episode_0020

A thin, neatly organized bundle of papers. It looked like a normal document, but when it was spread out before me, I immediately recognized what it was. The sensation of my heart freezing.

“Should I show you this or not… I actually thought about it a lot.”

Sierra said quietly. With a gentle and delicate gesture, completely different from the hand that held the chains, she spread out the document. Sliding her finger across the edge of the paper, she held it out to me as if opening an old diary.

“Yes… That’s just like you.”

Leo’s voice trembled. But it wasn’t from fear. The emotion that overwhelmed him was cold yet hot, an extreme rage. Beyond the candlelight, Sierra sat with the document in one hand, her legs crossed. Her gaze was relaxed, even holding a hint of a smile from one who foresaw victory.

“How could you do something like this…”

Leo’s hand reached out for the document. The edges of the document were slightly damp from Sierra’s touch, and on the surface, along with her neat handwriting, the seal of an enemy commander was stamped.

‘Consent Form for Joining The Other Side of the Moon’

‘Leo Heavenfield, by signing this, I confess to participating in acts of treason against the Empire.’

“…How do you have this that I burned to ashes?!”

Leo shouted. The document in his hand rustled, trembling violently. His face was burning with a mixture of contempt, fear, and betrayal.

“That document,” Sierra said, standing up and taking a step closer. Her tone was calm, but the hidden madness within it was breathing. “While young master was away for a moment, I sifted through the ashes in that room one by one. And I pieced together the remaining fragments of letters to complete it.”

“…You’re insane.”

At Leo’s words, Sierra laughed. Briefly, lightly. But that laughter spread through the darkness of the mansion, as if tightening around Leo’s heart.

“Did you want to control me that much?”

“Control?” She tilted her head and asked back. “No. Young master, I just… didn’t want to lose you.”

“So you’re going to use this document to tie me down?!”

Leo raised his voice and threw the document against the wall. The candlelight flickered, and his shadow violently swayed in the room.

“If you thought I would give in to that pathetic piece of paper, you are greatly mistaken!”

He kicked the chair with his foot. The wooden chair rolled with a bang, and documents from the drawer spilled out with it. And the room was enveloped in heavy silence.

Leo breathed heavily, glaring at Sierra.

“I am not your toy. Not a maid, not a slave, not a puppet.”

“………”

“My life is mine. The moment you intruded upon it, this isn’t love or devotion. It’s just—suffocation!”

At that moment, the smile disappeared from Sierra’s eyes. She slowly lowered her head, then raised it again. Her two eyes were still looking at him, but no emotion could be read within them. Like a doll whose magic had been undone.

“So, young master.” She said quietly. “What will you do now? With just this one document, you will be branded a traitor to the entire Empire, and you will lose your family, your name, everything.”

Leo’s two fists trembled violently.

“Are you enjoying this threat?”

Sierra slowly moved her steps and stood in the middle of the room. And she picked up the document that had fallen to the floor and held it close to her chest.

“No. I am… offering you a choice.”

And then, with an expressionless face, she added again.

“Stay by my side. Then this document will disappear as if nothing ever happened.”

…

“…Why are you doing this? What do you hope to gain by threatening me?”

My voice was hoarse. Words, tangled with hatred, confusion, and distrust, crumbled as they came out of my throat. But as if to accept all of it, she whispered softly.

“I wish the way young master looks at me would change.”

In her eyes, for the first time, her true feelings were revealed.

“Not eyes that are scared, not a gaze trying to avoid me, but… I want you to acknowledge that I am within young master’s world. No matter how.”

“So you’re going to break me down?”

“No.”

She shook her head. Then she took one step closer.

“Let’s just… fall apart together.”

Her hand was quietly placed on my wrist. This time, it wasn’t chains, nor leather straps. Just the contact of skin against skin. But it was deeper than any restraint.

“If you run away from here, I will really send it.”

She said. Without hesitation. With unfeigned resolution.

“So, make a choice. Young master. If I’m a crazy woman, you can be dragged along by that crazy woman… Or…”

She slowly turned the last page, and smiled again.

“You can hold hands with that crazy woman and go down to hell together.”

“How could…”

“Master, I am always by your side.”

“Even if our bodies are apart, it’s no different”

“Because I am. Your. Loyal maid.”

