## Chapter 75 – Charlotte. The Promise of That Day #3
Charlotte silently grabbed Arwen’s shoulder as she packed her bag and slammed her against the wall with a loud thud.
Her reddened face, the thick veins standing out on her neck, and her raised voice clearly expressed the emotions she was feeling.
“Are you crazy? Why are you going there!”
Arwen’s eyes had never wavered from the moment she announced to everyone that she would head to the battlefield until just before leaving the castle. Only looking at one goal, those unwavering eyes, she never dreamed that the moment when that gaze felt annoying would come again.
She grabbed Charlotte’s wrist, which was holding her shoulder, and opened her mouth in a firm tone.
“If I don’t go, who will? There’s no one stronger than me in this district. If someone else goes, it’ll only increase unnecessary sacrifices.”
A slight tremor passed through the wrist she was holding, she also hated the terribly awful reality of having to leave her loved ones and go to the battlefield.
Charlotte wasn’t the only one who wanted to cry. Arwen, if it weren’t for the gazes of the people around her and the weight of the crown she bore, would have hugged Charlotte and cried that she didn’t want to part ways right away.
However, District 1 requested troops from all districts for the war against external pressure, and Arwen chose to sacrifice herself, the individual, for the sake of her residents, the greater good.
When Arwen made up her mind, Charlotte knew better than anyone else that no one could break that will, having experienced it firsthand.
She couldn’t stop her, but she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. She couldn’t send her to her death alone and be in a comfortable place by herself.
“If you go, I’ll go too.”
Arwen’s brow furrowed slightly at Charlotte’s stubbornness.
It was the first fierce expression she had ever made, she who always smiled like a fool no matter what she heard.
“Don’t talk nonsense. If you go, who will protect this castle, District 7, Aser? I can go with peace of mind because I trust you. You’re my right-hand man, aren’t you? You need to keep your center, especially at times like this.”
“But….”
Arwen gently patted Charlotte’s sweat-streaked hair, loosening her fiercely distorted expression and smiling lightly as if to reassure her.
“It’s okay. You know my strength best, right? Get along well with Aser and wait for me.”
Charlotte’s hand, which had been holding her shoulder, fell weakly to the floor. She desperately wanted to hold on, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Having decided to follow her will, how could she argue with the decision she had made with such difficulty? That would be trampling on Arwen’s decision and her will, an insulting act.
“I’m going.”
Charlotte asked Arwen, who opened the door and went out into the hallway.
“Don’t you have to tell Aser?”
At the mention of Aser’s name, Arwen’s feet, which were about to head downstairs, stopped for a moment. She stared intently at the door where Aser was sleeping soundly, then quietly raised the corners of her lips.
“It’s not the last time… I’ll definitely come back here, so I won’t say goodbye.”
With those words, Arwen left the castle without looking back even once.
Charlotte hated her own miserable lack of eloquence for the first time, unable to offer a single word of proper comfort to her as she headed to her death.
If she could turn back time, Charlotte would have turned back time again and again to prevent Arwen from leaving for the battlefield.
Even if it meant sacrificing all the residents of District 7, even if it meant being resented by Arwen for the rest of her life, she would have definitely made the same choice every time.
Arwen, who left with a smile, did not return even after three years had passed since the war ended in District 1’s victory.
The castle, without Arwen’s warmth and hearty laughter, was plunged into silence, with only a bone-chilling coldness lingering. She realized then for the first time how quiet a castle without servants could be.
At first, she was tormented by the absence of her precious person, but the wounds that had opened up in the relentless passage of time slowly began to heal.
The winds of change, which seemed like they would never come, also came to Arwen’s castle.
The chef, who had been working since before Charlotte came to the castle, became so old that he was barely able to move, and retired with the words that he wanted to spend his last days with his children. Charlotte wished her well on her final path, the only person she had become attached to besides Arwen and Aser, and gave her gold coins as she said goodbye.
