‘Yu was someone who shouldn’t have gone through such a thing.’

I thought that after suffering so much on the battlefield, she would have been called a hero after the war ended, lived happily, and then passed away.

That was the life that suited Yulnisia.

But why.

“Yu.”

How many times had I called for Yulnisia?

For the first time, an answer came from that darkness.

-Marian.

Golden light embroidered letters in the pitch-black void. Yulnisia’s longed-for voice was not heard.

“Yu……”

-It’s been a long time.

What occupied that place was a skeleton with skin tightly clinging to it.

When I woke up as a ferret, I had hoped that I might meet Yulnisia again someday. I never imagined that I would wake up after 100 years had passed.

But beyond a century, Yulnisia appeared before me.

In an undead state, unable to die.

“How did this happen?”

Keeping my voice calm was the only thing I could do. Though my hands and feet trembled at the horrific sight of my old friend, fortunately my voice flowed out convincingly.

The skeleton didn’t even rattle. The light embroidered in the void only repeated becoming brighter and darker.

-He froze my heart. Because he needed me to save you.

He?

To that word without a specified name, the name that instantly flowed from my lips was this.

“Espen?”

I don’t know why that name suddenly came to mind. Maybe because he was the last person I saw before I died, or maybe because ice monsters keep appearing.

I covered my lips with my palm, flustered at the name I had blurted out instinctively.

Yulnisia briefly affirmed.

-Espen. Right. That was his name.

Her tone was indifferent, as if she couldn’t remember that name anymore either.

But the moment I saw the affirmative message, goosebumps rose all over my body.

‘Was it really Espen who did this?’

The very person who, in order to revive me who had died, made Yulnisia become unable to die and conduct experiments to revive my heart?

But there was a fatal error in those words.

“But Espen died, didn’t he?”

Surely he must have died before me?

Didn’t he cause a mana explosion and I also entered an explosive state to block his cold energy?

I couldn’t understand why his name was appearing. Yulnisia’s thoughts floated as letters in the void.

-That day, only your heart was shattered to pieces. You burned first, and Espen gathered the pieces of your heart. To save you.

Was it really Espen?

While I held my breath in surprise, letters continued to appear one after another.

-In the end, he succeeded, so will he be satisfied?

It was a brief thought with none of her own emotions included.

To me, it felt extremely bizarre. Come to think of it, even though we were meeting after a long time, she didn’t show any emotion towards me.

She didn’t even ask how I was standing here in the same form as my previous life.

With a strange sense of urgency, I hurriedly told Yulnisia about my current situation.

“I, I became a ferret. I’m only temporarily human now, but when my mana runs out, I’ll become a ferret again.”

-Is that so?

Perhaps because we were only conversing through letters, I couldn’t feel Yulnisia’s emotions. I mumbled, wondering what else I should say. Then letters appeared in the void.

-I’m glad you came back to life, Marian.

“Yu.”

This is indeed my friend Yulnisia. My eyes welled up with tears of joy.

That’s when it happened.

-Melt my heart. I’m tired now.

“Yu.”

At the words asking to melt her heart, I froze. Yulnisia’s words about being glad I came back to life were thoroughly because she wanted something from me.

-I waited for you to come. Because now only you can melt my heart.

To revive me, to use Yulnisia for that research, Espen froze Yulnisia’s heart.

The only one who can melt her heart is me, who has a flame as strong as Espen’s ice.

But the words that my dearest friend had waited for me only to die made my heart ache. I rubbed my tear-filled eyes with the back of my hand. Then I smiled faintly and said.

“I missed you.”

-Did you?

Yulnisia didn’t react to my words at all.

-I just want to die.

“Yu.”

I gently told her what I had faced after opening my eyes to this world again.

“You were right. When I was left alone in the forest, there was nothing to eat but bugs. I should have agreed when you said we needed to make a recipe for eating bugs. Then I wouldn’t have starved in the forest.”

-Was that so?

“I also saw the magic tools you made. They were really amazing. I could easily bathe in warm water, and even when it snowed heavily, the room stayed warm. As expected, you’re the best magic tool maker, Yulnisia.”

-Magic tools I made…

It seemed Yulnisia couldn’t remember anything anymore. I smiled brightly. I didn’t want to remain with a gloomy appearance at my friend’s last moment.

