Charred grass and trees, countless piles of monster corpses all on a mountain where monsters no longer breathed.
There was only one reason Ash was running through it.
That blue flame. He knew whose power that was.
It was impossible not to know.
Seveka’s hell, as he remembered it from twenty years ago. The blue flames that engulfed the palace and the city were still fresh in his mind.
His mother’s name that’d haunted him all his life.
The place where the flames had burned the strongest, where the giant had raged like it was attacking something invisible. He ran like he was possessed across the small embers that remained everywhere.
He had to see what lay beyond.
If it’s really there…
A desolate clearing of blackened trees. An unquenchable fire swirled around someone.
He saw a woman standing in the flames.
Her silver hair was as bright as the moon as it fluttered among the flames. Her head raised; her gaze fixed on the distance.
Her white profile seemed unreal.
“Elaine…?”
Even as he said the name, something didn’t quite click. He wondered if the face he was looking at was really hers, if it belonged to the person whose name he’d called.
She beckoned, and the flames in the clearing obediently died down. She turned, startled, at the sound of his voice.
Her light green eyes widened and trembled at the sight of him.
“Uh, how…”
That’s what he wanted to ask. Why was she here, in the middle of the blue flames?
As if she’d been controlling the flames.
It was an unexpected situation and an unimaginable sight at the same time. He was so confused.
‘You’re weak to the cold.’
‘Sir, are you okay?’
‘Give me your hand.’
One by one, the things he couldn’t understand from before came to mind. Her friendly demeanor from the first time they met. Applying for the escort knight position that everyone else avoided. The favors she gave without expecting anything in return.
Even though she knew he was the son of a witch.
‘Oh, thank God. Really, really…’
As if she was afraid of losing him, as if he was the most precious person in the world. That unconditional affection…
Same name, similar appearance, said to be a friend of his mother, the witch.
Same name with the power of a witch.
Things he couldn’t understand, things he’d dismissed as coincidence, slowly meshed together in his mind. He was gripped by a strange premonition.
“You…”
Ash faced her and spoke.
“Are you ‘Elaine’?”
At once, she understood the meaning of those words. Elaine’s breath froze. Her eyes darted wildly with agitation she couldn’t hide.
That response gave him his answer. Ash slowly approached her.
“…How could you…”
Countless questions hung on the unfinished sentence. So many questions arose with his confusion that he didn’t know what to ask first.
Elaine hesitated and took a step back. Her face turned pale, as if all the blood had drained from her body.
She was quite disheveled, having spent so much energy wiping out the nest. The tension that’d been so tightly wound had loosened, and she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings. But the consequences of her momentary lapse in vigilance were devastating.
“Well, I…”
She wanted to deny it, but it was impossible to make excuses; he’d already seen her wield her witch powers and was half-convinced of her identity.
She was caught by someone she never wanted to be caught by. Her mind turned as blank as a sheet of paper. She couldn’t think.
Panic filled her from head to toe. All she wanted to do was escape. She turned and ran away from him.
“…! Elaine!”
Ash quickly grabbed her as she tried to leave. Elaine always liked it when he called her name. But at this moment, she just felt great fear. It felt like he was calling out to the part of herself she wanted to hide the most.
She stumbled backwards as he grabbed her wrist. She couldn’t shake him off and staggered back, only to be blocked by a tree growing behind her.
Elaine sank to the ground as if collapsing. Ash followed her, lowering himself to one knee.
“Elaine, look at me.”
She couldn’t face him. Her head was bowed, her hunched shoulders trembling like they might break.
He cupped her cheeks in both hands and gently lifted her head to meet his gaze. Unable to resist, she followed his touch and lifted her head. Her shaking light green eyes were filled with moisture. After seeing this, Ash was speechless for a long time and then asked softly.
“Are you really… That Elaine?”
Confusion still swirled inside. Why she was so afraid, how she could wield the power of a witch, and so many other things he couldn’t understand, but he asked the question again, hoping to get confirmation from her own mouth.
Looking him in the eye, Elaine realized she couldn’t run anymore.
To pile on any more lies would only deceive him further.
She curled her cold fingertips. Her voice was muffled, as if she’d been strangled, and she spat out the words through clenched teeth.
“… I am the Elaine you’re talking about.”
His eyes rippled. He paused for a moment, then asked, slowly.
“Why… didn’t you tell me from the beginning?”
To her, that question sounded like he was criticizing her for lying to him. Her long silver eyelashes trembled slightly.
“Because if I revealed my identity, I wouldn’t… be able to stay by your side.”
For a moment, she hoped that if he knew that she was ‘the Elaine’ Ash knew as a child, he’d welcome her. A ridiculous hope, in retrospect.
Even if he did, that’s only if he didn’t know whose heart Elaine had stolen to survive. If he knew she’d robbed his mother of her heart and stood by him so brazenly all this time, he would loathe and hate her.
She wanted to stay by his side for as long as she could, to see him happy.
But even that was greed.
“My heart belongs to your mother.”
A tear fell down her cheek. Even if she hated herself, even if she could no longer be by his side, she had to tell the truth.
Ash didn’t immediately understand the meaning of what she said.
“…What does that mean?”
Elaine continued while sobbing.
“I was in Seveka the day Bella was cursed.”
She stammered her confession through trembling lips.
The moment she witnessed Seveka’s destruction and what happened as she tried to stop Bella from going insane.
Why she, not Bella, had survived.
Each word was painful, like flesh being sliced away, and as she continued, Ash stiffened, unable to move. His purple eyes trembled.
His mother gave up her heart to save Elaine.
Only then did he understand why Elaine could wield the powers of a witch. How she still looks like she was in her twenties, even though she should be in her forties by now.
‘Then my mother…’
He was someone who’d been lost from the beginning, unable to feel despair or deep loss. However, he felt as if something was squeezing his chest.
He was silent for a long time. Meanwhile, Elaine spoke while still sobbing.
“…I know you hate me, and it’s okay to take revenge if you want. If you want me to give you this heart, I will. If you tell me to never show up in front of you again, I’ll…”
“What are you talking about?”
Ash stopped her in her tracks. His eyes twisted in pain.
“Why would you say such cruel things. Revenge, why would I do that?”
“But because of me, you lost your mother, and you had to grow up at such a young age, alone, without seeing your parents’ faces.”
She couldn’t imagine the loneliness he must’ve endured, alone in this cold world, never knowing the warmth of family.
“If Bella had survived, her name would’ve been cleared quickly, and you wouldn’t have had to suffer and be blamed for something you never did.”
Her tears flowed without end. The more she spoke, the more vividly she realized how much pain he could have avoided.
Ash looked down at her guilt-soaked face. He wiped away her steady stream of tears and shook his head.
“No, Elaine, it’s not your fault. It was unavoidable, and you almost lost your life trying to stop my mother.”
“But…”
“If you hadn’t prevented it, my mother would’ve claimed more victims. Perhaps the disaster wouldn’t have stopped at Seveka. If that were the case, my mother would’ve suffered much more.”
He remembered when Elaine was injured defending Yulina Lakers, her face pale with fear as he tried to check her wounds. He also remembered when they were at Ghost Mountain, he didn’t know then what fear she harbored that would bring the Specters to her endlessly.
Going through hell, remembering the pain, blaming herself for things that weren’t her fault.
How could she smile so brilliantly while holding all that in, alone? How could he blame her? How could he hate her?
So, Elaine…
Ash locked eyes with her, and said, in a soft but clear tone.
“I don’t blame you one bit.”
