Chapter 67: “Are You Here to Kill Too?”
“Is this really the ending you wanted?”
A familiar voice echoed in Grey’s ears, causing her to instinctively raise her head.
Then, she saw a slender figure stepping across the frozen ti, appearing clearly before her.
Grey saw the other person's face clearly.
Rast... ge-ge?
The girl's thoughts stalled slightly, her previously chaotic mind montarily pulling away from the despairing self-denial.
In the next mont.
Everything around Grey.
The flickering lights, the entangled threads, and that blood moon hanging in the sky... all those things once frozen in eerie stillness now returned to normal.
Plop.
Plop.
Atop the clock tower, the previously motionless, trembling clock hands resud ticking clockwise.
When she sensed that, within her spiritual vision, the countless glowing hourglasses had dissipated—
The silver-white mysterious gleam in Rast’s eyes also quietly faded away.
The "Eye of Secrets" was released, revealing once again the pitch-black color of his irises.
Rast looked at the girl before him and spoke softly: “Do you still want to keep deceiving yourself like this?”
“Deceiving myself?”
Grey slowly lifted her head.
She felt her heart in disarray, as if countless fragnts of chaotic mories surged through her mind, but they were always veiled behind a thin layer of mist, making it difficult to see their true form.
“Mhm.”
Rast nodded. “You can continue to deceive yourself, forcing yourself to forget those earlier mories.”
“And continue sinking into illusions of the past, again and again, year after year, repeating this endless today.”
“But that would also an you will never be able to reach the future.”
“Let alone truly understand the truth hidden within you.”
He said calmly, “Do you want to know the truth?”
“Even if that truth might not be as beautiful as you once imagined.”
The truth... hidden within myself?
Grey raised her gaze, sweeping her eyes over the thread-entwined town, and the many broken cocoons.
And that blood moon in the sky, the one that had repeatedly appeared in her nightmares during midnight awakenings.
She felt again the surging, turbulent fragnts of mory in her mind, forever obscured behind a layer of fog, impossible to clearly see.
After a long silence, her erald green eyes shifted from confusion to determination.
“I want to.”
She looked at Rast, whose face remained calm, and nodded firmly.
“I want to know the truth about myself.”
“Good.”
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination—
But Grey saw, on the usually emotionless and serene face of Rast, a smile appear for the first ti.
In the next instant, she saw the boy before her, and in his eyes, the mysterious silver-white gleam reappeared.
Crack—
A clear shattering sound rang in Grey’s ears.
Within her spiritual world, sothing like a barrier silently broke apart.
Imdiately after, in the fraction of a second—
Countless fragnts of mory surged like tides, washing over her brain.
These were all mories she had once personally experienced, but had refused—and couldn’t bear—to face.
Therefore, under the mind’s self-protection chanism, these mories that might have broken her were forcibly forgotten.
Or rather, not completely forgotten, but buried in so corner of the mory attic, shrouded in a misty, obscuring veil.
But now, at this very mont, that barrier was pierced by Rast’s "Eye of Secrets".
Thus, Grey rembered the entire truth.
...
She once had parents, a family that loved her.
They lived in a small inland town, with a simple yet warm life.
Until one day, for so unknown reason, the Iron Cross Plague broke out in that small town.
Her parents sacrificed themselves so Grey could escape with her life.
She fled the city swallowed by the Iron Cross tide, beginning a journey of endless wandering.
If that were all, it wouldn’t have been unusual. It was simply a reflection of the countless refugees in this age of catastrophe and chaos.
And a wandering child like Grey was destined to die during this long journey due to weakness or lack of food.
However, despite each settlent she stayed in being destroyed one after another—
Grey herself was never hard.
Every ti, she was the only survivor of the disaster.
Until Frostwater Town.
As a vagrant who had long suffered rejection and cold stares in other towns, Grey felt warmth and a sense of ho for the first ti in that remote little place.
Yet—
The red moon descended once again.
It erased everything she held dear, turning it all into nothingness.
So, Grey completely despaired in her breakdown.
In her eyes, it was she who brought calamity to every town she set foot in. She was the incarnation of disaster.
She frantically wanted to deny everything—deny the fall of Frostwater Town, deny her role as a harbinger of ruin wherever she went.
So, in the girl’s despair, so great force was triggered.
Ti in Frostwater Town was reversed.
Everything returned to the mont before the blood mist and threads descended—along with Grey’s own mories.
The ti belonging to Frostwater Town was forever frozen on May 11th, repeating endlessly within the fog.
And Grey remained in a state of ignorant innocence, living day after day, year after year, a life built on fragile fantasy.
Until, in the middle of the night, she witnessed the blood mist and broke down, resetting everything and starting all over again.
But even within these looping mories, slight variables existed.
Shoreguards—
Grey slightly raised her eyes, eting Rast’s gaze, as deep as a dark lake.
Then, her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
In past loops, Grey had seen visitors from outside the town wearing the Shoreguard insignia more than once.
They seed to co with a mission, and the mont they arrived in Frostwater Town, they began investigating everything.
Those Shoreguards had also noticed sothing was wrong with her, and used various thods to probe her.
Even after the blood mist descended—
So of those Shoreguards broke free from their cocoons and rushed straight toward her.
They wanted to kill her.
That’s right...
The duty of Shoreguards was to guard the shattered coast and sea lanes, maintain the order of civilization, and eliminate internal sources of contamination.
Just like those fairy tales Grey had once read—
The fearless hero who braved countless dangers to defeat the Demon King in his castle, returning to the capital with the king’s head, showered in flowers, applause, and glory.
The Shoreguards were like the heroes of those stories.
And the embodint of disaster, the one whose very existence polluted every human town—
The girl nad Grey.
Naturally, she was the Demon King of the story, the one the Shoreguards were ant to slay.
Tears slid down the girl's cheeks.
“So... Rast ge-ge.”
“Are you here to kill too?”
Through misty, tear-filled eyes, Grey saw the boy before her produce a revolver shaped like an iron moon.
Then, he slowly raised its dark barrel.
Yes.
Even the Rast ge-ge who had given her a na... upon witnessing her true self, would surely kill her too.
That previous conversation had only been Rast’s final act of rcy, not wanting her to die without knowing why.
Justice and evil were forever mortal enemies.
And soone like her, born of evil, was destined to be slain by a just Shoreguard.
That was the truth of the world—fate, even.
Grey’s heart, which had briefly ward, plumted back into an icy abyss.
Her spirit beca lifeless, withered, ceasing to think. She waited silently.
Waited for the mont the trigger would be pulled, and the bullet would pierce through her chest.
Yet, in the next mont.
Grey’s eyes suddenly widened.
Rast’s gun suddenly tilted upward.
Not aid at the girl nad Grey, but pointed directly at his own temple.
In the fraction of a breath—
Boom—
A bright flash erupted.
Illuminating the pitch-black night sky shrouded in blood mist.
And illuminating Grey’s eyes, now hollow and devoid of life.
Reviews
All reviews (0)