Riv hoped he would never have to find out.
Even if he looked, he likely wouldn’t have noticed.
Her hand was starting to take shape again, but it still looked transparent.
‘This is not an illusion.’
Lionel hugged Riv for a while to soothe her.
“Riv, I’ll finish what I was doing and come back. Let’s sleep together.”
“Okay.”
“It won’t take long.”
Lionel repeatedly assured her, then disappeared into his room for a while.
The door between the two rooms remained open, but Lionel could not be seen through it.
Riv sat on the bed, her mind racing.
Her hand looked fine now, but she didn’t know when it would become transparent again.
‘I won’t be able to live past this year if things continue as they are.’
Her allotted time was up.
She changed Lionel’s fate through magic, but Riv wouldn’t be able to come back to life after she died.
She had already died once.
If she could only live up to the day she died, how many more days did she have left?
She remembered Philip’s warning, which she had been trying to ignore.
“I don’t want to admit it.”
Riv didn’t have time.
She opened her jewelry box and took out her necklace.
She pulled the Duchess’ ring out of the pendant.
The ruby’s clouded stone looked darker.
“I don’t want to disappear yet, please hold on.”
Riv begged the ring.
After agonizing over her situation for a while, Riv fell asleep as she waited for Lionel.
When she woke up, Lionel was sleeping peacefully next to her.
“……”
Riv stared at Lionel’s face as he slept.
The side of his face stood out clearly, even in the dark. She memorized the face in front of her.
It was a face she might never see again.
She would miss him so much that she became add*cted to this face.
Why did she fall in love with this man?
And why was fate so cruel?
Lionel seemed to have woken up from her gaze.
“Riv, you’re not sleeping?”
“I’m not sleepy.”
“Sleep. I know you like my face.”
“Hah.”
Riv scanned the contours of his face, which were clearly visible in the dark.
She reached out and swept his high nose, chin and the lines of his lips. Lionel opened his mouth and licked Riv’s fingertips.
Even though her fingertips had become transparent, he didn’t notice in the dark.
“Kiss me.”
Riv placed her hand on Lionel’s chest and kissed his lips.
A short and feathery kiss touched his lips briefly, but the feeling lingered for a long time.
“For some reason, I’m touched.”
Lionel hugged Riv by the waist and pulled her body against his.
“Sleep on my arm.”
“You’re kind today, Lionel.”
“When was I ever unkind?”
“You’re cold.”
“When?”
Riv laughed at Lionel’s incredulous voice.
She lay down on his arm, her back facing him.
Lionel’s hand ran down Riv’s spine, following the smooth indent.
“Hng!”
Riv let out a soft moan.
Lionel flipped her towards him. He hovered over her, casting a shadow over her body.
Riv lost her senses for a while.
She lost strength as Lionel lusted for her over and over again.
‘I don’t want to sleep tonight.’
She clung to Lionel to confirm that she was alive.
Thanks to this, she didn’t remember she wanted to check and see whether her fingertips had become transparent again.
She wouldn’t disappear right away, but Riv didn’t know how to live out the rest of her life.
No one knew what would happen to her in a few days, even if she was fine now.
Riv continued to stare at Lionel.
Her husband, her lover. He was her whole life.
***
Two days later, an unexpected guest visited Riv.
Claudel told her that a priest had come to see her.
“He said that he’s a Priest from the Bishop’s Church and that you know him.”
“Philip?”
“Do you know him?”
Riv let out a sigh.
She thought that she would only meet him in the South. Never here.
“His name is Philip Katana.”
“If he’s a Katana, then is he your step brother? The heir of the previous Count?”
“Yes.”
Claudel nodded her head.
Riv sighed. Why had he come to see her now?
Philip followed Riv like a ghost.
“Why did he come?”
“I’ll know when I meet him. Claudel, we can’t neglect guests, so please prepare tea in the first floor drawing room.”
Claudel led Philip to the drawing room on the first floor.
Philip, wearing a black cloak over his priest robes, looked as cold as ice.
