15. Pendant of Memories
15. Pendant of Memories
My consciousness sinks deep. Sinking and sinking, it felt like my body was no longer my own.
It was suffocating. I wanted to open my eyes. But I couldn't. I tried to tense my body. No strength.
I tried to make a sound. No voice came out.
Why? My body wouldn't move the way I wanted. Even though it was clearly my body.
Wait, my body?
At the same time, my eyes opened.
Opened? I hadn't tried to open them. But they opened.
My body is moving on its own. No, is it really my body?
A mirror appeared in front of me. A luxurious, ornately decorated mirror.
I was shocked to see it. What was reflected in the mirror wasn't me. Red eyes, red hair, the Imperial Princess Bella from her childhood stood there.
The question lasted only a moment; I—no, Bella—moved.
I could feel emotions. Excitement? Anticipation? I couldn't say for sure, but she seemed giddy. Was she waiting for someone?
Just then, the door opened. It was a young girl in a maid's uniform.
"Serin! Look at this. Should I wear this outfit? Or the blue dress over there...."
Bella asked Serin while trying on the dress. Serin smiled at the sight.
"Your Highness, you are so beautiful that anything you wear suits you. Haeil-nim will surely like it too."
"Hmph, who said I wanted to look good for that guy?"
Even as she said that, Bella's cheeks flushed pink. That ticklish, heart-fluttering feeling—I could clearly feel it.
'Wait, hold on. Haeil? Me?'
I felt confused by the conversation between the maid and Bella. She was like this in her childhood? The emotions I felt now, the way young Bella's cheeks turned red when Haeil was mentioned. Anyone could see she was a girl in love.
'But why is she like that now?'
Right now, Bella hates Haeil—that is, me. She wants to kill me.
It's the same in the game and now. We're cooperating to survive, but I mustn't forget.
'She tried to kill me the moment I landed here.'
The current Bella and the childhood Bella are so different. The discrepancy is incredibly awkward. As I was thinking that, the background changed.
The window that let in sunlight was now filled only with darkness. The bright room was now filled not with sunlight, but with red blood.
Bella was sitting on the floor, covering her mouth with trembling hands.
Before her eyes lay a body growing cold. It was the maid named Serin, who had just been chatting with Bella about dresses.
"Se, Serin... No... No...."
Bella's emotions were transmitted to me. Sadness, despair... indescribable emotions. Even though it wasn't my experience, I felt my body trembling.
Bella looked up after staring at the cooling Serin. A boy was visible there. A boy holding a blood-stained sword, blood splattered on his face. I knew who it was the moment I saw him. The young Haeil Cartis stood there.
"Haeil... Why... Serin...."
Bella asked as if she couldn't believe the scene before her. As if screaming, as if begging for someone to tell her it was all a lie.
However, Haeil didn't answer. He just acted as he always did.
Smiling gently, with the same affectionate smile he always gave her, he said:
"It's all for you, Your Highness."
That smile was so bright. It was the same smile the usual Haeil gave Bella. That's why Bella found that smile terrifying. The thing she liked the most felt repulsive.
At the same time, something snapped inside Bella's heart.
A wave of countless emotions surged. Bella's gaze looking at Haeil, the feelings I felt—they were overwhelming. It felt suffocating, too heavy to be just a child's emotions.
'There was a past like this...?'
I wondered why the Imperial Princess who liked Haeil so much in her childhood became like that, and now I finally understood the reason. No, I actually wanted to applaud Imperial Princess Bella's patience for keeping Haeil alive until now.
Bella looked at Haeil. And then she looked at the lying Serin. The blood pooling on the floor, the hole in her neck, blood still gurgling out as if there was more left to spew.
I couldn't bear to look at that horrific sight.
But even so, I couldn't take my eyes off it.
Something was visible in the left pupil of the maid Serin, whose focus was gone. Unlike the other eye, only the left pupil was strangely different. I looked at it closely.
'That...!'
And I discovered it. An X-shaped mark made of intertwined black and red colors.
Proof of the Demon God Cult.
I thought I might have seen it wrong, but no matter how many times I looked, it didn't change. Serin, the maid the Imperial Princess cherished so much, had a clear Demon God Cult mark in her eye. It meant only one thing.
