episode_0168

Irene waited.

In the iron cage where only the sea and wind breathed.

She had constantly waited for someone to find her.

The years spent in confinement felt like an eternity.

A whistling sound.

The surrounding scenery was peaceful.

A lukewarm breeze, pleasantly cool waves, and sunlight of beautiful hues…

The vividly dyed blue resembled a summer’s day.

Yet, the reason the girl suffered was because she knew it was all mere deception.

The fox could not escape the sea.

‘How much time… has passed?’

A field of water, spread out in blue.

Irene merely sat there, slowly sinking.

She had to make any effort to regain her fragmented consciousness.

Whenever bad thoughts arose from the terrible loneliness, the fox would mumble to herself, consoling the emptiness.

To shake off the gloom, she would hum a tune, and sometimes, with her eyelids closed, she would fantasize about the outside world.

But it was only the act of patching up rags.

The girl wore down day by day.

‘It hurts.’

Tears flowed.

Splashing emotions scratched down her cheeks at times.

The fox groaned at the hot streaks of water.

Despite fighting off miserable seasickness and moments, Irene’s situation did not change at all.

Instead, it worsened.

‘There’s no one.’

A somewhat somber silence.

The thinly spread water surface.

Whenever she looked down at the scene reflected in the water’s surface, she would realize she was alone.

Because the girl didn’t want to admit it, she would splash the water.

So that the rippling waves would soon erase all reflections.

Splash.

The fox curled her body.

The ocean wind’s silence increasingly pushed her to the brink.

Even in such a situation, Irene only replayed the memory of a certain boy.

Clutching the moments that lingered on her fingertips.

-Irene.

Irene had to endure.

Because there was someone who would come find her soon.

But for the girl, it was too long a time.

‘His voice… I can’t remember it.’

When forgetting someone.

They say the voice is the first thing to fade.

Day by day, the boy’s resonance grew fainter.

Despite remembering all the words he whispered—promises, dawn, connections…

Only his gentle voice was scattering like paint dissolving in the sea.

Because of this, the fox had to tear at her hair and plead.

To the mercilessly distant days.

‘No… I don’t want to forget, please.’

The deepening rift.

The girl lived day by day, swept away by that sense of disconnect.

She desperately wished for someone to find her.

Had it been around four years?

Irene realized she was clinging to her limits.

Generally, when confined in isolation, most people cannot last a month alone.

The fox, with her unique transcendental mental strength, had endured forty times that duration.

Even she had no way to overcome the nonlinear sense of loss.

She merely stared at the horizon and murmured.

Even knowing it was a pointless act.

‘Yuda.’

Where might you be?

Are you searching for me somewhere?

Why the delay?

Are you longing for me as much as I long for you?

Or have you completely forgotten me and moved on?

……Perhaps, you’ve abandoned me?

Creeping.

Bad thoughts gnaw at the heart.

Irene covered her ears.

Nevertheless, a faint whisper lingered around her ears.

As if mocking a foolish animal.

-You’ve been betrayed.

-Indeed… after being burned by humans, to trust them again.

-It was the same when you were young. You were tricked by that businessman and lost your clan and your Teacher-nim, didn’t you?

-That boy who promised you eternity is no different; he’s just another human.

-You know, don’t you? Humans are like that.

Shut up.

Don’t babble thoughtlessly.

-He might have already forgotten.

-Your existence means nothing to that boy.

The girl tried not to listen.

Her inner self constantly wavered.

That person was not someone who would easily abandon another.

Even knowing that, the fox cried every time.

That she missed him, that she wanted to see him, or… that he shouldn’t abandon her.

Her sea endlessly churned.

“……”

How much more time had passed?

Now, her sense of counting days had dulled, and so many days had passed that it was difficult to even guess.

The years, eroded by the ocean wind, simply flowed down as tears.

Irene wanted to let go of everything.

The stark blue scenery was enough to break the girl.

One day, while swimming through an unending conclusion.

Clinking.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar sound reached her ears.

It was the sound of something striking the iron cage.

“……?”

The girl unknowingly opened her eyes.

A world of nothingness, where no marine life, birds, or shipwrecks could be found.

Amidst such scenery, a distinct sound echoed.

