Damion realized.

That the emotion he felt more strongly than betrayal towards her now was sadness.

A woman who lost her father and brother. A woman who held a gun to her own head with empty eyes. A woman who was not happy at all while he spoke of happiness.

Why?

What made you so distressed?

Damion was curious about that. He approached Ansi. But no answer came to his question. Instead, Ansi pulled the trigger.

“No!”

Bang!

Along with Damion’s cry, a loud gunshot rang out. Ansi’s body slumped in place.

“No… No, Ansi.”

Damion ran over and embraced Ansi.

Learned fear overcame him. His mother who had hanged herself when he was young was also slumped like this. Fear devoured and gnawed at Damion’s entire body.

“Wake up, Ansi.”

Damion shook Ansi. But Ansi did not open her eyes. Instead, she began to be dyed in colorful hues.

Like the hands and arms of Amor strangling the man’s neck in the painting they had seen together before.

It was a bizarre sight that looked like flowers blooming on her body, or paint spreading.

Damion shook his head. No, no. He kept muttering the same words while shaking Ansi. He caressed her cheek and kissed her. Ansi did not move at all.

That’s when.

“Don’t worry. The time has not come yet.”

A meaningful voice was heard from the front. It was a voice he had heard somewhere before.

Damion raised his head. There was a figure mixed with all sorts of colors. The figure smiled at him. And it reached out its hand and stroked Ansi’s head.

Then Ansi’s colors began to return to normal.

Blue-tinted black hair, pale white skin, transparent red lips. Everything was the color she originally had.

When that color fully returned.

Damion opened his eyes.

Damion’s motionless fingers moved. Henet, who was sitting by the bedside, did not miss that moment.

“Damion?”

Henet immediately stood up and called Damion. Soon, Damion’s face contorted, and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Damion! You’re awake!”

Henet hugged Damion in surprise. Filled with emotion, he even had tears in his eyes.

“Why did you make people worry like that! Do you know how surprised I was… Do you know how hard it was to come to the north? I’m going to charge you for the train fare to get here.”

“Noisy……”

Damion, who gave an equally affectionate answer to Henet’s affectionate scolding, looked around with furrowed brows. In the hospital room, only Henet with an overwhelmed face and Elize with her hand over her mouth could be seen.

“Ansi…?”

“Ah! Ansi just went to see the doctor. She’ll probably be back soon.”

Elize hurriedly answered. Damion nodded with difficulty and opened his mouth.

“…When Ansi returns, could you give us some privacy? We have a lot to talk about.”

“Of course!”

Elize nodded as if it were obvious. For her friend who would be happier than anyone that her husband had woken up, she could wait outside for hours.

However, at that moment, Ansi, who had reached for the doorknob outside the hospital room, was withdrawing her hand.

Ansi, who had been frozen, slowly stepped back.

And turned around. Her steps walking down the corridor gradually quickened. After leaving the hospital, it turned into a run.

Damion had woken up.

She wanted to see his face. She wanted to check if he was alright right away.

But, she was scared.

Because she seemed to know what they needed to talk about.

Ansi, who reached a corner behind the hospital, slumped down along the wall.

She had betrayed Damion.

After agreeing to Damion’s words to trust each other and be happy together from now on, she tried to kill the emperor in the name of Orpheus.

The face of Damion who had come looking for her at the church on the day of thunder, his voice repeating to blame himself even after being shot, came to mind.

A person who said he would abandon his purpose and make her the purpose of his life. Now she knew too well that those words were sincere.

And that his sense of betrayal would be that much greater.

Ansi hugged her knees. Lost, she didn’t even know where to go now.

So she sat there for a long time. It seemed better for Damion not to see her face.

The day had already darkened. Stars began to gradually embroider the sky dyed purple. As she blankly stared at it, Ansi turned to the side at the sudden presence she felt.

“Ansi.”

Violet eyes resembling the star-embroidered sky were gazing at her.

Ansi slowly got up from her seat.

“…Why did you come out here?”

