Chapter 67: “Are You Here to Kill Me Too?”
“Is this really the ending you wanted?”
A familiar voice echoed in Grey’s ears, causing her to instinctively raise her head.
Then, she saw a slender figure stepping across the frozen time, appearing clearly before her.
Grey saw the other person's face clearly.
Rast... ge-ge?
The girl's thoughts stalled slightly, her previously chaotic mind momentarily pulling away from the despairing self-denial.
In the next moment.
Everything around Grey.
The flickering lights, the entangled threads, and that blood moon hanging in the sky... all those things once frozen in eerie stillness now returned to normal.
Plop.
Plop.
Atop the clock tower, the previously motionless, trembling clock hands resumed ticking clockwise.
When she sensed that, within her spiritual vision, the countless glowing hourglasses had dissipated—
The silver-white mysterious gleam in Rast’s eyes also quietly faded away.
The "Eye of Secrets" was released, revealing once again the pitch-black color of his irises.
Rast looked at the girl before him and spoke softly: “Do you still want to keep deceiving yourself like this?”
“Deceiving myself?”
Grey slowly lifted her head.
She felt her heart in disarray, as if countless fragments of chaotic memories surged through her mind, but they were always veiled behind a thin layer of mist, making it difficult to see their true form.
“Mhm.”
Rast nodded. “You can continue to deceive yourself, forcing yourself to forget those earlier memories.”
“And continue sinking into illusions of the past, again and again, year after year, repeating this endless today.”
“But that would also mean you will never be able to reach the future.”
“Let alone truly understand the truth hidden within you.”
He said calmly, “Do you want to know the truth?”
“Even if that truth might not be as beautiful as you once imagined.”
The truth... hidden within myself?
Grey raised her gaze, sweeping her eyes over the thread-entwined town, and the many broken cocoons.
And that blood moon in the sky, the one that had repeatedly appeared in her nightmares during midnight awakenings.
She felt again the surging, turbulent fragments of memory in her mind, forever obscured behind a layer of fog, impossible to clearly see.
After a long silence, her emerald green eyes shifted from confusion to determination.
“I want to.”
She looked at Rast, whose face remained calm, and nodded firmly.
“I want to know the truth about myself.”
“Good.”
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination—
But Grey saw, on the usually emotionless and serene face of Rast, a smile appear for the first time.
In the next instant, she saw the boy before her, and in his eyes, the mysterious silver-white gleam reappeared.
Crack—
A clear shattering sound rang in Grey’s ears.
Within her spiritual world, something like a barrier silently broke apart.
Immediately after, in the fraction of a second—
Countless fragments of memory surged like tides, washing over her brain.
These were all memories she had once personally experienced, but had refused—and couldn’t bear—to face.
Therefore, under the mind’s self-protection mechanism, these memories that might have broken her were forcibly forgotten.
Or rather, not completely forgotten, but buried in some corner of the memory attic, shrouded in a misty, obscuring veil.
But now, at this very moment, that barrier was pierced by Rast’s "Eye of Secrets".
Thus, Grey remembered the entire truth.
...
She once had parents, a family that loved her.
They lived in a small inland town, with a simple yet warm life.
Until one day, for some unknown reason, the Iron Cross Plague broke out in that small town.
Her parents sacrificed themselves so Grey could escape with her life.
She fled the city swallowed by the Iron Cross tide, beginning a journey of endless wandering.
If that were all, it wouldn’t have been unusual. It was simply a reflection of the countless refugees in this age of catastrophe and chaos.
And a wandering child like Grey was destined to die during this long journey due to weakness or lack of food.
However, despite each settlement she stayed in being destroyed one after another—
Grey herself was never harmed.
Every time, she was the only survivor of the disaster.
Until Frostwater Town.
As a vagrant who had long suffered rejection and cold stares in other towns, Grey felt warmth and a sense of home for the first time in that remote little place.
Yet—
The red moon descended once again.
It erased everything she held dear, turning it all into nothingness.
So, Grey completely despaired in her breakdown.
In her eyes, it was she who brought calamity to every town she set foot in. She was the incarnation of disaster.
She frantically wanted to deny everything—deny the fall of Frostwater Town, deny her role as a harbinger of ruin wherever she went.
So, in the girl’s despair, some great force was triggered.
Time in Frostwater Town was reversed.
Everything returned to the moment before the blood mist and threads descended—along with Grey’s own memories.
The time belonging to Frostwater Town was forever frozen on May 11th, repeating endlessly within the fog.
And Grey remained in a state of ignorant innocence, living day after day, year after year, a life built on fragile fantasy.
Until, in the middle of the night, she witnessed the blood mist and broke down, resetting everything and starting all over again.
But even within these looping memories, slight variables existed.
Shoreguards—
Grey slightly raised her eyes, meeting Rast’s gaze, as deep as a dark lake.
Then, her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
In past loops, Grey had seen visitors from outside the town wearing the Shoreguard insignia more than once.
They seemed to come with a mission, and the moment they arrived in Frostwater Town, they began investigating everything.
Those Shoreguards had also noticed something was wrong with her, and used various methods to probe her.
Even after the blood mist descended—
Some of those Shoreguards broke free from their cocoons and rushed straight toward her.
They wanted to kill her.
That’s right...
The duty of Shoreguards was to guard the shattered coast and sea lanes, maintain the order of civilization, and eliminate internal sources of contamination.
Just like those fairy tales Grey had once read—
The fearless hero who braved countless dangers to defeat the Demon King in his castle, returning to the capital with the king’s head, showered in flowers, applause, and glory.
The Shoreguards were like the heroes of those stories.
And the embodiment of disaster, the one whose very existence polluted every human town—
The girl named Grey.
Naturally, she was the Demon King of the story, the one the Shoreguards were meant to slay.
Tears slid down the girl's cheeks.
“So... Rast ge-ge.”
“Are you here to kill me too?”
Through misty, tear-filled eyes, Grey saw the boy before her produce a revolver shaped like an iron moon.
Then, he slowly raised its dark barrel.
Yes.
Even the Rast ge-ge who had given her a name... upon witnessing her true self, would surely kill her too.
That previous conversation had only been Rast’s final act of mercy, not wanting her to die without knowing why.
Justice and evil were forever mortal enemies.
And someone like her, born of evil, was destined to be slain by a just Shoreguard.
That was the truth of the world—fate, even.
Grey’s heart, which had briefly warmed, plummeted back into an icy abyss.
Her spirit became lifeless, withered, ceasing to think. She waited silently.
Waited for the moment the trigger would be pulled, and the bullet would pierce through her chest.
Yet, in the next moment.
Grey’s eyes suddenly widened.
Rast’s gun suddenly tilted upward.
Not aimed at the girl named Grey, but pointed directly at his own temple.
In the fraction of a breath—
Boom—
A bright flash erupted.
Illuminating the pitch-black night sky shrouded in blood mist.
And illuminating Grey’s eyes, now hollow and devoid of life.