I left the convenience store and moved into a tiny short-rent apartment. Just a bed, a desk, and an air conditioner— a bare little box cut out from the real world, as if meant for someone who is waiting to fall apart.
Seitheil once told me— the Rosemark would open its second layer when I was “ready.” I never believed it.
Until tonight.
The air turned unnaturally cold. The Rosemark on my chest flared like a flame pressed into my skin. The pain drove me to my knees.
Silent caught me immediately, so frantic he couldn’t even say my name properly:
“Hann—!”
Before the rest of the word could leave his mouth, my vision was taken from me.
And the world opened.
【Memory Fragment — Unfolding】
The earth was shaking. The sky burned a deep black-red. Mountains had been split in half, and the land cracked open like a mouth ready to swallow every last living thing.
This was the end of the storm— the final battlefield of the ancient era, the last day before the world collapsed.
And in the middle of that dying world, a woman knelt on scorched ground, her body illuminated by roaming firelight.
It was me. The “second life” me.
She—I—was torn by burns and wounds, arms shaking from the battles fought, yet still holding a motionless body in my embrace.
Silent.
Not the Silent of today— but the Silent from a lifetime before.
Back then, he was human. And his body in my arms was cold, utterly still, with dried blood at the corner of his lips.
My (her) face was streaked with ash and tears. I shook him, as if refusing to let the world take him from me.
“Wake up… please… wake up…”
The plea broke apart in the burning wind. The world was crumbling around us.
And then Seitheil appeared.
He stood atop a flaming ridge, shadowed armor glimmering faintly, eyes holding no triumph, no pity— only an ancient, immeasurable calm.
I (she) lifted my face toward him.
“Save him…” I begged. “Seitheil, please… save him…”
He stepped down toward me. His gaze swept over Silent’s lifeless body.
“He is human.”
His voice was steady, almost gentle: “He cannot be saved.”
“You can!” I cried, the words cracking. “You’re a Nightborne Elves—not a vampire. Your blood… it can rewrite his fate!”
Seitheil went quiet.
Because he knew it was true: Nightborne Elves blood could pull a human back from death. But the price— was surrendering that life to darkness.
I held Silent closer, my voice breaking against the wind:
“I’ll do anything… anything you ask… just bring him back…”
Seitheil lowered his gaze. And in that brief moment, something flickered in his eyes—
a pain he shouldn’t feel, a fate he didn’t want to accept.
He knelt in front of me, his cool fingers taking my blood-stained hand.
“You understand… this is a life for a life.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then—
Seitheil touched Silent’s cold face, placing his hand over Silent’s silent chest.
“Do you offer your life?” he asked softly.
The world stilled. The fire, the wind, the sound of my own heartbeat— everything faded.
I closed my eyes.
“Yes.”
Something sharp passed through Seitheil’s expression. Like he wanted to say, It shouldn’t be you. But he swallowed it. Shut his eyes. And whispered:
“…Very well.”
His hand opened.
Nightborne Elves blood ignited like starlight in the darkness.
And the memory vanished in a rush of shadow.
【Back to Reality】
I gasped, as though dragged up from the depths of freezing water.
Silent was holding me tightly, his face pale with terror.
His forehead pressed against mine, his voice shaking with everything he couldn’t bear to lose:
“You just… disappeared… and no matter how I called you… Hanna, I thought— I thought I’d lost you again—”
He couldn’t finish the sentence. His breath broke first.
And then I saw them.
On his cheeks— two faint, thin trails of red. Blood-stained tears.
Silent— this man, this vampire— had cried for me.
I lifted my hand, my fingertips brushing the warmth on his cheek.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “I came back.”
Silent pulled me into a desperate embrace, like he was holding the only thing left in a crumbling world.
The Rosemark on my chest throbbed wildly, almost violently, like it wanted to drag me back into the memory I had just escaped.
Silent steadied me, his forehead resting against mine, his breath trembling with something raw and unguarded:
“Hanna…”
“If being with you means standing against the world—”
He faltered, as if the truth inside him was too heavy to speak. A flare of red deepened in his eyes.
And then, in a rough, low whisper that felt like a vow torn from his very soul:
“Then I’ll destroy the world.”
The room seemed to tremble.
It wasn’t a romantic line. It was a promise. A destiny spoken aloud.
My heartbeat thundered painfully.
When Silent looked at me again, the crimson in his eyes had faded— replaced by a shadow deeper and darker, as if something long hidden was awakening.
And then another voice echoed through my mind— not real, but left behind by memory.
“Do you think he is your destiny?” “No—” “You are his.”
Seitheil’s voice.
My breath faltered.
Silent felt the shift in me, pulling me closer with a grip that shook.
“Hanna,” he murmured— a raw, trembling vow. “This time… I will not let you die.”
The Rosemark flared again— a burn under my skin, beating with an ominous rhythm.
And I knew— this wasn’t the end of old memories.
This was the beginning of a new cycle of fate.
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.