Chapter 79: Moonlight for This Moth Drawn to Flame! - 6

The desire to leave something behind is an innate human urge.

That urge becomes all the more pronounced as death draws near.

That was how Isolde felt now.

"Isolde?"

"It hurt, didn’t it? I’m sorry."

"That’s not like you. Didn’t you like my kiss?"

At his question, Isolde shook her head.

"That’s not it. I just... don’t want you to forget me, Ian."

"Do you think I’m abandoning you? Don’t worry. I would never do that."

"Yes, I believe you. I just want to soothe my anxious heart somehow, even if it’s only like this."

Isolde spoke as she stroked the mark where she had bitten him.

"I know you don’t love me, Ian. Still, I want you to keep these feelings of mine with you. So you remember that there was a woman who loved you."

Isolde hung her head, unable to look at Ian’s face.

If she looked at him now, she felt as though she would burst into tears in front of him.

"Like you said, I may someday come to love someone else. But I wanted to leave these feelings behind, at least."

"All right. I won’t forget your feelings. I’ll keep them with me."

"Thank you for understanding."

"Then I’ll be going. It’s winter, so there probably won’t be any wild animals or monsters on the mountain, but just in case, please wait in the cabin."

"Take care."

As Ian left, Isolde saw him off with a wave.

Watching his retreating back disappear, Isolde went back inside the cabin.

"Time to clean up."

Then Isolde began tidying away each trace of the time she had spent with Ian.

"I should have learned how to cook from Mom."

Looking at the bowl Ian had emptied, Isolde smiled.

The stew Isolde had made still had a gamey smell because she had failed to get rid of the odor, and it was bland because the seasoning had not seeped in properly.

It was by no means good food, yet Ian had eaten it without showing it.

"Thank you for eating it so well."

After finishing the cleaning, Isolde sat beside the spot where Ian had been.

Then she spoke her heart to him, even though he was no longer there.

"...The truth is, I didn’t want to give up."

Isolde wanted to hold on to Ian.

Not for the sake of curing her curse.

She simply, sincerely wanted Ian’s love.

"I wish you would love me—the me you treated as usual even with this hideous appearance, the me you’re trying to save despite how cruelly I treated you."

But the more she thought about it, the more she realized she had no right to ask for that.

"Pathetic, isn’t it? I can’t do anything for you."

Isolde did not know much about love.

She had simply believed that love was devotion and sacrifice for her sake.

She had been terribly self-centered, arrogant enough to think she could be loved whenever she pleased.

"I’m such an idiot."

In the end, she had not been loved by anyone.

Not by the countless men who had courted her, not by her family, and not by the man she had fallen in love with for the first time.

This was the end of a love that cared for no one but itself.

"If someone like me got greedy, I wouldn’t be much different from that woman, would I?"

Ian’s ex-wife.

The woman who had betrayed her husband and even become pregnant with another man’s child.

A slut who cared for no one but herself and wounded the man who loved her.

Isolde did not want to become a woman like that.

"Well, even if I didn’t give up, there’s no room for me in your heart anyway."

Isolde had come to understand just how great Ian’s love for Isabelle was.

They would surely cherish each other more than anyone and live loving one another.

Just imagining it made jealousy well up inside her.

Because her younger sister, Isabelle, possessed everything Isolde had wanted.

"Who am I to deserve the right to be jealous?"

But Isolde could no longer envy her younger sister Isabelle as she once had.

Because she remembered what she had done to her sister.

"Why did you give birth to that thing and make my life so exhausting?!"

Isolde had wanted to cast aside Isabelle, her own family.

Because she was useless, because she was nothing but a burden, and because she was of no help to Isolde.

And yet, thinking she had been abandoned, she had ended up resenting Ian, who had devoted himself for her sake.

"Isabelle, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Sob—"

Isolde burst into the tears she had been holding back.

"It’s not as though you wanted to be born cursed, either."

The feeling of being abandoned was agonizing.

The loneliness that came with it was difficult to put into words.

"You... went through this every day, didn’t you?"

It had arisen from a misunderstanding, but Isolde had tasted hell, if only briefly.

And she had inflicted that kind of pain on Isabelle herself, countless times.

The realization made Isolde’s heart ache unbearably.

Only now did she understand what she had done to her younger sister.

"It’s a shame I can’t apologize to you in person. Then again, I probably don’t even deserve to apologize, do I?"

After bitterly mocking herself, Isolde rose to her feet and slowly walked toward the lake.

When she reached a spot deep enough that her feet could no longer touch the bottom, she surrendered herself to the lake.

Splash.

As Isolde gradually sank beneath the surface, she thought of Ian while gazing at the shimmering sunlight reflected in the lake.

I wanted to love, too.

Isolde had now decided to kill herself.

