Chapter 16: Great Sentences

Even with the sun shining upon the girl.

She waited.

Even when the rain poured, ruining her beautiful appearance.

She waited.

Even as she shivered in the cold as the snow fell.

The girl waited.

She just waited.

---

“……Where am I?”

The first line commonly uttered in isekai reincarnation works.
(TL note: Isekai is a Japanese term that means ‘another world’ or ‘different world’. It’s a subgenre of fantasy fiction that features characters who are transported to another world.)

A variation of this would be something like, ‘This ceiling looks unfamiliar.’

This was the first thought that entered my mind when I opened my eyes.

‘Where am I?’

‘I thought I was doing forced exercise disguised as training with Heroine 2.’

After sitting up, I roughly looked around.

This place was…

Yes, it felt somewhat like an infirmary.

The faint scent of disinfectant wafted through the air.

And various kinds of medicines were neatly arranged in the drawer.

The academy’s infirmary, which I had visited yesterday morning to get cold medicine.

Until this point, I wasn’t entirely convinced I was in the infirmary.

Rightfully so, because even though it was within the same academy, the infirmary and the student training ground were quite far apart.

Even if my memory cut off during exercise, I wouldn’t have walked that far while unconscious.

It was a rational inference based on somewhat objective evidence.

“……Are you awake?”

“…”

Of course, that reasoning completely shattered the moment the school nurse pulled back the bed curtain and entered.

‘Seriously, what?’

‘Did I crawl all the way here while unconscious?’

‘Impossible.’

‘There’s no way this wretched body, which coughs up blood after running just 20 laps around the training ground, could accomplish such a tough task.’

Fortunately, this question was resolved shortly after.

“Christina brought you here herself after you fainted.”

Because the ever-so-kind school nurse answered the question I hadn’t even asked yet.

“Heroine 2… No, Her Highness Princess Christina did?”

“Yes. She said she needed to check something and left… but she was watching over you here until just a moment ago.”

…The Christina Valentine?

Brought me here after I fainted?

Not just anyone, but Heroine 2.

Not Kim Soo-ho or Heroine 1, but the Third Imperial Princess, who disliked Lee Seo-yeon more than anyone.

For such a person to personally bring me, unconscious, to the infirmary?

Could this really have happened?

As I pondered its authenticity, the school nurse, who had been quietly observing me, spoke up.

“……By the way, Seo-yeon.”

“Yes?”

“Do you happen to remember why you fainted?”

“…”

“I asked Princess, no, student Christina, but she said she had no idea why you fainted.”

The nurse’s question was enough to lightly blow away the thoughts I had been pondering until just now.

Because right now, I also didn’t know why I had fainted.

It sounded ridiculous, but it was true.

I had absolutely no idea why I fainted.

I couldn’t remember anything.

The last scene I recalled was Christina suggesting we use weapons for training.

After that, I had no memory at all.

As if someone had intentionally cut it out.

As if someone had stolen it, so I couldn’t remember, couldn’t recall that time.

“……I don’t really know either.”

“……Is that so?”

“Yes. I don’t have any memory of that time……”

“There’s no need to force yourself to remember. Focus on resting for now.”

With those final words, the school nurse closed the curtain to allow me to rest alone.

“…”

The bed felt like my own space as I lay in it and let myself be immersed in thought.

Let’s think.

I definitely went to the training ground this morning after getting a message from Heroine 2.

And Christina, having calculated the probability of me wearing a skirt, forced me to borrow clothes and change into activewear.

…After that, it was really just training.

Running about 10 laps around the track.

Then, because I was panting and struggling, the activity changed to sparring.

And naturally, since I had never fought before, I was just getting beaten up one-sidedly, might I add.

“……Did I use a weapon?”

This part was fuzzy.

I definitely remember Christina sighing at me and suggesting we spar with the weapons we used, she said that exact sentence.

But like I said before, my memory stops there.

Is this the early-onset dementia I’ve only heard about?

Have I already contracted such a terrible disease before even graduating from the academy?

