CHAPTER 69……………..
“You already know the truth, don’t you?”
“Tenebres and the sisters left you because they didn’t need you anymore.”
Roziana had no intention of tolerating the delusions in front of her any longer.
They were nothing but nonsense.
“What are you babbling about? These illusions that don’t even have substance.”
“…W-what?”
“Ha. Don’t make such an ugly face while wearing my sister’s face. Do you know how beautiful Teresa-unnie is?”
That graceful smile and long, glossy black hair were Teresa’s trademarks.
To be honest, in the past, she might have wavered at the words of these phantoms.
They were thoughts she had once chewed on in her own mind.
But instead, the very words of the hallucinations brought her clarity—
as if reminding her of something truly important that she had forgotten.
“And spouting nonsense about things you don’t even understand?”
At her cry, the two figures wearing her sisters’ faces looked dumbfounded.
“Even if my sisters didn’t save me, it’s fine. Even if they abandoned me, it’s still fine.”
“…F-fine?”
Looking at the baffled illusions, Roziana’s voice grew firmer.
“Yes. Because I love them.”
Perhaps because their attempt to rattle her mind and trap her in delusion had failed, the faces of the sisters twisted grotesquely.
“Huh? What did you just say?”
“Are you serious right now?”
Now that she looked closely, they only vaguely resembled her sisters. Roziana knew her sisters’ faces and expressions far too well.
Yes—thinking it through, everything became clearer.
The most important thing was her own heart.
A change in perspective altered the meaning of what she saw.
And the truth was, she did love her sisters and was truly grateful to them.
“Yes, I mean it. You say my sisters didn’t sacrifice themselves for me? Then I’m even more thankful. Because what I really want is for them to live only for themselves, to be happy. That’s my true wish.”
“!”
The illusions’ pupils shook wildly, as if they’d lost their footing.
“You—you’re not trying to save them because of them! It’s just for yourself, isn’t it? You don’t care if they live again—you just want to see them!”
“Yeah! When did they ever ask you to save them? They left because they wanted to live their own way without you, and now you’re throwing a tantrum about saving them?”
The two had shifted tactics, aiming to crush her will instead.
Roziana didn’t flinch. She released a part of her mana.
“So what?”
“W-what?”
“If I have the power to bring them back, then I will. Where’s the problem? And what’s real or not—I’ll see that with my own eyes.”
She smirked at the phantoms, who flinched under the pressure of her aura.
The illusions aren’t even consistent in their lies. Their only goal is clear.
To break the intruder’s will.
Not just to disturb one’s mind with weakness, but to completely crush the spirit, twisting their attack as needed.
So that’s why they say illusions here destroy the mind and heart.
That I’m unworthy of life.
Unworthy of saving my sisters.
Unworthy of love.
That I was abandoned because I had no value.
“Foolish Erica. Even if you go back to the past, you’ll only learn the painful truth—that we didn’t die fighting the Demon King, we left because we abandoned you.”
Abandoned… of course. That’s who I am.
Yes… I’ve thought those things before too.
These were all her own inner voices.
Her hidden truths she tried to ignore.
Each ugly seed she buried had taken root and tried to shake her to pieces.
So in the end, they’re just my delusions.
Knowing the truth, she no longer felt fear or disgust.
She only wanted to push through these illusions quickly, to get closer to Asterios and lend him her strength.
Her voice was calmer now as she spoke.
“Even if they abandoned me, I’ll still go back and save them.”
Whatever their reason, whatever their intent for dying—
“Because I love them.”
Because I want to save them.
Call it selfish if you want.
“If you don’t like it, then become stronger than me.”
If someone abandons me, does that mean I lose my right to live?
Why? I already have value simply by being me.
“Being reborn as Roziana taught me that. That I’m already whole.”
She was alive, and that alone was enough reason to be grateful. Through her past and present lives, she was more certain than ever.
I’m glad I’m alive.
Thank you for letting me live.
To her sisters and Tenebres who had let her live—she could never hate them.
