Chapter 132
What if Miki Died? Part 6
A breeze slipped through the window crack, gently lifting the hem of Miki’s red skirt.
Wine cups were scattered across the table, but already filled. Wakako drained hers before the other could move.
She watched those small feet step forward without a sound, approaching the table.
Miki stared vacantly at the mostly empty wine jar, murmuring its name, “Face of an Old Friend.”
Wakako suddenly remembered the poem Miki once recited to her:
My hair is as white as the white mountain,
Yet I still yearn the mortal world.
Elixir of life, elixir of life.
May you live eight thousand years,
And may I regain my youthful face,
To serve you always.
They had been so young, yet forced apart by life and death, never to see each other’s face again.
Who doesn’t yearn for the face of an old friend?
Lin Lin, completely drunk, lay slumped over the table, fast asleep. Miki sat formally across from Wakako, lowering her head to sip the wine named Face of an Old Friend.
Somehow, the wine never made it past her lips, instead trickling down her chin like the gentle rain outside, staining her clothes.
Miki seemed oblivious, not even bothering to wipe it away. She murmured, “Senior.”
Her voice held no emotion as her gaze fell on Wakako’s necklace.
The simple necklace, almost hidden beneath the collar of Wakako’s dark shirt, was only noticeable because of the glint of silver.
Even after being thrown away, buried deep in the mud, it had found its way back.
Cleaned and polished, as good as new.
Just how much must she care about her fiancée to do that?
“That necklace,” Miki said, tilting her head slightly. “Why… are you wearing it again?”
Her lips twisted: “Wasn’t it… lost?”
Wakako answered simply: “It’s a gift from the Queen. Even if lost, it must be found.”
This answer clearly didn’t satisfy her.
Miki placed the wine cup back on the table, seemingly unable to control her strength. The bottom of the cup hit the wooden table with a loud “thud.”
“What about me?” she asked, her speech still hesitant.
“Didn’t you tell me… you didn’t want to marry me?”
“Then why… invite me here?”
“Senior, your alcohol tolerance isn’t great.”
“If you get drunk, what are you planning to do?”
Wakako’s emotions seemed subdued as she answered each question concisely.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“I invited you to drink, of course.”
“You’re right; I don’t handle alcohol well. If I get drunk, I’ll do what people do when they’re drunk.”
“Don’t you want that? I thought you were interested in me.”
She saw Miki’s eyes darken at her words, like ink swirling in water, a spreading blackness that refused to dissolve.
Miki paused, as if suppressing a surge of emotion.
Her voice remained soft.
“What about that girl?”
“The one you promised yourself to… the one who’s gone.”
“You rejected me because… you were still thinking of her, weren’t you?”
“Have you… forgotten her?”
Wakako stared intently at Miki.
The wine was strong. She had drunk several cups in quick succession. While she hadn’t felt it initially, the alcohol was now taking effect.
Miki’s face blurred before her eyes, multiplying into three, then merging into the face of someone else.
“I’ve forgotten,” she said.
The rain outside intensified, as torrential as the day of the mudslide, as if the sea itself was pouring down upon the land.
Dark clouds blocked sun and sky, making daylight seem an illusion.
Those two words extinguished the room’s candles instantly, leaving Wakako in darkness with a suffocating presence wrapped around her.
Familiar cold fingers climbed her neck again, forcefully snapping the thin engagement necklace, leaving red marks.
The broken necklace fell to the floor with a clear chime, drowned by the rain.
So cold, so wet, so much rain.
A voice whispered in her ear, a mixture of stubbornness and confusion. “I threw it away… why did you pick it up again…”
“Why?”
A familiar person questioned Wakako repeatedly with unfamiliar emotions. Although the window was closed, rain soaked her, and her black clothes clung to her body, soaked through.
Wakako was too drunk to open her eyes, but she knew it wasn’t that she couldn’t – it was that someone didn’t want her to see.
Her voice trembled slightly, “Miki.”
“…Even now, you still call her name…”
“Not Miki, it’s Miki,” Wakako could barely speak clearly. “I know it’s you, Miki, I know you’ve come back…”
Tears mixed with rain as she felt a bone-chilling cold. “Last time you returned, they said I was sick and dreaming, but I knew it was you…”
“Please, let me open my eyes to see you.”
“Miki… I haven’t seen you in five years…”
Her sobs interrupted her words repeatedly, weak and mixed with crying, but she knew Miki would understand.
After a long silence, the hand tightly covering her eyes loosened.
Wakako saw her master again.
Her old friend’s face remained unchanged, still breathtakingly beautiful, but her long hair clung wetly to her face, still dripping water. Her cheeks were deathly pale, her body cold as unmelting ice.
Even at such a close distance, Wakako kept her gaze locked on her, afraid she might disappear the next moment.
Though drunk enough to sway, she knew this was no illusion.
“Did you come back for me?” Wakako couldn’t stop her tears. “Are you still alive?”
She saw the figure before her shake her head.
Miki’s expression remained unchanged: “I died five years ago, Wakako.”
“Now I… I don’t know what I am. A ghost, perhaps,” she said calmly. “Are you afraid?”
In a world where Gods exist, so do spirits. But such things had always been the stuff of legends, never witnessed firsthand.
After being buried underground, the Saint’s soul continued to linger on this land. Though her body rested, she used her last bit of strength to protect the kingdom.
But then…
She had seen her beloved wearing a betrothal necklace.
She had seen a girl with a similar name flirting with her beloved.
She had watched them meet every day, exchanging greetings, each casual interaction a burning agony in her heart.
Even in death, her bones reduced to ashes in the mountains, why did she still feel this way?
She didn’t understand.
Can the dead, even without a heart, still feel pain?
Day after day of torment answered that question.
Yes, it hurts. Just seeing Wakako smile at someone else causes pain.
“So I crawled out,” Miki said with a smile. “Wakako.”
“Even in death, I still… can’t bear to see someone else in your eyes.”
