Chapter 99: Hope (1)

"Don't you want to live?"

A lightly thrown question.

Right after, heavy silence descended in the room.

Watching her blankly blinking eyes, I pulled up the corners of my mouth as gently as possible.

It was a kind smile.

'Opportunity... Can I think of it that way?'

I muttered inside.

Wiping away her gathered tears was an action mixed with some calculation.

Elise.

The girl had particularly many thorns.

Her unfortunate background was enough to pull her down, and the rose gradually fell into pessimism that left no expectations for life.

This was the reason behind her unknowingly twisted personality.

Thanks to that, I was often ignored too.

Though I offered goodwill several times, the girl didn't show even a trace of interest.

She had blocked her ears so the world's voice couldn't be heard.

It was the most troublesome part.

Because will was important for treatment.

'But.'

Now it was different.

Though it was a heart armed with resignation, even such iron walls were developing small cracks.

The more mentally shaken she became, the weaker she grew.

A gradually widening rupture.

I sensed it.

That it was possible now.

'I can persuade her.'

It was a chance to convey my voice.

As the withering rose seemed to have no thought of raising her thorns, I took a step closer to her hidden true feelings using this gap.

Leaves that lost their thorns had no choice but to weakly yield their petals.

"Your Highness."

I had no intention of letting this opportunity slip.

As I held warmth in my palm, I could feel the tears flowing down her cheeks.

"I want to hear your true feelings."

I whispered intently.

So as not to wake the stars that had fallen asleep in the night.

"You said you had no attachment to life."

"......"

"But I didn't believe those words. Though only partly, I too understand your life."

"...You understand me?"

"Yes. Though you may find it arrogant."

Terminal illness.

How could I not know the pain dwelling in that life?

"I haven't experienced it directly. However, I have experienced loss."

"What?"

"The most precious person in my life."

"......"

"They were a child who shone like a star. At the same time, they were everything that made up my life."

I recalled briefly.

The memory of the past that remained most painful.

"Big brother!"

A young voice ringing in my ears.

After holding silence for a moment, I smiled toward the girl before me.

"That child was the same. After suffering from illness for years, they finally left my side."

Perhaps.

Did God envy that brilliant light?

The starlight that had completely made up my life disappeared beyond the night sky at too young an age.

I spoke.

"A life living each day facing death."

"......"

"That child told me. About how painful it was."

The end flickering before my eyes is frightening.

The cruel fate is unfair.

Fighting illness is lonely.

Struggling is painful.

The approaching farewell is sad.

Recalling each sobbing word, I gently stroked the rose's petals.

The girl now seemed to be listening.

"That's why I understand you."

Though not completely.

If only that part, there was pain I remembered clearly.

Chewing over memories buried deep in my chest, I pronounced continuing sentences one by one.

It was a calm tone.

"I know what you desire."

"What I... desire?"

"Don't you wish for a miracle? While despairing endlessly at this life, on the other hand waiting for salvation."

"Sorry but you're wrong."

"Oh my."

"I gave up long ago. The word miracle only feels like an illusion."

"Those words support the topic I raised."

What the rose spoke of was resignation.

Not fundamental lack.

"Resignation."

Resignation means giving up hope.

Put another way, this sentence means.

That one once had hope.

If one never had hope to begin with, the word resignation itself couldn't be established.

The girl before me was the same.

"How could you have no lingering attachment?"

Though trampled by continuing despair, that doesn't mean becoming devoid of hope.

Rather, abandoned hope becomes clearer.

The more unattainable, the stronger it remains as a lingering attachment.

Though she had been sitting collapsed against reality's wall until now, if a hand reached out before her eyes, she would surely grab it.

Hope already grasped.

Isn't easily let go.

"It must be the same for Your Highness."

"......"

The rose was silent.

It was silence no different from affirmation.

Usually she would have forced out denial, but perhaps due to her shaken heart, she seemed to lack such composure.

She could only stare this way with trembling eyes.

"Your Highness."

Conquest was near.

Filling myself in pupils where no light entered, I carefully removed the despair tangled in the flower.

It was one word of hope she had lived forgetting for a long time.

"I will give you a miracle."

A dreamily resonating voice.

As if entranced by a dream, as if sinking into waves, the rose gradually seeped between the sentences.

"I can promise everything. I can fulfill the hope you had to give up."

I drew it out.

The sentence of wanting to die repeated countless times. I found the girl's true feelings hidden beyond it.

In the dust-covered blank remained only a short monologue.

I want to live.

That single line of monologue.

"You just need to take my hand."

A gently extended hand.

As I quietly waited for an answer, I saw the red-haired girl frozen blankly.

Green pupils were trembling arbitrarily.

As moisture seemed to gather bit by bit, soon it began falling as thick tears.

Elise dropped her head to the floor as if strength drained away.

"Why exactly."

A momentary stray muttering.

She seemed to be asking the reason.

Why stick so persistently.

Though she thought she had put everything down, the reason kept making her have hope.

It was a question that wasn't a question.

"Well."

I answered without hesitation.

I

You all.

The world.

This story's ending.

"Because I want you to be happy."

That single phrase rang out clearly.

It contained only sincerity.

I drew a faint smile at my lips.

The rose who couldn't continue her answer for a while, then leaned her head this way as if collapsing.

The temperature touching my chest was dyed in belated warmth.

"...Strange until the end."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

A softly returning answer.

I lightly stroked the head leaning in.

Unlike before, it wasn't shaken off.

Over the hand that had extended hope, a bandaged hand was now overlapped.

I smiled gently.

"You don't need to worry."

Because I'll solve everything.

Behind words whispered in her ear, the disheveled rose closed her eyes just like that.

***

Elise.

The girl knew her misfortune.

Because she was a child who swallowed a curse.

An illness known to be impossible to cure by any means - magic, medicine, divine power...

Having painfully collided with reality since young, the rose didn't try to carelessly hold hopes for miracles.

Rather, she let everything go from her hands.

That was natural in the girl's world.

"From today, I am Yuda Snakers, who will serve as Your Highness's primary physician."

Strange person.

Elise didn't like the boy.

The touch that fiddled while binding her.

Setting aside the worst possible first impression, the point that he kept showing smiles was irritating to see.

The mouth that babbled about not giving up on life was annoying.

"I will help you."

Without knowing anything.

Without understanding.

She wished he wouldn't arbitrarily give her hope.

Because her heart was already trampled and torn.

Having received pain for such a long time, stopping all her own struggles, and preparing for everything to disappear meaninglessly.

She didn't want to be shaken by needless hope now.

However,

"I want to hear your true feelings."

She was shaken.

When hearing those words her heart stirred.

"I understand you."

Body temperature melting her cold body.

Hands wiping away tears.

Kindness wrapping bandages around wounds.

The peaceful feeling whenever leaning against his back, and the pain of the curse temporarily vanishing from the world.

Though she had been turning away calling it fleeting hope until now.

"I will give you a miracle."

Yes.

She had to admit it.

About hope.

Though she thought she had clearly let it go, fragments remained at her fingertips.

It was a lingering attachment she herself hadn't noticed.

"You just need to take my hand."

"Because I want... you all to be happy."

Elise finally grabbed the hand before her eyes.

As if enchanted by something.

Who could not crumble before such desperate hope?

Though she was a rose who prepared for death every day, in the end her inner self was still a girl not even of age.

Finally she made a resolution.

To believe in hope one last time, truly.