episode_0287

Suddenly appearing attackers. As soon as Eve saw their pitch-black figures, blending seamlessly into the darkness, she immediately recognized them.

‘Duke Darius…!’

The nightmare from that day. The blood-soaked corpses of the prince and princess once again flickered before her eyes. The past, which she had desperately turned her back on to look towards a future with a man, approached her, trailing streaks of bloody stains.

Whoosh-

However, Eve no longer hides from that past. She has a man by her side, a dream clutched in her hand, and hope for the future in her heart.

“Spirits of the seven moons and the vast forest—”

She quickly continues the incantation, as if swallowing short breaths. The mana she draws up shines like the stars in the night sky. With the imperial magic she learned from Duke Darius, she counterattacks the Duke Darius who is constricting her past.

[Absolute Zero].

Hiss-hiss-hiss-!

A blinding flash erupted. The Duke’s soldiers all became ice statues, frozen in place. The man’s flaming magic sword sliced through all the remaining remnants.

“Kgh-”

Eve suddenly staggered. It was because the effects of her injuries still lingered. A headache came on as a reaction to forcefully drawing up mana.

“Are you okay-?!”

“Uh, yes… more than that, we have to escape…!”

Their location has been pinpointed. There’s no way this is the end for Duke Darius. That guy doesn’t care about worthless ones, but once he takes an interest and intervenes, he clings to it till the very end.

Therefore, this isn’t the end of the pursuers.

They need to buy at least a minimum amount of time for a counterattack. Eve and the man immediately left the place. Continuing to face the enemy here could cause significant damage to the surroundings.

“…….”

Eve looked at the side profile of the man running beside her. He didn’t ask anything again. As if noticing her gaze, the man chuckled lightly.

“Let’s talk after it’s all over. You probably haven’t processed everything yet.”

“…Yes.”

The man seemed to have already grasped the situation. Eve hadn’t properly explained her past, but even without saying it, she could feel that the approaching figures were enemies.

A chillingly ominous aura. If that aura had a color, it would be pitch black without a single ray of light. A human exuding the kind of aura only demonic beasts emanate.

Eve gritted her teeth. She vowed to end everything today.

. . .

The two’s footsteps slowly moved away from the capital.

There was only one reason. There was no better place than the forest to confront the attackers. For them, adventurers, the forest was like a second home.

The forest where they had spent every day provided considerable geographical advantages. She knew exactly which trees stood where, which rocks were positioned, and where the ground was weak.

The attackers were quite strong. The madmen, radiating the overflowing demonic aura, the maqi, were recklessly charging them, not fearing death.

But that was all. Hunting demonic beasts in the forest. Eve and the man had done nothing but this since their early days. It wasn’t a challenging task.

“Ugh, haak—”

The problem…was that the number of enemies wasn’t decreasing.

As time passed, Eve and the man grew tired, and eventually they decided to hide in a nearby cave after creating a trap with a false trail to take a rest.

I gripped my pounding heart and watched the unfolding scene. I couldn’t affect the past that had already happened. I could only watch.

The two, their survival instincts triggered, naturally met eyes. Their lips met, their bodies intertwined. Eve’s confession remained unfinished, but they had already confirmed each other’s feelings.

Love that had accumulated over time exploded in an instant. They couldn’t suppress their desires any longer. They were about to explore each other’s bodies.

But a happy ending didn’t come.

“There’s a cave here-!!”

“Damn it, that was a trap!”

The moment they encountered the pursuers again. The man—no, I sensed the end. I weighed the lives of the two, and the scales tipped towards Eve.

“If this continues…we’ll really die…!!”

Eve desperately cried out. It meant she was urging him to give up on her quickly. But I had no intention of doing so.

Trickle-trickle-trickle-

Suddenly, I heard the sound of water in my ear. A river was nearby. The forest we were wandering in was quite high up, and I knew that there were cliffs nearby.

‘A waterfall…!’

I grabbed Eve’s hand tighter and ran towards the sound of water. After a short while, a river appeared. We followed the flowing water, and at the end of it, there was a waterfall.

“This is…a cliff.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh…? What-”

[Water Shield].

I drew up all my remaining mana. My mind slowly went blank. But that would do it. The water mana enveloped Eve’s body, creating a protective barrier that absorbed the impact of falling into the water.

I pushed her down the waterfall.

“—!! No—”

“…Sorry.”

This isn’t the end for me, but if this world’s Eve dies, that’s it. It goes without saying whose life is more important.

Eve’s face contorted severely as she flailed her limbs, falling far away. Even so, falling from such a height might make her faint, but when she opens her eyes again, there will be no pursuers around.

‘It’s…done.’

Because I’ll make it so.

. . .

When Eve collapsed by the river and opened her eyes again, she was greeted by relentless rain.

The downpour, heavier than before, stung her skin. Eve held her head and slowly got up. There were no enemies around.

And the last moment before she fainted came to mind.

“…….”

The man’s faint smile. Eve kept pushing away the bad thoughts that kept creeping in. It couldn’t be. Didn’t Eve and he share the same future? It couldn’t end like this.

