The Awakened Girl
After sobbing in Eunhyeon's arms for several minutes and pouring out all the grief buried in her chest, Erin quickly regained her composure.
"What's wrong?"
Erin's face flushed red as she avoided meeting Eunhyeon's gaze.
Thinking about it calmly, she realized her actions had been utterly ridiculous and embarrassing.
'Crying my heart out in some other guy's arms... ugh!'
Eunhyeon tilted his head at Erin's sudden shyness but soon spoke again.
"I have something to give you."
"Something to give me?"
Erin lifted her head at Eunhyeon's words. He pulled a single letter from within his robes, and upon seeing the handwriting and content, she immediately recognized who had written it.
"This is..."
If you're reading this letter, it means you've woken up safely.
As I wrote this thinking of you, all sorts of thoughts came to me.
What did you think of this big brother of yours?
Did you resent me for failing to support you in tough times, for failing to protect you as family?
I've always acted with the belief that everything I did was for your sake.
But writing this, I realized it might just be my own rationalization—a pretty excuse to escape the guilt and pressure of Father's sins, dressed up nicely for my own greed.
Even if I wasn't in my right mind, consumed by my magic, when I came to my senses and faced the consequences of my actions, the overwhelming regret in my heart brought one thought to the forefront first: your future.
In this world without Mother or me, as you stand alone, will the sins I committed make your path even harder? Can you endure and walk it?
But writing this letter eased my worries a bit.
If things ever get truly unbearable, your future looks pitch black, you can't see a thing, and you feel like giving up,
lean on the man delivering this letter to you.
To me, he was the one slim thread of hope to find you.
At the very least, he's the only man you can rely on at the start of your harsh and lonely fight.
I wanted to be that man you could depend on, but it seems fate decreed I could only be a pathetic wretch who burdens you and offers no help.
But I firmly believe you'll be different.
Please, no matter how hard or painful it gets, don't give up. I want you to live a happy life.
Though I can't be with you, I'll always be cheering for your life. Your big brother, Elvin.
Erin's grip tightened on the letter naturally, crumpling it and making it tremble in her hand. Tears fell onto the paper, smudging the ink.
She managed to suppress the emotions threatening to burst, but with her eyes squeezed shut and clutching the crumpled letter, tears still streamed down her face.
"Oppa... he really died?"
"He did. I killed him."
"......"
Erin glared at Eunhyeon as he confessed the fact calmly.
"It's a cruel truth, but one you need to know."
"You promised... you said you'd keep it..."
The promise Erin had made with Eunhyeon—back when he was a ghost, under the Divine Tree—was to find and save Elvin safely.
"I know. And I will keep that promise."
"What do you... mean? You said Oppa died."
"The state Elvin was in, the longer it went on, the less human he became—a monster beyond saving. It was already too late for any other fix. And you know that better than anyone, don't you?"
Erin nodded reluctantly. She was the one who had told Eunhyeon that Elvin seemed to wield not ordinary magic, but something sinister involving shadow control.
"If I'd left him like that, he might've truly lost his reason, been consumed by shadows, and turned into something more horrific than a mana beast. So I killed him. It was what Elvin wanted too."
"So you're saying killing him actually saved him?"
"Hardly. A human body can't control the shadows' aftereffects from that black magic, so I removed that constraint. He's dead, but he hasn't left this world yet—he's still here properly."
"What do you... ah!"
Erin tilted her head at first while listening to Eunhyeon's explanation, then realized one possibility. Hadn't she herself spent time free from her body's constraints, existing as a soul?
"You can meet him again. Don't worry."
"I see... thank you... really... thank you so much..."
Erin let out a sigh of relief and thanked Eunhyeon repeatedly.
"From now on, I'll be your guardian. Starting tomorrow, you'll probably have to go back to school. A lot of things around you might work against you... but at least until you become an adult, I won't leave you alone. Take your time thinking about what you need to do, what you want to do."
"What I need to do... what I want to do..."
Erin murmured Eunhyeon's words to herself, then suddenly asked something that had been nagging at her. Why was this man going so far out of his way to help her and her brother?
"Um, why are you doing this much for me and Oppa...?"
Knock knock.
Just as Erin was about to question Eunhyeon, a knock sounded, and after a brief pause, a girl entered the room.
"Lord Eunhyeon! Big trouble!"
"Looks like I need to go."
Eunhyeon rose from where he'd been perched on the bed, hearing Eira's clamorous entrance. He turned to Erin.
"You feeling okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
"Then let's go. Seems like something annoying's come up. And I'm hungry."
"Ah, I'll show you the way."
At Eunhyeon's words, Erin nodded—partly to figure out where she was and grasp the full situation—and followed behind him and Eira.
