Chapter 11 (Part 2)

In the end, the situation she feared had come to pass. Nathaniel had overexerted himself and collapsed. 

Alarmed, she immediately got up to try to wake him. 

But unlike before, he could hardly open his eyes. It wasn’t like he was just sleeping in. He seemed to have fainted. 

“What do I do… What do I do?” 

She stayed by Nathaniel’s side, crying in distress. She thought he would wake up in a day or two. Looking back, he had been pushing himself despite being exhausted, without any time to rest. Even at home, he was constantly attentive to her. Clearly, he hadn’t had a moment to catch his breath. 

She stayed by his side as he slept, feeling as if she were withering away day by day, stroking his hair and kissing his cheek. She even kissed him like he had done for her, praying, “Please wake up!” 

But even after two days had passed, and it was nearly noon on the third day, he still did not open his eyes. 

“No… This can’t go on.” 

Growing anxious, she finally stood up from the bed. She decided to go outside. 

She regretted this decision. She regretted it much more than when she first opened the box of memories out of curiosity. 

Foolish Cordelia, why couldn’t you wait a little longer? If you had, perhaps you both could have been a bit happier. Even if it was a false paradise. 

“Skoll, Skoll!” 

She immediately went out the back door. It seemed the bird hadn’t come today, as there was no sound. She resolved to find that woman. She wanted to find out what was happening to Nathaniel and how she could wake him. If that wasn’t possible, she planned to find a doctor. She wanted to do anything to make him open his eyes again. 

So, she intended to ride Skoll. 

However, even as she approached the stable to bring Skoll out, the horse, whether in a bad mood or distrustful of her, refused to follow her outside. 

“Skoll, don’t do this. Your master is very sick right now. I need to bring someone. Please help me. Please, good boy?”

She even hugged Skoll’s head, crying. But the horse only shook its head irritably. When she tried to leave him in the stable and go out alone, he bit down on her skirt. 

“Skoll, why are you doing this! I have to go. Nathaniel might die like this! Don’t do this…” 

As she was struggling with the horse, something suddenly flew over the fence. At the sound of a bird, she widened her eyes and looked in the direction it had come from. It was the white bird. Presumably, the one that always came with the woman. 

“Wait, wait!” 

She shook off Skoll, who seemed to be holding her back, and ran straight toward the garden. She opened the gate, and the white bird flew past her. As if trying to lead her, it flew in a certain direction again. 

Should I follow it? 

Taking a deep, trembling breath, she prepared to move. She heard Skoll neighing behind her. She couldn’t remember if she had closed the stable door properly, but she didn’t have the energy to worry about that now. 

She needed to meet the woman who might be able to save Nathaniel. She ran after the bird in a frenzy. 

“Huff… Huff…” 

“You’ve come?” 

After running for quite a while, she saw a person in a white cloak sitting on a large rock. It was the woman. The woman with the pretty, clear voice. 

She looked slightly different from the angelic image Cordelia had imagined. She had red hair and cold-looking golden eyes. And the moment she saw those eyes; Cordelia couldn’t help but gasp. 

“You, you… You’re the one who shot an arrow at me…” 

“Oh, so you remember up to that point now?”

The woman let out a small laugh. Her cold, chilling voice held no hint of welcome. In fact, it was clearly hostile. 

It was then, as Cordelia stood frozen, that the woman tossed something in her direction. A yellow object glinted as it rolled onto the grass in front of her. Cordelia recognized it as a glass bottle containing a potion, and also as the item she had half-swallowed on the first day. 

“What is this…?” 

“Drink it. Then Nathaniel won’t die because of you. After all, it was you who should have been erased from the beginning.” 

“Erased…? What do you mean?” 

Her tone seemed to irritate the woman, who replied with annoyance. 

“Don’t you know what ‘erased’ means? It means to disappear completely. Drinking that will make it even more certain. ‘Singularities’ like you are supposed to die that way! Please, stop making things difficult for him. You took our respected leader away from us! Only if you disappear will Nathaniel return to us! What are you that he has to make such sacrifices for you?” 

“I… I don’t understand what you’re saying… So, is this poison then? Were you trying to make me drink it from the start? Why? What is a singularity? What does Nathaniel have to do with this…?” 

“You’ll understand if you drink it. Why do you have so many questions? You’re already dead, just a parasite living off Nathaniel’s life!” 

The woman snapped back with a sharp voice. Cordelia, shocked, stood frozen. She couldn’t comprehend what the woman was saying. She couldn’t figure out where to start asking questions without aggravating the woman, or how to get a clear explanation. 

With a heavy heart, she picked up the glass bottle and asked, 

“I, I really don’t understand… I’m sorry. But, if I drink this… will Nathaniel be able to wake up?” 

The woman frowned slightly, as if saying “What?” It seemed she was unaware of Nathaniel’s condition. With tears brimming in her eyes, Cordelia revealed the truth. 

“He, he can’t wake up. It’s been three days already… I, I want to wake him up…” 

As she began to cry, her voice faltered, and her words came out in a shaky, pitiful whimper, like a lost lamb. Through her sobs, she asked, 

“Anyway… if I drink this, it will work… right? Okay… Thank you for telling me…”

Then she turned away, clutching the glass bottle tightly. 

She had decided to drink it. But not now. She didn’t want to follow the woman’s instructions exactly, and even if drinking it would immediately wake Nathaniel, she didn’t want to do it here. She wanted to say a final goodbye to him, even if she were to die. After that, she planned to drink it. So she forced herself to walk away with trembling legs. 

But then, suddenly, a voice came from behind. It was Nathaniel’s subordinate. 

“No matter how you look at it, you’re just an ordinary woman! What makes someone like you so special?” 

What? Cordelia stopped in her tracks. If the woman had judged her differently, she wouldn’t have cared much. But the moment she referred to Cordelia as a “woman,” Cordelia understood the woman’s intention. 

“You… you like Nathaniel, don’t you? Romantically.” 

Cordelia turned back to face the woman and asked. The woman looked at her with her chin raised, as if to say “So what if I do?” or “How dare someone like you ask me that?” But one thing was clear. The woman’s reaction showed that Cordelia had hit the mark. 

“I’m not interested in how you feel. I’m saying this so you understand one thing clearly.” 

Cordelia spoke with a clenched fist, asserting herself. 

“Even if I drink this and die, Nathaniel will never love you.” 

“…”

These words were directed toward the person who had hurt her with merciless words, but they also reflected something she was truly confident about. Nathaniel loved her now, and she believed in that. She was certain it wouldn’t change easily. 

“He loves me. I love him too. Even if one of us dies, we will never be erased from each other. So, even if you find a way to keep him by your side in the future, you will never defeat me. You will never receive all of his love because I’ve already received it. So, understand clearly… huh?” 

Suddenly, her body was lifted into the air. At the same time, she realized something had grabbed her waist. She was immediately embraced by a familiar presence. The scent of fresh trees surrounded her. 

“What are you wasting your time with? Let’s go.” 

It was Nathaniel. 

He had come to pick her up riding Skoll.