“……Scarlet, Scarlet.”
Jessie mumbled my name while staring at me intently.
I found myself unconsciously letting out a small sound as our eyes met.
It was probably because her gaze toward me felt different from before.
Jessie’s two eyes, which were usually kind and warm when looking at friends, now shimmered with an unknown emotion.
The only thing I could guess was that at least it was not a friendly feeling.
It hurt too much to be looked at like that.
Just as I was about to utter something to her,
“……Scarlet, I want to ask you something.”
Jessie said to me.
“Please answer me honestly.”
Then came her follow-up question,
“Is it true that you, Scarlet, caused Yoon Si-woo to fall into a coma?”
I felt a lump in my throat.
Yoon Si-woo… in a coma?
With that shocking statement, I blankly turned my gaze toward Jessie as she continued with her questioning.
“They say he might never wake up. But you’re not someone who would hurt anyone, right? Please, tell me that’s not true.”
My vision felt like it was going white.
I knew he was severely injured.
I also knew that he had overexerted his abilities.
But to think he might never wake up again.
He did it to save me, to help me.
Because of me, Yoon Si-woo…
Guilt, self-blame, and remorse surged within me.
As if blaming me, Jessie shouted loudly.
“Why… can’t you answer? Why can’t you say it’s not true?!”
“……”
I couldn’t respond to her words.
After all, it was as she said.
That I was a witch and that Yoon Si-woo ended up like that because of me.
I felt unworthy to make excuses, so I kept my mouth shut, and it seemed Jessie interpreted my silence as an affirmation, her face crumpling as she muttered.
“……So it’s true. Everything, it was all real.”
“……”
“Ahaha, I believed in you. I thought we were friends…”
I turned away from Jessie, who was shutting her eyes and letting out hollow laughs.
I didn’t have time to deal with her.
Yoon Si-woo, regardless of the circumstances, wanted me to escape.
At the very least, I needed to hear his last words—
Thud.
“Stop right there.”
At that moment, a sharp voice pierced through, and I felt a heavy shock pierce me.
Dumbfounded, I looked down and saw a sharp metal skewer protruding from my chest.
The pain made me stop my instinct to flee and slowly turn around.
There stood Jessie, her face twisted like a grotesque mask, extending her wand toward me.
“I can’t forgive you…”
Her voice filled with animosity echoed, and at the same time, whether it was telekinesis or something, the skewer embedded in my chest began to vibrate violently.
Blood welled up and gushed out from my pierced chest.
This attack, infused with a will to kill, was hard to believe coming from gentle Jessie.
The realization of that caused more pain than the actual wound, and I wrapped my hands around the skewer embedded in my chest and yanked it out.
The wound started to heal immediately, but Jessie seemed indifferent to giving me a moment to recover, swinging her wand again, sending the skewer flying toward me.
“I can’t forgive you…!!!!”
Her shout, filled with a desire for revenge.
But this time, flames surged from my body, instantly melting the incoming skewer.
“Ugh…! Die!!!”
As I deflected her attack, Jessie glared at me and struck her wand hard against the ground.
Then, sharp stone fragments and metal skewers lying around rose into the air and flew toward me all at once.
Though it must have been an all-out attack for her, it was not enough to deal any significant damage to me, strengthened by becoming a witch.
The fragments and skewers couldn’t pierce through the flames like they could now.
Even if I took the attack, I could just heal from that level of injury.
The difference in strength between us was glaringly obvious.
As if acknowledging that truth, I glanced at Jessie, and it seemed she realized her attacks were ineffective as she bit her lip tightly.
Thinking perhaps it was time to leave her behind, I tried to turn away.
But against my assumption that she would give up at this point,
“Die…! Just die!!”
She kept launching her attacks at me.
Cursing me with every word.
Continuing to strike, again and again, and again…
“Ugh, cough…?!”
At that moment, blood sprayed from Jessie’s face, where holes appeared.
Having likely exerted herself to the limit without a proper rest, the recoil from pushing beyond her physical capabilities now struck her hard.
