episode_0021

‘Ugh… I have a headache..’

The first thing Arthur saw when he opened his eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling.

He turned his head to the left and looked to the side, and saw the interior of what appeared to be a hospital room, and saw Alice sleeping while holding his hand.

“Aris..?”

Alice, who was sleeping, felt Arthur’s movement and woke up.

“Arthur! You’re awake, thank goodness..”

Alice stroked Arthur’s head and showed a relieved expression.

Arthur, not understanding Alice’s reaction, asked.

“What’s wrong, Aris… Did something happen?”

“You haven’t been able to come to your senses because of Manataljin until now.”

“Really..? I remember being with Fabian and touching the crystal ball…”

“Probably, I collapsed after that and don’t remember.”

“Oh…I see…”

Alice, who held Arthur’s hands with both of her own, began to look serious.

“Arthur, I have something to tell you.”

Arthur also felt slightly nervous at the serious look on Alice’s face that he had not seen in a long time.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you remember when we were little, you got badly hurt by a monster?”

“Yeah…”

I was reluctant to talk about it because it was an incident that left a great trauma on Arthur, but now I had no choice but to say it.

“Did you know that back then, Hilia used a huge amount of potions to save you?”

“Yeah. Remember.”

“To be more specific, I heard that the potion used to save you back then was enough to save about 100 people who were ‘seriously injured’.”

Arthur looked surprised at Alice’s words.

“That, you used it that much..?”

“Yeah, after that, Hilia told me that you probably have a constitution that doesn’t respond well to potions..”

Of course, Alice could have told him about Arthur’s curse, but she was afraid of his reaction after hearing it, so she had no choice but to lie.

‘Arthur doesn’t need to know, since I’ll be lifting all the curses later anyway.’

“…”

Arthur was silent for a moment at Alice’s words, but then continued.

“I know you want to increase your mana, but… since you can’t recover it with mana potions, I think you’ll have to give up on increasing it that way…”

“Really? Okay.. I can’t help it.”

Alice was relieved to see Arthur looking better than she had expected.

“It’s late tonight, so I think it’d be better for you to sleep here.. Then, see you tomorrow, Arthur?”

“Yeah.. You too, sleep well, Aris.”

Arthur watched as Aris left the hospital room with a bright smile. And even though about 10 minutes had passed, Arthur was still looking at the door through which Aris had exited.

“…”

Arthur slowly got up from the bed and threw the vase next to him against the wall.

-Wow!

Arthur started screaming as he looked at the shattered vase.

“Whyeee!!!!!!”

-Clang! Clang!

Arthur, who had been screaming, began to stomp nervously on the shards of the vase.

“This won’t do!!! That won’t do either!! What do you want me to do!!!!!!”

In his growing anger, Arthur began to destroy things in his hospital room one by one.

-Boom!

-Whack!

After destroying everything in sight for a while, Arthur began to talk to himself.

“Yeah.. You just don’t like me, right? That’s why you abandoned me. My parents are stupid too.. Why did they let me live instead of just killing me?”

“Now it seems like everything wants me dead! I should just die. I can’t find any meaning anymore, what’s the point of my life?”

Arthur’s gaze soon turned to the curtains on the window.

-Squeak! Squeak!

Arthur tore the curtain and began to tie a knot around his neck.

“Wow..I finished it.”

After tying the knot, Arthur moved the chair to the window, climbed up onto it, and began to tie the knot where the curtains hung.

“Let’s stop now..”

Arthur closed his eyes like that, touched the knot around his neck, and then kicked the chair below him.

“Ugh..!”

As the pedestal disappeared, Arthur’s feet began to move in the air.

‘If you just endure it a little longer… you won’t have to be in pain anymore…’

At that moment, when his mind was beginning to fade, Arthur felt his body falling down.

-Wow!

“Colok! Colok! Ugh…Ughhh…”

After falling to the floor, Arthur looked up at the ceiling, spitting out fresh water from his mouth.

“Idiot…”

The crude knot, cut with one hand, was now torn and loose from Arthur’s neck.

“Hehehe… I can’t even die properly..”

Arthur’s mouth opened again after staring at the ceiling for a while.

“Please save me… This is hell… Huh? Ariseu…”

I called desperately, but there was no answer.

“Aris. Aris. Aris. Aris.”

“I only have you now… Every single day is so hard for me… I can’t take it anymore…”

Arthur, who had been lying down for a few minutes, suddenly sat up, looking as if something had loosened somewhere.

“If this continues, Alice will be worried. I have to clean it up quickly.”

Arthur, who suddenly became like a different person.

Arthur looked around and started picking up broken objects and throwing them into the trash can. As he was cleaning, a piece of broken glass caught his eye.

Arthur grabbed the shard of glass and brought it to his left eye.

