Chapter 2

The wind bit bitterly. Gray fog hung over the streets of Virgo Town all year round, never fully lifting.

Wrapped in my flimsy coat, I stumbled unevenly across the stone slabs. The brand burned into my chest felt like a smoldering lump of coal. Every throb of my heart reminded me my life was slipping away.

【Countdown: 45 Hours 30 Minutes.】

I reached the front door of my childhood family home. This place had raised me, yet it had never given me an ounce of warmth.

I pushed the loosely latched door open. The fireplace inside blazed brightly. Mother was feeding Lily warm soup, while Brother sat on the sofa cleaning his shotgun. The scene looked as warm and perfect as an oil painting—and I was the ugly blemish that ruined everything.

“What are you doing back here again?” When Mother saw me, the tenderness on her face froze instantly, curdling into revulsion.

I dropped hard to my knees. My knees slammed against the solid wooden floor with a dull thud.

“Mother… Brother…” I tilted my head back, tears blurring my vision. “Please, can you hold me? Or just say something caring to me… Just one single sentence.”

A shred of genuine love might be enough to revive my Heart Seed.

“Have you lost your mind?” Brother stood up, grabbed his shotgun, and stepped toward me, towering over my kneeling form.

“I truly don’t have any Heartbeat Petals left.” I tore open my collar, revealing the charred brand and the jagged old scars surrounding it. “Brother, look at me. When you turned twelve and your legs were shattered, I—”

“Shut up!” Brother’s face darkened sharply, as if I had struck a raw nerve. He cut me off impatiently. “Quit pestering me with old stories! Do you think you can make up some tale to dodge your responsibility? You just hate seeing Lily get better!”

“Mother…” I crawled toward her on my knees, reaching to grab the hem of her skirt. “You were deathly ill when I was only eight… I walked all the way to the World Rift alone. The wind there was freezing, and slicing my chest open hurt so badly… Mother, touch my heart. There’s nothing left inside.”

Slap!

A brutal crack echoed as her palm collided hard with my cheek.

My head snapped sideways. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.

“You lying, wicked girl!” Mother trembled with rage. “All you had was a bad cold when you were eight! Your father paid for expensive medicine to cure me! To avoid saving your sister, you’d invent such vicious lies, claiming I suffered a terminal illness?”

I froze.

I stared blankly at Mother’s furious face.

The Elderwood’s rules. How could I forget? All miracles traded for Heartbeat Petals came with a cost—the Elderwood erased every person’s memory of those events, rewriting them into ordinary reality. They had no recollection of hovering on the brink of death, no memory of the blood I spilled for them.

To them, I was nothing but a cold, selfish monster who refused to sacrifice for Lily.

“Get out!” Brother grabbed the back of my collar and dragged me toward the doorway like dragging a lifeless stray dog.

“Brother! Your legs! I traded my petal to save your legs!” I screamed in despair, raking bloody gouges into the wooden floor with my fingernails.

Bang!

Brother drove his boot into my stomach. The blow carried crushing force, delivered by that very right leg I had saved for him.

I went flying backward like a tattered rag and crashed heavily into icy muddy puddles. It felt as though all my internal organs had shifted. Agony clamped down so fiercely I could barely draw breath.

“If you come back spouting more nonsense, I’ll put a bullet in you before the Elderwood gets the chance to erase you!” Brother tossed the threat coldly, then slammed the front door shut.

Sleet began to fall, stinging against my face.

【Subject Vital Signs Detected Declining. Pain Punishment Protocol Activated.】

【Countdown: 42 Hours 15 Minutes.】

The mechanical voice in my head had barely faded when searing, thousand-needle agony exploded from the brand on my chest. I clamped my jaws tight, writhing in the muck. My hands clawed violently at my shirt, as if I could tear the branded flesh straight off my body.

Blood seeped through my fingers, and I could do nothing but laugh wildly.

Why? Just tell me why!

What is the point of all this suffering?

I gave everything I had, only to be kicked and broken.

No. I still have hope. I still have David.

David is my husband. We swore before the priest to love each other for all our lives. If he loves me, if he can give me even a little warmth, I can survive.

Gritting my teeth until they ached, I hauled myself out of the mud. Limping badly, I headed toward my husband’s home.