episode_0099

“Do you not wish to live?”

A lightly posed question.

Immediately after, a heavy silence settled in the room.

Watching her blankly blinking eyes, I pulled up the corners of my mouth as gently as possible.

It was a kind smile.

‘A chance… Can I think of it that way?’

I muttered inwardly.

Wiping away her gathered tears was an act mixed with a bit of calculation.

Elize.

The girl was particularly thorny.

Her unfortunate background was enough to drag her down, and Rose gradually devolved into a pessimism that left no hope for life.

This was the reason for her subtly twisted personality.

Thanks to that, I was often ignored as well.

I had offered goodwill several times, but the girl showed not the slightest interest.

She had blocked her ears so that the world’s voice could not be heard.

That was the most troublesome part.

Because will was crucial for treatment.

‘But.’

Now was different.

Although her heart was armored with resignation, small cracks were appearing even in that iron wall.

The more she wavered mentally, the weaker she became.

A rupture slowly opening.

I instinctively knew.

That it was possible now.

‘I can persuade her.’

It was a chance to convey my voice.

The withered Rose didn’t even seem to intend to raise her thorns, so I would use this opening to take a step closer to the truth she hid.

Leaves that have lost their thorns have no choice but to weakly yield their petals.

“Your Highness.”

I had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away.

As I held her cheek in my palm, I could feel the tears flowing from her cheek.

“I wish to hear your true feelings.”

I whispered softly.

So that the stars asleep in the night sky wouldn’t wake.

“Your Highness said you had no lingering attachment to life.”

“……”

“But I didn’t believe those words. Although it’s only a part, I also understand your life.”

“……You understand me?”

“Yes. Though you might find it arrogant.”

Terminal illness.

How could one not know the pain inherent in such a life?

“I haven’t experienced it directly. But I have experienced loss.”

“What?”

“The most precious person in my life.”

“……”

“She was a child who shone like a star. At the same time, she was everything that made up my life.”

I briefly reminisced.

Of old memories that remained as pain above all else.

-Oppa!

A young voice echoing in my ears.

After a moment of silence, I simply smiled at the girl in front of me.

“That child was the same. She suffered from an illness for several years before finally leaving my side.”

Perhaps.

Had God been jealous of that brilliant light?

The starlight that had completely formed my life vanished beyond the night sky at too young an age.

I said.

“A life lived day by day, facing death.”

“……”

“That child told me. About how painful it was.”

The end shimmering before one’s eyes is terrifying.

A cruel fate is unfair.

Struggling with illness is lonely.

Struggling is agonizing.

The approaching farewell is sorrowful.

Recalling each of the words she had choked out, I gently caressed Rose’s petals.

The girl now seemed to be listening intently.

“That is why I understand you.”

Though not entirely.

Because there was pain from that part that I remembered vividly.

I savored the memories buried deep in my heart, articulating each successive sentence clearly.

It was a calm tone.

“I know what Your Highness desires.”

“What I… desire?”

“Are you not wishing for a miracle? While endlessly despairing in this life, you are also, in a way, waiting for salvation.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re mistaken.”

“Oh.”

“Because I resigned myself to it a long time ago. The word ‘miracle’ just feels like an illusion.”

“Your words are based on the premise I presented.”

What Rose spoke of was resignation.

Not a fundamental absence.

“Resignation.”

Resignation is giving up hope.

To phrase this differently.

It means that at one time, she had hope.

Because if one never had hope to begin with, the word “resignation” itself couldn’t exist.

The girl before me was the same.

“How could there be no lingering attachment?”

She was merely crushed by continuous despair; it doesn’t mean she became free of desire for hope.

On the contrary, abandoned hope becomes even more vivid.

It remains a strong lingering attachment precisely because it was unfulfilled.

She had been blocked by the wall of reality and had sunk down, but if a hand was extended to help her up, she would surely grasp it.

Hope already grasped.

Doesn’t easily let go.

“Your Highness must be the same.”

“……”

Rose fell silent.

It was a silence tantamount to affirmation.

Normally, she would have forced out a rebuttal, but perhaps due to her wavering heart, she seemed to have no such composure.

She was merely looking this way with trembling eyes.

“Your Highness.”

Her fall was imminent.

I filled myself within her lightless pupils, and with careful hands, peeled away the despair entangled with the flower.

It was a single word of hope she had long forgotten to live with.

“I will give you a miracle.”

A hazy, resonating voice.

As if enchanted by a dream, as if submerged in waves, Rose slowly seeped into the sentences.

“I can promise all of it. I can fulfill the hope you were forced to abandon.”

I pulled out.

The sentence “I want to die” that she had repeated countless times. Beyond that, I found the girl’s true feelings she had hidden.

In the dust-laden void, only a short monologue remained.

I want to live.

A single line of monologue that said.

