You Are Already in My Future

“You Are Already in My Future” names the moment Luc makes Theo part of a life beyond his role as the Hero. First offered as a hope for a shared future, the expression gains force through Theo’s fear that such happiness is impossible and Luc’s eventual decision to reject the bloodline and duty others expect him to uphold.

A Future Luc Can Imagine

Before making his promise, Luc describes relationships that could not last. His first two lovers lived in the capital where he grew up: a maid in training, whom he says only half counts because they were both very young, and a squire who ended their relationship when Luc was told he would leave. Luc had asked the squire to come with him. Later relationships formed during brief stays in other towns, but none could endure the life of a traveling Hero.

When Theo asks what could make this relationship different, Luc answers without hesitation. He imagines that after the demons are defeated he can stop being the Hero, settle in a small village, grow his own food, and spend his days with the person he loves. Theo, he says, is already in that imagined future; he can only hope Theo will wait for him to catch up. The expression is therefore more than a declaration of attraction: it places Theo in the life Luc hopes to choose after his public mission ends.

Theo’s Fear of That Promise

Luc’s confidence meets Theo’s belief that the future he describes is unavailable to him. Theo understands that he has this life because he ran from the one Luc was raised to live, and he thinks he cannot have Luc’s hoped-for happy ending. He calls himself cursed, tainted, and a liar. The contrast makes the promise uneven at first: Luc speaks as if their shared future is possible, while Theo sees a secret and a past that make it impossible.

That tension gives the expression its emotional weight. Luc does not ask Theo to resolve the obstacles in that moment; he asks him to wait while Luc catches up to the future he has described. The promise is an act of commitment, but not a guarantee that Theo can yet believe.

From Promise to Commitment

Later, Theo touches the pendant and tells Luc that he had marked him first, promising to wait no matter how long it takes. Luc responds with a ring that belonged to his father, the only thing he has left of him. His father died after saving his adventuring party from a demon attack. Luc places the ring on Theo’s marriage finger, where its band fits snugly. The exchange gives their future a tangible form: Theo’s promise to wait is answered by Luc’s family ring and an explicit marriage gesture.

The scene also complicates the idea of inheritance. The ring comes from a father whose life ended saving others, but Luc’s own expected inheritance is not merely an object or memory. Julius tells Theo that Eliza wants Luc to continue their bloodline and sire the next Hero, and threatened Julius when he was asked to join Luc’s party. Theo refuses to be frightened away and says he has no intention of letting Luc go.

Choosing a Life, Not a Bloodline

The expression reaches its fullest meaning when Eliza challenges Luc’s choice. She asks whether he will end their bloodline and throw away everything he has trained his whole life for. Luc answers that choosing a quiet, peaceful life with the man he loves is the only choice he has ever made for himself. He extends that personal decision into a broader hope: that people born with the Hero’s gift will be able to choose their own fate rather than remain bound to duty.

The future first voiced privately to Theo thus becomes a public refusal of the life Eliza claims for Luc. What began as an imagined village life—home, cultivation, and time with the person he loves—stands against the expectation that his personal relationships must serve heroic succession. The expression’s decisive force lies in that change: Theo is not a distraction from Luc’s future, but the person for whom Luc chooses to define one.