Please Forget Me - Chapter 249

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

‘…Fire? There’s a fire? Where?’

Before I could even process what was happening, Killian jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. As soon as he opened it and looked out into the hallway, he frowned in confusion, then came back inside and threw the window wide open.

The flames that weren’t visible from the hallway were blazing fiercely outside the window. The fire wasn’t in our inn, but in a building across the street.

“Hah…”

While Killian visibly relaxed with relief, I only grew more anxious. Just watching the flames consuming the building, feeling the burning heat in my eyes and throat, made me feel as if my own body was burning. Even though the fire was far enough away to be seen from our room, it felt terrifyingly close.

‘I’m going to die here. I’ll be burned to death…’

It wasn’t a thought prompted by this particular disaster, but by the memory of another—one I’d actually survived.

“Cough! Someone, please, help me…hic…”

I remembered, as vividly as if it were happening now, clinging to the window and crying for help from within a burning building. I don’t recall exactly when it was, but I was trapped on the third floor, and the stairs were already engulfed in flames—no way to escape.

I’d found a window and broken the glass, only to discover it was barred with iron grates. No matter how hard I pushed, pulled, or shook them, the bars wouldn’t budge. Meanwhile, the fire had spread to the hallway I’d fled from.

“There’s someone here!”

I screamed, watching other survivors being helped away outside, but nobody seemed to hear me over the noise of the fire. I stretched my arm out through the bars, but it didn’t change anything—no one could see me, hidden behind the grating and so high above.

‘I’m going to burn to death. I don’t want to die in pain!’

As the flames crept closer to my back, I screamed and shook the bars in sheer terror.

“Dana!”

Suddenly, a boy appeared outside the bars, calling my name. I remember thinking,

‘The mute son of the Ackroyd family?’

It wasn’t just that the mute boy had spoken my name that was surprising—he had climbed the outside of the building with his bare hands all the way to the third floor. In an instant, he ripped out the iron bars I couldn’t even budge, and pulled me out the window to safety.

With his help, I managed to cling to a narrow ledge between the second and third floors, pressed against the wall. Looking back, the window I’d just escaped from was now spewing flames. If he’d been any later, I would have been lost to the fire. Shakily, I whispered my gratitude to the boy beside me.

“Thank you…”

My knight.

It felt foolish to say it out loud, so I held it in.

“Rob! Get a ladder, now!”

So much for being mute—the boy spoke perfectly clearly. When he apologized for holding onto me so tightly, his words faltered a little, but only a little.

“S-sorry for touching you without permission. I’m not usually this rude…”

“You weren’t rude at all. You saved my life.”

He’d been anything but rude. Even in that frantic situation, he was so careful—thanks to him, I didn’t get a scratch from the jagged glass.

‘I had no idea he was so considerate and brave.’

He’d always been silent and avoided even looking at girls, so I’d found him a little scary. I never could have imagined he was such an incredible person.

“But… how did you know I was here…”

I never finished my question, because something caught my eye—a silver chain glinting around the boy’s neck. I couldn’t see what was at the end, hidden under his shirt, but I knew immediately what it was.

‘A forget-me-not pendant.’

Because it had once belonged to me.

‘Then… does that mean my love is actually—? Oh!’

A sudden crack came from above my head. I looked up in shock and screamed.