Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Ch. 59 .｡.:✧ Fragments of Memory (3) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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-The Free City of Petenburg shall carry out the following:
1. All Petenburg military forces shall disarm and surrender.
2. Open the gates of Petenburg.
3. Arrest Yulia Petenburg and hand her over to the Holy Knights.
A letter of demand had arrived simultaneously with a declaration of war by the Holy Knights’.
No matter how many times I read it, it was an absurd statement.
They were demanding unconditional surrender as soon as the war began.
Of course, that wasn’t going to happen.
Although Petenburg was a small city, it wasn’t a city to be taken lightly.
It was a city with castle-like concrete buildings located deep in the mountains.
Even if they bombarded it for a hundred days and climbed up the mountains, Petenburg would never fall.
It was self-sufficient and capable of producing all sorts of weapons and equipment on its own, a true iron fortress.
The Holy Knights had chosen the wrong opponent.
“Yoo-jin… I guess I won’t be able to see you again…”
But apart from that, my war was already over.
I had made a mistake.
The plan was to provoke the Frost Duchess’s suspicion and jealousy of the Saintess in order to isolate Yoo-jin.
I intended to make Yoo-jin completely alone, so that he would eventually come to me in the end.
It was going well up to a certain point.
Until the Saintess went berserk and led the Holy Knights to an invasion.
Petenburg was quickly surrounded.
It became a state where not even an ant could escape or enter.
Petenburg could theoretically hold out forever, but the same was true for the Holy Knights.
If they just surrounded us and stayed still, we would be trapped here forever.
“Where did it go wrong…”
I lost.
In the face of the Saintess’ hardline, I had been defeated in the battle for Yoo-jin.
Yoo-jin was still the Saintess’ guardian knight for now.
He might join the Holy Knights, but there was no way he would fight for the besieged Petenburg.
-Someone is climbing up the mountain! Shall we attack?
At that moment, a buzzing alarm sounded, followed by a radio transmission.
I wondered why they were even asking about this.
I was about to tell them not to report to me every single time and just intercept it.
-It looks like an enemy, but it seems to be the person who met with Lady Yulia before…
“S-stop, stop shooting! St-stop it!”
The moment I saw that man’s face outside the window, I shouted urgently into the radio.
was so flustered that instead of my usual firm voice, a panicked voice came out.
“How…”
It was Yoo-jin.
Yoo-jin was climbing the mountain, scaling the walls, and coming towards me.
The moment I saw that, I lost my reason and ran out.
I had never felt the time it took to take the elevator down to be so long.
I even forgot about the carriage and ran on foot.
Before I knew it, the splendid cityscape had disappeared.
By the time the scenery of the outer city, turned to ruins by the Holy Knights’ bombardment, unfolded, I saw Yoo-jin there, exhausted and gasping for breath.
My beloved Yoo-jin.
Yoo-jin, whom I thought I would never meet again, was there.
“Y-Yoo-jin…!”
“My name isn’t Yoo-Yoo-Yoo-jin though.”
“Hmph…!”
I snuggled into the arms of Yoo-jin, who was smiling playfully.
He was soaked in sweat, smelly and damp.
But I didn’t mind.
He came all the way here for me.
He turned his back on the church.
He betrayed the Saintess and came to me.
He chose me over the Saintess.
Tears of joy flowed uncontrollably down my cheeks.
“Why… Why did you come…? Pe-Petenburg is surrounded. We, we can’t get out now.”
“I know. I came knowing that.”
“Why…”
“I couldn’t leave you alone.”
I almost burst into tears again.
I felt like I had everything.
In fact, I did.
When everyone thought of me as the ruthless ruler or cold witch of Petenburg and feared me,
Yoo-jin was the only one who knew my true self and approached me without hesitation.
Because Yoo-jin was my world.
“Yoo-jin. I… I was wrong… I’m s-sorry…”
“What are you sorry for?”
I was sorry for everything.
Yoo-jin loved me the most in the end.
