Chapter 70
Each Other’s Purpose in Life
Damion realized it.
The emotion he felt now, even larger than his sense of betrayal towards her, was sadness.
A woman who lost her father and brother. A woman with hollow eyes who held a gun to her own head. A woman who was not happy at all while he talked about happiness.
Why?
What made you suffer so much?
Damion was curious about that. He approached Ansi. But no answer to his question came. Instead, Ansi pulled the trigger.
<No!>
Bang!
Simultaneous with Damion’s shout, a loud gunshot rang out. Ansi’s body slumped to the spot.
<No…… No, Ansi.>
Damion ran and hugged Ansi.
Learned fear assaulted him. His mother, who had hung herself when he was a child, had slumped down just like this. Fear swallowed and consumed his entire body.
<Wake up, Ansi.>
Damion shook Ansi. But Ansi did not open her eyes. Instead, she began to be stained in motley colors.
Like the hands and arms of Amor, who was strangling the man’s neck in the painting he had seen with Ansi long ago.
It was a bizarre sight, as if flowers were blooming from her body, or as if paint was spreading.
Damion shook his head. No, no. Muttering the same words over and over, he shook Ansi. He caressed her cheek and kissed her. Ansi didn’t move a muscle.
It was then.
<Don’t worry. The time has not yet come.>
A meaningful voice came from in front of him. It was a voice he had heard once before.
Damion raised his head. There was a form of mixed various colors. The form grinned at him. And it reached out its hand and stroked Ansi’s head.
Then, Ansi’s colors began to return to their original state.
Black hair with a bluish tint, pale, almost white skin, transparent red lips. Everything was the color she originally possessed.
When those colors had fully returned.
Damion opened his eyes.
Damion’s previously motionless finger moved. Hennet, who was sitting by the bedside, did not miss that moment.
“Damion?”
Hennet immediately rose from his seat and called Damion’s name. Soon, Damion’s face contorted, and he slowly opened his eyes.
“Damion! You’re awake!”
Hennet, surprised, hugged Damion. Filled with emotion, his eyes even welled up with tears.
“Why did you have to worry people like this! Do you know how shocked I was… how hard it was to come all the way to the north? I’m going to bill you for the train fare to get here.”
“You’re noisy…”
Damion, who gave an equally affectionate retort to Hennet’s loving scolding, frowned as he looked around. In the hospital room, he only saw Hennet with his moved face and Elise with her hand over her mouth.
“Ansi……?”
“Ah! Ansi went to see the doctor for a moment. She’ll probably be back soon.”
Elise 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!”
Elise nodded as if it were obvious. For her friend, who would be happier than anyone about her husband waking up, she could wait outside for hours.
But at that moment, Ansi, who had reached for the door handle outside the hospital room, withdrew her hand.
Ansi, who had frozen, slowly stepped back.
And then she turned around. Her steps walking down the corridor gradually quickened. After leaving the hospital, they broke into a run.
Damion had woken up.
She wanted to see his face. She wanted to check right away if he was okay.
But, she was scared.
Because she thought she knew what the ‘things they needed to talk about’ were.
Behind the hospital, having reached a certain corner, Ansi slid down against the wall.
She had betrayed Damion.
After agreeing to his words about trusting each other and being happy together from now on, she had tried to kill the emperor in the name of Orpheus.
Damion’s face when he came to find her in the church on that thunderous day, his voice repeating over and over even after being shot that she should blame it on him—it all came to mind.
The person who said he would abandon his goal and make me his purpose in life. She now knew all too well that those words were sincere.
And that his sense of betrayal would be just as great.
Ansi hugged her knees. Lost, she no longer knew where to go.
So she sat there for a long time. It seemed better for Damion not to see her face anyway.
Before she knew it, the day had grown dark. Stars began to slowly embroider the purple-stained sky. Staring blankly at it, Ansi felt a sudden presence and turned to look beside her.
“Ansi.”
Amethyst eyes, resembling the starry sky, were staring at her.