She had to meet the man again immediately. But contrary to her heart, Eve’s steps towards climbing up to the waterfall grew slower and slower. Moving towards a future where hope and despair coexisted was terribly frightening.

Crunch- crunch-

The bodies of the attackers began to appear one by one. Their hearts were pierced by Eve’s magic. Their breaths had already stopped, and they were slowly bloating in the rainwater.

Thud-

Whether it was rainwater or the overflowing blood soaking the earthen floor was hard to tell. But something sticky and wet clung to her feet, pulling at Eve insistently.

Her steps kept slowing down. When she first moved, she’d almost run, but now it was more accurate to say she was inching forward than walking.

The smell of blood grew stronger. Eve covered her mouth with her hand and passed the pile of corpses. Black hoods, black cloaks, black armor…amidst all the black, she found something that wasn’t black.

“…Hey.”

It was the man. Numerous blades were thrust into his body, lying still in the grass. He’d lost his arms and legs, and his insides spilled out from his ripped belly.

Thump-

Eve knelt down in front of the man. She places her hand on his neck. She felt no breath, no pulse. Her fingertips began to tremble. The tremor gradually spread throughout her body.

“He…healing magic…”

Eve’s body froze as she tried to draw up mana.

‘Healing magic…? I could just use a potion.’

‘It’s surprisingly efficient and not bad at all. If you get skilled at it you could save on potion costs too?’

‘Hmm…if you say so, I guess I’ll learn a little.’

A conversation with the man came to mind. She really did learn healing magic, after listening to him. Because Duke Darius didn’t teach it, she had learned it alone.

The process was extremely difficult. It wasn’t for nothing that the priests of the temple existed. Compared to offensive magic, healing magic was infinitely more complex and profound.

Therefore, Eve knew best. She couldn’t heal such injuries with her healing magic. But still, she put her hand on the man’s body and poured all her mana into it.

[Recovery].

[Recovery], [Recovery], [Recovery]…!

The man’s body, whose heart had hardened, showed no signs of regeneration. She knew that the intermediate healing magic, [Recovery], was quite difficult to heal serious injuries with.

“If only…if only I’d studied harder…”

Regret? Of course, she regretted it. There was nothing but regret. Eve held onto the man’s body, growing cold.

The hand that had held hers just hours ago, the hand that caressed her body, was now gone. The eyes that had looked at Eve were pierced by a blade, and the large, warm embrace that had enveloped her hung limp and powerless.

She felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“Hack- hhut- haak—”

Tears which she hadn’t been able to shed because of the powerful shock, finally started flowing profusely.

The future Eve had envisioned. Adventuring across the world with the man, marrying him, settling down in a quiet village, whispering sweet nothings with him, spending her whole life with him – that future.

The man, who had existed in all of Eve’s happiness and her entire future, had been reduced to dust and scattered. It was a future she had dreamed of for him. Eve’s future was gone.

“This…this isn’t it…? It’s a joke…? Answer me…”

She grabbed the man’s cheek. She wished she was being tricked. Or that she might wake up from this dream and meet the man who was by her side.

“Ah…aaack… kghhh…”

Please wake me up from this dream, Eve begged in her heart Then again, this was not a dream. This was Eve’s reality. The future was bleak. The future was dark. The man had become everything to Eve, and the moment he disappeared, Eve was nothing.

“I…I didn’t properly tell you I loved you… I’m sorry, now…now I’ll say it again…I love you, Adam…I only love you…!!”

She wished for something to fill the void in her. Like always, she had hoped that he would easily overcome this adversity and rise again. She wished he would meet her again.

“Answer me, Adam…!! Please, please…!! I’m sorry…pleeease…”

A frail cry filled the rain-soaked forest. The now empty Eve cried for hours in front of the man’s corpse. The rain didn’t stop.

Pouring, pouring, pouring again. Nothing remained for Eve.

She tilted her head up. The sky was dark. Branches cast shadows, and above them, dark clouds gathered. Even if the sky had been clear, it would have looked like a deep black in Eve’s eyes.

With a voice completely broken, Eve softly said:

“Just…just kill me too.”

There was no answer. Eve spoke again.

“I’m not dead yet…okay. Then I’ll go kill Duke Darius. And then, kill me.”

There was still no answer. Eve didn’t even feel frustrated. Her body was at its limits. Even without begging to be killed, her exhausted body would stop breathing soon.

Eve finally uttered the last thought that came to mind.

“I want…I want to do it again. From the beginning, from before I met Adam, I want to start again…I don’t wish for anything else…”

Silence filled Eve’s ears. There was no reply.

But it was simply because Eve didn’t hear it. Akasuto’s main system actually reacted.

『Bug detected.』 『Unexpected problems are occurring with character data [Eve Istar].』 『Entity [Eve Istar] is judged to not be a character. Modifying authority.』 『Entity [Eve Istar] has met the requirements to be a player.』 『Error occurred. Reward distribution and status window functions are limited.』 『Integrating all data of the entity [Eve Istar] stored in the main server.』

Eve collapsed in the grass and drifted into eternal sleep. And then she opened her eyes again.

It was a bedroom in a secluded farmhouse.