With those words

I felt my reason snap.

“Then get out of my sight right now!!!”

The emotions that were inside began to burst out.

“You said you’re always with me even if you’re not next to me.”

“Why are you so obsessed with me!”

The truth hidden in my heart too

“Why on earth are you doing this to me!!!”

“I am not your lover, I am not your friend, I am just a stranger”

The lie I had prepared for someday too

“Please…”

“Please disappear from my sight…please…”

…

…

…

“Master.”

“I’m sorry, but I cannot grant that request.”

“I ask that you reconsider.”

“Shut up, be quie-…”

At that moment, I saw her expression.

That expression was

Deep despair in her heart

Unspeakable sadness.

At that moment

Sierra. Looked like she would burst into tears any moment.

It was… a sight I had never seen before.

“I know I am being presumptuous.”

“I know that my wish to be by master’s side is also a reckless dream of mine”

“But… I can’t bear to be without Leo”

Finally

Tears flowed from her eyes.

The telepathy was no longer heard.

There was only the sound of crying.

Instead, she held the paper like before and wrote on it.

[If you leave my side, I will hand over this document and everything I know to the Empire]

[The Empire will immediately pursue you, and The Other Side of the Moon will collapse]

…

[You will die, as the core of The Other Side of the Moon]

[And after that, I will also die]

[By hanging myself in your room]

[I can’t help it. This is the last method I chose]

[A life without you is like death]

Due to emotion… the pen strokes became messy and tear stains were imprinted on the paper.

With one hand, she wiped away tears, and with the other hand, she picked up the trembling pen again. Sentences written on the paper instead of words—that was the only confession she could make right now.

[During the 7 years without you…]

As soon as the sentence began, she stopped. Where the pen tip had flowed across the paper and suddenly stopped, a tear dropped, then another. The paper became damp, and the smudged ink spoke more than words.

She continued again with her trembling hand.

[I wasn’t alive. No, that wasn’t ‘life’.]

[Even when I opened my eyes in the morning, I couldn’t breathe, and even when I fell asleep at night, my dreams were all filled with you.]

[Every day… every moment… felt like a punishment without you.]

[Someone said. That it would be okay as time passed.]

[But it was a lie. Time cannot cover scars.]

[Rather, they became clearer. Your expression, your voice, even your way of walking.]

[I haven’t forgotten you for a single day, not for a single moment…]

Her hand trembled. Her handwriting became increasingly crooked. And she finally took off her glove.

Slowly, carefully. As if revealing a secret she had hidden for a long time.

A thin, white wrist was revealed. And on it—countless marks she had hidden and concealed.

Faint scars as if scratched by a sharp tool, sometimes deep and dark red traces of self-harm that remained.

Although long healed, the pain itself still remained vividly.

She didn’t show them proudly. Rather, she held them out to me shamefully, carefully, as if watching my reaction.

But her eyes… were fragments of a broken soul.

[These are… the traces I left to endure a world without you.]

[Every time night came, I had to fight myself.]

[I hurt myself while remembering you, and I wanted to be connected to you even through the sensation of pain.]

[It’s fine if you say I’m foolish. It doesn’t matter if you find it disgusting.]

[But for me… there was no other way.]

She was crying.

[So please…]

[Don’t leave.]

[Please… don’t abandon me.]

[I’m… tired of being abandoned.]

[In that time when everyone passed by me, forgot me, and erased me…]

[Just one, only you.]

[Only you…]

[You were alive in my heart until the very end.]

[So…]

[Please… don’t leave me to die.]

[Please.]

Her tears no longer stopped. Even her fingertips were trembling, and it seemed difficult for her to even catch her breath.

However, she wrote down one more single sentence on the paper for the last time.

[Rather than living without you, it’s easier to just die.]

Holding out that paper to me, she bit her lip. The corners of her lips turned white. She didn’t speak, but her eyes said more desperately than anything.

‘Please… don’t leave me.’

At that moment, I couldn’t say a word. My chest tightened, and my throat felt like it was burning.

She wasn’t merely begging for love now. That was the final cry of her entire life.

A reason to live. The meaning of existence.

For her, I—the existence of Leo—was no longer just one person.

The reason she broke down. And the single hope that made her endure until the very end.

All of that… was me.