IMDD CHAPTER 281 (Patreon)

"There is... another form of myself, one that I've never revealed to you," Gage admitted.

"Even to the me in the past?"

"Mn," Gage nodded.

“Why…? Is it because you’re worried it will scare me?”

"That form of mine would indeed terrify you, Eva. It might even give you nightmares." Gage answered with a grave look in his eyes. And it was insane but Eva already felt goosebumps just by hearing about it.

But she calmed herself and quickly, her conviction replaced that unsettling feeling.

“I still… want to see it… Even if it scares me, I know I’ll definitely embrace it as well," she declared, her voice free of any uncertainty.

Eva was aware that she might sound so overconfident right now. She could feel it in her bones that there was definitely a grave reason why Gage had never shown that side of him. But she was determined to understand and accept every part of him.

Before Gage entered her life, Eva didn’t even know she was starving for love and genuine affection. Eva hadn't even realized she had been longing for it. But here she was now… so full of it. This man gave her so much love. He had filled her life with such intense emotion that she sometimes felt as though her heart couldn't contain it all.

So, there was only one thing she wish now and that was to reciprocate that boundless love, to cherish and accept Gage in his entirety. She wanted to love him… all of him… embracing not only the parts of him bathed in light but also those shrouded in darkness, until he, too, felt overwhelmingly loved.

“I knew you’d say that,” he replied, his smile radiant and his eyes shining. “But I must ask for your forgiveness, Eva, because I can’t fulfill that request. It’s not out of fear or a desire to hide that part of myself from you. The truth is, I simply can't transform into that form while I'm here.”

Eva’s eyes blinked in understanding, and she slowly nodded. Processing this information, she pondered another question. “Then... what is your real name? I mean, not your human name… In that dream, you were referred to as King Acheron, but... is that your true name?”

The expression that flickered across Gage's face caused Eva to tilt her head slightly, studying him. There was something in his gaze that she couldn't quite decipher. It seemed as though what she thought was a simple question held more complexity for him.

“My real name… huh…” an ironic smile curled on his lips. “I had so many other names… hmm… but my real name huh… I wonder why I haven’t thought about this before until now that you brought it up.”

Eva’s brows furrowed. “Are you saying no one has ever asked you before? Not even me in my past lives?”

“You’ve often asked about my name, but you never specifically asked for my… true name,” Gage clarified.

A pang of unexpected hurt suddenly resonated within her. Why had her past selves never asked that? Was it because their time together in those past lifetimes was always so fleeting?

Eva would never claim she understood it all, especially the intricate concept of past lives. Prior to meeting Gage, the idea of reincarnation was something she had never truly entertained. It was a notion that lay beyond the boundaries of her belief system, something relegated to the world of myth or fantasy.

But everything shifted that fateful day seven years ago when she experienced that vivid dream. The experience felt like peering through a window into a past existence, one she had lived but had no conscious memory of. And despite the logical part of her mind rejecting the possibility as ludicrous, there was an undeniable sense of connection, a deep, unexplainable familiarity that tugged at her very soul.

“What made you ask that, hm, darling? Why do you think that I have another… real name?” Gage asked, looking so very curious.

"Well, I just... Gage didn’t seem like a name that's particularly ancient. And you were named by the Acheron family, right? So, it made me wonder if you had another name before that... your real name from before they named you."

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CHAPTER 282>>