The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 61



60 – Nikita’s Side Story

In front of another exit of the Demon Palace.

A silver-haired woman rolled out.

“Nikita!”

A man who rushed out hurriedly supported her.

The man who looked exactly like Nikita was her brother, Nia Cynthia.

“N-Nia, brother.”

Nikita clenched her fist tightly.

Then she struck Nia’s side with a thud.

“Ugh!”

“Why, why didn’t you tell me earlier! You could have at least let me know you were alive!”

“S-Sorry. Nikita, if I had contacted you, someone would have surely suspected.”

Nia didn’t know what to do as he looked at the angry Nikita.

This was the first time Nia had seen Nikita so emotional.

She, too, couldn’t control her emotions right now.

The emotions surging from within were wildly confusing her.

A man kept coming to her mind.

The man who had blocked her and sent her here against her will.

When he left the academy, she hadn’t even seen him off.

Yet, he had stubbornly returned to the academy and stayed by her side.

“If I had known, none of this would have happened…”

Nikita bit her lip hard.

“Did you… Did you silence the junior who didn’t tell me?”

“No, that was his own decision. He was the one who saved me in the first place.”

Nikita’s eyes widened.

‘Bicamon, perhaps…’

He might have known for a long time that Nia would be killed.

He might have returned to Jerion Academy for that reason.

For whom?

‘It was for me.’

Nikita had always known of Vikamon’s feelings.

After all, she was destined to be used in a political marriage by the Marquis of Cynthia.

She couldn’t accept his feelings, so she turned away, and Vikamon knew this too.

So Vikamon never confessed to Nikita in the end.

‘He.’

Vikamon had left the academy due to entanglements with Lucas.

At the time, the third princess was in the group Vikamon attacked.

Because of that, he was expelled not only from the academy but also from his family.

‘Maybe there was a reason.’

There might have been a reason he had to return to Hannon.

And if that reason involved her?

As a third-year, Vikamon couldn’t keep an eye on the second-year third princess.

If he was by the third princess’s side to prevent Nia’s assassination?

‘…Did he really do it for me, even while being expelled from his family?’

Nikita’s lips pressed together.

This thought was certainly a leap.

But when she recalled Vikamon’s face looking at her in the last moment.

It was a story she couldn’t completely deny.

Vikamon returned to Hannon and stayed by Nikita’s side.

He supported her so that she wouldn’t struggle with her constant overexertion.

That appearance was exactly like Vikamon’s past self.

‘The reason he didn’t hastily inform me of Nia’s brother’s death.’

He kept it a secret, considering the possibility that the third princess’s faction might notice something.

And in case of an emergency, he intended to tell Nikita to prevent her from going on a rampage.

Nikita recalled the bitter smile Vikamon had as he looked at her in Hannon’s form.

‘…You knew from the beginning.’

After hearing the news of Nia’s death.

Nikita began to dabble in the magic of the ancient dragon.

Once touched, the magic of the ancient dragon cannot be stopped.

Bikamon knew this fact and smiled that kind of smile.

‘And today.’

To completely erase the dragon’s magic engraved on Nikita.

Bikamon prepared alone and finally, saved Nikita.

‘Why.’

Nikita wanted to ask again.

Why did he have to go to such lengths for her?

She wanted to go to him and ask so badly.

But the answer was already decided.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s enough that Nikita is safe.”

The words he said kindly while looking at her.

Knowing that he was Bikamon, all the meanings in those words connected.

“Nikita, be happy.”

It was okay even if he didn’t get this heart back.

Just Nikita’s happiness was enough of a reward.

That’s what Bikamon was saying.

Bikamon, who appeared blurry, was a mess.

A body infused with steel and scars of lightning engraved here and there.

And in the end, he definitely took something that was inside him.

Even if he didn’t know exactly what it was.

It was clear that it was related to the dragon’s magic.

He did everything, even sacrificing his body for her.

His chest felt tight.

An unknown emotion surged.

It felt like his chest was going to tear apart.

He felt sorry and pained that he hadn’t even responded to his feelings once.

“Foolishly…”

Nikita tightly grasped the collar of her chest.

She repeatedly pounded her suffocating chest.

“Really.”

Thick tears streamed down from her eyes.

But even with the tears, his final face could not be hidden.

It flows.

Emotions overflow too much.

This was the first time in her life.

A life that no one had cared for, except for Nia.

