Selina's Story
Selina's words weren't entirely wrong, so I decided to stay in Talian for just one day. Thanks to Kardan's pathetic attempt at courtesy, Leysila and I ended up in the finest lodging Talian had to offer.
And so, on this late night—the first in ages that we two could spend alone—we left the window wide open, basking in the faint moonlight as we chatted about Talian.
"There were so many cute animals here, right?"
"...Yeah, they were cute... especially... the squirrel beastkin."
Leysila could now speak almost normally, like anyone else. Pride swelled in my chest at the sight as I continued.
"The squirrel beastkin were cute and all... but to this big brother, the rabbit beastkin were even cuter."
"Yeah... the rabbit beastkin were... super cute too... but I liked the squirrels more..."
"Yeah, yeah, my little sister fell hard for the squirrel beastkin. Want me to adopt one for you?"
She shook her head vigorously. Apparently, she didn't want to take one home after all, making her feelings crystal clear.
We kept chatting about all the beastkin we'd seen that day. As our trivial banter stretched into the deepening night,
Knock knock.
The door creaked open cautiously without so much as a permission.
"What the—!"
I whipped my head around to see who this insolent bastard was, only to freeze solid.
It was Selina stepping into the room. She wore what looked like a single thin silk sheet draped over her body—the kind that left every curve of her bare skin tantalizingly visible. She stood there in the doorway, staring straight at me.
Her outfit screamed impure intentions.
I furrowed my brow sharply and instinctively clapped my hands over Leysila's eyes, who sat beside me.
"Didn't I tell you I wasn't into that sort of thing?"
I spoke in the coldest, lowest tone I could muster.
"Leysila's right here watching—have you finally lost your mind?"
"......"
Selina's shoulders twitched at my blatant disgust. She hung her head, glancing back and forth between her exposed body and my sour expression, then mumbled in the tiniest voice, lips barely moving.
"They said this much would... at least lower your guard a little..."
"What?"
She jolted at my sharp retort, shaking her head frantically. Her silver cat ears drooped in utter defeat.
"N-no, sorry. I wasn't thinking. Anyway, let's... finish our talk in the next room."
"......"
She hurriedly slipped out the door. I stared blankly at it for a moment before laying Leysila—who was tilting her head at me, grasping my hand—down in bed and tucking her in. After hesitating briefly, I stood and headed to the adjacent room.
The moment I opened the door, my eyes fell on a mop of silver hair pressed flat against the floor.
Selina knelt on the cold bare ground, forehead smashed into it.
"As I said before, you—no, Hero Kail—saved us in Talian..."
Her voice, aimed at the floor, trembled violently, soaked in tears.
"So please... pass whatever judgment you wish on me."
"No, sigh..."
At a loss for words, I stared down at her flattened head in silence.
Revenge. There had been a time when I'd wanted to make these traitors suffer the same pain they'd inflicted on me.
But paradoxically, no spark of rage lingered in me now. Just bone-deep exhaustion and a dull, dry loathing that made me never want to see this face again. So I said it straight.
"Keep talking to me casually like always, you arrogant bitch."
"But..."
"And swear you'll never show your face to me again come morning."
"Kail, that's..."
Selina jerked her head up desperately. Thick tears brimmed in her eyes, her breathing ragged and broken. She reached out toward me on her knees, but my icy glare halted her hand mid-air.
"P-please... I'll make it up to you somehow. The wounds you suffered, the injustice... If you don't want to hurt me, I'll take responsibility for everything by your side forever, and I still have..."
"Sigh."
I let out the tiniest sigh, making sure she felt every ounce of my resignation.
"Make it up how? You think groveling and throwing your body at me will make me go, Oh, thanks, sure, I'll take it?"
"That's not what I meant—it's not shallow. I just want to atone by your side..."
"Enough!!"
Irritation boiled over. "Stop being a pain in the ass and just get lost. Don't you get it!!?"
"I-I just... just......"
For the first and last time, I screamed with every raw emotion. Selina gasped, collapsing as uncontrollable sobs burst from her eyes and mouth.
"Hic... guh... I-I just......"
I couldn't fathom what she had to cry about, acting like the victim here. Selina wiped at the puddle of her own tears on the floor, squeezing out words through sobs.
"Hic... okay. Then, one last thing... one last thing. I'm truly sorry."
Tears plummeted endlessly to the floor.
"And like you said... sob, I won't appear before you again starting tomorrow. Thank you... so much for saving Talian..."
Even before her wretched, wailing figure, I didn't waver. If anything, my heart felt eerily calm, as if emotions themselves had broken.
I turned away indifferently.
"You're selfish to the end."
