Claire Marsha (5)

"I don't know anymore. What kind of person is noona? Why is everything a lie? What do you gain by deceiving people like this?"

"Why should I tell you? You're just trying to use me! If it really is for me, just leave it! Then I'll trust you! Huh? I'm telling you! So go away!"

"Just tell me what's real!"

Shirone's shout made Marsha's shoulders tremble.

"Don't just say it hurts; tell me where and how it hurts! Then I'll decide whether to leave or not! Because you paint the world with all kinds of lies like this…"

Approaching Marsha closely, Shirone raised his fist and yelled…

"You can't see how sick you are, noona!"

At that moment, a loud shout came from behind.

"Marsha! Nooooo!"

Amy and Tess looked back. Freeman, with his eyes inverted, charged towards Shirone at great speed.

"No way! I definitely hit him in the face."

Amy jumped as if she had seen a ghost. Surviving the impact of Flame Strike was one thing, but coming back to life with a burnt face was another.

"Who do you think will let you pass…!"

As Tess stepped forward to block the path, Freeman leapt up. With his incredible jumping power, he soared higher than Tess, drew his weapon, and flew towards Shirone.

Rian turned around and brandished his straight sword towards Freeman. Despite the pain, as if his muscles were tearing apart, if he let Freeman go, all their efforts would be in vain.

"Eaaaaah!"

Without exception, Slow Magic caught Freeman. It was evident that Rian's sword would split him in two.

But he didn't retreat. He had to protect Marsha. He had to keep Marsha away from Shirone at all costs.

At that moment, Rian and Freeman stopped moving, equally amazed. Rian's sword couldn't strike Freeman, and Freeman couldn't reach Shirone.

This was because Shirone, who was sensing the situation behind the scenes, suddenly cast his Slow Magic.

The advantage of time magic was that the same effect could be expected both when turned on and off.

Meanwhile, Shirone's fist had been spinning in a giant trajectory.

Marsha could only watch. The cruel boy's fist, coming to shatter everything she had, was approaching.

Shirone's fist struck Marsha's face. Her head jerked back as if hit by a massive impact, and she collapsed in place as if she had suffered a great shock.

"Ma-Marsha."

Freeman's face paled. Marsha also seemed unable to accept reality. Staring at the ground, it seemed as if she was already dead.

Shirone realized that his magic had returned. Meanwhile, Marsha's mind was devoid of any magic.

"Marsha…"

Freeman approached with a pained expression. The subordinates who had returned using the spatial movement magic circle appeared in the back of the building. But no one dared to approach…

Marsha collapsed. They knew what it meant.

"Are you okay?"

Freeman's voice when he asked Marsha was subdued. His jaw twisted so much that he could be seen gritting his teeth.

"If I'm okay."

Marsha forced a smile. Do you detach yourself from an immutable truth?

Although she smiled, her emotions seemed to evaporate greatly. It was as if the soul had escaped, leaving only the shell.

Amy had no intention of sympathizing. This was the same person who had tried to completely destroy Shirone's life.

"She got what she deserved! Surely this isn't the end. The ability to steal someone else's magic must have a price, right?"

Marsha wasn't angry. That's how the equivalent exchange works. If she hadn't been prepared for this outcome, the magic wouldn't have activated in the first place.

"Yes, the condition for releasing Extortion is to touch my body. Then the stolen magic will return. And the price it carries is… to tell this to the person."

Marsha turned and sat where Shirone was. Then she opened her mouth with a very terrified expression.

"You can hug me."

Tess frowned in disbelief.

"W-What?"

To hang something like a price because there was nothing else to hang. What kind of woman could be so callous?

But Shirone understood. Extortion is an ability that cannot be obtained without paying a cost equivalent to death.

The magic that forced her to kill her adoptive father that night was a recreation of a memory she most wanted to forget.

Rian, who finally realized the situation, said as if disgusted.

"What kind of price is this? Shirone would never do such a thing. What if Shirone refuses?"

said Freeman.

"Then Marsha dies. According to the rule she established, she loses her life the moment Shirone refuses."

When the word "death" was mentioned, Tess waved her hands in panic, as if the words were tangling.

"But that's impossible, right? Where the hell is this law? Amy, please say something too. This doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Don't ask me. It's up to Shirone to decide."

Amy's mind was equally disturbed. Shirone is not the type of person to hurt a woman like this. But the sense of responsibility she felt in this situation, having her life in her hands, was an unknown factor.

"I see. I think it would be better to live than to die. I will pay the price myself."

Shirone made his decision and walked towards Marsha. This time, even Amy's heart couldn't help but race.

Freeman, who had been silent, suddenly interrupted Shirone. His body moved involuntarily. It was an act of pure, powerless love.

But in the end, he had no choice but to step aside.

"I beg you. Please save Marsha."

Marsha closed her eyes and waited. She was as nervous as if entering an operating room for the first time, but a part of her thought that maybe it should be like this.

A terrible trauma. Even if she wanted to burn it away, she couldn't do anything about it because it was hers. It seemed refreshing if someone used a welding torch to burn the memory of an enemy against whom she could do nothing.

"Freeman, I'm sorry."

For the first time, Marsha apologized. Understanding what this implied, Freeman lowered his head and took a step back.

