No.

I gritted my teeth.

The sound of a clock's gears rewinding that rang in my ears meant that I was being returned to reality.

But that couldn't happen.

I had to see this through to the end.

‘……I have to use it.’

I had come too far to give up now.

I had to see with my own eyes what Fron went through, no matter what.

With that resolve, I pulled out my last resort.

The necklace was forcing me back to reality.

The power I needed to overcome it.

Chaos.

I planned to use Chaos to stay here longer.

But it wasn't easy.

How could I command the world and receive minimal penalties?

I had to consider that even if I was here, it was just a fragment of the past, and reality wouldn't change.

So, I gave the world this command:

To let me simply observe, not directly intervene.

I drew on Chaos and found a way to minimize the penalties I would face.

It would be better than maintaining my body in the past.

*Click-*

*Click…*

My decision was right.

The rewinding Clockwork of Fate gradually came to a stop, revealing Fron and Rem.

They looked older.

Perhaps around fifteen years old.

It seemed time had flowed quickly because I had used Chaos before being spit back into the future.

I quietly watched Fron and Rem from a space they couldn't reach.

Fron approached Rem, who looked gloomy, and opened his mouth.

“You don't look well.”

“……Yeah, I don't feel well.”

Rem curtly replied to Fron's concerned question.

Seeing Rem like that, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

I had definitely seen Rem like that somewhere before.

Where had I seen Rem before?

I tilted my head.

It definitely wasn't Lever.

She was a child who, while somewhat melancholic, still had an air of innocence.

Completely different from Rem.

I thought about it for a long time, but nothing came to mind, so I decided to just watch their conversation for now.

*Scoot-*

Fron, who was sitting next to her, raised his hand and stroked Rem's head.

Rem quietly accepted Fron's touch.

Then Rem opened her mouth.

“Hey, remember the kid who died yesterday?”

“……Why do you ask?”

“Just asking. No other reason. It's not like I want to point out that you get stronger every time a kid dies.”

“…….”

Fron closed his mouth at Rem's words.

Rem was pointing out that Fron was the protagonist of this prison.

Aren't you happy that children are dying, that it's a blessing that you're getting stronger?

That's what Rem was asking Fron.

Seeing that, my heart sank.

‘She wasn't like this when I first saw her.’

She was delicate but warm, a child who found meaning in the smallest of things.

But Rem had lost all of that.

Before my eyes was a girl who had realized the truth of the prison and become cynical of the world.

If only Rem wasn't a member of Lust, but of Bares.

No, if only she had a tragic past like Luna, a glimmer of hope.

Wouldn't Rem's personality be different now?

Honestly, I couldn't say which Rem was the real one.

Perhaps Rem's bright personality as a child was a self-defense mechanism to avoid facing reality.

I couldn't know the truth, but one thing was certain: watching this didn't sit well with me.

After a moment of silence, Fron spoke to Rem.

“……How could I forget? They were my friends, my family. We shared bread, laughed, and talked. How could I forget those memories?”

“Right, but then why did you kill them?”

“They were already beyond help from the kids on the other side of the wall. Their wounds were too severe to heal. They would have just suffered and died slowly. You know I had no choice, Rem….”

“Shut up, you just wanted to kill them, didn't you? So you could be the only one strong enough to break through the wall and escape…!”

*Slap-*

Fron swung his hand as Rem was about to continue.

“…….”

Fron stared at Rem with wide, startled eyes.

*Scoot-*

Rem touched her reddening cheek and got up from her seat.

“Right, it's always me who's the bad guy.”

“Rem, I…!”

“I told you to shut up. I don't want to hear anything you have to say anymore.”

Rem left those cold, hard words and walked away from the pale-faced Fron.

Fron reached out to Rem with a pitiful look, but couldn't reach her.

Rem was already too far away, out of Fron's sight.

*Thud-*

Fron hung her head and laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Yes, maybe you're right, Rem. This body… It may be thinking of escaping this place, but I know it's impossible to take everyone with me….”

Fron continued her monologue.

She said she grew stronger every time children died in the walls.

This space was designed solely for Fron, a prison designed to kill children over and over until she was the only one left.