She wanted to hire another servant to manage the castle, but she decided against hiring another maid in order to show Arwen the same castle she had left when she returned someday.
As a result, Charlotte took on all the work of managing the castle.
She prepared meals for Aser, bathed her, mended her clothes, and cleaned the dirty floors, starting to do things that she had never done for anyone else in her life.
At first, she thought that even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough, but as time went by, she was amazed at how her body gradually adapted.
Aser and Charlotte, only the two of them in the castle, became each other’s support, comforting each other’s wounds and loneliness, and slowly regaining their smiles.
Aser saw her departed mother in Charlotte, and Charlotte saw her departed friend in Aser. Nevertheless, they could not completely fill the void left by Arwen, who had left a large hole in their hearts.
Late at night, after sitting next to Aser’s bed, who was whining that she couldn’t sleep, and struggling to put her to sleep by reading a book for two hours, and eating a late dinner alone in the dining room.
Arwen suddenly appeared, as if the memory of their first meeting had come to mind.
“I’m back.”
Charlotte stopped her moving hand at the familiar voice that had come to her ear.
The moment of reunion that she had always dreamed of, the scenery that she had always wished for in her heart.
At first, she thought it was just a ghost playing pranks without fear, or a hallucination caused by the fatigue of working and the accumulated longing without her knowing it.
But Charlotte instinctively excluded all negative thoughts from her head and called her name in a trembling voice without even realizing it.
“Arwen…?”
“What, is that all the greeting I get after coming back after so long? If I had known, I should have come back in a year?”
Not caring at all about people’s feelings, only saying what she wanted to say. It was definitely Arwen.
She was not in a condition to say that she was okay, even as a formality, after returning from the war.
Her left eye had completely lost its light, her body could not walk properly without crutches, and she was covered in scars everywhere.
Arwen nonchalantly gave her second greeting with a body that looked like it would collapse at any moment.
“Long time no see, Charlotte.”
Charlotte’s joy of reunion was momentarily replaced by a surge of anger at Arwen’s appearance, calling her name in a nonchalant tone and greeting her, and it came out of her throat first.
“Long time no see, my ass…. Where have you been all this time without even contacting us!? Do you even know how hard it was for me and Aser!?”
Arwen replied without a care, even as Charlotte raised the veins in her temples and shouted.
“After the war ended, I took some time to recuperate in District 1. I wasn’t in a condition to move right away.”
Her trembling body gradually calmed down, and her anger subsided. Arwen smiled at Charlotte’s calmed appearance and opened her arms wide, except for the hand holding the crutch.
“Is that all you’re going to scold me for? Then I can hug you now.”
As soon as Arwen finished speaking, Charlotte kicked off her chair and ran to her, hugging her tightly as if she would never let go again, and muttered in a tearful voice.
“Welcome back.”
From that day on, the castle regained its vitality.
Arwen lived a life that was no different from before she participated in the war, except that she used crutches or staggered occasionally while walking.
She smiled while playing with Aser, and still spoke to Charlotte in a playful tone. She expressed her regret for the chef who had disappeared, but she did not spare praise for Charlotte, who had become quite good at cooking.
But Charlotte gradually realized her abnormality in her continued life. Arwen, who used to always shower together, chose times when Charlotte was not around to shower, and she no longer did the sparring that she had forced her to do whenever she was bored.
If the adverse effects of the war that had befallen Arwen’s body were only that, Charlotte would have overlooked it. But the moment she found clear bloodstains or sticky, mysterious liquid on the blanket, it was no longer something she could take lightly.
Along with that, she realized. The peace she had regained for a moment was a precarious peace built on sand, that could collapse at any moment. Charlotte, realizing that her condition was not good, went straight to Arwen’s room.
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
Those were the first words Charlotte said to Arwen, who was getting ready to sleep, as she opened the door.
Arwen saw the blood-stained blanket that Charlotte was holding in her hand and smiled helplessly as if she had been caught. She took Charlotte’s hand, who had come close, and shook her head with an expression that had lost all laughter, as if she had given up on everything.
