia recalled the cruel words she had once thrown at him—
—I don’t need you.
She had believed magic would erase his memories.
She had counted on that—
And because of it, she had brushed off the pleading hands of a crying boy.
“How could I ever forget you?”
Eden slipped off his gloves as he spoke.
His face brimmed with a tension and excitement like a man confessing to his beloved.
He moved toward her with unhurried steps.
The sound of his footsteps made her flinch and step back.
When her back hit the terrace door, the curtain behind it slid closed with a whisper.
It was Eden’s magic.
Startled, Elysia darted a glance over her shoulder.
“I’ve lived all this time for the sole purpose of seeing you again.”
A shadow fell across her face.
If she wasn’t careful, her face would brush against his chest. She sucked in a breath.
Though she was trembling, Eden didn’t let her go.
If anything, her obvious awareness of him seemed to please him. He gripped a lock of her hair and kissed her.
The sensation of his lips left Elysia breathless, as though the air had been stolen from her lungs.
“You may have wanted me to forget…”
His wounded voice followed.
Each word gnawed away at Elysia’s sanity.
“Elysia.”
When he spoke her name, she raised her downcast eyes to meet his gaze.
Eden looked at her and smiled—a smile full of intent.
As his hand released her hair, her sleek black strands slipped forward, falling across her collarbone.
The delicate dip of her collarbone reflected in his eyes.
Her small, fragile frame—the stark contrast to his own—stoked the flames of his restrained desire.
He longed to bind her to him completely.
The more reason yielded to craving, the drier his throat became.
He was parched—not just inside his throat but even his lips.
He ran his tongue over his lips.
He had to resist. A single reckless impulse could destroy the rest of his life.
In a desperate bid for control, he clenched his own throat, then released it.
He hadn’t squeezed hard enough to leave a mark—the pale skin remained unblemished.
Gradually regaining his composure, Eden blinked slowly.
His fluttering white lashes and angelic beauty masked the raw hunger within.
Watching him silently, Elysia drifted into a fleeting, surreal thought.
“Am I still… not enough to stand by your side?”
Bathed in the faint light that pierced the darkness, Eden looked almost angelic.
But Elysia knew better.
It was an illusion born of his beauty.
He was no angel.
“I only regret that your father died before I could prove my worth.”
That would have been the simplest way.
Those words left no room for doubt.
Elysia realized the truth with cold clarity.
Eden was no angel come to forgive her sins—
He was merely a man, broken and bound by a twisted kind of love.