Fron tried to save the children in the prison, but she knew it was impossible.

Maybe I want them all to die, Fron muttered.

“If everyone died, maybe this body could finally find peace.”

Fron let out an empty laugh.

Could this be it?

Was this the trauma that would eventually drive Fron to kill all the children and long for death?

I watched the scenes unfold with that thought in mind.

Fron started laughing like she was going crazy.

Day by day, Rem grew colder towards Fron, and the children, emaciated and broken, even took their own lives.

The sight was so hellish that I wanted to vomit everything inside of me.

I just watched day after day, month after month.

When the unit of time became years, I stopped counting the days.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to bear witnessing the scenes of children killing children.

How could I stay sane when such horrific scenes, impossible to watch with a clear mind, were unfolding before my eyes?

At first, I simply lost track of the days, but the symptoms got worse.

Later on, I would bite my nails, wondering if they were even nails anymore.

Only when blood oozed from my worn and torn fingertips would I nod, realizing,

"Oh, these are my nails."

And so, time passed in the prison.

Now, only five children remained.

One on the opposite wall, and four within Fron's wall.

“You're the last one.”

“P-Please, spare me…!”

“I'm sorry, but I can't grant your wish.”

Fron said in a flat voice and beheaded the last child on the opposite wall.

The child had managed to survive by desperately running away as the wall closed, but even that came to an end today.

*Wipe-*

Fron wiped the blood off her cheek and looked at the basket descending from the ceiling.

Two pieces of bread were in it.

The amount of bread in the basket had been rapidly decreasing day by day, and now only this much remained.

*Snap*

Fron took a piece of bread, ate half of it, and handed the other half, along with the remaining piece, to the children.

The other two children ate the bread Fron gave them, but one girl turned her head away without eating.

Fron continued to offer her the bread.

“Rem, you have to eat.”

“……I won't eat anything you give me.”

“You'll die if you don't eat.”

“Well, you're going to kill us all anyway, aren't you?”

“…….”

Fron closed her mouth.

Rem stared at her for a moment before turning her back.

Fron's plan had long failed, making Rem even more pessimistic.

Before she killed the child on the opposite wall today, Fron had attempted to break through the ceiling.

However, the ceiling didn't budge; only shallow scratches were left.

Although Fron had gained a significant amount of mana in this place, utilizing it was another matter entirely.

Thus, Fron couldn't find a way out of the prison, and the situation had come to this.

The two children comforted the dejected Fron.

“Fron, are you okay?”

“Don't worry too much about what Rem said. She's just confused and scared.”

Their words were filled with concern.

However, Fron only trembled, seemingly not comforted in the slightest.

“……What did we do wrong? Why do we have to live like this? Why did we have to kill each other?”

She blamed herself for everything.

Fron was devastated.

The children, seeing Fron like this, could only remain silent.

“…….”

And then, a little distance away, I saw Rem, hiding her tears as she listened to Fron cry.

Rem, trying so hard not to let anyone see her cry.

…Rem actually didn't hate Fron.

It wasn't that the situation had forced them into this.

Rem had never truly hated Fron, not even once.

How could she hate her?

She was the one who cared for her the most, her most precious friend and family.

Rem knew that Fron's actions weren't wrong.

To survive, they had to kill the children on the other side of the wall, and they had to turn a blind eye to their friends' deaths.

That was the only way to survive in this place.

That's why Rem wanted Fron to survive until the very end.

“……I'm sorry.”

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Rem could only muffle her sobs as she muttered those words.

She knew that the time would come when Fron would have to make a choice.

It was fate, inevitable.

Fron had to kill everyone but herself to escape this place.

To return from this shabby prison to the place where she truly belonged.

Rem admired Fron and, more than anything, wanted her to shine brightly.

That's why she took on the role of the villain so that Fron could survive.

So that when Fron killed her, she would feel even a little less guilt.

Just like Rem's flowing tears.

Time flowed rapidly once more.

Bonus chapter on reaching milestones. Choose your tier by clicking the 'Support me' button!

Rate and review this novel on NU to help people find this novel.