<Episode 102>
Drenched from head to toe, I had no idea how long he had been running endlessly across the frozen river.
By the time I had lost all feeling in my face, hands, and feet, unable to escape the cold that seeped up from the ice, my strength finally gave out, leaving me trembling.
Just when I thought I had reached my limit, I saw it—a land lush with greenery appearing in the distance.
“Are you all right, Rose?”
After some time, Rezeck carefully placed me down onto solid ground and spoke.
I wrapped my trembling body tightly with my arms, desperately trying to preserve any warmth, and replied, “No…”
I felt as though I might actually freeze to death.
How wonderful it would have been to summon the Spirit of Fire and dry my drenched body!
As I futilely yearned for the impossible, even the breath escaping my lips was so cold that my mind began to blur.
“…Pardon me, but just for a moment.”
“…!”
Rezeck, who had been gazing down at me with a pained expression, suddenly pulled me into his arms and murmured softly.
Even in my misery, the strange situation snapped me out of my daze, and I darted my eyes around.
Though I had glimpsed his identity and fragments of our childhood from Rose’s memories, to me, he was still a stranger.
Yet now, I was so close to him that I could hear his heartbeat.
Despite having already been in his arms for some time, it was only after escaping the icy surface that I noticed how large he seemed.
He held a chill as biting as the frost itself, so his embrace offered no warmth.
And yet, as time passed and we remained holding each other, the cold that had been tormenting me seemed to fade ever so slightly, as though it had been a lie.
Hesitant, I gently placed my hand on his arm and pushed him away.
Looking up from his embrace, I raised my silver eyes to meet his.
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“…Yes.”
Rose… It seemed she had used formal speech with Rezeck in her childhood.
Forcing down the strange sense of unfamiliarity, I replied as naturally as possible.
“…I was worried about you.”
But the earnest tone of his voice, so deeply emotional that I could not begin to fathom its depths, left me momentarily frozen as I looked up at him.
“I was ashamed of myself for such a selfish thought, but if it had been you instead of Marie fleeing with me… I thought to myself… If that bird hadn’t appeared in time, I would have lost you. And if that had happened, I would have been consumed by such despair that I would have felt as though I were dying.”
His voice, heavy with anguish, broke slightly as he whispered.
His beautiful face twisted in sorrow.
“Had that bird not flown to me, I would have lost you for good. And what torment would I have suffered then?”
I was startled and overwhelmed by the glimpses of deep longing and desperation he directed toward Rose.
Afraid that if I continued to probe the surface of his emotions, I might uncover the full truth of his feelings, I hurriedly changed the subject.
“A bird, you say?”
I released him and quickly asked a different question.
At that moment, recalling the Spirit King of Death’s minion that had been sent to watch over me, I looked up at Rezeck with a sense of foreboding.
“A black bird. It appeared while I was waiting for a ship to depart from the Grishel Pier. It circled overhead with unusual urgency, as if it were trying to convey something.”
That stupid crow, which I had dismissed as nothing more than a noisy nuisance fluttering around me!
In the end, it had practically saved my life. Overwhelmed with astonishment, I could barely close my mouth as I listened to Rezeck continue.
“The appearance of such a dark bird has always been a symbol of ill tidings. So, I abandoned waiting for the ship, froze the river, and followed the bird’s path. That led me to you, cornered by a man who seemed to be Nisha’s pawn, and I was able to rescue you in time.”
“…That bird saved me.”
The Spirit King of Death’s servant…
It had no reason to help me, yet it did.
Why? As questions filled my mind, I murmured to myself.
When I looked up, I found Rezeck gazing down at me intently.
I hurriedly closed my mouth.
The first being I encountered upon entering Rose Hacardella’s body was none other than the Spirit King of Death.
Rose Hacardella herself was already dead. Where her soul had gone, I did not know.
But this man…
He would never doubt that Roze was still alive. Just as her sister, Marie, undoubtedly believed the same.
“It was sheer luck,” I said, forcing my voice to remain steady.
“Had you not come, I would have been dragged away by him.”
