天天精品

The sea.

I had been swallowing nervously and dreading how much Felix, who had given away a quarter of his soul to the devil, would change.

I made a puzzled expression for a moment.

Surprisingly, Felix seemed perfectly fine and without any signs of suffering. He looked just as usual.

The sea… Yes, let’s go to the sea.

The moment Felix woke up, the dozens of things that he most wanted to say probably instantly evaporated from his mind.

He just woke up after fainting, and yet he didn’t even inquire for the whole story of what had happened. He must have desperately wanted to go to the sea before anything else.

‘All right. If our angel wants to do it, we have to do it.’

I nodded without questioning his peculiar request.

He followed and matched my pace as we headed to the southern sea called the Mermaid’s Tears.

“Although it’s sudden, the sea is really beautiful,” I said as I squatted down on the sand.

During our time here, we had been so busy with the constant flow of incidents that we didn’t have any time to look at it properly.

If he chose to come here to actually rest, then I would praise him until all my saliva dried up in my mouth.

The roaring jade waves soaked my ankles and dragged the pure white sand along with it.

I peeled off the clamshell clinging onto the top of my foot and threw it back into the sea. The water was so clear and transparent that I could see the seashells that followed along with the waves.

I often compared Felix’s eyes to a lake. However, when I saw it like this, it actually looked more like the sea.

‘Well, they’re both beautiful, so I can’t tell which is better.’

Suddenly, I wanted to look into his eyes, so I raised my head. It was hard to see his face, let alone his eyes, since the sun was behind him, creating a backlight.

What made him want to come to the sea?

This was a trip, but it was undeniable that we couldn’t even enjoy it like an actual trip.

However, it was strange for Felix to suggest that we visit the sea as soon as he opened his eyes after passing out and giving a quarter of his soul to the devil.

The smell of the sea. The icy seawater soaking my feet. And the sound of the waves and seagulls. There was a strange sense of disharmony in it all to the point that everything felt so distant.

“Quite a lot of things happened…”

After reading the strange atmosphere, I tried to recount the events that had occurred in a bright voice.

It wasn’t hard to imitate a light-hearted tone as there were no distressing events except for Felix handing his soul to the devil.

“Chloe now has a contracted spirit, and thanks to that, I’m relieved.”

‘Because we now have a powerful ally on our side, too.’

Rumors would quickly spread that the island had submerged, and it was only a matter of time before it reached the ears of the three brothers, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it since we already got the spirit.

And since I had taken precautions to conceal our movements, it would take them some time before they could uncover the truth.

“In fact, I asked the Spirit of Life if he could purify mana, but he said it’s impossible unless one has the power of an angel or a god…”

I chatted to somehow alleviate this atmosphere, but, like an idiot, I directed the conversation to a grim place.

I just told a person – who had given a part of their soul and had just woken up – that it was even more complex to expel the devil from their body. I must be out of my mind.

However, Felix didn’t respond as if he had already roughly predicted this.

I awkwardly laughed and then changed the subject.

“Oh, the devil inside Felix is rather unusual.”

“Unusual?”

“That’s right. He’s a devil, so he’s devilish, but sometimes, I strangely see a human side.”

“…”

At that moment, I saw Felix’s mouth firmly harden.

“…He said that we’ll assimilate over time,” He mumbled quietly.

At those words, I stopped fiddling with my hands and looked up at him. I blinked for a moment.

Was this a fairy tale where things that were different become more alike and eventually became the same?

The devil and Felix.

Based on my personal experience, they were significantly different from each other.

But did that mean that one day Felix would assimilate to the devil, and vice versa?

If so, what would happen in the end? Sharing one body, growing alike, and then becoming each other. If they assimilated, could Felix and the devil still be considered as different individuals?

Swish–

A crab that was walking along the sandy beach was swept away by a low tide. Half mesmerized, I stared at it as it vanished.

Felix also remained motionless. His gaze was fixed on the horizon as if lost in thought.

A surge of pent-up frustration erupted, and I cried out, “Of course… I know!”

“What?”

“Of course, Felix and the devil are different!”

Even if they merged to the point where it was hard to recognize who the devil was or who Felix was, they wouldn’t be the same. They were fundamentally, completely different.

