Chapter 341: A Selfish Wish

Mary smiled again, this time with a much more mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Although now that I think about it… maybe there is another alternative."

"Another alternative?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, Mary raised a hand and snapped her fingers.

Instantly, the infinite darkness surrounding them vanished completely, and the world around them shifted, giving way to a completely different landscape.

Suddenly, the two of them found themselves atop a gentle hill, in the shade of an enormous, leafy tree whose leaves swayed in a warm breeze.

And before them stretched a beautiful valley, bathed in the golden light of a sunset that painted the sky in shades of orange.

A river wound through the valley in the distance, reflecting the last rays of the sun, and beside it stood a small farmhouse surrounded by fields.

Everything was so peaceful and perfect it looked like something out of a dream.

Which, technically, it was.

Then he looked at Mary and realized the scenery wasn't the only thing that had changed.

Her usual appearance was gone. He was no longer standing before the imposing, self-assured Demon Lord, but before the Mary he'd seen in his memories of that other life.

Her black hair fell over her shoulders, her glasses rested on her nose, and her body was smaller, thinner.

This version, though, looked much healthier than the one from the memory.

No bags under her eyes, no bruises, and the white dress she wore made her look almost like a different person entirely.

Mary, on the other hand, looked anything but comfortable.

She fidgeted, not quite sure what to do with her hands, avoided his gaze, and eventually crossed her arms as if that could make her feel less exposed.

"Don't... don't laugh, okay?" Mary murmured, looking away slightly as a faint blush rose to her cheeks. "I know I'm not much to look at in this form."

"I'm not laughing," Mark answered sincerely. "You look nice. Really."

Then he looked back at the valley, still trying to understand what all of this meant.

"But... what is this place, Mary? Why did you bring me here?"

Mary took a deep breath before answering.

"Because this is the other alternative."

"Huh?"

"As you know, this dream world is completely under my control," she explained. "I can change its shape, alter the flow of time, even control things like life and death."

Mark watched her closely.

"What are you trying to tell me?"

She held his gaze, and for the first time, the confidence she'd spoken with up until then began to fade.

"That I want you to stay here… forever," she finally said, lowering her eyes. "We could leave everything else behind. There'd be no wars here, no enemies, nothing that could force us to keep fighting."

"Mary…"

"Just you and me... living happily ever after."

It took Mark several seconds to react.

The offer was too big to process all at once. In front of him lay a tailor-made paradise and a life free of suffering, beside someone who loved him more than anything.

But he also understood the price.

"And what would happen to the others?" he asked, frowning.

Mary's smile faded.

"Who?"

"You know exactly who I'm talking about," Mark replied, looking at her seriously. "I can't just disappear and leave them to fend for themselves."

"I know they matter to you, but... even if I wanted to, I couldn't bring them here." Mary looked away, clearly uncomfortable. "This world is, in a way, my heart."

Then she looked at him again.

"And you're the only person I've ever let inside it."

Mark closed his eyes for a few seconds before slowly shaking his head.

"Then I can't accept it… I'm sorry," he said firmly, even as the decision pained him too. "I love them all, and I'm not going to turn my back on them, especially not now that several of them are pregnant."

The silence that followed felt far heavier than before.

Mary had always known that answer was the most likely one, but that didn't mean she'd been ready to hear it.

Part of her had hoped, maybe selfishly, that Mark would choose her above everything else.

That he'd leave behind his life, his kingdom, the others, anything that existed outside this world, just to stay by her side.

It was what she wanted most.

And hearing that it wasn't going to happen hurt far more than she wanted to admit.

"…Why?" Mary asked, her voice breaking. "Why them and not me? Am I not enough for you?"

When she looked at him again, her eyes were already brimming with tears. And before Mark could answer, she raised a hand and snapped her fingers.

The beautiful valley vanished instantly, replaced by an endless beach of white sand and turquoise water.

Then the beach shifted into a glittering city stretching out to the horizon. Then a forest of silver trees appeared. Then an immense mansion rising over an entire kingdom.

Everything around them kept changing, over and over, faster each time, directly mirroring Mary's emotional state.

"Do you get it now?" she said through her tears. "I can give you anything you want. There are no limits here. I can build the perfect place, the perfect life... everything."

Mary's voice grew even more fragile.

"If you want a family, I'll give you one. If you want kids, I'll have as many as you want." she said, trembling slightly. "I can give you everything they give you... and so much more."

"…"

"Or is it that you don't actually love me, and everything you said was just a lie?"

Mark felt a deep ache in his chest watching her break down in front of him.

"Was it just pity? Some kind of whim? This whole time were you just—?"

Before she could finish the sentence, Mark stepped closer, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her.

Mary was startled at first, but the tension melted away almost instantly, and she ended up kissing him back.

And when they finally pulled apart, Mark kept holding her face in his hands.

"Never say I don't love you again," he said, with absolute seriousness. "You can doubt a lot of things, Mary, but not that. Because you know my feelings for you are real."

"Then… why won't you stay with me?"

Mark wiped her cheeks with his thumbs.

"Because loving you doesn't mean I stopped loving the others," he answered gently. "I love all of them. I couldn't choose you and abandon them, not even for paradise. And even if I did, I wouldn't be happy with you knowing who I left behind."

Mary stayed silent until, little by little, the desperation gave way to a quieter kind of sadness.

"I understand… I'm not going to force you to stay," she murmured. "But I still want to ask you for one last thing."

"Tell me."

Mary looked at the valley she'd created for them before turning her eyes back to him.

"Stay here with me for one day," she said, burying her face in his chest. "I want to know what it would be like to live with you as a normal couple. Waking up together, sharing this house... pretending, just for a moment, that we're husband and wife and that nothing else exists."

She looked at him with a plea she no longer tried to hide.

"Let me have that memory... that'll be enough for me."

Mark studied her for a few seconds, then smiled.

"Sure," he answered, lacing his fingers through hers. "For today, I'm all yours."

"Thank you…"