And Thus… It All Comes to an End - Chapter 28

“So, in other words, the mission failed and the Crown Prince has been captured? Is that it?”

“It is.”

The Prime Minister’s quiet confirmation fell like a stone.

“I knew it…!”

Driven by impulse, I pushed my chair back and stood up. What was that Bracelet of Subordination even for?!

“It’s exactly what I said! You were trying to force her to obey so you could make that woman his consort, weren’t you? This is a betrayal!”

My chest burned with a searing irritation.

“If only I had gone with him—!”

If I had been by the Crown Prince’s side, I might have stopped his foolishness. But the Prime Minister cut me off as if dousing me with ice water.

“Speculation is a waste of time.”

I bit my lip hard. The Prime Minister exhaled a short breath.

“Now, let us discuss the future. You are aware of the matter regarding the vanishing citizens?”

“Yes. The palace is buzzing with nothing but that rumor. How could I not know?”

“Quite. His Majesty the King has commanded that you also attend the negotiations regarding this matter.”

“…Me too?”

See? You do need me.

There was no choice but to take the Crown Prince back. I couldn’t let it end like this, with him snatched away by that woman. The Prime Minister narrowed his eyes slightly, staring straight at my face.

“We wish to explain that ‘Lady Luciana manipulated the hearts of the people and forcibly took the Prince away’.”

“I hear you. You want me to testify to that effect?”

“Yes. Tell them you heard a voice using power to manipulate them.”

The light from the window flickered faintly, casting long shadows across the room. I nodded slowly. The boundary between sin and strategy had long since blurred into nothingness.

“…I understand.”

When I gave my short answer, the Prime Minister—no, the man I was supposed to call “Father”—curled the corner of his lip slightly.

“I’m counting on you, my Lady Apostle.”

I felt the malice in that title.

Thud. The heavy door closed. The sound of his receding footsteps left only silence behind.

“…Honestly, what a sarcastic father.”

My voice sounded startlingly weak even to my own ears. I sat down at my dressing table.

Light fell on my hair. When bathed in the sun, my hair and eyes appeared brownish. With a sigh, I pulled the curtains shut. Closed off in the dim twilight, I felt my heart steady just a little.

“…I wish my eyes and hair were blacker.”

The words fell into the air, reaching no one. In the mirror, I wore the face of a stranger.

The “Other World.” I didn’t know where such a place existed. I had never been there. Because as far back as I could remember, I was in the back alleys of the Royal Capital.

I lived huddling with other children in the shadows of crumbling buildings. We spent our days doing chores, sharing bread someone had managed to get, and thinking only of surviving until the end of “today.”

Back then, it was Big Sister Beth who often stroked my hair. We weren’t related by blood, but she was a warm person, like real family.

“Elly, your hair is the same color as the Lady Apostle’s. I bet something good is going to happen to you.”

Beth would say that, smiling as she gently brushed my hair.

“What is an ‘Apostle of the Goddess’?”

As a young child, I tilted my head. Sister Beth narrowed her eyes slightly, as if looking at a distant sky.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Her name is Sara. She has black hair and black eyes. They say she didn’t come from this world, but from somewhere much, much further away, beyond the sky.”

“But my hair and eyes are brown in the sun.”

“They’re black if the sun doesn’t hit them. Maybe you’re a descendant.”

Black hair. Black eyes.

It was a mark of being “special.” It was a faint hope.

I pestered her to tell me the mysterious stories the “Apostle Sara” had told, and about the spring where she was said to have appeared. I heard those stories so many times I memorized them. Because they were the only thing that felt like hope.

But eventually, a plague spread through the Capital.

Within three days of hearing the rumors, the children in the alleys began to collapse one after another. Unable to breathe properly, their lives faded away quietly, fleetingly, and with terrifying certainty.

Sister Beth was no exception.

“Elly, take this.”

From her bedside, a pale Beth held out a small cloth pouch. Inside, I heard the modest clinking of coins.

“What is this?”

“It’s not much but I’m giving it to you.”

“What? No! This is the money you were saving to open a shop, right, Beth?”

“It’s not nearly enough, anyway.”

Beth laughed with a weak voice. Her smile was so kind it made my chest tighten. When I tried to push it back, her trembling hand—weak, yet desperate—pushed it back toward me. She must have been in so much pain she could barely move, so why was she so strong?

