A vividly depicted, blood-red battlefield.
Screams, shouts, and explosions echo everywhere.
Burning bodies. Shattering limbs. Bulging eyes. Crushed skulls. Decaying skin.
Standing still in the scorching battlefield, he endured the pain coursing through his body. His body was marked with countless cuts, burn scars, bruises, and some areas were blue from possible internal bleeding.
The operation was a success. However, it inflicted significant damage not only on the enemy but also on themselves. Just moments ago, his comrades who stood beside him were cruelly scattered into forms that were difficult to describe.
Faced with that sight, he felt fear. At the same time, he was driven by a strong desire to kill. Yet, he quickly realized that in a battlefield, becoming emotional would not allow him to survive.
What was needed was extremely rational action. By suppressing his heart, he began to ascend to an unwanted height.
Days that seemed never-ending and repetitive. A conflict that showed no signs of ending, no matter how much time passed. Moreover, it was unclear whether they were winning or losing.
Perhaps this was a nightmare. Maybe he was just in a dream that would never awaken, and this was not reality.
However, there was no room for such escapism. He must not run away simply to survive.
The boy was dashing through such a battlefield.
“Hah… hah… hah…!!”
He couldn’t remember how far he had come.
Alone, the boy gripped the knife at his waist tightly as he sprinted through the battlefield.
This was a war where magic was first introduced in earnest.
This war, later referred to as the Far Eastern War, was gradually expanding in scale.
“It’s cold… it’s cold…”
His long hair was already matted with red liquid. The dripping red liquid was likely the blood of those he had killed.
Without wiping away the dripping blood, he hid among the rocks and sat down.
Crouching alone, hugging his knees, the boy remained still… just still in that spot.
The sensation of having killed someone never faded away. That feeling lingered continuously in his hands. After experiencing his first kill, he could hardly sleep.
He repeated shallow sleeps, merely running away across the battlefield.
After being driven from his village, he had lived like this all along. He found food on his own, managed to secure it, and somehow scraped out a life that could hardly be called living.
He thought, even at such a young age, that there was no longer anywhere for him to belong, no place to live, and the boy continued to wander through this battlefield, a manifested hell.
“…”
His eyes no longer held any light.
They seemed to show no interest in living at all.
Yet what drove him was the instinct to survive.
He must live.
He had to live.
Driven by such instincts, he continued to run through the battlefield.
He believed that beyond this, there surely lay an ideal world.
However, he would later come to know that such a thing could not possibly exist in this world──.
◇
“Hah! Hah… hah…”
Sweat drips down.
The long hair that reaches down to her waist absorbs a large amount of sweat, creating spots on the bed sheets as it drips.
Bradley family.
In particular, this is Rebecca’s room. A spacious room with a canopy bed.
She was sleeping as usual.
The current time is 3:30 AM.
It is rare for Rebecca to wake up at such a late hour.
Especially after having such a vivid dream.
“What… was that…?”
She asks, but there is no one to answer her question.
Upon closer inspection, the bed sheets were not stained only with sweat.
There was something red mixed in with the stains.
“Eh…?”
She gently places her hand on her face.
Then, blood flows from her right eye as if it were tears.
As she wipes it away, a sharp pain shoots through both of her eyes.
“U… ugh. What on earth…?”
She cannot comprehend what is happening.
In such a state, she stares blankly at her situation. But for now, she needs to do something about the blood that is flowing.
With that thought, Rebecca heads to the washroom by herself.
She turns on the light and twists the faucet in front of the mirror, and as usual, water begins to flow. First, she washes her hands, which are stained with blood, and then she checks her eyes in the mirror.
What she sees is the manifestation of a magic eye that should not be activated.
“Magic eye? But this is…”
Rebecca thought.
Her eyes, which have turned golden, are indeed signs of the activation of a magic eye. However, she has no memory of seeing the future. What she saw was… perhaps a memory.
She doesn’t remember clearly.
All she recalls is a single boy running around in what seems to be a battlefield.
If it can be called a dream, then so be it… but it felt oddly real.
As if she were reliving someone else’s memories.
That sensation.
“…”
As she continues to stare at her eyes, the golden color gradually returns to its usual black.
At the same time, the bleeding seems to have stopped, and Rebecca feels a sense of relief.
After wiping the blood off her cheeks, she takes new sheets to her room to replace the soiled ones.
When she heads back to the washroom to wash the dirty sheets, she unexpectedly runs into her younger sister, Maria.
“Ah… is that you, big sister? What are you doing here at this time?”
“Oh, um, it’s nothing… yes.”
“But that looks like it’s stained with blood?”
“This is just a little nosebleed.”
“Nosebleed?”
“Yes, a nosebleed.”
“Hmm. It’s unusual for you, big sister.”
“Haha. I think I might have eaten a bit too much chocolate yesterday.”
Rebecca forced a smile while Maria wore a sulky expression. Maria then changed the subject.
“Big sister, are you okay with the engagement?”
“…I don’t mind. It’s the duty of the three great noble families. Besides, I’m the eldest daughter. But… I think you should have the right to choose freely, so I hope you find a good love.”
“Big sister…”
Maria looked at Rebecca with a somewhat lonely expression.
They used to be close sisters.
But at some point, that distance had clearly widened. In retrospect, Maria’s habit of getting her ears pierced was a form of self-harm, a way to rebel against her parents and the expectations of nobility.
~Because you’re a noble, you should do this. You should do that. You should follow your sister’s example.
Maria had been bombarded with such words since childhood, and as she entered her teenage years, she started to adopt an eccentric hairstyle and pierced her ears multiple times herself.
Rebecca did not simply stare in shock at this behavior, she earnestly tried to talk to Maria every day.
Often, her attempts were met with rejection. Still, it was undoubtedly thanks to Rebecca that Maria was able to live without wearing a mask like Amelia used to.
Having her by her side brought about some painful experiences. Nevertheless, Maria cherished her older sister. She respected her more than anyone else and considered her the most beautiful person. Her very existence was noble.
She was both an object of inferiority and an object of admiration.
With such twisted feelings towards her sister Rebecca, Maria was not pleased with the engagement at all. She confronted both her father and mother about it, but they dismissed her concerns, saying it was the duty of the Bradley family.
So now, Maria tried to talk to her sister.
But what she found was only the sad expression on her sister’s face, which seemed to embody self-sacrifice.
“Well then, Maria. Excuse me.”
“Big sister, wait—”
Rebecca ignored Maria’s call and returned to her room. She hurriedly went back, lay down on her bed, and began to cry.
“Ugh… uuh… u…”
The engagement had already been confirmed.
No matter what it entailed, she was prepared to accept it.
However, reality was far too cruel.
Rebecca had learned the truth about her fiancé when she visited the Magic Association during summer vacation.
She had discovered the true face of her fiancé…
Perhaps because of that memory, Rebecca had completely forgotten about the dream she had just seen. Little did she know that it would become significant later on.
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