Chapter 01
Ash fell from the crimson sky, as if even the clouds had burned away, drifting down like snowflakes.
Erkina looked up at the ash landing weakly on her forehead, her eyes vacant, before quietly closing them at the sound of the earth itself collapsing beneath her.
“Lady Erkina! You must get out of here! At this rate, the Northern Continent—!”
“Shut up…”
Erkina waved her hand, sending the last of the people far away to the safety of the southern continent.
The people of the south were said to be calm and kind; with their help, she could carve out a new life.
But herself?
She no longer had a reason to live. She had already lost two people she had loved intensely, who had loved her endlessly in return.
To others, she was a cruel woman obsessed with power, but to her only daughter, she had been a mother who would sacrifice her very life.
And then there was her adoptive father, who had taken in Erkina when she was left to die after her mother’s death.
And now… this time, she had to take the life of that precious benefactor with her own hands—to save countless strangers whose faces she had never known.
“Ugh…”
She had sensed a change in her gentle adoptive father two weeks ago.
- “Leave the Mage Tower immediately, Erkina.” –
- “Father, I…” –
- “Leave this land as quickly as possible. Don’t even think about coming back. Go to another continent! I don’t want to see you again.” –
He had changed right after it was revealed that Erkina’s biological mother was Mernelia, a woman known as a notorious villainess. He had hated Mernelia and no longer wished to see her daughter either.
She thought she was being cast out. She assumed he regretted raising the daughter of his enemy.
She didn’t know how deeply her adoptive father loved her when he said such words.
- “E… Erkina… I said, cough, leave, didn’t I?” –
- “Father!” –
- “Quickly! Take the people and get out of the Northern Continent! Don’t die senselessly!” –
Magic overflow. This was a side effect of power in exceptionally talented mages.
The more magic one used, the more poison accumulated in the body. The stronger and more frequent the magic, the more the accumulated poison turned into darkness, slowly corroding the caster’s mind.
Uncontrolled, this power could erupt all at once, destroying everything around it.
Yet the world did not even know that such disasters could occur. Those mages with transcendent power had their own ways of managing it—some even overcame the side effects with sheer willpower.
Thus, Erkina did not expect her adoptive father’s rampage at all. She had no idea what had broken him.
- “Erkina… you… must… kill me. This is the only way to buy time to save the people. Only you… my sole heir… can kill me.” –
It was his last will, spoken when he briefly regained his senses while destroying the northern land.
Her adoptive father did not dodge her attack and accepted his death. After that, the Northern Continent slowly began to collapse.
Erkina pressed her knees together, burying her face.
She did not want to live. Her reason to live was gone. She had intended to repay her adoptive father’s kindness for raising her.
She poured her remaining magic into saving others, but she herself was left behind, to bury all the memories of laughter and tears.
Soon, the Mage Tower, which had been her warm home for ten years, began to collapse.
Erkina watched the falling debris and dust absentmindedly, then suddenly leapt up.
“That’s…”
Her eyes widened.
Life returned to her eyes, which had moments ago been dull and defeated.
Using the falling stones as stepping stones, she jumped skyward.
Reaching the highest point, she stretched her trembling arms. Her clothes tore, her thin skin was cut and bleeding from the falling debris, but she did not care.
She barely grabbed the disintegrating hardcover book midair.
Forgetting that she should get to safety, she opened the book as if entranced.
“Today I brought the daughter of Mernelia who died. She resembles her mother—so bold, yet cute.”
“Did you… know I was my mother’s daughter from the start?”
Her heart began to race strangely at the truth she hadn’t known.
Erkina frantically flipped the pages but stopped at a pain that felt like her heart was being torn out.
“Soon, darkness may consume me. But I will endure. It’s Erkina’s world to live in, and I cannot ruin it.
Indeed, perhaps I have been relying on her help. Watching her absorb what I teach, sparkling as she learns—it pushes away the darkness and poison growing within me. Even without you, I’ve endured because of that.
That too… is like you.”
Clutching the diary, Erkina wept at the pure affection of her adoptive father, who had never shared blood with her.
She fell with the crumbling Mage Tower debris.
After sobbing for some time, she leafed through the diary again, trying to remember her father.
“Having lost you, the antidote, I repeatedly unleashed my power to try to bring ruin to this world. I thought it was atonement and proof of my heart toward you. I didn’t realize hatred, resentment, or regret had meaning only while you lived.
I survived cowardly, and likely did only things that earned your hatred. But do not worry. I will make sure your daughter is not caught in my rampage and dies.
I will soon be by your side, Mernelia. If we have another life, I hope to be a man of rank who can boldly propose to you…”
‘Atonement? A proposal? Could it be that’s why Father lived alone all his life?’
Her body hit the cold ground as she closed her eyes.
Debris from the tower continued to rain down on her broken body.
Then, from far away, she heard a voice that should not have reached her ears.
“Erkina! No!”
‘How is he here?’
She struggled to open her eyes.
She saw a man’s shadow running toward her. Even in the shadow, his panic was evident—so unlike him.
‘Why…?’
Before she could make sense of it, her vision went black again.
Erkina tried to hold onto the approaching voice, but her consciousness sank deeper into the dark, subterranean world.
“…Kina, Erkina?”
At the voice calling her, Erkina’s eyes snapped open.
She was in a cozy room, with the gentle crackle of a fireplace. A house full of memories with the woman who had loved her the most in the world.
She was back in the dining hall of the mansion where young Erkina had lived—not the frozen, northern land.
“Why am I… here?”
What had happened at the last moment?
Erkina looked around in a daze. Then, a face she longed for appeared before her.
“Happy eighth birthday, Erkina.”
“Mo… Mom!”
Was this a dream?
Erkina looked at her mother’s beautiful face, then down at her own shortened arms and legs.
A dream? Or the final vision before death?
Flustered, she could only pout at the face she longed to see. She wanted to cry but feared her mother would disappear behind the tears.
“Why, Erkina? Don’t you like your birthday gift?”
Though it had been a long time, the situation felt the same as back then.
So, it must be just a dream. Frightened, Erkina blinked slowly.
“Erkina, are you hurt? Why is your face so pale?”
A warm hand touched her cheek.
The warmth, last felt ten years ago, was real. Not an illusion. Not a trick.
Even as she leaned her cheek against it, the gentle springlike hand did not vanish. Her mother was truly here.
Had forbidden magic, the power to turn back time, been used?
But the person strong enough to wield such magic was already dead.
The next strongest mage, Erkina herself, only knew of its existence—she could not use it.
“Don’t you like the gift I chose?”
Hearing the frustrated voice, Erkina’s eyes flew open.
The elegant, dignified golden eyes she had longed for returned to her world.
A person stronger than anyone, but endlessly soft toward her daughter…
“No! It’s not that—I wanted another gift… too.”
