Chapter 9
Click!
The sound of a bullet being loaded echoed in her ears.
“Any last words?”
“It’s unfair.”
Tears streamed down from her tightly shut eyes. Feeling the oppressive weight of the cold metal pressing against her, Yulaina clenched her teeth hard.
“It’s unfair, so unfair it’s driving me mad! I’ve spent my whole life trapped in this place—why…! Do I have to die like this? Is this really the end?”
“Why is it so unfair? Did you think you’d live some grand life?”
Yulaina ignored the mocking tone. If this was how it was going to end, she wanted to spill every last word she had.
“I thought someday, someday I’d be able to leave this village.”
“Your father ruled like a king inside the village, and you were treated like a precious princess. You reveled in being nobler than everyone else—was that not enough? Ah, playing nobility here wasn’t satisfying enough for you?”
“Please, I never needed any of that!”
Her cry burst out like spitting blood, like a scream of despair, and Erich’s eyebrow arched slightly.
“What I wanted was just to go to school like normal, wander the markets, forget about noble etiquette and teatime, read books in the forest, just live like… like that. Why…?”
She collapsed in a heap, clutching her chest and sobbing. Erich stared down at her in silence for a moment, at a loss for words.
“……”
Then, his face hardened again, and with resolve, he raised the gun.
“Alright, then. Goodbye.”
With those curt words, Erich grabbed Yulaina by the nape of her neck, yanking her up and aiming the gun.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Yulaina closed her eyes and quietly awaited death, bidding farewell to everything she had loved in her life.
The clear blue sky of Kisoff and its green hills, the baby goat Talta and the animal friends at the pasture, the grandmother next door, the villagers, Nuen, the old, cramped attic room, her mother’s dresses and shoes, and her father—whom she had hated to death, but loved so deeply all the same.
The gun pressed to her temple waited patiently for her. It gave her time to trace every remnant of her life as tears flowed endlessly.
Finally, Yulaina realized it. She had loved this village far more than she thought. Kisoff was her everything.
The chirping of mountain birds heralding dawn, the fresh scent of the forest tickling her nose like new sprouts in the night, the clear breeze cooling her chilled sweat…
Yet, even after a long while, the dawn forest remained utterly silent.
‘Why?’
She had barely steadied her heart, ready to accept death, but a creeping unease and terror swallowed her once more.
Erich dragged the moment out slowly before abruptly pulling the gun away.
“Hah, huh…”
The gun that had been crushing her mind was suddenly gone, and she gasped out the breath she’d been holding, collapsing to the ground.
“After all, killing you like this is too easy.”
At first, she didn’t comprehend his words. Her mind was already half-dead.
“……”
Focus slowly returned to her scattered gaze. Realizing she hadn’t escaped him after all, her small shoulders trembled violently.
“Ha, haha…”
With her forehead carelessly pressed into the dew-soaked earth, Yulaina let out a sound that was neither sob nor laugh.
Her disheveled hair spilled everywhere, even draping over Erich’s boots, but she didn’t care.
“Yulaina.”
As the man called her name, Yulaina staggered to her feet.
So now he knows my name. A hollow laugh escaped her. Her gaze, fixed on his boots, slowly lifted higher, and higher still, until she looked straight at the man’s face.
“From now on, your life will only plunge deeper into hell.”
Backlit by the brightening blue dawn sky, the man loomed like an insurmountable fortress wall, vast and towering.
“And I guarantee you…”
Erich slowly knelt on one knee, lowering himself—just as he had when he first introduced himself to her.
“Later, you’ll want to shove this gun down your own throat. And I,”
His large hand swept back her tangled hair, then tenderly wiped her tear-streaked face.
“will make sure you can’t die.”
Each brush of his fingers made Yulaina shudder with humiliation throughout her body. It was the same hand that had gripped her throat hours ago, the one that had toyed with her lips during his interrogation.
“…You can’t leave this hell without my permission. If you go mad, you’ll do it by my side; if you die, it’ll be by my side. Only when I allow it.”
“……”
A enigmatic smile spread across his lips as he looked down at the paling Yulaina.
“But before that, I’ll give you one last chance.”
Yulaina gazed up at him with bleary eyes. As a tear dropped from her wavering gaze, a brilliant smile filled her vision with clarity.
“Relax.”
