Chapter 98
Cool temperature.
Only pitch darkness remained in the room.
Though it had been a space teeming with vitality until just recently, as it entered dawn, it was now completely immersed in extinction.
Only candlelight flickered precariously through the hazy darkness.
Perhaps like autumn outside the window.
It was a scene resembling a dying season.
On the ground where not even starlight entered, only a single rose bloomed shabbily.
The petals seemed like they would wither at any moment.
"......"
After the treatment ended.
The girl left alone had been continuously tossing in her blankets.
Though quite some time had passed since surroundings were dyed in silence, the rose's ears still held onto a voice.
It was words the snake had let slip.
"You are afraid."
The cool voice dug into wounds.
A heart noisily stirring.
Slowly raising the body that had been lying in bed.
As weak legs stepped on the ground, momentary dizziness strongly struck her head.
The girl seemed to stagger without any resistance.
"Is that really enough for you?"
Words that stuck particularly deep.
Words stuck like thorns wouldn't fall away, repeatedly giving disturbing pain.
However, the auditory hallucination caught in consciousness only grew worse.
"Her Highness Charlotte will be sad."
"Because she cherishes you."
"What will you do if she really leaves?"
The cunning tongue spoke.
Of the lonely fate that would end up alone in the end.
"When that happens, truly no one will remain by your side."
When she heard those words.
For a moment, Elise felt her breath stop.
'Sister... is leaving?'
The only person who visited her on this lonely star.
The person who hid kindness beyond sleepy eyes.
The foolish person who wouldn't give up on her sick sister even while getting hurt by sharp thorns every time.
Such a person was leaving.
'...That's what I wanted.'
She muttered inwardly with effort.
As if it wasn't a problem.
Because this was the result she had wanted from the start.
Elise knew.
How devoted her sister was to her.
Though she wanted to act spoiled in her heart, she knew she couldn't allow herself that.
Because reality was cruel.
"At most, one year left from now."
Five years ago.
The terminal diagnosis was received at a young age.
Despite the Little Prince's various efforts, the rose's short life was no different from a predetermined ending.
That day, the younger sister saw her older sister's tears for the first time.
"Sister... is suffering because of me."
The girl belatedly realized.
How much of a burdensome weight her existence, which only received, was to her sister.
The sight of her crying silently from behind was particularly painful.
Because it felt like she had ruined her sister who had always only shone.
Feeling guilty about the tears she shed, the rose could no longer stay by the Little Prince's side.
She had run away.
"I need to distance myself from sister."
So her sister wouldn't hurt.
Rather have her hate.
Even if she closed her eyes tomorrow, so no ugly marks would remain on that kind heart.
The rose decided to push away the Little Prince.
"Everything... is because I'm bad."
Though foolish.
Because she was young.
She chose to sever relationships to avoid causing pain.
That was the reason behind the rose's thorns.
If there was something she overlooked, it was that her sister's devotion couldn't be stopped by just that much.
The Little Prince approached again and again even while cutting her fingertips.
"Please leave me alone."
A sister trying to shake free.
A sister trying to hold on.
The terrible relationship worsened as time passed, and ultimately continued until the present.
It was already well past the one year she had heard from the doctor.
But
It never sounded like hope.
Rather, it only became an extension of hell.
The rose was like slowly withering petals.
Once her condition started deteriorating, it never improved, and the pain of the curse tormented her more viciously with each passing day.
She endured each day barely hanging onto life.
"Cough, cough...!"
The curse made everyone suffer.
The younger sister screamed in terrible pain every day.
The older sister's eyes welled with tears at being unable to do anything.
Even amid this, neither's stubbornness showed signs of yielding.
The girl, chewing over passing old thoughts, soon muttered to herself as if in self-mockery.
"Even though... I did everything to push her away."
It should have been something to feel relieved about.
As the snake said.
If he persuaded her sister to turn her back, the rose could feel more at ease.
Yes.
That's definitely how it should have been.
"Why."
Why was she feeling so troubled now?
Though it was someone she had pushed away for the past few years, her head rang when thinking about them really disappearing.
Her throbbing chest made it difficult to breathe.
"Haa... ugh."
The reason was simple.
Like the rose in the fairy tale, it was because love was hidden behind the thorns.
Just as not everything pointed is hatred.
Not everything round is love, and sometimes even hatred can be round.
