Chapter 68: Are You Here to Kill Me Too?
“Is this really the ending you want?”
A familiar voice rang in Grey’s ears, making her instinctively raise her head.
Then, she saw a slender figure traversing the frozen time, appearing distinctly before her.
Grey recognized the face.
Rast… brother?
The girl’s thoughts momentarily halted, the once chaotic thoughts slightly escaping from the despair of self-negation she’d felt earlier.
In the next moment.
Everything around Grey.
The flickering lights, the entangled threads, and that blood moon in the sky… all the things frozen in strangeness returned to normal at this moment.
Clop.
Clop.
The trembling hands of the clock tower, which had been frozen in place, began to move clockwise once more.
As she sensed the myriad shadows of hourglasses dissipate from her spiritual vision.
The mysterious silver glow in Rast’s eyes also quietly faded.
The “Eye of Secrets” was undone, revealing the originally pitch-black color of his pupils.
Rast looked at the girl before him and softly spoke, “Do you still want to continue deceiving yourself like this?”
“Deceiving myself?”
Grey gently raised her head.
She felt her heart in turmoil, as if countless complex fragments of memory were surging in her mind, yet always separated by a thin veil, making it difficult to glimpse the truth within.
“Yes.”
Rast nodded slightly. “You can continue to deceive yourself, forcing yourself to forget your previous memories.”
“And then continue to drown in the phantoms of the past, time and again, year after year, repeating the endless today.”
“But that also means you will never be able to touch the future.”
“Nor will you ever truly know the truth that lies hidden within you.”
He said lightly, “Do you want to know the truth?”
“Even if this truth may not be as beautiful as you imagine.”
The truth hidden within myself…?
Grey raised her gaze, scanning the town wrapped in threads, those broken cocoons.
And the terrifying blood moon that appeared in her nightmares when she returned at midnight.
Then she felt the fragments of memories, continuously surging and stirring in her mind, yet always obscured by a layer of haze, difficult to see clearly.
After a long while, her emerald green eyes transformed from confusion to determination.
“I want to.”
She looked at Rast, whose expression remained calm, and nodded vigorously.
“I want to know the truth within me.”
“Very well.”
Whether it was a trick of her mind or not.
Grey saw a smile finally emerge on Rast’s otherwise tranquil and emotionally reserved handsome face.
In the next instant, she saw the youth’s eyes once again display that mysterious silver glow.
Snap—
The sound of something breaking clearly echoed in Grey’s ears.
Within her mental world, a barrier-like thing silently shattered.
Then, in a fleeting moment.
Countless memory fragments washed over her brain like waves.
These were memories she had once experienced but was unwilling to face, unwilling to confront.
Thus, under the self-protective mechanism of her brain, she had been forcibly made to forget these memories that might cause her to collapse.
Or it could be said not entirely forgotten, but buried in some corner of the memory attic, shrouded in a layer of hazy, hard-to-see mist.
But at this moment, that barrier was pierced by Rast with the “Eye of Secrets.”
So, Grey recalled the truth of everything.
…
She once had parents and family who loved her.
In a small inland town, she lived a simple yet warm life.
However, one day, the Iron Cross plague inexplicably broke out in that small town.
Her parents sacrificed themselves, allowing Grey to escape alone.
She fled from the city engulfed by the Iron Cross tide and began an endless wandering.
If it were just that, there would be nothing surprising; this was merely the plain reflection of countless refugees in this chaotic and disastrous era.
And a little wanderer like Grey was destined to die in the long process of wandering due to weakness or food shortages.
Yet, even though the encampments she settled in were continuously annihilated, Grey herself had never been harmed.
Each time, she was the sole survivor of the calamity.
Until Frozen Water Town.
As a wanderer who had always faced exclusion and cold glares in other towns, Grey felt the warmth of home for the first time in this remote little town.
However—
That red moon descended once more.
Annihilating all the beauty she treasured into nothingness.
Thus, Grey completely despaired in her breakdown.
In Grey’s eyes, she had brought calamity to every town she set foot in; she was the embodiment of disaster.
She frantically wanted to deny it all, deny the ruin of Frozen Water Town, deny that as the embodiment of disaster, she brought destruction wherever she went.
Thus, in the girl’s despair, some great power was invoked.
Time in Frozen Water Town was reversed.
Everything returned to before the blood mist and the threads descended… along with Grey’s own memories.
The time belonging to Frozen Water Town was forever fixed on May 11th, being repeated hundreds and thousands of times in this mist.
And Grey maintained a state of ignorance, living day by day, year after year, a happy life built on a dream bubble in Frozen Water Town.
Until she collapsed at midnight upon witnessing the blood mist, then returned everything to normal and began anew.
However, within this repetitive cycle of memories, there were also some variables.
Guardians—
Grey’s eyes slightly lifted, meeting Rast’s gaze that was like a dark swamp.
Then, her figure began to tremble uncontrollably.
In the past cycles, Grey had encountered several outsiders wearing the Guardian’s insignia.
They seemed to carry a certain mission, immediately beginning to investigate everything in Frozen Water Town upon arriving.
And those Guardians also discovered her abnormality and conducted various investigations on her.
Even after the blood mist arrived—
Among those Guardians, some also broke free from their cocoons and charged straight towards her.
They wanted to kill her.
That’s right…
The duty of the Guardians was to protect the Broken Coast and shipping routes, maintain the order of civilization, and eliminate internal sources of pollution.
Just like the story Grey once read in the Fairy Tale Book—
The fearless hero overcame countless hardships and ultimately defeated the demon in the demon king’s castle, returning to the Royal City with the demon king’s head, basking in the citizens’ flowers, applause, and glory.
The Guardians are like the heroes in fairy tales.
And as the embodiment of disaster, simply by living, she would bring pollution to human towns—
The girl named Grey.
Naturally, she was the demon king in the story, the one targeted for extermination by the Guardians.
Tears rolled down the girl’s cheeks.
“So… Brother Rast.”
“Are you here to kill me too?”
In her misty tear-filled eyes, Grey saw the revolver in the boy’s hand, resembling the iron moon.
Then, he slowly raised the dark muzzle.
Indeed.
Even the Rast who had given her a name… after witnessing her true self, would surely kill her.
And the previous conversation was merely his last act of kindness, not wanting her to die without understanding.
Justice and evil are always irreconcilable enemies.
And she, born of evil, would inevitably be killed by the righteous Guardians.
This is the truth of the world, as if it were fate.
Grey’s heart, which had slightly warmed, once again fell into an icy abyss.
Her spirit became deadened, desiccated, no longer thinking, just silently waiting.
Waiting for the moment the trigger was pulled, the speeding bullet to pierce through her chest.
However, in the next instant.
Grey’s eyes suddenly widened.
Rast’s gun muzzle suddenly rose.
Not aimed at the girl named Grey, but directly at his own temple.
After a breath of a moment…
Boom—
A clear firelight burst forth.
Illuminating the dark night sky obscured by the blood mist.
It also illuminated Grey, whose eyes were hollow and lifeless.
(The End of This Chapter)