But I didn’t know that and did foolish things.
I tried to isolate Yoo-jin and bring him to ruin.
I shouldn’t have done that if I loved him.
My twisted desire almost ruined everything.
“I’m sorry for not being able to come to you sooner.”
“Yoo-jin…!”
Yoo-jin forgave me.
He affirmed me.
He came back to my side.
“I… I won’t do it again. I won’t doubt you… Sob…”
I hugged Yoo-jin and made a vow.
That I wouldn’t make Yoo-jin regret choosing me.
That I would never try to put Yoo-jin under my control again.
“I love you. I love you…”
Clearly and distinctly, I conveyed the words I had been practicing so as not to stutter, lest he might not understand.
In response, Yoo-jin smiled silently and leaned in.
I closed my eyes and felt his lips touch mine. And at the blissful sensation that rushed in, my eyes fluttered open.
I wanted to stay like this forever.
The moment I even had such a thought,
‘Huh?’
Time stopped.
‘What’s going on?’
In the frozen time, my body wouldn’t listen to me.
But in this strange situation where my mind was awake,
“Ha. This is so troublesome.”
‘…?!’
Yoo-jin sighed and pulled his lips away.
He was no longer smiling.
He just glared at me with an annoyed look and turned away.
My heart felt like it was freezing at that gaze.
It felt like the world was crumbling down.
“If it weren’t for you, I would have seen the ending this time. For a trophy heroine, you sure cause a lot of trouble.”
Yoo-jin recited incomprehensible words and walked away.
Strange light flickered in the sky, revealing letters and numbers.
In the midst of confusion, I understood.
This life wasn’t Yoo-jin’s first.
Second? Third?
I didn’t know.
Maybe it had exceeded dozens or even hundreds of times.
So Yoo-jin didn’t view this world seriously.
To Yoo-jin, this world was nothing more than entertainment.
I was no different from a collectible to Yoo-jin.
I understood that cruel truth.
“See you in the next round. You won’t remember anyway.”
‘…’
Yoo-jin turned his back on me, looking at me with a pitying expression for a moment.
The world turned dark. And I…
“Haa! Ah, haaa. Hooo…”
I woke up from a nightmare again today.
The same dream.
Every day, I dreamed of that day.
The moment hope turned to despair.
The moment an unacceptable reality was thrust upon me.
It had been over a month since I regained my memories. But I still had the same dream.
“Hoo…”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the medicine.
My headaches had been too severe lately.
To the point where it was impossible to go about my daily life without medicine.
“Gulp.”
I downed the freshly brewed coffee and left the dark room.
Outside the large glass window, the gloomy cityscape was visible.
There were no places turned to ruins by the Holy Knights’ bombardment.
The trains were operating normally, a lively city.
“I’m still not used to it.”
I had returned to about a year ago in the past.
With my memories of the past.
According to what Yoo-jin said, I should have lost my memories.
But for some reason, I vividly remembered the previous round.
At first, I thought I alone had regressed instead of Yoo-jin.
But that wasn’t the case.
Yoo-jin was moving completely differently from the previous round.
This time, he didn’t even show himself.
He didn’t meet the Saintess in Hameln or confront the Frost Duchess in Palana.
Of course, he never came to Petenburg either.
I could quickly figure out what he was thinking.
Yoo-jin was fed up.
He had given up on us out of frustration.
I knew well why he made that choice.
Because I had made it the hardest for Yoo-jin.
Because I tried to break him down under the pretext of loving him.
Even though time had been rewound and we had returned to the past, that fact didn’t change.
I knew it and Yoo-jin knew it.
Even though it had already become undone, as long as we remembered it, it wasn’t undone.
-Intelligence
Secret documents stamped with a confidential seal were placed on my desk.
My secretary had piled them up and left.
Because I couldn’t speak to anyone other than Yoo-jin.
-Two nationwide censuses conducted by the Holy Kingdom. Confirmed to be under the orders of the Saintess of Hameln.
