Chapter 297
It took Kazhan a moment to fully process her words. Frozen as if unable to grasp reality, his gaze slowly traced Ysaris’s face, searching for something beneath her words.
“You’ll stay by my side?”
“As your wife. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Kazhan didn’t answer. Even if her words were true, he simply stared at her, silent—as if confronted by something incomprehensible.
“…What’s wrong, Kazhan?”
Only when Ysaris pressed him did he react. But instead of relief, his voice carried suspicion.
“This is strange. Truly strange.”
“What is?”
“Why would you say this to me?”
Why?
Ysaris hesitated, struggling to parse his reaction, then answered calmly.
“I told you. I came here to wake you.”
“So this really is my dream, and the real you entered to rouse me from slumber? All for a future together?”
Even as he said it, his brow furrowed, as if the idea itself were absurd. Too fantastical to believe.
“Why?”
Raw disbelief. Not the irritation of being deceived, but genuine confusion at something beyond his understanding.
“If this is a ploy to drag me from paradise, wouldn’t stabbing me be simpler?”
“…You don’t believe me at all.”
“I’d like to be fooled, but this time, you’ve overplayed your hand, Ysaa. The real you would never do this.”
Kazhan pressed his cheek further into her palm, taunting. Yet Ysaris didn’t pull away or frown—just held his gaze as his crimson eyes dissected her.
“If you wanted to deceive me, you should’ve acted more convincingly. I know exactly how the real you feels about me.”
“……”
Ysaris’s lips parted, then sealed. The memory of their last moments together in reality surfaced.
She, too, had once viewed Kazhan through distorted lenses, distrusting him. Could she blame him for doubting her now?
Her face clouded as she stared at him, lost. How could she convince him? How could she make him understand?
“What must I do for you to believe me? I just want to save you—”
Trust, once broken, is slow to mend. Ysaris knew this firsthand.
When she’d realized Kazhan deceived her during her amnesia, her shattered faith had taken years to rebuild.
This wasn’t the same, yet the weight of prejudice remained—a fortress just as immovable.
“Why chase my belief? You don’t need it. I’d grant anything you ask, even without your efforts.”
“You’d heed my words… without trusting me?”
The contradiction made her blurt the question. His reply was simple.
“Yes. If ending my time here is your wish, I’ll comply. I don’t know how, but I’ll cooperate.”
“…Why?”
This time, Ysaris was the one asking. Even knowing it wouldn’t help, she couldn’t stop.
“You’d abandon your paradise for the whim of someone you think is an illusion? How?”
After dying for me countless times. Even now, when you see me as nothing but a fragment of your nightmares.
“Am I… still precious to you like this?”
Her voice cracked. An indescribable expression flickered across her face, reflected in his red eyes.
What she felt was sorrow masquerading as rage. A suffocating frustration with no clear target.
The more she understood Kazhan’s perspective, the more it hurt. She couldn’t fathom how deeply her existence had wounded him.
Yet, unlike her turmoil, Kazhan answered without hesitation.
“Because it’s you.”
A pause. Then, quieter.
“Even if this is a dream—even if you’re a lie—I’ve never been able to refuse you.”
His hand tightened over hers, pressing her palm harder against his cheek.
“So tell me, Ysaris. What must I do to wake up?”
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