How to Change Fate
Helena faced the man before her squarely.
Seeing Ian after such a long time made her heart pump fresh blood. Every sense became so vivid that her head felt dizzy.
Come to think of it, it had always been like that. Just seeing her own reflection within those pale-colored borders made the world around her raise its saturation to violent levels.
“As promised, I found you, Ian.”
Her throat tightened and constricted. Nevertheless, perhaps pressed down by overwhelming longing, a surprisingly calm voice came out.
“But thinking about you just a little was hard. It was so hard that I ended up doing it a lot. So much, so often, I thought about you. I thought I’d go crazy from missing you so much.”
“…….”
“Get down, Ian.”
Helena commanded firmly, but Ian hesitated and backed his horse up two or three steps.
“Go back. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Why, because you’re the emperor?”
“…….”
“Because you thought I couldn’t handle you? Is that why you left?”
Ian opened his mouth as if to immediately refute, then bit his lips as if forcibly holding something back.
A cruel light entered his once gentle eyes in an instant.
“Yes. Do I look like someone who would crave your affection? Do you think I wanted to see you? Don’t be mistaken. I’m not idle enough to fall into such trivial love games. I don’t need you.”
Ian shot back mercilessly, but Helena didn’t back down.
To her, all his words sounded like different words.
I missed you. Don’t go. Please stay.
“So go back to Instantia, Helena.”
I love you.
I love you so much.
Helena moved her horse forward, closing the distance he had created.
“You know what? Back then in the basement of Praeterita. You blushed every time you saw me, but I pretended not to notice. Then and now, you really can’t lie. Do you want me to be hurt, Ian?”
“……!”
“Do you want me to cry while blaming you, cursing you, wishing you’d never appear before me again?”
Persistently pulling at their gazes entangled in midair, Helena commanded.
“Then don’t speak with that kind of face.”
Finally, Ian’s face crumbled.
He exhaled an open breath as if giving up everything and pleaded.
“Helena, please. I just……!”
“I know. Just.”
Helena, who had dismounted, stood with both arms spread as if blocking Ian’s way.
“I’ll just be here. I’ll be by your side. I’ll do that, just. So you just stay too. By my side.”
“……Helena.”
Without rushing him further, Helena looked up at Ian. Forcibly suppressing her increasingly burning eyes, she silently repeated the answer she hoped to hear.
Say you will. Say you’ll stay.
Say you’ll remain by my side, that you’ll never leave again.
Helena waited. And his answer that came back was a warm embrace.
Ian, who had jumped down from his horse, pulled Helena into his arms. Affection hot enough to set her entire body ablaze poured down like a waterfall in an instant. Ragged breathing filled her eardrums.
Even being held so crushingly tight, Helena was happy, so overwhelmingly happy. She finally burst into tears.
“Don’t disappear again. I don’t care if you’re an emperor or a beggar. I need Ian. That’s all that matters.”
“I will, Helena. I’ll do that. I’ll stay by your side.”
His voice, pouring out words as if gasping, was also tinged with moisture. Before she could see his crying face, Helena closed her eyes and kissed him.
Ian’s arms immediately wrapped around her waist. How much had she longed for his firm touch? Helena pulled him in deeply until she ran out of breath.
Meanwhile, there was an eye watching them from distant bushes.
Eugene couldn’t close the book leaving his own ending as it was.
‘If you abandoned it, you shouldn’t have looked for it again. You should have lived pretending not to know until death. Or at least……’
Eugene clenched his fist so hard his nails dug into his skin.
“You shouldn’t have appeared before my eyes.”
The last thread had finally snapped.
‘It was you who let go of the leash, Helena.’
Eugene realized. There was no other way left for him now.
****
Click.
Eugene heard the door close behind him.
A full day had passed waiting for Helena to return to her room. She appeared quietly only as the dusky dawn approached.
Helena let out a surprised groan at the unexpected presence of another person as soon as she entered her bedroom.
“What are you doing here?”
Eugene answered calmly.
“We’re going back to Evergale.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. You and I.”
Helena’s gaze only then swept around the room. Her clothes and belongings were all organized into large bags and boxes.
Eugene paid no mind to her gaze and continued packing.
Helena snatched the bag he was about to close and said,
“Why would I go to Evergale?”
“Why? That’s where you belong.”
It was Eugene’s conclusion.
By any means necessary, Helena just needed to be with him.
Even if he had to break her legs, blind her eyes. He decided to imprison her in his arms. That was the right answer.
Although she was currently caught in a ridiculous fantasy, if she lived in comfortable Evergale manor again, she would realize. How much she had been chasing blind affection, believing in absurd love.
“Let’s go, Helena.”
Eugene extended his hand.
