Ch.195The Performer, Violet (4)

I walked through the streets in the rain.

Past the castle walls half-melted by Radon’s breath, into the kingdom, through the plaza, across the market, I walked along the deserted streets. The sound of stepping into puddles echoed softly.

“The Kingdom of Cassel must have fallen.”

“……”

“I appreciate your consideration, but there’s no need. I know now. It feels like a very distant past, but I still vaguely remember.”

Splash.

“I think I created a grave by dropping a star after devouring about a third of the kingdom, so it must have fallen. It was already precarious anyway.”

Violet walked ahead with her back to Najin. Najin couldn’t see what expression she wore.

“I wasn’t a hero who saved the country. I was a disaster that destroyed it.”

He could only feel that her voice was trembling slightly. Najin’s lips moved. He pondered what to say.

It wasn’t your fault. Wasn’t it Radon who devoured you? Rather, the structure of the Kingdom of Cassel that depended on you alone…

Many sentences came to mind, but none seemed appropriate. She didn’t seem to want such excuses or comfort. In the events surrounding the Kingdom of Cassel, Najin was a complete outsider. He felt an outsider had no right to comment on it.

“So the me from back then was trying to punish myself. I don’t know if this punishment is enough, though.”

Violet looked up at the sky.

The rain kept falling. It fell endlessly.

“12,000 times.”

She murmured.

“I think I repeated the last month about 12,000 times. How much time has passed outside?”

“About 560 years have passed.”

“Then I’ve spent about twice that time in here.”

Time flows differently from the outside. Violet felt she had spent over a thousand years in this place. Reflecting on that time, Violet smiled bitterly.

“So much time has passed that I’m not sure what I was thinking when I created this grave. It must have been me, but it feels like someone else.”

“That’s understandable after a thousand years.”

“Right? But if I had to guess… the reason I chose to endlessly repeat this last month, where I don’t know who I am or what I’m becoming, where I don’t know anything…”

She turned around to face Najin.

“I think I clearly wanted to overcome it. Hoping to create a different ending from the one where I was devoured and broken by Radon.”

Losing memories every month.

Returning to the beginning with lost memories, starting over (Da capo). To the question of until when, the ‘Viola Ordina’ from a thousand years ago answered.

Until you who are not a hero become a true hero.

In the same situation.

Until you achieve a completely different outcome.

Viola Ordina was always that kind of person. Someone whose standard for “hero” was set impossibly high. Someone who believed only a flawless being could be called a hero. Therefore, Viola gave Violet both punishment and trial.

“How is that even possible?”

Violet laughed in disbelief, resenting her past self. How could that work? Repeating with lost memories would only lead to the same conclusion.

Unlike Viola, Violet was fragile.

She wished. She wished for someone to save her. She desperately wished for someone to shatter this nightmare on her behalf. That’s why Violet’s grave didn’t block others’ entry. It kept the entrance open, waiting for a hero.

“Viola Ordina wanted me to break free from this dream by myself, while Violet wished for someone to break it for her.”

Violet pointed at Najin.

Then she smiled bitterly.

“In the end, it happened as Violet, not Viola, wished. Because you appeared and saved me. Because you broke this dream by killing Radon.”

Finally, Violet exhaled.

“I guess I didn’t overcome it after all. Even after a thousand years, I still……”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“…What?”

Najin interrupted Violet. In the middle of the rain-soaked street, Najin looked straight at Violet.

“In the final moment, didn’t you stand before Radon of your own will? Without anyone pushing you.”

“That was—”

“At that time, you had no obligation, no compulsion, no responsibility, did you?”

Najin spoke on behalf of Viola Ordina. No one would have died if she hadn’t stepped forward. There was no room for Viola’s compulsion that ‘people will die if I don’t act.’

“Yet you appeared there anyway.”

“……”

“And when I asked what I should call you, you answered like this.”

That either would be fine.

That either way, it would be you.

