episode_0213

She seemed unable to believe it easily.

That’s probably true.

The person who tried to kill me…

“D-Don’t listen!”

Because she heard the name of her husband, Fosao Modaless, who was slumped in front of the door, screaming.

Tia doesn’t know. This fellow, praised as so smart, truly knew nothing.

It doesn’t mean she’s ignorant. From the start, Fosao made her that way, so she couldn’t help but be that way.

Like a pretty doll, good for playing with.

Her ruby eyes were hollow. Her eyelids, showing alternating doubt and fear, even trembled.

Why I was alive, how I came here, and why all of this was Fosao’s doing.

Her face showed she didn’t understand at all.

Even if it were me, I wouldn’t have easily believed those words.

The spouse who comforted her when she was struggling almost to death, exchanged love with her, married her and got her pregnant, and was now with her as a happy family…

How could she believe the truth that he was actually a devil who had utterly ruined her life?

But this is reality.

I knew all these miserable truths, became drenched in blood, and silently walked a thorny path.

Just because you know nothing, you can’t live peacefully in a flower garden, can you, Tia?

No matter how sweet the illusions of memory, just as one must someday return to reality.

Now you, too, must return to this world where ‘truth’ exists.

“Why? You don’t believe me?”

Tia’s lips were pale.

She still seemed unsure if I was the real Ritsu, a disguised assassin, or a ghost.

“Look at my face. You should know.”

Her trembling eyes barely focused on my words.

Perhaps the face Tia saw… was no different from a skull. So gaunt that it was as if a dead person had come back to life as a corpse, with sunken eyes. My brown eyes, which had gently gazed at Tia, would be bloodshot red. And my cheeks, which had dimpled when I smiled, would be so wasted that they were hollowed out.

Yet Tia’s beautiful, bright red eyes slowly began to widen as if she had met someone after a very long time.

No matter if I had the face of a skeleton knight, we had been connected since childhood.

From sunrise to moonset. We always looked at each other’s faces and fell asleep holding hands tightly.

She couldn’t help but recognize me.

Tia called my name again, her voice a little clearer.

“Ritsu…”

“That’s right. It’s me.”

“Ah…”

“Tia.”

I want to talk.

How I came all this way for you. How much I love you, I want to tell you.

But this terrible fate doesn’t give us any time to reunite.

Not even the luxury to say simply, ‘There’s no time.’

I swallowed dryly.

Faced with a choice, I thought.

Should I tell Tia the truth, or not?

I had thought about it hundreds, thousands of times while walking this path. Each time, my answer was always the same.

I must tell her.

That it was the only answer that would save both Tia and me.

“You were deceived by Fosao… from beginning to end…”

“Nooooo-!! Don’t be ridiculous-!!”

Fosao’s desperate scream, similar to a pig’s squeal, echoed.

He squirmed and crawled on the carpet, trying somehow to divert Tia’s attention to himself.

“Snap out of it, Tia! H-He’s a fake!”

“……!”

Tia began to waver.

While the voice and face were the same, to her, Ritsu was already dead. More than anything, she herself had placed the corpse in a coffin and buried it, so she couldn’t help but believe that.

In front of her, Ritsu was saying that Fosao was the cause of all this.

Behind her was Fosao, screaming for her not to listen to anything.

An unresolvable choice lay before Tia.

“I… don’t know… what… what are you talking about…”

“I understand. Tia.”

I raised Rose Shabelle.

Even the King of Deseo, in this impossible situation, was nothing more than a powerless human.

If she was trapped in this swirling wind of fate, unable to move.

“I’ll help you.”

Ah.

Suddenly, I felt a long-forgotten… warmth.

One year ago, in summer.

We were at Tia’s house, under the blazing hot sun.

She pulled me into the yard, and simply handed me Rose Shabelle, saying:

[You’ve been cooped up in the apothecary lately. You need to move your body to stay healthy.]

I remember the scorching scenery of that yard. I remember the fiery ember-like warmth of her body as she embraced my back and held my arm. I remember her voice, sternly playing the role of a teacher, telling me to hold the sword properly.

[You have to grip it tightly like this! Otherwise, you’ll get hurt!]

Squeeze.

I gripped Rose Shabelle with all the strength in my hand.

The Tia from my memory moved my arm.

[Like this. Swinging naturally…]

Swish!

Rose Shabelle smoothly cut through the air-.

I strongly struck Tia’s sword.

Clang!

Her sword, knocked from her hand, spun and fell to the floor.

“Ah…”

Tia seemed to have realized it too.

That what just happened was the exact trajectory from when she first taught me how to hold a sword.

She no longer had a weapon to block me.

Did she realize she couldn’t contend with my strength either? The queen desperately clung to me with an anxious voice.

“Don’t do this… Ritsu…”

She feared that my anger was directed at Fosao, not her.

In front of me, as I silently tried to walk forward, she knelt and pleaded.

“Please… stop…”

“I can’t.”

Tia even grabbed onto my pants and pleaded.

“Save him… please…”

I couldn’t understand.