No, I love them. That’s why I want to do something for them.
She wanted to return to the past and save her sisters.
She wanted to be strength for Asterios.
She wanted to live as Princess Roziana, and repay her family.
She wanted to protect the world they lived in.
“Ha. I should almost thank the Secret Fog.”
She murmured quietly, finally understanding. Thanks to this, she could clearly tell which thoughts were truly hers, and which were empty fears without substance.
Yes, she needed this moment. She should’ve faced these dark thoughts long ago, cut them out instead of letting them fester.
I’ve been too foolishly shackled by old memories and feelings.
Her body had changed, her name had changed, centuries had passed—
and yet she still clung to a past that would forever remain there.
The past when her sisters and Tenebres had left her.
It was already over.
Now, she had to let it go completely.
“So no matter what you say, my worth doesn’t change. I don’t care, and I’m not interested.”
Why had she ever been trapped by such thoughts? They were nothing.
Negative thoughts and self-loathing silently corrode the heart.
They seem like festering wounds that can never heal, but in truth, just one shift in perspective can make them vanish like nothing.
Of course, that’s only possible because I’m loved now.
She was certain of it.
The love from her sisters, the heart Tenebres had given her—
she could remember and accept them because people in her present life cherished her now.
Chrrring—
As if resonating with her thought, something stirred within.
Her mana shimmered.
It felt like a whisper: “I’m here.”
It’s Asterios’ mana.
The power she had absorbed from him.
Yes—he was with her. Even now, endlessly giving of himself.
“Idiot! He’ll leave you too one day!”
As if hearing her innermost thoughts, one of the illusions cried out shrilly.
“Yes, that could be true.”
Whether he stayed or not was entirely Asterios’ choice.
And if that happened?
“It still doesn’t matter.”
“…What??”
“Because I love him, and I want to protect him.”
Even if no one else recognized her heart, it was fine.
“At the very least, shouldn’t I be my own ally in this universe?”
As long as she acknowledged her own heart, it was enough.
She was alive here and now, yet she’d let regret linger in the past and resented him.
But he had always come closer to her.
And it was me—the foolish one—who failed to see it, who pushed him away and clung to old pain. I need to accept that now. That’s the only way to truly change.
When someone has someone they want to protect, they grow stronger.
And here in the Secret Fog, for her, that was Asterios.
“I’ll grow stronger, fake sisters.”
Her smile was firm.
“!”
Realizing their plan had failed, the illusions shattered more and more.
“The pitiful Erica who was abandoned at birth—it’s time to let her go.”
She had met her witch sisters and known true happiness.
She had loved Tenebres, and become even happier.
That was fortune, wasn’t it?
That baby Erica had been abandoned by her so-called father?
What else mattered?
Not the fact of being abandoned, but the fact that she existed now, had people who cherished her, and that she loved them back.
“So blocking my path now only hurts you. Did you really think I’d let a cursed mountain that breathes out illusions be?”
Her purple eyes blazed as she drew up her mana.
“Eek!”
Sensing the end, the illusions cowered and unraveled.
Whatever their true nature—monster, mountain spirit—they couldn’t withstand a power nearly equal to that of a Demon King.
“You’ll… regret this!”
Spitting villainous words to the end, the phantoms dissolved into nothing.
The mist faded with a pitiful sigh.
“All at once like that?”
Roziana let out a hollow laugh.
“Well, at least I finally said goodbye to the gloomy Erica of the past.”
As easily as she had once been swayed, she passed through the Secret Fog’s illusions with ease.
“Though… I wonder.”
It was unsettling to have broken through so quickly, but the mana she had unleashed might have revealed her presence to others. A shiver ran down her spine.
I’m still close to Asterios, I think…
She could feel the connection within her telling her their distance wasn’t far. But since she didn’t know his state, she decided to wait until he overcame the illusions and moved toward the summit himself.
But then—
Huh? What’s happening?
Strangely, Asterios’ mana, connected to hers, began to surge and thrash violently
