A boy in a wheelchair wearing a red beanie. I remember this little guy.
“Su-hyun hyung! You’re getting out tomorrow! Congrats!”
We hadn’t been in the same hospital room for long, but like all kids that age…
“One more round! This one doesn’t count!”
As long as we had a common interest like games, it was easy to become friends.
“Ugh… Su-hyun hyung is really good at games.”
It was the time when handheld game consoles became a trend, and it was common for every household to have one.
I got close to a boy named Young-min, who played as a character wearing a red hat.
“No, hyung! Aren’t you going too easy on me?! Don’t do that!”
Plus, his bright and hopeful personality made him quite popular in the hospital. Even the nurses and doctors…
“Young-min, did you do well in physical therapy today? Here’s some chocolate!”
“Wow! Thank you!”
There were many people who showed such kindness.
“So, Su-hyun hyung, I’m going to eat burgers until I burst when I get out!”
“I hope that’s true, Young-min.”
The automatic words came out like tape, leaving a metallic taste in my mouth.
“I can’t eat here because it’ll make me sick..! The bread served in the hospital is tasteless…”
Words telling me to run or that there would be a fire got stuck in my throat.
I wanted to spit out the truth. I wanted to protect the boy in front of me.
‘Is there no way to save this little guy?’
When a fire broke out, I quickly left the building, following the hospital staff’s instructions.
“Tonight is Christmas, so I hear we’re having curry. Hyung! Isn’t that exciting?”
“Exciting, sure, but I’m not a fan of broccoli.”
Where was the boy named Young-min?
In the children’s ward filled with thick black smoke.
I felt an unsettling absence and hurriedly looked around, but the boy in the red beanie was nowhere to be found.
Before firefighters or anyone else arrived, when I heard a scream, I ran back into the burning building.
“Hyung, you seem a bit more mature today!”
“…”
I couldn’t save this boy. I searched, gritting my teeth through the pain of my burned face.
There was a limit to what could be done with a child’s body. I had no idea where he was.
If only I had a sword and was in my adult body, maybe I could have changed something?
‘..That’s a cowardly excuse. Lee Soo-hyun.’
I thought I wouldn’t regret it now. Because I did my best in the end.
Even though I tried so hard I ended up traumatized, I rationalized that I was blocked by the wall of reality.
Words of a cowardly runaway. The burn scars left behind became a mark of shame for others to point at, and it gnawed at my own heart.
“It snowed a ton. I want to go outside and build a giant snowman!”
I had to relive that scene. Cold sweat poured from my entire body. Blood rushed to my head as I racked my brain for a solution.
‘Where on earth did the fire start?’
Decades later, I searched through old newspapers and news, but the cause of the fire was never revealed. There also were no sprinklers in that hospital.
“Uh, Su-hyun hyung. Are you crying…? If you cry, Santa won’t come! What do we do?”
I wiped my eyes. My helmet was gone, and I felt my smooth face. This was possible. Maybe I could use sign language, braille, or a pen to convey information.
‘Damn, my body won’t move as I wish.’
Everything failed. I even tried to blink in Morse code for SOS, but…
‘This isn’t working.’
It seemed impossible. In the end, I couldn’t do what I wouldn’t have done in the past.
‘An unchangeable past… then…’
I needed to follow my past actions as much as possible and find variables. Even with trauma, hope must exist.
“..Young-min, are you going to watch the Christmas event today?”
“Yeah! Of course!”
The previous day’s Christmas event in the hospital.
An adult dressed as Santa would appear, handing out toys or items that looked like sketchbooks from a gift bag.
This was the last memory before our two fates were about to change to something terrible.
“Let’s go watch it together.”
If I couldn’t change the past, couldn’t I at least do something here?
*
To save Licht, who was unable to regain his senses from the assault of the Apostle of Gluttony, the place she leapt into.
At first, Pina Grancia thought Licht’s trauma was about fighting some formidable foe.
That made sense; he truly was an exceptional warrior after experiencing battle firsthand.
