MIIS 7

Chapter 7

A quiet estate.

The tranquil noon sunlight slipped over the glass windows, illuminating the hazy dust in the air.

Azel, shut away in the darkness, gazed upon that peaceful scene from afar.

His mind was tangled, his insides even noisier than that—what he needed most was time to think.

—

“I’ll give your life back to you.”

—

The woman who had said those words was now imprisoned.

She had been removed from his sight, so she shouldn’t have lingered in his thoughts—but as time passed, her face only grew clearer.

—

“Azel.”

—

She had acted as though she knew him well.

‘She even claimed to know this place.’

On the day Seymour delivered his report—

When his subordinate said she had wandered through the estate with nostalgic eyes, Azel sank into even deeper contemplation.

—

“So that’s what it was. That’s what it was.”

—

His mind, stripped of forgetfulness, remembered every word she had muttered under her breath.

Yet he could not remember the meaning of those words—nor the woman herself.

‘It was like that from the start.’

He had merely asked who she was, yet she startled on her own, realized something on her own, and finally hurt herself on her own.

With painfully aching eyes, with a voice steeped in sorrow, she called his name—yet she revealed nothing of the truth.

And yet, he couldn’t simply turn away.

Because of her gaze.

Eyes that held faint resentment soon spilled forth a grief far greater, silently pouring out. And strangely, what remained at the end was neither resentment nor sorrow.

Affection.

That radiant affection—so old it had worn itself thin—was something even he could not pretend not to recognize.

‘Why can’t I remember?’

Of course, he couldn’t believe everything the woman said.

But.

Even so…

“My lord.”

At that moment, a voice cut through Azel’s long chain of thoughts.

“Are you all right?”

It was Seymour, who had been carefully observing his master’s condition.

“How is the woman?”

“The same as yesterday. She’s still pounding on the walls. She appeared quite unstable.”

Upon hearing of her condition, Azel fell into thought once more.

‘She really does know this place.’

There was one secret hidden within the prison.

A contingency left behind by the estate’s architect—an escape mechanism, in case the owner himself were ever captured by enemies.

Only Azel knew of it.

Yet the woman had begun searching for the mechanism almost immediately after being imprisoned.

‘If I hadn’t disabled it beforehand, she would’ve escaped right away.’

Should he kill her after all?

The feral monster within him, stirred by this unfamiliar situation, whispered that he should simply remove what irritated him.

‘But I can’t.’

If the woman truly was the only one who could free him from this horrific cycle, then this impulse had to be restrained.

‘And if she’s lying… then I can make her pay dearly for deceiving me.’

As countless thoughts boiled beneath his expressionless face—

The door opened, and another subordinate entered.

“My lord, you should come.”

“What is it?”

“The woman has escaped.”

For the first time, a crack appeared in Azel’s impassive expression.

‘This damn house. It’s pointlessly huge.’

If my language was getting rougher, that was purely coincidental.

‘More importantly, this hurts like hell.’

After enthusiastically punching walls barehanded for an entire day, it was a miracle my hands were still usable.

But staring at my swollen hands just made me angry for another reason.

‘If it were that easy to escape, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble.’

The method I used to break out of prison was nothing special.

In a fit of despair, I stabbed the lock a few times with the silver pin from the brooch on my clothes—and the door opened.

Yes. That was all it took.

What I felt in that moment wasn’t joy, but rage.

‘You cursed latent talent.’

I didn’t want to discover a new skill like this.

Fortunately, that anger didn’t last long.

“…So it really is pink hair.”

As I walked down the empty corridor, I finally caught sight of my reflection in the glass.

I’d already known my hair color from the way it brushed against my waist, but this was the first time I’d properly seen myself.

“…Hmm.”

My assessment was simple.

I was ridiculously pretty.

‘That bastard Azel—turns out he’s more shallow than I thought.’

A sharp nose, lake-like eyes.

