<CHAPTER 8>
The arrogant child who had lived without knowing how frightening the world was was now going through growing pains.
She realized her own mistakes, regretted them, and begged for forgiveness.
See, people can change.
If they have the will, we can escape our fate as much as we want.
“You can start changing even now.”
“Isn’t it too late…?”
“No. Someone I know once said that the moment you think it’s too late is actually the latest moment.”
Artemis, who had been crying, hiccupped at my completely unexpected remark.
Her trembling eyes seemed to say, “Is that really the right thing to say in this situation?”
“So start right now.”
Artemis stopped hiccupping and nodded vigorously.
Then she was about to run toward the nymphs but suddenly stopped and turned back to look at me.
“I understand now why the sisters like Leuke so much.”
What is this kid talking about?
I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but her smiling face was so pretty that I couldn’t bring myself to question it.
The bloodline really is strong. Even when she smiles, I can see Athena in her.
Letting out a hollow laugh, I finally remembered the reason I had come here and ran toward Artemis and Callisto.
“I heard you decided to build a temple for Leuke in Arcadia?”
When I returned to Sicily only after the sun had completely set, Persephone asked me.
The red sunset was pouring down over her pale face.
For a moment, the sight looked like a masterpiece painting, and I quietly watched her.
Callisto is pretty, but she still can’t compare to our Kore.
Persephone’s eyes, the color of summer greenery itself, sparkled as she asked.
“Does that mean Leuke will become the guardian deity of Arcadia?”
“And thank you.”
“Pardon?”
“You saved Callisto.”
So this was her true intention.
No wonder she suddenly said she loved me.
“If Leuke hadn’t saved her, Callisto would have fallen into my father’s clutches without me even knowing. Thank you so much.”
Artemis looked at me and smiled.
She was smiling, but her face looked as if she were crying.
After learning the full truth behind the Callisto incident, Artemis seemed to have been more shocked than I expected.
Previously, Artemis had been an arrogant and reckless troublemaker.
She didn’t even realize what she had done wrong and couldn’t empathize much with the misfortune of others, sometimes even showing slightly psychopathic tendencies.
So seeing Artemis like this now…
…was something I had never expected.
Knowing the original story can make you form prejudices like this.
Just as the fates of Pallas, Callisto, and Rodi had changed, this child could change too.
“All this time, I thought my subordinates had betrayed me.”
“I only thought about how my honor had been damaged. I never considered what kind of situation those children were in or what wounds they might have received.”
Artemis was angry with herself.
She was so angry that she didn’t know what to do.
Her gaze turned toward the nymphs gathered together, dancing.
Among them was Callisto.
The child who would not have been able to smile like that if I had not changed fate.
The child who would have withered away without anyone’s protection.
“How can someone like me be a guardian deity… how can someone like me be a god…”
In the end, Artemis burst into tears.
They were tears of regret.
Tears of repentance, asking forgiveness from the nymphs who must have been hurt by her indifference.
“It’s not too late yet.”
I gently placed my hand over Artemis’s hand.
Artemis lifted her gaze and looked at me.
Her pale violet eyes were filled entirely with my reflection.
The way she looked at me felt like she was looking at a savior, which made me slightly uncomfortable.
Two hands rested on Vivia’s shoulders.
“For some people, the fact that you are alive… your very existence itself might be a miracle.”
It was a sweet consolation, like salvation.
But for some reason,
a faint crack appeared in Vivia’s expression.
A sense of foreboding rang inside her head.
A feeling that she should not listen to those words that seemed to have waited for this very moment to leap out.
But she could not stop it.
“I need you.”
Only then did Vivia suddenly come back to her senses and look straight at Achero Rodrigo.
It was different from that night.
Though simple, his clothes were elegant, embroidered with gold and silver thread and decorated with jeweled buttons.
The large ring on his left pinky finger was unmistakably a signet ring of a noble house.
The emblem engraved on it symbolized the greatest noble family on the continent.
A lily.
“Who are you?”
Vivia’s voice trembled faintly.
“Achero Rodrigo.”
