The Siblings' Decision (3)
As soon as Yeon woke up, I hurriedly gathered the doctor and the healers.
The doctor asked her a series of questions now that she was conscious, and Yeon answered each one honestly.
"Do you still feel any pain in your abdomen, or anything comparable to it?"
Yeon shook her head in reply.
"No, my stomach feels fine."
At her answer, the doctor nodded, then continued with a note of awe in his voice.
"Heh heh... It's a miracle, truly. According to the Successor, you were pierced clean through the abdomen..."
"Not only your abdomen, but your spine and pelvis are unharmed as well... I can only call it a miracle."
He told us it was a blessing that the phantom pains, which might have lingered for years or even a lifetime, had vanished entirely.
For me, though, it was only to be expected.
This world may have been built in imitation of Earth, but it was still a civilization in its own right, one that had carved out order and lived by it. Naturally, the Azure Dragon—the creator god who had made these people—had used his authority to erase not just her injuries, but the aftereffects that would have followed them. To me, that was simply how things worked.
And so, having judged that nothing was wrong with Yeon's body, the doctor and the healers left the room.
The moment they stepped out, an endless silence settled between us.
It was Yeon, of all people, who broke it first.
She turned toward me, withdrew the hand that had been holding mine, and looked at me with an expression that suggested she had made up her mind about something.
I was caught off guard, but her expression and the air around her were far too serious to ignore, so I met her gaze directly and prepared to listen.
Yeon gave me a soft smile and began to speak.
"Hyeon. Do you remember the last words I said to you, right before I died?"
"Yeah."
"At that moment, I could feel my breath slipping away, so clearly... All I could think was that I had to tell you before it was too late."
"Dying is bitter enough on its own, but there you were, wringing out every last ounce of strength, telling me not to die."
"....."
"You have no idea how happy that made me."
"Oh, it did?"
"Of course. What kind of person spends all their magic when a powerful enemy is standing right in front of them?"
"No one had ever done that for me before. Not once."
Watching her laugh as she said it, I realized I was smiling back at her without meaning to.
Then Yeon took one deep breath and opened her mouth again.
"I like you, Hyeon."
"....."
"I know. I know Ellie is by your side."
I had already resolved to accept her.
It wasn't that I had no intention of taking her in. I had feelings for her too.
The problem was shattering Ellie's trust.
If I ended up with Yeon without ever speaking to Ellie about it, the sense of betrayal she would feel would be crushing. No matter how much this world permitted multiple marriages and treated harems as legal, maintaining a relationship on trust was a fundamentally different thing from betraying it.
So what—was I supposed to reject her confession first, then ask permission, and then accept her feelings afterward? ...No, that's just garbage behavior, isn't it?
My thoughts tangled further, and I felt a headache coming on.
Then, with a single sentence, Yeon untangled everything inside my head.
"Ellie already knows. That I like you."
At her unbelievable words, I tilted my head and stared at her as if to ask what on earth she meant, and she just giggled as she looked back at me.
"How is it? It's exactly like Ellie said it would be?"
No. Lady Alice, just how far ahead were you able to see?
"Do you remember? When we were resting for a moment, watching the sky darken. Back when you had that gloomy look on your face."
Ah. That time.
She must have meant when I was watching the forest burn, thinking of the house where my family had all lived together.
"Yeah, I remember."
At my words, Yeon went on.
"Before you came in, I already confessed to her. Everything. That I liked you. That I couldn't suppress this feeling anymore. Honestly, I was prepared for our relationship to fall apart entirely, and to get slapped across the face on top of it..."
I kept listening quietly to her story.
"But Ellie accepted it. She said she'd welcome me."
"And then she worried about me. She said that if I confessed to you, you'd refuse me in the end—because you'd never allow yourself to trample on Ellie's trust."
"....."
"She also said it would take a long time before you could answer my confession. That you'd probably go back and forth over it again and again."
"So I asked her. What would you do if Hyeon accepted my confession faster than you expect?"
"...That won't happen. I cherish both you and Ellie."
"...Saying that so bluntly is kind of embarrassing... ahem! Anyway, let me keep going, okay?"