Seeing that made me exclaim in alarm.
“Jessie…!”
“D-Die, cough…! Ugh… die…!”
No matter how flustered I became, she continued to attack me, even spitting up blood.
Her relentless determination made my heart ache.
It meant she felt that betrayed by me that much.
It was unbearable for me to witness her hurting herself like this.
It was already hard enough with Yoon Si-woo gravely injured because of me.
Watching Jessie get hurt because of me was too painful, and I yelled for her to stop.
“Stop, Jessie! Stop it…!!”
“Why…! Why?!!!”
“Jessie, just stop…!”
“I believed in you, I believed in you and your brother…! Why did you deceive me…! Why…!”
Our desperate cries echoed back and forth, neither of us stopping.
Amidst all this, Jessie’s attacks suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
It wasn’t that her desire for revenge had disappeared, but she staggered and collapsed onto the ground.
“…! Jessie…!”
“Ugh, aah…!”
Jessie, now down, seemed to lack even the strength to use her powers, swinging her wand feebly a few times before gripping a nearby metal skewer and crawling toward me, shouting.
“Why…! Cough, why am I…! Why can’t I even get revenge on that wicked witch…!”
Despite her own helplessness, Jessie crawled pathetically toward me, causing me to extinguish the flames bursting from my body and rush to her side.
“Jessie, please. Please stop…”
It was a plea.
As I begged her not to continue, I held her—face down on the ground—tight in my arms, and Jessie, choking on her blood, weakly stabbed the skewer into me.
I didn’t resist that attack but instead fully absorbed it into my body.
Though it was an attack that couldn’t inflict a significant wound on me.
It hurt more than anything else I had ever experienced.
But pain didn’t matter now.
If this would make her stop.
I pleaded, please, please, holding her tightly.
Eventually, Jessie’s arm, which had been stabbing me while vomiting blood, finally stopped.
“…Why.”
Jessie looked at me, her expression contorted as she whispered, “Why?”
“Why do you wear that expression…? I’m the one who’s wronged, I’m the one who wants to cry…”
Tears welled up in Jessie’s eyes.
“Why, as a witch… do you resist my attacks without any retaliation…? Why, why do you still act like everything is normal…?”
“……”
“The witch is definitely my enemy… so what should I do… ugh…”
Thud.
The skewer holding in her hand fell to the ground.
As she sobbed, she buried her head into my chest.
Feeling relieved that she had stopped hurting herself, I embraced her and murmured softly.
“Jessie, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
“Wha-What are you sorry for?”
“Just… everything… hiding my identity from you up until now, I didn’t mean to hurt Yoon Si-woo like that… And breaking the arm that you and your brother gifted me… it’s all…”
“……I don’t need that anymore since my arm is healed.”
She muttered that and buried her head in my embrace for a moment.
Then, after a short while, she suddenly pushed me away while keeping her head bowed.
“Let’s go quickly…”
“…What?”
“If we stay here, people will come, so just go quickly. Otherwise, I might change my mind and blow this up.”
With those words, Jessie revealed a container she had taken from her clothes.
From what she said about blowing something up, I roughly guessed that it was the device for signaling my location with fireworks, and I flinched, standing up while addressing Jessie.
“Your body must have taken a lot of damage. We need to hurry to the hospital…?”
“…I’ll take care of it, so just go quickly.”
As much as I wanted to take her to the hospital, I figured if I delayed any further, she might really set off the fireworks in anger, so I decided to leave promptly.
I didn’t bother with farewells.
Hoping for a day when we could meet again.
*
Not long after Scarlet left, the commotion around us began again.
It meant the heroes had resumed their pursuit of her.
Hearing that, Jessie, who was staring blankly at the magical tool in her hand, let out a deep sigh.
“…I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.”
After hesitating for a moment, Jessie finally closed her eyes tightly and pressed the button on the container.
Kaboom! A loud sound erupted as arrow-shaped flames blossomed magnificently into the sky.
The flames pointed in the direction opposite where Scarlet had vanished.
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