Chapter 129

*This episode contains depictions of domestic violence and psychological trauma. Please use discretion.

“Ah!”

Crash! Crack!

The window shattered, and an unused chair and side table flew through the air and slammed into the wall.

The debris I glimpsed beyond the table didn’t scatter toward me at all.

As if there were an invisible barrier in front of me.

The surging mana was clearly palpable even to me, who wasn’t a mage.

Startled, I froze and could only stare at him.

“Ah.”

My gaze was like that of a cornered mouse watching where the cat would move next, and Johan seemed to realize it too, letting out a startled groan.

“W-what are you doing right now? Were you trying to threaten me?”

“This… no, Giselle. Absolutely not.”

Johan looked stunned, as if he hadn’t intended to scare me.

He stepped toward me.

I quickly stood up to avoid him.

“Ah.”

As I pushed the chair back, I lost my balance and fell backward.

Before the back of my head could hit the floor, Johan lifted me into the air with magic.

Whether it was because I tried to avoid him or because I almost got hurt, Johan froze mid-step, soaked in shock.

He said urgently, “Giselle. I’m sor— I wasn’t trying to threaten you. When my emotions get intense, sometimes I can’t control my mana….”

Flustered as he tried to explain, he bit his lip when he saw I still couldn’t drop my guard.

I steadied my breathing, trying to calm my racing heart.

I knew he hadn’t intended to threaten me, but fear etched into my bones made my spine go cold whenever things turned frightening.

Johan said, his face pale, “…It won’t happen again.”

Johan stood in place, unable to come closer or step back, lowering his head.

He knows what kind of environment I grew up in.

And yet this still happened, so it must be eating at him.

“Miss. Are you alright? Miss!”

Voices of the staff came from outside the door.

Rattle, rattle.

They even started shaking the doorknob hard. I quickly got up and grabbed my bag.

Johan, snapping back to his senses, came over and grabbed my arm.

Smoke wrapped around us.

***

After moving to another hotel, I rubbed my cold hands and got into bed.

I pulled the blanket up over my head. It was warm enough, but the tension wouldn’t leave, to the point my body ached.

Johan was probably sitting near the bed. I didn’t want to think about him.

As I focused on relaxing my body, I soon drifted off to sleep.

“Deva. Deva.”

“I’m poison for biting rats too, so stop asking me to help with your homework.”

“No, that’s not it… I was wondering if you know the ending of .”

“How would I know the ending of a comic book?”

“It’s your story. Do you think this story will have a happy ending?”

“At least for me, it will.”

“I hope so.”

“Mm.”

I meant to answer Willy in the dream, but I ended up mumbling it out loud.

My own voice woke me.

When I opened my eyes slightly, I saw Johan.

He was sitting beside the bed, watching me in the darkness.

Johan looked completely worn down.

It was as if he was guarding me in a half dead state, afraid I might disappear again.

“…Johan?”

“….”

Facing his lips, hesitating to be honest, and his eyes that looked like they’d burned down to ash, I finally realized what it was I had run away from.

I left Johan behind. I ran away to avoid facing that version of him.

Because I believed that if we stayed together, Johan might become like that someday.

Because I was afraid that the Johan I abandoned would wear that kind of expression.

I was a coward.

I didn’t want to see his slumped shoulders. It felt unbearable that, weighed down by self-loathing and guilt toward me, he’d lost even the chance to be angry at my betrayal.

“Do whatever you want.”

Johan said it weakly, as if delivering a notice. His scarred hand pressed hard against his eyes.

“Just move however you want. Keep working, stay at a hotel….”

I won’t leave you alone.

He muttered it in a vague tone, as if it wasn’t directed at anyone.

***

“I can free you from your beast-like brothers.”

Everything started from that letter.

“Help me.”

“Deva. What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing a gun can’t solve. Deva, spit it out already.”

“Raphael. Can’t you see she’s scared? Shut up for a second.”

After hesitating for a long time, Giselle confessed.

“I have a stalker.”

Unable to endure the stalking any longer, Giselle asked her brothers for help.

“It’s been over a year.”

“That bastard. I should toss him to stray dogs. I’ll take care of it soon, so just live like usual. The more afraid you are, the more he’ll enjoy it.”

