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The first thought that crossed my mind was, why?

Isabel would never forgive me for blaming Lucas.

So I thought her anger wouldn’t fade away either.

But why was it that—

Isabel’s anger was clearly diminishing right now.

‘What did I miss?’

I have no idea.

The focus of Act Three is Nikita.

So while I was only observing the situation from Nikita’s side, I neglected to consider Isabel.

“Isabel.”

In that case, why not—

“Aren’t you the one who was all smug about defeating me for blaming your friend? Whatever happened to that momentum?”

It’s better to ask directly.

Beating around the bush won’t get us anywhere.

I shot a sullen look at Isabel.

Isabel’s fists were tightly clenched.

But those fists quickly relaxed.

My eyes went wide.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Isabel said this while staring blankly at her open palm.

A hollow chuckle escaped her lips.

“But suddenly, this thought crossed my mind.”

The spark in Isabel’s eyes began to fade.

“I wonder if I have the right to chastise you for dishonoring Lucas. That’s the thought.”

Anger can indeed burn someone fiercely enough to re-enter life.

But sometimes, it burns so brightly that it can extinguish with just a small trigger.

“I, I did nothing after Lucas died.”

Isabel trembled as she looked down at her empty hands.

Her tightly pursed lips quivered.

After hearing the news of Lucas’s death, she had been in shock.

She let everything in the world slip away.

She abandoned her life as well.

A sunflower without the sun was withering away terribly.

“I just sat there blankly, unable to grasp reality. No, that’s not right.”

Isabel’s vacant eyes looked up at me.

“As you said last time, I definitely tried to follow Lucas in death.”

I lost the most precious friend in the world.

Parting ways with a friend I had grown up with was such a devastating affair for her that it felt like the world was crumbling.

She hadn’t eaten any food, hadn’t drunk any water.

She hadn’t slept, merely repeating the daze of passing each day.

“I just wanted to die as I was.”

But as time passed and led her to this moment.

Isabel came to a realization.

“Me, who…”

Isabel surely wished to die.

“With what right…”

She merely wished to die following Lucas, yet ended up living.

But—

“Acting as if I represent Lucas.”

She realized what a mistake that was.

Lucas faced death bravely to save others.

Isabel knew this better than anyone else.

Lucas died to save others.

Yet she couldn’t accept his death and tried to die in the same manner.

That was the choice Lucas would detest, feel sorrow, and agonize over most.

Isabel had intended to be the worst kind of friend to Lucas, who had died.

Isabel covered her face with her hands.

Then, tightening her grip as if to claw at her own face, she unleashed her anguish.

“What, what right do I have?”

Thick tears fell from Isabel’s eyes.

“I, who was about to do such a thing to dead Lucas.”

Isabel collapsed, unable to bear the burning pain in her chest.

Clearly, the one in most agony was dead Lucas.

Even knowing that, she wanted to inflict more pain upon him.

Isabel felt so sorry for that fact, her heart ached unbearably.

“How could…”

Isabel was in a spiral of self-loathing.

Self-loathing is poison.

It’s a horrible poison that endlessly gnaws away at a person, leaving not a crumb behind.

Isabel returned to reality because of her anger.

That’s why she reflected on the mistake she was about to make and realized how pathetic it had been.

The moment she realized it.

Isabel could no longer go back to how she was before.

“As long as she’s this passionate, she won’t think of dying.”

She must have mulled over my words repeatedly.

And in that process, she came to understand.

The version of herself who was passionately living for Lucas—

Was merely using Lucas as an excuse to continue living.

How pathetic it is to live in anger.

Having realized that, she crumbled again.

“…Then are you going to stay silent even if your deceased friend is insulted?”

Isabel valued Lucas more than anyone.

I asked her if she was going to tolerate seeing someone belittle him due to her self-loathing.

Isabel remained silent.

Seeing this, I pressed my lips down and asked.

“Isabel Luna.”

I took a step closer as I called her full name.

Isabel was always like the bright sun to me.

Even if she became a sun blazing with anger.

She was not someone who could be devoured by self-loathing, becoming less than a candle.

“Is that all you feel for your friend?”

“Then what!”

Isabel shouted as if spitefully.

Her face bore the scars left by her own hands.

“What should I do then! I tried to follow Lucas in death!

Yet I trained again, feeling furious that Lucas was insulted!

The very person who insulted Lucas the most was none other than me, shamelessly oblivious!”

Isabel’s hands pressed tightly against the stone floor.

She squeezed so hard that her nails broke, and blood oozed out.

“But you, who thought Lucas was being dishonored, were actually doing what Lucas wanted most…”

Only then did I understand why Isabel had changed.

On the day I awoke again in the Gray Forest.

Isabel had pictured Lucas and me overlapping as he’d thrown himself to save another.

So Isabel kept avoiding my gaze.

Seeing me reminded her of Lucas.

