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Heinkel Headmaster said that if you get lost in Hemeim Forest, you will endlessly wander within it.

However, he didn’t mention ‘why’ you get lost in the forest.

The answer was right in front of me.

Ella was wearing the same white linen top and dark green skirt as before leaving the village. She looked just like the innkeeper’s daughter I used to see often in my hometown.

As soon as I saw her, I knew it was an illusion. If it were truly Ella appearing alive in front of me, she wouldn’t possibly look the same as she did 20 years ago.

Still, I couldn’t take my eyes off Ella, who was approaching me with a smile.

An illusion showing someone I deeply missed in my heart. I had already realized it was a blatant trap that truly made me wander Hemeim Forest.

“Ion. I missed you.”

Ella’s smile always illuminated the surroundings like the sun. And the illusion of Ella also held the same smile as back then and gently took my hand.

That smile reminded me of the happiest moments we spent together.

Moreover, it even brought back memories of the most terrible moments.

I brushed Ella’s hand away a bit late. Then the illusion of Ella frowned for a moment, seemingly in confusion, before breaking into a bright smile and affectionately calling my name again.

“Ion, didn’t you want to see me? I missed you so much. I’m so happy I can meet you like this.”

“…”

I stayed silent as if I hadn’t heard Ella’s words. I knew that conversing with an illusion would further ensnare me in it.

I turned my back, ignoring her illusion. Right now, finding Osnia was my priority. I had no time to worry about such an illusion.

However, despite turning away, Ella somehow changed her position and appeared right in front of me.

When she was ignored, tears filled Ella’s large, clear eyes. Soon, she began to weep pitifully with a sorrowful face.

“Ion, look at me. Am I just an illusion? But even so, I am still the Ella you remember. I’m no different from the real one.”

Ella spread her arms wide toward me.

“Hurry and hold me like you used to, Ion. You haven’t forgotten me all this time.”

Hearing her words, I closed my eyes for a moment.

Memories of the times spent with Ella flashed through my mind. Back then, we thought of each other purely and fell in love, and I would have done anything for Ella.

I let out a sigh mixed with resignation.

“Yeah. I haven’t forgotten you.”

“See? You still love me, Ion.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea.”

I looked at Ella’s illusion with resolute eyes.

“Just because I haven’t forgotten you doesn’t mean I still love you.”

“What…?”

Ella’s expression became one of shock, as if the world had crumbled at my words. Her gaze began to fill with deep sadness.

“You mean you have no feelings for me anymore? That’s impossible. Think of all the time we spent together, Ion. You can’t have forgotten that!”

The Ella in the illusion approached me tearfully, holding my hands tightly. Her voice trembled with desperate longing.

“Think carefully. You still love me. …The version of me that can never be retrieved again.”

Even knowing it was merely a whisper of an illusion, I stiffened at her words as if struck at my core.

Ella lowered her delicate face weakly. Her tears plopped onto the back of my hand.

Then, raising her head again, she gazed into my eyes with a plea.

“I want you now, Ion. Don’t miss this chance. Please don’t abandon me.”

“…”

What a cruel illusion this was.

I realized that merely ignoring it would not sever my connection to this illusion.

Even if I drove Ella away, as long as I remained in this forest, her illusion would endlessly pursue me. Whispering sweet words, reminding me over and over of my memories of Ella.

But I had already endured enough of that.

I gently brushed Ella’s cheek. Ella, thinking my gesture was one of acceptance, smiled faintly, and my hand caressed her cheek, slowly moving downward.

And then, I swiftly broke Ella’s delicate neck.

Crack.

Ella didn’t even have time to scream as her neck twisted completely. Since I had delivered a quick death to ensure she felt no pain, an ordinary person wouldn’t have realized what had happened.

I hoped that this would make Ella’s illusion disappear.

However, Ella still didn’t vanish, and even with her neck broken, she slowly blinked her eyelids.

She was staring at me with an expression of disbelief.

The moment the kind smile vanished from Ella’s face, I felt the surrounding atmosphere shift dramatically.

“Ion. Why didn’t you come looking for me?”

Her eyes were filled with pain and resentment, and that resentment was directed explicitly at me.

In the end, Ella began to cry out to me.

“On the day I left, you already knew something was off! I was eventually kidnapped and died a miserable death! It’s all because you couldn’t protect me! And yet, can you still say you loved me?”

Suddenly, her face began to rot like that of a corpse. Blood tears streamed from her eyes. Ella spoke with a horrific smile, her body covered in hanging flesh.

“Look at me, look properly, Ion! This was my end! I was sacrificed to a mad sorcerer far away and died terribly! Because you didn’t save me!”

I flinched and pulled my hand away from Ella.

She lay on the ground like a puppet with broken strings, crying blood tears as she gazed up at me.

“Ion, why didn’t you search for me more? I called for you as I was dying. I desperately called, called, and called for you! I needed your help so badly! Where were you all this time? Where were you laughing and playing with other women?”

Ella suddenly laughed wildly, like a madwoman after a long cry.

“Ha, ha, ha…! Ion Graham, the coward who couldn’t even protect his own woman, you fool, you fool!”

“…”

I was utterly at a loss for words at her gruesome yet bizarre semblance.

But the shock was only for a moment; as I caught my breath, my mind quickly settled, and I regained my composure. I could then assess the situation calmly.

The entity that created this illusion was likely reading my memories.

