A Life for a Life
Canna glared at the man as he collapsed.
Or at least, she thought she was glaring. She couldn’t be sure. Her vision was already blurring violently.
Darkness swallowed everything, as if someone had stolen all her senses at once.
What is this? Why is this happening? What—?
That was Crescent Isaberg’s final thought.
With a heavy thud, his body crumpled to the floor and never moved again.
Canna panted, still glaring at him, then reached out to check his pulse. He was dead. She had killed Crescent Isaberg.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
I have to get out of here.
She draped Amelia’s arm over her shoulder and half-dragged her toward the door.
The moment her fingers brushed the handle—
Ah!
She snatched her hand back from the searing heat. The metal was glowing hot.
The corridor’s on fire.
And they were too high up. Jumping from the window would mean serious injury or death. Every escape route was cut off.
Canna forced herself to think calmly.
Crescent stayed here knowing this would happen. He must have prepared his own escape route.
But where?
There’s only the window.
She rushed over and yanked the curtains aside. Nothing. No hidden latch, no rope, no sign of anything.
Then it had to be—
That vermin must have hidden something where he was lurking.
She flung open the wardrobe doors. Sure enough, a long rope made of tied-together bedsheets lay coiled inside like a snake.
He had planned to confirm their deaths and slip away alone at his leisure. The rope was crafted from bedding so that if anyone saw him descending, it would look like an improvised last-minute effort.
How meticulous. How utterly repulsive.
“Amelia! Can you move?”
Canna shook her. The girl could barely stay conscious, let alone walk.
What now?
A fierce conflict tore through her.
If she were alone, she could escape right now.
I can make it by myself.
She should leave Amelia behind. That was the logical choice.
Yes. I have to survive, no matter what. There’s no other way.
After everything she had endured to stay alive until now, she couldn’t die here. She absolutely could not die.
She had no intention of dying, and yet…
Her body moved against her mind. Even as she told herself this was wrong, her hands were already binding Amelia securely with the rope.
She wrapped the other end around a pillar.
“Amelia, the weight will pull downward and it’ll be difficult. Just endure it a little longer.”
She barely managed to lift the limp girl and push her out the window.
“Ugh!”
Canna quickly grabbed the rope. Seeing Amelia dangling in midair, she began lowering her with agonizing slowness.
Damn it, she’s too heavy!
Her hands shook violently. She braced one foot against the wall to support the weight and continued lowering Amelia.
Almost there. Just a little more and she’ll reach the ground.
Then—
“Aaaah!”
A deafening roar shook the room. The shock was so great that Canna lost her grip on the rope.
At the same instant, a sharp, instinctive warning flashed above her head. She leaped backward on pure reflex. The very next moment, the ceiling where she had been standing collapsed in a thunderous crash.
“Ah…”
Canna lay sprawled on the floor, groaning. Her entire body throbbed and her ears rang. She forced her eyes open with great effort.
Through the thick cloud of dust, she saw the pile of rubble completely blocking the window.
And then—
“Ugh.”
Her own leg was pinned beneath an enormous chunk of stone. She gritted her teeth and struggled, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Please… come out…”
After a long while of desperate wriggling, she finally gave up. This was beyond her strength.
A hollow sense of powerlessness washed over her as she looked around.
What do I do now?
The window was sealed by debris. The corridor had become a sea of flames. And her leg was trapped.
It was the worst possible situation, yet Canna did not panic. Instead, she examined her surroundings with icy calm.
After meticulously reviewing every detail, she reached her conclusion.
I can’t escape.
She was completely trapped.
There’s no way out.
Actually, there had been one chance. A single opportunity to survive this chaos. But she had thrown it away herself.
Amelia.
If she had abandoned her and escaped alone, she wouldn’t be facing this miserable death alongside Crescent’s corpse.
She would be outside right now, surrounded by people and receiving treatment.
The realization made her laugh.
See? This is what happens when you lower your guard.
She should never have let herself relax.
I shouldn’t have come to see Amelia in the first place.
Only now did Canna understand that she had genuinely cared for the girl. She had wanted to be her friend—to laugh together, to chatter about meaningless things.
A single moment of carelessness, a mere scrap of warmth, had sealed her fate.
I should have stayed wary until the very end.
That failure was her undoing. A bitter smile rose to her lips.
Another crash. The wall crumbled. The stone pillar holding up the ceiling split with a sharp crack and tilted, collapsing directly onto Crescent’s body.
With a sickening thud, his corpse was crushed beneath the stone.
Looking at the mangled remains, Canna thought of the others.
The two knights who had died protecting her today. Were their bodies now buried under rubble, or were they burning in the flames?
I’m sorry.
She apologized to them in her heart.
If I hadn’t come to see Amelia, you wouldn’t have died.
Because of me. Because I let my guard down. Because I have too many enemies…
The ceiling collapsed again. Debris of all sizes rained down on her. She felt blood trickling from her head.
I was wrong.
But not Amelia. She might be hurt, but her life wouldn’t be in danger.
At least I saved one person. Amelia.
Those words—Amelia’s sincere confession—blazed like a torch in the darkness at this very moment.
Perhaps that was why. Even with death staring her in the face, she felt no fear. She simply accepted it in silence.
She would die here, today, in this place.
But she had saved one life.
So maybe this is how a doctor should die.
She had failed to save herself, but she had saved a friend she cared about. At least it wasn’t a meaningless death.
Canna closed her eyes. The darkness took her hand as if it had been waiting. She let herself be drawn into it willingly…
“Come to your senses.”
If not for that voice, she would have.
“Come to your senses!”
Canna’s eyes flew open.
Through the thick black smoke and hazy dust, a man’s vivid purple eyes shone clearly.
“Raphael…?”
Had she liked him that much? Was she seeing a hallucination in her final moments…?
“Ahk!”
A scream tore from her throat as pain exploded through her body. Raphael had lifted the massive stone that had been crushing her.
The sudden release of pressure brought the agony crashing down on her, but it also sharpened her fading mind.
It really was Raphael. He had come into this hell.
“Raphael, why did you come here!”
She wasn’t even curious anymore how this stalker of a man had managed it.
Instead of answering, he shed his long outer robe and draped it over her. It was damp, as though he had soaked it with water before entering.
“The window is blocked. We must break through the flames, so hold your breath as much as possible.”
Canna looked toward the door. He must have kicked it open; it now hung ajar.
As expected, the corridor had become a blazing inferno. The wave of heat that rolled over her made her gasp in horror.
“Oh my god…”
Only then did she notice how red and blistered Raphael’s face, neck, and hands were.
Burns.
“Are you insane?”
He had come through that. Through those flames.
“If you want to die, do it somewhere I can’t see!”
She threw the robe at him.
He had made it this far by some miracle, but without any protection, even luck would abandon him.
“You’re crazy to come in here! Put that on right now and get out!”
She had expected him to obey. Raphael had always followed her words with almost burdensome obedience.
But his reply was completely unexpected.
“I will not obey.”
“Raphael!”
“No matter how many times you command me, I will not obey, so please stop ordering me. And the smoke is thick—kindly keep your mouth closed.”
The polite yet terrifying tone made Canna instinctively press her lips shut.
He picked up the robe again, poured the water from a nearby vase over it, and draped it over her like a suit of armor.
Then he lifted her into his arms. The moment her body pressed against his solid chest, Canna felt tears threatening to spill. A hot surge of emotion rose in her throat.
“You’re crazy.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“I know.”
And with that, Raphael leaped into the flames.