I Killed The Main Characters

The moment the curse dispersed, it wasn't with some grand flash of light or divine chorus.

It was subtle and insidious.

Like waking up from a nightmare you didn't know you were having.

And in that fleeting instant of clarity, Noah remembered.

Not a memory like the ones he could catalog and analyze.

This one was deeper.

A vision that didn't feel like a dream, yet couldn't possibly be reality.

It began in snow.

A quiet, pristine white field that stretched endlessly in all directions.

No horizon.

No sky.

No wind.

Just silence and cold.

The snow beneath his boots was soft, powdery, undisturbed.

But as Noah took a step forward, the place responded.

The ground directly beneath him darkened, the snow around his feet turning a sickly crimson.

Even the flakes drifting down from above shifted from white to blood-red the closer they fell toward him.

With each step, the decay followed.

What was once an untouched field of white became tainted.

Rot spread beneath the snow.

The sound of something wet squelching beneath the surface echoed faintly.

The air, once sterile, carried the scent of rusted iron and wilted roses.

And then he saw her.

Across the field, untouched by the rot, sat a solitary tea table.

Round, delicate and made entirely of glistening ice.

At its center was a woman.

Or something resembling one.

Her hair spilled across her shoulders in wild waves of black, so black it seemed to drink in the light.

'First time I saw her she had white hair...

Is this perhaps the True Witch of Envy?'

Her skin was pale, untouched by time, her eyes two bottomless voids, violet at the edges, but so deep they pulled.

'The feeling I felt at that moment couldn't be explained with just mere words...

It felt like I wasn't supposed to be in her presence but yet...my body moved."

The Witch of Envy.

She didn't move as he approached.

The space around her remained clean, crystalline, perfect.

The red decay reached a certain point and halted, as if afraid.

She sat with perfect posture, hands clasped over her lap, a single steaming cup of tea before her.

The scent of it was absurdly normal.

Chamomile.

Honey.

A whisper of cinnamon.

"Do you want to live?"

She asked.

Noah paused.

The question came not as a challenge, but a whisper laced with genuine curiosity.

Like she hadn't decided what answer she wanted to hear.

"I thought you were 'Him'..."

She continued, eyes flickering.

"But you're not.

No, you're just... you've been.

So many times.

It makes you hard to look at.

Like something twisted into shape again and again until the original form is lost."

Noah didn't answer.

Words wouldn't come.

The weight of her gaze was suffocating.

"You burned a temple once," she said suddenly, voice light, even amused.

"Twelve children were inside.

You didn't look back.

That was lifetime six.

Or was it nine?

Mm... timelines blur together like spilled wine, don't they?"

The red beneath Noah deepened.

Not crimson now, but almost black.

The falling snow hissed as it touched his skin.

"And yet..."

She said, leaning forward slightly.

"You still want to live.

Fascinating."

She took a sip of tea.

The ice cup didn't melt in her grasp.

The steam spiraled upward, a serpent of warmth in the cold.

"I watched you die thirty-seven times.

Screaming.

Silent.

Laughing once.

That one was peculiar.

Do you remember?

No?

That's fine. You will."

The table beside her remained untouched by decay.

It gleamed like a mirror to some other world.

"They call them sin curses..." she mused.

"But curses have meaning.

This was a bond.

A thread tied between you and I.

At first only because I thought you were 'Him'...

Even if you aren't the scent you carry tells me otherwise...

My love..."

Noah clenched his jaw.

The red around him pulsed, throbbed, alive.

"But now..."

She said, tilting her head slightly.

"...you cut it, with nothing but will.

I didn't help.

I didn't loosen the knot.

You did it. All on your own."

The snow at his feet shivered, like it knew it had been defeated.

"That makes you dangerous.

More than the ones who fight fate, you change it.

That's why the world bends.

Why things refuse to go according to script.

You are a deviation, Noah Ashbourne."

She smiled.

There was no warmth in it.

"But don't get proud.

I don't love you.

Not the way the others did.

You're not my tragedy.

You're my curiosity."

She lifted her cup again.

"I'll help you, once.

Maybe twice.

That's the extent of my affection.

Don't beg for more."

The ice of her domain began to crack, faint fractures webbing outward.

"In the end, you'll be faced with the door.

The one made of bone and blood.

You'll know it by the song it sings.

And when you do, remember this:.

You're not alone behind it.

You never were."

Noah's throat was dry.

He tried to speak, but her voice cut through again.

"You don't have to do anything, Noah.

You've already done enough.

Survived enough.

Broken enough.

That string between us? It's gone now.

And yet I still see you walking, bleeding, clawing toward something that might not even be there."

The black-red snow curled up his legs now.

His shadow stretched unnaturally long.

"I will not stop you.

I will not save you.

But I will be watching."

She leaned back.

The cracks in the ice paused.

Her tea refilled itself, steam rising again.

"Make your way to the end.

But remember...

There is always an encore."

The last of her words came in a whisper so soft it could've been the wind:

"And when you see her again, don't run. She's already forgiven you."

The vision shattered.

***

Since Noah woke up…

He had tried using the system.

But it never showed up.

Not once.

It's been seven days now.

A whole week since he opened his eyes in this cursed world again.

And a month since the vassals tried to kill him.

He still remembers how he had to use the sin curse—

On himself.

Just to survive.

Now, something was wrong.

He couldn't use mana.

At all.

His body felt like it was on a subscription plan.

Like he was borrowing life day by day.

And if it expired?

He did't want to know what would happen next.

Not much he could do at the moment.

The witch's words made it worse.

More confusing.

More... scary.

Lifetimes?

Last he checked…

This was his second route.

But now things were messy.

There were two souls in the body he was in.

The original Noah Ashbourne.

That guy was a transmigrator from Earth who had read the novel.

And now him—

Kim Hajin.

A gamer who played the game version.

He's the one stuck in the body now.

But the soul that truly belonged to this world…

The one from the novel—the real Noah was gone

"...and now..."

He stood in front of a mirror.

His hand slowly lifted his shirt off.

His back…

Was covered in something familiar.

Tattoos.

Magic runes.

He stared.

"…the runes from my past game route are back on my body…"