Thought It Was 'The End', Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 152
Shane let out a small laugh. If Edwin hadn’t fallen for Adeline, Shane would have chosen a more practical, quiet way to handle things. He preferred rational, efficient solutions.
But this time was different.
“Just sit here and watch how many people you’ve driven to madness.”
“Shane, please!”
Adeline grasped Shane’s wrist with trembling hands.
He looked down at her hand on his wrist and gently pried it away as he spoke.
“Then tell me. What is it you’ve been so afraid of all this time?”
“…Please.”
“If you do, I’ll stop.”
“Please, Shane. Don’t do this. I’m begging you, let it go.”
“My poor Adeline. This is your last chance.”
“Shane Blanchard!”
But Shane didn’t let her hold him.
Adeline was left alone.
Whether her eyes were open or closed, she was still trapped in a nightmare.
*
Adeline covered her face with her hands, taking a deep, shaky breath.
Had her tear ducts broken? She didn’t understand why they wouldn’t stop.
It felt like she was trapped in a never-ending cycle.
This was the price of ignoring the underlying conflict, pretending there was only surface-level peace.
Ever since arriving in Delmuz and being captured, Adeline had been fighting with Shane.
Captured, fighting, and captured again, fighting some more.
But back then, it hadn’t hurt her heart like this.
She hadn’t been wounded by his cold gaze, his indifferent sighs, or his sharp words. Even knowing they were nothing, she couldn’t control her emotions.
He said he was sick of her, that she made him miserable.
This time, if he said he was truly fed up with her, she wouldn’t have had anything to say in her defense. She resented herself for thinking, back when she was first locked up, that his anger meant he hadn’t completely given up on her.
‘How self-centered could I be…’
Shane hadn’t let his anger explode directly at her.
Even in the middle of his fury, he kept his distance, afraid he might hurt her.
He was ready to be hated by her, to be sick of her, but he couldn’t bring himself to physically harm her.
The last thing Adeline wanted was for Shane to lose his life. Those nightmares were enough. She couldn’t drag someone who might have been happy without her into this cursed cycle.
Even if this time, he really was tired of her.
But she couldn’t stand by and let innocent people be caught up in a war.
‘How could I bear that burden?’
Adeline feared death to the core of her being.
She feared her own death, and she feared the death of the people she loved.
The mere thought that someone might lose their life because of her was unbearable.
This wasn’t a joke.
A war could be sparked by the smallest of incidents. The Green Windsor Empire, being the powerful union of countries, was many times larger than the Brubewein Kingdom.
With just the forces from the western territories, Brubewein could be reduced to ashes in a matter of days.
It shouldn’t have even been something to hesitate over.
The fact that she was hesitating at all was ridiculous.
How could she weigh the lives of a few people against the potential devastation of a war? To hesitate based on a possibility she had seen in a dream was absurd.
Adeline had once scorned the protagonists in novels, criticizing them for being so tormented by their secrets, unable to simply reveal them.
She used to think, Wouldn’t it be more efficient to reveal the truth, accept some risk, and find a way to solve the problem together? Why don’t they realize that?
Adeline knew it all too well.
But protagonists were human, and she was just human.
Humans are creatures that are swayed by emotions more than logic.
To them, the lives of a few precious people are more important than the lives of countless strangers they’ve never met.
She had convinced herself that she couldn’t kill an innocent sorcerer just to save herself, yet here she was, putting the lives of those few precious people on the scale against thousands of others, simply because they might be at risk.
If only her inner turmoil ended here.
But she couldn’t answer “yes” to the question: Would I really abandon everyone else to protect only the people close to me?
If she stayed silent now…
‘Damn it, what kind of person are you?’
Adeline had to reveal everything.
At the very least, if she wanted to remain human.
