Ch.122Winter’s Legacy (4)

Life is always a question of where to stay.

Whether it means a physical dwelling or a psychological nest.

For humans, the concept of home was perhaps second only to people in importance.

We purchased a mansion located nearby and settled in comfortably.

Until now, I had been taking brief naps in the bottom sewers, but now that I had someone to take care of, I couldn’t continue living that way.

Fortunately, thanks to extracting this and that from the monarch, there was no shortage of funds.

A home I owned for the first time.

We stayed there.

In truth.

The girl resisted, saying she wouldn’t go, but once she was in my hands, she had no choice but to be dragged along.

Perhaps she was still terribly afraid of the outside world.

Even while walking through the streets, I could see her complexion turning pale.

She had experienced several outbursts of power, and sometimes people had died or been injured as a result, so it wasn’t strange for a young girl to fear herself.

Would her existence hurt others?

The fear learned from such obsessions had created an aversion to other people.

I was the same way.

“Miss Neria.”

The girl wouldn’t open her heart at all.

She didn’t answer when I called her name, and when I tried to approach, she would run away to a corner.

It felt like watching a cat with its guard up.

A deeply wounded cat, that is.

“……”

At first, it was difficult to even hear her voice.

She wouldn’t open her mouth at all.

It seemed she wasn’t ready to accept a new life.

I gave the girl warm bedding, quality food, and soft clothes, but she seemed uncomfortable with the unfamiliar kindness.

She would sleep on the floor every time, saying the soft bed felt rough.

The peace that suddenly arrived was only anxiety-inducing.

Her physical condition was equally serious.

Traces of violence remained clearly throughout her body, and some areas were severely infected and rotting.

Perhaps because of the starlight contained in her body, she frequently had high fevers.

Almost every night.

“Haa, haa…!”

The girl breathed roughly and broke out in cold sweat.

When someone was painfully sobbing at dawn, I had to stay up all night beside the monster burning with fever.

I stayed by her side.

I knew it would be difficult.

The curse she had lived with since childhood, a life broken by unwanted power, nightmares of suppressed abuse and brainwashing.

The wounds that had accumulated over time couldn’t heal all at once.

I approached slowly with patience.

For the girl who was still crying, by forgiving her wandering sins.

I simply remained.

“I’m here beside you.”

“It hurts… s-stop, I’m sorry, please forgive me…”

“No one is blaming you for anything.”

“Stay back, e-everyone will die because of me… it hurts, I want this to stop.”

“No one is going to die anymore. You’re just having a nightmare. Follow me and take a deep breath.”

“Ugh, haa…”

“You’re doing well.”

Taming is…

Like the process of becoming familiar with each other.

Rather than hastily closing the distance, you watch from afar, show just enough kindness to convey goodwill, and gradually increase the frequency of eye contact.

So that the other person can accept the strange visitor who has entered their world.

“Miss Neria.”

“……”

“If you’re too guarded, it hurts me too. Anyway, you were hungry, right? I brought dinner.”

Though it’s a largely forgotten concept, the value of relationships is fundamentally like that.

A process of increasing density based on time.

People explain that time’s density doesn’t always correspond to volume, but even those people can’t deny the absolute value contained in volume.

A relationship built steadily without rushing brings two people closer, slowly but surely.

Before we knew it, a thread of connection had formed between us.

“Well~ It’s time for treatment again today!”

I did my best.

I treated her wounds with care, and didn’t hesitate to use my power to fill in flesh or remove the thickly spread scars.

Thanks to this, after about a week, no more scars could be found on the girl’s body.

I remember the silver hair looking at herself with surprised eyes.

I smiled approvingly as I announced the end of the treatment.

It didn’t stop there.

“Is there any food you’d like to eat? I’m trying to cook, though I’m not very skilled.”

I prepared meals myself.

Although the girl was constantly on guard, she wavered before warm food just like anyone else.

She always cleaned her plate completely, which made cooking worthwhile.

I also made her bed, nursed her when she had a fever, and brought her blankets when she was trembling in a corner.

The snake and the monster accumulated time together like that.

“Time really flies.”

Time passed like an arrow.

We had already been staying at the mansion together for over a month.

The calendar of last month seemed to have receded particularly quickly.

As such.

There was also a change in the relationship between the two.

The girl still had a cold demeanor, but she no longer put up thorns or deliberately ignored my words like before.

Now, light conversation was possible.

It was an achievement of persistence.

“Hehe.”

A morning no different from any other.

