episode_0086

Co-destruction.

The mutual destruction of the Durakal and Brood families.

Co-destruction…?

Public… destruction… ?

Tirissia Brouward checked the word again and again, doubting her own eyes.

Doesn’t mutual destruction mean that both sides are destroyed?

The Broward family?

My parents?

With Durakal?

Why?

I couldn’t understand it.

No, maybe it’s something you don’t want to understand.

“What on earth does this mean?”

Tirissia pointed to the newspaper in her hand and asked the guard standing outside the iron bars what the news written on it meant.

“… ”

The guard pulled his hat forward and said nothing.

“This… What does this mean… Please… Tell me… ”

As Tirisia pleaded with a tearful voice, the guard, who had been thinking for a while, finally opened his mouth in a businesslike voice.

“It’s exactly as it says there. The Brood family was destroyed along with Durakal at the end of the civil war.”

“So does that mean my parents… are dead?”

“Yes.”

dump-

Tyrissia’s body collapsed to the floor.

“A lie… right? That can’t be… That can’t be… ”

Her jade-colored eyes, devoid of any light, wandered aimlessly through the air as she covered her face with both hands.

“That’s ridiculous…! How could Mom and Dad…! No… That’s a lie… There must have been a mistake… There must have been a mistake… ”

“… ”

“The Royal Army must have been there… and Erto too… he must have fought with us…! How could our family… our mom and dad die…!”

“… ”

The guard, who was watching the scene, let out a secret sigh, then adjusted his hat and said.

“All I can say is that what is written there is true. It may be difficult, but you must accept it.”

“No… Please tell me no. Tell me my parents are alive… !”

“I want to deny it, but there is no possibility of a false report. It is already clearly confirmed. Therefore, I have nothing more to say to you. So… ”

Step by step – step by step –

The moment he turned to leave, he heard Tirisia’s voice from behind.

“Okay, wait a minute… ”

The guard shut his eyes tightly and answered the question in a businesslike tone.

“… That was just the bare minimum of information I had, but private conversations with inmates are basically prohibited in prison. Especially in this facility that deals with first-class criminals.”

“The funeral is… ”

“… ?”

As the guard turned around, Tirisia, crawling on the floor and holding onto the iron bars, asked him with desperate eyes.

“Can I attend the funeral?”

The question is whether one can fulfill the minimum duty as a child, assuming that one’s parents are dead.

“… ”

To that question, the guard had no choice but to give a predetermined conclusion.

“If a relative of a prisoner dies, he or she may be released from prison and attend the funeral after receiving special leave after a strict screening process.”

“Then… !”

A glimmer of hope crossed Tyrisia’s face,

“But,”

The guard shook his head as if to tell us not to judge too hastily.

“That is the law that applies to ordinary prisons. In this place where first-class criminals are incarcerated, there is no such thing as special leave. Prisoner number 7, you are also not allowed to leave that cell under any circumstances until you serve your sentence. Because from the moment you leave the barrier, there is no way to prevent your escape. ”

“Ah… ”

Upon hearing his story, Tirisia’s face turned despairing again, and she sighed, banging her forehead against the iron bars.

“That can’t be… ”

“I’m sorry, but this is reality.”

Step, step, step,

After finishing speaking, the guard quickly walked out of the prison corridor, as if he would not allow any more questions.

Left alone, Tirisia sat down in front of the iron bars, buried her head in them, and muttered to herself.

“This can’t be happening… I couldn’t even watch over her death… And now I can’t even go to her funeral… ?”

Droplets of water sparkled from her jade-colored eyes, which were dyed in deep darkness, and fell down her thighs.

“Sob… Ugh… Ugh… ”

A girl’s cries begin to echo inside the dark prison cell.

“Ah… ahh… mom… dad… ugh, ugh… ”

Her sobs soon turned into sobs, and she screamed, pounding the iron bars with both fists.

