“There was once a person… She didn’t ask for my promise. She only wished for me to be happy and prosperous, even if that went against the hopes the world placed on me.”
“And my happiness, however, strangled her neck… ultimately causing her to be unable to breathe.”
The boy spoke of his sorrow calmly. In the ranger’s eyes, his figure overlapped again with her past self.
“Dad, I will definitely bring Mom back!”
“Iyue, don’t push yourself too hard.”
The ranger remembered her father. He never once made a request like “go bring your mother back.”
She had never understood… He was clearly in so much pain, yet why did he still see her off with a smile?
“She should have known that. But she still hoped for my happiness. Even at the moment when I was in extreme pain because of her impending death, she still smiled and comforted me.”
“You’re back… I’ve heard about what you did in Fenglin City. You haven’t changed at all… my daughter is truly amazing.”
Facing a daughter who had only returned home a few times in over fifty years, the aged father still gave her heartfelt praise.
“You must be doing well, right? That way I can rest assured…”
‘Is that so? Father… he only wanted me to be happy after all.’
“At that time, I was very confused by her actions—you are my world, your departure takes my world away with you. Where am I to find my happiness? Even if you tell me to live on, where do I draw the strength to live?”
“Sister, sister, I’m still here. You’re not alone, I’ll be with you.”
The ranger remembered that day when her mother’s eyes were red, blood dripping down the edge of the table.
Remembered that moment when her sister held on to her arm tightly.
“I carried that irresolvable pain and wandering… until I met a girl.”
“She was a girl who lost everything to war as well. In the occupied zone where demon soldiers roamed, she guarded her dilapidated farm alone, living a life where a single mistake could mean death.”
“I couldn’t imagine what kind of power allowed her to persist in that situation… nor could I understand why she could still smile in that hopeless life.”
“She let me, who had nowhere to go, stay at the farm. She took me to desolate villages where people had left to search for supplies, and when a patrol of demon soldiers used that seemingly abandoned farm as a temporary base, she pulled me to hide with her in the dry wheat stacks in the warehouse.”
“When I asked her reason for insisting to this extent, she said… she wanted to control her own fate. Only she herself could choose whether she lived or died, whether she was happy or unhappy. Even if destruction came in the next moment, she would still give her all to live in this moment.”
“I thought she was truly beautiful. So somehow… a thought emerged in my heart: I want to live like her.”
“Sister, don’t take that damned old woman’s words to heart. You are the most beautiful and amazing person I’ve ever seen… you are not lowly at all.”
“I wanted to thank that girl who was once my world and gave me infinite tolerance and love. I wanted to control this power that would be destroyed, to reshape myself with it… I wanted this girl to be able to stand confidently in the sunlight and smile at me, instead of being scared by the invaders and having to lower her voice even when speaking.”
“So I set out on a journey… and came here.”
The boy stood up.
“Thank you for your care these days.”
He put on the pack he had prepared beside him, pushed open the door, and walked into the sunlight.
He left the fairy ranger sitting alone at the table, silent and looking down.
“Sister, go.”
The unknown voice from somewhere made her suddenly raise her head.
“Nefi… is that you? Where are you?”
“You didn’t accept his invitation just because you wanted to die.”
She stood up and looked around the room.
“Go. Even if it’s a destined dead end, facing an invincible enemy.”
“Where are you…!”
In her panic, she tripped over the debris piled on the floor and almost fell.
“This is the choice you would make. Because you are my coolest, most beautiful, most amazing sister. You never give in to fate, you are always so sincere… without any pretense.”
“At first you hated me, your half-sister; then, because of our mother’s request, you struggled over whether to talk to me; then you cried helplessly, holding me as your lifeline; then you couldn’t forgive me for burning the music scores and memories, burying your love deep.”
“I love this version of you. Without you… I would never have been able to feel what sincerity and love are.”
“Nefi…”
She got up from the floor, then grabbed the longbow hanging on the wall by the fireplace.
“…I really want to see you…”
“Because it’s this kind of you, even if I’m not by your side, you can still move forward.”
The ranger was crying. She rushed into her room, put on the pack that she had repeatedly tied and untied the knot on.
“Go, sister. I hope for your happiness. Even in a dark, sunless hell, I will pray for your triumphant return.”
In those emerald eyes identical to her own, the girl saw passion for life, devotion to love, and mockery of fate.
She watched the ranger leave the cabin and step into the brilliant light… then sat quietly in the silence, waiting for the darkness crawling around to devour her completely.
……
Drip, drip.
Only the sound of dripping water marked the passing time.
The daily delivered meals, which had no form or smell and tasted like wax, sustained the girl’s life.
Magic was not allowed here. There was no light, so it was hard to even confirm whether she was alive.
‘What’s the big deal? It’s just a little more boring than before.’
At first, the girl scoffed at it. If the culprit who brought about all tragedy had a divine message, and she was to obey her fate like a divine oracle, then it would be better to rot here quietly.
‘This degree of pain is nothing. Was her mother driven mad by such punishment? She was really fragile.’
That was the girl’s thought. She believed that even if she stayed here until the end of her life, she would never yield.
Until that seemingly endless darkness slowly devoured her.
From a certain moment, she began to frantically touch and scratch her limbs.
She couldn’t stop… because if she stopped, her consciousness would fragment, and her limbs and mind would become as empty as if they had never existed.
It hurts a bit… no, it hurts a lot. To verify her existence, she needed intense pain.
But the girl still did not have the thought of yielding. How could she yield?
Yield to that vicious woman who drove her mother to death, drove her father mad, and made her sister suffer?
It would be better to just smash her head against the wall and die.
So she had such a thought.
‘No… if I die, my sister will definitely be very sad. She might only find out much later… but if that poor sister of mine finds out, she will definitely be in great pain.’
So even in pain, she worked hard to maintain her existence. She started talking to herself, imagining other people in the darkness talking to her, to stay sane.
Because she still had the desire to live, she could stay sane.
At some point, she had given up counting the months and years, and the imaginary voices in her head had all faded away.
In the absolute silence, the only thing that existed was the sound of dripping water.
She thought of nothing. Just listened to that sound.
Then at some moment, that sound suddenly disappeared.
The sanity she had maintained… was transformed into the most terrifying madness.