Chapter 117 - Wrapping Up
As Kania slipped gently into Frey's embrace with a soft hum... the sun, which had been shaking unsteadily as if it might plummet from the sky at any moment, began to gradually calm.
Rumble...
"Eek?"
"Whoa."
At the same time, a faint earthquake started. It was subtle enough, but strong enough to knock people off their feet.
"Ow... that hurts..."
Clana, who had fallen flat on her butt, made a pouty face. Irina, watching her, asked in a low voice,
"Clana, mind if I ask you something?"
"Y-yes?"
Clana, who had been quietly stroking the back of the group, turned to Irina with a stiff expression.
"How do you know about the system?"
Irina stared at her with sharp eyes. Until now, Clana had known almost nothing about the truth of Frey. Even if she had recalled the so-called 'trials' Frey mentioned...
knowing about the system felt unnatural.
"The system? Well... it's like..."
Clana mulled over the question for a surprisingly long time before stammering out her answer.
"You... you told me, right?"
"What?"
"You, Irina—you grabbed me by the collar and told me everything."
Irina's face twisted in confusion.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Huh?"
"There's no way I'd tell you that. If I did, Frey would..."
Irina's voice trembled as she pointed quietly at Frey.
"...end up like that."
"Oh."
Clana blinked blankly for a moment, then clutched her head and muttered,
"But I definitely... I definitely heard the truth from you."
"What does that even—"
"And from Kania too."
Clana glanced up slightly at Kania, who was still nestled quietly against Frey.
"When the rampaging Kania attacked me... she told me all the details."
"...When? Where?"
Frustrated by Clana's vague ramblings, Irina pressed her.
"Um..."
Clana thought quietly for a moment, then murmured with a face full of guilt.
"That day at Frey's mansion, right after I became empress."
Clana's hands were trembling as she spoke. It was the mysterious symptom that had tormented her for the past few weeks—the hellish ordeal that had started suddenly after a nightmare, whose cause she couldn't identify for so long. It had returned.
"It's all my karma..."
But Clana no longer trembled at the unknown affliction. She knew now that the shaking came from the sensation etched into her hands when she had pierced Frey's body with a spear and dagger. And from the oath she had made as a child with her one and only friend and companion, Frey.
She had decided to embrace it as her karma—and as proof that she was bound to Frey by oath.
"......Hmm."
Irina watched her quietly, then asked in a low voice,
"So, you heard everything about the system during the 'trials'?"
"Trials...? What do you mean, trials?"
"Yeah, if you know what the system is, you must know what the 'trials' are too."
Clana tilted her head in confusion.
"No... what I experienced wasn't a trial."
"What?"
"It was real. Completely real."
Irina frowned and asked,
"Clana. How much of that trial... or rather, those memories, did you get?"
"...Enough time to have graduated the academy and more, so at least a few years must have passed."
"A few years!?"
Irina yelped in shock, then composed herself and began piecing it together.
'According to Clana, she recalled memories from years into the trials and learned the truth about Frey that way...'
Frey had said the second trial was just a hypothetical scenario to test him. Meaning everyone he met there was a fiction, an illusion created by the system.
Yet somehow, Clana remembered what happened in that second trial. She even claimed to know the truth about the system from it.
'Does that even make sense?'
Irina mulled over the blatantly suspicious facts. She was about to ask another quiet question when—
"Cough!!"
Frey, lying there, suddenly vomited blood.
"...Ah."
The two girls, who had been dazed by the sun shooting into the sky and the shaking earth, finally snapped to. This wasn't the time for such questions.
.
.
.
"........."
A few hours after the incident in the forest where Clana and Frey's memories lay dormant.
"Cough!!"
"F-Frey!!"
Clana and Irina had secretly returned to the dormitory with the unconscious Frey and Kania, unnoticed by anyone.
"Ugh... ugh..."
"Why... why is this happening...?"
They anxiously tended to Frey, who was propped against the bed, still unconscious and continuously vomiting blood.
"I-Irina, why isn't Frey's bleeding stopping?"
"W-wait. I'm trying to find the cause."
But their best efforts yielded little result. The basin catching his blood was already full to the brim.
Drip...
"Ah... aaa..."
Clana held the basin to Frey's mouth—afraid to lay him flat in case his airway blocked—and as he vomited again, she began to sob.
"Please... please don't die..."
"Cough..."
"I've finally... finally realized everything. Finally understood you."
"Ugh..."
"Finally... can love you..."
Just moments ago, Frey had been walking fine despite his terminal condition. But after taking the penalty for her sake, even to Clana—who knew little of medicine—he looked utterly broken.
"Ugh..."
Overwhelmed by guilt, Clana trembled and sobbed, burying her face in Frey's chest.
"W-wait... something's off."
"Huh?"
Clana lifted her head after crying in his arms for a while.
"Why hasn't Frey's lifespan decreased?"
"What... what do you mean?"
Clana's eyes lit with hope. No decrease in lifespan meant more time with him—to serve him, to bear his mark on her body.