“Ahhh… Mom…! Dad…! I’m sorry…! I’m sorry…! Because I… I’m such a loser…! I can’t do anything…! Aaaahhhh!!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Loathing yourself, hating yourself, regretting your past choices,

Knocking on iron bars that won’t open.

That was all that was allowed to Tirissia.

“I’m sorry! Mom! Dad! Aaah… ! Aaaah!!”

She apologized to her parents, who no longer exist in this world, over and over again, shedding tears and sighs.

Again and again,

Again and again…

Rattle, rattle, rattle…

After the sound of the iron ringing that had been ringing for a long time finally died down,

“Haa… Haa… Haa… ”

Tirisia wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks and turned her head to look at the newspaper that had fallen on the floor.

“, Erto is…?”

The front page of the newspaper reported the end of the civil war and the destruction of two families, but the casualties may have been much higher.

His precious people who he had promised to jump in to prevent the damage of civil war.

Erto and his friends from the Academy.

I had to check to see if any news about them had been written down.

“Haa… ! Haa… !”

Tirisia crawled on the floor with her legs weakened, and opened the newspaper again and began to carefully look through all the articles.

Palak-

“Ah… ”

And as she turned the first page, an article with a familiar and nostalgic name caught her eye.

Fortunately, it was not an obituary, but an article about the end of the civil war.

‘The birth of a civil war hero who defeated the rebel leader, the head of the Durakal family. His name is Erto.’

‘It was not the royal army but the common students of the academy who ended the week-long civil war.’

‘Although the war was won, the boy expressed his condolences to the dead rather than his joy.’

I skimmed through the article about Erto, whose jade-colored eyes filled two pages.

“Ahhh… !”

She crouched in her seat, clasping her hands together.

“Thank goodness… Thank goodness… ”

Although the grief over the death of my parents still dominates my whole body,

In it, Tyrisia felt a ray of hope that not all of those she loved were gone.

Erto survived the civil war.

Become the hero who defeated Durakal.

“Oh, oh well… Really… Thank goodness… ! Ohhh!”

Although he could not bear the despair and hatred towards the world that had taken his parents away, he could not help but ironically give thanks to God for the fact that Erto was still alive.

A whirlwind of contradictions, mixing the pain of loss with the relief of survival.

In a prison cell, cut off from the world, Tirisia curled up and cried.

And that was when it happened.

Bam-

On one wall of a prison half-dug underground,

An object fell inside through a tiny window that was cut like a mouse hole to allow minimal ventilation and natural light.

“… ?”

When Tirisia turned her head at the noise, she saw a square piece of paper lying on the floor.

A piece of paper about the size of a letter.

“!”

Tyrisia instinctively crawled to the floor and picked up the letter.

A plain white envelope with no recipient or sender written on it.

She hugged it tightly to her chest and shouted out the window.

“Who’s there?!”

―

There was no sound outside the window.

“Wow… !”

Tirisia forced her loosened legs up, grabbed onto the window opening, and pulled herself up with all her might.

“Who, who…?”

I could barely see outside as if I was doing a chin-up, but all I could see through the hole-like window was the bare prison wall on the other side.

“Huh… !”

Tirisia lowered her body back to the ground, opened the envelope, and took out the contents inside.

The small handwritten letter, folded in half, began with these words:

-To Tirisia, Ertoga.

“Erto…!?”

Tyrisia covered her mouth and read the words written there carefully.

The letter contained messages he wanted to convey to himself, seemingly written immediately after the end of the civil war.

-Now that we’ve decided not to meet face to face, I hope you understand that I’m going to tell you this story through a letter. Originally, I would rather not send you anything like this, but since it’s important, I’ll write to you for the first and last time.-

“… !”

Her jade-colored eyes scanned the letters pressed firmly onto the paper, one by one.

