EP: 116
“August. Can you make me one exactly like this?”
Muriel handed August the memory sealing magic circle. It was something Katrina had drawn and handed over to Muriel at her urging, just before she fell asleep completely under the influence of anesthesia. It wasn’t difficult to control Katrina even without using a separate hypnotic spell. When Muriel said she had seen a prophecy that she would kill Sharan and fabricated that she would be sitting on the throne with Katrina by her side, Katrina believed her words all too easily. She looked ecstatic and tearful at the description, as if it was a future she had long dreamed of.
“I can, but… what are you going to use it for?”
“To erase Katrina’s memories and pain. Sealing the pain can be done with the magic circle Katrina provided. I don’t need it.”
“Are you going to forgive this woman?”
“No. My heart isn’t that big. I just want to give back what I’ve been through in the same way. And I need to make sure if the magic circle is properly made.”
“Turning her into a fool seems like it would actually make this woman more comfortable.”
“Hmm… I don’t think so.”
Jaron looked at Muriel with a strange expression in response. He found it incomprehensible and frustrating that Muriel, who had once been so adamant about not staying a memoryless fool, was preparing to erase her own memories.
Nevertheless, Muriel patted the back of her friend who had agreed to help and followed her all the way to Sharan’s palace, as if to comfort him.
“You just have to write down the things you want to disappear and put them in.”
[Muriel Storm]
Thus, Katrina Knox forgot the memories of the past 12 years in their entirety. She, who still remembered herself as the saint of the royal palace, went completely insane without understanding the disappearance of her own divine power and seeing herself with the wretched appearance of a monster.
And though it was a story from a distant future, Sharan Kasal also met a miserable end. Unaware that the fragment of Ur had disappeared, Sharan Kasal could not resist the temptation to become the flawless, perfect Sharan. So he sought out the guardian tree and prayed for the eyes of Sharan to be bestowed upon him. However, he met his death as the price of giving a false answer, for he thought that the most beloved, the strongest, and the most noble things were all himself.
He wanted to become the perfect Sharan, but in the end, he was recorded down in history as the culprit who caused the name Sharan to disappear into history.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Muriel just stared at the world as it darkened. As the sun rose to its highest point, the black star gradually emerged. Now, the pervasive waiting and suffering would soon come to an end. Although her situation had not changed at all, she felt relieved to think this was some form of closure.
Yes… you’re not coming again.
Now, she would no longer spend each day with her heart burning as anticipation turned into disappointment, like the sun rising and setting. She would live indifferently in a completely new world, in a different world where he would not come to mind at all. A world that would not remind her of him at all.
Her resolve was firm, yet her chest felt strangely empty and bitter. It was cold and hollow, as if a hole had been pierced through it. Should she have visited the plateau one more time? As meaningless regrets and attachments tried to squeeze into the hole in her heart, a small, cautious knock was heard.
Knock, knock.
Despite her resolve, her heart began to beat fast again. She knew that Kaiton would never knock like this, yet she hoped against hope that he had come, that he had come to catch her this time. Foolish expectations ran wildly again.
“I know you said you wanted to rest alone… I’m sorry for coming here at will.”
But it was Ondal who had come in through the door. Seeing that he was trying to hold back tears, it seemed that August had broken his promise to Muriel and told him about her plan. As if to confirm that, August said in a manner of excuse.
“But I thought you should at least say goodbye…”
“I left a letter.”
However, with no intention to chase Ondal away, Muriel approached him as he stood fidgeting in front of the door. Now that it was truly dark outside, he had taken off the blindfold he had been wearing over his eyes.
“I’m sorry for trying to leave without a word.”
Shake, shake.
As Ondal silently shook his head, his long hair, still shiny and healthy, swayed with it.
“I just thought it would be a bit too hard to say our goodbyes without regrets. I wanted to leave quietly. Don’t feel left out.”
Nod, nod.
Ondal had always been diligently supportive of Muriel. Even now, he found it difficult to accept, yet he managed to nod his head.
“I wanted to see you off. Even if I tried to catch you… you wouldn’t let yourself be caught. I said I would wait… I can wait until Muriel comes back… I wanted to see you off.”
“I might not be able to come back.”
