I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 87

Perhaps because everything around him was dark, the light stood out all the more.

As if possessed, Evan moved his steps toward the place where the light was. The closer he got to the light, the more a creeping sense of ominous foreboding crawled up his spine.

‘No way… Lucia couldn’t possibly be here at this hour….’

Evan swallowed the saliva pooled in his mouth. Cold sweat ran down his cheeks, and the legs carrying him forward trembled for no reason. His heart thrashed with anxiety, and a stiff smile, as if denying reality, settled at the corners of his mouth.

And he repeated it to himself over and over.

That Lucia couldn’t possibly be here. That the light had nothing to do with Lucia, and that it was merely the light of some petty thief who’d come to rob the school.

However, as if betraying Evan’s belief, the moment he drew close to the light, the face illuminated by it came clearly into view.

“….”

No matter how he looked at it, it was Lucia.

Lucia Even.

Lucia Even, who had turned nineteen today and had just come of age.

My fiancée, and the woman who was supposed to marry me.

Lucia Even, whom I loved, and whom I had decided to love forever.

Though there was still some distance between where he stood and the light, there was no way his eyes could be mistaken. It was unmistakably Lucia Even. Lucia Even, whom he’d searched for so desperately.

And that Lucia Even was speaking in hushed tones with a short man, her expression serious. Beside them stood an expensive carriage that looked costly even under the dim light.

In that instant, a lightning-like realization struck Evan.

Lucia was leaving.

She was going to abandon her family, the village, and me, board an expensive carriage she had never seen in her life, and head to the capital. Backed by the solid support of some unnamed noble.

A shock he had never experienced in his life slammed into Evan.

He couldn’t breathe. His vision blurred, and indescribable emotions surged up to his throat.

Evan forced his violently trembling legs to move and ran toward where Lucia stood. His field of vision wavered unsteadily. Even so, his eyes were fixed on Lucia alone.

“Lucia…!”

Evan cried out her name while gasping for breath. He felt as if his lungs were about to tear from running nonstop from the village to here, but he couldn’t stop himself from calling her name.

“Lucia!”

He desperately shouted Lucia’s name as he crossed the field.

He hoped with all his heart that his voice would reach her ears. Just once. Once was enough. He wanted her to turn around and look at him.

Even if Lucia looked at him, there was nothing decisive he could do. He had nothing to offer.

He couldn’t take her out of the village and to the capital. He couldn’t summon expensive carriages like a noble. He couldn’t support her attending an academy instead of a dilapidated, crumbling magic school.

All he had was a 400 gold necklace with a fake gemstone, barely bought after walking half a day.

Evan knew it was far too paltry to hold Lucia back. Even so, he wanted to cling to her.

He wanted to say he was sorry he couldn’t give her anything, sorry that this was all he had. But even so, could she stay by his side? Could she think about him just a little longer?

Or if nothing else, since I’m not asking for anything more, couldn’t you at least give me just enough time to hand over the gift I bought for you?

Unable to put that desperate feeling into words, all he could do was shout her name at the top of his lungs, as if the entire world were being torn apart, trying to stop her.

“Lucia! Lucia, please!”

“….”

“It’s me, Evan! Lucia! It’s me, Evan! Talk to me… please talk to me, Lucia…!”

Fearing that Lucia might board the carriage and leave at any moment, Evan called out desperately to stop her.

But no matter how much he shouted until his throat hurt, no matter how this vast field was filled only with his voice, Lucia did not turn back to look at him.

All he could see was her cold, distant back.

Evan urged his legs onward. If his voice couldn’t reach her, then he just had to go to where Lucia was, no matter what.

But no matter how much he ran, the distance between him and Lucia didn’t grow any closer. The path leading to Lucia, which had always felt close, felt unbearably far today, and he couldn’t understand why.

“Lucia…! Lucia…!”

As if Evan’s shouts had finally reached them, the short man standing with her glanced back at him. Then he asked Lucia, “Do you know him? He’s been calling out for you for a while now.”