"This... shows Frey's remaining lifespan."
"G-give it here!"
Clana snatched the device from Irina's hand.
"...Huh?"
Staring at it with hopeful eyes, Clana tilted her head and asked Irina,
"Irina, what does this mean?"
"What?"
"The date here. It's two years and two months from now? Where's his remaining lifespan? Why..."
Irina bowed her head silently.
"Don't tell me... this date is when he dies?"
Clana finally grasped the meaning. Or rather, she had suspected it from the first glance but couldn't accept it. Now she faced it head-on.
"He... he's really going to die. Less than three years."
She muttered blankly. Of course, she knew he was terminal. But the time left was far less than she'd imagined. And knowing the exact date—the longest he could possibly survive—shattered her mind mercilessly.
"...Anyway, the important thing is his lifespan hasn't decreased."
"This... hasn't decreased?"
"Yeah. If it had, it'd show one year and one month from now."
Irina explained to Clana, then added,
"Seeing this, maybe what I and Kania did... no, what Kania did wasn't in vain."
"Cough!!"
With a mix of frustration and helplessness, Irina wiped the blood from Frey's latest vomit with a handkerchief and muttered,
"But seeing him cough up blood like this... it wasn't perfect."
She bit her lip until it bled.
"...What kind of grand mage am I?"
The room filled with only Frey's coughing for a moment.
"Mm..."
"Kania?"
"Kania!"
The silence broke when Kania, lying on the cot beside Frey's bed, slowly opened her eyes and sat up.
"Where... ugh!!"
Kania blinked vacantly, then clutched her chest at the excruciating pain and bowed her head, covering her mouth.
"Kania! What's wrong?"
"Kania! Are you hurt...?"
As the two girls called out, Kania pondered silently with her hand over her mouth, then smiled and stood.
"I see. In the end, it succeeded."
"But judging by Young Master's condition... it seems quite troublesome."
"Y-yeah..."
Irina, who had been diagnosing Frey, spoke up at Kania's oddly serene words.
"From what I see, his lifespan is safe, but his life force took a hit. We should be grateful for that much... but for some reason, he's not recovering."
"Of course not."
Kania, still smiling faintly, approached Frey on the bed and—
Slide.
"...Ah?"
—lay down naturally beside him, hugging him tightly.
"Young Master."
She gazed at him with eyes full of affection.
"Rest easy now."
The two girls stared in stunned silence. Kania explained softly,
"A side effect occurred when our souls mixed and separated."
"Side effect?"
"Yes. Traces of Young Master's soul remain in my body. It's destabilizing his, slowing recovery to a crawl."
Gently stroking Frey, whose vomiting had stopped, Kania said to the dazed pair,
"So, until he wakes, I need to stay like this."
She hugged him tighter and closed her eyes. Thanks to her curse, the 'Curse of Unity'—she felt not just the pain in his chest, but throughout his body; his complex emotions even in unconsciousness; every heartbeat. All of it vividly.
"Um."
"Kania."
Irina and Clana looked down at the blissfully smiling Kania with anxious faces.
"I... I want to make a 'Blood Oath' with Frey. Give him my soul..."
"I... I need to swear anew to his soul... or I'll go mad..."
"Not now."
Kania shook her head firmly.
"Young Master's soul is highly unstable. Magical oaths could cause problems."
"B-but..."
"For his swift recovery, please cooperate."
Despite knowing soul and magical oaths were unrelated, Kania cut off their protests coldly.
"Mm..."
She smiled happily again, pressing her forehead to Frey's face, feeling him. The man who had manipulated his own memories to avoid hating her, who had eroded his life force to save her. And now, finally, she could repay his grace bit by bit.
"........."
Silence filled the room once more.
Creeeak...
"Frey, are you oka—"
Serena entered, pale-faced, breaking the quiet.
"......Explain."
"Explain what?"
Serena, arms full of documents covered in ancient script—perhaps detoured to the library before arriving at the academy—had new wounds everywhere. She asked coldly. Kania, still hugging Frey tightly, countered,
"What happened today."
Kania smiled and replied to Serena's follow-up.
"I saved Young Master's lifespan."
"...I see."
Serena nodded quietly.
"Also, I bore Young Master."
But as Kania caressed her belly, Serena's face twisted.
"And that trace... still lingers inside me."
"...Hah."
Kania continued calmly to Serena.
"And..."
—she drove the nail in.
"...Young Master and I are one until death."
Glancing at Serena, Kania added,
"Smart as you are, Serena, you know it's all true."
"Keep the metaphors in check."
"Metaphors? I'm just stating facts."
Serena bit her lip slightly at Kania's composure, then smirked.
"...Well, ladies. Good news."
All eyes turned to her.
"I've found the Secret Church's hideout."
Serena declared proudly, glaring coldly down at Kania hugging Frey.
"Isn't it great news?"
Their gazes clashed in the air as dawn slowly passed.