She actually wanted to say she was glad he woke up. That she was afraid he wouldn’t open his eyes, but how relieved she was that he had woken up and was moving like this.

But all she could say were words like that.

Damion approached her, taking one step at a time with difficulty. Ansi opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“You shouldn’t be moving like this yet…”

Damion embraced Ansi just like that.

“…!”

A warm warmth enveloped her. It was the same as Damion’s usual warmth that embraced her cold hands.

“I’m sorry.”

Damion murmured as he hugged Ansi tightly. Ansi, who couldn’t say anything out of bewilderment, furrowed her brows.

“Why are you sorry, Damion?”

Shouldn’t it be herself, not Damion, who should be saying sorry right now?

“For not knowing anything about you. For not trying to know.”

“……”

At those words, a hot emotion welled up to Ansi’s throat. Ansi knew it was sorrow.

Ansi shook her head.

“…You shouldn’t be sorry, Damion. I deceived you. I tried to use you to achieve my revenge.”

“I deceived you too.”

“I tried to kill you too. That was the result of my revenge.”

“But you’re alive. You saved me.”

“I betrayed you. Don’t you hate me?”

“I hate you. But more than that, I feel sorry for you. Tell me why you hate Orpheus. If you still want to bring down Orpheus, I’ll help you. But Ansi, you can’t do it. You can’t get hurt, please……”

Damion’s last words were pleading. Just imagining her getting hurt was enough to drive him crazy.

Damion was truly afraid of that. It was even more so because Damion himself had already taken away her lifespan.

“…Damion said his life’s purpose was to have Orpheus. Mine was to destroy Orpheus.”

Ansi opened her mouth.

“But… because I liked being with you, because I was afraid of you getting hurt… I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Ansi’s voice trembled as she answered. Damion loosened his grip on Ansi.

They looked into each other’s eyes.

“Then just for a moment, just for a very short while, forget about revenge.”

Damion spoke firmly.

“Your and my life purposes were too painful things. They were goals that made us run forward and abandon happiness. So as I did, make me your life’s purpose. Let’s forget everything, abandon revenge, and live for each other.”

Making each other the meaning of life.

It was an unbearably sweet proposal.

Ansi knew. That she could not simply live peacefully with this man for the rest of her life, laughing and giggling, forgetting everything.

But she was too tired now.

She didn’t know where to go anyway.

So now, she just wanted to follow Damion’s words. She wanted to try making this man, who only looked at her in front of him, her very life itself.

Ansi nodded.

“I’ll do that.”

Ansi embraced Damion. Savoring the warmth she felt in his arms with her whole body, she closed her eyes.

In fact, she had been thinking all along. What if they had met not in this kind of relationship, but as a couple without any pain.

So now that she had lost her goal of throwing Orpheus into the abyss, she decided to close her eyes.

Just as a man and woman who love each other.

She decided to live in ordinary peace.

The sound of military boots echoed in the corridor filled with coldness. An officer of the Parma nation followed the guard, walking.

“It’s here.”

In front of the door they arrived at following the guard, the officer peered inside through the bars. There was one prisoner in the room. He was a young man with ash-gray hair and blue eyes.

Suddenly, the prisoner stared this way. The officer momentarily trembled at the sharp gaze.

He cleared his throat and deliberately lowered his voice to order the prisoner.

“Come over here.”

However, the prisoner just sat on the bed, only looking at the officer. He was clearly ignoring his words. The officer frowned deeply.

“I said come over here!”

“Uh, Lieutenant Colonel. I’m sorry, but that fellow injured his ears and can’t hear sounds.”

“Ah, I see.”

The officer scrutinized the prisoner. Despite his unkempt appearance, he also exuded an air of nobility. It was unfortunate that he couldn’t hear, but there was no condition that he had to be brought in a complete state, so there was no problem.

“Prepare for repatriation. Be careful not to get caught.”

“Yes. I’ll handle it as quietly as possible.”

“That’s fortunate. It was difficult for us to deal with him easily because of his status, but now we can use him like this.”

A satisfied smile appeared on the officer’s lips as he slowly stroked his chin with his hand.