ERTHMB Chapter 122

The Only Ending

Whoosh— splash.

The black waves rolled in layers up to her feet. The coastline she had reached after running without rest was sharp with the settled dawn air.

Helena stood in the middle of it all, as if melting into the darkness. With roots planted in the sand, she gazed beyond the distant horizon. From there, the sky was being dyed with blue light. It was where the world was brightening.

After waiting a little longer, finally the edge of the sun showed itself. The red mass began to rise above the horizon like a blazing flame. The dazzling radiance spread to the coast as well.

And there was a man running toward her, cutting through the dawn mixed with morning air, sea breeze, and salt spray.

Helena never took her eyes off him for even a moment. She waited quietly until he finally reached her and grabbed her shoulders.

“Helena! I was worried when you disappeared without a word.”

He quickly scanned Helena’s entire body and was horrified when he discovered bloodstains.

“My God. Where exactly are you hurt? Show me quickly.”

“I’m not hurt.”

“Then this blood…!”

“It’s not mine. I’m fine.”

“But you…”

Helena knew what word he wanted to say at the end of his trailing sentence. He probably wanted to say she was crying. His figure became slightly blurred as tears gradually welled up in her eyes.

Helena felt the strength slowly drain from his hands gripping her shoulders. His relief was her relief too. So normally she would have turned her head away and swallowed her tears, pretending nothing was wrong.

Helena sniffled and let out her muffled voice without hiding it.

“Can I ask you just one thing?”

Though his permission didn’t come back immediately, Helena continued to ask.

“How did you know I was here?”

“…..”

“If I hadn’t lost my memory, what were you planning to say when you met me?”

He looked at Helena with furrowed brows. Helena tried to read him. Unlike usual, he was easy to read.

For someone who had received such an unexpected question, his face showed more of something other than confusion. He looked sorrowful. She couldn’t read what he was sorrowful about.

“Actually…”

His Adam’s apple bobbed greatly. Helena slowly raised her gaze from the prominent Adam’s apple to his light purple eyes that were being dyed by the dawn.

When their eyes met, he parted his lips with difficulty.

“At first I tried to forget. I tried to just cover it up as childhood folly. But I couldn’t. It was absolutely impossible.”

His confession was more polite and careful than ever. His voice was only gentle, gentle enough that even the wind that couldn’t be caught no matter how much you clawed at the air felt sharper.

“So I wanted to meet you and tell you that there’s someone who is breathing and living like this thanks to you, someone who regained their life. I just wanted to let you know that.”

He slowly lifted his hand from Helena’s shoulder to cradle the nape of her neck.

“But even that was arrogance. I realized it the moment I met you.”

Her pulsing heartbeat was trapped in his large grip. Then he continued his confession.

“No matter how much I denied it, I knew that somehow I would return to you again. Even if I took countless detours, I saw a future where the only place I’d arrive was by your side. From the beginning, it wasn’t that I didn’t forget—I couldn’t forget.”

He swallowed his trembling breath for a moment. Then finally he put the period on his confession.

“Because you are such a vivid person, you were my only ending from the very beginning.”

Helena blinked blankly. She wanted to confirm this wasn’t a dream.

Fortunately, the formed image didn’t disappear no matter how many times she closed and opened her eyes. Only the pooled tears fell with a patter.

The accumulated, repeated time had been a hazy, murky color. Helena had spent all her time like misty fog. That’s what she had thought.

But.

“Because you are such a vivid person.”

These words moved her so deeply, she who had only colorlessness left.

He called herself, who had never even properly been someone’s fragment, his everything.

She tried to hold back somehow, but Helena couldn’t help but cry. He was endlessly affectionate despite always making her cry, as if there were no tomorrow. Even now…

“Are you really okay? Your body is very cold. Even if you’re not hurt anywhere, it’s not good to be in the dawn wind for long.”

He restlessly wiped Helena’s cheeks as she cried loudly. Unlike his voice, his rough palms brushed her cheeks, and Helena loved even that.

“I’m okay.”

“…”

“I’m okay, really okay.”

Helena reached out and pushed her hands around his waist. As if there were no tomorrow, she hugged him tightly. She gripped his embrace as if she would never let him go again. Damp, trembling breath escaped between them.

Through it all, she called to him.

“Ian.”

At last.

“Ian.”

At last, dawn had completely broken over the horizon.

Helena finally held the last fragment of fitted memory and called to him once more.

“Ian.”

As if answering her call, Ian’s upper body gradually tilted downward. Helena leaned her head back to meet him.

The sun illuminated the space between their approaching lips. As if swallowing the rising sun, they clashed their hot breaths together. It was a moment that needed no words. Every moment that began to flow was him.

The whole world was dyed crimson.

Helena thought in the midst of the pouring heat.

‘I knew from the beginning too.’

The ending pointed to by her complete memory was clear.