-Close aides of the ruler of Palana dispatched en masse to the southern continent. Mission details unknown.
Yoo-jin had abandoned us.
But there were still people who couldn’t accept that.
The Saintess of Hameln. And the Frost Duchess of Palana.
These two seemed to have regressed with their memories like me, as they were very noisily searching for Yoo-jin.
“Fools…”
It was a foolish act.
Because Yoo-jin didn’t want to meet us.
Because he left us because he hated us.
The more they did that, the more Yoo-jin would hide and quietly run away.
Even if they miraculously found him, there would be no dramatic reunion.
Yoo-jin would push us away as if confirming the kill.
He would get angry and tell us to stop chasing him.
And then he would get annoyed, saying this round was wrong too, and regress.
Just imagining it hurt.
It pierced my heart, intertwined with Yoo-jin’s cold gaze I had seen in the future.
I was already in so much pain and agony.
If I heard those words from Yoo-jin’s mouth, I would surely crumble.
I wouldn’t be able to endure it anymore.
That’s why I couldn’t even muster the courage to go find Yoo-jin.
Because the moment we met, everything would end.
Because this world would be abandoned by Yoo-jin once again.
“Just stop showing it off…”
I didn’t know how much interference I had carried out to prevent Yoo-jin’s regression.
To prevent those foolish humans and demihumans from encountering Yoo-jin.
Nevertheless, they didn’t know how to get tired.
They kept searching for Yoo-jin without knowing when to give up.
It seemed they would only stop when news of Yoo-jin’s death reached them.
No.
Even then, they might not stop…
“I need to find a way.”
This couldn’t go on.
The two’s search range was way too wide.
The Saintess had the entire south under her control, and the Frost Duchess’s sphere of influence was the entire north.
No matter how skilled Yoo-jin was, he would inevitably get caught someday in this structure.
That’s why I would find Yoo-jin first.
Find him and find out the conditions for Yoo-jin to regress.
And then I would block the regression.
“You don’t actually want to regress either…”
That gaze at that time.
I knew from the pitiful gaze he had when he turned his back on me.
Yoo-jin wasn’t regressing because he wanted to.
He was being forced to repeat the regression due to external pressure.
He must be thinking that he wants to stop the regression too.
“I’ll stop it for you.”
Then all I have to do is stop it for him.
By any means necessary.
I will definitely stop Yoo-jin’s regression.
Then naturally, Yoo-jin will come to me.
He will have no choice but to take me to his heart.
There are ways to solve the lifespan issue too.
A way to share lifespans.
I learned it when I went to Elvenguard last time.
A place I had vowed never to set foot in again, but I stopped by for Yoo-jin’s sake.
“I wonder if Elvenguard is burning by now.”
I had tried to leave quietly.
But when I actually tried to leave, I suddenly got angry and couldn’t hold back, so I went to find Ifrit.
And then I told Ifrit about the dungeon under the World Tree.
As expected, Ifrit began to grow his spirit body and marched towards the World Tree.
By the time his spirit body had grown huge enough to light up the night sky like day, I left Elvenguard.
Elvenguard should be destroyed by now.
“Huh?”
But the moment I opened the newspaper, the article that adorned the front page was none other than the news of the suppression of the great fire in Elvenguard.
Even in the photo of the restoration work, Ifrit was also captured.
For a moment, my thought process stopped.
Ifrit, who had been desperate to burn down the World Tree, was involved in the fire restoration work?
It was a contradictory situation.
There was only one possibility for this situation to occur.
Ifrit had been subdued by an immensely powerful individual. And the dungeon under the World Tree had been conquered.
Otherwise, such a scene would never happen.
A powerful individual capable of subduing Ifrit. And a skilled person who conquered a dangerous dungeon that even the elves had given up on.
The only person who fit all of this was…
“Huh?”
Yoo-jin.
Yoo-jin had been to Elvenguard.
Just a few hours after I left…
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
The moment I realized that fact, my blood boiled in reverse.
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