POTC - Chapter 41

"I apologize, but I will be entering."

As if it wasn't locked, the door opened slowly without any resistance.

"..."

Fenrir, stepping into the room where darkness had settled, looked at Presepe with calm eyes.

It seemed that giving her sleep-inducing tea for relaxation helped. Presepe lay asleep in bed, exhausted from the day.

Fenrir stared at her intently, then pulled a small chair from near the table and sat in front of the bed.

Then he quietly looked down at her.

Clear skin shining white in the moonlight, pitifully closed eyes. Long eyelashes, long silver hair wavy and embroidered on the bed, small and slender hands neatly gathered.

...Presepe must have been shocked by Ivan's visit.

Just when she thought she had managed to escape, the pressure of fearing that the nightmare might repeat itself again.

"You don't have to worry."

Fenrir's low voice settled heavily into the room along with the silence.

"I'll take care of everything."

A large, rough hand touched the round, protruding white forehead.

Fenrir's fingertips trembled slightly at that unfamiliar, soft, and warm sensation.

"I guarantee you won't ever be in that situation again."

I came all the way here just for that one thing.

Fenrir muttered softly, recalling the day they first met. The words Presepe had spoken as he held out his jewel-studded sword.

"It would only bring in a pittance if I sold it, but if I fight wielding this sword instead of selling it... many things will be different."

That's right. Many things have changed. Since that day, the insignificant child who used to beg on the streets began wandering the battlefield holding a sword as big as his arm.

Constantly, tirelessly.

There weren't many memorable landscapes.

Only a few thoughts remained.

For example, the expression on the enemy's face the moment he swung his sword on the day he killed someone for the first time on the battlefield,

The old man, who had blocked Fenrir's attack and was about to counterattack, looked at Fenrir—who was likely old enough to be his own son—with a bewildered gaze. He was unable to launch any attack, but Fenrir was not.

The moment Fenrir faced the man dying, spitting blood with his sword piercing his chest, he thought.

Maybe from now on, nothing can be reversed.

Even as he wandered from battlefield to battlefield, he grew taller, and his body grew larger. The number of people he killed increased, and no matter how many times he bathed, the smell of blood permeating his entire body grew stronger and stronger.

What am I struggling for like this?

What on earth to become?

To change what?

Even though he had escaped from a life of begging and being beaten day after day, it was the same then as it was now that he could not find a reason to live.

And whenever he wandered, unable to find his bearings, and shaken to the point of death...

Fenrir recalled.

That noble girl.

If you keep doing well and holding on like that, who knows, maybe I can manage too.

Those desolate, low days, which were completely out of step with his age, were simply becoming clearer and clearer.

You only know the name, so what on earth does that girl have to do with you?

It felt ridiculous, but it was unavoidable.

It is said that ducklings that have hatched recognize the first person they see as their mother.

It was Presepe who shattered Fenrir's world that day.

“I was curious.”

How are you doing?

I wonder if she is doing well, just as she told me.

"So... I found it."

Several years of wandering from battlefield to battlefield.

Fenrir became a young man and achieved great feats in wars several times.

No one could sell him anymore like before.

The first thing Fenrir did after returning to the capital following several wars was to find Presepe.

It wasn't as difficult as he thought.

By the time he returned to Ateloia, Presepe had already been banished after her mother's infidelity was revealed.

It was only then that he realized. The fact that that noble girl was someone he could never reach.

Everyone shouted in unison. Why did the Emperor kill the concubine but not the Princess?

Some said this: that perhaps he had already killed her, that he had chased her away like a benevolent person only to go straight back and brutally slaughter her.

Everyone was chattering away in their own way, but the conclusion was the same.

"But wasn't she close with Prince Dietrich as well? If Prince Dietrich becomes Emperor, he might bring her back. Of course, judging by the way things are going now, it doesn't seem like Dietrich will ever become Emperor, though."

No trace of Presepe could be found. She had vanished as if she had never existed in the first place,

So Fenrir went to see Dietrich.

And he did his best to help him seize the throne, once again covered in blood.

However, Dietrich, who became Emperor...

