Chapter 21 – 20. Breakdown
‘Ugh… I have a headache…’
The first thing Arthur saw when he opened his eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling.
When she turned her head to the left and looked next to her, she saw the inside of what appeared to be her hospital room and saw Aris sleeping while holding her hand.
“Aris.?”
Aris, who was sleeping, felt Arthur’s movement and woke up.
“Arthur! “I’m glad you woke up.”
Aris stroked Arthur’s head and showed her relieved expression.
Arthur, who did not understand Aris’ reaction, asked.
“What’s wrong, Aris… Did something happen?”
“You haven’t been able to come to your senses up until now because of mana exhaustion.”
“Okay.? I remember being with Fabian and even touching the crystal ball…”
“Maybe I collapsed after that and don’t remember anything.”
“I see… I see…”
Aris, holding Arthur’s hand with both of her hands, began to make a serious expression.
“Arthur, I have something to tell you.”
Arthur also felt a little nervous seeing Aris’ serious look for the first time in a long time.
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you remember when you were seriously injured by a monster when we were children?”
“Yeah…”
She was reluctant to talk about it because it was a very traumatic event for Arthur, but she had no choice but to talk now.
“At that time… You know that Hylia used a ton of potions to save you, right?”
“Huh. “Remember.”
“To be more specific, I heard that the potion used to save you at that time was enough to save about 100 ‘seriously injured’ people.”
Arthur looked surprised at Aris’ words.
“Well, you used it that much.?”
“Yes, after that, Hylia told me that you probably don’t have the constitution to be affected by the potion.”
Of course, Aris could have told her about Arthur’s curse, but she had no choice but to lie because she was afraid of the reaction after hearing it.
‘I can lift all the curses later anyway, so Arthur doesn’t need to know.’
“…”
Arthur fell silent for a moment at Aris’s words, but she continued speaking.
“I know your desire to increase your mana, but… Since you can’t recover it with mana potions, I think I’ll have to give up on increasing it that way…”
“Okay? I get it. I can’t help it.”
Aris was relieved to see Arthur looking better than expected.
“It’s late tonight, so I think it would be best for you to sleep here. Then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Arthur?”
“Yeah. Good night to you too, Aris.”
Aris left the hospital room with a bright smile on her face, and Arthur watched her. And about 10 minutes had passed, but Arthur was still looking at the door that Aris had left through.
“…”
Arthur slowly got up from the bed and threw the vase next to her against the wall.
ㅡClick!
Looking at the shattered vase, Arthur began to scream at her.
“Why eeeee!!!!!!!”
ㅡKwajik! Kwasik!
Arthur, who was screaming, began to nervously trample on the fragments of her vase.
“This doesn’t work either!!! That doesn’t work either!! What are you asking me to do!!!!!!”
In his growing anger, Arthur began destroying the items in her hospital room one by one.
ㅡBoom!
ㅡKwasik!
After destroying everything in sight for a while, Arthur began talking to himself.
“So. You just don’t like me? This is why you abandoned me. My parents are stupid too. Why did they keep them alive instead of just killing them?”
“Now it feels like everything wants me dead! I should just die. “I can’t find any meaning anymore, what on earth is there to be meaning to my life?”
Before he knew it, Arthur’s eyes turned to the curtains on her window.
ㅡSqueak! Squeak!
Arthur tore the curtain and began to knot her so that he could wrap it around her neck.
“Wow. I finished it.”
After making the knot, Arthur moved her chair to the window, stepped on it, and began to tie the knot where she hung the curtains.
“Let’s stop now.”
With her eyes closed, Arthur touched the knot around her neck and kicked the chair under her.
“Huh.!”
As his stand disappeared, Arthur’s feet began moving in the air.
‘If you just wait a little longer… You won’t have to hurt anymore…’
The moment his mind began to fade, Arthur felt his body falling.
ㅡQuadang!
“Cough! Cough! Woo. Wooweehek.”
After she fell to the floor, blood leaking from her mouth, Arthur stared at her ceiling.
“You idiot…”
The crude knot, cut and made with one hand, was torn and untied from Arthur’s neck.
“Hehe… I’m not even good at dying.”
Arthur, who continued to look at her ceiling for a moment, opened his mouth again.
“Save me… This is hell… Huh? Aris…”
I desperately called, but there was no answer.
“Aris. Aris. Aris. Aris.”
“I only have you now… Every day is so hard for me… I can’t hold on any longer…”
Arthur, who had been lying down for several minutes, suddenly jumped up from his seat. She looked like there was a screw loose somewhere.
“If it stays like this, Aris will worry. “I need to get rid of her quickly.”
Arthur transformed into a different person in an instant.
Arthur looked around her and began to pick up broken items and throw them into her trash can, and as he was cleaning, a piece of broken glass caught her eye.
Arthur grabbed the piece of glass and held it to his left eye.