“It wasn’t because I pushed you, nor because I led you to that answer. You answered that way because that’s what you thought.”

Najin smiled.

“I merely created the stage. It was your choice to leap onto that stage and become a hero. So haven’t you overcome it after all?”

“It doesn’t change the fact that you helped me.”

“Must a hero overcome everything alone? Even the great King Arthur had help from the Round Table.”

“Then……”

“Yes.”

Najin nodded.

“You were a hero.”

At that answer, Violet’s eyes grew misty.

She pressed the corner of her eye and spoke with a slightly trembling voice.

“Actually, you know.”

With a long exhale, she looked at Najin and smiled.

“Maybe I just wanted to hear it from someone else. Because I couldn’t be certain myself, couldn’t be confident… Maybe I just wanted someone truly heroic to acknowledge me.”

That you were a hero.

That you deserve to be called a hero.

That Violet and Viola Ordina are not different people but the same person, and they were heroes.

“That’s it.”

Violet, Viola Ordina, exhaled as if relieved.

“Yes, that’s really it.”

Najin fulfilled Violet’s wish. By saving her, he provided the key to breaking this dream. The wish of Violet, who wanted someone’s help, was granted.

Likewise, Viola Ordina’s wish was also fulfilled. Though with Najin’s help, Violet reached her own conclusion through her own struggle, and that answer was satisfactory even to the “hero, Viola Ordina.”

Both wishes were fulfilled.

The lingering attachment of the Star who wished for her own death 560 years ago was resolved. The dream repeated for a thousand years finally reached its end.

Crash.

The sound of breaking glass came from somewhere.

2.

Crash—the sky cracked.

Not just the sky. Cracks began to spread throughout the Kingdom of Cassel. Unlike being devoured by Viola who had been consumed by Radon, the collapse happened quietly, unlike the clamor of before.

Unlike before, when it spread from the center to the edges.

This time, the collapse began at the edges and moved toward the center.

The dream created by the Lonely Star began to slowly collapse. Her world slowly but surely shrank. Looking at the shattering world, she murmured.

“I’ve wondered what I would do if I stopped being a hero. Not just once. I’ve thought about it countless times.”

A world approaching its end.

“What would I want to do? If I were free from everything and could do anything, what would I try…”

Her voice was calm.

Despite the world breaking apart, she spoke leisurely.

“Maybe read novels. Exploring restaurants would be nice too. I’ve thought about traveling far away, visiting cities where famous musicians gather, making plans like that. Though I never told anyone.”

She smiled.

It was a faint smile that seemed it might disappear at any moment. Najin instinctively grabbed her hand. Looking at Najin’s hand holding hers, Violet nodded.

“There are many things I’d like to try, but if I had to choose just one, it would definitely be that.”

Then, she held Najin’s hand with both of hers.

“Najin.”

In a world approaching its end.

Violet smiled brightly and pulled Najin’s arm.

“Let’s play together. One last time, from the beginning!”

Holding Najin’s arm, Violet ran. The two ran through the rainy streets. They ran through the cracking world with all their might. They ran to an old tavern, the place that had become her final sanctuary.

She sat on the chair in front of the piano.

After taking a deep breath, she vigorously struck the keys.

And so the performance began. To the rhythm she created, Najin played the violin, and Merlin, who had silently followed, sighed and reluctantly played the cello.

The sound of pouring rain.

The sound of breaking glass.

The sound of the world collapsing.

Even these sounds became part of the performance, creating harmony. Violet, sweating, struck the keys with more concentration than ever before. Her eyes were shining.

“Ah, ah, ha!”

She raced toward the end.

From the beginning again (Da capo).

The symbol that had always been at the end of this dream. But at this moment, a new symbol appeared next to it.

The end of the performance (Al fine).

Reading the two symbols together means “From the beginning again, toward the end of the performance (Da capo al fine).” Thus, the performance that had been repeated 12,000 times finally races toward its conclusion.