He summoned Presepe to the imperial palace and imprisoned him in the tower. He prevented anyone from approaching her.

It was probably from then on.

Realizing that something was going wrong.

"They said you're coming too."

And it was not long after that that he met Presepe again.

"At that dreadful celebration."

A celebratory banquet for Dietrich, who had only recently ascended the throne.

The very point in time when Presepe always returns within the game.

"So, I waited for you in front of the banquet hall. Endlessly."

He quietly watched from a distance as Presepe gradually drew closer.

The Presepe he saw for the first time in a long while was...

It seemed like she had changed, and it also seemed like she had become even more desolate.

"I'll wait until you come to pay me back."

The smile he saw back then was nowhere to be found.

She looked like a fallen leaf that would crumble without a second thought if touched.

However, Presepe, who had been spaced out as if being chased by something, suddenly changed direction.

Fenrir chased her reflexively until Presepe reached the deep lake near the banquet hall in the imperial palace.

And Presepe.

"You jumped. Right, right in front of me."

She threw herself into the lake.

It was a very deep lake. That is why accidents in which people drowned would occur every year.

He couldn't think of anything. Without even taking off his clothes, Fenrir jumped into the lake himself to save Presepe.

However, Fenrir's efforts came to nothing. Having sunk to the bottom of the lake, Presepe lay limp, her head slammed against a large rock, continuously bleeding bright red blood.

"I wanted to say hello."

There was so much to say.

Asking if you have been doing well, how you have been living, and if you happen to remember me; I have remembered you for a very, very long time.

However, Presepe, held in the arms, did not open her eyes.

Her weak breathing began to fade, and her already pale skin turned deep blue.

I told you that if I hold out well, you might be able to do it too.

I don't know what will happen, but I said I would try to hold on anyway.

Fenrir stared blankly at the dead Presepe, unable to even utter the words he had prepared.

It was that moment.

The unknown light that leaked from Presepe's body, which had grown cold as frost and slumped limp like a load.

At the dazzling light whose nature he could not even discern, Fenrir reflexively squeezed his eyes shut...

When he opened his eyes again, he was back on the battlefield.

To be precise, to the battlefield where Dietrich fought to reclaim the throne.

"At first, I thought I was dreaming."

There's no way something like that would be possible.

However, everything was just like the future Fenrir knew. Dietrich eventually became Emperor, imprisoned Presepe again, and a celebration was held at the date, time, and place he remembered.

At the second celebration, Presepe did not leave her seat. She came to the banquet hall wearing the exact same attire as before, and sadly kept her place with an emotionless face.

He tried to approach.

So Fenrir chased after Presepe again as she quietly rose from her seat and left the banquet hall, just as he had when she had thrown herself into the lake.

"I thought I really had to talk to you this time."

However...

"I couldn't even get close to you."

It wasn't a metaphor.

Physically, he couldn't move at all. Not even a single step.

Fenrir stood far away from Presepe and just watched as Attar Hanan appeared and greeted her.

Also, encountering Noah DeVern just like in the original plot. Dietrich, who rushed out to catch her upon realizing that Presepe had disappeared and even ordered Siegfried to take Presepe to the tower.

He couldn't do anything. Nothing.

As Siegfried took Presepe and disappeared, the stiff body finally began to move.

“It was confusing.”

What on earth is going on right now?

And new news came to Fenrir, who had been holed up in the mansion for several days, confused and unable to even find his bearings.

"When I heard that you were going to be executed, I was devastated."

...It was that Dietrich had decided to execute Presepe.

They said he decided to hang Presepe, right in the square where everyone could see.

"I saw you die."

He just watched as Presepe's emaciated body writhed in agony in the air.

He couldn't help it.

At that time as well, Fenrir's body did not move at all.

Fenrir stared with reddened eyes at Presepe, who had been struggling endlessly like that and eventually went limp.

And he saw Dietrich glaring at Presepe's corpse with a dirty expression, as if looking at a bug.

But it was only a moment.

When he opened his eyes again, Fenrir had returned to that battlefield.

"That's when I definitely realized it."

Fenrir continued in a sinister voice.

"I mean that you are endlessly going in circles."

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