If You Leave, You’ll Die
Sharti looked at the elderly woman with puzzled eyes as she burst into laughter.
She couldn’t understand what part had triggered such amusement.
‘…Was my concern too absurd?’
Just as Sharti’s expression was becoming strange, the elderly woman’s laughter gradually subsided.
“Oh my~ Oh my~”
With tears hanging at the corners of her eyes, the elderly woman cleared her throat with a cough.
“That man~ I’ll read him for you~”
“What?”
The elderly woman placed her hand on the crystal ball and began chanting an incomprehensible spell. Then, mysteriously, the brightness of the constellations inside the crystal ball became more vivid.
Sharti stared intently at the crystal ball, tense at witnessing the fortune teller’s ability for the first time.
“Oh my~ That man~ He’s like an enormous rock~”
After examining the constellations in the crystal ball for a while, the elderly woman struck the table with a thwack! and spoke.
“He won’t budge~ Women~ wealth~ power~ He has no interest in any of it~ A rock~ A rock~”
“Uh…”
Sharti’s eyes shifted back and forth.
A rock. While Ren did show her a smiling and playful side specifically around her, it seemed like an accurate description that was hard to deny.
“That man~ Forget about a fiancée, he’s never even talked to a woman~ You’re his first, miss~”
“…What?”
It was a statement that somehow piqued her interest.
“That person, really?”
At Sharti’s reaction, the elderly woman nodded solemnly.
“His relationships with women are too-o clean~ It’s not just that he’s unpopular with women~ He has no interest in others at all~ Not just marriage, he can’t even date for his entire life~ There probably hasn’t been a woman who caught his eye~ Naturally, he’s never held hands with anyone either~ Oh my~ He even dislikes physical contact~”
“Th-that much?”
Sharti asked back in surprise at the unexpected assessment.
Since it was coming from the fortune teller who had been accurate like a pinpoint until now, it felt credible.
“That’s not all~”
The elderly woman clicked her tongue and shook her head. There was more to it.
Sharti swallowed her dry saliva and concentrated.
“Looking at him carefully~ That man’s behavior is like that~ A rock~ A rock~ He doesn’t move~ He has no flexibility as a person~ Just frustrating~”
“…”
“That man~ was born into a very-ry terrifying household~ Moreover, he’s lived such a difficult life~ He probably hasn’t had a single peaceful sleep~”
The elderly woman talked incessantly about ‘Ren’ as if she could really see something.
It wasn’t a tone of making assumptions based on abstract tendencies or background.
“His expression is rigid~ His manner of speaking is bleak~ You could call him a ghost and he’d have nothing to say~ He carries rumors around~ Misunderstandings pile up~ But he doesn’t care at all~ Thanks to that, many bugs have been attracted~”
“…”
“He has too many enemies~ That man~ He’s been stabbed by a sword, right~? Not just once or twice~ He nearly died each time, and recently it was really dangerous~”
She recited not just detailed but even specific recent events. The elderly woman was clearly explaining with definite conviction to a degree that couldn’t be doubted.
“Did you say that man doesn’t remember his past~? That~ He abandoned it~”
Sharti had always been curious. She had imagined various things about what kind of place ‘Ren’ would return to once he found his memories. However, reality was beyond imagination.
‘A life where you have to be prepared for death at every moment?’
Listening to the pouring information, Sharti couldn’t say anything.
“He chose it himself because otherwise he wouldn’t survive~”
Of course, in a corner of her heart, she had vaguely guessed that ‘Ren’s’ life hadn’t been easy.
Through the numerous scars on his massive body and the habit of occasionally staring blankly into space, she had seen traces of what must have been his lonely life.
[I like who I am now. It’s not that my subconscious is rejecting it, but rather my current will. I don’t particularly want to find what I’ve lost.]
Sharti pressed firmly on her chest area as a stinging pain spread through it.
‘If that’s true, if he really lived such a life…’
In an atmosphere where even breathing felt cautious, the elderly woman removed her hand from the crystal ball.
“Young lady~ Do you still want to let that man go~?”
“…”
Sharti’s lips twitched.
And the elderly woman said with an expressionless face.
“But~ That man~ If he leaves, he’ll die~”
“…!”
“If he returns to his original place now, he’ll die. Without a doubt.”
The elderly woman declared Ren’s death in a tone devoid of any emotion.
Sharti’s pupils trembled.
“Of course, he’ll return someday~”
The elderly woman shrugged her shoulders.
At the same time, her deeply wrinkled face began to gradually change.
“It could be tomorrow~ It could be 10 years from now~ But what’s certain is that he’ll definitely return to his place~ That’s how fate works~ That man can never enjoy a peaceful life~ Because he was born under that flow of stars~”
The corners of the elderly woman’s mouth rose.
It was a smile unbecoming of someone who reads the fates of others.
“As for you, Young lady, well, you can become unhappy~ No, you will become unhappy~”
“…”
The tone cursing her openly to her face was remarkably cheerful.
“But~? So~? Will you be less unhappy by avoiding him now~?”
“…That person promised me. That even if he finds his memories, the current him won’t disappear.”
At least he promised not to disappear without a word in front of me.
Sharti repeated Ren’s words to herself.
As if noticing her struggle to dilute the fortune teller’s curse even a little, sympathy flashed across the elderly woman’s face for a moment.
“Young lady~ If he finds all his memories~ How can he be the same person~?”
“Even so, the memories we had together won’t disappear…!”