He’s the one who ruined our lives… Why are you begging for his life?

It was then.

Thump.

I heard the sound of something colliding from afar.

It was from the corridor. The soldiers seemed to have realized there was a problem with the king’s safety.

It seemed they were having trouble getting in because of the latch I had set, but it was certain that not much time remained.

I closed my mouth and looked down at Tia’s ruby eyes.

What should I say?

…Was there even a need for words?

Anyway, with the short time I had left, there was no realistic way to make Tia understand the evil deeds of Fosao that had been going on for a year… no, since before we were born.

“…Alright. Then I’ll do this.”

Swish.

I removed the gauntlet covering my hand.

With my exposed left hand, I tightly grasped the blade of Rose Shabelle.

Slide.

I slowly cut.

I felt the sensation of hot liquid flowing down my arm.

I threw down Rose Shabelle and gently took Tia’s chin with my right hand.

Though a look of surprise flashed in her eyes, she did not resist.

“Open your mouth.”

After slowly making her raise her head, I pressed her cheek to open her mouth.

Squeeze!

I clenched my left hand tightly.

Blood seeping from the wound gathered along the edge of my hand, forming drops.

It dripped down into Tia’s open mouth. Her lips and chin also got smeared with blood.

“……”

Father shared his blood and passed this curse onto me.

Now it was my turn.

Fosao seemed to notice what I was about to do and screamed.

“N-Nooooo-! Stop! Stop it-!!”

I breathed calmly.

I let the memories flow.

Everything I knew—all that you didn’t know until now.

Look at me.

Understand me, Tia.

“……Ugh!”

At that moment. Tia suddenly convulsed as if she was vomiting.

And she shook off my hand, stumbled backward, and began to breathe roughly.

“Cough! Cough-! Ugh…!”

I could see.

That countless memories were flashing before her eyes.

The sensation of an undeniable wave of time wildly crashing, clouding her mind.

“Ah… ah…”

Shock, terror, melancholy, sorrow, rage.

All emotions appeared on her face for a fleeting moment, then disappeared.

What was she seeing now?

In reality, it was a very brief moment, but within the memory illusion, it could be a very long time.

I couldn’t tell what Tia was seeing, but it was certain that the vast and grand memories I had released were seeping into her eyes.

Tia stumbled. Unable to keep her balance, she bent down and braced herself on the floor.

“Hah… Hah…”

Dry breaths escaped with difficulty.

On Tia’s face, having emerged from the memory illusion, not a shred of vitality could be felt.

Like a traveler who had wandered in the desert for decades.

She seemed to have forgotten that this was the royal palace. Unaware that it was a dark night with thunder, lightning, and pouring rain, her confused eyes trembled wildly.

Tia raised her head.

What she likely saw at the end of the memories was ‘me’ standing silently before her.

Thud.

Tia, having lost her strength, slumped to the floor. And with trembling hands, she covered her cheeks.

“Tia…”

As Fosao, who was crawling, futilely called her name.

“Aaaaaaaaaah-!!!!!!!”

Tia let out a piercing scream.

A cruel scream, as if tearing at her own heart with fingernails.

Ah. It was a monstrous roar.

It was the roar of yet another monster.

Before me now, there was no ‘Queen Tia’.

Having faced all the truths, and realized that it was a reality devoid of any lies…

There was only a miserable woman.

Fosao, whom she believed she truly loved… was the murderer who killed Ritsu.

Out of jealousy towards Helina, he drove Tia’s father insane, and was the devil who destroyed their family.

Tia, completely unaware of these facts, gave her heart to him, shared her body with him, made an eternal vow, and even carried his child.

Fosao played with Tia’s fate.

He deliberately pushed the girl down a miserable path, and when she persevered until she finally collapsed from exhaustion, he appeared like a savior and won her heart. He thoroughly eliminated and excluded anything else that stood in his way.

Tia, who thought she had escaped her cage… had in fact never left her cage for a single moment.

In the small garden beautifully decorated by Fosao. She had been living, thinking that was the end of the sky.

“The truth is always bitter.”

I knew it well.

Because I had experienced the shock and pain Tia was feeling countless times.

I knelt before her and whispered.

“But it’s alright. I came all this way to help you.”

What she needed now.

“Let’s take revenge together.”

I picked up Rose Shabelle from the floor, and placed it on her empty hand.

Then, I folded her fingers one by one to make her grip the sword tightly.

“Here. I’ll give you that chance.”

“H-Heh!”

Fosao, who was crawling, let out a terrified pig-like sound.

As if he realized something was wrong, he hastily began crawling on his elbows back towards the door to escape.

Amusingly, he looked like an ugly caterpillar.

“……”

Tia grasped Rose Shabelle and rose to her feet.

And she turned around to look at Fosao.

He hesitated, crawling backward, and trembled.

“Ti-Tia?”

But his beloved wife, without a word, walked towards him.

Ending him with my own hands had no meaning.

True revenge. It was.

The woman who was the only one in this world who loved him turning away.

Being killed by the hands of the woman he loved so dearly.