chapter_0216

215 – Awareness

215 – Awareness

As soon as he heard the story, Daniel ran to Lucy’s room.

He thought to himself.

Why did Count Caledra decide to dispose of Lucy?

Daniel asked himself the question and soon came to the answer.

‘It’s because of me.’

The only impurity in this world of memories was Daniel Steiner.

If Daniel hadn’t infiltrated this world, Lucy wouldn’t have been disposed of.

‘Everything I did, thinking it was for Lucy’s sake…’

Ultimately led to Lucy’s death.

Thinking that he had to take responsibility somehow, Daniel went up the stairs and ran down the hallway.

Ignoring the other servants who tried to stop him, Daniel was able to reach Lucy’s room.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel opened the door without knocking.

“…Huh?”

Then Lucy made a strange noise and hid a doll behind her back.

To make matters worse, she was blushing as if she was embarrassed.

“Don’t get the wrong idea? I just made this doll because I was bored. It’s not like I made it thinking about you…”

Lucy’s voice trailed off as she made excuses, sweating profusely.

It was because Daniel was looking at her with an extremely serious expression.

“…What’s wrong?”

How should he explain this?

Daniel, catching his breath, pondered over and over again and approached Lucy.

“Lady? You said you wanted to see the sea, didn’t you?”

Daniel knelt down on one knee in front of Lucy.

Then he reached out his hand to Lucy.

“Now seems to be the perfect time. Would you like to go see the sea with me?”

“Why the sea all of a sudden…”

“There’s no time! You have to choose right now!”

Lucy was momentarily flustered by Daniel’s outburst, but she soon understood the situation.

“…I can’t see it if it’s not today?”

Daniel nodded at her trembling voice.

Only then did Lucy understand everything and grabbed Daniel’s hand.

“I’ll go. I’ll go see the sea.”

*

Having received permission, Daniel held Lucy in his arms and left the mansion without any plan.

Since there was very little time to make a plan, he thought that the first thing to do was to take Lucy and get out of that hellish mansion.

But of course, Count Caledra wasn’t going to stand by and watch.

When Kaled heard that Daniel had taken Lucy out of the mansion, he ordered the mansion’s soldiers.

He told them to find Lucy, as well as the man who had disappeared with Lucy, and kill them immediately.

Thanks to this, Daniel was currently being chased by Count Caledra’s soldiers.

“He couldn’t have gone far! He must be nearby, search every inch!”

“Permission to fire! I repeat, permission to fire! Count Caledra has ordered that if you find them, you can kill them on the spot, so everyone load live ammunition!”

“Narrow the encirclement! Make him show himself!”

The voices of the soldiers echoed everywhere.

Daniel, catching his breath behind a fallen old tree, could see soldiers everywhere he looked.

The light from the torches and flashlights occupied all sides, making it impossible to know where to go.

“Damn it…”

As Daniel gritted his teeth, Lucy, who was in his arms, quietly opened her mouth.

“You know, I’ve changed my mind. It’s okay if I can’t see the sea anymore. So maybe it would be better to hand me over to those people. If it’s now, the Count might forgive me…”

I don’t want to hear it.

“Don’t be weak now.”

Daniel said that and mustered his strength to get up.

He was trying to gain some distance by taking advantage of the loosened search.

However, just as he was about to hide among the trees, the light from a flashlight was aimed at Daniel’s back.

“There he is! He’s over there!”

“Shit! He’s running away! Fire! Fire!”

Thinking he had been discovered, Daniel kicked off the ground.

Gunshots rang out behind him.

The flying bullets hit the trees or grazed his body.

His body flinched each time, but Daniel didn’t stop running.

‘Can I survive?’

He asked himself, but the answer was already determined.

‘I can’t survive.’

If he continued like this, death was certain.

Nevertheless, Daniel’s feet didn’t stop.

‘If it were just me, I’d give up…’

Right now, Lucy was in Daniel’s arms, cowering in fear.

Daniel couldn’t possibly show a resigned look in front of Lucy, so he ran desperately.

However, a mindset doesn’t solve everything.

Bang—

At the same time as a gunshot rang out in the distance, a stray bullet hit Daniel’s shoulder.

