Demeter bit her lip as she watched Dio, clearly already lost in sleep, uncertainty welling up inside her.
Moonlight streamed through the window at an angle, spreading a pool of silver across the floor.
The room was so quiet that she could hear his slow, even breathing and see the soft outline the moon traced around his sleeping form.
He was not an especially tidy sleeper.
The blanket had been kicked aside, and one arm hung over the edge of the bed, his fingers faintly curled as though he were still gripping something in his dreams.
The face that usually wore a shameless grin looked unusually peaceful beneath the moonlight, almost boyish.
With every mask stripped away, he seemed like nothing more than an ordinary, exhausted young man.
Demeter lay beside him.
Since they had begun sharing a room, this was the first time she had studied his sleeping face so closely in the stillness of the night.
Usually, she maintained the dignity and distance expected of a goddess.
Even when they slept in the same room, she deliberately turned her back to him or stayed awake reading manga on his phone until long after he had fallen asleep.
Tonight was different.
Something seemed lodged inside her chest, leaving her restless and uncomfortable.
She knew perfectly well that Dio had no intention of taking her with him when he left this world.
He had spoken with almost disarming honesty when he revealed his secrets earlier that day, but Demeter understood better than anyone that honesty did not necessarily mean trust.
He had only laid his cards on the table because he knew he could not leave yet.
The moment the Dimensional Gate finished cooling down, he would open it without hesitation and depart without looking back.
He might not say goodbye.
He might leave no final message at all, disappearing as quietly as he had arrived.
When Demeter woke the following morning, she might find nothing but an empty bed and the faint trace of his scent lingering in the room.
Beneath his careless attitude, filthy jokes, lust, and cowardice, Dio was more clearheaded and detached than anyone she knew.
He felt no real attachment to this world or its people.
The laughter, arguments, teasing, and seemingly intimate moments were all masks he used to put those around him at ease.
Inside his heart, the boundary had already been drawn.
The people of this world were them.
And he was alone on the other side.
If Demeter wanted him to take her along, she would first have to earn his complete trust.
Yet that was precisely what made the situation impossible.
Dio did not fully trust anyone.
Demeter could easily imagine that even if she tried everything—even if she truly became intimate with him and left an irreplaceable mark upon his body—he would still maintain that calm, invisible distance.
He would enjoy her body, her tenderness, and every passionate moment they shared, but none of it would be enough to make him surrender his trust.
Demeter lifted one hand and held her fingertips just above Dio’s cheek, nearly touching his skin.
She could feel the warmth radiating from him and catch the familiar clean scent of soap lingering on his body.
Her hand trembled faintly.
In the end, she pulled it back.
Demeter rolled over and turned her back to him, burying her face in the pillow as a quiet, nearly inaudible sigh escaped her.
“What do I have to do to make you truly trust me?”
Her voice was as light as a feather settling upon water, so faint that even she could barely hear it.
A night breeze slipped through the gap in the window and stirred the flame of the oil lamp on the table.
Its dim yellow glow flickered, causing the shadows around the room to shift as though something unseen were moving silently through the darkness.
And somewhere Demeter could not see, deep within Dio’s consciousness.
…
He had once again entered Riveria’s dream.
This dream was completely different from the last.
When Dio had first entered Riveria’s dreams, he had created a magnificent sea of stars filled with intimate light and flowing ribbons of color.
The entire world had felt soft and sweet, and Riveria had cast aside all her defenses, becoming as passionate and uninhibited as a flame freed from its restraints.
This time, the dream was much colder and more solemn.
Dio’s consciousness slowly took shape within a bank of pale gray mist, like a bubble rising from the depths of sleep.
The air around him was cold and damp, carrying the silence and emptiness of a forest far removed from civilization.
Soft moss and soil pressed beneath his feet, while the branches of ancient trees formed an endless canopy overhead.
Only a few thin shafts of moonlight slipped through the leaves, scattering broken patterns across the ground.
Dio looked around and found himself standing in an ancient forest.
The trees were impossibly tall, their trunks so broad that several people joining hands would still struggle to encircle them.
Thick moss covered their bark, making them appear as though they had stood upon this land for thousands of years.
The scent of damp earth, decaying leaves, and fresh dew filled the air.
Somewhere in the distance, he could faintly hear the gentle murmur of a stream.
Beneath an especially enormous tree ahead of him stood Riveria, her back turned in his direction.
She was dressed nothing like the dignified mage he knew.
Instead of her simple robes, she wore a long silver-white gown whose hem trailed across the grass like strands woven from moonlight.
Her emerald hair was no longer tied back.
It flowed freely over her shoulders and down to her waist, glowing softly beneath the moon.
Even her posture differed from that of the composed and authoritative vice captain she presented to the world.
During his previous visit, everything had followed Dio’s direction.
He had woven the dream, chosen the setting, and gently guided Riveria’s mind toward those intimate fantasies.
This time was different.
Riveria’s own subconscious was shaping the dream.
Dio had done nothing more than use [Dreamwalker] to enter it.
He approached her without a sound, slipped his arms around her from behind, and rested his chin upon her shoulder.
Riveria’s body stiffened for a moment before gradually relaxing into his embrace.