'She was with the Demon God Cult...?'
As I thought that, my vision blurred in an instant as if to say it had shown me everything. At the same time, my eyes opened.
"Gasp!"
I woke up suddenly as if from a nightmare. Looking around, the luxurious imperial room from earlier was gone, and the cold walls of a cave greeted me. I was so glad to see those walls.
I looked at my body. The pendant hanging around my neck caught my eye first. I grabbed the pendant unconsciously. I felt something strange.
'No, rather than this'
I let go of the pendant I was holding and moved my arms. I touched my face with my hands. It's my body. It's my body. Everything moves according to my will. I returned. I felt joy at that fact.
But that joy was short-lived; I felt a gaze watching me. When I turned my head toward that gaze, Imperial Princess Bella's red eyes were staring at me.
Imperial Princess Bella looked down at Haeil, who was lying on the floor, exhaling shallow breaths.
The piece of cloth that used to be her own clothes, covering his stomach, was already soaked with dark red blood. The hot and eerie warmth I felt when I pressed the wound with my hand to stop the bleeding seemed to still remain on my fingertips.
'Foolish guy.'
Bella muttered inwardly, as if grinding her teeth.
Why on earth did he push me away? When the blade of that monkey-like monster came flying, he could have just dodged it. Why did he take the sword for me, and why did he drag me into this cave while dripping blood?
No, that's not all. The Demon God Cult subjugation. Even when we went to catch Haiken, that bastard who wouldn't be enough even if chewed up, Haeil Cartis ran to me and saved me when I was hit by a sudden large-scale magic.
I couldn't understand it.
Haeil Cartis, he is trash who deceived me and plotted treason. He is a terrible murderer who killed my precious maid Serin and showed that cruel smile in front of me. Naturally, he should have abandoned me or used me as a shield. Because that is the nature of Haeil Cartis that I know.
But this man lying in front of me could not be overlapped with that murderer at all.
The strong grip that didn't let go of my hand until the end, even while gasping for breath as if he were dying. The back that relaxed and collapsed only after throwing me into a safe place, even though his own stomach had a hole in it.
Bella reached out without realizing it, bringing her hand to the verge of touching Haeil's pale cheek. His forehead was covered in cold sweat as if he had a fever.
"Why... are you doing this to me?"
I should hate him. If I cut his throat now, my long-awaited revenge would be complete. But the unknown emotions dwelling within me, memories that are not mine, keep stopping it. I just need to take out the dagger in my arms and stab his neck. Like when I stabbed the monster, or even easier. Bella took out the dagger. Her hand was trembling.
The sight of him throwing his body without hesitation to save me. Those images came to mind, and I couldn't move my hand at all. In the end, Bella put down the dagger in her hand.
It was then.
"Gasp!"
Haeil woke up. He woke up in a hurry as if he had a nightmare. One might be surprised by that intense action, but Bella found herself relieved, thinking it was fortunate.
'No, this is just...'
Yes, I was just relieved that I wasn't alone, that I wasn't alone in this rough, nameless place.
Bella steeled her heart. The events of that time are still vivid. The fact that Haeil killed her maid Serin, who grew up with her in her childhood.
The scene from that time is still vivid. The smell of blood, Serin's cooling body, the blood gurgling up, and the sight of Haeil Cartis smiling even after seeing those things.
Her hand clenched tightly. Yes, for a moment, just for a moment, she had been crazy.
She almost fell for that guy's trick again.
Bella looked at Haeil. The bandages she had wrapped herself, and the past days she had spent nursing him with care.
The times he threw his body to save her, the time he came to save her when she was hit by the Demon God Cult's magic in that snowy place, the time he was stabbed by a monster on her behalf. They come to mind.
'Perhaps...'
Maybe there was some reason for the Serin incident too.
Slap.
Bella slapped both of her cheeks.
No, that can't be. Don't get weak. Haeil Cartis must be hated. I must take revenge. Right now, I'm just using him to escape from here.
Therefore, the emotion she feels upon seeing Haeil wake up is also just that. She just feels relieved that the possibility of escaping has increased.
That is all.