Sorry 5

Chapter 5

    ****

    "Ugh."

    Euris’s consciousness returned with an unexplained headache.

    "......I'm alive."

    Having fallen from a great height, she instinctively groped for her body. She was clean, unbroken.

    She didn't feel any pain. In fact, she felt refreshed.

    Contrary to her good physical condition, she felt a sense of regret.

    She wanted to die. She didn't think she was worth living. She realized, just before she died, that her pathetic self had blinded her to the true feelings of her beloved until it was too late.

    Her cheeks heated and tears streamed down her face.

    She remembered Chaint. How he had loved her like a warm spring breeze, like a steady lighthouse, without ever receiving a single spoonful of true love.

    It was only afterward that Euris realized her folly and wanted to stop squeezing her heart.

    "Ah...... ah......."

    ‘I'm sorry, honey. How am I supposed to live in a world without you?’

    She clutched her head and sobbed like a child. The tears fell onto the familiar pale blue comforter, deepening its color.

    The sun was shining through the window beside the bed. It wasn't until she'd been crying for a while that she realized she was in her room in her childhood home.

    'This place was definitely blown up by… war bombs, and my parents died here, so is this a dream or the afterlife?'

    But it was an eerily familiar voice that interrupted her thoughts.

    "Euris!"

    A familiar voice called her name from outside the door. It felt strangely familiar, but the voice was unmistakably Kylan's. Euris stared at the door, feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach.

    "Euris, are you still asleep?"

    "..."

    "I'm coming in!"

    And without delay, the door swung open. Kylan stepped out, a fresh smile on his face.

    Leaning against the door at an angle, Kylan's face looked oddly familiar, but Euris, unperturbed, didn't care.

    When he saw her sitting up, half out of bed, he smiled benevolently and strode into the room.

    “You’re a sleepyhead, Euris.”

    "What?

    Euris looked bewildered, and Kylan assumed it was just a lack of sleep, so he poured a glass of water from the table beside him.

    She stared at the glass he held out to her. It was a clear glass, half-full of water, transparent to the sun shining in through the window. It took her a moment to realize what was happening.

    ‘Why am I alive, and why are you coming to me? It's like we were friends once upon a time.’

    A flashback flashed through her mind: in the last moments of her life, she had run into Kylan on those narrow stairs. Euris was sure he must have saved her from the fall somehow.

    "Why didn't you just let me die?"

    She glared at him, her eyes murderous. Kylan was taken aback by the sharpness of her voice and the look in her eyes.

    "Why won't you let me die, and now please stay out of my life............!"

    What started out as a sharp voice turned into a half-sob as the emotions of resentment took over.

    "Because of you! Because of how broken I've been! If you're going to be gone, you should be gone forever, why come now............!"

    She vomited up a torrent of emotions that she wasn't sure whether to blame him or herself.

    "Euris, what are you talking about............. Don’t say things like you’re going to die.”

    He replied, not knowing what to say. He looked completely clueless.

    "What's wrong with you, or do you think you can just pretend it didn't happen? You've seen it all, you've seen it all............!"

    She swallowed hard to keep from crying. She tried to hold it together, but the tears were not worth it.

    She glared at Kylan with wide eyes and saw the bewilderment on his face as he met her gaze.

    "Did you have a nightmare? I'm sorry."

    He lowered himself to a kneeling position on one side of the bed. Euris could barely see through the tears that were falling against her will, but she could feel Kylan's hand reaching for hers.

    It was warm, his large hand stroking the back of hers. It was the way he'd often comforted her when she was sad as a child.

    ‘What the hell happened?’

    His genuine bewilderment made her feel like she was taking out her anger on the wrong person.

    Euris stopped pounding him and reached out with one hand to wipe her cheek. Kylan thought she had calmed down and sat down beside her on the bed.

    "Feeling better?"

    "...."

    Instead of answering, she looked around the room. It looked just as it had when she'd lived with her parents in the mansion.

    The vanity chair that had broken one of its legs and been thrown out before she was married was still there, as were the journals that she had torn up and burned one day in a fit of grief.

    ‘Something's wrong.’

    It didn't make sense, she thought, unless she was in a dream, or the afterlife, or............ back in time.

    Euris asked Kylan, her voice slightly calmer.

    "...What day is it?"

    "Today? May 16th."

    "No, what year is it?"

    "Huh? It's 1873."

    Kylan was gracious enough to answer the sudden questions.

    "That can't be right............"

    The year she died was 1881.

    She asked him again, looking puzzled.

    "How old are we, now?"

    "Huh? Haha, you must have had a really weird dream. You're twenty years old, Euris, and today is your coming-of-age ceremony."

    It was only then that she realized he was a little more dressed up than usual. His bright smile was reflected in the sunlight coming from behind Yuris.

    It was a far cry from the dark face of Kylan the last time she'd seen him. Twenty-year-old Kylan, he was right.

    She climbed off the bed, shooing away the way he sat and watched her affectionately.

    ‘How is this possible?’

    She paced the room. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

    She hadn't eaten or drunk since she'd seen Chaint's corpse, so surely her face was no different from a sick man's.

    Her cheeks were haggard and her hair was so matted and tangled she could barely comb it................ It must have been, but now she looked at herself in the mirror and saw a fresh young face.

    Beautifully plumped cheeks, beautifully wavy platinum-colored hair, and skin that glowed even without makeup told her that she was the happy Euris of her twenties.

    'Oh my God................’

    "Euris?"

    Kylan called her name anxiously, sensing that something was wrong with her.

    But Euris didn't hear him, deep in thought. If it really was true that she was back in the past, with her parents who had died in the war.

    ‘My husband.’

    He must be alive.

    Euris’s heart thumped with excitement as her thoughts went that far.

    She tugged on the string, and Rune appeared.

    "Miss, you called for me?"

    "Oh, Rune.”

    She burst into tears again at the sight of that familiar face, which she had not seen since her marriage, nor had she heard whether she was dead or alive in the barrels of war.

    "Ah, miss?"

    Rune asked, puzzled by her lady’s tears. Her eyes were already puffy from crying so much, but Euris couldn’t help but to let out another steady stream of tears. She grabbed Rune's hand and sobbed like a fool.

    Rune was helpless as she held onto her little lady’s hand. Still, she stroked Euris’s back with one hand, gently comforting her.

    "It's your coming-of-age ceremony today, my lady. Crying like this will ruin your pretty face."

    "Ugh......."

    "Master Kylan, please wait outside while I get the young lady ready."

    With that, Kylan stiffened and stepped aside.

    Feeling Rune's touch for the first time in a long time, Euris said to herself over and over again.

    ‘If by some miracle I was given another chance, I would never do anything in this life that I would regret.’

    ***

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