Chapter 44: The Witch’s Silence (7)

Ianna’s slender fingers were ravaging the inside of my mouth into a complete mess.

Ianna’s fingers, drenched in saliva, caressed my tongue and moved down toward my throat.

It didn’t go in deep enough to make me gag.

At most, it only pressed and stimulated the entrance to my throat.

A lewd and blissful feeling washed over me.

My lower body began trembling.

An indescribable pleasure enveloped my entire body.

At some point, I lost all strength throughout my body.

I wanted to resist Ianna.

But my body wouldn’t move.

In that brief moment, I realized it clearly.

That my body had been tamed by Ianna.

More precisely, by Ianna’s small and slender fingers.

Every time I saw those fingers, my body flushed with heat.

Twisting my thighs together, I found myself waiting eagerly for Ianna’s fingers to plunge deep inside.

Nothing else entered my sight except for Ianna.

Flushed with a rosy hue, Ianna was panting heavily, reaching out to grope my body.

Ianna’s two eyes.

What was reflected in her pupils was my pale, terrified face.

“You’re reacting way cuter than a normal girl would…”

“U-ugh…”

Along with shame, pleasure surged through me.

I didn’t know why.

Just seeing Ianna, just feeling her fingers slip deep inside, caused my whole body to convulse.

My head was getting a little hazy.

“Look straight at me. Then, I’ll begin, okay…?”

“Hhng, ugh…!”

Ianna slowly pulled her hand out of my mouth, shaking her saliva-soaked fingers, then fully removed my half-removed skirt.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.

“Haa, haah… huuuh…”

I braced myself firmly.

Taking a deep breath, covering my completely flushed face with both hands, I felt Ianna’s hand slip inside my underwear.

‘Th-this is…’

I should resist, I shouldn’t accept this.

Even though I thought that, I couldn’t do anything.

All I could do was tightly shut my eyes and grit my teeth.

“Uuuh…”

All my nerves were focused solely on Ianna’s every move.

As the chirping of the crickets at dawn faded, the sound of Ianna’s heavy breathing grew louder.

No.

It wasn’t just Ianna’s breathing.

Our breaths mingled together.

Harsh, indistinguishable breaths filled the air.

Sweat and saliva mixed as our bodies gradually pressed against each other.

At the moment when Ianna’s fingers lightly brushed against that place—

“Hehe… The prank ends here.”

Ianna’s hand, which had slipped inside my underwear, swiftly pulled back out.

The thing I had imagined didn’t happen.

“W-what…”

“Sorry, but time’s up.”

I was left speechless at Ianna’s words.

Ianna, finding my bewildered expression amusing, looked down at me with an entertained face.

“Were you expecting something? Sorry. Your reactions were just too cute, so I thought I’d tease you a little…”

“…I wasn’t expecting anything!”

My face had turned so red I couldn’t even look directly at Ianna.

I felt so humiliated, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

“It was a good reaction, though.”

However, Ianna’s slightly regretful expression as she licked her lips sent a chill down my spine.

Covered in each other’s body heat, saliva, and sweat, we stood there staring at each other blankly for a moment.

Ianna smiled faintly.

I didn’t know what it meant.

I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

It was just a smile tinged with sadness.

I quickly straightened my clothes.

I didn’t want to show my naked body to Ianna any longer.

Because it was so embarrassing.

For a while.

We simply looked at each other without speaking.

Because we didn’t know what to say.

When I saw Ianna’s sorrowful smile, the pleasure and excitement that had been coursing through me disappeared without a trace.

It was Ianna’s whisper that finally broke the silence.

“Don’t you regret preventing death? It might end up dragging you down. Just like it has until now.”

‘…’

I said nothing.

Before I knew it, dawn was breaking.

The twilight moon that faintly lit up Ianna was long gone.

The countless stars in the sky were also vanishing one by one.

The sound of crickets started up again.

It was just like the countryside landscape I remembered.

Exactly like the unchanged memories of the past.

I could feel the dawn slowly arriving.

A strange feeling welled up inside me.

When the sun fully rose, it felt like my brief encounter with Ianna would come to an end.

Ianna was asking me for the last time.

Were I really sure I wouldn’t regret it? That this was my only chance to turn back? That if I wished, she would end my life right now.

‘…Regret.’

Honestly.

I couldn’t say I hadn’t regretted it.

Not just with Ianna.