As if someone was knocking on the bars.

The fox turned her head.

“No way,” she thought, shifting her gaze with a listless murmur.

Black eyes met hers from beyond the iron bars.

And then.

“Irene.”

They met.

The squinting boy, standing unbelievably outside the bars, looking down at her.

He shimmered in her vision, exactly as she remembered him.

The snake with a faint smile.

However, Irene had no time to ponder that smile.

Because her attention was focused on only one thing.

“I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”

His voice.

A voice almost bleached away, one she thought she had forgotten.

A voice she thought she would never hear again.

The longed-for resonance lingered around the fox’s ears.

Perhaps that momentary whisper became the catalyst.

That incredibly sweet moment soon triggered a chain reaction of the girl’s memories.

Like fireworks exploding in the early morning sky.

-Won’t you let me tame you?

-I merely need a friend.

In her naive days.

From their first meeting, when she was wary of him.

-I hope today’s events don’t become a nightmare.

-If I can make you even a little less unhappy, I will gladly lend you my strength.

-Because one must always take responsibility for what one has tamed.

When everything was bleak.

The moment he saved her with a glimmer of light.

-From now on, much will change.

-The only one for each other.

-For I will never abandon you.

The dawn when she was promised to the boy.

That summer day when she was finally tamed.

And then.

-Your cooking skills have improved so much.

-Now, I could really trust you with the kitchen, not just myself, Irene.

-The problem is that you’re quite spoiled for a maid.

-Well… that’s also part of your charm.

The dormitory where only the two of them were.

Even the sweet daily life, day by day, because they were together.

Stories accumulated one by one, overflowing.

Irene couldn’t withstand such a wave and finally burst into tears.

The softly formed water droplets soon flowed down her cheeks.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Drip, drip.

The falling droplets created delicate ripples on the water’s surface.

The hot streaks of tears mingled with the seawater, forming a world where they finally faced each other.

The blue sea was a testament to the sorrow she had lived through.

Only then did the fox realize.

Creak.

The snake carefully opened the door of the iron cage, which wasn’t even locked.

He stood unmoving on the sea.

As if walking on water.

Splash!

The girl immediately sprang up from her spot.

Water splashed at her feet for a moment.

Without even a hint of hesitation, Irene simply threw herself into the boy’s arms.

The separation of nearly six years finally came to an end.

The fox spoke with a voice hoarse from crying.

“Why are you so late… you fool…”

“I have no excuse.”

The boy patted her back.

Though Irene was the one who expressed reproach, she was also the one who denied it.

The girl shook her head as if to say that wasn’t what she meant.

She buried her face in his chest and frantically rubbed her cheek against him.

His usual gentle scent, and his body warmth.

Dark tear stains appeared on his red shirt.

The fox mumbled with a tearful voice.

“Thank you… Thank you for finding me.”

The fox who had not been abandoned.

The boy said nothing, merely held her slender body.

Their lukewarm temperatures, mingling, escaped the iron cage.

It felt as if old, worn-out sorrow was crumbling down.

The snake whispered into the fox’s ear.

“You’ve suffered so much.”

“……”

“Let’s go home. To our home.”

They crossed the sea.

***

The vast blue sea.

The snake and the fox were together in a rowboat, retracing the path of the consciousness they had traversed.

The girl sat in the back seat, tightly embracing his dependable back.

His clearly radiating body heat provided comfort.

Irene buried her face in his clothes.

‘A cool scent…’

Had she become addicted?

Perhaps because of the sense of stability his scent provided, the fox couldn’t stop inhaling.

Her naturally clinging chest pressed against the boy’s back.

The distinct sensation of soft flesh yielding was clear.

Even knowing this, the girl did not stop her impure contact.

Instead, she burrowed deeper into the gap, immersing herself.

She wanted to feel his presence a little more.

-Irene.

-I’m sorry for making you wait so long.

The voice that gently melted into her ears.

Hearing it, her heart settled.

The sense of loss melted away, tension left her shoulders, her eyes grew hot, and tears flowed on their own.

Why did that voice alone bring such immense relief?

‘I am.’

The fox realized.

That she could no longer pretend not to know.

Emotions that kept surging were cresting like waves, as if they would spill over at any moment.