“Duchess Olivia de Sentoren.”
Philip nodded his head arrogantly before taking off his cloak and facing Riv.
Even though he was middle aged, he had a deeply wrinkled face. He looked much older than when she saw him in Sentino Village.
Claudel served tea and sweets.
Riv asked for understanding from her maids.
“It seems that Priest Philip has something to say.”
“All right. Call me if you need me, Madame.”
After everyone was gone, Riv faced Philip.
Philip sat as still as a stone statue, barely blinking.
“What did you come here for, Philip?”
“I just wanted to tell you that your time is up, Duchess.”
“My time… is up?”
“You don’t know?”
What Riv had deliberately forgotten.
What she was trying to ignore.
Putting that aside, all that Riv knew about Philip was that he was the only son of the late Count Katana.
By the time she was born, he was already a priest, and he did not visit for the 14 years that she lived with the Count.
Then why did he start looking for Riv after her return? Before her return, she had no contact with him at all.
Riv was thinking that he might not be human.
She had already seen something ominous in his shadow.
“Do you want me to disappear?”
Riv’s gaze naturally turned to Philip’s gloomy shadow.
His shadow formed the silhouette of a grim reaper, wielding a scythe menacingly.
Riv smiled sadly.
“You really are a reaper.”
Her life flashed before her eyes like a mirage.
An unhappy life. A second chance after being murdered by Marianne.
The moment when she married Lionel and became his wife.
When she separated from him, and when they reunited after she saved his life.
‘You must have watched all of this, reaper.’
“You are.”
He was the one who gave Riv 8 months.
Riv’s chest started to feel tight.
It became harder and harder to breathe as she confronted the man in front of her.
She wanted to cry as she recalled the moments when she had faced this man in the South.
“Please leave me alone.”
That was all Riv could say.
Philip opened his mouth at length.
“Are you happy, Duchess?”
“My husband makes me happy.”
Philip stared at Riv’s form.
He opened his mouth as he carefully examined her elegant and delicate figure.
“The Duchess looks a lot like her mother.”
“Mother? Why are you suddenly bringing up my mother?”
Riv was stunned at the reaper’s words.
“Did you know my mother?”
Come to think of it, this man was dead, so he might have met Riv’s mother.
“Yes. She asked for something from this body.”
“You’re lying.”
“The Duchess looks a lot like her.”
Riv thought that he might be arousing her sympathy to make her stop using magic.
Out of habit, she fiddled with her pendant, which contained a portrait of her mother.
Even if Philip wasn’t lying, his words didn’t mean much.
Until he continued.
“You have inherited witch’s blood.”
“What?”
Philip stared directly at Riv.
“Shana, your mother, was a witch. And you are a witch too.”
“Don’t say that without proof.”
Riv casually tried to deny it.
But Philip continued still.
“The Duchess’ body isn’t normal anymore. Your body is at its limit. Shana knew that. She predicted it correctly.”
Riv began to find it difficult to tell whether the man in front of her was a reaper or the real Philip Katana.
“…How?”
“She was a witch of time.”
Philip did not explain further.
Riv didn’t understand.
“Shana was always concerned about the side effects of magic. Did you know that the bigger the spell, the higher the cost?”
“I-I.”
Riv stuttered.
She turned back time and changed her destiny.
“I’m alive, wasn’t it for Lionel?”
“It would have been impossible if your mother had not been a witch.”
Riv was even more confused. Her head began to throb.
One thing was certain; her magic was not permanent. There was an end to it.
Only an omnipotent god could perform magic without limits.
Riv, too, had to pay the price for her magic.
“The church observed wizards and witches and came to the conclusion that magic is dangerous. They also learned that the greater the magic, the more destructive its end.”
In Philip’s eyes, his memory of Shana from twenty years ago overlapped with her daughter, Riv.
“You must gather your magic, Duchess.”
Riv realized the irony in his words.
Before her return, she was murdered.
And now…
“End it yourself.”
***