Keeping his eyes locked on Yulaina, Erich pulled her hand toward him. Soon, the cool touch of metal met her skin.
The moment the large, solid object was forced into her grip, her lost eyes began to shake.
“Shoot it in one go.”
His large hand climbed up her slender wrist and back, weaving freely between her fingers to position the pistol properly.
He moved her trembling fingers one by one into place, and finally hooked her index finger over the cold trigger.
“Ah,”
A pained moan escaped Yulaina’s lips. Erich grasped her hand and lifted it, pressing the muzzle right under his own jaw.
“W-wait, just wait.”
Yulaina’s chest heaved rapidly. This might be easy for him, but not for her. Cold sweat poured like rain, and she felt her hand growing slick.
“D-don’t do this…”
Yulaina whimpered, but Erich pressed on without mercy.
“I said it’s your last chance. Succeed here, I die, and you escape.”
He laughed like a madman. Then, he lowered his head and bit down on the muzzle himself.
“Hic, heu…”
Yulaina sobbed as if she’d lost her mind. If, if the trigger was pulled like this…
“I can’t, I can’t do it!”
She tried desperately to pull her hand away, but Erich’s moved faster. Click—the sound of the hammer being cocked made Yulaina scream.
“Go on…”
Shoot me. Come on. It’s your last chance.
Without blinking, the man curved his eyes into a dazzling smile. His well-shaped lips clamped around the muzzle, his blue eyes piercing her like arrows.
Shoot me now.
“……”
Her sweat-soaked finger teetered precariously over the trigger. Yulaina’s eyes gradually lost their light.
The birdsong, the wind, the rustling leaves—all the sounds amplified until her ears buzzed like they might explode. Erich’s relentlessly gleaming gaze gnawed at her bit by bit. It ravaged her mind, burrowing deep and tearing it to shreds.
Yes. Let’s shoot.
Strength pressed firmly into the finger aimed at him. Erich, as if he’d been waiting, pushed the muzzle even deeper. Both of them were drenched in sweat.
Flutter!
A bird burst from the bushes, shattering the silence. Snapping back to her senses, Yulaina hurriedly tried to yank the gun away.
Bang!
The gun fired, and the massive recoil sent Yulaina’s body tumbling backward with a thud.
Startled for only a moment, the horrified Yulaina scrambled desperately toward Erich.
Erich lay there, his face ashen white.
“A-are you okay?”
Her trembling hands frantically cupped Erich’s face. She twisted his hair, neck, and face this way and that, searching for wounds, when suddenly his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist firmly.
“What a fuss.”
Soon, warm blood trickled down between her slender fingers.
“……!”
Yulaina recoiled as if burned, pulling away from him. The blood was flowing from one ear. The bullet had grazed the tip, drawing blood.
“Ha, hahaha…”
Droplets of blood from his ear stained his shoulder. Erich said it nonchalantly.
“I almost drove you completely mad.”
“……”
Yulaina stared at him with empty eyes, chewing over the resentment he poured out.
“If my head had exploded, you’d see that crushed skull every time you ate, every time you slept.”
He seemed genuinely regretful. If he was willing to throw away his own life just to drive her insane, how deep was that hatred?
Dawn was breaking now.
Yulaina, who had been gazing at the sky, turned her head.
“Is your grudge so deep you’d stake your life on it?”
“Partly, and partly because I don’t have much attachment to living anyway.”
He tore off the hem of his shirt and wiped the blood from his ear as he replied.
She was utterly exhausted now. Clinging to her fading consciousness, Yulaina murmured.
“I think I understand now.”
A grudge worth betting his own death on, a resolve from someone who had survived by devouring himself with rotting malice.
What kept this man alive was nothing but hatred and resentment. And her father, who had killed himself right in front of him, must have gotten the last laugh in his own way.
The thought that she could never escape him made her vision go dark.
“Yes, Yulaina. We have to see this through to the end.”
Because I missed the last chance he gave me.
“Now we can have a proper conversation.”
Her body, drained of all energy, swayed precariously. Yulaina staggered, murmuring with great effort.
“I won’t give up like this. I’ll kill you. And I’ll escape. Not now.”
The brightening blue dawn sky began to spin. The ground rose up, and the sky came crashing down.
“Not… now… it’s impossible.”
Yulaina’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut. Erich caught her lightly in his arms as she crumpled, nodding his head.
“I hope you keep that resolve.”
