Afterimage (2)
Afterimage (2)
The female knight carried Serepina on her back.
She was far too light.
And far too warm.
As if a fever had sunk into her bones.
They wandered the city streets, visiting every church they could find.
But the doors were locked tight or hands waved them away the moment they were spotted.
All the capable priests had already left.
Some said they had gone to capture the Saintess. Others claimed they had joined her side to protect her.
The city might still be in the dark, but the Church had split clean in two.
The only place they found, in the end, was a shabby clinic tucked away in a back alley.
Beneath the glow of an oil lamp, the old physician examined Serepina's wrist.
"Tsk, tsk. Such a young lady shouldn't go doing something so wretched."
He ground up something—herbs? a poultice?—and plastered it thickly over the wound.
The raw, fishy reek of crushed greens filled the air.
Over that, he wrapped a strip of yellowed bandage. Nothing more.
The knight, Jenna, once again carried the emaciated Serepina on her back and returned to the room.
She laid her on the bed and pressed a cold, damp cloth to her forehead.
The cloth was clammy, barely cool.
Serepina simply stared at the ceiling.
The faint stains above looked like Ravin's face as he burned.
That evening, visitors came.
News of Serepina had reached them.
Jenna, who had taken her all the way to the clinic. Kyle. The senior librarian and friends.
Several people stood around the bed.
Their shadows, stretched long by the lamplight, wavered across the walls.
They tried to say something, but the words never reached her.
They buzzed and scattered, like voices heard underwater.
Everything had been wrong since Ravin died.
The world kept its familiar shape, yet it was warped at every edge—like a photograph that refused to focus.
Kyle approached with a bowl of porridge, an awkward smile on her face.
"Serepina, at least try to eat. You'll really be in trouble at this rate."
Serepina kept staring blankly into the air.
Then her gaze shifted downward, to her bandaged wrist.
It looked foreign to her, as though it belonged to someone else.
Not expecting an answer, Kyle handed the bowl to Jenna.
She dipped a spoon into the porridge and brought it to Serepina's lips.
Soft steam rose.
That was when everything in the room shuddered.
Mana erupted from her fingertips and scattered in every direction.
She had not intended it. Something inside her simply burst.
The porridge bowl flew into the wall and shattered. Books toppled from the shelves and spilled onto the floor. Sharp fragments grazed the cheeks of Kyle, Jenna, and the senior librarian.
Since it had not been a deliberate spell, no one was seriously hurt.
But cuts large and small opened on their faces.
Blood beaded and trickled down.
They stared at Serepina blankly.
A moment of silence passed.
They opened their mouths as if to say something, but the instant they met her eyes, they turned and slowly left the room without a word.
It was the expression of people who had no idea how to offer comfort—or what words might even reach her.
The door closed with an unnaturally loud sound.
Silence settled back into the room.
Serepina pulled the blanket over her head.
And curled her entire body into herself beneath it.
* * *
It must have been sometime near dawn.
Someone stepped into the room.
Without footsteps, like a shadow.
"Get up."
"......."
"I said get up."
Inside the blanket, Serepina thought the voice sounded strangely familiar.
The thought didn't last long.
The intruder ripped the blanket away.
Then kicked Serepina, who was still curled on the bed, clean onto the floor.
"Oof!"
Serepina tumbled across the cold floor.
The impact knocked the air from her lungs.
Chill seeped through her bare skin.
She lifted her head and saw Levina standing over her.
Even in the darkness, her silhouette was razor-sharp.
The woman who had been secretly backing the Saintess—the same one who, these days, was leaving a trail of carnage after killing her own parents.
The woman who had wanted Ravin's engagement broken.
Levina was immaculate.
A neat uniform. Hair without a strand out of place.
And yet something about her looked utterly ruined.
"Get up."
Levina's voice was flat and calm.
Not a single emotion bled into it.
"Estelle is coming to kill you."
Serepina stared up at her vacantly.
Her words sounded like a story from another world.
"Why would the Saintess come to kill me?"
"...Who knows? I'm the ex-fiancée. Guess she doesn't like that. Why would I care what that crazy bitch is thinking?"
"But... Lady Levina, you've been helping the Saintess."
Serepina's voice crawled out, barely audible.
"Even I know that, holed up in this room as I am."
There was no way she wouldn't know what was happening in the city.