And that fair, clear skin that perfectly highlighted my luscious pink hair.

Even my worn, haggard expression from all the suffering only added to my pure, delicate charm.

‘The kind of beauty that looks like she has a tragic backstory.’

No wonder he’d calmly listened to my insane rambling when I suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was all thanks to this face.

‘Possession isn’t as bad as I thought.’

Just as my generosity of spirit was rapidly increasing, the person I’d been waiting for appeared right on cue.

“You look more relaxed than I expected.”

As expected, it was Azel.

“I thought you’d be running around like a spooked colt.”

But the Azel inside my head had long since been downgraded to an ordinary face-lover.

I wasn’t afraid anymore.

“I had no intention of running.”

“For someone like that, you caused quite a commotion.”

“I just didn’t want to stay in there.”

“Why? If you’d behaved yourself, I might’ve spared your life.”

For a moment, I nearly snapped don’t bullshit me, but thankfully I still lacked that level of courage.

“I wouldn’t have been able to see you.”

“What?”

“I missed you.”

“…!”

“I wanted to see you just a little longer—to talk face to face. But you kept avoiding me. That’s why I forced myself out. Because I missed you so much.”

Silence fell instantly.

At my calm words, Azel’s gaze wavered, as if he couldn’t find a response.

‘Oh?’

It was brief—but unmistakable.

He was shaken.

Something I’d said without much thought had produced an unexpected effect. Based on that, I needed to revise my plan on the spot.

‘I was planning to negotiate more, but maybe I should push the emotional angle first?’

My mind began spinning rapidly.

Anything—as long as I avoided being thrown back into that prison.

‘She missed me?’

When the exhausted-looking woman said that, Azel was momentarily flustered.

‘Why?’

He didn’t know himself. He was simply at a loss for words.

“Azel!”

Suddenly, the woman shouted urgently.

Wondering what kind of trick she was pulling this time, he watched as she rushed over and grabbed his hand.

“…!”

Startled by the sudden contact, he nearly slapped her hand away on instinct.

But she paid it no mind, focusing only on his palm.

“What is this? You’re hurt.”

Only then did he realize she was talking about the wound on his hand—a small injury from when he’d clenched his fist two days ago after hearing that his eternal life would never end.

‘It’s nothing worth making that face over.’

A wound made by fingernails digging into flesh couldn’t be that serious.

Yet the woman looked utterly distressed over something barely worthy of being called a scratch.

‘And what about her own hands, swollen and bruised?’

Perhaps because of that, Azel found himself asking without thinking—

“What’s your name?”

“Ah…”

He swore it was a mistake.

It wasn’t a question that fit the situation, nor was he truly curious.

Just a slip of the tongue.

Nothing more.

But at that small mistake, the woman looked as though her world had collapsed all over again.

It would’ve been normal to find her ridiculous—crying and laughing over a single word from him—yet somehow, he didn’t even feel like mocking her.

“I see. Right… my name. You don’t know my name.”

Countless inner conflicts circled the edges of her tightly pressed lips, then vanished.

Because of that expression, Azel now truly wanted to know her name.

“Tell me. What is your name?”

‘…My name?’

Cold sweat ran down my back at the completely unexpected question.

I’d only just learned what I looked like—how was I supposed to know my name?!

‘Park Chun-bae wouldn’t work, would it?’

Every time I played the game, I used nicknames like ParkChun-bae1, ParkChun-bae1054, or ParkChun-baeDeliveryNation119.

There was no way someone like me had any talent for fantasy-style naming.

‘I can pick a prison lock, but I can’t come up with a name?!’

Self-loathing washed over me, but Azel’s serious expression as he waited for my answer made my anxiety skyrocket.

“……”

As the silence dragged on, suspicion and wariness naturally crept into the red eyes watching me.

I really had to say something now.

In the end, my choice was—

“Then… will you give me one?”

A flawless transfer of responsibility.