“No, going to the hospital won’t solve anything.”
After finishing speaking, she took off the top she was wearing.
At the same time, the pungent smell of death that had been trapped inside spread in all directions.
Her skin, with stitches here and there, pieced together as if sewing other leather, and her upper body, with leather added on top of the wounds, was no different from a rag.
Charlotte widened her eyes and took a deep breath as she saw the yellow pus flowing from the open wounds.
Arwen smiled awkwardly at Charlotte’s expression and put her clothes back on to cover the wounds.
“It’s ugly, isn’t it? It’s worse below. Since my body has become like this, I can’t handle it with just my mental strength. I’m starting to fall asleep several times a day.”
It was close to a miracle that she had come this far with these wounds on her body.
“With these wounds…. Why did you come here?”
It was definitely a good thing that Arwen had come, but with these wounds, it would have been much better to recuperate in District 1 until she was completely healed.
“I know my body best. There’s no hope for this. I haven’t even shown Aser what a mother is like yet, and I wanted to spend my last moments in this castle where I was born.”
“This is a secret from Aser.”
That smile, faintly holding the moonlight seeping through the window, looked the saddest of all the smiles she had ever seen.
After Charlotte found out about her wounds, Arwen’s health deteriorated rapidly, to the point where it was pointless to ask her to keep it a secret.
No, perhaps it was more accurate to say that the pain she had been desperately enduring so as not to worry the people around her had finally burst.
Eventually, Arwen reached a point where she could not move even with crutches. The golden eyes that had contained a burning flame became cloudy as if only ashes remained, and the brilliant blonde hair became dry and brittle as if it would crumble at any moment if touched.
Arwen, lying in her sickbed, realized that her end was near and called Charlotte and Aser.
No one in that place could open their mouths first.
Arwen, who had been silent, slowly opened her parched lips, which were losing the light of life.
“I have a last request.”
“What is it, tell me anything. I’ll listen to everything…!”
Arwen looked alternately at Charlotte and Aser, who were kneeling and holding her hands tightly, and said.
“When I die, treat our daughter… properly as the Demon Lord. When I think about it now, I’ve never heard you speak formally to me. Are you even my exclusive maid if you’re like that?”
Charlotte felt resentful at Arwen’s attempt to change the atmosphere with a trivial joke until the very last moment.
“You idiot! Something like that….”
Charlotte, who was about to say something but swallowed her tears, grabbed Arwen’s hands with both hands and lowered her head.
I don’t want to part like this, I don’t want to lose my precious person, Charlotte threw away all her pride and shouted as if she was wailing.
“Don’t die…. No, please don’t die… I’m, I’m begging you like this…! I’ll speak formally to you as much as you want if you just stay alive… please… please….”
Charlotte, who had witnessed the deaths of countless lives until now and could not understand the sadness they felt, was finally able to feel the sadness of loss.
“What… is it okay to fulfill my last request so easily…? It doesn’t really suit you when you do it, but it sounds nice.”
Charlotte looked like she wanted to say something more, but sadness ran out of her throat before words could.
“Send me off with a smiling face at the end. No, I’ll order you for the first and last time. Smile, Charlotte. You look much better that way.”
Arwen’s gaze turned to Aser, who was standing behind Charlotte and denying reality.
“Haha… our Aser, what am I going to do, I’m going to miss her…? I wanted to see her grow up into a fine young lady, meet a good man, get married, and even see her grandchildren…. Even if I say this, I’m still scared of dying. Everyone is running away except me….”
She finished her long words, took one last breath, and moved her gaze to the ceiling.
Arwen’s lips were twitching little by little, as if she wanted to say something more.
She had a lot of things she wanted to say, but she knew that the flame of life was about to go out. Yes, this is greed. Let’s say just one last word.
Something she had been aiming for throughout her life.
“Could I have been a light to you?”