In the girl's case, it was thorny love.
So how could she be happy?
The current situation was far from the true feelings she had hidden between her petals.
She could only bite her lips at the disparity.
'My head hurts.'
Her breath was getting blocked.
As she clutched her tight chest, this time thoughts turned in an even deeper direction.
It was a fundamental question.
'Why.'
Why did it have to be her?
A curse bestowed by God.
An incurable disease that barely affects two or three people in a hundred years.
What sin had she been born with to bear such a heavy punishment on her back?
The deep shadow asked.
'Did it have to be me...?'
Simultaneously, memories of her unfortunate life and feelings of disgust began creeping up.
It was hatred pointed outward.
Ten years spent neither living nor dying.
Time spent being abandoned by her father, losing her place in the world, and continuing a terrible battle with illness.
It was terribly lonely.
'Alone.'
She had no intention of denying it.
No.
Rather, she agreed.
Because that's how her life had been from the start.
Looking back on the past years, no one had stood by her side.
The girl used to think.
Perhaps.
She should never have been born.
"Cough...!"
A sudden cough bursting out.
Her vision was dizzy.
Though it seemed quiet for a while, it appeared a seizure was inevitably coming.
Elise fumbled at the nearby shelf.
Clack-.
What her fingertips grabbed was none other than a pocket knife.
The girl unwrapped the bandage around her wrist, then immediately pressed the blade against the exposed skin.
Right after, flesh was cut.
Scratch-.
A new mark was carved over countless scars.
Stinging pain dyed her entire arm, and before long the pain of the seizure subsided.
It was an instantaneous measure.
Drip drip.
Life is falling red.
Dark red roses bloomed on the floor.
"......"
The girl was silent for a moment, then soon began moving the knife again.
Calmly drawing lines across soft skin.
An indescribable sense of liberation.
Though the wounds burned with pain, the effect of pain relief was sweet enough to endure it.
As if entranced, she piled line upon line.
"Do you truly desire such an ending?"
Just then, the hallucination resumed.
She bit her lips tightly.
The rose, now unwrapping the bandage on the opposite side as well.
As she recklessly applied flower water, transparent drops soon fell on top of it.
They were tears.
'When will it end.'
When would this wretched breath be cut off?
She carelessly applied the knife with such thoughts.
Drawing long lines across the white canvas, and when blood drops beaded between the split gaps, she felt the seizure stop momentarily.
Therefore she couldn't escape this addictive pain.
Because it seemed to grant brief respite even to this garbage life.
Thud-.
Legs drained of strength.
Elise collapsed just like that, blankly repeated the same action.
Petals falling in a steady rhythm.
Before she knew it, beautiful roses filled the surrounding floor.
The girl, looking at the garden she had created, vomited tears as if emotions were welling up even more.
Even amid this, her eyes remained dead.
"Hic... uh, uugh."
Drowning in distant fragrance.
Her vision was blurry.
"I have no desire to live."
In truth.
She didn't want to die.
She hated everything - the pain of her internal organs being torn apart, the seizures visiting every dawn, the bloody coughing that stained her sleeves red.
She wanted the pain to stop.
But she knew it was impossible.
Once bearing this curse, she couldn't escape until death.
Dewdrops fell one by one.
Scratch, scratch-.
Noise continuing for a while.
Her appearance was a mess.
Perhaps thinking she had damaged her arms enough, this time she reached for the bandage around her neck.
Just as she was about to touch her nape while covered in blood.
"Your Highness."
Grab-.
There were arms embracing her from behind.
Though she struggled in bewilderment, the rigid body kept Elise confined just as she was.
In her ear was a voice whispering tenderly.
"Shh... it's alright."
A familiar hand.
The boy who had teased her and thrown various taunts these past few days.
When she turned her head, dull golden hair entered her vision.
"Everything's alright. Because I'm here..."
Warmth wrapping her shoulders gently.
The rose, full of coldness, slowly lost strength as if melting into the embrace.
Clang-!
Finally dropping the knife.
"Good. Just like this."
The snake stroked her head just as she was.
He seemed to be waiting for her to calm down.
As if accepting such an intention, Elise soon stopped resisting.
Only then did the boy draw a smile at his lips.
"Be at ease."
The two stayed sitting like that for a while.
Leaning against each other's warmth, gradually clearing away the cold air.