Even as they walked the corridor after leaving the room, Erin gazed at the mansion's interior with a mix of awe and tension.
'No way... this place is...'
Walking the luxurious mansion corridor, Erin stole glances at Eira ahead. She realized this was her famous senior from Aiter Royal School.
Eira Olivion, eldest daughter of the Olivion marquis family—holders of the title "kingdom's strongest knight"—was known to every student at school. Rumors said she'd join her father's knight order right after graduation, whispers that had even reached Erin, who was out of the loop on noble gossip.
'Does that mean this is the Olivion Marquis Mansion?!'
Shocked inwardly, Erin couldn't hide her bewilderment, following with a face full of tension.
"Wow..."
Entering the opulent grand mansion for the first time, Erin walked around gawking in admiration.
"Is that really what you call that?"
"What else would it be? What did it sound like to you?"
'Huh...?'
Erin made a puzzled face at the voices coming from the room where Eunhyeon and Eira had stopped.
"Haa..."
Already guessing what was happening, Eunhyeon sighed and opened the door, stepping inside.
"You seem to be misunderstanding something. Just because you're married, with a pretty wife like that and two kids, doesn't make you better than me. It's that woman who's amazing—devoting herself sincerely to a stubborn boar-bear hybrid face like yours. And you're strutting around like it's your achievement, giving me advice?"
"How absurd. That's not something for an old spinster who's still unmarried at your age to say. Finding an excellent spouse is a skill in itself. And on that front, you're sorely lacking."
"What? You thick-headed metal-brained brute!"
"How absurd. A lazy spinster who calls a carriage even for the distance right in front of her."
"You wanna go at it for real?"
"No reason I can't."
Their glaring contest soon escalated to clashing mana from their bodies, making the carefully set tableware rattle.
Eunhyeon opened his mouth to stop the pair.
"What are you two doing? Fighting at the dinner table?"
"This jerk called me an old spinster!"
"This guy said my brain's made of metal."
As Eunhyeon scolded them pitifully, they pointed fingers at each other and complained to him. Noticing Iliana's slightly flushed face and excited state, Eunhyeon realized she'd already had some alcohol.
'Even so, what did he say to rile her up this much?'
Giving Riod a suspicious side-eye, Eunhyeon saw him subtly avoid his gaze.
"Hyeon, you think so too?"
"Huh?"
"You think there's something wrong with me that I can't get married? Let me tell you upfront—it's not that I can't, it's that I won't! Some bastard up and died on me without a word!"
"No, what...?"
Caught off-guard by Iliana's arrows suddenly turning on him, Eunhyeon stammered, unsure how to respond.
Seeing her indignant reaction, he quickly pieced together what Riod must have said to her.
"Hey, Riod, you didn't..."
"Hmph. She started picking on me first."
"You son of a—!"
"Now, now, we gathered to eat happily. Let's just eat."
Seemingly used to this, Riod snorted and retreated, then spoke to his wife Terezia, who stood beside him with an odd expression.
"I showed an unsightly side."
"No. It's not that... It's just, the Black Witch—great archmage's impression is so unexpectedly... disconcerting."
Terezia felt an inexplicable strangeness at this unforeseen sight. One of the continent's ten high-digit mages, friend to her husband, and one of the great heroes who ended the Great War alongside Riod—her legends filled bard songs and history books.
Thus, Terezia had preconceived Iliana as an intellectual, grand mage. She'd asked Riod beforehand, and he'd frowned saying she was nothing like that.
But seeing her in person confirmed once more: tales in history books and oral legends weren't to be trusted fully.
"Come to think of it... consulting me on your worries was pretty out of left field too."
"...Iliana consulted you on her worries?"
"Hehe, a secret among us women. More importantly, you seem in good spirits?"
Terezia smiled, taking Riod's hand.
"Do I?"
"You look more upbeat than usual. You must be that happy he came looking for you."
Having spent so long with Riod, Terezia could read the subtle changes in his stoic face.
"How could I not be glad? Me, Iliana, the others—we all owed him a huge debt, and he left just like that."
Watching Terezia gaze reminiscently at the past, she shifted her eyes to the silver-haired man desperately soothing Iliana. He seemed far too pathetic for the hero who'd led them in her husband's tales after the Great War ended, but perhaps this was the everyday normalcy born of their current peace.
"He's different from back then."
Twenty years ago, Eunhyeon had always led Riod and the team with a relaxed air, yet seemed to lack inner peace—like a racehorse charging relentlessly toward a goal, obsessed maniacally with some objective.
But now it was different. Revived, that obsession gone, he seemed to wander having lost life's meaning, yet clearly enjoying his current life. Riod thought this change was a good sign.