And so, Sense and Fíliya spent roughly half a year wandering the length and breadth of the Southern Nations together.
It was, after all, not as though the South had many cities left untouched by war — places where a person could set foot without fear. The regions consud by conflict were many, and Fíliya had steered them clear of all those places from the very start.
At first, Sense had assud Fíliya had chosen the Southern Nations deliberately — that she ant to show her, firsthand, the cruelty of human warfare. But over the course of those six months, Fíliya had never once brought the subject up on her own.
It was only after Sense finally pressed her that Fíliya answered, in that languid, unhurried way of hers.
[Common children, goaded by noble lords into marching halfway across the world to kill other common children — it's tedious and tragic in equal asure. What is there worth looking at?]
[I simply wanted to be with you. To find sowhere no one knows us, and just... stay there. No concerns, no questions. No worrying about humanity's future, no tasks, no obligations — just wasting ti freely, together. Is that so wrong?]
So that's how it is.
The mont those words left Fíliya's lips, an answer had already settled, quiet and certain, inside Sense's heart.
"Sense, you know... lately there's been a lot of noise in my head. It's giving terrible headaches."
Fíliya's tone was perfectly casual — but Sense knew that whatever could make Fíliya complain aloud was almost certainly not sothing as simple as a headache.
"Sotis I feel like my head is about to split open... but I've managed to hold it together, sohow. Won't you praise a little?"
Fíliya said this, then glanced over at Sense.
Sense had no way of truly understanding what Fíliya was enduring — but she reached out without hesitation, and gently placed a hand on her.
"Mm... thank you. I feel much better. Especially these past six months living with you... it's all been so quiet, so ordinary — nothing dangerous, nothing dramatic. But that's exactly what I wanted. When I'm with you, the noise isn't so bad."
Fíliya's smile grew warr and warr — and the unease coiling inside Sense grew heavier and heavier.
"You're not actually the Sense from this point in ti, are you?"
Fíliya sat up suddenly from within Sense's arms, and looked at her with a smile.
"..."
Sense didn't know what to say.
"Hmm... I didn't expect that emperor to awaken sothing like that. It really was a surprise. But I suppose I have him to thank — it's because of him that we got to enjoy these quiet days together, undisturbed."
Fíliya continued speaking, and her words sent shockwaves through Sense's heart.
"Fíliya... you knew from the very beginning..."
"Of course. My existence is inscribed into every single mont in history — so I was playing along with your performance from the start, dear elder sister."
Fíliya smiled lightly, entirely matter-of-fact.
So it really was like that, Sense thought, letting out a long sigh.
In truth, over these six months, she had noticed more than a few things that felt off. For one — Fíliya was certainly a precocious child, but not to this degree. The Fíliya who had spent this ti with her simply didn't match the one she rembered from the sa point in her mory.
"Fíliya... why are you doing any of this? If you love the Demon Race — even if you wanted to beco one yourself — I could accept that. But why beco the Demon King? Why bring this kind of chaos down on everything? You're not the type who hates humans. I know you're not."
Sense had finally asked it — the question she had buried inside herself for so long.
"Hmm? Didn't I say — this is a trial, and I am the examiner who sets the questions. Sense, have you ever seen an examiner announce the answers while the test is still in session? If you want to know why I'm doing this... you'll have to hand in your answer sheet first."
Fíliya let her smile fall away. She rose from Sense's arms, expression composed and unreadable, and walked straight to the window of the inn room they had been renting.
Outside, rain fell in a soft, pattering curtain. Fíliya watched the droplets shatter against the ground in silence, listening to the quiet, pleasant sound they made.
Sense's gaze drifted to follow her.
But watching the rain beyond the glass, Sense only felt as though her own heart had been soaked through.
She had failed. There was no question about it.
All she could do was slump into a dejected expression and say nothing.
She didn't even notice when Fíliya had drifted back to stand before her again — it was only a soft, deliberate cough that pulled her back to herself.
"Ahem... there's still that other option, isn't there?"
?
Sense blinked, montarily lost.
"Mm... when you arrived at this point in ti, you must have planned for contingencies with the others, right? If you couldn't persuade to change my mind... why not simply kill here, in the past?"
"Mm... seeing like this — talking, thinking — you can't bring yourself to do it? I understand. Would it help if I sent you back to when I was still an infant? A baby is just a lump of soft flesh, after all. Close your eyes, steel your heart — and it's done, isn't it?"
Fíliya said it lightly, and even offered the suggestion as though it were perfectly reasonable.
"Why would you say sothing so awful..."
Sense bit her lip, anger rising against the Fíliya standing before her.
This little monster — does she have any idea that saying sothing like that is like driving a blade straight into my heart? When did I ever... when did I ever say I wanted to kill you?!
"Hmph. Serie must be losing her mind in her old age, agreeing to send you here. You can't do it. You can't finish it either. Did you think this was so kind of ga — taking on the responsibility of 'saving the world'? You absolute fool."
Fíliya looked at Sense, who stood frozen like a statue, and a flicker of genuine irritation crossed her face. She delivered those words — and then conjured a short blade into her hand.
"Go ahead."
Fíliya stepped slowly toward Sense, and pressed the tal dagger into her palm, looking at her with an expression that said: you can do it.
But in her panic, Sense couldn't hold on to the blade — it slipped from her fingers.
Fíliya showed no irritation. She simply picked it up, patiently, and placed it back in Sense's hand. Again and again.
"Sense, I just realized... you're really a hopeless case, aren't you."
After repeating the chanical gesture many tis over, Fíliya finally shook her head and looked at Sense with undisguised disappointnt.
By then, Sense was in no state to respond to anything Fíliya said. She was like a machine that had completely crashed — no matter what Fíliya did or said, there was no reaction at all.
And so, Fíliya acted.
She guided Sense's hand to close tightly around the dagger — then positioned herself, and threw herself forward, driving the blade through her own throat.
!
?
Warm crimson spread across Sense's hand, and for a mont she couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
It was only when Fíliya's body went limp and began to crumple that everything crashed down on her at once.
But the very instant she broke apart inside and nearly scread — the blood on her hand flowed back, as though ti itself had reversed, and returned into Fíliya's body.
"Hah... as expected. I really can't die."
Fíliya rolled over lazily where she lay on the ground, turning her back to Sense.
"Fíliya — are you all right?"
Sense dropped to one knee and scrambled to her side.
"You saw it, didn't you, Sense. Immortality synchronizes across every point in ti as well. So killing through ti travel — it won't work. Our dream has run its course. Tell Serie: if she wants to stop , she's welco to co face herself."
As she said this, Fíliya reached up swiftly and tapped Sense lightly on the forehead with one finger.
Sense felt a wave of dizziness wash over her imdiately — and then darkness closed in, and she lost consciousness entirely.
____
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