I Will Die for You, My Darling! - Chapter 2
The woman inside his mouth let out a faint moan. Despite the tenacity of life, Arietta had not yet experienced the blessing of a swift end and still drew breath.
“Lo…ve… you… still…”
Isaac trembled with disgust. He didn’t want to hear it.
Arietta, who had been sporadically uttering syllables, coughed up a clot of blood. She tried to brush Isaac’s sleek fur with the last bit of strength. However, her hand felt as heavy as lead.
Arietta gave up. As consciousness dispersed hazily, the searing pain that had prevailed was now becoming blurred. Arietta faintly smiled just before her breath was completely extinguished.
The next moment, life was lost. The pulsation of the heart was no longer felt.
The meticulously combed hair scattered dismally.
And the gruesome bloodshed.
Isaac spat out Arietta. His thick foreleg rolled the lifeless body. Arietta’s mouth was pierced wide open like a deep crater. The thorned tongue licked the fresh blood eagerly. Being drawn to blood is an instinct of carnivorous animals.
Now it was time for Arietta’s inherent beauty to be marred beyond recognition. Isaac, once again, opened his mouth wide, letting out a howl. The blood-soaked fangs reflected the chandelier light, eerily sparkling.
* * *
The next moment, Arietta awoke from a dreadful nightmare.
“Guh, ugh…”
Her body was drenched in cold sweat. The sensation of her spine shattering vividly remained. The pain that tore through flesh, vomiting blood instead of breath.
Her heart beat loudly.
She had survived. Again.
Looking at the calendar on the bedside table, the date was May 22nd.
“This time, it’s late spring.”
On December 31st, Isaac will undoubtedly kill Arietta. There has never been a single exception in the predetermined future.
Afterwards, when Arietta faces death, time rewind.
The extent of the rewind varies with each iteration, ranging from a few hours to several hundred days. It has never gone back more than a year.
She comes back to life in this manner.
Then, she proceeds towards the predetermined death on that specific day—horrible death with the skin tearing and bones crushed.
Now, the fact of dying is nothing special, but the pain never becomes familiar, no matter how many times she experienced it. It hurts anew every time.
Once the agony subsided, Arietta threw off the blanket and stood up. Seated in front of the vanity, she gazed at the beauty beyond the mirror— a body bound and unable to die or move forward.
“Fool. I told you to endure it just a little longer.”
She had never died except on December 31st. Strangely, Isaac insisted on that day.
“If only that could change, maybe I could truly die and stay dead…”
It’s frustrating.
Before December 31st arrives, no matter how much she provokes, Isaac won’t kill her. When the day arrives, even if she asks him to endure just a bit, he won’t listen.
As pitiful as it is to repeatedly die in agony each year, Isaac is even more pitiful. Despite wanting to kill her so badly, he repeatedly fails.
Like a fool.
“It’s all because only I retain the memories and come back. Isaac loses his memories every time.”
It seems quite challenging for someone with memory loss to do better each time, and Arietta understood that.
“No matter how you put it, it’s too stubborn and foolish. How come you never listen to me even once…”
Amidst her sarcasm, a faint smile crept onto Arietta’s face.
“Well, Izzy is kind of cute in that way.”
Referring to the ferocious beast as cute, Arietta reached for the comb.
The comb smoothly parted the tangled hair.
Still, there was a worry.
No matter how cute that stubbornness might be, it was still a problem. If Isaac continued to ignore her like this, he wouldn’t find happiness, and the wheel would just keep turning.
‘Because Izzy’s wish is for me to die, I tried to entrust my death to him. Doing your own tasks is a satisfying way to feel good, right?’
So, while enduring inevitable deaths, she entrusted herself to Isaac’s hands. To provide a sense of accomplishment and pleasure for him at that moment.
Because she loved him.
Sacrifice, after all, is something the one who loves more gives.
However, by this point, it seemed she needed to acknowledge that her beloved cat couldn’t quite put an end to this recurrence on his own and would never achieve what he desired.
The once hazy gray eyes gradually sharpened.
“This won’t work. I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands.”
Tilting her head slightly, Arietta gave herself a pretty smile in the mirror.
“Because I love Izzy.”
If you’re going to do it, do it right away. There’s no reason to delay.
She looked around, searching for tools. A display shelf and a chandelier caught her eye.
Breaking a mirror or glass display shelf would yield sharp glass shards. If she untied the necktie from the mannequin, she could use it to hang herself.
However…
Neither option appealed to her.
‘I’ll end up facing a slow death.’
She knew well where to stab to bring about someone’s demise. After all, Arietta came from the back alleys.
However, gripping a handle-less glass shard and forcefully thrusting it through her ‘own’ vulnerable spot was a daunting task. While she might know how to stab others, practicing how to stab herself was uncharted territory. Surely the posture would be awkward.
If she couldn’t aim for her vulnerable spot quickly and accurately, achieving her end would be difficult.