And it made her reflect on what she had almost done to him.

“I was just a selfish girl who got caught up in how Lucas was insulted, thinking I could change that by entering Magung.”

Accordingly, Isabel’s emotions continued to destabilize.

Thus, she immersed herself in training as if to escape.

She desperately tried to learn the sword from Ban to overcome her self-loathing.

But as a result of that immersion—

All I heard from others was whether she was dating Ban.

Isabel had only lost Lucas just a few months ago.

The fact that she, having lost a precious friend, appeared happy enough to date someone.

Made Isabel fall into a deeper abyss.

So she unleashed her anger on her friends.

The sword she thought she wielded for Lucas turned out to be a sword unworthy of her.

And the sword, which she thought she wielded for Lucas, appeared to be a sword wielded for her own happiness.

Seeing her like that.

“What’s so wrong about being selfish?”

I asked, questioning her absurd words.

Isabel’s head slowly lifted.

“People can’t live their whole lives only for others. Naturally, everyone lives for themselves. I’m no different.”

It’s only natural for anyone to put themselves first.

“That’s human nature, and it’s a natural action.”

My eyes met Isabel’s.

She began to genuinely listen to what I was saying.

So—

“Isabel, let me tell you something. What you’re doing right now is just pretending to be good.”

“What?”

Here’s the punchline.

“You attempted to follow your dead friend in death. Moreover, after doing something so awful as trying to follow your dead friend, now you just watch your friend being insulted.

What kind of absurdly foolish notion is this? Decide whether you’re going to feign goodness or be selfish.”

I stepped a little closer to Isabel, showing my irritation.

The scorching sun climbed overhead, casting a shadow.

My red eyes glimmered in the shade.

“Your friend is dead. The dead don’t have a voice. Following the dead just makes you become another silent figure.

That won’t sorrow your friend. A dead person can’t mourn in any way.”

Isabel is entangled with the specter of Lucas.

So to save Isabel right now.

Even the spirit of Lucas must be utilized.

“If the roles were reversed and you died, and Lucas heard someone demean you, do you think he would have just let it slide?”

Isabel’s shoulders twitched.

This is something we both know.

Absolutely not.

Lucas would never have let someone who insulted Isabel go, no matter what.

“You said you don’t want to dishonor your friend any longer.”

I stated coolly.

“Isn’t what you’re doing right now the most dishonorable thing to your friend?”

Keeping silent when her precious friend is insulted, claiming she isn’t worthy to speak.

That’s the worst action for Lucas.

Isabel’s eyes shook violently.

“I still believe Lucas’s death brought shame to Jerion Academy’s history, and it was not a model action for many students.”

I once again reignited the words that had fired Isabel up before.

“What about you, Isabel?”

She bit her lip tightly, her face stained with tears.

With her blood-stained hand, she clenched her fist.

Then she looked up at me again.

In her eyes that had lost their light earlier.

A small flame flickered once more.

“…No. Lucas did everything he could to save others. That should never be undermined by anyone.”

Isabel began to rebuild her resolve.

Not the shaky support of the past.

But rather, a firm foundation of her resolve to get back on her feet.

“I will never allow anything like what happened to your friend to occur again.

Your friend’s death is a disgrace that must be cast away from Jerion Academy.”

Isabel rebuts this.

“Lucas’s death was a noble sacrifice.

The will of Lucas, who sacrificed himself for others, is a model that everyone must inherit.”

Our opinions diverged.

Before I knew it, Isabel stood up.

I had made a resolve on the day I first saw Isabel.

I would not be able to become a sun like Lucas for her.

So I decided to at least become a moon.

Even if it meant making the moonlight mistaken for sunlight.

I resolved to help the sunflowers lift their heads.

“Isabel, I feel like we’ll never see eye to eye. You’re someone I utterly detest.”

“Same here. I hate you too.”

Just like the day I first saw Isabel.

Her eyes glared fiercely at me.

For now, this is enough.

Having donned the specter of Lucas.

Isabel will live on, to fulfill Lucas’s will.

“Yeah, so we’ll have to see who’s opinion is right to the end.”

I am not the one to comfort or lift her up again.

In Isabel’s episode.

My role is to be a rival and enemy she must confront.

My role is done.

Below the castle wall.

I saw Isabel’s friends rushing toward her.

Among them was her best friend, Sharine.

If it’s them, they would listen to Isabel’s story and take care of her.

I turned my body.

“…Hanon Irey, I’ll ask you one thing.”

At that moment, the first time Isabel turned around, she called my name.

“…Have you met Lucas?”

Did she sense something from our conversation today?

I briefly looked at Isabel and then turned my head away.

“Who knows. I might have run into him by chance somewhere.”

It’s better to leave a question lingering than to deny it and raise unnecessary doubts.

Leaving those words behind, I departed from Isabel.

Even after I left, Isabel merely—

Stared silently at me as I vanished below the castle wall.