The necklace tightly wrapped around Helasio’s body was none other than the ‘payment’ I had received from Yuria.

Known as the Star of the Guide.

Although it couldn’t create paths that didn’t exist, it was a sacred object that found the most perfect path among the many branches lying before its user.

In the original story, it was also a gift given by Yupheon to congratulate Yuria, who had married Niel and become Empress.

However, in the altered course of events from the original story, Yuria told me she had stolen this from the Grand Temple during her time as a saint.

“With this, I was able to safely escape in dangerous moments, even when those crazy men were trying to kill me. What do you think? Is this enough as payment?”

Yuria said that she was able to survive Niel, Yuphe, and Cail five years ago all thanks to this necklace.

Indeed, to survive those madmen, mere luck alone would have been impossible.

“Aren’t you sad to give me such a good item?”

“Ah, well… in the dimension where I originally lived, sacred objects from this world don’t work.”

I did give her a sharp glare at her response as she glanced at me nervously, feeling somehow like she was disposing of a useless item.

[Aaaaargh! Jella Irene! You crazy woman!]

With a scream, Helasio’s body, tightly wrapped in the Star of the Guide, flew across the night sky, leaving a long trail.

Since the evil dragon’s true form resided in Cail’s body, that trajectory was the most perfect path toward Cail.

“Please don’t look at me.”

“I asked you, please. Don’t look at me because I’m hideous.”

Cail said that while hiding his face from me.

I should have told him he wasn’t hideous, but he ran away before I could tell him.

I couldn’t go look for him right away because I had to revive Yuphe’s decaying body.

But I kept thinking about him.

I thought about that moist voice with a hint of resentment toward me, and the glimpse of despair I sensed between his words.

So I came to catch him, and when our eyes met again, he tried to run away, so I grabbed him…

“You told me not to run away from you, but you were the one who abandoned me.”

At that intense resentment bursting forth clearly, I momentarily let go of him with both hands without realizing it.

But my hands, which were slipping away, were immediately caught by him again.

When I met him again in Jella Irene’s body.

Even then, Cail had said something similar.

“After abandoning me so cruelly, you won’t take me back?”

Like a giant puppy nestling against me, looking at me with hot, wet eyes, in such a sorrowful voice, almost pleading.

But I had no choice but to pretend not to know, and he willingly played along with my words.

“An ordinary apothecary… Is that what you want?”

“Then let’s do that.”

So I didn’t know. That he was hiding such great resentment toward me.

No, perhaps I knew but pretended not to.

Because I still couldn’t forget the face that looked at me with resentful eyes in the moment of death, even now after opening my eyes again.

But it was hard to admit.

That my choice, made for his peace and happiness, had left him with such a great wound. That he wasn’t happy because of it.

“For the past five years since your death, I had to live in this world as the hero who killed you.”

And now, Cail looked at me with the same intense resentment as back then and said.

“Why did you do it? Why did you abandon me in such a cruel way?”

I… no.

No, Cail. I wasn’t trying to abandon you.

I just… just…

I could only move my lips without being able to utter the excuses that rose to my throat.

“I dislike you.”

Cail’s voice began to mix with tears.

“I dislike you. I dislike you so much for making me kill you with my own hands.”

My heart felt like it was being slashed at his words saying he disliked me.

But what hurt my heart more than his words saying he disliked me was his expression that looked like he was about to cry.

He could just dislike me.

He could resent me all he wanted.

Why do you say you dislike me with such a pained expression?

“You told me to become a knight who protects you. But that wasn’t it. You brought me to kill you.”

“…”

“Why did you make me kill you with my own hands…”

“…”

I couldn’t say anything in front of him as he poured out his long-held resentment.

When I was barely standing in his resentment, keeping my mouth firmly shut as even breathing felt sinful.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, with a short exclamation, a terrified expression appeared on his pale face.

Cail shook his eyes violently as if he had belatedly realized I was standing in front of him, then knelt before me.

“Cail…?”

“I’m sorry.”

He looked up at me with a pale white face and said.

“I’m sorry, Jella. For saying such presumptuous things like I dislike you…”

What remained in place of the light of resentment was clear fear.

“I was just… just out of my mind for a moment.”

“…”

“Please forgive me.”

“…”

“Don’t abandon me again.”

“…”

For a moment, at the sadness, fear, and anxiety I felt from him, deeper than his resentment, I almost took a step back without realizing it.

All these emotions were caused by none other than my death.

Realizing that, I suddenly remembered again.

What I was really afraid of at the moment of death.

It would be a lie to say death wasn’t frightening just because I had experienced it once before.

However, there was one thing I feared more than the momentary pain I would feel at the moment of death.

Remembering that, I slowly lowered my body toward Cail. Like him, I knelt on the floor and carefully reached out to hold his face.

Why did those dry eyes, without a single tear, look to me as if they were crying?

“How could I abandon you?”

I stroked his face and spoke in a faint voice, almost whispering.

“You were my last lingering attachment.”

In my previous life, I thought I was a strong person.

I thought it was okay, even if everyone cursed and pointed fingers at me, that I could overcome it bravely.

But in reality, I was someone who couldn’t endure without telling myself every day that I was okay.

This is for everyone. So I’m okay.

I tried to endure somehow, muttering to myself every day as if brainwashing myself.

Sometimes I had to act tough on purpose. Each time, I felt the people around me drifting away one by one.

After Yuria appeared, even those who remained all left.

“I formally request to break off our engagement.”

“Leave Yuria alone, Jella. Yuria is not a woman that someone like you can casually touch.”

“Jella Shunaibel, I will surely kill you with my own hands.”

“If you harass Yuria one more time, I’ll cut your throat in the name of the deity.”

Everyone, even my fiancé, who had been by my side like air for a long time, and my childhood friend, who had been my everything in my youth.

But there was one person who remained by my side whenever I was about to be left alone and weakened.

“Aren’t you bothered at all? Everyone is talking bad about me.”

“Should I just kill them all?”

The man who would tilt his head and say that when everyone was criticizing me.

Sometimes I deliberately treated him coldly, afraid I might unconsciously depend on him, but nevertheless, Cail was always consistent.

Ironically, despite planning my own death, I secretly found comfort in him, who remained on my side until the end.

Thus, you became my only lingering attachment.

“You know, Cail. You said it before. Why I spoke so easily of my death.”

I whispered gently while holding the face of the man who had been my only lingering attachment.

“But no. My death wasn’t light for me either.”

It was my true feelings that I was expressing for the first time.

“Because you were my lingering attachment. Because leaving you behind troubled me.”

Since when had my heart been flowing toward you?

“Even though it was a death I had prepared for a long time, only you lingered in my mind.”

Now I had to acknowledge it.

That he was my lingering attachment. And at the same time, the only love to which my heart flowed.

T/n: So no Reverse Ending? Oh no ☹