“Judging by the letters, he’s been following you every time you go out without us. Doesn’t seem like someone you know… we’ll have to provoke him.”

“How?”

“Start dating.”

Giselle whipped her head around to check, and Oscar shrugged, his square glasses gleaming.

At Oscar’s suggestion, Giselle started going on dates with men who showed interest in her from the very next day.

By the time the Black Cloak, who had been watching from afar, reached the limit of his patience and was on the verge of exploding.

“What does it matter who I meet! Instead of meddling in my love life, worry about yourselves!”

Giselle had a huge fight with her brothers over men.

After that, she grabbed her bag and left the house, going to the home of a man she had been dating.

Unable to watch that any longer, Black Cloak decided to deal with the man.

So while Giselle was briefly out, he went in to kill him.

But Raphael and Oscar Jacknife were waiting there.

“Oscar, good thing you brought the anti-magic ampule just as you said.”

“Told you. I said the culprit was probably an esper or a mage. Have you ever regretted listening to your big brother?”

“Big brother my ass, when you were born five months later.”

“Still older than you.”

It was a trap. The man Giselle had been seeing was one of their organization members, planted by Oscar.

After being injected with an anti-magic ampule, Black Cloak panicked when he couldn’t properly use his magic.

But the anti-magic ampule was newly developed and still unstable.

Bang!

The bullet Raphael fired pierced Black Cloak’s abdomen.

Just before the next bullet could lodge in his forehead, he melted into the shadows and barely escaped.

“Ghh… ughh….”

That’s when he realized. He had to get rid of them to have Giselle.

By the time his body recovered, Raphael and Oscar had taken down Sunshine.

After Sunshine, Black Pistols became obsessed with capturing Raphael, then joined hands with Red Shadow.

On the day the two heroes hunted the heads of Death Adder, Black Cloak followed them to take Giselle away.

And there, he saw it.

“Raphael, Raphael. It’s okay. I’m here. It’s all okay.”

Giselle was White Hands. But there was no time to be surprised by that.

‘He knew Red Shadow shows no mercy!’

Because Giselle was at the center of the fight to protect her brothers, Black Cloak had to step in.

The explosion from magic clashing with magic blew off Red Shadow’s mask.

Black Cloak turned his head to shield his face from the blast.

Then he saw Oscar lying on the ground.

A look of shock, and a massive hole that had opened beside him.

The hole swallowed Oscar, and Raphael died just like that.

When the hole in the world vanished and the explosion of magic subsided, Black Cloak fled the scene.

Left alone, Giselle made a request to the officer in charge.

“…I’ll cooperate fully with the investigation, so please let me finish the funeral.”

Sergeant Tristan Lindbergh watched her with a conflicted expression throughout the funeral.

After the funeral mass ended, the coffin was buried. They couldn’t find Oscar’s body, so they buried an empty coffin.

From a distance, Liam watched Giselle as she stroked the headstone.

In just a few days, she had lost all vitality, her eyes dimmed.

“They both fell into hell, didn’t they?”

“….”

“It’s hard to believe this place isn’t hell.”

Sergeant Lindbergh didn’t answer.

Bang!

Two Star attacked Giselle.

Before Giselle could hand over Death Adder’s ledger to the police, Big Bear was buying time to steal it away.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire erupted.

Bullets struck the gravestone, shattering the engraved name.

“Why isn’t she running? Why is she just standing there?”

Liam moved to Giselle’s side, but it was already too late.

“Giselle?”

A bullet pierced Giselle’s chest.

Amid the chaos of police and gang members killing each other, Liam’s scream rang out.

An explosion went off at the scene. Red Shadow, who had been hiding nearby, stepped in and wiped out the Two Star thugs.

Liam grabbed her and cried out.

“G-G-Giselle! Giselle… you can’t die. You can’t die!”

“Cough! Kgh!”

A few labored breaths followed. Giselle couldn’t hold on for long, despite his plea.

“Let’s meet in hell.”

Giselle smiled faintly as she spoke her last words.

Until the moment the light faded from her eyes, they were fixed on her brothers’ gravestones.

“N-no… no!”

He shouldn’t have taken Raphael and Oscar out.

They were everything to Giselle.

That’s why she didn’t avoid the bullet. Even though she could heal her body, she didn’t.

Liam realized his judgment had been completely wrong.