“Sleep well, Yu. Rest in peace now.”

A strong flame explosively burned not only Yulnisia’s heart, but also her and the tent she had been staying in.

“Marian!”

Restrained by Evelyn, Hadel, who had been waiting outside the tent thinking something terrible had happened to me, rushed in. I also ran to him.

“Kyu!”

Because I had used up all the flames I received from Hadel to melt Yulnisia’s heart, I returned to my ferret form. Hadel picked me up. When he tried to kiss me, I turned my body to avoid it.

“Kyu kyu!”

I didn’t want to return to human form now.

“Kyuing……”

Because I wanted to cry my heart out while remembering Yu.

Yulnisia couldn’t answer immediately. The name of the person calling her name joyfully in front of her didn’t come to mind right away.

Pink hair, blue eyes.

What was this woman’s name again?

-Marian.

‘Right, that was her name.’

Even though she remembered the name, she felt no satisfaction or anything else.

The long years had worn away even the memories she possessed.

Memories that were once good became filled with hatred as time passed. And now even that face and the conversations they had shared were blurred.

She just waited for her. Hoping for her to end her life, tired from the long years.

Contrary to the memories of hating and disliking her, the woman she met again smiled prettily. And even at the moment of melting her heart, she bid her goodnight.

“Sleep well, Yu. Rest in peace now.”

It’s not that her breath is stopping, but that she’s falling asleep. It’s putting away the terrible life and taking a rest.

That farewell sounded like it was comforting her not to be afraid as she took steps towards death.

In reality, the one who’s afraid must be herself, who’s cutting off the breath of a close friend.

Ridiculously, only as death approached did she slowly recall who this woman was.

‘My kind, righteous, and cheerful friend, Marian.’

She would be able to overcome without being consumed by darkness.

-Be happy.

Yulnisia earnestly wished for the last time.

After sending Yulnisia off like that, we returned to the castle. Because I was extremely tired, I slept like the dead until around noon the next day. It must have been mental fatigue rather than physical.

Even after waking up, I was sitting dazed on the bed when I encountered Hadel just returning from an outing. Hadel tidied my disheveled hair and kissed the top of my head.

“You’re up?”

“Yeah. What about you? Aren’t you tired?”

“I met with the letter exchange agents.”

“Ah.”

That’s right, that’s why he came originally. I nodded slowly. Hadel carefully covered my shoulders with a blanket and said,

“They didn’t have much information. They gave the same answer as the informants in our territory. They said they usually just reported on my health condition or changes in the grand duchy.”

“I see.”

“For now, let’s eat first.”

Only after eating and carefully confirming that my condition was fine did we depart from Neris back to the grand duchy. As she saw us off, Evelyn finally showed a tired expression rather than her usual seemingly painted-on smile.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, my teacher can finally rest in peace.”

“…I should be thanking you. For letting me meet Yu.”

Actually, I didn’t want to transform into a human. Because I wasn’t confident in managing my expression. But as I was conveying my greetings to Evelyn, Yulnisia’s disciple, I thought it was fortunate that I could speak after all.

“Thank you for staying by Yu’s side. Thank you for guiding me to Yu.”

If Evelyn hadn’t made the decision, I would have never known of Yu’s existence. Then Yu would have lived in that state for an even longer time.

That would have been a very painful thing.

Hearing my words, Evelyn sighed. Then she spoke of an aspect of Yulnisia that I didn’t know.

“Teacher hadn’t made a single magic tool in the last 10 years. She said so herself. That she no longer wanted to make anything.”

She added with an awkward smile.

“But when she was talking with the princess yesterday, the image of my teacher from the past, pondering what magic tool to make, was briefly revived. I was happy for a moment too.”

“I see…”

Even after hearing those words, my heart still felt heavy. Though Evelyn says that, the Yulnisia I sensed seemed numb until the very moment her breath stopped.

As I kept recalling Yulnisia’s last moments and hanging my head, Evelyn began in a gentle voice.

“You were curious about why you woke up as a ferret, right?”

I raised my eyes to face her. Evelyn now spoke fluently about what she hadn’t answered until yesterday. As if a burden had been lifted from her heart.

“To revive you, it was necessary to keep the shattered heart alive. And for that, a suitable body to transplant the heart into was needed. At first, those with fire attributes were the targets, but most couldn’t withstand your heart and died.”