Now that Ian would never love her, she had no reason left to live.

Rather than be abandoned by you, I’ll disappear first.

Isolde lacked the strength to endure either letting Ian go or watching Isabelle, who had monopolized his love.

Someday, she would resent the man who had abandoned her and envy her younger sister, until her heart became as ugly as her appearance.

Before that could happen, Isolde wanted to die embracing her good memories.

If I die like this, won’t Ian remember me, at least?

Watching the shimmering light grow farther and farther away, Isolde closed her eyes.

Even at the very end, I’m trash.

And so Isolde sank into the depths of the lake.

With the man she loved in her heart, and an apology to her younger sister on her lips.

Splash!

Huh?

Someone grabbed her and hauled her out of the lake.

"What are you doing?! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Isabelle?"

"What the hell are you doing?!"

The person was none other than her younger sister, Isabelle.

"I-I..."

With Isabelle appearing so suddenly, Isolde could not bring herself to speak.

Isolde could not understand why she was here, or why she had saved her.

"You’re giving up over something so trivial? You’re running away over this?"

Faced with Isabelle shouting at her, all Isolde could do was...

"...I’m sorry."

Apologize.

Just as Isolde had hated her mother, who did nothing but apologize, Isabelle felt the same.

"Don’t apologize! You don’t need to apologize!"

Isabelle cried out in a choked voice.

"We’re family. We’re family who stays together even when things are hard."

"Isabelle, I..."

"I know too. I know how much you suffered because of me. I know I ruined your life!"

The sight of her younger sister like that made Isolde’s emotions surge.

"I’ll repay you. I’ll repay you several times over, until you can’t say your life was ruined because of me. So don’t try to die."

"D-don’t say that. I’m trash. I wished you had never been born. I wished Mom would throw you away!"

Isolde struggled, trying to shake off Isabelle’s hand as it held on to her.

But Isabelle stubbornly refused to let Isolde go.

"It doesn’t matter."

"What do you mean, it doesn’t matter...?"

"I hated you so much too that I wished you would get married quickly."

"...That’s different from this."

"It’s the same. We hated each other. So..."

Holding tightly to Isolde, Isabelle looked at the sister she loved and spoke.

"So don’t leave me. Even if we hate each other, even if we can’t stand each other, we’re family."

"...Isabelle."

Isolde no longer tried to pull away from Isabelle.

Instead, for the first time, she tightly embraced her younger sister.

"Is it all right for me to stay by your side? I’m the sister who tried to throw you away. Is that really okay?"

"That’s not true. Stay with me. I’ll be lonely without you."

"Sob—I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry for everything until now."

"No. You had a hard time because of me too, didn’t you? I’m the one who should be sorry."

Apologizing to one another, the two sisters shared their warmth and were able to come out of the cold lake.

"Isolde."

Adelia was waiting outside the lake.

"Mom, I..."

"Thank you."

"Mom?"

"Thank you for growing up so healthy and fine. I couldn’t tell you until now, but..."

Adelia embraced Isolde as she spoke.

"You are my pride and joy."

Isolde had resented her mother for not taking care of her, and every time, all she received from her mother was an apology.

Each time, Isolde had been sick of it.

Whenever her mother apologized, it felt as though the very fact of Isolde’s birth was being denied.

But now she understood.

Why her mother had been able to offer nothing but those apologies.

And that she was the one who should have been apologizing to her mother instead.

"Because you were here, I was able to hold on all this time. Thank you so much, and I love you, Isolde."

She should have been apologizing to her mother, but her mother embraced her first.

Calling her precious, and telling her she loved her.

"Sob, sob—Waaah!"

At last, Isolde could not hold back and burst into tears.

"I was wrong. I was wrong. Waaah!"

"I told you not to apologize."

"It’s all right. Cry while you can. Your mother will stay by your side."

Following her sister’s lead, Isabelle began to cry as well.

And so the three of them held one another, crying and crying.

. . .

"Sob... It’s so moving."

"Are you crying, Kate?"

Watching from the cabin, Kate began to cry, and Reina wiped away Kate’s tears with a handkerchief.

Ian, on the other hand, spoke in a flat voice.

"It’s over now."

Leaving the three reconciling women behind, Ian stood up. Reina watched him and asked,

"Did you expect this would happen?"

"Who knows?"

"Hehe, there you go again."

"Enough. Reina and Kate, take the three of them back to the village."

"Where are you going?"

"To see Aurora."

The Curse of Monstrosity afflicting Isolde had vanished.

That meant his deal with her was over.

"Under the witch’s code, I have to receive compensation from her."

If he wanted to continue his relationship with her, he would need to make a new deal.

Perhaps it’s about time I went looking for a new hidden piece.

Comments (0)

Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register