Ch.170The Man Who Left, The Woman Who Remained

After unpacking at Deidric Asmad’s brick house, I forced myself to take a nap so I could meet Anastasia as soon as possible.

There was no rush since I planned to stay at this house for the day anyway, but I wanted to settle our future schedule early to put my mind at ease.

“Oh? Coming to see me at this hour is quite unusual. Are you burning with desire because your lovers aren’t satisfying you?”

Anastasia greeted me in the white room of my dream, flaunting her glamorous true form while making suggestive jokes.

Even seeing her again, her incredible figure and provocative attire confirmed she was indeed a woman with the bewitching visuals befitting the Queen of the Succubi.

“Stop with the terrible jokes. Just imagining being rejected by all three makes me feel miserable.”

I responded to Anastasia’s joke with one of my own, then followed her gesture to sit across from her at an elegant table.

Knowing I needed to tell her about finding her husband’s belongings, I couldn’t be moved by her erotic appearance, widow or not.

“Unlike last time, you have a serious face. Did something troubling happen during your journey?”

“Troubling… I suppose you could say that. It’s related to your husband.”

I briefly explained how I discovered Deidric Asmad’s hidden brick house in ancient ruins while detouring through the swamplands, and about the memoir I found inside.

Anastasia seemed completely unaware of the house’s existence, her eyes widening as she asked:

“Is that true? He built a house for us to spend our remaining days together? Are you sure you didn’t mistake it for a laboratory or workshop?”

“Even as a Drifter, I wouldn’t confuse something like that. It was a brick house with a yard that couldn’t have been meant for anything but living in. He even inscribed in Arcane Words that it was a home for spending time with his loved one after solving the Black Mana problem.”

“If I had known such a place was prepared, I would have stayed by his side until the end instead of hiding alone in a safe place… No, that’s not right. Deidric would never have allowed such a choice. It must have been his declaration of intent to bring me there only after resolving everything.”

Anastasia wiped away tears with trembling hands, took a moment to compose herself, then asked me:

“So, what about this memoir you mentioned? Do you have it with you now?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have the talent to bring real objects into dreams. I can tell you the general contents, but if you want to know in detail, you’ll have to wait until we return to Riverside with it—”

“No, that won’t be necessary. You’re resting at that house right now, aren’t you? Let’s go see it right away.”

“Uh… how?”

“Succubi are a race that rules dreams. Traveling through dreams is easier than eating cold porridge. Close your eyes and picture that house.”

Saying this, Anastasia extended her slender finger to my forehead, urging me to close my eyes.

Following her instructions, I closed my eyes and pictured the brick house. I felt my body floating with a slight dizziness.

When I felt her finger leave my forehead and opened my eyes, Anastasia and I had somehow moved to the front of Deidric Asmad’s brick house in the western hills.

“Is this the place?”

“Yes, without a doubt.”

Anastasia walked around the house, taking in its appearance from various angles.

“It’s a nice house… modest, just like that man. How wonderful it would have been if we could have met again while he was alive and lived together in this house, staying by his side until the end…”

“……”

After examining everything—the wooden fence surrounding the house, the view of the surroundings from the hill, the mini garden by the window, and the vegetable patch in the yard—Anastasia finally opened the front door and went inside.

In the real brick house, the four women would be sitting in the living room resting by now, but the house in the dream felt both quiet and incredibly cozy.

After looking around every corner—the living room, kitchen, empty bedroom, and mini shower room—Anastasia returned to the living room and sat on the sofa. Silently, I took the Great Sage’s memoir from the table drawer and handed it to her.

“Would you like me to leave so you can read it alone?”

“No. Stay seated there. If I become too absorbed and forget this is your dream, I might wake up.”

“If that’s the case…”

While Anastasia read the Great Sage’s memoir, I sat quietly on the opposite sofa and waited.

As she carefully turned each page, savoring the contents, she looked more like a “widow” than a “succubus.”

After some time, when she closed the last page of the memoir, a gentle smile appeared on her face.

“Sigh… so he struggled to save the Human race despite such treatment. Truly a man without tact.”

“I suppose he had a sense of responsibility and duty. You, as his former wife, would know better than I do.”

“That’s right. The terrible nightmare that gnawed at Deidric’s heart was, in retrospect, probably born from his heavy responsibility and guilt.”

“Nightmare? Was that perhaps how you first met him?”

“Indeed it was. I was curious about who could produce such a terrible nightmare at the cost of their own soul, so I went to see, and there he was—treating me like an ancient demon and begging tearfully for my wisdom. He looked so pitiful yet showed such firm determination that I forgot the difference between monster and human races and fell for him completely.”

An ancient demon.

Certainly, a succubus could be considered a type of lesser demon, but for Deidric Asmad to beg such a being, he must have been driven to the edge.

Anastasia’s taste in falling for someone in such a devastated state is truly remarkable.

“So did you stay with Deidric Asmad from then on?”

“No. When we first met, there were still other scholars around, so as the leader of monsters, I couldn’t reveal myself freely. I could only hide in Deidric’s dreams, watch over his work, and take care of his health as it deteriorated from forbidden magic and drugs.”

“Thanks to you, he was able to persevere until achieving results in his later years. The Great Sage found himself a good wife.”

“Hehehe… praising me now won’t get you anything. I’m not in the mood to share another man’s bed.”

Anastasia, making sexual jokes until the end, carefully closed the memoir and placed it on the table.

“Today I received an unexpected gift from you all. I will prepare a generous reward for this.”

“What should we do with the physical memoir? It will take quite some time to bring it to Riverside.”

“As I said earlier, there’s no need to bring the physical item to me. You can keep it, sell it for money, or publish it to the world as you wish.”

“Are you sure that’s okay? It’s your husband’s memento.”

“For a succubus like me, what I’ve received through dreams is truly eternal. Material objects left in the physical world are merely memories that will eventually fade and crumble. It seems that for pioneers like you, everything left by my husband is valuable material, so Deidric would be happy to see it used meaningfully.”

Objects in dreams are eternal, while reality is but a fleeting memory?

As a human living in reality, it’s difficult to sympathize with such a perspective, but if she’s satisfied with that, there’s no need to decline further.

“OK, then we’ll keep this memoir and hand it over to the Pioneer Administration Office as soon as we reach the 6th Western City.”

“If you find any more of my husband’s belongings in the future, I’d appreciate if you’d share them with me through dreams first, like today. I want to know what achievements he made to save the Human race after we parted.”

“But it says he decided not to record those findings, right? To prevent them from being misused by forces trying to exterminate the ancients.”

“Deidric is the type who couldn’t rest in peace without recording his discoveries. The statement ‘not recording’ written here simply means he wouldn’t write it ‘in this book’—it’s a deception. Take it from his former wife, I’m certain of this.”

“Hmm… alright. If you insist, I’ll look for them during our journey.”

“Then it’s time for us to part. Next time we meet in dreams, I’ll welcome you in this house.”

“Yes, see you then.”

With that farewell, my consciousness drifted into a hazy fog.

When I opened my eyes, reddish sunset light was streaming through the windows of the brick house in reality.