The end approaches for a performance that seemed endless.

“Ah……”

Violet pressed the final key with force. With a deep, resonant sound, Violet bowed her head. Tears fell onto the keys.

“I wanted to play a little more, just a little longer.”

Drop, drop.

“I wanted to talk with you more.”

She spoke with a trembling voice.

“I’m sad that it ends here. Ah, I should have held on a little longer. I shouldn’t have made that choice. If I had endured, maybe an opportunity would have come someday… Why did I make that choice?”

Regret. Remorse. Sorrow.

“But still.”

Violet raised her head.

Murmuring “but still,” she rubbed her face with her sleeve. Wiping away tears and barely managing to smile, she looked at Najin.

“Still, I like this ending. I think I can accept this kind of finale.”

She approached Najin. With a crash, the spreading cracks finally reached her final sanctuary. As even the tavern scenery began to break, Violet untied the ribbon binding her hair.

“Najin.”

Embraced in Najin’s arms, Violet whispered in his ear. She reached behind Najin’s head.

“Thank you. Truly, until the very end.”

She untied the ribbon holding Najin’s hair and tied his hair with the ribbon that had bound her own. Then she stepped back.

“My hero.”

Violet smiled through tears.

“Remember me.”

As if answering the question inscribed on the tombstone—Who am I?—Violet smiled brightly.

“Hero Viola Ordina. And.”

Violet placed her hand on her chest.

“The performer, Violet.”

The End (Al Fine)

Crash.

Finally, the world completely shattered.

In the world breaking like glass, cracks began to form on Violet’s body. She who had isolated herself from the world and lived a detached life belonging nowhere, could belong to reality in her final moment.

It doesn’t matter if this is a dream.

For her, this was reality.

The Lonely Star (遊離星) refused to remain detached (遊離). By denying her own star, the Lonely Star met her death. Not falling, not transforming, but a complete death embraced her.

Grip.

Najin held Violet’s shattering hand. Toward the crumbling woman, Najin spoke. Though his words were buried in the sound of the world breaking and collapsing, Violet heard them clearly.

I will remember you.

In her final moment, Violet smiled. In true peace, not false comfort, she closed her eyes. As she closed them, she thought.

That her end, at least, was good.

That her life, after all, wasn’t so bad.

3.

Swoosh—Najin’s hand cut through empty air.

Violet, whom he had been holding just moments ago, was no longer there. Blinking his eyes, what appeared before him was thick undergrowth, a tombstone placed among it, and the ruins of the Kingdom of Cassel.

Viola Ordina’s dream had broken.

Though everything felt like an illusion or dream, there was evidence that it had been reality, not a dream. Najin touched his hair. The ribbon tying his hair. Six stars were embedded in that ribbon.

It was both a sacred relic (星遺物) left by Viola Ordina and a keepsake (遺品) proving Violet’s existence.

Grip.

Najin tightly clutched the ribbon she had left.

-……

Merlin, who had returned to Najin’s inner world after leaving the dream, knew what emotions Najin was feeling and remained silent. Only after a long time did Najin exhale deeply.

“……”

Najin looked at the tombstone before him.

“Hero of the Kingdom of Cassel, Viola Ordina.”

“Protected the country from the evil dragon.”

“A knight who fought bravely until the end.”

Looking down.

He saw the sentence written below.

“Who am I?”

Najin extended his finger. With his starlight, now containing the Lonely Star’s light, Najin engraved words on the tombstone. A name of hers that perhaps only Najin knew.

“The performer, Violet.”

Najin provided the answer to the question she had been asking for 560 years, a question she had posed during the thousand years in the dream that no one had answered.

Thus, the names “Hero Viola Ordina” and “The performer, Violet” coexisted on the tombstone.

There was no difference between the two.

Both were her names.

As he placed that final mark on the tombstone, a star twinkled in the sky above.

The Star of Mourning.

Najin had obtained the fifth star.