Episode 265
"E-Excuse me..."
"...Who are you?"
Following the incident at the Hero Appointment Ceremony, a young girl approaches the ruins that are being controlled by guards.
"This is a restricted area. You cannot enter without permission..."
"P-Please let me in..."
However, thanks to her disheveled hair and wretched appearance, she faces suspicion from the guards.
"I-I'm also... a person involved..."
Her identity was none other than Rosewin.
Though the guards blocking her way hadn't noticed at all.
"This is... surely not...?"
However, even they could recognize the hero party certificate that Rosewin pulled from her bosom.
- Swish...
"E-Excuse me...!"
Thanks to that, taking advantage of the moment when the guards' attitude slightly relaxed, Rosewin squeezed her way into the ruins.
"Leave her be. If we interfere with a member of the hero's party, we'll be the ones in trouble."
"But..."
"She probably lost her lover or something. Let's turn a blind eye for a few hours."
"Hmm..."
Perhaps because her retreating figure looked so pitiful, the guards who had been briefly conversing reached that conclusion and resumed their guard posture.
"It might... still not be too late..."
Having entered the ruins more easily than expected, Rosewin looked around while sniffling with a red nose.
"There might still be... something I can save..."
The possibility of someone buried in the rubble surviving for that long was slim, but she still held onto a small hope due to the keyword 'unknown fate'.
"I-I'll save you... Hero-nim..."
And that hope began to grow little by little as she approached the rubble.
"Just wait a little..."
As Rosewin took out the detection scrolls, excavation scrolls, and emergency potions she had brought from her guild and laid them out, a faint spark of life began to appear in her eyes.
"Right now I..."
However, the moment she looked down at the detection scroll, that spark vanished again.
"........."
She had brought the highest performance scrolls, but no life signs were detected.
"Mmm, mm..."
In truth, she had already subconsciously known that there was no hope.
But her defense mechanism and avoidance tendencies that had always boosted her pride had inevitably manifested, leading her to do this.
But postponing the conclusion until the very end didn't change the result.
"B-Better... I need better scrolls..."
Rosewin knew that too, but kneeling in the middle of the rubble, she sobbed and began tearing apart the scrolls she was holding.
"If the hero dies... it can't be... I never even got to say thank you... He can't die, he can't..."
The hero who was the reason for her life, and the hero who had sustained her life until now, died receiving only hatred from the world and from her, his supporter.
Even though she was present at the scene during the accident.
Because she brought recovery potions to his enemy, she couldn't provide any help and ended up causing Frey's death.
Because such a terrible and frightening fact was about to be confirmed, she was desperately trying to derive a different answer.
"Excuse me... what are you doing here?"
"...Hic!?"
Like that, someone appeared beside her as she continued muttering while tearing the scrolls to shreds.
"Who are you...? How did you get here...?"
"I-I am..."
That person was none other than the captain of the Imperial Investigation Bureau.
"Excuse me, but could you verify your identity... no, never mind. I'm finally getting off work after several days, and I don't want any unnecessary headaches."
Having finally finished the investigation that had continued for days, he was about to leave after cleanup, looking at the uninvited guest who suddenly appeared at his workplace with an untrusting expression.
"B-By any chance... is there any information about Frey... Frey-ssi?"
But Rosewin, recognizing him as one of her guild's regular customers, asked that question.
"...Frey, you say?"
When questioned by Rosewin, he made a flinching expression.
"W-Well... um... that's..."
In fact, he had just announced the fabricated fact that Frey was dead after receiving a bribe from Isollet a little while ago.
"Please take a look at this!"
However, as someone who symbolized Imperial corruption, he quickly put on an expressionless face and pulled a newspaper from his bosom to hand to Rosewin.
[Breaking News] Frey Raon Starlight, Confirmed Dead.
- Body discovered in ruins, causing 'shock'... Currently being transported to hospital
- Unprecedented in history, noble title of Duke's family revoked, will it end vaguely...
".............."
The newspaper contained content Rosewin couldn't bear to read.
"Well, please leave here before I get off work..."
"......."
"...Then I'll be going."
Even as the investigation captain scratched his head and said that while leaving her side, Rosewin's gaze remained quietly fixed on the newspaper.
[Breaking News] Frey's Body Missing
- Transport team states they were attacked by angry citizens while transporting body to hospital
- Cause of death & authenticity currently unknown...
- Lead investigator states verification was perfect...
"...Hic."
Having read all the large information written on the second page of the newspaper, she buried her head in the rubble.
"Huuuu... uuuu..."
And Rosewin, trembling all over, began to sob.
"I-I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Frey..."
Clutching the rubble, she muttered in a trembling voice.
"You were the hero... I was supposed to be your supporter... You kept me alive all this time... I should have saved you..."
Her expensive clothes that she used to show off to her servants and men who were enamored with her became a mess.
Her pale and pretty hands that had never done rough work became cut and wounded from the sharp debris.
Her alluring and beautiful face that used to captivate many men became a mess with tears and dust.
"Uuuu..."
Such situations made Rosewin crumble even further.
The expensive clothes and luxuries she wore every day came from the generous support Frey had given her.
Her pale hands that had never done rough work were because, though she only just realized it, Frey had helped with most of the dirty work behind the scenes.
She had simply thought her background investigation abilities were exceptionally excellent.
