Chapter 22

Chapter 22

There was no way she could win against her brother with a sword, considering that he was a swordmaster. This much was all she could do.

Although her body and mind had already reached the point of exhaustion, Yurenia gathered all her remaining strength.

Seeing his sister’s determined gaze, Lisandro’s lips twisted.

He held his sword as though he was holding a spear and, without any hesitation, aimed it at her heart.

’You better throw away the hope that I’ll hesitate to kill my own blood.’

‘If so, then our parents would still be by our side.’

Yurenia similarly twisted her lips.

No evidence was left behind, but there was no doubt about it. And their parents were by no means weak people.

They weren’t the type to go down in vain. Nevertheless, Lisandro said that they died because of an accident.

He was her twin who looked exactly like her. She didn’t know. She couldn’t understand.

She hated this, despised this. But she knew—she couldn’t let this go on.

…So before her brother would commit more sins.

She would have to take him down herself.

Even in the gushing rain, their eyes met exactly.

Lisandro clutched the sword’s handle harder as if to make sure that it would go straight towards Yurenia’s heart without fail.

And seeing this, Yurenia was reminded of how her mother would wield her sword.

Biting her lip, Yurenia also pulled back the arrow and took aim at Lisandro’s heart at the same time.

Without hesitation, Yurenia let go of the arrow.

In the same split-second, Lisandro also threw the mana-imbued sword at Yurenia’s heart.

It was simultaneous, but unfortunately, Lisandro’s sword was faster.

He had gained more momentum with brute force and his aura, piercing through her heart at a breakneck speed.

Yurenia collapsed, while Lisandro twisted away to avoid the arrow.

However, it was too much for Lisandro to avoid it easily.

Yurenia was a master of archery, and her arrow contained the last of her divine power, and so it was something that no one would have been able to avoid.

He managed to move, but in the end, the arrow still hit Lisandro near his heart.

She had the offensive power similar to the first saint. Even if she missed a vital point, the aftermath was enormously detrimental.

The large sword pierced through Yurenia’s heart, and behind her, Frey could see the blade that had penetrated through her.

Frey stared blankly at the red drops of blood that trickled down the sword’s tip.

Despite the rain pouring like this, her blood was not diluted.

His surroundings had faded into black and white, and all the color he could see were those red drops.

Yurenia slowly collapsed to the ground.

Even the sound of the pounding rain couldn’t be heard by Frey.

It panned out in slow motion.

Everything felt like a lie.

It didn’t seem real.

Unlike her small frame, she was like a person who was as large as a mountain as she always supported him.

’Yuni…?’

As she fell to the ground, Yurenia looked for Frey with her unfocused eyes, slowly losing her light. Blood seeped from her lips.

Frey stammered as he lifted Yurenia’s face.

He couldn’t even touch the sword. Blood continuously flowed from Yurenia’s lips without end, blocking her words.

Forcing her arm to move, Yurenia put something in Frey’s hand.

’Please…’

‘……’

After giving him the bead, her trembling hands tried to reach up towards his face, but it soon fell to the ground without being able to touch him.

As her arm plummeted, so did his heart fall into the abyss.

The unfocused eyes soon lost their light, and her body gradually became cold.

She had still been breathing faintly, but now, there was no longer any warmth.

’Keugh…!’

Frey turned towards where the rough gasp came from. There was a golden arrow through the place next to Lisandro’s heart.

When Lisandro held the arrow, it soon snapped in half and disappeared.

Blood poured from the empty wound. Lisandro stumbled.

This was a chance—a chance for Frey to kill Lisandro.

But…

’……’

He couldn’t kill the person who resembled Yurenia so much. He wanted to continue seeing Yurenia, even on that face.

Grey clouds filled the sky, and only darkness reached them. Yurenia’s white hair was dyed red.

When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t breathe. It was so painful.

The scene I had only ever seen in writing before was so vivid in her dream.

That was Yurenia’s death.

No, my death.

The sword that had pierced through my heart was so much more painful because it was her loved one who dealt the blow.

