You Died Chapter 53…………………………..
The man retraced the path he had taken, leaving the woman behind.
“It looks like he’s going back into the forest.”
“He won’t be able to see her.”
“Pardon?”
I was certain that man would never reach the flower.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
“This place… feels like a memory created by the flower.”
Cardin frowned slightly as he looked down at me. I turned my head toward the direction the man had been running.
“A space fabricated to explain why Dave couldn’t come to her.”
As if proving my words, the surroundings shifted again and again. Dave had been unable to go into the forest because of countless accidents.
“I think she made it because she wanted to believe she hadn’t been abandoned.”
The despairing expression she had worn when told even God had forsaken her flashed through my mind.
It was too similar to my own to forget.
If she was a woman who had looked like that, then she surely wouldn’t have been able to accept Dave’s absence so easily.
So this memory must have been created around the moment the flower began to wither.
The flow was chaotic.
Each time Dave’s death repeated, the space grew fainter.
Sometimes, as if the world itself had stopped, only Dave remained frozen while everything around him warped and twisted.
It was happening even now.
“It seems the memory she created never reached its conclusion.”
Cardin strode toward where the man stood. I hurried after him.
“Your Highness?”
“If my guess is correct, this is the moment when we can move.”
The surroundings were distorted—there was no movement at all.
Even the wind had stopped.
In this place, the only beings able to move were Cardin and me.
When he placed his hand on Dave’s shoulder, the man crumbled into dust and disappeared.
In the ruined space, Cardin picked up the watering can lying on the ground.
“When the memory changes, this space will vanish. Then we’ll be able to leave.”
“Then maybe… the situation outside will be different.”
If so, it might become easier to deal with.
We stepped easily onto the forest path Dave had never been able to enter.
I looked around the barren woods, devoid of life, and murmured—
“How much time has passed?”
“I can’t be sure, but… perhaps not even a day.”
Time here was jumbled, so it was entirely possible.
Relieved, I let out a faint smile.
“Maybe not even a few minutes.”
“Yes.”
“Then the time we were trapped might have only been a brief instant in reality.”
Thinking of Alec waiting outside, it was a comforting thought.
Just then, Cardin stopped and turned back to me.
I tilted my head, unable to read his expression.
“Your Highness?”
“Saintess.”
“Yes, Grand Duke?”
“The position of Saintess…”
He trailed off, as if swallowing the rest of his words.
Why bring that up now?
When I simply stared at him, Cardin straightened his head again.
“No… it’s nothing. Let’s go.”
“…Yes.”
And so we continued walking.
* * *
When Cardin knelt on one knee and sprinkled water, the flower’s voice rang out.
“Dave?”
“……”
“Dave… Dave. Have you come to take me with you?”
I watched them from a distance.
Cardin had tried to act like Dave, but in an instant, the flower took the form of a woman.
“So you really didn’t abandon me, Dave. I missed you.”
The withered flower swayed softly in the wind—then stopped.
The smile vanished from the woman’s face as she looked down at Cardin.
“…Who are you?”
This time, the flower was not confused.
I began walking toward them, but Cardin spoke first.
“The man you’re waiting for isn’t coming.”
“What are you saying? Who are you? Who are you?!”
“Dave isn’t coming.”
The woman stumbled back, her eyes reddening.
“…He abandoned me?”
The sky darkened in an instant.
Her body trembled as if she couldn’t believe it.
“At least in this space… he will not come.”
“How would you know that?!”
Her eyes flashed.
Startled, I hurried toward them—
But my steps stopped.
“Because you killed him again and again.”
It would be more accurate to say I froze in place.
“…What?”
Unlike her shaking voice, Cardin’s tone was painfully calm.
He rose, brushing off his knee, and looked down at her with indifferent eyes.
“Do you truly not know?”
“That’s impossible! I could never have killed Dave!”
“You let him die here. You killed him even while tearing him away from his lover. You kept inventing reasons, over and over, to kill him. Will you still pretend you don’t know?”
The woman scanned her surroundings with trembling eyes.
The distorted forest had become so mixed with color that it was hard to even recognize shapes.
It had lost its identity.
“With nothing but your selfish desire… you killed the one you loved again and again.”
At his words, my heart sank heavily.
My whole body turned cold, trembling.
Was it emotion transferred from the flower?
Or was I remembering the moment when I killed him with my own greed?
A tear fell.
Because it felt like he was speaking not to her—
But to me.
Because his voice held disgust.
“After killing him so many times… do you still think you have the right to love him? To miss him?”
“I… I…!”
My vision blurred.
The two of them were nothing but hazy figures.
I wished it would stay that way—
But as tears dropped, as if demanding I see his face clearly, the world sharpened again.
Cardin didn’t know I had once caused his death.
But I knew that if he ever learned the truth, he would never look at me warmly again.
He would regret, bitterly, having protected me through so many lives.
Perhaps he would look at me the way he looked at that woman now.
I didn’t want him to ever make the same choice again.
I truly didn’t.
Even now.
So why…
Why did my chest hurt so much?
Him distancing himself was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
Clutching my heart, I bit down hard on my lip.
I didn’t want him to notice me crying, so I held my breath.
Then Cardin shifted slightly—
My shoulders stiffened.
Don’t turn around.
Don’t look at me.
I had no confidence to face him.
Memories rose up like accusations—
The way he looked at me with worry at the altar.
The way I rode in his arms.
The way he jumped into the lake for me.
The despair on his face as he ran toward me when I collapsed—
His voice, mingling with the crackle of the fire, echoed in my ears and tightened around me like chains.
I couldn’t breathe.
I wanted to let it out—
But it felt like the air itself had vanished.
I couldn’t bear to watch this world blur, sharpen, blur again.
The flower cried in my place.
Rain fell in the twisted world.
I sank to the ground, crying with it—
Hoping no one could tell whether it was tears or rain.
I needed to come to my senses.
But my heart was breaking.
I had never deserved the warmth others gave me.
Yet I accepted it, called them mine, and loved them.
I didn’t even deserve the right to love—
And still, I loved him.
This place felt like a punishment meant for me.
“Saintess!”
God was cruel to me yet again.
When I lifted my head, the droplets gathered at my chin slid down my throat.
The space was beginning to crack.