He believes Rose is alive.
Suppressing the rising guilt that felt like a lead weight in my chest, I thought to myself.
The truth must never come to light. I do not know how long I can keep it hidden, but at least until I fulfill my mission, I must act as though Rose Hacardella is alive. Even if it means ignoring the crushing guilt I feel.
“But…”
Rezeck, who had been gazing down at me with luminous silver eyes, spoke in a quiet voice.
“Why did you not summon a spirit? The surroundings were water; surely it would have been easy to borrow its power.”
At that moment, his face, as mysteriously radiant as a spirit of dawn, twisted in anguish.
“Don’t tell me… Did they do something to your body?”
His voice was cold and firm, filled with a terrifying resolve.
As he spoke, vivid memories of the excruciating pain that had surged through me each time I tried to summon a spirit flooded my mind.
“That’s…”
I was overwhelmed by a chilling sense of dread, yet I hesitated to respond, as I wasn’t certain of the truth.
“…Ugh,”
At that moment, a peculiar dizziness struck me, and a memory surged into my mind as vividly as spilled paint, soaking my thoughts and overwhelming my vision.
‘What… what are you planning to do to me?!’
‘Stay still.’
In that memory, the original body owner—Rose—screamed in despair, but Nisha’s soldiers restrained her.
They pulled down her collar, exposing her back, and drove something sharp into her flesh.
‘…!’
The searing pain made her vision turn white.
Something unpleasant and alien forced its way into the bleeding wound, as if shackling the very source of life that coursed through her body.
From that moment on, summoning spirits or drawing on their powers became impossible.
Every attempt was met with unbearable pain, shock, and despair, culminating in an insurmountable rage.
“Rose.”
A hand on my shoulder pulled me back to reality, and I found myself staring blankly at the man gazing at me with desperate eyes.
“They slashed my back… and implanted something,” I murmured.
“Since then, every time I tried to summon a spirit, an unbearable pain would consume me. At its worst, I would even cough up blood.”
I couldn’t tell whether it was me speaking or if someone else was using my voice to recount the tale.
“And so, I can no longer summon spirits or borrow their powers…”
I confessed, sinking into unspeakable despair.
“They…”
Rezeck spoke in a voice breaking with anguish.
“…They severed the source of all your resistance.”
Then, in a voice filled with venom, he muttered, “How utterly vile and barbaric.”
That single phrase encapsulated the reputation of the royal family ruling over the Kingdom of Nisha—vile, barbaric, and deserving only of hatred and ruin.
“Though their ship has been sunk, there’s no telling when they might resume their pursuit,” Rezeck said firmly, standing to his feet.
“We must make haste to the royal palace of Dryas.”
“…Yes.”
Still unable to shake the lingering echoes of the memory, I forced myself to respond in a strained voice, gripping his hand as though to steady myself.
***
Later
“Rose.”
We had reached an inn in a nearby town, and as soon as we entered the room, Rezeck turned to me with a grave expression.
“You said they slashed your back and implanted something. I know it’s an imposition, but… may I examine the injury?”
I understood his concern, but…
From the abandoned castle where I first awoke to the docks at Grishel, I had stayed in various inns.
There were several occasions when I had undressed and examined my body in a mirror while washing.
“…The wounds have already healed. Only faint scars remain.”
Even if the scars were reopened to extract the foreign object, it would be futile if it had already traveled through my bloodstream.
“I see…Forgive me. If only I had reached you sooner…”
Rezeck muttered, his voice filled with guilt.
“This isn’t your fault,” I said gently, hesitating for a moment before taking his hand in mine.
The matter at hand was far more pressing.
Even though it was just the two of us in the room, I glanced cautiously out the window before turning back to him and speaking carefully.
“Rezeck, is Marie… and the relic safe?”
“Ah, thankfully, His Majesty of Dryas has graciously accepted Lady Marie,” Rezeck replied, stepping toward the window to draw the curtains tightly closed.
“He has also secured both the Water Relic and the Forest Relic in safekeeping.”
