'It hurts, and it’s hot...'
Her whole body was hot.
Even though she was sure her wrists were untied behind her back, they still felt like they were hurting.
Roselyn groaned in pain.
She had excellent patience and a certain degree of pain tolerance, but that did not mean it didn't hurt.
She had a headache.
It was so hot that even the breath she exhaled was painful.
Would you feel this kind of heat if you were in the fiery pit of hell?
"...But why isn't it getting off?"
Buzz. A voice rang out.
She slowly opened her eyes at the sensation of a buzzing sound, as if she were underwater.
Her vision was blurry.
"I tried my best... Miss, Miss Roselyn, I wonder if she has regained consciousness?"
Roselyn reflexively flinched at the sound of a stranger's voice.
'Who is it?'
She was burning up, and her eyes felt hot for no reason.
"Roselyn, are you coming to your senses?"
The voice that was heard was quite familiar.
It was familiar, but for some reason, it was a much younger voice than she remembered.
'...Am I dead?'
Roselyn parted her lips.
'Did my fever rise again?'
Her mind wasn't working well, but she felt like she knew her body wasn't normal right now.
"Ah..."
Her voice didn't come out well, as if it had become hoarse.
"Ah…"
"Roselyn, are you alright? Speak."
"Father..."
Suddenly, Cherty's eyes, which had been looking down at Roselyn, widened.
"It hurts, please hug me..."
Roselyn, for whom it was a deep regret that she had never been able to act spoiled as a child, lifted her trembling arm but paused.
'...A child's hand?'
What moved according to her thoughts was the small hand of a child who looked to be about five or six years old.
So, it's her hand, but she meant that her hand looked very small.
'...Have I finally lost my mind?'
Roselyn thought in a dazed state and fell back asleep.
***
She suddenly became younger.
Roselyn couldn't tell whether to be happy or sad about the current situation, which could be defined in just one word...
What do you mean there isn't?
Naturally, she is neither happy nor sad; Roselyn is simply dumbfounded and bewildered.
"...Crazy person."
Roselyn grimaced while muttering softly.
Perhaps because she has a short tongue, the ends of her words came out a bit too strong with a glottal stop, but she decided to take pride in the fact that she could speak properly.
She felt dizzy as her fever rose to the top of her head.
Roselyn sat leaning against the headboard of the bed, breathing heavily and trying to regain her senses.
At the same time as she was dumbfounded, strangely enough, her mind was calm.
It was because she had once visited a parallel world, and also because there was an Abyss where one could live one more life.
Why did I end up here?
Roselyn thought.
There are a total of three possibilities to consider.
First, she was safely released from the kidnapping that day, but after fainting and dying, she crossed over to another parallel world.
Second, she is either crazy or dreaming.
Third, it is related to her Abyss.
All three were such plausible reasons that she couldn't immediately say, "This is it!"
'The third one is the most likely.'
Roselyn let out a hot breath and crawled toward the end of the bed to get off.
The bed is high, but since she is short, she has to hold onto the bed sheet to get down.
'It was like this when I was young.'
Perhaps because she was often sick, she was smaller and weaker than her peers, to the point where she could barely lift a single silver dish.
Roselyn roughly dragged the neatly folded blanket down on the bed and slid down onto it as if sliding.
She stood in front of the full-length mirror on one side of the room.
Because she hadn't seen the sunlight, her fair cheeks were flushed red and had lost their color.
Looking at her sunken cheeks and hollowed-out eyes, as if she had learned his lesson harshly, all she could do was sigh.
Roselyn raised her hand and pinched her cheek hard. It hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes.
'For now, it doesn't seem like a dream.'
It is too vivid to be a dream, and her senses are fully alive.
'It seems normal for now to call me crazy, but I need to figure out the situation first.'
This level of pain was familiar, so it wasn't surprising.
Roselyn tried to turn the doorknob while standing on tiptoe.
First of all, if the doorknob hadn't turned.
“... Roselyn?”
"Father."
"...Who told you to move around as you pleased without permission? I'm sure I've told you all along, you..."
"So you're telling me not to move because I'm a useless piece of trash who only causes trouble? I understand."
Cherty flinched at young Roselyn's remarks, which were not just scathing but excessive.
Roselyn looked up at her father, who was much younger, much more innocent, and much darker and gloomier than she remembered.
"...No. I didn't go that far."
Cherty frowned in embarrassment and added.
"I know. That Father loves me."
At the child's youthful voice, Cherty lowered her gaze and looked at Roselyn.
His usually blurry, gloomy, and listless eyes looked unusually clear today.
Cherty closed his mouth tightly as he looked at the child's ruby-like eyes.
"...I am..."
"Father, did you often come here secretly like this whenever I was sick?"
"...It’s not like I came here secretly. I was just out for business, and since it suddenly occurred to me as I was passing by, I just stopped by while I was at it."
"Because you said this every time, I thought my father hated me."
At Roselyn's words, Cherty's shoulders stiffened.
He looked down at Roselyn with a trembling gaze, as if flustered.
"I don't dislike you. It's just..."
"So I was actually thinking of just running away from home."
Roselyn clicked her tongue inwardly, thinking that it was not easy to pronounce 'yo' because she had a short tongue.
Cherty's pupils trembled greatly at Roselyn's words.
"You have to go out and...!"
"I know I'll just be a nuisance, but if I'm going to be a nuisance wherever I am anyway, I think it would be better not to be here."
Roselyn put the words she had never been able to say on the tip of her tongue.
'If this is something like the Abyss's rampage, then what kind of parallel world is it?'
Roselyn rolled her eyes indifferently and continued speaking.
"So I was thinking of going out."
"..."
She raised her head again when she heard no words.
Cherty was frozen as if in shock.
Roselyn shrugged at the bewildered look visible beneath the pupils, which were trembling as if there had been an earthquake.
She didn't know before because she couldn't see that.
No, she couldn't help but not know.
"Father."
"..."
The man, adorned with all sorts of ornaments, could only move his lips, unable to speak at the shocking words of his little daughter, who came up to his knees.
"...Have you ever regretted me being born?"
And Roselyn dropped another bombshell she had wanted to bury since childhood.
"... What."
As Cherty lowered his gaze, the child was staring blankly at a small doll on the bedside table.
The doll from her memory, whose side had burst open, now looked almost brand new.
In the current parallel world she crossed over to after dying as a sinner, that doll did not exist.
In other words, not all Roselyns in every parallel world would have received that doll.
However, Roselyn vividly remembered receiving that doll on her fourth birthday.
'Surely this world...'
Roselyn paused for a moment, then continued speaking.
"It's nothing special; I just always wanted to ask. Of course, I can't die for you, and I know that being born is a given."
"..."
"If I hadn't been here, Father might have been able to live happily with Mother."
"..."
The man remained silent even at Roselyn's unchildlike words.
As his silence grew long and heavy, Roselyn lightly shrugged her small shoulders.
"I need to step out briefly to check something."
As soon as Roselyn brushed past Cherty, Cherty flinched in surprise and abruptly picked Roselyn up.
Roselyn, held by her underarms and dangling, was forcibly seated on the bed.
"..."
Roselyn scowled in dissatisfaction.
"Always..."
Cherty seated Roselyn on the edge of the bed, knelt on one knee in front of her, met her gaze, and asked.
"Always. Did you think that?"
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