“No. He’s a stranger. If you’re done checking, let’s go. We still have a long way to travel.”

“…Understood.”

Without sparing him even a glance and dismissing him firmly as someone she didn’t know, Lucia boarded the carriage with the man escorting her.

The man closed the carriage door, then sat down on the driver’s seat with practiced movements. He grabbed the reins and cracked the whip.

The two horses began stamping their hooves energetically, and soon the wheels of the carriage started to move.

“No…!”

Seeing the carriage carrying Lucia leave right before his eyes, Evan screamed, “Don’t go, Lucia! Please don’t go!”

Evan shouted toward the departing carriage and ran with all his remaining strength, trying to catch up to it.

At first, it was a distance that seemed reachable if he ran until his legs broke, but as time passed, the gap gradually widened until it was so far away it looked like nothing more than a tiny dot.

It was only natural, since a person couldn’t outrun the speed of galloping horses. Even so, Evan kept running, staring at the retreating figure of the carriage.

He couldn’t let Lucia go like this. He couldn’t part without hearing a single word, without even having the chance to cling to the hem of her skirt.

It would’ve been fine if he collapsed. It would’ve been fine if he died. He didn’t care. Just anything, any words at all, even if it was simply her saying they should part, he wanted to hear something from Lucia’s own mouth.

Running along the road the carriage had taken as if his breath would cut off at any moment, Evan tripped over a stone and fell.

“Ugh…!”

With nothing to support him, his body slammed straight into the ground. A sharp pain flared in his ankle. It seemed he’d sprained it.

But none of that mattered to Evan.

Trying to chase after Lucia, he attempted to get back up, but his body refused to listen.

‘Move! Please move! If I lose her here, I’ll never see her again. I have to follow her, Lucia…!’

Evan whipped himself on, but his body didn’t budge at all. All he could do was lie there on the cold, damp ground, writhing.

Unable to give up on Lucia, Evan crawled toward the direction she’d disappeared in. His body was scraped raw by dirt, stones, and leaves, but he didn’t have the leeway to feel the pain.

Evan thought of nothing but chasing Lucia. Before the sound of the carriage’s horseshoes ringing in his ears grew more distant and disappeared completely, he had to catch up to her.

However, after a few minutes passed, even the horseshoes he could hear faintly from afar fell completely silent.

A still, oppressive silence settled down, without even a breath of wind.

Evan suddenly stopped where he was, lifted his head, and silently stared at the place where Lucia had disappeared.

The carriage she’d ridden was swallowed by pitch-black darkness and vanished completely. No matter how long he waited, there was no sign of the carriage returning, and the same was true of Lucia.

As if he were a madman who had suddenly lost his mind in the middle of the night, only Evan was left, crawling miserably along the ground in a wretched state, wailing.

No one looked back at him. No one listened to his words, and they moved away from him without even giving him the chance to speak.

In this wide, cold, desolate field, only he lay there alone. As if he had been alone from the very beginning, just like that.

At that moment, hot tears flowed down Evan’s cheeks. The sorrow and resentment he had briefly forgotten while chasing Lucia surged in all at once, like crashing waves.

“Why did you leave me, Lucia….”

Evan stared emptily at the place Lucia had left behind and muttered words that would never reach her.

“Why did you call me a stranger?”

We grew up in the same village, went to the magic school together, took classes in the same classroom, and even got engaged, promising to marry once we became adults.

So how could you say I was a stranger with such a cold voice?

How could you not turn back even once while I was calling your name until my throat tore?

You could’ve told me beforehand that you were leaving, so why didn’t you?

At the very least, you could’ve listened to my plea just once. You could’ve told me that you’d come to hate me, that you wanted to receive a noble’s backing and play in a bigger world. But why did you leave me like this?

While I’m crawling along the dirt calling your name like this, why won’t you answer me even once? Why….

Overwhelmed by unbearable despair and devastation, Evan slowly closed his eyes.

It was a night when he wanted to die like this instead.