But where on earth was this place?
“Where is this..?”
Pina Grancia couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the scene around her.
Her white hair falling to her waist, golden irises, and pure white wolf ears looked too out of place here.
Most around her had black hair and brown eyes like Licht,
“Mom! I want katsu!”
“Okay, let’s just get the X-ray done first, alright?”
“Hehe, you have to keep that promise!”
Everyone was human. There were no features of other races like the people of the Grancia Empire, even if she looked closely.
“When’s the next surgery scheduled, doctor?”
“Since our hospital is closed on Christmas… how about the end of January?”
“Sounds good. Please book it.”
But nobody recognized her or paid her any attention.
A large building with many kids in white clothes and their parents.
‘Is this a treatment center…?’
As she looked around with her good eyes, there was something evidently wrong with everyone.
Pina thought Licht must have been here when he was hurt.
‘Winter. Outside is completely winter.’
With the snow piling up resembling her white hair, it was the complete opposite of the scorching summer at the Academy just moments before.
“..He really was a hero, Licht.”
While she had guessed that a man in a Black Knight helmet was a hero summoned from another world, she never expected him to come from such a different place.
Wasn’t this a world unrelated to her? Even the sparkling star-decorated tree over there was fascinating, and the writing around her was incomprehensible.
‘The sound amplification magic isn’t working.’
No magic worked. She didn’t know if there was no mana in the air or if it was all a nightmare.
Things, clothes, and people she had never seen before.
Everything was strange and fascinating.
She was a princess who could feel fear. Wouldn’t a person feel like they were lost if they suddenly dropped into a totally unfamiliar place?
“Licht! Where are you!!”
But without the time to ponder such thoughts, Pina began to look around for Licht.
There must have been an event here that caused him to have trauma. Her worry never ceased.
Though perhaps due to his memories, there were no helmets or glass armor surrounding her.
“Licht..!”
Pina moved confidently. The masterpiece mantle covering her was no longer necessary.
In a faraway, different world, the hero who came to find her sacrificed his life while fighting the Magic Hat.
Alongside Nex and Shar, he had saved precious people from the Head’s tricks,
She had been rescued by the man in the Black Knight helmet and was slowly blending into him.
The injured wolf shared his pain with her and once comforted her with an embrace.
‘We can overcome trauma together, so please appear.’
She felt anxious. Her heart tightened uncomfortably. The thought of what might occur here, the fear that Licht could feel, was unbearable.
“Ugh..!”
Unable to use mana, she hurriedly ran but stumbled and fell, scraping her face slightly.
The glass knight who had lived their life with robust mana. This was the first time they had faced such constraints.
‘..Licht also must have worked hard like this, Pina.’
Picking herself up from the ground, determination filled Pina’s eyes. Before enrolling at the Academy, she had been as empty as a hollow glass.
The cold world was transparent, like her reflection in glass, rendering emotions unnecessary.
‘If I don’t find Licht quickly, he’ll suffer more.’
She regretted that when the Magic Hat invaded the Imperial Palace, taking her mother and killing the maids, she couldn’t do anything.
Living with the crushing guilt of never being strong enough felt meaningless.
‘If Licht hadn’t told me to hold my breath, I might have been affected too..’
Trapped in trauma, she might have witnessed horrific sights. She could have held her breath; he was always the Black Knight who cared for others over himself.
‘He helped Nex and Shar, and came to protect us.’
Only recently had she been able to breathe thanks to Licht’s help. She wasn’t sure how thankful that comfort made her feel.
Once she regained her composure after falling, the image of the Black Knight, scarred and fearful of fire, flashed before her.
‘Fire, is the problem fire…?’
What she had shared at the festival booth, about hearing screams as a child and getting hurt while going back inside, quickly crossed her mind.
If a fire broke out here and he got burned, it would make perfect sense for him to develop trauma.
Like an injured puppy, he would become wary and fearful of human touch.
‘I need to find Licht as a child..’
To save him, the pure white girl was running around a hospital.