Pieces of memories randomly rose and began to dig into me painfully.

I didn’t even have the time to think about why these vivid memories suddenly flooded into my mind.

Because of so many complicated emotions, because of such aggravating pain, my body was left in shambles. Even breathing was painful.

But even as I struggled with this agony, I realized it.

It wasn’t just a novel. Everything once happened. I was Yurenia.

As the fragments of memory flowed into my head that was a mess, I came to recall a few things.

The reason why Lisandro had become this way.

It was due to my own indifference.

I gradually let go of his hand, thinking that he would be alright alone. I chose the temple and the people of the country and left Lisandro, and the distance between us gradually grew.

Everything was my fault.

Still, he shouldn’t have acted that way…

Tears continued to flow.

When I realized it all, I couldn’t say anything. I was wracked with pain and confusion, and I lay down for more than fifteen days.

Even after my body had recovered, I didn’t meet anyone for a while, and this included Lisandro.

I couldn’t face him.

I thought that I only transmigrated into Yurenia’s body, but now that I knew I was truly Yurenia, now that I knew that I had died at the hands of my own beloved brother…

It was all real. Those were all things that I had gone through. It wasn’t just a novel.

The heart that Lysandro had stabbed hurt so much that it felt like it would burst.

Was it because there was something in the sword that those memories came back to me at that moment?

It felt like a dream that purposefully let me know that I was ‘Yurenia’.

Even in the midst of recovery, it was still painful.

I didn’t want to see Lisandro because the dreams kept surfacing in my mind over and over again.

And at the same time, I missed Frey so, so much. We couldn’t even confess our love for one another.

We became closer during the time we ran away.

Of course, he was someone who should be by my side.

Even if I pounded my chest and squeezed out all the tears in me, I couldn’t shake it off.

I finally rose from my bed fifteen days later, but I continued to live in seclusion for another month. I didn’t even go to the temple.

And there, Lisandro was. He stayed in front of my door every night and read a book to me.

He didn’t even know what had happened to me and just said sorry to me while crying all that time. And a month and fifteen days later, I opened the door myself and drew Lisandro into a tight embrace, crying like a child.

Resentment, pain. They were still there, but I couldn’t abandon my love for my brother.

It was a future that would no longer happen. I was alive now.

I was with my younger brother who I cared deeply about.

And so I forgave him. I could not resist him.

At that time, I left Lisandro’s side. I fired an arrow at him. But here and now, I somehow chose to hold his hand rather than run away from him.

Even now that I knew I was really Yurenia and that I was killed by Lisandro, I didn’t want to let him go. I’ve already been holding onto him tightly.

Because he’s my younger brother.

By beloved…

And I missed Frey, too.

Even though he was so tired, even though he also wanted to die, he was grateful to me.

The next day, Frey’s letter arrived. Perhaps he sensed what I had been feeling.

「 Noona, how are you? Right now, I’m in Velaroux.

I only need to meet one last person, an old friend of mine. Then, I think I can return soon.

I miss you, Noona. 」

Velaroux was one of the port cities that were active in terms of trade, and it was situated in the western region of the Angelus Empire.

There, the Zuckerman couple ran a fairly large jewelry store, and they met many people over the years.

They weren’t the kind of people who would become surprised easily, even when they had seen some rare shapeshifters.

However, the Zuckerman couple couldn’t take their eyes off this man’s face for quite a while.

The man had a considerable beauty to him that made anyone’s heart pound just by taking a glimpse at him.

He was so beautiful and mesmerizing that they thought he could definitely be someone who was carefully sculpted by God himself.

His golden eyes were unlike any other jewel.

And his breathtaking features coupled with his chiseled physique made them doubt if he was truly human. They couldn’t encapsulate his magnificence no matter what kind of metaphor they could think of.

“I guess you can’t hear me.”

Seduced by his allure, the couple couldn’t pull themselves together in time, and they were surprised once more by his voice. They could only blink.

They were instantly dazzled by his inquiring tone, and it felt like they could listen to anything that he said.

As the couple stared at him blankly without answering, Frey’s features remained expressionless.

