Chapter 257
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 257
I widened my eyes, straining to hold back the tears.
“Tulia. Lean on me. Your legs must hurt a lot.”
“Sigh. Or do you just want to lie down? You’re a patient right now, you know.”
“No. I want to lean on you. Give me your shoulder.”
“Oh? Uh, okay.”
The twins pressed close to me on either side. I felt like a marshmallow sandwiched between two pieces of fluffy bread as I looked down at my blood-stained knees.
‘Cruel. Truly, so cruel.’
They called Tulia the villainess. The greatest villainess of The Milk Bread.
But was Tulia really the villain?
Tulia Frezier, at the very least—even in the midst of all her atrocities—never did something this wicked. She never went as far as to drive a person’s heart into such a living hell.
How much time was left?
The Star Mark engraved on their heads. The mark of the Heretics.
‘They’ll both turn out like Benjamin.’
Their eyes would turn pitch black, and they would be used as tools to kill me.
Perhaps, like Benjamin, they would struggle and shed silent tears.
And yet, in the end, they would be forced to kill me.
It felt as if I had fallen into a deep well; everything before my eyes was dark.
The twins looked as if they knew nothing. They seemed to be barely holding on with a mixture of fear and a desperate gathering of childish bravado and courage.
“……”
That only made my heart ache more. I had reached a point where I could no longer distinguish between the pain in my body and the pain in my heart.
Was the blood of the successor such an intense temptation to them?
“If the power protecting that thing hadn’t been so strong, I wouldn’t have had to spend all this time scratching my face, drinking blood, and wrapping myself in bandages. You have no idea how much I loathe that thing.”
Corico spoke through gritted teeth, declaring her hatred for me.
It was laughable. She was the one who chose this path, yet she had the audacity to project her hatred onto me just because the journey was difficult?
‘If anyone’s going to do the hating, it should be me. Seriously.’
I took a slow breath, imagining myself tearing Corico apart.
Right. Whether I tear her apart, roast her, or use Kingdom-Toppling Beauty to beat her into a bloody pulp, first…
“……”
I quietly leaned my head on Leon’s shoulder. Then, I took Lisian’s hand.
The two seemed to flinch for a moment, but that was all. From somewhere in this mysterious space, I heard the sound of dew dripping—drip, drip—and the silence made the expanse feel infinitely vast.
“Hey, Brother Lisian, Brother Leon.”
I continued slowly.
“If you ever get the chance to make a wish later, don’t wish for anything else…”
“...?”
I felt Lisian and Leon turn their gaze toward me. Feeling their warmth, I spoke firmly.
“Wish for your own lives to be saved. Got it?”
“...What?”
“Don’t wish for anything else, just that. Understand?”
“……”
“Promise me, right now. Not for something useless, but that you’ll use the wish to save your own lives. Okay?”
“...?”
The two looked bewildered. Just as I was about to urge them to promise quickly—
Lisian asked, “Then what about you, Tulia?”
“Huh?”
“What about your life?”
“...Ah.”
I immediately replied with conviction.
“I’m obviously going to wish for my own life to be saved, too. So, we’re each wishing to save our own lives. Got it? I said promise me. Hurry.”
“……”
Eventually, Lisian gave a small nod, and Leon Frezier answered as if he found it absurd.
“Good grief… Fine, I get it.”
“Good.”
I felt deeply satisfied internally.
‘Once this encounter with them ends…’
I would return to the original Tulia.
[System] 3 of the Male Leads will be randomly killed.
There were five Male Leads in total.
The twins, Lisian and Leon.
Ferdinand.
Benjamin.
And Klaus, who was already hovering between life and death.
Images of Ferdinand, Benjamin, and Klaus—who had each expressed their love for me in their own ways—rose in my mind alongside the two before me.
As despair slowly began to soak into me, I bit my lip hard.
‘I have Benefits and an A-Rank.’
Like a poor child counting the meager emergency funds they’d secretly buried in the ground, I repeated the same words to myself over and over.
‘As if I’d let myself lose.’
I wouldn’t lose to that cruel human, Corico. No matter what happened, I would win.