“You merely need to take my hand.”

A hand gently extended.

As I quietly waited for an answer, I saw the red-haired girl, frozen blankly.

Her green eyes were trembling wildly.

Water seemed to gather little by little, then soon became thick tears that began to fall with soft thuds.

Elize dropped her head to the floor as if her strength had given out.

“Why, exactly?”

A brief, stray murmur.

It seemed to be asking for a reason.

What was the reason for clinging so persistently?

She thought she had let go of everything, yet what was the reason for constantly giving her hope?

It was a question that wasn’t a question.

“Because.”

I answered without hesitation.

I.

You all.

The world.

The ending of this story.

“I want you all to be happy.”

That single phrase resonated clearly.

It contained only sincerity.

I drew a faint smile on my lips.

Rose, who couldn’t continue her reply for a while, then leaned her head against me as if collapsing.

The warmth that touched my chest with a soft thud, was imbued with belated warmth.

“……Until the very end, you’re strange.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

The quiet reply that came back.

I lightly stroked the head leaning against me.

Unlike before, it wasn’t pushed away.

On the hand that had extended hope, a bandaged hand was now resting.

I smiled gently.

“You don’t need to worry.”

Because I will take care of everything.

Behind the words whispered in her ear, the disheveled Rose simply closed her eyes.

***

Elize.

The girl knew her misfortune.

Because she was a child who had swallowed a curse.

An illness known to be incurable by anything: magic, medicine, divine power…

Because she had keenly faced reality since childhood, Rose didn’t dare to harbor hopes for miracles.

Instead, she let go of everything in her hands.

That was natural in the girl’s world.

-Starting today, I am Juda Snakers, appointed as Your Highness’s attending physician.

A strange person.

Elize didn’t like the boy.

The way his hands fiddled with her while she was restrained.

Putting aside the first impression, which was nothing short of terrible, the fact that he kept smiling bothered her.

His mouth, spouting words about not giving up on life, was annoying.

-I will help you.

He knew nothing.

He didn’t even understand.

She didn’t want him to arbitrarily give her hope.

Because her heart was already trampled and torn.

She had suffered for so long, stopped all her struggles, and was preparing for everything to meaningless fade away.

Now, she didn’t want to be swayed by pointless hope.

However.

-I wish to hear your true feelings.

She wavered.

Listening to those words made her chest stir.

-I understand you.

The body temperature that melted her coldness.

The hand wiping away her tears.

The kindness of bandaging her wounds.

The feeling of peace every time she leaned back, and the curse’s pain that vanished for a brief moment from the world.

She had been turning away from it, calling it fleeting hope, but.

-I will give you a miracle.

Yes.

She had no choice but to admit it.

About hope.

She thought she had clearly let go, but shattered fragments remained at her fingertips.

It was a lingering attachment she hadn’t even noticed herself.

-You merely need to take my hand.

-Because I want you all… to be happy.

Elize ultimately grasped the hand before her.

As if enchanted by something.

Who could possibly not crumble before such desperately yearned-for hope?

Rose had prepared for death every day, but deep down, she was still a girl who hadn’t even reached adulthood.

Ultimately, she resolved.

That she would truly believe in hope one last time.

“I lost.”

Elize, lying in bed, suddenly said so.

A snake sat nearby.

He sat, ostensibly for treatment, watching Rose buried in the covers.

Was it because of the subtly almost-touching body heat?

Realizing the presence beside her, the girl spoke in a much more relaxed tone.

“I told you. I lost.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do as you please. From now on, even if you touch me roughly, or stick to me clingily, or rummage roughly, I won’t resist at all.”

“Those are deeply concerning words.”

“Because you said you would fulfill my hope.”

“So anything for treatment… is that the feeling?”

“Just do what you want.”

Rose, saying she would refrain from resisting from now on.

Perhaps inwardly pleased by such a reaction, the boy gently stroked her red hair.

Immediately after, he smiled at the lifeless petals.

“I have no intention of treating you carelessly. If someone enters my domain, I take care of them with all my heart.”

“Well… we’ll see as time passes.”

“You are absolutely right.”

The two exchanged light conversation.

As they were passing the time like that, Rose suddenly posed a question.

“Is there anything I can help with?”

“Help… Now that you mention it, there was one thing I needed your cooperation for.”

“What is it?”

Elize slowly raised her head.

She showed interest.

Perhaps because her will to recover had revived, the girl was oddly proactive.

Rose had no idea what the future held.

“You’ll need to prepare to leave.”

“Leave?”

“Because I intend to escape this prison-like place.”

“Huh…?”

Elize was flustered by the sudden words.

In contrast, the snake showed no wavering at all.

The boy added the next words with a bright smile.

“We’re going to the academy. All of us together.”

The cage that had imprisoned Rose.

It was a single phrase that shattered the loneliness of the past ten years.