"You."
"I'm sorry. It's my failing — I'm not strong enough."
"No. You did everything you could for us."
Mother gently embraces Father as if supporting him from collapsing.
"
Father lifts me gently into his arms.
This might be the first time I've been held by him, as far back as I can remember.
And yet, I could feel his love clearly.
Held in Father's arms, I receive Mother's kiss.
Honestly speaking, the bond between us as parent and child had always felt thin.
Because of my memories from my previous life, I simply couldn't feel the way a real child should toward them.
So whenever they showered me with affection, I always felt a twinge of guilt.
But now that I realize this is the last time, I'm filled with regret instead.
I should have been more clingy.
I still haven't been able to give them anything back — not a single thing — as their child.
I think my past-life memories made me awfully cold and distant toward them.
If I had been more affectionate, maybe they would have been more proactive about interacting with their child.
Maybe then, we really could have been a true family.
But even that is too late now.
"
"Yes, sir."
"Yes, sir."
Father's voice makes Merazophis and Noria straighten their backs.
The two had changed out of their usual servant attire into the kind of ordinary clothes men and women on the street would wear.
Taking advantage of the confusion from the enemy invasion, the two would play the role of a married couple to smuggle me to safety.
If I were just some random couple's infant, I might be able to slip away unnoticed.
It was a desperate scheme from a cornered father.
No other people remained in the mansion either.
They had been mixed in with the crop transporters and evacuated from the city one by one.
But Mother and I were under especially strict surveillance no matter what.
The only way to escape was to ride the wave of chaos.
And while I, as a baby, might manage it somehow, Mother — exposed and recognizable — had no opportunity to flee.
Whether I made it out alive would come down to luck.
As for Father and Mother surviving — that was never going to happen.
This was a final farewell in this life.
The people still left in the mansion were mostly elderly servants who had made the decision to stay and die alongside Father and Mother.
Father had sent the younger servants far away without giving them a choice.
Merazophis and Noria, though, had insisted on staying until the very end.
And precisely because of that, they were entrusted with the great mission of getting me out.
I think Father knew that Merazophis was devoted to Mother.
And knowing that, he still trusted him.
Merazophis, for his part, understood all of that and still chose to serve Father.
I've never experienced anything like romance, so I can't truly understand Father's feelings or Merazophis's feelings.
But there was a bond of trust between them — unshakable and real.
"I will protect the young lady — no matter what."
"…Yeah. I'm counting on you."
Mother and Noria embrace, tears streaming down their faces.
Father gently places me into Merazophis's hands.
Those hands trembled ever so slightly.
And just like that, I parted from my parents.
A farewell that would never be reversed.
We slipped out through the mansion's back exit, and by then flames were already rising from near the city's main gate.
We melded into the wave of fleeing people.
Following the current of the crowd, we made for the outer edge of the city.
But the gate leading outside was already held by soldiers from the enemy nation.
"Let's move — now."
Merazophis grips Noria's hand and forces a path through the crowd, ducking into a side alley.
That's when my sense of danger kicked in.
"Hold on."
"Stop right there."
Figures appeared in the alley — seemingly out of nowhere.
Four blocked the far end. Four more blocked the entrance behind us.
Eight in total.
We'd been marked the moment we stepped out of the mansion.
This was a hopeless situation.
Something was off, though.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"We owe you no explanation. Hand over the infant."
"They're after the baby! Protect it at all costs!"
The men from both ends of the alley charged toward us simultaneously.
I didn't fully understand what was going on, but the four at the entrance and the four deeper in the alley clearly belonged to different factions.
Maybe I could still use this confusion to escape.
That fragile hope was crushed when one of the men from the deeper end slashed Noria.
"Noria?!"
"Hand over the infant!"
A blade thrust toward Merazophis, but the man from the opposing side deflected it.
At the same time, that deflection pulled Merazophis's body sideways.
Using the momentum, Merazophis drove his body back into the attacker.
Still riding that force, he tried to barrel through the alley.
But his body crumpled to the ground.
Even as he fell, he made sure not to crush me.
Lying on his side, Merazophis's face was twisted in agony.
I peered over — a dagger was buried deep in his back.
In the alley, the mysterious men continued fighting each other.
At their feet, Noria lay motionless.
The pool of spreading blood and her vacant eyes told the story plainly — she was already gone.
If this continued, Merazophis wouldn't survive either.
With my tiny hands, I desperately gripped the hilt of the dagger lodged in his back and pulled.
Fresh blood gushed out instantly.
At this rate, he would die.
If Merazophis died, I'd be next.
One possibility — one narrow chance to turn things around.
But if I took it, my life as a human would be over.
And even then, there was no guarantee it would work.
Even if it did, there was no telling whether I could actually handle the situation.
I look at Merazophis, barely clinging to life.
In his eyes, I see a fierce, almost savage self-loathing — the hatred of a man cursing his own helplessness.
"My lady… I'm sorry…"
His voice, barely a rasp.
I make my decision.
I sank my fangs into the neck of the fallen man.