I would beat her down somehow with Kingdom-Toppling Beauty and save them all.
I clenched my teeth and tried to force myself to think cheerful thoughts.
Once this trip to the past was over and I returned to reality, I would create a vast field filled with tulips. I’d plant them in sections of different colors, and when they all bloomed, I’d walk through them with my family.
Just looking at the colorful tulips bathed in spring light would bring joy and happiness.
‘I want to face the happy things soon. I want to let the sad things flow away quickly.’
With the thought that I hoped this death in the past would end as quickly as possible, I closed my eyes.
Grip.
Suddenly, something seized my neck.
I didn’t even need to look down to know whose small hands were strangling me.
‘Ah. It’s starting.’
The situation where my brothers, already branded with the stars on their heads, were trying to kill me.
I tried not to open my eyes. It was the past anyway, and I was already prepared to return to reality. I had to make a plan to fight Corico.
I had to.
I really had to, but…
‘...But what if this is really the last time?’
What if I never see one of them, or maybe both of them, ever again?
“……”
The courage I had layered on so thickly unraveled in an instant. The emotions I had patched together with all my might crumbled in the blink of an eye, revealing my fragile inner self.
In truth, I was just the young Tulia, trembling with terror and not knowing what to do. That was me. That was my true heart.
I could no longer keep my eyes closed.
Though shaking with fear, I lifted my eyelids. The twins’ faces were right in front of me.
Their eyes, which had always shone with a variety of colors—sometimes vivid, sometimes mischievous—were now dead and pitch-black, like a raven’s feathers.
...They were the exact same color as Benjamin’s.
“Lisian, Leon…”
Because my throat was being squeezed, only a thin, strained sound escaped. Even that short pronunciation made my throat throb with a sickening pain.
I’m going to beat all those crazy bastards and win for sure.
So, this won’t be our final goodbye.
Even as I repeated that to myself incessantly, the thought that this might truly be the end kept creeping in.
The thought that I might fail kept haunting me.
Like the fuse of a lit explosive, I couldn’t cut off these anxious thoughts.
“……”
Finally, the tears I had been holding back streamed down my face.
“It hurts…”
“……”
“……”
There was no answer.
It was only natural. Their eyes were already enthralled by the spell.
The fact that they were killing me even without Corico’s physical presence meant the sorcery was far more sophisticated than it had been with Benjamin.
So, the twins…
These two probably didn’t even know that the Star Mark was engraved on their heads.
It seemed Corico, or her fanatics, had already erased that memory.
That’s why they thought if they followed the path left by their mother’s keepsake, all three of us could somehow survive.
That’s why they didn’t give up hope, even as they barely managed to carry me and flee, right?
Even though their bodies were covered in wounds from being slashed by blades…
‘Evil bastards. You’re not even human. You’re trash, dirty and cowardly, worse than cockroaches.’
I was angry. I think I was sad enough to die. It was sorrowful. It was unfair. I wanted to scream. My childish grievances swelled like a balloon and burst all at once.
“Both of you… don’t die…”
Promise me you won’t die.
I will definitely save you, but just in case my strength is lacking, or if the Benefits don’t work as I expect.
Or if I fail…
Even if I can’t save you, survive on your own.
You’re the Male Leads, you can do that much.
And you’re my brothers.
You can’t be worse than your younger sister.
“Both of you… wish… that you won’t die…”
I gasped out the words. Perhaps they, too, could achieve A-Rank right now.
They might not be able to hear my voice, but Benjamin had eventually broken the spell and achieved his Main Manifestation.
So, I believed the twins could do it too.
‘The sorcery seems to have become much stronger, but regardless.’
You both inherited half of Mother’s blood, didn’t you?
So, if the notification for the Main Quest completion pops up.
I wanted to urge them again and again: when told to make a wish, don’t wish for anything else—just take care of your own lives.
I didn’t have the strength left to speak at such length, so it ended up as a short, desperate command.
“Heugh…”
Hoping my heart reached them, I closed my eyes. Tears flowed without ceasing.
Was being on the verge of death always this sorrowful and despairing?
“……”
Then, suddenly.
As if by a miracle, the small hands strangling my neck stopped.