‘This is my destination.’

****

Whoosh— splash.

The waves now broke with sparkling ripples instead of black darkness. But the sound they made was unchanged. Like a man leaving tracks on the sandy beach with the same stride as his own footsteps.

Helena walked along the coastline with Ian, glancing at him sideways.

Even while repeating in her head that it couldn’t be, that it was impossible, she kept connecting his identity with someone.

‘Ian Kamel. Coincidentally, he has the same name as the Emperor of Rihalt.’

Each name couldn’t be said to be uncommon, but it wasn’t easy for both the first name and middle name to be the same.

‘I saw a business card with the merchant company’s official seal too. What more am I suspecting?’

Of course, even if he lied, there was no way to verify it. The Emperor of Rihalt was said to suffer from constant assassination attempts.

Therefore, he rarely came out of the palace, and few people knew his face to begin with. So it was difficult to obtain his portrait in distant Instantia.

She really wondered if it could be, but Helena decided to trust his conscience and ask one last time.

“Ian.”

“What?”

The formality had now disappeared from their conversations. The somewhat friendly tone was awkward, making Helena blush slightly. But she liked it just as much. It felt like declaring that the person standing closest to her heart was him.

So to maintain this good feeling for a long time, Helena hoped they would have nothing more to hide from each other.

“That position you said you shouldn’t have coveted long ago. Was it perhaps the imperial throne?”

“…I’m curious how you came to that conclusion.”

“Just, your name is the same as the Emperor of Rihalt.”

While mentioning Rihalt, Helena carefully observed Ian’s face. If she watched what reaction he had for an instant, she could roughly infer.

But whether he was skilled at wearing masks or it really was an unrelated story, there wasn’t even a twitch on his clean face.

Instead, he asked back.

“What do you think it would be like if I were the emperor?”

“Hmm… I suppose I’d become the empress then.”

“…You don’t like that?”

“I like how things are now.”

“Me too,” Ian added, pulling Helena closer with the hand wrapped around her shoulder. Helena, drawn even closer to his embrace, parted her lips again.

But if you really are the emperor, it’s not that the emperor is Ian, but Ian is the emperor, so it doesn’t matter—she was about to say.

“Oh, it’s that uncle from before!”

A child’s bright voice cut through between them at close range. Helena hastily pushed Ian away. Even though their physical intimacy wasn’t a sin to hide, she did it instinctively like a guilty thief.

However, Ian was happy despite being suddenly pushed away. This behavior was proof that she truly acknowledged their relationship as lovers. It was a cute aspect that made only laughter spill out.

Meanwhile, Helena suppressed her flustered mood and recognized the child.

“You’re… Paul?”

“You remember now!”

“Didn’t you say you lived in Praeterita last time? What brings you here?”

“I’m on my way back after selling harvest crops. Thanks to the gold coins this uncle gave me last time, I got a field!”

Paul spread both arms wide and pointed at Ian while shouting. Helena suddenly recalled the time she had stopped by the cemetery in Praeterita before throwing herself into the sea.

At that time, there had been a bunch of marigolds placed at Basil’s grave before her own.

‘So that was…’

As Helena stared at Ian thoughtfully, Ian turned his head as if embarrassed. He really seemed to have followed and stepped on all of her past to get here. He even had an acquaintance with the old man approaching from afar.

“We meet again, young man.”

“…Grandpa.”

At Helena’s murmured response, the old man’s head moved from Ian to Helena. When the old man faced her, he immediately smiled. Warmly, as if meeting someone he’d seen yesterday.

“It’s been a long time, Helen.”

****

When the door closed, the cozy air soothed the tip of her nose, which had turned red from the outside cold. Of course, it wasn’t enough to warm her body immediately, but Helena took off her coat right away.

Even though she had built up courage, it was clothing stained with Eric’s blood. She didn’t have a strong enough stomach to keep wearing it.

“Give me your clothes. I’ll wash them while you clean up.”

Paul efficiently took Helena and Ian’s coats. The two had met Paul and Grandpa in Futuo and returned to Praeterita.

Since they had to stop by anyway to get Gelda’s sword from the basement, they naturally ended up spending a night at Paul’s house.

Helena had listened to Paul’s boasting the entire way there. His words that things had gotten much better after Ian’s visit weren’t lies. A house that was wider and cleaner than Helena’s old memories welcomed them.

“Then get yourselves settled.”

After Grandpa left the room, Helena unbuckled her leather belt and placed it on the table. In the process, a neatly folded paper fell out with a thud. Helena hastily reached for it, but Ian was faster.

Before he could even ask what it was, he tried to unfold the paper. Helena invaded his personal space, constantly flailing her arms in the air.

“Give it back.”

“That makes me even more curious.”

“It’s nothing!”

“Humans generally don’t put this much effort into things that are nothing.”