"It's because you haven't remembered your past with him," explained Cayn, who approached while pointing at Aldis with his forehead, as if reluctant to mention the Demon General's name.
Aldis hissed at Cayn and snorted. He no longer attacked Cayn because Tsana had asked him not to. He didn't know the exact reason why Tsana forbade him from attacking Cayn when they were clearly enemies. But, as Tsana's most loyal subordinate, he clearly could not disobey his Master's command.
Cayn extended his hand to Tsana, and Tsana took it, before Cayn pulled Tsana up to stand.
"I see," Tsana murmured.
She remembered that before she released Kylos, she had remembered her past with Kylos. So the requirement to be able to release her bond with the Demon Generals was that she had to remember their past together.
"In that case, what triggers the memory to surface?" Tsana asked.
Cayn shook his head. "I don't know that either."
Tsana tried to recall what happened before she managed to remember her past with Kylos.
But all she remembered was seeing Kylos's figure as a small child overlapping with the adult Kylos.
But earlier she also saw little Aldis's figure, who was the figure of a crying dog-human monster child. That means that was not the trigger.
Then what was it?
"Could it be-"
Tsana just realized that she hadn't fully remembered her past with Aldis.
When she released Kylos, she remembered her past with Kylos, when she first took Kylos in and raised him until he grew up. However, she hadn't remembered the beginning of her meeting and life with Aldis.
Could it be that she had to remember all her past with Aldis before she could release him?
Tsana understood now.
★★★
Cayn brought Tsana up onto a wide hill not far from the previous location. Although Aldis voiced his disagreement, he couldn't do anything if Tsana herself agreed with Cayn.
The two now sat on a large rock there, staring at the starlit sky.
This place was spacious, coupled with the hill's considerable height, and it wasn't crowded with tall and large trees, so the view of the sky was clearly visible from here.
"I haven't asked this since we left the First Time Dimension." Cayn broke the silence. "How do you feel after remembering your childhood?"
Tsana placed her wooden stick on her lap and stroked it gently. "I'm relieved."
She was relieved that Cayn had helped her. She was relieved that Cayn had been her reason to keep living at that time, and she was relieved that she and Cayn were not enemies when they first met.
Tsana felt a gentle stroke on her cheek, and it turned out Cayn was stroking Tsana's cheek with his fingers.
"What makes you relieved?" Cayn asked.
Tsana smiled softly. "Because you became my reason to keep living."
Cayn's heart felt tickled hearing Tsana's honest answer, and his eyes looked at the wooden stick on Tsana's lap. "Even now you still keep that stick."
Tsana nodded. "Even though I forgot all my past, somehow my heart always told me that this stick was very important, and I shouldn't lose it."
Cayn's eyes grew dimmer, and his voice deepened, as if wanting to drown Tsana in it. "Did you ever lose it?"
Tsana nodded. "Yes, it happened about 300 years ago. This stick fell into the sea while I was sailing intercontinentally. Then, without a second thought, I immediately jumped into the sea to retrieve it, although in the end I had to drift for days in the ocean until I finally reached land-" (Imagine Tsana chibi version drifting in the ocean)
Just as Tsana finished her last sentence, suddenly her body was pushed backward so her back hit the rock, before she felt something heavy pressing down on her.
Tsana saw Cayn on top of her, staring at her with languid eyes full of desire. He pressed his body closer to Tsana's, which made Tsana feel a pleasant electric current running through her skin.
Cayn's voice was hoarse and sounded deeper than before. His languid eyes were slightly watery, and a red blush adorned his face. His appearance was sweet yet still masculine, gentle yet fierce at the same time. "May I kiss you now?"
Tsana didn't answer, but her eyes were not much different from Cayn's. It felt like something was tickling her heart, and the feeling was very pleasant. Both her hands lifted up and looped around Cayn's neck.
Cayn took the action as a sign of consent from Tsana.
Then he immediately devoured Tsana's pink lips eagerly. His movements were neither hurried nor too slow, seemingly savoring every intoxicating touch.
Meanwhile, Tsana closed both her eyes. This was the first time she had felt such a pleasant sensation. She felt like she wanted to keep doing this all day long.
Cayn looked at Tsana's face, and he became more excited when he saw Tsana's face enjoying it too.
Cayn pressed his body further against Tsana's body, as if he wanted their bodies to unite as if they couldn't be separated.
Cayn released the kiss and looked at Tsana's beautiful green eyes. He gently kissed those eyes, then continued to her nose, then her lips, chin, neck, shoulder, chest, and Tsana's stomach, right above the curse mark.
Tsana sat back up and touched Cayn's face, which was still in front of her stomach, using both her hands.
Suddenly, Tsana flinched.
As she looked at Cayn's face, the image of the giant red eye in the sky and Cayn's body being torn apart by iron chains in front of her appeared like random images in her head, which made her ears ring and her head hurt.
"Tsana? What's wrong?"
Cayn, seeing that something was wrong with Tsana, immediately sat down next to Tsana to check on her.
However, his eyes immediately widened when he saw fresh blood flowing from Tsana's mouth.
"Tsana-"
At the same time, Cayn felt the scenery around him spinning strangely, his ears also ringing intensely, and suddenly, a memory that he had been trying to erase and desperately wanted to forget surfaced.
Before him, he saw the lifeless body of a woman, sitting with her body bowed forward and her forehead touching the ground. Her face was not visible, but the wavy green hair would not be able to hide the woman's identity. Hundreds of arrows were stuck in her body, tearing her flesh brutally.
And at the same time, the curse mark on Tsana's stomach became active, and also the thirty percent of the curse that Cayn had transferred to his own body also became active.
Elongated black tendrils writhed like snakes from their curse marks.
The curse mark that Cayn transferred from Tsana's body was on his wrist, so the black tendrils spread from there.
Cold sweat poured down both their faces, but the color of Tsana's face was worse than Cayn's.
Despite the pain, Cayn still tried to reach Tsana, and channeled mana energy into his palm. A glowing gold light appeared from Cayn's palm, then he placed it on Tsana's stomach, before channeling his mana energy into Tsana's body.
Meanwhile, Tsana, half-conscious, looked weakly at Cayn. A tear escaped her green eye, and a faint sob was heard. "I'm sorry."
Cayn flinched. The memory of the woman with hundreds of arrows in her body and Tsana's face before him currently overlapped. Both figures uttered the word 'sorry' in the same way, making the pain in Cayn's heart grow even greater.
"Please don't apologize." Cayn pressed his forehead to Tsana's forehead, tears also escaped from her golden eyes. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. All of this is my fault."