While I was serving a meal with my still clumsy skills, suddenly the girl sitting at the table asked a question.

It was the first time she had asked something since the taming began.

I paused the bowl I was setting down.

“Why… are you doing all this for me?”

Pupils without vitality.

Her listless gaze looked up at me blankly.

Perhaps the warm kindness placed before her every day… that time spent together had made the girl curious.

The monster was asking about devotion.

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know. After all, there’s nothing I can give you in return.”

“Hmm.”

If asked for a reason.

Well.

I don’t really know either.

I was aware that I was going through unnecessary trouble.

I was also conscious of being excessively devoted.

I just…

-Brother!

Couldn’t pass by a child in pain.

Because the only regret I left in my previous life kept eating away at a corner of my heart.

I should have treated them better.

I should have stayed with them even a little longer.

I should have made sure they weren’t lonely.

Perhaps I was projecting these abstract self-reproaches onto reality.

I answered with a smile that didn’t matter either way.

“Because you’re precious.”

A clumsily uttered excuse.

But the girl didn’t seem to mind.

She simply nodded her head a few times and began to eat the stew placed in front of her.

I slowly reached out my hand and stroked her silver hair.

For the first time, she didn’t avoid it.

The morning passed with the soft hair touching my fingertips.

***

The girl was curious.

About the warmth that had suddenly entered her life.

‘How strange.’

The world had always been cold.

Without a shred of compassion.

From birth, she had carried a curse named blessing, and because of it, she had been burdened with unwanted sins and tears.

For her, the world was like wandering with nowhere to stay.

It was an obvious proposition.

After all, her existence only hurt others.

Nevertheless, the girl wanted to live.

‘It’s cold.’

People feared her.

They called her a monster.

They threw stones, telling her to disappear.

‘It hurts.’

The old man who showed interest.

The old man who called himself a monarch only thought of using the girl.

He imprisoned her in a jail of repeated violence and brainwashing, hanging strange devices all over her.

From then on, the girl gave up on life.

She sensed that this cursed fate would never end.

‘I’m lonely.’

The world was winter.

After winter came winter, and after that winter, and at the end, winter again.

Winter, winter, winter, and winter.

The seasons of endless cold and pain devoured her world in a cruel blizzard.

That’s how the girl had to die completely for eight years.

She thought no flowers would ever bloom in her world.

But.

-Finally, we meet.

-I’ve come to take you away.

One day.

An unknown warmth found the girl’s world.

-Shall we go? Miss Neria.

A name given arbitrarily.

The boy who suddenly appeared took her out of the cage where she had been hiding.

She refused to go outside because she didn’t want to hurt other people, but regardless, his touch led her forcefully.

It was a world she was stepping into for the first time.

The boy was warm.

He perfectly healed her festering wounds, prepared meals for her every day, and stayed by her side when she suffered from high fevers at dawn.

As time passed, the girl’s sharp wariness gradually softened.

At the same time, she began to question.

Because it was the first kindness she had ever received in her life.

It was close to curiosity about the unknown.

“Why… are you doing all this for me?”

So she asked.

When everyone in the world hated her, or only thought of using or controlling her.

When she thought life was just a path full of wounds.

Why do you alone offer this warmth?

The girl needed to know.

“There’s nothing I can give you in return.”

Her voice murmured softly.

The answer that came back…

Cleanly missed all the expectations that had filled her mind.

The boy answered with a warm smile.

“Because you’re precious.”

Precious.

It was a word whose meaning was difficult to understand.

A question that remained unresolved.

But the girl didn’t open her mouth again.

If she parted her lips even slightly, this dreamy moment might pop like a balloon.

The monster simply picked up her spoon.

“Hehe.”

Afterwards.

A hand gently stroking her head.

The touch and warmth of another person, felt for the first time in her life, conveyed an unfamiliar sensation.

But.

Even so, because it was warm…

She didn’t feel like avoiding the hand placed on the crown of her head.

The girl quietly received the clumsy stroking.

‘……It’s warm.’

For a moment.

It felt as if she had escaped winter.

***

However.

The world where stars fell was still cold to the girl.

She couldn’t even wish for a moment of happiness.

“So this is where you were. Miss Neria.”

“You…”

Against a background of swirling blood and snow.

The golden-haired snake and the silver-haired monster faced each other.

Red tears flowed down the girl’s cheeks.

Her delicate lips moved.

“I have one last request. If it’s you, I think I won’t regret it.”

That too was winter.

“Please… kill me.”

In the continuing sadness.

The girl prayed for a wish about the final season.