Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Christmas Carols Echo Throughout
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A boy in a wheelchair, wearing a red beanie. I remembered this kid.
"It's Soo-hyun hyung! You're getting discharged tomorrow, right? Congrats!"
We hadn't shared a room for long, but like any boys our age.
"One more round! That doesn't count!"
With a common interest like games, it was easy to bond, wasn't it?
"Ugh... Hyung Soo-hyun really is a pro at games."
Back when handheld game consoles were all the rage, and every household had at least one.
We got close over a game featuring a character wearing a red hat just like Young-min.
"No way, hyung! You're going too easy on me! Don't hold back!"
Besides, with his bright and hopeful personality, he was a celebrity in the hospital. Even the nurses and doctors.
"Young-min, did you do your physical therapy well today? Here's some chocolate!"
"Whoa! Thank you!"
Lots of people showed him kindness like that.
"So, Soo-hyun hyung. Once I'm discharged, I'm gonna stuff myself with burgers!"
"I hope you do. Young-min."
The words slipped out automatically, like tape unwinding, leaving a bitter, metallic taste in my mouth.
"They won't let us eat here 'cause it's bad for our health...! The bread from the hospital tastes awful..."
The urge to warn him to run, or tell him fire was coming, caught in my throat.
I wanted to spit out the truth. I wanted to protect the boy in front of me.
'Is there no way to save this kid?'
When the fire broke out, I followed the hospital staff's instructions and evacuated quickly.
"They're serving curry tonight 'cause it's Christmas, hyung! Exciting, right?"
"Yeah, exciting. Though I hate broccoli."
But Young-min... I don't know where he was, but he didn't make it out.
The children's ward belching thick black smoke.
Someone sensed something was off and frantically looked around, but the kid in the wheelchair with the red beanie was nowhere to be seen.
Before firefighters or anyone else arrived, screams echoed, and I ran back into the burning building alone.
"Hyung, you look kinda grown-up today!"
"..."
I couldn't save this boy. I found him with severe burns on his face, gritting my teeth through the pain.
But a child's body had its limits. In the end, I never even learned where he was.
If I had a sword now, and my adult body from the original world, could I have changed something?
'...Pathetic excuses, Lee Soo-hyun.'
I thought I didn't regret it anymore. I'd done my absolute best, after all.
I'd pushed myself to the brink, even developing trauma, but rationalized it as hitting a wall of reality.
Pathetic coward's talk. In the end, the burn scars became a brand, pointed at by others, rotting away at my heart.
"So much snow piled up. I wanna go outside and build a huge snowman!"
I had to relive that scene. Cold sweat poured down my body. My mind raced, blood pounding, desperately searching for a solution.
'Where did the fire even start?'
Decades later, I scoured newspapers and news archives, but the cause was never pinpointed. The hospital didn't even have sprinklers.
"Whoa, Soo-hyun hyung... are you crying...? If you cry, Santa won't come! What do we do?!"
I wiped my eyes. Without the helmet, my smooth face felt exposed. This could work. Maybe use sign language, Braille, or a pen to communicate?
'Damn it, my body won't cooperate.'
Everything failed. I even tried blinking Morse code for SOS.
'That doesn't work either.'
Impossible. So I couldn't do anything I hadn't done in the past?
'An unchangeable past... then...'
I had to stick as closely as possible to my past actions, but find variables within them. Trauma or not, hope had to exist.
"...Young-min, you gonna watch the Christmas event today?"
"Yeah! Of course!"
The Christmas event the hospital held the night before.
An adult dressed as Santa handing out wrapped toys and sketchbooks from a sack.
The last memory before our fates twisted into horror.
"Let's go watch it together."
If I couldn't change the past, maybe I could do something here. That judgment settled in.
The place she'd rushed into to save Licht, who was lost to the Apostle of Gluttony's attack.
At first, she thought his trauma involved battling some formidable foe.
It made sense—she'd fought him herself, and he was beyond specs.
But where was this?
"Where...?"
Pine Granasia couldn't hide her bewilderment at the surroundings.
Her waist-length white hair, golden irises, and snowy wolf ears stood out so starkly against the scene.
The people around mostly had black hair and brown eyes, like Licht.
"Mom! I want pork cutlet!"
"Okay, after your X-ray. Promise?"
"Hehe, you gotta keep your promise!"
All humans. No one bore traits of other races like Granasia Empire folk—you couldn't spot them even if you scrubbed your eyes raw.
"When's the next surgery slot, doctor?"
"We're closed for Christmas... How about late January?"
"That works. Book it."
Yet no one noticed or paid her any mind. The building was full of kids in white clothes and what looked like their parents.
'Some kind of treatment center...'
Looking closely, everyone seemed to have some ailment.
Pine figured Licht must have been here injured too.
'Winter. Full-on winter outside.'
Snow piled up beyond the window, mirroring her white hair—a stark contrast to the sweltering early summer at the academy moments ago.
"...You really were a hero. Licht."
She'd guessed the helmeted Black Knight was a summoned hero from another world, but she hadn't realized just how alien this place was.
A world utterly unrelated to hers. The twinkling star-adorned tree was fascinating, and the writing around her was in unrecognizable shapes.
'No amplification spells either.'
No magic worked. Was there no mana in the air, or was it because this was a nightmare?
Unfamiliar objects, clothes, people.
Everything was bizarre and wondrous.
She could've felt fear—a princess suddenly dropped into an unknown place might feel like a lost child.
"Licht! Where are you?!"
But no time for that. Pine immediately scanned the area, searching for him.
Something traumatic must have happened here to give him such scars. The worry gnawed at her.
Since it was his memory, she lacked the helmet or glass armor that usually encased her.
"Licht...!"
Pine moved boldly. The Masterpiece shell hiding her was no longer needed.
A hero from this distant world had fought Magic Hat, risking his life for her sake.
He'd saved Sharutineth Saintmarriage and Nex Aureus from the Head's schemes too.
Rescued by the helmeted Black Knight, she was gradually assimilating into him.
The wounded wolf had shared his pain, hugged her, comforted her.
'We can overcome trauma together. So please, show yourself.'
Impatience surged. Her heart clenched painfully. She hated not knowing what might happen here—the fear this man, Licht, felt.
"Urgh...!"
Unable to channel mana, she tripped while running and fell, scraping her face.
A glass knight who'd lived with abundant mana her whole life—this restriction was new.
'...This is how Licht pushed through. Pine.'
She braced herself and stood immediately, eyes burning with resolve. Before enrolling at the academy, she'd been empty as glass.
The cold world reflected transparently in her; emotions were unnecessary.
'If I don't find Licht soon, he'll suffer more.'
She regretted doing nothing when Magic Hat invaded the palace as a child, stealing her mother and killing the maids.
She'd lived crushed by guilt. Strength was all that mattered, she'd wrongly believed.
'If Licht hadn't told me to hold my breath, I'd have suffered too...'
She might've been trapped in trauma, witnessing horrors. He could've saved himself, but the Black Knight always prioritized others.
'He helped big bro Nex and sis Shar, protected us.'
Only now, thanks to Licht, could she breathe. She didn't know how much his reassurance—that it wasn't her fault—meant.
Regaining composure after the fall, visions flickered: the Black Knight, burned and terrified of fire.
'Fire... that's the issue.'
His festival booth story flashed by—rushing back at screams as a child, getting hurt.
If a fire here had scarred him and birthed his trauma, it fit perfectly.
A figure who'd feared human touch like an injured pup.
'Find young Licht...'
To save him, the girl in pristine white dashed through the hospital.
