Chapter 114

Chapter 114

...

As I finished the final page, I clasped the manuscript tightly against my chest and silently offered one desperate prayer.

"Please..."

"Let it work this time."

"Please save him."

"You started all of this... So you have to save..."

"Alexander."

Closing my eyes, I entrusted everything to a fate I could neither understand nor control.

Back then, as Layla Delores, I had placed all my hope in my next life. I prayed that my future self would one day read the novel I had written, gradually recover the memories buried deep within my soul, and finally succeed where I had failed.

I wanted to save Alexander. I wanted to save our child.

The truth settled over me with crushing weight.

So...

It had all begun with me. Everything!

I was the one who had written the book.

I was the one who had unknowingly set everything into motion.

"What..." My thoughts spiraled into chaos. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"If all of this started because of me..."

"Then isn't all of this my fault?"

The guilt wrapped itself around my heart until I could barely breathe.

I wanted to scream. I wanted someone to tell me I was wrong. But no sound came from my lips.

Somewhere in the distance, I vaguely heard a familiar voice calling my name.

"Princess Swan..." The voice sounded impossibly far away at first, but it gradually drew closer and closer until the darkness around me began to crack apart.

"Princess Swan..."

My vision slowly returned.

I found myself standing in front of the mirror once again, exactly where I had been before everything began.

"Huh...?"

I turned toward Rina, but my eyesight remained blurred, making it impossible to tell whether I had truly returned to the present or whether the universe was still trapping me inside another fragment of my previous lives.

I couldn't tell what was real anymore.

"Princess Swan!" Rina's voice suddenly filled with panic.

"Your nose is bleeding!"

Before I could even lift a hand to touch my face, the world around me was swallowed by darkness once again.

I heard nothing.

Then...

I lost consciousness.

Even after I fainted, the nightmares refused to leave me.

In my dream, I watched myself die all over again. And I watched my child die with me.

"I'm sorry..." The apology escaped my lips again and again.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's all my fault."

"If I had never existed..."

"Alexander wouldn't have died."

"And neither of you would have been forced to die with me."

"I'm sorry..."

Even in my sleep, tears continued streaming down my face.

When I finally opened my eyes again, the first people I saw were Rina and Laris sitting quietly beside my bed.

The relief on their faces lasted only a heartbeat before it was replaced by unmistakable worry as they looked back at me.

...

"Princess Swan... you're finally awake."

Relief filled Rina's voice as it reached my ears.

I slowly turned my head toward the window, where the magnificent orange sky stretched across the horizon. The sunset painted the room in warm golden light, yet somehow it only made the emptiness inside me feel even colder.

"How long... was I unconscious?"

That was the only question I could bring myself to ask.

Rina and Laris exchanged a brief glance before Rina answered in her usual gentle voice.

"About half a day, Princess."

"The royal physician examined you and said you were simply suffering from severe exhaustion."

"I see..."

I lowered my eyes, forcing myself to sound as calm as possible.

"I'm alright now."

"Thank you for worrying about me."

"It's almost evening, so the two of you should get some rest. I'd like to sleep a little longer."

It was a lie.

I deliberately kept my face turned toward the window because I knew they would see straight through me if they looked into my eyes.

"Princess Swan..." Rina sounded as though she wanted to say something more.

"Rina..."

Before she could continue, Laris gently rested a hand on her shoulder.

"She needs some time alone." Her voice remained calm and steady. "Come. Let's give her some space."

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then I heard the quiet sound of their footsteps fading into the distance before the bedroom door softly closed behind them.

The instant the room fell silent... I broke.

The sob I had been desperately holding back escaped my lips all at once, and my entire body began trembling uncontrollably. My breathing became ragged as though someone were crushing my chest, and tears poured endlessly from my eyes no matter how hard I tried to stop them.

I didn't know what was real anymore.

I couldn't tell whether the life I was living now was reality... Or whether everything I had experienced until this moment had merely been another dream.

"What am I supposed to do?"

The question escaped in a broken whisper.

"How can I possibly save Alexander when I'm nothing more than an ordinary human?"

My fingers tightened around the blanket until they hurt.

"I can't..."

"I can't watch him die again."

There were no words capable of describing the bitterness consuming my heart.

I was exhausted. Not physically... But deep inside my soul.

The room had grown dim as evening slowly gave way to night, yet sleep refused to come. Instead, my mind replayed every memory over and over again until only one conclusion remained.

If I disappeared from Alexander's life...

Everything would change.

I slowly lowered my trembling gaze to my hands.

"If I were never part of his life..."

"He wouldn't lose half of his power."

"He wouldn't have to sacrifice himself just to defeat the King of Darkness."

Every sentence felt like a knife carving deeper into my heart.

My hands shook so violently that I had to clench them together, but even then I couldn't stop trembling. My entire body had gone ice-cold while my heart pounded so painfully that it felt ready to shatter.

"If Alexander never marries me..."

"Our baby will never have to die with me."

"If I stay away from him... Everything will be alright."

Wouldn't it?

The question echoed over and over inside my mind.

It wasn't hope. It was desperation.

I had already endured too much.

I had watched Alexander die. I had watched our child die. I had watched myself die.

Even death itself no longer frightened me.

What truly terrified me was having to watch Alexander sacrifice himself for me one more time.

I slowly closed my eyes as another wave of tears rolled down my cheeks.

I had to leave.

No matter how much it broke my heart... I couldn't allow myself to become the curse that destroyed the man I loved.

...