As Letie, who had never heard anything but a silver spoon, she was very slow to slam her dagger.
Nevertheless, it was not easy to avoid.
This is because the body did not have any strength due to the side effects of using a lot of purifying power.
I managed to avoid hurting my face by stepping back, but instead I had a long cut on my forearm.
"Ugh...!"
I felt a burning pain running down my forearm.
It looked like it was torn deeply.
"Stop! What a crazy thing to do!"
Everyone had run away, so there was no one to help me.
Readjusting the dagger with a little blood on it, Letie muttered.
"If God has really chosen you to be a savior, why is your token ominous black?"
"..."
"Crows, Demons, Black Cats... All the dirty and sinister things in the world are all black, so if you are real, why is your token that color?"
She was already immersed in her own logic.
No matter what I say, Letie will not listen.
I stepped back to avoid the sword and tripped over a chest piled up on the side of the road.
Letie slowly approached me.
"Give it back. You have taken away my power."
"You're really crazy..."
"Give it back!!"
The sharp blades glistened in the light.
It was shining white and eerily like a token of Letie.
There was no power left to stop it.
It was the moment when I felt death and closed my eyes tightly.
"Ahh!!"
There was a pop, a sound, and Letie's scream.
When I opened my closed eyes, I saw familiar people.
It was a mercenary group.
Rodrick took the dagger from Letie's grip and pressed her to the ground while Hertha rushed towards me.
"Sister, wake up!!"
I was relieved to hear a voice calling me sister like before.
Hertha immediately tore the hem of her robe and tied it around my wound.
Meanwhile, Rodrick, who had overpowered Letie, rushed towards me.
"What is this....! Let's go to the place of residence first. You need to get treatment right away...'
"Rodrick."
He was floundering, but when he heard my call, he stopped moving.
I looked at his face with blurry eyes and asked.
"Go help Kishian."
"..."
"Fight with him, just like before."
The only one I could ask for was Rodrick.
Three years ago, and even now.
I caressed his cheek with my trembling fingertips and said again.
"Now... Alone... Because he's fighting..."
It was difficult to speak properly, so I couldn't see what kind of face he was on.
Maybe I was lucky I couldn't see it.
I'm sure he has a distorted expression.
Even though I knew how it would make him feel to ask me like this, I couldn't help it.
Soon, Rodrick took my hand with a firm hand.
His warmth was transmitted through my hands, which were cold from tension and bleeding.
Holding hands together, he asked.
"Can we fight together?"
"..."
"You don't mind if I don't stay by your side."
I couldn't see his expression, but I could clearly feel the moisture in his voice.
Resignation and sadness.
There was an emotion in his voice that was hard to ignore.
I wanted to comfort him, but now I can't.
I nodded helplessly.
"..."
He was silent and stood up in front of me.
"I'll be back for a while, and you will take Elona to her abode. Take her and treat her wounds."
My mind drifted far away.
The fact that Letie was screaming from the side felt far away.
"Let this go!! You have to kill the devil!! You have to kill it to get its power back to its original owner....!!"
I ignored the cries and looked at Rodrick's backside.
My consciousness was gradually fading.
***
After I fell, my consciousness repeatedly surfaced and then subsided.
I fall into a deep sleep when I feel like I'm going to wake up, and I fall asleep when I feel like I'm going to wake up again...
I went back and forth between reality and dream many times.
Then, that terrible nightmare came to me as if it had been waiting for me.
The beginning of my dream was always the same.
I didn't know anything, but I started by eavesdropping on the conversations of the maids.
They exchange honest words without knowing that the young Princess is awake.
Letie is the light, and I am the shadow beneath it.
So Letie is destined to be a savior, but I am not.
Even though it is a recurring dream, I am only a six-year-old child, and I am hurt again.
Wasn't I actually something that didn't need to be born? What people want is a light that brightens overhead, not a shadow that hangs gloomily at their feet... I was thinking about something that wasn't childlike.
Then the maids disappeared, and this time, a Count appeared and presented a doll to us.
My sister fights over it, and it ends with me giving in after my father's intervention.
I can't say in front of my father that I want what I want without giving in at least once.
As a counterfeit, I dare not covet the real thing.
The doll in the blue dress gave way to Letie, and I hugged the doll in the green dress that no one wanted, and curled up alone.
I was so familiar with it that I was consumed by resignation and loneliness, and it felt like a part of me now.
After that, I waited quietly.
It was about time for the last runner of this dream to appear.
As I waited for him, I prepared myself for the wounds I was about to receive.
This dream, which has relentlessly followed me for decades, always ended with a lesson.
It is a painful lesson to not dare to covet the light and accept my situation.
For that, the dream reflected the gloomy past endlessly and hurt it.
Even though my heart was already covered with scratches, I had nowhere to hurt myself.
Finally, the one I had been waiting for came to me.
Kishian, who began to appear in my dreams, was the one who marked the end of my dreams.
He will look at the doll I hold and look at me, and say it's fake.
After hearing that, I woke up.
I closed my eyes tightly, vowing to hold on for a while.
"..."
However, I couldn't hear the words that I should have heard familiarly.
Instead, his forearms hugged me with a melting warmth.
"I can't give up."
I looked up in wonder.
Originally, he should have looked down at me with a cold gaze and treated me as a fake.
The dream, which was the same every time, changed.
In my dream, Kishian whispered in my ear exactly what he had said to me one day.
"It's okay to grumble and hate for the rest of your life. They will think it's my sin and repent of it. Nevertheless... I can't let you go."
My lips moved on their own, and I spat out the words at will.
"But I'm a counterfeit."
"You're not a counterfeit."
He resolutely denied my words and whispered.
"And even if others think you are a counterfeit..."
The dream that had terribly trapped me slowly dissipated.
Consciousness was becoming clearer.
The moment has come to wake up.
I knew it instinctively.
This would be the last time I had this nightmare.
From the moment I discovered who the real savior was, my situation changed, and these crude, old memories would no longer haunt me.
Just as I was about to wake up, feeling regretful and empty, the last words of the Kishian in my dream fell into my ears.
"You were the only one who felt real to me. Ever since that winter night when we first met."
Finally, consciousness returned.
I opened my eyes and looked around.
I could see the ceiling of the mercenary group's residence.
I felt a slight pain in the affected area that was torn by the knife that Letie wielded, and at the same time, I felt warmth from someone who was clutching my hand.
I slowly moved my gaze to the side.
I could see the crown of Kishian's head bowed, clutching my hand tightly.
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