Returning was quite simple. It was said that if you used any magic in a world where magic did not exist, you would be ejected from that world as a price for disrupting its order. In other words, she would be expelled and return to this place, but Muriel was going to forget all her memories of this place. Unless Kaiton came looking for her, there was no way for her to return.
“I’ll wait.”
Ondal said calmly, as if it didn’t matter. Just as Ondal couldn’t hold onto Muriel, Muriel couldn’t seem to dissuade him either.
“Yes.”
“Just once… can I hold you? Not as a friend, but as a man who likes you… I’ll live with that memory.”
“…It might become a painful memory. Unfulfilled things… eventually become nothing but traces of pain, don’t they? You’ll want to forget…”
“I’ll cherish it all. It might hurt a little… but I was truly happy because of you, Muriel.”
“…Yes.”
Muriel was held tightly by Ondal, and she thought it would be nice if this embrace was Kaiton’s. She wanted to give her heart a little more at this final farewell, but she couldn’t. So when Ondal’s embrace loosened, she hugged him tightly once more. As a friend, as a comrade and family, she embraced him with gratitude, and only then did her heart flow towards him.
In the end, Kaiton did not come. Muriel wrote directly into the magic circle what she needed to forget. She thought about just writing “Kaiton Ur,” but fearing that her intention might not be conveyed through the logic of magic, she wrote “Kaiton Ur and this world.” It had already come to that. Her world was him too. After losing him, the world lost its light, and it had been blurred for her ever since. So Muriel threw herself into the dimensional gate that had begun to shrink without any lingering attachments.
When she turned around because it felt like she heard a familiar, she saw Kaiton rushing in. But Muriel could not recognize Kaiton. The dimensional gate closed like that.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜.
“Miss. What’s your name? You can’t be here like this. Is someone coming now? Family, friends, a lover? No one?”
Muriel could not give any answer to the words of the woman who was dressed in upright clothes without a single wrinkle. It was because no faces came to mind in response to her questions.
After that, she was asked the same questions several times, but the result was the same. Eventually, she was moved to an unfamiliar facility. It was full of strange things, but the strangest thing was the dream she had every night. It felt like a nightmare, but when she woke up, she couldn’t remember what the dream was about. She only guessed that it was a terrifying dream that came from a memory.
Because when she woke up, her blanket and pillow were soaked with cold sweat and tears. It seemed like the same person appeared in her dreams every night, but she couldn’t tell who the man was, why he appeared in her dreams, or what he was saying to her.
And so, every day, she lived as if she were being chased by someone, as if she herself was trying to find something. She didn’t know what she had lost, but only that the empty space needed to be filled. She did everything she was told to do. She worked hard, studied hard, and tried everything that people said would fill her heart or be fun. However, she could not feel the sense of fulfillment that people talked about. Nothing gave her any kind of inspiration.
So she thought she must have been cosmic dust in a previous life. Her heart felt infinitely hollow and desolate, as if remembering the universe, and she floated endlessly without touching reality.
As if the last piece that perfectly fit a puzzle, there seemed to be something that could quench this fundamental thirst she had, but it just wouldn’t come to her, so she struggled. On days when this frustration grew particularly intense, she would just go out aimlessly and walk. Holding a necklace of unknown origin tightly in her hand and inhaling the night air made her feel a bit better.
She was walking down the street at night again when a loud, dull collision rang out through the empty street. It was an accident. People gathered, and she checked to see if someone had reported it. Since they had, she just had to walk on now. But strangely, her heart suddenly started racing like crazy.
When she saw the motorcycle rider lying on the ground in blood, she ran out without knowing why. Her body reacted before she could grasp the meaning of it.
Don’t die. You can’t die.
She couldn’t see who the person was because he was wearing a helmet, but she was shaking in fear that he might die.
“Don’t… die… You mustn’t die…! Hic… blood… the blood…”
The pungent smell of blood, its lukewarm stickiness, and the slimy sensation… all of it was more vivid and clearer than ever before. When she thought this person was about to die, words that she didn’t know she knew burst out of her.
“Serenus!”
Aaa the next chapter will be the final chapter T-T I’m glad Sharan Kasal died but he deserved a far worse death, imo. I have mixed feelings about this ending.