And the beautiful face she had cultivated daily for the hero was, in truth, something Frey had created for her.
The reason her face that used to only get thinner no matter what she did gained flesh was one year after Frey came.
"The one who really helped me... was you..."
Rosewin, who finally reached the unavoidable 'conclusion,' completely broke down and was realizing those facts.
"The person I was supposed to serve... was none other than you..."
She regretted it belatedly, but it was already too late.
"Uuuu..."
Ruru's words that 'you should treat them well while they're here' kept circulating in her head.
.
"I-It couldn't be helped..."
After burying her head in the rubble and crying for a while, she was eventually kicked out when the investigator's shift ended.
"What should I have done...?"
Trembling all over in the cold winter wind, she muttered with a pale expression as her guild drew near.
"I-I didn't know either..."
Stumbling as if about to fall, she clenched her fists and murmured.
"I-If I knew... would I have helped.......?"
But at that moment, an unknown memory surfaced in her mind.
"W-What is this...?"
For some reason, she felt like she had said something like this before.
For some reason, the sight of herself as a cripple that she saw in a dream a few days ago flickered before her eyes.
"Haa, haa..."
What came to her after forcing herself out of those unstable waves of memory was...
"Now... what do I do?"
Having treated her benefactor and idol in such a way and left him to die, after the sorrow and regret came enormous fear.
What would happen to her now, and what would happen to the world - just imagining it was terrifying, so fear was only natural.
The world that still firmly believed Frey was evil - what shock would it receive when it learned he was the hero? What panic would ensue?
What end would the world that abandoned the hero now face?
And she, who couldn't live without him... how would she die?
"N-No..."
Her appearance from childhood, sick and ailing in bed, which she had hated terribly, came to mind.
Coughing up phlegm mixed with blood, vomiting any good food or medicine, and when she felt dizzy and closed her eyes, the days when the date would change came to mind.
And the expression of her parents who looked at her with increasingly cold eyes day by day, eventually stopping speaking to her altogether, came to mind.
"I don't want to die... ugh?"
Because of that, Rosewin approached the guild's entrance with a terrified expression, then started wobbling again.
- Thud...!
"Mmmuu..."
Eventually, she fell onto the entrance floor.
"Why am I so... dizzy...?"
With a puzzled expression at the dizziness and staggering that had continued for hours, no, for days, she opened her eyes wide.
"B-Because I didn't receive flowers... already..."
And then, trembling, she muttered.
"...I'm dying?"
Unfortunately, those words were true.
It had already been over a month since she last received flowers from Frey.
Though her body had been fine for over ten years, it was enough time for her frail body to return to death.
"Cough, cough..."
Because of that, Rosewin, who didn't know what to do and was trembling with fear, began coughing while covering her mouth.
"B-Blood...?"
On her hand, blood appeared.
"U-Uaaa..."
It was the first time in nearly ten years that she had coughed up blood.
"I-I don't want to die...!"
Seeing that and remembering her past self, she used all her strength to stand up, opened the entrance door, and entered the guild.
"R-Rosewin-nim!?"
"When did you go out..."
"M-Move...!"
And then, using every bit of strength she had, she rushed to her room.
"T-The flowers... I need to touch the flowers..."
As her room began to come into view, she blinked her eyes that were bloodshot from crying and murmured.
"I don't want to die like this..."
Her expression was covered with fear of death.
The fear of 'death' that she had feared above all else when she was given a terminal sentence, which had slowly bound her every time she sat dying in her childhood, had revived.
"Ah..."
But upon opening her room door and stepping inside, she was speechless.
".........."
What filled her room were all flowers Ruby had given her.
The identity was unknown at this point, but they were flowers given by a girl who was certainly the hero's enemy.
- Flutter...
Even those flowers had already completely withered.
- Thump...!
With her legs losing strength again in that situation, she slumped to the floor and sobbed while muttering.
"S-Someone please help me..."
But of course, there was no one to help her.
"P-Please... save me..."
There was also no one to save her.
"Ugh..."
Deeply feeling that fact, she collapsed to the floor and began trembling from the pain that was increasingly tightening around her body.
"Ahuu..."
Only then could she truly realize how important Frey had been to her.
"Cough, cough..."
But it seemed it was already too late.
- Creak...
"Rosewin-ssi."
At that moment, someone opened her room door and entered.
"Fre... y...?"
Thinking of Frey who always came to give her flowers with a smile, she called his name while slowly reaching out her hand.
"A package to be delivered to Rosewin-ssi."
"........Ah?"
But what arrived for her was not Frey, but a deliveryman.
"Then I'll be going."
The staff member who handed her a small box looked at her sickly appearance with a grimace, then disappeared.
"..........."
Startled by the gaze she never thought anyone would give her again, she quietly lowered her eyes.
"What is this..."
The sender's information was nowhere to be found.
The box only had the recipient 'Rosewin Solar Sunset' and the date the box was packaged.
Year ○○ Month ○○ Day ○○
The date the box was packaged was about a year ago from now.
- Rustle, swish...
After staring at the box for a while, she opened it with a 'let it be' attitude.
".......Huh?"
Then, she opened her two eyes wide.
"This is......."
Inside the mysterious box were one red flower and one yellow flower each.
- Hum...
And at that moment.
> Everything about the Hero (V)
- All read.
A system window appeared before her eyes.
> Everything he did
The item 'Everything he did' was glowing.