"Ellie said it wouldn't happen. She said that from everything she'd seen of you, the Hyeon she knew was not the kind of man who would ignore someone's feelings like that."
My chest tightened.
Her words made it clear just how deeply Ellie trusted a guy like me.
"Treat her well from now on. Ellie, I mean. And me too."
.....?
"Are you sneaking yourself into that?"
"Let me sneak in a little. I worked up the courage to get Ellie's permission, you know..."
Her voice shrinking smaller and smaller, I ran my hand once through her hair and asked.
"Why do you like me?"
At my question, Yeon immediately gave her answer, quick and unhesitating—along with the story of her past.
"The day you first saved me, remember? I felt something really strange back then."
"Strange how?"
"Mm. When I was little, I had no parents, no relatives—nothing—but a pride that was filthy stubborn."
That was true.
If the Sword Master hadn't taken her in, Yeon would have lived a brutally harsh life. It was exceedingly rare for anyone to help a person at the very bottom—rare enough that they'd spend their own time and money doing it.
And one of those rare few had been Shin Ryu, the Sword Master.
Shin Ryu recognized her talent at a glance. Not a talent for the sword, but a talent for refusing to bend.
Even before a figure of such immense power, that beggar girl had planted herself squarely in his path, blocking the Sword Master's way to assert her own will and her own sense of justice.
Even when one of his senior disciples—who would later become her senior sister—pressed a blade to her throat, she still would not yield. Facing Shin Ryu's killing intent and the sharp steel aimed at her neck, Yeon saw her will through to the end.
She blacked out before it was over, but Shin Ryu, who had taken a liking to her, chose her as his last direct disciple.
"I was a beggar. No parents, no kin, no future anywhere in sight—that's what I was."
Most people would hide a past like that from the person they loved, but Yeon laid out her entire history, every last detail.
And because I had played the game and already knew this world's secrets, I knew that everything she said was true.
"Of course, I never once refused the hands that reached out to help me when I asked or struggled."
"But I always yearned for it. A 'light' that could save the wretched—and save this life of mine."
"....."
"I came to understand, naturally, that to become that light, I had to act first."
"But every single person I saved threw me away afterward. In the end, there wasn't a thing I gained."
"Naturally, no one stayed beside a beggar like me. Not even other beggars."
"And the ones who came begging for my help every time threw me aside just as readily every time. Dirty, smelly... and so on and so on, slapping on every petty excuse they could find."
"Then I met my master, and as I built bonds with person after person, I learned the joy of knowing people—of not being alone."
"But before long, there were people who came at me for my face and my figure alone. As I grew up, people stopped looking at who I was inside and only looked at my outside."
"The ones who thought I was full of desire fixed their gaze squarely on my chest."
"And when my master's fame shot up to the heavens across the Eastern Continent, more and more people came to know my name as well, following in his shadow."
And people would smile at Yeon, try to grow close to her—and she felt a deep disconnect watching them do it.
As a child they had despised and rejected her, but now that her fame and beauty were useful, they came crawling with such ugly schemes, hoping to use her as a stepping-stone.
Unable to stomach those schemes, she chose a wandering life under the pretense of training.
Shin Ryu, whom she'd expected to refuse, simply told her to go, and didn't try to stop her. And so her wandering began.
She was molested for being a woman, looked down upon and dismissed. But Yeon was the kind of woman who repaid every wrong twice over, three times over—and she never let a single one of them off easy.
Her path wound and twisted until she ended up in the Holy Empire, where slave traders captured her, and her days became a living hell.
Just as that endless chain of torment was grinding on, I appeared.
"Honestly, back then, I was planning to offer you my virginity and ask you to get me and some of the other slaves out."
".....????"
At my dumbfounded expression, she scrambled to explain.
"I—it was awful there! They kept trying to assault me, and whenever I fell asleep, they'd always come creeping close to my body..."
"So maybe it made a kind of sense. I thought I'd just give myself to you right there and escape safely."
But contrary to her expectations, I never coveted her body, and she said that had actually struck her as strange.