I had regretted everything I had ever chosen in my life.

I regretted not even being able to properly watch over my mother’s funeral, not being able to stop my father because I was too afraid, not being able to celebrate my younger sisters’ birthdays properly because of bone-crushing poverty, and chasing foolish dreams far beyond my station.

I regretted everything.

‘…There was a better choice.’

I always thought that when I looked back.

That there had been better choices.

That I had been foolish, cowardly for choosing otherwise.

It would not be an exaggeration to say I lived half my life in regret.

It had been a regretful life.

Except for this one moment.

“I don’t regret it.”

“…What did you say?”

“At least about this. I don’t regret it anymore. It was the only right choice I ever made.”

“…”

I didn’t want to keep regretting anymore.

If Ianna took her own life, just for my sake, I would regret it until the moment I died.

The only reason I hadn’t returned to my original world was for Ianna.

I had seen everything of Ianna.

I had felt everything about her.

I knew exactly what kind of end awaited her.

No one would reach out to Ianna.

No one would stand by her.

At least I had my family.

I had three younger sisters who supported me.

Who would always take my side.

Family.

My thoughts about family weren’t so different from Ianna’s.

Did Ianna have anything she could even call family?

No.

Even if it was a foolish, indecisive choice, I had no regrets about deciding to help Ianna.

Even if I made mistakes, even if I failed, I would not regret it.

“I’ll create the future you long for before you disappear.”

A happy ending.

Ianna wished for a peaceful tomorrow.

She wished for fewer innocent lives to be lost.

Everything Ianna had done so far had been for that one reason.

Ianna’s cause was the future.

And I would make that future for her.

“I’ll give you back a place to belong.”

I could never allow a peaceful tomorrow to come where Ianna herself didn’t exist.

No matter what it took.

I would crush all danger and return her body before she disappeared completely.

It wasn’t some one-sided charity.

It was a trade.

I would help Ianna, and in return, Ianna would not take her own life.

It was an equal trade, with matching stakes.

I wanted to create a world where Ianna could be at peace.

She more than deserved it.

Her decades of sacrifice were not without value.

Determination.

I could swear it.

That I would open the way to tomorrow for Ianna.

“…I’m just a part of her anyway.”

“No. You are Ianna.”

Ianna was not dead.

She was vividly alive in front of me.

Even if it was just a remnant of her soul or part of her personality, she was still Ianna.

She deserved to be Ianna.

“So please, wait for me. For the day we’ll meet again.”

The reason I helped Ianna.

Simply because I couldn’t just walk past.

“Mm…”

Tears welled up at the corners of Ianna’s eyes.

A smiling face filled with tears.

And at that moment—

The sun began to rise.

***

It was more desperate than anything.

Now that I knew the future, I couldn’t just stand still.

Even with a nearly dead body.

I used all my strength.

Knowing it was impossible alone, I sought out others.

Only that person came to me.

Only that person treated it like their own business and stepped up.

Only that person answered my desperate prayers.

I already knew.

That I was forcing a one-sided sacrifice.

That I was asking the impossible.

But.

‘Because I couldn’t just stand by…’

My chest ached so badly it felt like it would burst.

Crushing guilt overwhelmed Ianna.

Just by looking into that person’s eyes, I knew.

That they were the same kind of person as me.

Infinitely kind and altruistic.

That was why the guilt grew even deeper.

They didn’t ask anything.

They didn’t want anything.

They just helped, masking their good will as if it were nothing.

They asked me to wait.

They asked me to meet again.

In the final moments of her life, Ianna felt for the first time what love was.

It was clearly different from the vague feelings she’d experienced before.

It was unmistakable love.

The only thing she could give to that person was love.

Even though she could no longer see them anymore.

Ianna, whose strength had left her, collapsed onto the wooden floor of the veranda.

Her eyelids slowly grew heavier.

She had used up every last bit of her strength — to meet that person, to ward off the death that hovered over her body, to somehow extend their lifespan.

The morning sun.

The morning sun rose high in the blue sky.

Ianna smiled faintly.

Because she thought of that person.

Ianna’s consciousness gradually faded.

She knew.

That once she let go of her consciousness,

perfect silence would arrive.

For the last time, Ianna thought of the dawn.

The sky where the twilight moon, Janwol, was slowly fading.

“…Goodbye.”

And then—

Ianna shared her fate with Janwol.

It was a morning when serene silence came.