“That’s right, Young lady.”
As soon as the elderly woman’s words ended, a fierce wind blew into the tent.
The wind was strong enough to make her body sway, and Sharti hastily grabbed her fluttering hood with her hand.
“So hold on to him.”
The elderly woman, sitting peacefully alone, smiled at Sharti.
And slowly, the elderly woman opened her eyes.
“Plant emotions in that bleak man who has none. In the future, those emotions might make that ghost live as a human, don’t you think?”
“What on earth does that…!”
Sharti squinted her eyes and shouted at the elderly woman, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the howling wind. Sharti stood up abruptly, but her body swayed and she instinctively shut her eyes tightly.
The strong wind, loud enough to make her ears ring, continued for a moment and then suddenly cut off.
“…Ah!”
As soon as the wind sound disappeared, Sharti immediately opened her eyes.
“…”
There was literally nothing in front of her.
Without the elderly woman, the table, or the crystal ball, Sharti stood alone in the tent. There was no blackout curtain either—everything was exactly as it had been left from the quarantine facility, with the furniture intact.
“…Ha.”
Awakening her mind from what had momentarily entranced her, Sharti put strength into her legs. Her heart was pounding belatedly.
Sharti left the tent and looked around again.
The street was intact as if no sudden wind had blown at all.
“…”
Sharti stood blankly looking up at the sky for a moment, then clenched her fist tightly.
Only one person filled her mind.
‘Ren!’
She wanted to see him.
At that moment, wind blew at Sharti’s back.
Receiving the wind that seemed to push her back as if telling her to run where her heart led, Sharti ran forth with vigor.
****
In front of the now-quiet tent, on the opposite side from where Sharti had been standing, the elderly woman appeared again.
“Hmm~”
The elderly woman’s skin, released from invisibility, had become smooth and taut. Her meticulously pinned-up hair had grown long enough to sweep the ground, and her hunched back had straightened.
As the woman’s body gradually returned to a sleek figure, the jewelry adorning their body emitted colorful lights and swayed lightly with a jingling sound.
“Would she really have been fated to die if she hadn’t met that doctor?”
The Magic Tower Master, who had been watching until Sharti’s back disappeared from view, smiled slightly.
“Now then, what to do. I should inform him, but he doesn’t want that.”
The Magic Tower Master recalled the conversation he had with Leodelt, or rather ‘Ren,’ the previous night.
[I can help you find your memories. But first, I’ll also inform the person desperately searching for you about your survival.]
[Is the person looking for me family?]
[Not family. Not even like family.]
A knight of the Gwendhill Ducal House and a Grand Duke couldn’t be family.
[Memories…]
‘Ren’ carefully chose his words for a while.
Watching his conflicted appearance, the Magic Tower Master asked.
[Don’t you want to find them? To stay by the side of that woman you like?]
[Well.]
From his answer that neither affirmed nor denied, the Magic Tower Master read Ren’s decision.
He had long ago given up on his lost memories.
[I am ‘Ren.’ That’s enough.]
More precisely, he had chosen the present over his lost memories.
He had chosen to live as the current ‘Ren.’
“How foolish. To choose love.”
To stake everything on a formless emotion. It was truly a futile choice.
Grand Duke Gwendhill threw away everything for mere love. He gave up everything for a woman who had chosen a status even lower than a commoner.
It was empty, absurd, and laughable. Yet at the same time, he couldn’t help but understand.
“He must have been driven to the edge instinctively enough to abandon everything. Really, to the point of willingly accepting death at that moment.”
Leodelt Gwendhill, struck by forbidden magic, must have sensed his death.
However, fate took his memories as payment instead of his life and managed to save him.
“But does God know? That there’s no being that defies fate more than humans.”
The information about Leodelt Gwendhill that he had told Sharti was mostly true. Of course, there were many rumors about Grand Duke Gwendhill in high society and among commoners, but after his conversation with ‘Ren’ last night, the Magic Tower Master had received information as close to the truth as possible through the Deputy Tower Master.
He had essentially revealed honest information to Sharti.
“If the forbidden magic really is mind-control related magic, then only that doctor young lady would be a moderate solution.”
The Magic Tower Master no longer wanted to kill ‘Ren.’
Having heard all the facts, he couldn’t bring himself to want to eliminate him.
Leodelt Gwendhill was pitiful. Abandoned even by himself as ‘Ren,’ and abandoned by the world.
How could he not feel sympathy watching a man who had wielded his sword across countless battlefields now laughing comfortably while being protected by a small, delicate woman?
“Not like me, though.”
Of course, he had that impulse too. Regardless of whether he had memories or not, he could have dragged Leodelt Gwendhill, who had become ‘Ren,’ before the Emperor or the knights of the Gwendhill Ducal House and handed him over.
Whether to clear the stigma of treason or to kill him, that would be something for all those related to him to step up and handle.
What would it matter to the Magic Tower Master who had completed his commissioned request? He could just step back.
“But the tears shed by innocent people, I absolutely detest that.”
But the Magic Tower Master didn’t want to tell ‘Ren’ to give up this moment when he could love normally.
He didn’t want to make him give it up. He didn’t want to make anyone cry through his choice.
For the Magic Tower Master, who was not very human, it was a slightly awkward and unnatural emotion to feel.
“Ah~ Really, even being too great is troublesome.”
With a childlike complaint, the Magic Tower Master turned around.
He had to go complete his commissioned request first.
“I wonder what His Majesty will think.”