What I did was simply the normal thing to do—it only showed how weak people were in the face of their own desires.
"And there was something else that amazed me. You knew my true nature, the one even I hadn't recognized."
"....."
"I've always acted recklessly and my mouth is filthy—yes, I know. But the reason I became this way was to stand against the people who trample the weak, take what's theirs, and make it their own."
"The truth is, at my core, I'm the same as you and Ellie. When I see people placed in the same circumstances I once faced, I can't just look away. That's exactly why I got tricked by those kids and dragged off to the slave pits."
"But I thought—this man, maybe I can trust him. Maybe he could help people even more easily. If it were you, you wouldn't turn your back on people like me. That's what I believed."
And sure enough, I carried out the plan in plain sight, succeeding in escaping with her and a handful of the other slaves.
"That's when I understood. That a person could shine like this. I thought, how magnificent. So this is what a hero is."
"And after that I kept following you around. Our personalities fit well, and the more I watched you... well, you were handsome too, and..."
That's a bit of a strange note to end on.
"So you want to date me because I'm handsome?"
My mischievous streak kicked in, and I threw out the joke to lighten the mood—and she went flustered all over again.
Then she rushed to deny it.
"No!! To me, you've always been a shining star! That's the kind of person I always loved in my heart. Somehow, I always wished that even for lonely me, there could be a pure white light somewhere."
"And watching you save me, I found it. My 'light.'"
"I'm saying I love my own 'light'—do I need a reason? Of course, after hearing about Ellie's past too, you're not my 'light' alone anymore."
"But none of this changes: you saved me, you lit up my future, and you saw my crumbling sense of justice through to the end."
How many times must she have regretted it—seeing herself reduced to this, all because she'd been swept up in wanting to save a child? She was human, after all.
Bound at her most vulnerable, whipped and tormented without mercy.
Yeon must have felt as though everything she'd believed since childhood was being denied—the very idea that hoping for a 'light' had been wrong all along.
She had been born in darkness and craved light more than anyone. So her anguish only deepened, and her days of regret piled up, one after another—until the moment I rescued her, and she watched me swing my sword for those in need, exactly as one should. And then she understood.
That a 'light' didn't necessarily have to be her own.
When a dim bulb lights up beside a bright one, is the light that reaches it not still light?
Of course it is. Even a bulb that looks dark by comparison is giving off light.
With that thought, she followed me around, all the way through toppling the lord and cutting down demons, trailing after me the whole while.
"I fell in love with you—always bright, like a beam of light. I never said it out loud, but you were so, so magnificent..."
Face flushing red, she says everything she has to say.
I chuckle and pick up where she left off.
"Honestly? Right now, you're at the 'fond of you' stage. I don't quite love you yet."
"....."
Yeon looks somehow deflated.
But the fact that I'd come to like her in such a short time was proof enough of how charming she was. Seriously, how much more does this woman want?
I rose from the chair I'd left beside the bed for her, since she still couldn't manage her own body, and moved to sit at the edge of her bed.
"But being 'fond of you' means I like you, doesn't it? Why can't we start from that? Isn't finding what's lovely in each other as we go exactly what love is?"
".....Wow..."
What was with that gasp just now?
"What?"
"Nothing, you were just—cool. How can one person have such clear convictions and be this good with words?"
"Thank you."
"So...! What are you going to do about my confession?!"
Hold on a moment—I'm not finished yet.
My answer was already prepared, but as far as she could see, I still hadn't given her anything definite. I stood at the crossroads of that decision.
A foolish woman so absorbed in the mood that she didn't even notice me walking toward her.
"I want you to make your heart a real 'decision.' For certain."
"Of course! I mean... I already feel like it's decided..."
Oh no, she already noticed.
When the battle ended, we siblings each faced a choice of our own.
One of us had to decide on the path that led to the future.
The other had to decide whether to accept the person who wished to walk that path beside her.
And we had both already settled on our answers.
Just as Seul had chosen the Successor's path with our parents' guidance—so had I.
"From now on, complain to me whenever it gets hard. Stay by my side when you're sad, or happy, or dumbfounded, or hurting, or flustered. Always."
