Chapter 13: I Was Abandoned
1194words
His tears, warm, fell drop by drop on my face, yet couldn't bring me the slightest warmth. My body was growing colder and colder, the flame of life already so weak that it seemed it could extinguish at any moment. Guilt and remorse, like two giant venomous snakes, tightly coiled around my dissipating soul, making even the prospect of "going home through death" no longer something to look forward to.
Just when I thought death was certain and prepared to face this final outcome mixed with self-blame and unwillingness, a powerful and majestic wave of magical energy, like a sword cutting through the darkness, suddenly descended.
An elderly and urgent voice sounded above my head: "Move aside, Your Highness!"
It was the Academy Chancellor.
He had rushed over in haste, his magnificent chancellor's robe fluttering in the wind as he ran. In his hands, he was holding another crystal vial of "Holy Water," more exquisite and ancient than the previous one. The vial was entirely a warm amber color, containing a golden liquid that resembled melted sunlight. Just being near it, one could feel an overwhelming life force capable of purifying everything in the world.
【Item: Universal Antidote (Royal Secret Medicine), capable of neutralizing most known curses and deadly poisons in the world.】
Hope, like a torch lit in the darkness of despair, instantly illuminated my consciousness that was about to sink into silence. Am I... saved? I don't have to die? Those villagers... can also be saved?
"We're saved!" Frederick's bloodshot eyes instantly burst with ecstatic light. He snatched the crystal bottle from the Academy Master's hand and twisted the stopper open with an almost violent force, ready to pour it into my mouth. His blue eyes, which had grown dim with despair, at this moment, rekindled with a light more brilliant than the stars.
Looking at his unhesitating manner, my heart suddenly became incredibly conflicted. This was a unique life-saving elixir that existed only once in the game, a treasure that could drive the entire continent into madness. Yet he didn't hesitate for even a moment before wanting to use it on me. My original attitude of playfulness and simply completing a task was, in this moment, shaken to the core by his pure and passionate emotion.
"Save the instructor quickly!" Frey-Derick had already used his finger, cut by broken stones, to once again use his royal blood to swiftly unlock the second seal on the bottle, extracting the only dose of the golden, shimmering potion inside.
However, just as he was about to feed me that drop of potion capable of reviving the dead, an old but powerful hand suddenly intervened, snatching away that drop of potion along with the entire crystal bottle.
It was the Academy Headmaster.
"Why?!" Frederick let out an incredulous roar of anger, like a young lion provoked to fury, as he attempted to snatch the potion, only to be firmly repelled by the powerful magical barrier emanating from the Academy Master.
"Mentor Winifred's curse runs too deep; it is primordial poison released by an elite magical beast at the cost of its life," the Academy Master shook his head grievously, his voice filled with sorrow and helplessness. "A mere drop of potion would be utterly useless; it would require an entire bottle, and even then it might barely keep her alive."
"Then hurry and give the mentor the antidote! Give her the whole bottle!" Frederick cried out in anguish as he anxiously watched the increasingly thick black smoke continuously billowing from my body.
But this time, the one who stopped him was Arthur, who arrived shortly after. The leader of the heroic knight order firmly pressed down on Frederick's small but frantically struggling body. At the same time, the royal seal on the crystal bottle seemed to be remotely activated by some secret method of the Academy Head, transforming into chains of golden light that shot out from the bottle, firmly trapping Frederick in place, unable to move.
That flame of "hope" that had just ignited within me was doused with a bucket of ice water by this sudden turn of events, extinguished in an instant.
Why? Why won't you save me?
With all the strength I could muster, I rotated my eyeballs to look at the Academy Head who held my life in his hands.
The academy headmaster held the potion that could save my life. He wasn't looking at Frederick, who was howling and struggling frantically on the ground, but instead turned his gaze toward me. Those weathered eyes carried deep, almost overflowing remorse and pain.
"Winifred, my child, it's not that I don't want to save you. But..." he paused, his voice growing heavier as he pointed distantly toward the village at the foot of the mountain, already shrouded in poisonous mist, "...there are thousands of civilians in the town below, all infected with this deadly poison. This single vial of antidote, if diluted, could save all of them. So..."
So, my one life in exchange for thousands of lives.
So I was being abandoned.
I understood instantly. I was like a drowning person who, at the very moment of grasping a lifeline, was ruthlessly pushed back into the cold, deep sea.
Rationally, I think the Academy Principal's choice wasn't wrong. It's just like the classic trolley problem, sacrificing one to save many. From a leader's perspective, this is the most correct and rational choice.
But emotionally, I still feel a tightness in my chest, as if a huge boulder is pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe. An immense, cold sense of injustice and unwillingness, like poison, instantly invaded every part of my body.
Why? Why am I always the one being sacrificed? In the game, I'm a tool to advance the plot; in reality, I'm the sacrifice to save the masses. Am I just destined to be abandoned?
However, this intense emotion was quickly replaced by another exhausted, self-mocking thought.
"It's fine... this is fine." I thought weakly.
I am not the real Winifred, perhaps death for me would be a true release. Dying in this time-space would allow me to return to the world that truly belongs to me. Moreover, my death has now been given the great meaning of "saving all living beings," which is far better than before, when a selfish thought caused the deaths of countless innocent people. Perhaps this could also be considered a form of redemption.
I slowly and painfully closed my eyes, using my last bit of strength to give a slight nod to the Academy Master.
I accept this ending.
【System Prompt: HP reduced to zero, you are dead.】
Amidst the Academy Master's deep sigh, Arthur's guilt-filled "I'm sorry," and Frederick's howl that broke the golden chains and echoed throughout the entire mountain range, filled with endless pain and resentment, my body could no longer maintain its form.
I transformed into a wisp of black smoke scattered by the wind, thoroughly and completely, dissolving into the air of this world without a trace.
My consciousness, along with it, sank completely into endless darkness.