No.

Even Nia, with her brilliant talent, could not properly see her life.

Just as a criminal cannot understand a genius.

A genius cannot understand a criminal.

But Vikamon was a criminal like Nikita.

He also had no talent for magic and was treated as a useless person in the Niflheim family.

The only person who stood on the same level as herself.

That is why Nikita might have turned away from him even more.

When she saw him, she saw herself.

Knowing that fact subconsciously, she closed her eyes.

But Vikamon was always looking at her.

His eyes were straighter than anyone else’s.

Nikita’s efforts were all taken for granted because she was born in the Marquis of Cynthia.

No matter how great her achievements were, they were taken for granted because she was from the Marquis of Cynthia.

But Vikamon praised her.

He praised the things she had done and showed respect.

Nikita found solace in that.

On the contrary, the Marquis of Cynthia did not recognize any of Nikita’s efforts.

No matter what she did, she could not escape the use of an arranged marriage in Cynthia.

But at this moment.

She completely broke away from Cynthia.

Because she touched the magic of the ancient dragon, the Marquis of Cynthia would not treat her as one of their own.

Freedom.

It was the first freedom given to Nikita.

Not as Nikita Cynthia.

But a life where she could live as Nikita.

And this was the life Nikita had wanted more than anything.

The real reason she crumbled after Nia’s death was.

Because she realized the miserable life she was destined for, only to be used in a political marriage.

And it was Vickerman who gave her this life.

It was as if he was speaking to her.

Even I, who was expelled from the family, am living so boldly.

Can’t you live like that as Nikita?

The life he showed himself.

The path he had shown so far all came back to Nikita.

You can live.

You can definitely live.

Vickerman abandoned the family and lived brilliantly.

Seeing him, she knew she could definitely live like that too.

Nikita is a hard worker.

She knows how to get back up even when she falls.

And this time, she wasn’t getting up alone.

“Really foolishly.”

She couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.

She wanted to meet him right away and talk.

She wanted to question him about everything he had done.

Above all.

She wanted to tell him about this emotion that was bursting out now.

“……Nikita, the real Hanon was discovered a while ago.”

At that moment, Nia’s voice reached Nikita’s ears.

“He’s not Hanon Airei, is he?”

Even the first prince’s faction confirmed that the one in the academy is not Hanon.

Hearing Nia’s question, Nikita bit her lip.

“……I can’t tell you who he is.”

Nikita kept the secret.

For his sake, she couldn’t reveal this fact.

Nia nodded.

“I’m only telling you this because I know what tool he used.”

“A tool?”

“A tool perfectly disguised as Hanon.”

Nikita recalled that he had also disguised himself as Hania.

“That, it’s called the Veil Bandage. If you classify it, it’s a kind of divine artifact.”

Nia’s face darkened as she spoke.

Divine artifacts always come with risks.

It wasn’t uncommon for people to meet their end because of them.

“Brother, is there a side effect?”

“……Yes, the more you use the Veil Bandage, the more one of the three elements of emotion disappears.”

Nikita’s eyes slowly widened.

“Emotion?”

“Sorrow, anger, love, one of the three universal emotions humans feel disappears.

And according to further research, it might not be just one depending on the duration of use.”

Nikita froze with her eyes wide open.

Sorrow, anger, love.

It had already been half a year since Vikamon started using the Veil Bandage.

If his emotions had disappeared.

She already knew the most likely first candidate.

“No, it can’t be.”

Nikita denied it.

“No, it can’t be… it can’t…”

Just when she thought she was finally facing his true feelings.

To think that they would disappear.

Nikita couldn’t accept that fact.

And the thought that it was because of her made it even more unbearable.

‘The “Be happy” that Bikamon said.’

Perhaps it was a farewell to his own vanishing emotions.

“I have to go back right now!”

“Nikita, if you go back now, you’ll only put yourself in danger!”

Nia urgently stopped Nikita.

“And it was his choice to protect you.”

The moment Nikita goes back now, everything Bikamon did becomes meaningless.

Knowing that, Nikita suppressed his emotions and clenched his fist tightly.

“…Alright.”

Nikita accepted.

“But someday…”

If he meets him again.

‘Even if he has lost his emotions.’

He will make him regain those emotions.

‘I have received so much.’

So he will definitely return it to him.

Nikita’s blue eyes reached the palace.

Those eyes were now filled with one person.