“It wasn’t that I wanted to open a shop, I just wanted to live more happily with you.”

“Don’t say that! We’re going to be happy together from now on—!”

“My share of happiness… I’m entrusting it to you…”

Those were her last words. That night, Beth quietly breathed her last.

I couldn’t scream, and I couldn’t cry. With an empty heart, I went to a sunny hill before the sun rose, dug a hole, and buried her.

—The world lost its sound.

That night, I caught the fever myself.

My head throbbed as if it were splitting. Every breath burned my chest. Even so, I couldn’t stay down. I absolutely could not die here. Beth wouldn’t have wanted such an end; she had entrusted her happiness to me.

“I will absolutely not die.”

Dragging my trembling legs, I went to a second-hand clothing shop. I bought a cheap dress, wiped my body with water from a bucket, and combed my hair. Then, I walked through the nighttime Capital, relying only on the moonlight.

My vision blurred and my footing was unsteady. Still, I couldn’t stop. And finally, I reached it. The spring. The sacred place where the “Sara from another world” was said to have appeared.

In the breathless silence, the moonlight made the surface of the water shimmer white.

“Tomorrow or the day after…”

My voice was hoarse and faintly trembling.

If I had luck, someone would find me. If I didn’t, it would end here. I closed my eyes as if in prayer and softly let go of all consciousness.

Fate had not yet abandoned me.

A passing traveler found me and carried me to a doctor in the Capital. When I woke up, an unfamiliar canopy was before my eyes.

Eventually, I came to be called the “Apostle of the Goddess from Another World.” Everyone believed it. Even I, who couldn’t read and knew no etiquette, was forgiven everything with that one phrase: “Apostle of the Goddess.”

The Prime Minister, the man who would later become my father said with a smile: “I shall give you everything you need.”

If I wished for it, teachers were provided, beautiful clothes were given, and a place for me was prepared. Even the crest of the Apostle was fashioned for me. I wished for it, and for the past year, I have worked with blood-curdling intensity to learn my letters and hammer noble etiquette into my brain.

But in the end, it is all a temporary facade. Everything is still insufficient. The cracks show easily. The “me” reflected in the mirror is an imposter playing a role.

—Even so.

I am not going back. I don’t care if it’s a lie. Even if it is a happiness built upon mud, I will grasp it to survive. That is why I will take back the Crown Prince. Because he is necessary for my happiness.

“I must become happy.”

The murmur soaked slowly into the quiet room. The words I spoke felt like a prayer, and like a curse.

The day I was to stand at the negotiation table.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before, but my consciousness dropped away instantly, and I woke early. I didn’t dream. That was a little scary.

The maids helping me prepare were more cautious than usual. Every time the comb went through my hair, their fingertips trembled ever so slightly.

“You don’t need to be so nervous.”

When I spoke, the maid started and bowed her head. I chose a garment based in white. A color of integrity, innocence, and one that permits no doubt. Standing up before the mirror, I took a slow, deep breath.

“…It’s okay.”

If I fail, I will truly have no place left. I didn’t know who the words were meant for. But if I didn’t say them aloud, I couldn’t move my feet forward.

The “me” in the mirror is perfectly presented. My hair, my clothes, my posture. But deep inside, I felt that “Elly” was still in the back alleys.

I remembered Sister Beth’s face. That gentle voice. The gaze that entrusted me with her “Be happy” without a hint of doubt.

“…I’m sorry, Sister Beth. I might be doing the wrong thing.”

I murmured to no one. It certainly isn’t a clean way to live. It isn’t a choice I can be proud of.

I stood before the mirror and straightened my back. When I looked up, there was the face called “The Apostle of the Goddess.”

It isn’t perfect.

It isn’t truly black.

I can’t even hide the trembling.

Even so, I won’t run.

“…I am Sara.”

The voice that claimed that name was small, but steady. I am not standing at the negotiation table for anyone else. It is for myself, to survive. Even carrying these lies, I will step forward. Because that is the life I have chosen.

The door opened quietly. I didn’t know if what waited beyond was salvation or ruin.

Even so.

“Let’s go.”

With those words, I took my first step.