Ansi slowly rose from her spot.
“……Why did you come all the way out here?”
She actually wanted to say she was glad he was awake. That she was afraid he wouldn’t open his eyes. That she didn’t know how fortunate it was that he was awake and moving like this.
But the only words that left her mouth were those.
Damion took one difficult step after another towards her. Ansi’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You shouldn’t be moving like this yet……”
Just then, Damion pulled Ansi into an embrace.
“……!”
A warm warmth enveloped her. It was the same warmth as Damion’s usual warmth that used to envelop her cold hands.
“I’m sorry.”
Damion muttered, holding Ansi tightly. Ansi, who was too flustered to say anything, frowned.
“Why are you sorry, Damion?”
Shouldn’t she be the one saying she was sorry right now, not him?
“For not knowing anything about you. For not trying to know.”
“……”
At those words, a hot emotion rose to Ansi’s throat. Ansi knew it was heartache.
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 I’m alive. You saved me.”
“I betrayed you. Aren’t you… angry with me?”
“I am angry. But more than that, I feel sorry for you. Tell me why you hate Orpheus. If you still want to bring down Orpheus, I will help you. But Ansi, you can’t be the one to do it. You mustn’t get hurt, please……”
Damion’s last words were pleading. Just imagining her getting hurt was enough to drive him mad.
Damion was truly afraid of that. All the more because he himself had already taken years from her lifespan.
“……You said your purpose in life was to possess Orpheus. Mine was to destroy it.”
Ansi opened her mouth.
“But…… because I liked being with you, because I was afraid of you getting hurt…… I, I don’t know what to do now.”
Ansi’s voice trembled as she answered. Damion loosened the strength in his arms that were holding her.
They looked into each other’s eyes.
“Then forget your revenge, just for a little while. Even for a very little while.”
Damion said decisively.
“Your purpose and mine were both too painful. They were goals that made us run forward, abandoning happiness. So, like I did, make me your purpose in life. Let’s forget everything, abandon revenge, and live for each other.”
Making each other the meaning of their lives.
It was an exceedingly sweet proposal.
Ansi knew. She knew she couldn’t forget everything and just live peacefully, laughing haha hoho, with this man for the rest of her life.
But she was just so tired now.
She didn’t know where to go anyway.
So for now, she just wanted to follow Damion’s words. She wanted to try making this man, who looked only at her in front of his eyes, her very life itself.
Ansi nodded.
“I’ll do that.”
Ansi hugged Damion. Savoring the warmth she felt in his embrace with her whole body, she closed her eyes.
She had actually thought about it all along. What if they had met not in this relationship, but as people without any pain between them?
So now that she had lost her goal of dragging Orpheus into the abyss, she decided to close her eyes.
To live, simply as a man and a woman who love each other.
She decided to try living in ordinary peace.
The sound of military boots echoed in the chilly corridor. An officer from the Farma nation followed the guard, moving his steps.
“It’s here.”
Arriving at a door led by the guard, the officer looked inside through the bars. In the room was a single prisoner. A young man with ash-gray hair and blue eyes.
Suddenly, the prisoner stared in their direction. The sharp look made the officer shudder for a moment.
He cleared his throat and deliberately lowered his voice to command the prisoner.
“Come here.”
But the prisoner just sat on the bed, looking at the officer. He was clearly ignoring his words. The officer’s frown deepened.
“I said come here!”
“E-Excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel. I’m sorry to say, but this man… his ears are injured. He can’t hear.”
“Ah, is that so.”
The officer looked the prisoner over. Despite his unkempt appearance, a sense of nobility was also felt. It was a pity he couldn’t hear, but since there was no condition that he be brought back in perfect condition, it wasn’t a problem.
“Prepare for his repatriation. Be careful not to be discovered.”
“Yes. We will resolve it as quietly as possible.”
“Good. Because of his status, it was difficult for us to deal with him easily, but it seems he’ll be put to use like this.”
A satisfied smile spread across the officer’s lips as he slowly stroked his chin with his hand.