Helena shook her head and stepped back.
“No. If you want to go back, go by yourself. I’m staying here.”
“Does this seem like your destination? No, no matter how sweet it is, a dream is still a dream. Don’t be mistaken.”
And the moment of awakening was bound to be unstable and rough.
“I’ll ask one last time, Helena. Let’s go.”
“I’ll answer one last time, Eugene. No.”
At her firm attitude, Eugene let out a long sigh.
“Then I have no choice either.”
Eugene withdrew the hand he had extended. At the same time, orderly footsteps rushed in from the exit Helena had tried to escape through. Hired soldiers instantly surrounded Helena.
Eugene tilted his head and gave the order.
“Seize her.”
The soldier in the lead rushed forward first. Helena ducked to avoid him, then pulled a sword from his waist.
Helena, who had moved her body to the window, pointed the sword at the soldiers.
“Don’t come closer.”
Eugene let out a thin sneer and commanded again.
“It’s fine if she gets a little hurt. -Seize her.”
Four or five swords were simultaneously drawn toward Helena. After a deep breath, Helena readjusted her grip on the sword. Blue energy began to envelop and resonate with the blade.
Using her aura, Helena subdued two soldiers who attacked threateningly.
The two unconscious men collapsed, and Helena snarled fiercely.
“I said don’t come closer.”
“Ha.”
At the empty sigh that burst from a diagonal angle, Helena shifted her gaze. Eugene, who seemed to be rubbing his face, buried his eyes in his palm and muttered gloomily.
“Right now, I’m really…… regretful, Helena. So sad. Why do you drive me to this point? When you keep trying to abandon me, what other method do I have?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I’m the one who’s been betrayed every time. Even at this very moment! You abandoned me once again. I was worried you’d die if I left you. If I could, I’d want to carve out even that feeling.”
Eugene, who had been giggling while still buried in his palm, lifted his head.
“Then don’t worry. Don’t pity me either. You just, Helen. You just need to love me.”
While she was distracted, the soldiers moved forward. Helena, struck on the wrist with the back of a blade, dropped her sword.
Without even time to nurse her swelling wrist, strong hands reached out. Helena struck the window hard with her elbow. Shattered glass fragments fell, and she grabbed one of them.
“Stop, Eugene. If you take one more step-.”
“If I do, what, you’ll die?”
Instead of panicking, Eugene took one step forward.
“You know you can’t die now. It’s disgusting to say, but there’s someone who wants you. So you have to live. Isn’t that right?”
A twisted, suppressed smile gripped Helena’s stomach. As he said, Ian’s image was hovering before her eyes.
But Ian wasn’t someone who made her weak, but someone who made her strong.
Helena pushed the fragment she was gripping relentlessly toward her own throat.
“I’d rather die than live as a shell by your side. I’ve already repeated it four times—do you think I can’t do it one more time? If I go back, you’ll forget everything anyway. Then I’ll leave you knowing nothing and go somewhere you can never find me.”
Then finally Eugene’s expression wavered. An anxious look appeared on his smooth face, and the moment a thin line of blood flowed down her throat.
“You mustn’t, madam!”
Walter rushed in.
Helena’s face showing dismay and Eugene extending his arm happened almost simultaneously.
“-No!”
“Ugh!”
Eugene, who had grabbed and twisted Walter’s arm, brought a blade close to his throat.
“What will you do now? Does it matter if Walter dies?”
“You despicable bastard……!”
“Curse all you want. I find everything pleasant in your voice.”
Eugene, who gently swallowed the reproach, twisted Walter’s wrist to squeeze a groan from him.
“Preferably decide quickly. You know I don’t have great patience either.”
Walter was looking at her with a breathless face.
Helena felt it was because of guilt, not fear.
She wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but Eugene’s noticeably depleting patience made her swallow even that.
“Still don’t understand, Helena? You leaving was meant to make me aware of my fate. To have you again.”
A drop of blood formed and fell from Eugene’s sword tip. Walter shook his head, but Helena finally released the strength from her grip. The glass shard she dropped rolled on the floor.
As soon as she was seized by the soldiers, a damp cloth covered her nose and mouth. Her weakened legs buckled, and her vision began to fade.
Amid gasping breaths, she saw Eugene’s shoe getting closer and closer.
“It was my contract from the beginning, my created fate. I received a chance to reverse my foolish choice. The one who changed fate all along wasn’t you, but me.”
Helena desperately reached out to grab Eugene’s ankle and dug her nails in.
Eugene’s sickly laughter deepened. He stroked Helena’s head, then lifted her up when she completely closed her eyes.
“Sleep peacefully. There won’t be any bad dreams, and when you wake up, everything will be fine.”