Since he started traveling—no, even while he was still attending the academy, this had been a common occurrence.

Without any signs of annoyance, he just casually left the jewelry store. He swept his hair back, then he secured his hood over his head once more.

[ Did you buy some jewelry for the saint again? ]

“……”

Frey did not respond to the question and just continued walking towards his destination.

[ I saw that friend of yours go in earlier. You’ll be able to meet her right away. ]

Ignis, the spirit king of fire, saw the slight change in Frey’s expression right away.

It was fleeting, but there had been a faint smile on his lips.

Ignis knew who he was thinking of right then without having to ask.

After this meeting, he must be in a better mood because he was thinking about finally reuniting with Yurenia.

A year after entering the academy, Frey’s dreams became more frequent.

Kidnapped and imprisoned by Lisandro, humiliated by doing things that must be left unsaid, seeing his most precious people crumble one by one in his hands…

At first, he thought they were truly just dreams, but even if he tried to deny it—that it couldn’t possibly all be real—those dreams were much too vivid.

To the point that his spine would grow cold.

There was a time when he ran into Lisandro without being able to distinguish the line between dream and reality.

When he came to his senses, he was already choking Lisandro without realizing it.

Surprised by how Frey collapsed right then, Lisandro didn’t say anything and just headed to the clinic with the pale Frey on his back, whose breathing was rough.

Then it ended there. After that, Lisandro didn’t ask him anything.

He didn’t even tell Yurenia.

Frey was left confused, constantly on the borders of dream and reality for a while, but it was only a short while.

Yurenia died instead of him, and after that, he spent time alone. Then…

‘The reason why time was reversed.’

He couldn’t dismiss it as mere dreams because he vaguely knew what the truth was.

To identify and ascertain the truth behind these dreams and to get his hands on more reliable information, Frey graduated two years ahead of others and went on a trip immediately.

Since he was young, there was much opposition to his decision, but fortunately, he was able to receive the permission he needed due to his complete recovery from his frail body, along with his contract with the spirit king.

He couldn’t find anyone who knew about regression, but there was finally one person that he found.

A childhood friend, and, besides Yurenia, someone who once died for him.

Frey knocked on the normal-looking brown door. After a while, someone answered the door.

“…Frey?”

Even though they hadn’t seen each other in years, she recognized Frey at just one glance.

A young woman with round eyes blinked up at him. Dark blonde hair fluttered around her waist.

“Bliss.”

When he called her name in a low voice, she smiled broadly, her features adorable.

She headed towards Frey in excitement, but a long index finger held her in place as it touched her forehead.

“Hi.”

Bliss, who smiled and greeted him softly just as she did when they were younger, once again said his name in an overwhelmingly cheerful manner.

“Frey.”

She was a friend who had known Frey since childhood, and she once died by Lisandro’s hands in one of his dreams.

Two teacups were placed on a small round table.

The steam that rose in the air quickly warmed the small house.

Bliss looked over towards Frey, who she hadn’t seen in a long time, examining his features for a while. His beauty remained the same.

No, he became even more attractive than when he was younger, to the point that it was electrifying just to see him here.

The sensual air that he exuded could be felt even though he was almost fully concealed by his cloak, and this made Bliss clench her hands into fists.

Though it was covered by the cloak, it was a beautiful physique that was apparent enough for anyone to gulp dryly without realizing it.

“How did you find me?”

Holding back her pounding heart, Bliss wiped off her sweating palms over her skirt and smiled cutely, resting her chin on both palms.

She knew that her dimple charmed most people, however, Frey didn’t seem to be impressed.

There was only a curved line on his lips that looked as if he was wearing a mask with a smile painted on it.

Apart from just his smiling lips, his eyes were frightening because there was no emotion in them. But even so, this emotionlessness was veiled by his brilliant appearance.

Like a flower that had a stronger scent than any red rose, he had grown into a man who had bloomed in the most alluring manner.

Moistening her lips for no reason, Bliss asked again gently.

“Hm? You must have gone through a lot to find me.”