Daniel’s body staggered greatly for a moment.

Daniel, who was about to fall, barely managed to stand on the ground.

The pain made him clench his teeth, but he could still endure it.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel ran again.

Hoping that good fortune would work and create a possibility for both of them to survive.

As Daniel ran, avoiding the branches, he felt his vision gradually blurring.

His rapid breathing showed no signs of calming down, and his body, which had lost its sense of direction, continued to lean to one side.

He was only maintaining his body with willpower, but it didn’t last long.

Thud! His toe caught on a rock, and his body tilted forward, losing its balance.

Daniel fell down the slope with Lucy in his arms.

His vision spun dizzily.

After rolling down the slope several times, Daniel slammed his back against a nearby tree.

“Ugh…!”

Daniel let out a short groan at the pain coming from the gunshot wound.

Daniel lowered his gaze and was able to confirm that Lucy, who was in his arms, was not injured.

He felt a momentary sense of relief, but it was all in vain.

“He rolled down!”

“This way! Everyone gather here!”

The voices of the soldiers were coming from not too far away.

‘Is this the result of struggling?’

His body lost strength from the futility.

As he leaned his head against the tree, Lucy sobbed like a fool.

“Why… Why are you doing this…”

Lucy’s small, delicate hand touched Daniel’s body.

“Why are you doing this for me? Why…”

Daniel silently raised his hand to Lucy, who was sobbing as if she didn’t know why.

Daniel placed his hand on Lucy’s head and quietly opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry. I promised to show you the sea…”

“I don’t want to see the sea!”

Lucy shouted and punched Daniel’s chest.

It was a fist that had no strength in it at all.

“I didn’t want to see the sea…”

Lucy just wanted to be with Daniel, who understood her.

She had only said, “Let’s go see the sea together,” in the hope that he would be by her side even when the day came when she left the mansion.

The sea wasn’t important.

What was important to Lucy was Daniel.

Daniel also knew what Lucy was trying to say.

But he couldn’t turn back, and even if he did, he would make the same choice.

He couldn’t overlook Hamilton’s violence, and he couldn’t stand by and watch Count Caledra dispose of Lucy as he pleased.

“I see him! Everyone aim!”

In the meantime, the soldiers were getting closer.

Daniel, thinking that it was really over, opened his dry lips.

“Lieutenant. It seems like this is the end for me. What a terrible end. I promised to protect you, but…”

Lucy’s eyes widened.

Daniel smiled bitterly and removed his hand from Lucy’s head.

“Please forgive your incompetent superior.”

Daniel said that and quietly closed his eyes.

He didn’t know what it meant to die in the world of memories, but now he had no choice but to humbly accept death.

However, even after waiting for a while, he didn’t hear the soldiers’ gunshots.

Daniel, feeling something strange, slowly opened his eyes.

He could see that the world had stopped.

The soldiers were frozen with their fingers on the triggers, and even the bushes that were fluttering in the wind were not moving, like a still screen.

‘And…’

Lucy was in front of him.

Not Lucy, who was called Lady in her childhood.

But Lucy, dressed in a military uniform as Daniel Steiner’s lieutenant.

If there was a common point between the two, it was that their red irises were filled with tears.

“…Lieutenant?”

Daniel opened his mouth in a daze, as if he was seeing a hallucination before death.

As if to stop him from speaking, Lucy lowered her head.

Daniel didn’t avoid it, so their lips naturally touched.

Time passed briefly.

Their scents mixed and their breaths were close.

In the colorless space where everything was stopped, only the two of them were colored.

Lucy, who finally took her lips off, grabbed Daniel’s hand in her breathless breath.

Then the world changed completely.

Everything visible was cracking.

As if it was about to break soon.

But Lucy and Daniel were looking at each other without paying attention to those things.

After a brief silence, Lucy raised her hand and stroked Daniel’s cheek.

“Daniel Steiner.”

Lucy moved her lips as if she would never forget again.

“I remember you.”

At the same time, the false world began to collapse.

Author’s Note

Thank you for the 10 coin donation, HaeDalJoa! Thank you for your support again! I hope you enjoy reading it today! Thank you so much for your support!

Today is a double update…!

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