".....What do I do... my face is turning red..!"
Covering the lower half of her flushed face with her arm, she nods—and nods—as my words turn her entirely positive.
Then she goes one step further and nestles into my embrace of her own accord, saying it blissfully.
"Of course I will. How could I not—you're the 'light' I finally found!"
"...I love you, Hyeon!"
"Yeah. Yeon. I'm counting on you?"
"Mm-hmm..!"
After I patted her back, bright silver moonlight streamed through the window and fell over her.
The strange thing was, I hadn't used Crescent's unique authority at all. And at that natural phenomenon, Yeon said:
"Hehe... even the moonlight is congratulating me..!"
I took her hand in mine, and we sat on the bed talking about this and that—until something struck through my mind like a bell.
I stood straight up from the bed.
Seeing my reaction, she seemed to realize I meant to head back to my own room.
"N-no! Don't go! Stay here and sleep."
She grabs my arm with all her strength and refuses to let go.
Thanks to that, her soft parts press against me far, far too urgently—but somehow, I force myself to ignore it and keep talking.
"...Is there a single word out of that bratty mouth of yours that isn't shameless?"
"Why not! What's the harm! We're lovers now!"
"Lovers can do this? Let's take it slow. Slowly."
"You're the one who said it! If you don't want to end up under some fat old pig, follow me, you said!"
"What does that have to do with this?"
"Being pinned under a man I don't even like and saying humiliating things—I'd rather die than do that. But if it's you, then it doesn't matter—ack!"
Out of patience, I rapped her on the head.
"Why'd you hit me!!"
"Slowly. We take it slowly. What's the rush? We have so much time ahead of us. So just bear with it a little longer."
"...Hmph... fine! Go on then, see if I care!"
And with that, she turned her back on me, shutting me out of her sight.
I knew that if I walked out now, she'd sulk for real, but I opened the door quickly and sprinted for my room anyway.
When I returned, a small blue box was clutched in my hand.
In the time I'd been gone, Yeon had pulled the covers over herself and closed her eyes at some point.
"Yeon?"
"....."
Oh dear. She's sulking, and badly.
I crept over quietly, sat on the edge of her bed, and gently stroked her red hair.
"Don't touch meee!"
And instead of slapping my hand away, she shoved her own head under the covers to hide it. Why is she this adorable?
"Come on, look up. I went out to get you a present."
At that, her head and two eyes peeked timidly out from beneath the blanket.
That resolute attitude of hers—show me the present, or I'm going right back under—left me with no choice. I held out the small box in my right hand.
Startled by the unexpected gift, she asked me what it was.
"Weren't you sulking?"
"Well, what was I supposed to do! It hasn't even been that long since I woke up..! What does it cost you to just keep me company a little!"
...Bold as brass, aren't we.
That's not what you really feel, is it?
Does your master know you act like this? ...If I said that, she might not 'spare' me—she might genuinely draw a sword and 'cut' me. So I buried that thought deep in my heart.
Then I quietly opened the box and showed her the gift.
Inside was a dazzling diamond ring.
When the ring for Ellie had been made, the craftsman had made an extra one, just in case. I never imagined it would come to this back then... it was a spare I'd been keeping in case Ellie ever lost hers.
After all its twists and turns, the ring had finally found its new owner.
"Wow... it's beautiful... it shimmers and glitters..."
"Give me your left hand."
"Okay."
As I slid the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand, her joy overflowed past all containing.
"I love it so much! What do I do? I'm so happy. If this is what happiness is, I'd die once more just to—ack!"
Really, there are things this bratty woman says and things she absolutely should not say.
"You really messed up this time, didn't you?"
Yeon wilted at that, like she knew she'd gone too far, her energy draining right out of her.
To console her, I pulled her gently into my arms.
"Don't ever say things like that again. What would you even die for?"
"Mm... I'm sorry..."
Curled up in my embrace, she purred happily, cooing like a contented cat. Must be the cat face—her mannerisms are feline too.
And so Yeon nuzzled her face against my chest, and at last drifted peacefully off to sleep.
I followed her into that quiet rest, letting sleep take me as well.