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Indeed – however, if Rion didn’t have a critical illness, and she didn’t need to stay in the hospital, would Rion still feel that way about her?

Mirabelle really wanted to know the answer. However, she didn’t ask anything despite opening her mouth. She kept feeling like even if she asked this Rion such a question, she wouldn’t receive a good answer. This was something akin to instinct –

If she had the chance to meet the real Rion, Mirabelle really wanted to ask Rion this question. -However, that was likely impossible. Rion was already dead. It was impossible to revive from the dead. Even if Rion was revived, Mirabelle had no idea where she could go to find the girl known as Nikaidou Rion.

“What’s the matter? You have such a dark expression again. Brother, you always do that when you’re thinking about something. That’s not a good habit.”
“Is… is that so?”

Mirabelle hadn’t expected that this Rion already had such a detailed observation about her.

“Brother, if you have the chance, do you want to be with me forever?”
“Of course. I don’t want to lose you again if I have another chance…”

Mirabelle tightly hugged the Nikaidou Rion who didn’t have any body temperature. It was precisely because Rion didn’t have a body temperature that Mirabelle didn’t feel like any of this was real.

“I can only tell you these things now because I can’t do anything else…”
“…”

The Rion in her embrace was also silent. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in the world. If there were ifs, then it wouldn’t be impossible anymore to fix the situation where all of her family and companions had been killed by Heather.

It was precisely because such a thing was fact that reality was the cruelest.

“Brother, don’t be sad, and don’t treat yourself so poorly. At any rate, I don’t want to see such a dejected brother.”
“But, this is the only way that I can see you again.”

Mirabelle replied to Rion, but Rion shook her head.

“Brother, I’m sure that you understand by now? It’s impossible for you to die, no matter how you try to commit suicide…”
“I don’t believe it. I’ll definitely be able to kill myself!”

Mirabelle twisted her head. She refused to believe that it was impossible for her to die. Forcing her to accompany that demon Heather forever was basically impossible. That would be far too painful – rather than accompanying that demon named Heather, she preferred to die. That would be far easier.

“Honestly, Brother has always been like this. You never listen to what I try to tell you. I want you to listen to me on occasion as well!”
“In the future, I’ll listen to anything that you say, but this is the only thing that I won’t budge on.”

Mirabelle insisted on this with an adamant tone. She then slowly sensed that her consciousness kept shaking in this world.

“Mmm, it seems that it’s time to say goodbye…”
“Will I wake up now?”

Mirabelle was rather worried as she asked Rion this question.

“That’s right, you’ll wake up and then continue your life there…”

Rion answered in a calm tone like a death’s god as she announced this to Mirabelle.

At this moment, Mirabelle once again saw – the world after she and Nim escaped.

Under a tree illuminated by sunlight, Nim, Joanna, and all the other elves were sitting under the tree and waiting for something. -They had come out together on a picnic with Mirabelle. When they saw Mirabelle, Nim ran over and took her hand.

“Hey, Princess, why are you in a daze? Come over here…”
“N… Nim… You… weren’t you already…”
“What?”
“Weren’t you already dead?”
“Princess, why would I die? I will stay by your side forever…”

Nim sat down by Mirabelle’s side and smiled as she said so.

‘-If this is a dream, I hope that I’ll never wake up.’

Just as Mirabelle was hoping this, everything around her was devoured.

“Nim!?”

Nim’s eyeball fell out onto the ground. Nim now had torn flesh all over as she interrogated Mirabelle in a tone filled with hate.

“Why? Why didn’t you save me? Princess…”:

This nightmarish voice caused Mirabelle to open her eyes.

“Are you alright? I kept feeling like you were calling the name Nim, Nim?”

After Mirabelle woke up, the first person she saw was the girl beside her, N… Nim!?!?

Mirabelle’s first reaction was to instantly jump into that girl’s arms.

“Nim… Nim Nim…”

“Who are you talking about? I… I’m not Nim, have you mistaken me for someone else?”

Mirabelle finally heard the other girl’s words and saw her appearance clearly.

‘-So she isn’t Nim. She just slightly resembles Nim.’

However, she wasn’t Nim.

After Mirabelle realized this, she left the girl’s arms and returned to sitting on the bed.

“Hey, where are you from?”
“…”

Mirabelle continued to remain silent. She only glanced listlessly at Kirsten.

“My name is Kirsten Raphael. What’s your name?”

Kirsten used concise words to immediately ask the now awake Mirabelle a question.

However, Mirabelle remained silent, as if she didn’t even hear what Kirsten asked.

“Do you not hear my words?”
“…”

Mirabelle still remained silent as she sat on the bed without saying a word. She simply stared outside the window with a blank expression.

“Is she in this listless condition because of reviving after killing herself? But, what was her reaction just now?”

Kirsten wasn’t the patient type. She was extremely dissatisfied with the silent Mirabelle. Kirsten was about to get angry when she saw Mirabelle’s pitiful expression – she then felt that it was impossible to get angry.

“Well, I won’t force you, so talk when you want to…”

Kirsten sighed deeply. She truly didn’t know how to deal with such girls.

It was currently getting close to dusk, so Kirsten went to cook a meal.

Mirabelle kept staring outside the window. A bad idea had entered her head again.

-Would I die if I jumped out of this window?

She hypothesized about it, but she didn’t try it so quickly. It would be far too painful if she jumped down but failed to die, after all. That was why Mirabelle returned to the bed and laid there without thinking about anything.

Mentally dying was perhaps a form of release to her.

She missed how her mother would previously feed her – she was quite young back then, but she still remembered everything quite clearly. That was her first life back as Nikaidou Yuuki. She still remembered quite clearly how her own mother had treated her. Her mother and father were both the same, caring only about work all day. When Yuuki was a baby, nobody even took care of him.

That was why Mirabelle had a really bad impression of her parents in her past life. She really wanted to know what it was like to have a mother’s love – Mirabelle sensed motherly love from Joanna, that Joanna truly loved her like a mother would. That was why Mirabelle treated Joanna as the most important person to her.

However, it was already too late. Things could no longer be changed ever since the moment that she chose to escape.

Mirabelle covered her tear-streaked cheeks with her hands.