Charlotte instinctively knew that Arwen’s words would be her last words.
“Of course…. You were the only light in my life, which was filled with darkness.”
Arwen smiled and closed her eyes.
“Then my life wasn’t… in vain.”
Arwen’s hand, which Charlotte had been holding tightly as if not to let go, slipped out and fell to the bottom with a thud.
A movement that signaled the end of an existence that seemed like it would last forever.
“Mom…?”
Aser, as if she couldn’t believe it, slowly took a step, passed Charlotte, and approached Arwen.
Aser’s eyes, shaking Arwen’s body, which was stiffening without even a slight movement, also began to shake violently from side to side like a drooping clock pendulum.
Charlotte swallowed her tears as she watched Aser shaking Arwen’s body repeatedly.
“Aser….”
At that moment, Arwen’s last words came to mind. The story of treating her daughter, Aser, properly as the Demon Lord.
“No, Demon Lord… it’s time to let her go now.”
“I don’t want to! I don’t want to!”
Aser clung to Arwen’s chest, which was now cold and would never beat again, and screamed, rubbing her face, which was covered in tears and snot.
“You can’t cry…. From now on, you have to maintain your dignity as the new Demon Lord….”
Aser shook off Charlotte’s hand, which was holding her back, and clung to Arwen’s body even more persistently.
Aser, wailing in a voice that could not come out of her small body, shouted at Charlotte.
“Charlotte is crying too! Why can’t I cry?!”
Cry?
No. That can’t be. Aren’t I smiling right now?
According to her last order, I should be smiling, right?
Charlotte moved her trembling hand to her face.
It’s wet, it’s hot. That can’t be.
Yes, this is not tears, but rain.
Otherwise, she would not have been able to face Arwen.
“Cry… it’s just raining….”
But the moment she recognized the tears, Charlotte could not maintain her smile.
Her expression distorted in an instant, and she collapsed to the floor and wailed for the first time in her life.
She could not maintain her reason in the face of the sadness that swallowed her body like a wave.
She could not even breathe properly in the pain that felt like her heart, which had been beating because of her, had stopped at the same time.
What came into Charlotte’s eyes was the young Aser.
If I don’t come to my senses, who will take care of Aser?
That thought alone, that the reckless child couldn’t do without her, made Charlotte barely come to her senses from the wave of sadness and get up.
Charlotte hugged the sobbing Aser from behind and whispered in her ear as if swearing.
“I will protect you, Demon Lord, for the rest of my life…. So that you never experience such a tragedy again….”
●
“Charlotte-nim? It’s time to wake up.”
Charlotte was sleeping with her head on No. 25’s thigh.
A posture that was exactly the opposite of the appearance she remembered last night.
Charlotte nonchalantly raised her upper body, stretched, and asked.
“Is it already morning?”
It’s been a long time since I’ve slept.
No. 25 looked at Charlotte, who was rubbing her eyes, and asked carefully.
“Did you perhaps cry?”
Charlotte stopped stretching in place, fixed her posture, slowly turned her head, and said to No. 25.
“Who’s crying?”
She knew that it was not convincing to say that with clear tear marks and red, swollen eyes, but No. 25 did not ask any further, as if she was considerate of Charlotte.
Charlotte looked at No. 25, who was busily getting dressed, from behind, and hugged her tightly without saying anything.
No. 25 did not panic and put her hand on Charlotte’s arm, which was holding her torso.
Charlotte, who had been in that position for a while, said tentatively.
“Who would have known? That I would have one more person to protect.”
“Yes?”
“It’s nothing. Well, you have to do your job hard today, right? Go to the Demon Lord. She likes kissing from the morning, right?”
Charlotte looked at No. 25’s back with satisfaction as she hurriedly left the room at the words to go to the Demon Lord.
The pain of that day is enough for once. I will not lose a single person who is precious to me.
Charlotte looked out the window for a very short time, then quietly followed No. 25 and left the room.