“If I couldn’t see at all, would Alice be by my side all the time? Maybe I could use the excuse of not being able to see to spend all day with her.”

“Then we’ll sleep together all the time, eat together… Since I can’t do anything, Aris will do everything for me.. Of course! Who…can’t see, but I can do what Aris wants!!”

At that moment, Arthur saw his own reflection in the glass shard.

It was a strange appearance. The corners of the mouth were unnaturally turned up, and the eyes looked as if they were crying. That was the kind of expression it was.

Arthur, who had been watching for a while, could also see the bruise on his own neck.

-Whew!

Arthur threw the shard of glass he was holding far away and began to touch his neck with his left hand.

“It hurts…”

“What should I do..? Alice will be sad if she sees this.. Should I cover it with a bandage? No.. She’ll get caught right away..”

Arthur, who was looking for a good method, came up with a good idea.

“Okay! Let’s just wrap the bandage around and go around. If Alice asks, I’ll show it to her! Then she’ll pay more attention to me, right?”

Arthur opened the nearby drawer and was able to quickly find the bandage.

-Swish. Swish.

A bandage that slowly wraps around the neck.

Arthur, who had wrapped everything up, lifted the glass shard again and checked his neck.

“Okay..okay! Then no one will know, right? Hehe.”

Arthur, with a satisfied expression on his face, finished cleaning the room and lay down on the bed to sleep.

“I want to see Alice soon.. I have to hold out for a little longer since I can see her tomorrow.”

Arthur, who kept mumbling Alice’s name, was finally able to fall asleep after a long time.

… … …

The next morning.

Arthur hummed and walked lightly to class.

As I entered the classroom, I saw Fabian sitting there already.

“Huh? Fabian! Good morning!”

Fabian felt something strange about Arthur’s unusually bright appearance, but he didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Hi.. I’m… sorry about yesterday.. because of me…”

“Huh? It’s nothing! Just don’t worry about it.”

“..Thank you for forgiving me, Arthur.”

Fabian felt relieved that Arthur had forgiven him. As he smiled and looked at Arthur’s face, he noticed the bandage on his neck.

“But what’s that bandage?”

Arthur responded to Fabian’s words by touching his neck.

“This? It’s nothing, I just got a little bit sore.”

“Really?”

Something didn’t add up, but since Arthur seemed happier than ever, Fabian let it slide without thinking much about it.

… … …

After his morning classes, Arthur went to see Alice.

“Aris~”

Alice, who was exercising, started to approach Arthur and wave her hand when she heard his voice.

“Arthur? You look happy today.”

“Then~ I’m happy just looking at you?”

Arthur, who had begun to speak his mind frankly, suddenly hugged Alice.

“Are we going to be like this for the rest of our lives?”

Alice was taken aback by Arthur’s sudden display of affection, but she remained quiet because it was not a bad thing for her.

“…?”

At that moment, Alice saw the bandage Arthur had wrapped around his neck.

“Arthur, what is this bandage?”

“Huh? Oh, this?”

Arthur, who had escaped from Alice’s embrace at her words, moved to a corner and began to gesture for her to come over.

Seeing the gesture, Aris followed Arthur to the corner, and when Arthur got closer, he removed the bandage and showed him his neck.

“!!”

“What, what is this..this. Arthur? What did you do.”

Aris’ voice trembled slightly. However, Arthur, unaware of the seriousness of the situation, answered Aris’ question with a big smile.

“This? I tried to commit suicide yesterday but failed! At first, I was sad that I couldn’t die, but then I thought about it and if I were alive, I could see you too.. and.. um… I forgot! Hehe.”

Arthur, who had always been smart and logical, now acted as if something was broken. As we continued talking, the things he said didn’t make sense, and even when we continued the conversation, his mind seemed to be somewhere else.

“Are you okay..?”

“Me? Of course I’m fine!”

Arthur’s appearance was not normal at all. Even he himself seemed unaware of his own condition.

“No way. Arthur? I don’t think you’re feeling well right now.. For now, skip your afternoon classes and go to the hospital first so I can stay with you.”

“No? I’m sick of hospitals now… Let’s do something fun with me instead!”

As Arthur spoke, he placed his hand on Alice’s waist.

“It’s been a while since we last met, right? Today, I’ll give you everything you want! So, let’s just skip the afternoon classes.”

Alice quickly released Arthur’s hand that was wrapping around her and said with a bewildered expression.

“Arthur, you’re being so weird right now… This isn’t normal.”

Arthur’s expression began to harden at Alice’s words.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Arthur’s stiff expression loosened as he spoke, and he began to smile as if nothing had happened.

“Then shall we go on a normal date? There’s a place I want to go, will you go with me?”

Alice’s face was filled with bewilderment at Arthur’s appearance, which showed absolutely no sign of normalcy.