The rumors were everywhere: Estelle running rampant, Levina backing her from the shadows.
A Church split in half, yanked this way and that by the whims of high-born nobles—it had always been that way, so no one made much of it.
Levina didn't answer.
She just looked down at Serepina collapsed on the floor.
Even in the dark, her eyes burned cold.
"Shut up and get up."
"...I don't want to."
Serepina trembled, her body hollow of strength, but she glared up at Levina and forced the words out.
"I shouldn't go anywhere. Do you know why Ravin died?"
"Because he didn't listen to me."
Levina's answer was curt.
"Because of me."
"Stop talking nonsense and get up."
"I even heard him ask—both of us—if we could go live somewhere quiet together."
Serepina pressed a hand against the wall and slowly pulled herself upright.
Her legs shook beneath her.
She perched precariously on the edge of the bed.
"I even heard him say he loved me. And I turned him down."
Levina didn't look at Serepina as she went on. Instead, she pressed two fingers between her brows as if nursing a headache.
"Of course. You told me that if I didn't break the engagement with Ravin, the rest of my life would be nothing but misery.
Father told me that if I didn't break the engagement, I'd spend my whole life regretting it.
Mother told me I could never build a happy family with Ravin the way my family is happy.
Everyone around me said I would be unhappy if I stayed with Ravin."
The words rang like echoes inside her skull.
Levina's expression twisted with every word Serepina spat out.
"You were unhappy."
Levina said it conclusively.
"I thought I was unhappy."
Serepina whispered.
Levina fell silent for a moment.
Then she spoke in a voice of cold steel.
"Do you know why I'm trying to keep you alive?
Because Ravin left nothing behind.
The only thing he ever treasured was you."
Levina had never really looked at Serepina as a person.
Neither had Ravin. And lately, neither had Father or Mother.
A docile child, suitable enough to keep beside him.
But that child had remained at Ravin's side, and deep down, Levina had never liked it.
The woman who, even while condemning Ravin after he'd gone crooked, had still resented the fact that Serepina stayed.
Anger flashed through Levina and she kicked Serepina again.
The movement happened before she was even aware of it.
Ever since childhood, she had always been next to Ravin.
And yet this girl—engaged to him on nothing more than a convenient family pretext—had always been there instead.
He was an Edelgard, so of course he was hers.
Her family. It was only natural that he would listen to her, defer to her, praise her, adore her.
Serepina had won Ravin's heart so easily.
And it didn't seem as though she had ever lost it—not once.
Not even right before he died.
"Right. You did kill him."
Levina grabbed Serepina by the collar and hauled her upright.
She registered, distantly, that the girl was too light, but she paid it no mind as she slapped her across the face.
"He has the nerve to try to arrest Ravin with that worthless, goddamn bastard who doesn't know his place."
The moment the words hit her, Serepina shoved Levina away.
But there was no strength in her body. Instead of pushing Levina back, she pitched forward.
She landed face-first on the floor.
"If you're useless at everything, at least learn to listen. Yeah?"
Levina was about to haul the fallen Serepina up again.
Click. Click.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Levina clearly recognized the sound.
"Ah, fuck. Do whatever you want. Drop dead or don't."
She abandoned Serepina on the floor and stepped aside.
The door opened, and Estelle walked in.
A light smile on her lips, she spoke to Levina in a playful tone.
"You started playing without me?"
Levina hesitated before answering, her voice low.
"Are you going to kill her?"
"Mm, I'll think about it."
"Think about what?"
"None of your business.
And I told you not to use the word 'kill.'
I'm sending her to God's side."
Estelle approached Serepina where she lay crumpled.
She grabbed a fistful of her hair and hauled her up roughly.
She threw her onto the bed, then climbed on top of her.
She leaned in close, face to face.
"Thought so. I can't see a thing."
Estelle sighed, then clamped her left hand tight around Serepina's shoulder.
Crunch.
The bone gave under her grip.
Serepina tried to scream, but Estelle covered her nose and mouth with one hand and pressed her face down, whispering against her skin.
Tears streamed down, wetting Estelle's hand.
"Make a sound and I'll crush you just like this."
It didn't take long for Serepina's struggling to subside.
Slowly, running her fingers over the shattered shoulder, Estelle stroked Serepina's face.
Her touch was strangely gentle.
"So you're the one Ravin liked that much."