She decided to finally accept it.

‘I, you.’

Somehow, she had come to love him.

Even though she had vowed to build walls with others her entire life, he was the only person she had fallen in love with.

Because he, unlike anyone else, would come find her no matter where she hid.

Because he wouldn’t abandon her alone like this nightmare.

Perhaps it took her quite a long time to accept that.

-You’ve suffered so much.

-Let’s go home. To our home.

That she had already come to love him.

So deeply that she couldn’t escape.

Even if she struggled while entangled in a spider web, the sticky threads of emotion would only become more intricately entwined.

A terrifying ecstasy and exhilaration blurred her vision.

The throbbing of her pounding heart was still alive.

As if it would be conveyed to the boy like this.

‘Such a cruel person.’

She had fallen for a bad boy.

Though her heart pounded as if it would burst, the girl did not release her embrace from his back.

Because it was too late to escape from such feelings.

She had no intention of backing away.

The girl merely prayed.

‘Please.’

May the season that is you never end in my world.

Behind her faint murmuring.

The fox quietly leaned her body against him.

***

The fox who had been trapped in the conceptual world.

A week had already passed since he brought her out of the iron cage.

We were able to return to reality without any particular problems.

-Young Master! Irene…!

The one who greeted us as soon as we opened our eyes was none other than the pink-haired girl.

Regia embraced us with a mighty cry.

Especially towards the fox, she repeatedly apologized.

Guilt that Irene had sacrificed herself because of her, and worry for me who had entered the conceptual world.

Perhaps tormented by such thoughts, the pilot’s complexion was noticeably haggard.

Even though in reality, only a few hours had passed.

-I’m sorry… I, I was inadequate…

-I thought you two, *hiccup*… might be in trouble, and I was so scared…

-You returned safely, *sob*, thank, thank you.

As if to prove she was a crybaby.

We chuckled, yet in the end, we both patted Regia.

Our protagonist was still tender-hearted and soft.

Though that pure quality was her charm point.

-You two are healthy.

-At this rate, there won’t be any psychological after-effects, so you can rest assured.

-It’s Yuda, as expected… to succeed even at this.

-It’s worth trusting that recklessness, isn’t it?

Selena’s detailed examination followed.

Fortunately, our condition seemed fine.

I was especially worried about Irene, as she had spent a considerable amount of time in the conceptual world.

She was able to be discharged without any particular issues.

Now, they were finally going home.

“……”

Afterward, the aftermath at the academy was dealt with.

An incident where the enemy directly breached the defenses and ultimately attacked the academy.

Naturally, the faculty was put on high alert, and all available personnel gathered to investigate the incident.

Additionally, a temporary closure order was issued for the academy.

The scale of the incident had grown.

“Hmm.”

I examined the data on the corpses.

The corpses of the enemies scattered on the scene, which the fox had sliced up earlier.

According to the analysis, their identities were as follows:

“Cultists… and the businessman’s dogs, then?”

Villains who had caused chaos in the original story as well.

It seemed they were finally about to start their game.

Of course, they weren’t the only ones who had a hand in this attack.

There were also those who had been watching the situation from behind.

“How gloomy.”

Specifically.

The faction that created a weakness in the academy and handed information to the cultists.

And those who would have sinisterly observed the situation.

I sharpened a chilling judgment.

A warning I had once heard flashed through my ears.

-Our family has begun to pay attention to you.

-Please, protect my elder sister.

The Ducal House of Vanity.

I easily grasped the mastermind behind the incident.

A chilling smile spread across my lips.

“It seems it’s about time… to wipe out their family as well.”

How long had it been since I was this enraged?

They broke into my sanctuary and touched my people, so they must be ready to pay the price.

I toyed with a dagger woven from shadow, as if aiming it at something.

Cultists, businessmen, Vanity.

“Sir Kyle… it seems the time to act is approaching.”

“Leave it to me, Commander-nim.”

The red-haired man standing beside me replied.

His usual playfulness was nowhere to be seen; only killing intent surged in his red eyes.

The sword once called a star had now become the executioner of the guillotine.

I murmured.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

At the point just before the final act.

It was the prelude to vengeance, which would begin soon.