CH 53

“…First of all.”

Lily opened her mouth with a confused expression, as if she couldn’t believe what she had just seen.

“We’ll start with… the treatment. Your arm…”

“Ah.”

Looking down at the place where everyone’s eyes were focused, my arm had a bigger wound than expected. A span of wounds, as if they had been caused by rolling off the carriage earlier. Aside from that wound, there were quite a few aftertakes.

As soon as I recognized that there was a wound, I felt the pain come belatedly.

“It’s okay.”

As Lily opened her mouth with a worried face, a familiar feeling came over my wound. At the same time, the skin around the wound felt warm.

And, as always, my wounds faded away.

The surprised eyes of the three people touched my clean skin as if it had been washed before they knew it.

“I was saying it’s okay because I’ll get better soon anyway, well.”

I flipped my hand over to show that all the wounds were gone.

“I feel better before I even talk.”

“…You.”

Kade, standing next to the frozen, speechless Lily and Ivan, had his face contorted as he asked in an exasperated voice.

“What the hell are you?”

I knew that one day I would be asked that question.

***

“So.”

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that, “So” word.

“You and the Master of the Magic Tower… are a married couple, and he thinks you’re dead right now?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why he’s crazy?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Does that make sense?”

What else is there that doesn’t make sense? I tried to explain more, yet finally closed my mouth and swallowed a sigh inside.

A few hours after the carriage with a hole was fixed and we got out of thereㅡLily said that there is a recovery magic among the magic classes she can useㅡI was being interrogated non-stop until nightfall.

Of course, it was mostly Kade who asked me questions, Ivan stood between me and Kade, and Lily only listened to us and seemed lost in her own thoughts.

Anyways, I think it’s about time he ran out of questions.

As I leaned my head against the wall of the carriage as if I was tired, Kade made an expression saying, ‘How can you be carefree in this situation?

But I really only told the truth. I thought he wouldn’t believe me, yet it really makes me feel a bit unfair.

“Please just believe it for now. I don’t know which one you see that makes you think it’s a lie.”

“Rather, I don’t know which one I see that makes me think it’s not a lie… Do you know how many years I’ve known the Master of the Magic Tower? During all the time I’ve been to and from the battlefield, I haven’t heard a single word about you from the Master of the Magic tower.”

The same goes for stories about him either having a wife, a lover, or a loved one. Kade added, and I shrugged.

“Then Dante just didn’t talk about that.”

“Even if he hadn’t talked about it, I would even have noticed that…”

“Ah, for real. I told you to stop. Be honest.”

I suddenly sharply raised my head and saw Kade flinch.

However, I didn’t care about that reaction and stared into Kade’s silver eyes, saying it as clearly as I could.

“Does it look like I’m saying this because I need your approval?”

“…”

“You’re free to believe my story or not. I explained it to you because you’re still curious. But if you don’t believe even that explanation, what more can I do here?”

At my words, Kade closed his mouth as if he had nothing to say.

“I’ll say this again, everything I said is the truth. Even if I die, I come back to life, I was caught in an explosion 10 years ago and died, then Dante went crazy thinking I was dead forever, and I came back to find Dante. Understand?”

“…”

See how you don’t answer. As I leaned back against the carriage, Ivan, who had been staring at me between Kade and me, slowly approached.

He didn’t have a terribly bright face, but he had the best expression of all the people in the carriage.

As I looked at him, asking, ‘what else?’ Ivan whispered in a low voice.

“Sister, is it true?”

“I told you it is.”

“Well, if you say so… I want to believe you.”

As if imitating me, Ivan leaned against the carriage wall and widened his eyes.

“Actually, it’s the first time I’ve seen the Master of the Magic Tower make such an expression.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I thought that person had no expression until now. He even cried in front of Sister.”

Even now, turning your eyes as if you were surprised is a bonus.

“Besides, he mistook Sister for Illinan.”

“…”

Yes, he did. He thought I was a monster showing illusions, that’s why he attacked me…

Ah, for real. When I get reminded of that moment, I feel like I’m getting furious again. I don’t know who pissed me off, but anyway.

I forcibly interrupted my thoughts and asked Ivan.

“Did Dante usually kill Illinan in the first place? He told me earlier, he thought he already killed them all.”

“Originally, um…”

Ivan was silent for a moment. He seemed to be organizing his thoughts, so I was going to wait for a while, yet the answer came from an unexpected place.

“No, Miss Ei.”

Since when did Lily look at me?

“Originally, the Master of the Magic Tower didn’t kill Illinan. Even when he was standing in the middle of the battlefield, and when he absolutely had to deal with all the monsters.”

“…”

“Even if he had dealt with all the other monsters, he couldn’t kill Illinan.”

Perhaps he was seeing visions from Illinan. To the words added in a low voice, I made no reply.

If I think about what Dante saw as an illusion… That must be really stupid. But maybe it was because my mind wasn’t working properly, so now I felt like I was infinitely stupid.

Earlier, I was angry because I wanted to know why he believed me to be Illinan without a single doubt. I couldn’t be angry, I even felt sad, and that’s why I hated Dante.

“Did Illinan come out often during the war?”

At my question, Lily’s worried eyes met mine.

“…Ever since the rumor circulated that the Master of the Magic Tower couldn’t kill Illinan, the kingdom’s army deliberately released Illinan into the battlefield.”

“…”

“As if that was his weakness…”

Weakness.

As I mumbled those words weakly, I felt Lily take her eyes off me.

I couldn’t even greet her shortly to thank her for letting me know, and I had no choice but to sit still on the spot. Should we consider it fortunate that I didn’t stop breathing while all my actions have stopped?

It felt like a puzzle that hadn’t been put together before had been put together at once. Why he attacked me, why he didn’t recognize me, why he denied my presence in front of him so much, the actions which I didn’t know the reason why passed through my mind again.

He must have always seen me in that monster. That’s why when he saw me standing there, he thought I was an Illinan in disguise.

As always for the past 10 years.

While he couldn’t kill Illinan, Dante would have had to get used to them pretending to be me. That familiarity has been piled up over 10 years, and finally today, when he met the real me.

He wouldn’t recognize me.

“It’s understandable.”

I sat down, put my legs together, hugged it with my arms and muttered. Since there was a monster like that, it was only natural that you didn’t recognize me right away.

I was a person who died 10 years ago to Dante, and there were even monsters mimicking me and showing illusions.

However, nonetheless.

“Why is it so…”

I feel bad. Even though I understood how Dante had been, something kept stirring in my heart. As if the anger I felt when I faced him earlier came back again.

Also, I get angry over and over at myself, and I think I hate you a little bit. Still, Dante.

It’s not that I’m only mad at you.

Yeah, that can’t be true. Maybe all of this is my fault. It’s my fault for not letting you know that I don’t die.

And above all.

“Hating you forever is impossible for me, Dante.”

I murmured very quietly, lowered my head, and closed my eyes. The blackened vision was like a starless night sky.

At that moment when I remembered the starry night sky I saw once…

It seems that I thought for a while that I might want to cry a little bit.