Sinclair felt the weight of the trigger being pulled with a clicking sound at her fingertips.

Though it was a sensation she had felt dozens, hundreds of times before, never had it been as thrilling as this.

Finally, all the bullets fired throughout the day combined couldn’t compare to the value of this single shot.

Eloise stared blankly as the gun barrel pointed at her.

When she heard Sinclair say there was only one bullet left, Eloise thought:

‘I need to block it.’

She had no doubt that the last bullet would be aimed at Ryan.

Hadn’t she seen with her own eyes how obsessively Sinclair had been targeting Ryan Wilgrave these past few weeks?

But contrary to Eloise’s expectation, the gun barrel was pointed directly at her.

Why?

The moment she thought this, Ryan beside her lunged toward her.

But Sinclair’s hand moved faster.

The sound of the trigger being pulled began to reach her ears very slowly, as if time had been caught and stretched out.

Everything visible moved slowly. Only Eloise’s mind raced quickly within this slow-motion world.

The moment the first note of the bang! reached her ears, Eloise felt that she was going to die.

She didn’t feel despair or sadness. She simply wondered, purely, what would happen after she died.

‘Mother and Father will be so sad.’

Just hearing about what she had done in the capital would surely make both of them collapse.

They were the ones who would immediately wrap her in blankets when the winter wind blew and place her in the warmest spot in the house.

What if they heard she had been neglected in a small room at Sinclair’s house, constantly walking on eggshells, and finally died from Sinclair’s bullet?

She could see her parents holding a funeral, their hearts shattered to pieces.

They would surely go to tear out Sinclair’s throat, and then they would certainly go to tear out Ryan’s throat next.

The fake grave of Ryan created for the public would probably become his real grave.

And Ryan…

At that moment, Eloise’s eyes met Ryan’s as he lunged toward her.

Though her mind had been filled with tumultuous thoughts since they met again, seeing him now looking at her with desperate and despairing eyes, she felt an overwhelming desire to embrace him…

‘Was I a fool, or just stupid?’

How else could she explain feeling uncomfortable around someone who had even pretended to be dead?

But seeing his expression now, looking as if he might burst into tears at any moment, even a person with a heart of steel would soften a little.

Ryan’s expression was that desperate. And so Eloise became even more certain.

‘I’m going to die here.’

She knew it instantly. Who could survive a bullet passing through their head?

In the slowly passing time, Eloise sought God.

‘Dear God.’

Although she hadn’t been particularly diligent in attending church, she had given a decent amount in offerings. So surely He would understand this small request.

‘Please let me die without pain.’

She had never been shot, so she didn’t know how painful it was. But it must be excruciating.

‘And please let me die in a less horrible way.’

It was ridiculous to be concerned about such things at the moment of death, but she still hoped to die cleanly.

She had heard that where a bullet hits, it explodes. That would surely be frightening or horrible.

‘I hope my parents and Ryan don’t have to see me like that.’

She just wished they could be left with good memories.

It would be much better for them to remember sharing meals and conversations together rather than recalling a bloody piece of meat covered in dirt and blood at the moment of her death.

Others say they want to be forgotten…

When discussing death, or reading newspaper editorials about it, people often expressed a wish that their names would be forgotten quickly after they departed.

They didn’t want their family and friends to suffer heartache because of them.

Reading such articles, Eloise had sympathized with those sentiments.

When she was young, a doctor who came to make a house call during her illness told the Surbertons to prepare themselves mentally.

Hearing the doctor’s voice through the partially open door saying she would die, Eloise had thought:

After she was gone, she hoped her parents would quickly let her go from their minds.

Honestly, that feeling hadn’t changed much even now.

But.

‘If Ryan forgets me, I’ll truly become a ghost and haunt him.’

Absurdly, she didn’t want Ryan to forget her.

Far from forgetting, she wanted him to think of her several times a week—no, a hundred times.

She wanted him to never look at another woman and think only of her for the rest of his life.

She was suffering and dying because of Ryan, so why should he get to move on? Besides, the thought of him looking at someone else with those eyes and living happily with another woman in the future made her feel like she would burst with anger.

Thoughts about how she wanted Abigail and others to remember her quickly flashed through Eloise’s mind.

A red flame sparked from the gun in Sinclair’s hand.

In that brief moment, not even 0.1 seconds, Eloise organized all her thoughts and calmly accepted death.

And she thought:

Before going to hell after death, she would definitely run to grab and shake that woman’s hair.

Since they were both women with bad timing, they’d probably see each other for a long time.

Just as Eloise had sorted out all her thoughts…

Sinclair screamed and collapsed.

From that moment, time began to flow at its normal speed again.

Simultaneously, a black shadow covered Eloise. And her body tumbled across the floor with Ryan with a loud thud.

This seemed to have happened several times since the cathedral, but that didn’t mean the pain was any less.

Confused by the unexpected pain, Eloise blinked her eyes.

What? What happened? What’s going on?

Meanwhile, Sinclair’s screams continued to be heard.

After a moment, Ryan, who had embraced her as they tumbled, got up. He too had an expression of not understanding the situation.

“Eloise?”

The two called each other’s names to confirm that they were both alive.

Eloise raised her hand again and lightly slapped Ryan’s cheek.

With a slapping sound, Ryan’s head turned, and a slight sting was felt on her palm.

So, this moment wasn’t a dream.

“What… what happened…?”

Eloise wondered as she looked over Ryan’s shoulder.

There, she saw Sinclair collapsed on the floor, clutching her hand.

The pistol was rolling beneath her, and thin smoke was rising from the barrel.

It was clear that the gun had been fired, but why was Sinclair collapsed instead of her?

As Eloise failed to understand the situation and remained dazed, Ryan let out a sigh and said:

“A misfire.”

At those words, Eloise also let out a groan.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when firing a gun that had become hot from rapid fire without properly cooling it down.

But she had heard that with technological advances through the war, such incidents rarely happened anymore, yet it had happened at this very moment.

Just then, the door burst open and Albion soldiers entered.

“Ryan!”

She saw Richard and Philip running toward them, calling their names. And soldiers with loaded guns pointing at the collapsed Sinclair.

As Eloise stared blankly at the scene, Ryan embraced her. And whispered:

“It’s over, Eloise.”

Eloise realized.

The entire war had now met its definitive end.

In the flames of an old mansion, with a pathetic misfire.

Without killing either of them.