During the war, I had endured far worse mental assaults. However, no evil spirit or nightmare could invade my mind untouched; there was no way such illusions could shake me.

It wasn’t yet confirmed that Ella had been kidnapped, or that she had been sacrificed to a sorcerer. I had merely thought somewhere deep down that it might be possible.

This illusion was presenting the possibility as if it were the truth, showing me the worst form of it.

It was clear why Ella’s illusion was cursing me. It wanted to keep me here, and since the temptation and pleading wouldn’t work, it shifted to resentment instead.

“Look at me, don’t leave my side.”

It was merely speaking in the guise of Ella.

The intention of the being showing me this illusion was clear from the start, and I had no reason to comply with it.

“…”

But.

At least part of what Ella’s illusion said was true.

On the day Ella left my side, I had indeed sensed something was off.

No matter how much I longed for a life in the capital, I wasn’t childishly foolish enough to follow a stranger without an anchor. Besides, our relationship wasn’t one where she would leave without saying a word.

If she had, she wouldn’t have sought me out in such a manner the night before.

So, perhaps she had indeed been kidnapped. No, I couldn’t possibly accept the reality otherwise.

That was why I intended to follow Ella’s trail. I wanted to hear the truth from her lips. But the mercenaries were on horseback, and the rain from the previous day had almost erased all traces.

At that time, I couldn’t run faster than a horse, nor had I learned tracking skills to find footprints after it rained.

Even if I somehow managed to do all that and found Ella, I didn’t have the capability to protect her and defeat the mercenaries.

Yet, foolishly, I as a child didn’t know how to give up, and without knowing where Ella had gone, I aimlessly wandered through the forest until I ultimately fell and broke my leg down a slope. If it hadn’t been for a fortunate passing hunter, I would have likely perished right there.

Ella couldn’t rely on me.

I couldn’t catch up to Ella.

All of it was because I was sickeningly weak.

So, it wasn’t that Ella abandoned me; it was that I couldn’t protect Ella.

That was why I couldn’t forget. Whenever I thought of what could have happened to Ella after she left the village, I felt I couldn’t bear it. So, I wanted to naïvely believe in Ella’s letter.

She had left seeking her dreams. She was probably living happily in the capital.

If I didn’t think so, my heart wouldn’t be able to bear it.

I never wanted to feel such helplessness again.

I wanted to grow stronger. If I couldn’t, it would be better to die.

The result was right here.

I reached into the void, stretching my arms into the nothingness. And I pulled out a spear as red as blood.

Ella’s expression froze rigidly. As if she recognized what it was. Even if it truly were Ella, she wouldn’t know what this spear was.

“Yeah. You’re right. I still haven’t forgotten Ella. Perhaps I might never forget her for the rest of my life.”

I grasped Ezetus firmly and began to walk slowly.

“But that’s not something an illusion like you could possess.”

Ella’s illusion pleaded in a desperate voice.

“Ion—”

But I didn’t want to hear whatever words she had to say.

The tip of Ezetus pierced through Ella’s forehead.

—Kyaaaaah!!

Cutting through the formless, Ezetus easily slashed through the illusion of the forest as well.

But Ezetus was a weapon that inflicted extreme pain on those pierced. Even though it was just an illusion, Ella still wore its guise, so I didn’t want to use it, but I had no choice.

The illusion of Ella, with her forehead pierced, contorted in excruciating pain as her face twisted grotesquely before she eventually scattered like dust.

“Ha…”

Left alone in the forest, I exhaled deeply, as if I were expelling my emotions.

My reason was cold, but my heart inevitably churned. Yet I soon collected myself. I still had things I needed to do.

Though the illusion had vanished, I still couldn’t sense Osnia anywhere. This forest was messing with my senses, rendering me unable to see or hear anything.

If that was the case, the solution was simple.

If I wiped everything in this area away, my senses would surely return.

I held Ezetus with both hands. Then, with all my might, I plunged it into the ground.

Boom!!

In that moment, a tremendous wave of energy exploded, as if the world had turned upside down.

Intense shockwaves erupted, shredding the ground apart like an earthquake, while a fierce storm swept through the area, sending trees flying as if caught in a typhoon.

Then I could feel the peculiar magic that had filled the forest scattering away.

Focusing my senses, I could easily determine where Osnia was. She had walked to the center of the forest by now.

I aimed to ensure my senses remained undisturbed, swinging my spear with all my strength to carve a path to the center of the forest.

Bang! Boom!!

A power that felt capable of turning mountains inside out was altering the terrain in the area.

*

Osnia lay peacefully in the arms of her parents, as if she had returned to her childhood, comfortably closing her eyes.

“Osnia.”

“Our daughter. We love you.”

Gentle hands stroked her head. A warm and smiling face.

A moment of happiness in a family time she had never experienced in her life.

Osnia had long forgotten this was an illusion. Deeply asleep in a joyful dream, she hadn’t even thought of escaping the illusion.

Who could perceive this as a trap? If there was such sweet poison, she would rather wish to be addicted to it.

At that moment, a loud noise echoed as if an earthquake was about to happen far away.

Boom, rumble…

“…?”

Osnia’s parents exchanged worried glances at one another.

“Dear, what is that noise?”

“Who knows, maybe there’s a monster rampaging somewhere…?”

Young Osnia felt anxiety at her parents’ concerned voices.

Seeing her like that, her parents smiled reassuringly, holding her warmly once more.

Thus, Osnia gradually felt the vibrations approaching this place within her loving parents’ embrace.

 

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