His piercing blue eyes curved slightly.
Vivia’s face turned pale.
Achero Rodrigo?
So the introduction he gave back then wasn’t an act… it was real?
Then why would someone so powerful pretend to be a commoner in a rural place like this?
“Greetings to Duke Rodrigo!”
Vivia hurriedly bowed.
Cold sweat ran down the back of her neck as she recalled what had happened not long ago.
“It’s okay. Just keep calling me Achero.”
Vivia hesitated for a moment before straightening her back and meeting Achero’s gaze.
After all, she was already standing at the edge of a cliff.
There was nowhere left for her to retreat.
“Vivia, I have a younger sister who was lost when we were children.”
“For a long time, my whole family searched for her.”
“I didn’t want to miss even the smallest trace that might lead to my beloved sister. But after not finding her for so long, I wandered across the entire continent.”
“And during that time, by coincidence, I heard rumors connected to her… and that’s how I came to this place.”
Achero lowered his gaze bitterly as he spoke.
He looked so lonely that anyone hearing the story for the first time might instinctively offer him words of comfort.
Into Vivia’s world, which had always been alone,
that man approached while swimming against the dark current.
The dark color of the river turned radiant with every step he took.
After staring blankly at the shimmering river surface, Vivia suddenly raised her head.
Achero wrapped a thick cloak around her shoulders.
“I didn’t expect we’d meet again so soon.”
“It’s cold. You’ll easily catch a cold, so go home before it gets dark.”
A warm smile lingered on his face.
“…I don’t have a home to go back to.”
A dry voice escaped from Vivia’s lips.
The tears that had dried up long ago did not appear even in this desperate situation.
If she could cry, perhaps her heart would feel a little better.
“Don’t you have your biological parents?”
“They abandoned me quickly because they were afraid I’d bring trouble to them. I don’t even know where they ran off to.”
Vivia spoke with a hollow expression.
Now even a bitter laugh would not come out.
“I see.”
Achero turned around and leaned his back against the railing, blocking the way in front of Vivia.
Then he quietly waited until Vivia spoke again.
“I thought I could change things.”
Only after a long time passed did Vivia open her mouth again.
“I thought that if I worked hard, kept saving money, and lived diligently… someday I could leave this place and start a new life.”
“But now it all became meaningless in an instant.”
Her words came out like a sigh.
“I forgot for a moment. In this world, I’m someone who was never given choices.”
“I’m a person who shouldn’t even exist. I can’t live according to my own will.”
“If that’s the case… maybe it would be better to disappear now.”
Deep in her heart, Vivia had always dreamed of becoming someone who could choose her own path.
“No. I heard you.”
Achero pushed himself off the railing and stepped closer.
His gaze was gentle.
His lips curved softly upward.
Is this… a dream?
Vivia’s vision blurred.
Surprisingly, it was reality.
Vivia should have found the strange change in the behavior of the people of the Pernolain Viscount’s household suspicious.
She resented herself for not realizing it.
But how could she have known?
That they would commit something so terrible.
“Ha… ha…”
She laughed weakly, both angry and dumbfounded.
The life she had desperately clung to had collapsed completely in a single moment.
Now Vivia had three choices.
First, repay the debt.
Second, replace the debt with her life.
Third, return to the slums and end up in the pleasure district there…
Vivia’s body trembled.
Let’s just end it here.
It was a life that should never have even begun.
With dark, sunken eyes, Vivia stared at the slowly flowing river.
The life she had never been allowed to have had simply lasted too long.
At that moment, a certain person suddenly came to her mind.
Someone she had met only once.
Someone she would probably never meet again.
She wanted to talk with that person one more time.
There was something she wanted to ask.
Now Vivia didn’t even know what part of her life she should have changed.
What were you trying to change?
It was nothing more than an impossible wish.
Just as she took a step forward while exhaling a tired breath,
Vivia doubted her eyes at the sight reflected in her lowered gaze.
It was that person.
The person she had tried to leave behind appeared above the river, approaching closer.
His figure shone brilliantly as if he had come to save her.