-Tirisia, I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect your parents. It was my fault. I sincerely apologize.-

“Uh…Why…”

-We fought a civil war to drive Durakal and his remnants out of the city and chase them into the distant wilderness to find a solution. And your parents were the ones who were more active than anyone in trying to eliminate Durakal.-

“Mom… Dad… ”

Tirisia wiped away the tears that were flowing down her face again and finished reading the letter.

-Of course, since your precious only daughter was caught up in Durakal’s plot. I think you couldn’t help but be angry as a parent.-

“… ”

-But sometimes anger clouds rational judgment. That’s what your parents were like.-

“Ah… ”

A possibility occurred to Tirissia.

And Erto’s letter proved that it actually happened.

-I should have blocked their access to the place where the final battle with Durakal was taking place. That’s what I regret the most now.-

“… ”

– In the wilderness they fled to, all the kingdom’s forces surrounded and annihilated the rebels, and I was on the verge of taking down the last remaining chairman with my own hands. –

“… ”

-At that time, your parents got involved in the fight to kill the chairman with their own hands,-

“… !”

-The chairman attacked your parents instead of me, risking her life at the last moment. That’s how it ended, and the chairman died, but your parents also died by her hand.-

“That’s…!”

-I couldn’t stop it because it happened in an instant. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have exposed them to danger in the first place… It was my fault.-

“No… Erto… You… ”

Tirisia read the letter, wiping her blurry vision with the back of her hand.

-The chairman seemed to have held a grudge against the Brewery family because his son was murdered. He probably wanted to exact the same revenge by killing the parents of the person who murdered his son. However, I didn’t expect that he would give up his own life for that.-

“… ”

-Apart from your work, I feel a great sense of responsibility for their deaths. So I apologize to you too, Tyrisia. I am truly sorry. The funeral will be held with the utmost respect for those who have served our country. Even if you cannot attend, do not forget that many people are saddened by their deaths. And… Take care. It is not your fault.-

That was the end of the letter.

Phalang-

The paper fell from her trembling hands, and a small laugh escaped from Tirisia’s mouth as she sat down on the floor.

“Ha… Haha… ”

She clutched her hair and muttered to herself with unfocused eyes.

“Ahhh… In the end… It’s all… my fault… ”

The chairman, who held a grudge because he killed Kelg Durakal, chose his parents, not Erto, as his companions on the path to the underworld at the last moment.

After all, that was all that was written in the letter.

Even if the root of all evil is Durakal,

Every part had its own share of responsibility.

To avenge a personal grudge,

And in order to somehow change Erto’s mind,

Moreover, even to protect the country,

There was no other choice but to kill Kelg Durakal,

If we trace back the origin of that sin, there were certainly other possibilities.

If I hadn’t been fooled by him in the first place,

Even if I had loved someone else, if I had not betrayed Erto,

If I had overcome the curse of fascination with my love for Erto,

If that were the case, none of this would have happened.

Parents would not have died in the middle of a battlefield trying to avenge their daughter.

So in the end, it was none other than himself who drove them to their deaths.

The overwhelming regret and despair weighed on Tirisia’s heart,

“Ugh… Sob… Sob… Sob!”

She curled up like a rat in a cesspool and cried.

“It’s all a dream… It has to be a dream… Please… ”

It was a reality that was extremely difficult to accept, but the name of an unavoidable fate was also a reality.

There were two options.

Either endure it or lose your mind completely.

But Tyrissia couldn’t just give up everything and stop thinking.

There was still someone in this world she loved,

I should have apologized more and conveyed my sincerity to him,

Because I must never stop hating and regretting myself.

Now, on top of that long path of atonement, I had to add an apology to my parents.

You must not run away from your sins.

Only after facing all karma head-on and enduring all the punishments that have been inflicted on you can you finally return to the starting point.

No, even that won’t bring back what was lost.

But if you are given a new, miraculous opportunity, it will surely exist beyond all suffering.

Tyrissia had to endure and persevere.

Because that hope was now her only driving force and reason to live.