Shirone approached Marsha's side.

Trauma is dangerous because it anchors both the present and the future in past events. Perhaps, since that day, she had never really lived in the future.

"Can we go somewhere alone? I beg you."

"There's no need for that. Right here is enough."

Marsha opened her eyes and examined Shirone's expression. But he remained calm.

What could he be thinking? Perhaps he planned to torment her with false hope before killing her.

'After all… I did all those things to him.'

She had stolen his magic and mocked him countless times. Surely, Shirone must have reached the depths of despair by now. It made sense that he would want to vent his anger in this manner.

Shirone supported Marsha's back and brought the upper part of her body toward him. She did as she was told. Anything they asked of her, not accepting it would only cost her more.

Shirone softly whispered in her ear, keeping his face close to her chest.

"I've embraced you."

Marsha blinked, not understanding at first, then frowned as she realized Shirone's intent.

What kind of childish game was this?

"What are you doing?"

"I hugged noona, like noona asked me to."

"Don't play around. Do you think everything ends here? Are you mocking me?"

"I told you, I won't give up on noona."

"Let me go! I don't want cheap sympathy! Do you think this makes you look great? Just hug me! You're angry with me! Avenge to your heart's content!"

Bound by the rules of the cost, Marsha couldn't harm Shirone. But even if she fought, Shirone had no intention of letting her go.

"You bastard! Piece of pretension! Piece of trash!"

"My noona is a good person."

Shirone said while stroking Marsha's head.

"My noona is different from Arcane. I can tell by the number of people following noona. Even if it's a lie, it's enough. No one, not even noona, knows what's in another person's mind. I don't know either. We just have to believe and keep on living. Even if no one believes in you, you can still believe in yourself. If Noona truly loves someone, there must be someone in the world who loves Noona equally."

"No! That can't be true! What do you know! What do you know to say such things!"

Marsha vehemently denied Shirone's words. But when she realized tears were streaming down her cheeks, her expression turned from disbelief to silence.

Even now, she doesn't feel sad at all. So, why were these tears flowing?

"Huh? What's wrong with me? Why am I suddenly crying…"

How tightly her emotions must have been sealed for tears to flow even before her feelings could surface.

But now it was different. As her memories, which she had left sealed, returned to consciousness, Marsha finally confronted her own trauma for the first time.

It was a day when she was seventeen.

Marsha lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, when her stepfather approached, reeking of alcohol.

It was always the same scenario, always the same violence.

Marsha was keenly aware of the dagger hidden behind her back. Its cold touch seemed to freeze her skin.

"You can hug me."

Her stepfather's eyes widened in shock.

Marsha vividly remembered that moment, the monstrous emotion rising in her stepfather's pupils.

Marsha gripped the dagger. He was getting closer. She felt she had no choice but to stab.

But at that moment, her imagination about her father differed from what she had in her memories.

After lifting Marsha's upper body, her father buried his face in her chest and gently stroked her back.

"I'm sorry for everything up till now, Marsha. You are my daughter."

The words she had longed most to hear in the world.

The moment she remembered that word, the closed doors of Marsha's heart opened completely. Emotions she had repressed for ten years burst forth, and she couldn't contain the tears.

"Sob! Hic!"

Marsha, embraced by Shirone, burst into tears of sadness.

"Waaah! Flood!"

Shirone remained silent, simply patting her back.

"Dad! Why did you do that? I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Dad!"

In truth, she had hoped to be hugged like this. No matter how violent he had been, she had always wished that the man who had taken her in as an orphan would still be her father until the end.

"It's okay, noona. It's okay now."

Marsha's past was crumbling. It was reconstructing into a slightly stronger memory, becoming hope for living in the future.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

Freeman checked the time.

Marsha's established rule should have already taken effect. But Marsha was still alive.

"What's happening? What's the situation?"

Only the two of them would know what emotions were going back and forth between Marsha and Shirone. Therefore, others still couldn't let their guard down.

Freeman explained.

"The extortion has been undone. Shirone has nullified his magic."

"Nonsense. She said it was okay to hug her, but did she really mean it would end if he just hugged her? Where's the price for that?"

Freeman hesitated to answer. To Amy, who didn't understand the whole story, it seemed absurd.

But delving deeper, it wasn't just about the words.

Shirone had opened Marsha's closed heart. He had broken the shell she had built around herself with her Rule Eater magic and offered her a new path.

"Shirone didn't just undo Extortion. By canceling the condition for Extortion to activate, Marsha's authority was severed. Marsha's Deprivation no longer exists in this world."

Freeman smiled bitterly. Perhaps Shirone didn't care what Marsha's true pain was. From the start, he had planned to accept it all.

"I couldn't do that… We've been completely defeated."

"Waaah! Waaah!"

Marsha's tears showed no signs of stopping. She, too, knew. If not today, the door might never open again for her.

The many memories of living in the past were sinking into the abyss after ten years.

***

Twenty minutes had passed since the battle ended.

The Parrot Mercenary Band sat down to rest, and Rian also tended to the injured area following Tess's first aid measures.

Meanwhile, Marsha remained in Shirone's arms.

No more tears flowed. But she trembled intermittently, savoring the aftermath of her emotional release.