They were so different that I didn’t feel any emotional agitation when I saw the devil who occupied Felix’s body.

No matter how much Felix changed, he was still Felix. How many times did I have to tell him until he stopped endlessly tormenting himself?

After hearing that, he looked down at me and grinned brightly. I was ashamed of myself for raising my voice.

“Do you want to go into the sea?”

Huh, right now?

Summer. The sea. And swimming.

Even though there was no reason to feel any incompatibility, it was hard to follow his words.

An ominous intuition froze my heart. It felt like my heart, which was doing somersaults, suddenly sank.

Felix reached out to me. I recalled how he had been constantly afraid of carelessly grabbing my hand due to the fear of breaking it by mistake.

I wondered if he was all right with it now.

“I can’t swim.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t go too deep.”

I hesitated before grabbing his hand. Of course, my fingers didn’t break while holding his hand as he feared.

It wasn’t just my fingers. Felix supported my back, put his arm under my knees, and lifted me in a flash.

My vision was instantly flipped.

“Kyaa!”

“Hold on tight.”

He told me to hold on tight, but no matter where I held, I couldn’t calm my heart.

And just like that, I dazedly fell right into Felix’s arms. I clasped my fists firmly against my chest and blinked my eyes.

He was strange today. Usually, he would desperately avoid touching me, but today he held my hand first and embraced me without permission.

‘The last time I hugged you was just to survive.’

Why on earth was he doing this now?

It was so peculiar, but my heart was racing to the point that I felt dizzy, and I wasn’t capable of asking why.

When I looked up from this position, the pale face that shone brilliantly against the sea was dazzlingly beautiful.

Felix held me and trudged slowly along the path of the sun reflected on the surface of the water. It was as if hundreds of millions of lights had gathered to form a galaxy.

Before long, he stopped walking.

And he brought up words that made my uneasiness soar.

“Giving my soul to the devil was the worst choice.”

“It was your best shot.”

I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. Did he mean that it would have been better for us to die there?

Felix’s lips were twisted.

“If I died…”

“At least I wouldn’t kill you.”

That was what he said.

‘I’m going to hurt you,’ ‘I’m going to break you,’ but now he even said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’

Every time he was devoured by the devil, I wanted to force him to spit out what he was thinking so I could figure out how extreme he had changed.

It turned out that his present state, which seemed the most normal since embracing the power of the devil, was actually the edge of the limit.

“Are you going to leave?”

I had a hunch.

He acted as if he was saying his last goodbyes.

I wrapped my hands tightly around the nape of his neck. It was unsightly, but I desperately clung to him like a child who refused to be separated from their parents.

With a layer of clothing in between us, I hugged him unyieldingly and wrapped my legs around his waist.

“Why the hell are you so soft-hearted?” I whispered in his ear.

I clenched my teeth and let the tears fall.

“I was going to endure it somehow, but I didn’t want to show you my hell either.”

“You said you’d be responsible.”

“I was stripped of that qualification in the first place.”

Felix detached me from him more easily than removing a child’s hand off him. He placed me down into the sea as it was.

As he promised, it wasn’t too deep. The water rippled around my waist.

He heartlessly separated me from him, turned his back, and left. Whether it was land or water, he swiftly walked away without any disturbance in pace.

I immediately tried to chase after him, but it was hard to walk. My feet sank into the sand, and I repeatedly stumbled as I was swept by the waves.

The more I tripped and tried to move urgently, the more my legs became twisted.

That was why he brought me to the sea.

After dumping me into the sea, Felix left.

‘Are you going to abandon me like this?’

As I desperately reached for his back, Felix abruptly turned around. He approached me so quickly that my attempt to cling onto him and chase after him felt futile.

His expression was horribly stiff and terribly distorted. It was the face of a defeated soldier captured by the enemy.

He closed his eyes tightly as if he was in terrible pain and then opened them. His eyes were engulfed in the flames of hell.

My hair, which had been fluttering in the sea breeze, was helplessly wrapped around his hands.

The scent that instantly rushed in was refreshing and resembled Felix.

My head was bent, and something hot swallowed me.

At the same time, the explicit demonic desires poured out.

* * *