My Ruin to You - Chapter 248

Giorno, who had been stretching, also stiffened mid-stretch, arms still raised high. Sensing the unusual atmosphere, the other knights gathered before the carriage one by one. No one spoke, but their thoughts were the same: they guessed the strange events of the day had shaken even the resilient Roseline.

Instead of hurrying her, they quietly turned their backs to the carriage and stood guard. Unaware of the circumstances outside, Roseline wept for a long time.

[Child of d’Haudemer. Your affection is so futile that it pains my heart.]

It was then that a woman’s voice was heard. A delicate yet firm, clear voice echoed in her mind. Hic. Roseline, who had been hunched over, lifted her head. A bright light was pouring out from the mirror on the floor, overflowing as if spilling forth. The light was so intense that Roseline’s eyes instinctively squinted.

[I shall grant you a chance to set right the fate of you and your beloved. Atone for the karma of abandoning life and cast off your transgressions.]

The white light that had filled her vision gradually flickered, revealing a long, coiled body. It was a snake.

“Wh… what…?” Her tear-filled pupils shook violently. A sense of foreboding and a desperate hope that it wasn’t so tangled together. But the cruel mirror swiftly changed the scenes as if it had much more to show. At one moment, it showed people screaming in terror at the sight of the snake; at another, it depicted the snake leaving human settlements and crawling somewhere.

Strangely, the scenery in the mirror was unfamiliar. The clothing and architectural styles matched descriptions from ancient history books or paintings hung in museums. It was the ancient Empire.

“……Ugh.” Roseline gripped the handle as if to shatter it. Her whitened nails dug into her tender palms, drawing blood, but the grip wouldn’t loosen. Countless scenes swept across the mirror as the silver handle stained red.

The snake, settled in a dark cave, remained coiled and motionless. On the rare occasions it left the cave, it was not treated well. One day it was pelted with stones, another day struck by arrows. Yet, the snake endured this harsh persecution and, when the time came, headed towards human settlements. As if checking the passage of time.

Finally, scenes familiar to Roseline appeared. The snake traveled endlessly across forests and fields.

It was the territory where Roseline was born and raised. From a distance, the snake watched the young Roseline walking through the rear garden, holding her mother’s hand. After staying in place for a long time, the snake finally turned away much later.

After seasons changed and changed again, on a certain winter night, the snake, dragging its wretched body, arrived at a modest house. It was the residence on the outskirts of the capital where Roseline had stayed briefly after breaking up with Valen.

[…Huh?]

The sight of her past self, spotting the snake and cautiously approaching it, made Roseline gasp for air. Scenes identical to her memory flashed by rapidly: herself releasing magic power, nose bleeding, and the snake biting her wrist.

The snake gazed endlessly at her retreating back as she turned away. Soon, the snake’s form gradually faded, leaving only its shed skin behind. The skin, glistening under the moonlight, was crafted into a delicate necklace. It only struck her now—the gemstone on the necklace was the same color as the snake’s eyes.

The moment she realized this, the scene vanished, and a rust-like stain gradually spread, turning the bronze surface black.

“Ugh, hoooooohhhh…….”

It was Valen all along. The snake that bit her, leaving its mark, was Valen from both the past and the future.

“What do, hic, what do I do, hoo, what…?”

Roseline wailed like a child. The phrase from the letter—”the time I wandered, unable to forget those thousand days”—lacerated her insides. The wreckage of the destruction she had delivered was this horrifying.

If she could have, she would have torn out her own insides. But remembering the time of bitter endurance he, who had held the noblest status, spent as a despised creature, she couldn’t even dare to say she was in pain.

She had cried so much she started dry-heaving, and her head was throbbing by the time the carriage door was flung open. Roseline, who had been slumped over the seat sobbing, lifted her head.

“Why are you crying?”

It was Valen.