Jared still didn’t move. He only looked at Josephine. Pain sat in his eyes with longing, guilt, and a love that refused to thin out. There wasn’t a trace of blame in it. Not a trace of anger either.
When he spoke, his voice came out rough and unsteady, each word dragging up from somewhere deep inside. “Josephine…”
That one quiet call carried everything he hadn’t let go of—all the waiting, all the hurt, all the things he had held onto this whole time. The tip of the sword stopped dead when it was only an inch from his throat.
Josephine’s hand shook around the hilt before she could stop it. Even the flames on the Worldfire Blade turned unsteady, and the scorching heat coming off it faded by a few degrees. She stared at the man in front of her. At the pain and love in his eyes. At that paper-white face that still somehow held a trace of gentleness. At the thing buried deep in his gaze that refused to break.
Something sharp drove through her chest. It landed harder than any burn from fire—hard enough that her fingers almost lost their hold on the sword. Why? Why couldn’t I do it? Why did his wrecked, hopeless look make my chest tighten like this? Why couldn’t I bear it?
“You… why didn’t you dodge?” Josephine’s voice stayed cool, but a slight shake slipped through it without her noticing. The question came out full of confusion.
Jared looked at her, and everything in his eyes softened. Anyone seeing that look would have thought the woman before him wasn’t there to kill him at all, but the one person in his life he treasured most—the one he wanted to shelter with both hands. Even if she wanted his life, he would still take it without complaint.
“Because it’s you…” His voice came out hoarse and soft, carrying that same endless tenderness. “No matter when it is, no matter what you do to me, I’ll never raise a hand against you. I’ll never dodge you… Josephine… do you really not remember me at all? Not even a little?”
Josephine’s hand shook even harder. The Worldfire Blade almost slipped from her grip, and the flames running along it flickered bright and dim, just as unsteady as she was in that moment. She stared into Jared’s eyes. The love in them was too thick, too real. It didn’t look fake. She forced herself to search through her mind.
She kept digging—trying to pull up something, anything—trying to find even a broken shard of memory tied to this man. But her mind was still blank. All that stayed behind was a sharp, swelling pain—one wave after another—like countless needles driving into her head.
“I… I don’t know you…” She spoke again, but the words no longer carried the same firmness as before. A faint slip had already entered her voice, and the wall she had been holding up inside herself was cracking apart bit by bit.
The words hit Jared again like a blade. His whole body gave a shudder, but he still didn’t stop.
“It’s okay…” He spoke softly, his gaze steady and gentle. Even with that darkness hanging over everything, he still didn’t let go. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember. I’ll wait, little by little. I’ll help you remember… Josephine, we’ve been through so much together.
So much wind and rain. We wandered the mundane world side by side. We faced who knows how many life-and-death dangers together. Under the stars, we made promises to each other. We said we’d stay together for life and never be apart… you have to remember. You can remember…”
He kept talking like that, one line after another. He spoke of those sealed-up days. He spoke of the memories that belonged only to the two of them. Every word carried him straight to her.
Josephine’s brows drew tightly together. Her head hurt more and more, and that blank space where her memories should have been threw everything inside her into disorder. But those words, those details, those so-called shared experiences kept striking deeper and deeper.
The stirring in her chest grew stronger, as if something was about to break through its chains and wake up. She didn’t remember any of it. But the pain rising from deep inside her was real. Why did my chest tighten this hard just hearing those words? And why, out of nowhere, did I want to believe him? Why did I want to believe those memories I had never lived?
“Shut up!” Josephine suddenly snapped the words out, like she was trying to cover the chaos breaking loose inside her, and shoved the sword point forward again.
The blazing tip drove into Jared’s shoulder. Fire seared through skin and flesh in an instant. His blood didn’t even have time to spill before the flames burned it away. The air filled with the smell of scorched blood and meat, and the pain hit all at once. Jared’s body swayed slightly.
A sharp stab of pain tore through his shoulder, but he still didn’t dodge. He didn’t even crease his brow—like the pain wasn’t there at all—and he kept looking at Josephine with that same gentleness.
He just stood there and looked at her. There was no resentment in his eyes. No anger. Only that quiet ache and softness, as if the one who had been wounded wasn’t him at all, but the woman in front of him.
“Does it hurt?” Jared asked it softly, with so much care in his voice it sounded like he was asking whether she had been hurt by stabbing him.
Josephine froze, and the hand gripping the sword stopped.
“It must really hurt…” Jared went on as if he were speaking to himself, his voice so soft it was almost like he was coaxing a child. Memory rose in him, and a faint, gentle smile touched his mouth. “I remember. You were always the one who couldn’t stand pain the most…”
“Shut up!” Josephine yanked the longsword out in one hard motion.
Blood finally burst from the wound, only to be burned dry again by the flames in the next instant. The torn flesh was scorched black. She didn’t pause for even a beat before she thrust again. This strike came faster and harder. The blade sank into Jared’s abdomen. The wound went deeper. The pain hit harder. Hellfire rampaged through his body, burning through his meridians and flesh. Jared’s body lurched hard in midair.
The color drained even further from his face. Cold sweat covered his forehead, his breathing thinned out, and for one unstable second, he nearly dropped out of the sky. But he still didn’t dodge. He only looked at Josephine. The softness in his eyes didn’t fade even a little. Not with his body torn open, not with hellfire burning through him. Even then, he still held her above everything else.
“Josephine…” His voice came out hoarse and weak, but the way he said her name still carried that same depth. “Do you remember? One time you asked me what I’d do if one day you pointed a sword at me and tried to kill me… I told you I’d stand there and not move. I’d let you stab me. Because I knew you would never really hurt me. You wouldn’t have the heart to…”
Hearing this, Josephine’s hand shook so badly she could barely keep hold of the sword. The Worldfire Blade kept wavering in her grip, its flames flashing bright and dim. At some point, her eyes had already gone red.
Water trembled at the rims, but she held on and refused to let it fall. Why? Why is this happening? Why did this man make my chest tighten like this? Why couldn’t I bear it? Why, when I clearly didn’t know him, couldn’t I bring myself to kill him?
“Stop talking…” Her voice dropped low and unsteady, carrying a trace of pleading. “Please… stop talking!”
She didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t dare hear it. Those words were driving straight into her—like her heart was about to split apart—like one more sentence would be enough to break her completely. But the sword in her hand stabbed forward again, out of her control. That strike drove straight into Jared’s chest, missing his heart by a hair.
Hellfire rushed in the instant the blade went through, burning along the vessels around his heart. If it had gone any deeper, it would have pierced his heart, burned his spirit clean away, and killed him on the spot.
Blood burst out of him, then flashed into steam under the flames, turning into a strange red mist. It splashed across her purple robes. It stained her cheek. The warmth of his blood touched her skin, and her whole body gave a sharp shudder.