“If I couldn’t see at all, Aris would always be by my side, right? She might be able to stay with me all day under the pretense of being blind.”
“Then we always sleep together and eat together… Since I can’t do anything, Aris will do everything… Of course! Nu. I can’t see her eyes, but she will be able to do whatever Aris wants!!”
At that time, Arthur saw his own reflection in a piece of glass.
It had a strange appearance. The corners of her mouth were turned up unnaturally, and her eyes were crying. It was that kind of expression.
After watching for a while, Arthur could also see the bruises on his neck.
ㅡSwift!
Arthur threw away the piece of glass she was holding and started touching his neck with his left hand.
“It hurts…”
“What do we do.? If Aris sees it, she will be sad… Should I try covering it with a bandage? No. We’ll get caught soon.”
Arthur, who was looking for a good way, came up with a good idea.
“Okay! Just wear a bandage and go. When Aris asks to show, she shows! “Then you’ll pay more attention to me, right?”
Arthur opened the nearby drawers and was quickly able to find the bandage.
ㅡSigh. Sigh.
A bandage that slowly wraps around the neck.
After wrapping everything up, Arthur picked up a piece of glass again and checked his neck.
“It’s okay. It’s done! If I do this, no one will know, right? Hehe.”
Arthur, with a satisfied expression on his face, cleaned his room and lay down on the bed to sleep.
“I want to see Aris quickly. I can see her tomorrow, so I’ll just have to be patient.”
Arthur, who kept muttering Aris’ name, waited for a while before she was finally able to fall asleep.
…
The next morning.
Arthur hummed at her and moved to listen to her class with light steps.
When she entered the classroom, she saw Fabian sitting there.
“Uh? Fabian! Good morning!”
Fabian felt strange seeing Arthur look unusually bright, but she didn’t pay much attention.
“Hello. I… I was sorry yesterday. Because of me…”
“Huh? It’s nothing special! “Just don’t worry about it.”
“. Thank you for forgiving me, Arthur.”
Fabian felt fortunate that Arthur had forgiven him. As she smiled and looked at Arthur’s face, the bandage on her neck caught her eye.
“But what are those bandages?”
Arthur responded to Fabian’s words by touching his neck.
“This? It’s no big deal, I just got a little chafed, and it hurts.”
“Really?”
Something didn’t seem right, but since Arthur seemed to be in a better mood than ever, Fabian didn’t think much of it.
…
After morning classes, Arthur went to visit Aris.
“Aris~”
Aris, who was exercising, began to approach, waving her hand when she heard Arthur’s voice.
“Arthur? “You seem to be in a good mood today.”
“Then~ I feel good just by looking at you?”
Arthur, who began to speak his thoughts openly, suddenly hugged Aris.
“Will we stay like this for the rest of our lives?”
Aris was taken aback by Arthur’s sudden display of affection, but she stayed quiet because it wasn’t anything bad for her.
“…?”
At that time, Aris saw the bandage that Arthur was wrapping around her neck.
“Arthur, what are these bandages?”
“Yes? Oh, this?”
Arthur, who got out of her arms at Aris’s words, moved to her corner and began beckoning her to come here.
Aris, who saw her gesture, followed Arthur to her corner, and when Arthur came closer, he took off her bandage and showed his neck.
“!!”
“W-what is this. This. Arthur? “What did you do?”
Aris’ voice trembles slightly. However, Arthur, unaware of the seriousness of her situation, answered Aris’ question with a wide smile.
“This? I tried to commit suicide yesterday, but I failed! At first, I was sad that I couldn’t die, but when I thought about it, if I was alive, you could see it too… And… Um… I forgot! Hehe.”
Arthur had always been smart and logical, but now she acted like she was broken somehow. As she continued to talk, her words seemed incoherent and her mind seemed to be elsewhere.
“Are you sure you’re okay.?”
“Me? Of course, it’s fine!”
Arthur’s appearance is not normal at all. Even she herself seemed unaware of her condition.
“I can’t do it. First, Arthur? “I think you’re not feeling well right now. Shall we skip afternoon class and go to the hospital first since I’ll be by your side?”
“No? “I’m sick of hospitals now… Let’s do something fun with me instead!”
Arthur placed his hand on Aris’ waist as he spoke.
“It’s been a while since I did anything, right? Today I will do whatever you want! So, let’s just not take afternoon classes.”
Aris quickly released Arthur’s hand that was gradually wrapping around him and said with a puzzled expression.
“Arthur, you’re so strange right now… This isn’t normal.”
Arthur’s expression began to harden at Aris’ words.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
As soon as she spoke, her stiff expression relaxed, and she began to smile as if she had never done that before.
“Then should we go on a normal date? “There’s a place I want to go, will you go with me?”
Aris’ face was filled with embarrassment at the sight of Arthur’s appearance, which had no trace of any normal part.