…No, wait, I can’t graduate from the academy anyway.

How can I graduate when I’ll die before then?

Surprisingly, the questions cluttering my mind were simply resolved by recalling the word ‘death’.

Because after death, such questions would be meaningless anyway.

Because after my breath stops, such thoughts won’t even arise.

I felt like I had grasped the truth of all things.

Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

Am I really that stupid?

Death is the end.

Of all sadness, all joy.

Of all happiness.

Though I’m not sure if happiness ever existed for me.

Anyway, I decided to stop the pointless pondering about why I fainted.

In the face of death, everyone is equal.

Such a cool phrase surely didn’t exist for nothing.

So I decided to ponder something else.

A concern that might be at least slightly helpful in my remaining short life.

“……Why did she help me?”

The question of why our Heroine 2 helped me.

The question of why Christina, who would choose me without a second’s hesitation if asked to pick the person she hates most in the world, went through the trouble of carrying unconscious me all the way to the infirmary.

Isn’t this question also one that ends with death?

No. This is my curiosity.

Honestly, I wasn’t too curious about the previous question, not as much as this one, at least.

Who would wonder why they fainted?

It’s better to try and answer a question that at least satisfies my curiosity.

Yep. Absolutely.

There were about two possible reasons.

First, my body couldn’t withstand the harsh training, and I fainted.

Second, Christina directly knocked me out during training.

If it was the first reason, it was strictly my fault.

Christina just trained me like she would any other student, and I couldn’t handle it.

However, if the reason I fainted was the second one.

Then the reason Christina showed me kindness could also be explained.

No matter how much Heroine 2 disliked Lee Seo-yeon, she wasn’t such a bad person as to knock someone out and then abandon them.

If I fainted because she failed to control her strength during sparring.

If the shock caused some memory loss as well.

“……Found it?”

All the facts and evidence fit together perfectly.

I got you, Christina Valentine.

So you were the culprit again after all.

Last time, you made me catch a cold, so I’d go to the infirmary.

This time, you directly knocked me out and transported me to the infirmary yourself.

This was almost suspicious enough to make one wonder if it was Christina’s consideration for my health.

Otherwise, there’s no way she would make me go to the infirmary twice.

Maybe now that I’m her party member, she feels she has to take care of me, but she’s too embarrassed to say it directly because of how she’s treated me so far?

So she made me go to the infirmary through these unnecessary methods.

Thinking that by forcibly making me visit the infirmary, my condition would eventually improve.

I was almost moved by this consideration from my party leader, who thought of me in such a way.

Unfortunately, Christina’s consideration was meaningless.

Because the illness Lee Seo-yeon—no, I suffered from, ‘Mana Incompatibility,’ wasn’t something that could be cured just by visiting the infirmary frequently.

If it were a disease that could be cured so easily.

The original Lee Seo-yeon wouldn’t have died.

Even if she didn’t receive the friendship of her friends or the affection of Kim Soo-ho, she wouldn’t have accepted her death with such ease.

Believing that living longer wouldn’t bring happiness.

Believing that living longer wouldn’t bring love.

She wouldn’t have met her death believing such things.

She would have lived on, even just a little longer.

Searching for someone who might make her happy, someone who might love her.

Even if the chances were slim, she would have lived on, holding onto hope.

Not humbly accepting death in a place where no one watched over her.

As I’ve said before, it’s a natural human instinct to fear death and want to live.

“…”

A question flashed through my mind, but I lightly ignored it.

I was human.

Even though I always say I want to die, I am human.

Outwardly saying I want to die, that I don’t want to live here anymore.

I am human.

Inside, I surely must want to live.

Probably.

It must be so.

Really.

It must be so.

Otherwise, I couldn’t find a reason for ‘my’ existence.

It must be so.

No, it had to be so.

…Haha. What on earth am I saying?

I don’t know either.

Still, it sounds cool, doesn’t it?

Isn’t this almost on the level of ‘In the face of death, everyone is equal’?

Or something like that.