My parting words as I headed for the door hung frozen in the air.
"Makes sense—you've gotten by just fine all this time with your sniveling tears and goofy grins. Keep living like that."
Bang!
I left without looking back, slamming the door shut.
Crash—!
⋯⋯ I had a dream. A little different from others', but the moment recognition came, I dreamed.
A dream of delivering salvation to my homeland—where I was born and raised—with my own hands.
Crash—! Crash!
At the continent's remote edge, far from Talian, where waves surged to devour cliffs dozens of meters high. There, at the endless expanse called the Dead Sea,
Selina stood precariously at the cliff's edge, staring beyond the horizon. No tears left to shed.
...Looking back now, maybe the dream went wrong from the start.
At some point, she'd arrogantly started thinking she was special. So she'd twisted the prophet's words to suit herself, foolishly trusted the Holy Kingdom,
and ultimately dragged everything to the absolute worst.
"......"
Selina gazed down at the eerie black whirlpool at her feet with eyes fully extinguished.
The Dead Sea, said to devour all life and energy. The waves crashing far below the sheer cliff mimicked the wails of tens of thousands of lost souls.
...The only thing I had going for me was top-tier agility and intel-gathering among my kin.
Why hadn't she thought to use even those meager skills properly back then?
Before despair made her kneel rashly. If she'd just doubted the Harennes Holy Kingdom's offered hand of salvation a little.
If she'd covertly checked if that sly cardinal truly intended to keep his promise—or if Talian was just a pawn to discard the Hero.
No, screw all the complicated calculations and excuses. When Kail lost everything and collapsed on the Holy King's chamber floor,
if she'd snapped out of it then and stayed by his side to the end?
Would their fates have diverged even slightly from this?
Step.
Chewing futile regrets, Selina took one more step toward the cliff's edge.
A large pebble kicked by her toe plummeted into the void. But the drop was so vast, no splash reached her ears.
She slowly drew a dull dagger from her waist.
And without hesitation, lightly slashed her left palm.
Drip.
Her leather glove tore, red blood beading up—then, from the gash, thick black demonic energy oozed grotesquely.
The Swelling Fallbirth curse.
Even after Kail perfectly severed its massive root in the altar's depths, the residue lingered in her body like poison—etched into her very soul from birth.
As long as Selina lived and breathed, the curse would never fully vanish. Worse, if she died naturally or bled out unexpectedly,
the Busung Lord could use this remnant as a vessel to reroot its ugliness in the world.
Yeah... from the beginning, the only way to end it was for me to disappear completely, without a trace.
Legends said the Dead Sea annihilated not just flesh, but souls entirely—no scraps left.
Only by hurling her body into that black maw below could she snuff out the last embers threatening Talian and the continent.
A horrific end, barring her from reincarnation... but the sole path to atone, even slightly, to him.
"⋯⋯."
Selina let her bleeding hand drop limply and slowly lifted her gaze ahead.
Beyond the ink-black horizon, dawn's faint light crept in. Dim orange rays settled softly on her pallid cheek.
Facing the new morning's warmth, long-suppressed regrets burst forth uncontrollably.
"Truth is... I wanted to live."
Her shoulders began to tremble.
"In the Talian you bled to save, breathing normally... living alongside you."
She knew how shameless a wish it was. No one knew better than her the horrors she'd inflicted on him.
So if she could just earn the tiniest forgiveness on her deathbed, she'd endure rotting under this crushing guilt until then.
Crawling at his feet, bearing every scorn—she wanted to stay by his side.
"But getting here, I realized... my very existence would just be another hell for you."
That look in Kail's eyes last night.
No resentment or anger left—just thorough, frozen disgust and fatigue.
Recalling that listless gaze, Selina's bloodless lips quivered.
Tears she thought spent welled up again, blurring her dawning vision.
"So, I'll die."
Drip. Drip.
Tears streaming down her cheek soaked the cliffside earth relentlessly.
"I'll vanish without a trace, along with the continent's last Swelling Fallbirth curse. Then the continent you saved... will stay at peace from now on."
With thoughts sorted, Selina flung the dagger into the abyss without regret.
Clutching her twisted face with both hands, she wailed one final time.
"Hic!! Hweeeong!! I'm sorry! Truly, truly sorry...!"
Her cry toward the man she'd wronged most—the one she'd never reach again, who'd shown her the most grace—dissolved traceless into the roaring waves.
With that, Selina slowly released the strength in her legs.
Her body tilted toward the void from the cliff's edge.
Even the wind seemed to shove her back fiercely.
As one foot fully left the ground and her body began its eternal plunge into the fathomless Dead Sea,
"...Wait."
An utterly unexpected voice came from behind.