It is my Destiny to be the Savior of the Protagonist - Chapter 3

That was already three months ago.

‘Mom went without saying hello to me and hasn’t come back for such a long time.’

What if her mother abandoned her? What would she do if she never comes back? Just imagining it brought her to tears. Ariadne, clinging to the window, buried her head in his arms and sobbed. Then, suddenly, something tickled her forearm.

“What?”

When she looked up, it was a morning glory vine. Vines climbed up the tower from the ground and hung from the window frame. The elongated light purple flower moved on its own and gently touched her arm. Ariadne was used to these morning glory vines.

“…mom?”

Gloria was an Elementalist. She wasn’t an Elementalist strong enough to actually go into battle, but she was good using plants. She used to handle a Sari. Signaling with morning glory vines was her specialty and hobby.

Ariadne would often wake up in her sleep to the sensation of a morning glory tickling her cheek. As she dozed off, walking led by her flower stalks led to her mother’s greenhouse. The image of her mother sitting at a table with breakfast in the sunlight pouring in and waiting.

Her mother smiled brightly and beckoned. Her cotton, her morning glory vines entwined and supported her half asleep, leading her to her table. The morning with my mother, buried in flowers and trees, was fragrant. It was very refreshing to feel her head slowly clearing with the scent. Ariadne was very fond of such mornings.

“Are you back, Mom? Is your trip over?”

She welcomed the morning glory vine. It wrapped around her arm and pulled her out the window, down the tower.

“Come down? But I can’t leave the study room… Dad is coming soon.”

Even when she shook her head, the morning glory was still indifferent. It keeps pulling her down the far-off tower.

“I’m going to float, I’m going to fall…”

As the frightened Ariadne held on to her window frame, several more of her morning glory vines popped out. They pushed her down her window, softly but firmly.

“Ah!”

Unable to overcome the force, her body eventually staggered out of the window. But she didn’t fall. The vines gathered right away and held her tightly. They then tried to take her down the tower as it was.

“Mom…?”

“Ariadne!”

The Duke, who had just entered the room, looked at her hanging outside her window, and then he came running.

“Dad?”

He immediately drew his sword, cut off the vines, and took his daughter. The severed morning glory vines swayed delicately. The flowers looked at Ariadne. The tip of her stem crawled up the sill of her window, trying to get to her. Ariadne looked a little sad at their appearance. It seemed her mother was eager to reach out to her, so she reached for the vine.

The Duke snatched her up and slammed her window shut.

“…I never thought she would have had this much power left.”

“Dad, Mom…”

“Aria, that is not your mother’s morning glory. Your mother is traveling.”

“But…”

“Daddy said no. You are mistaken.”

The Duke of Eldeer pushed her toward the chair and closed the curtains.

“Now, it’s time to study.”

Ariadne watched the morning glory hanging from her window wither all at once just before the curtain closed completely. The folded flowers fell and the leaves crumbled and scattered. The dying morning glory vine somehow felt like her mother so the inside of her chest crashed down.

She cried involuntarily and asked her father.

“Dad, what about Mom? When is she coming back?”

“Isn’t it because you were sick that you couldn’t go to see her?”

When she noticed, the Duke looked down at her with curious eyes.

“… If you finish your studies well today, I’ll let you know the news, Ariadne.”

“Really?”

“Then, if you do very well, you might end up going to see your mother.”

“Hey, I’ll work hard. I can stand it just fine.”

“Yes, let’s do our best.”

The Duke smiled kindly and sat Ariadne in her upholstered chair. Shackles were attached to the arm of the chair.

He habitually rolled up his daughter’s sleeves and shackled her arms. Her exposed forearms were full of scars. Wounds made by cutting and stabbing with sharp objects. The duke indifferently searched for a less painful spot on her arm.

“Open your mouth.”

He placed a towel over Ariadne’s mouth.

“Don’t start.”

The duke made new cuts with his dagger on her scarred forearm. She recoiled reflexively from her pain, but was bound by her shackles and could not escape her.

“How many times has Dad told you that moving is dangerous? They say you’re holding up well.”

The duke whispered sternly. Ariadne bit off her towel and endured her pain.

“Yeah, you have to be patient with that.”

The Duke then took out a large ivory syringe. It was a syringe with a thick needle that could only be inserted through an incision in the skin. He inserted a syringe into the wound on his daughter’s forearm and injected the golden fluid.

Ariadne’s body began to tremble. Lightning seemed to run through her veins. A cold sweat broke out.

“I put in more than usual, but it’s okay. Ariadne, good job enduring it.”

The duke patted her hair deliberately and put on his gloves. He opened the magic circle-sealed box and pulled out a small glass bottle inside with long tongs. Inside the vial, an ominous dark red liquid slithered.

Ariadne watched with her feverish head as her father poured the liquid into another syringe.

“Let’s go slowly. Will this amount be okay now?”, he came over smiling.

‘No. I’m scared. I do not want to do it.’

The first golden liquid, the injection that Dad called an “elixir,” was still tolerable. Even though it was dizzy and hot, it was an endurable pain. However, the second ‘contaminated water’ was different.

It hurt terribly. She couldn’t stand it. The first time she was hit by the contaminated water, she vomited up her own blood and fainted for several days. Even after that, whenever the dark red water seeped into her body, she lost consciousness.

Her dad told her every time, clicking his tongue.

‘If you can’t stand this, what are you going to do later? Dad thought his daughter was a really nice and smart kid. The pace is too slow. Try harder.’

It was only after months of repetition that she was able to survive without fainting. Then the Duke increased the amount of dark red water. It took her over half a year before she was able to withstand the increased amount of contaminated water. She just recently got used to it. But what about increasing the amount again?

Ariadne turned white.

“Are you scared?”

The Duke stroked his trembling daughter’s cheek.

“Don’t be afraid. Dad couldn’t do anything dangerous to you. Daddy loves you very much.”

It was a kind and sweet voice. She closed her eyes.

“That’s right, you have to endure that to be a good kid.”

A thick syringe dug into the wound on her forearm. She had tears in her eyes from the pain, but the pain wasn’t a big deal. Compared to the polluted water that permeates the body.

In an instant, the eyes turned white, then black. As Ariadne struggled with the pain, the Duke held his daughter in his gloved hand. The towel covering her mouth turned bright red and fell off.

“Aagh!”

Her blood and screams flowed out of her mouth. The white cloth covering her chair was stained red.

“Tsk, you’re not holding up as expected… Let’s increase the elixir.”

The Duke sighed as the child coughed up blood and brought back the syringe containing the golden liquid.

“If you want to know about her mother, you have to work hard, daughter.”

A larger amount of golden liquid was injected. Her head heats up like it’s melting. Round and round, full of sight. Gold and dark red lights return. As if strangling her, she chokes.

Ariadne just lost her mind. She lay for a while in the dark. Then she suddenly realized.

‘Oh, this is a dream. I’m dreaming.’

She realized it was a dream, but she didn’t wake up from it. So she kept thinking shat was her name.

‘I am Ariadne Eldeer. Seven years old this year.’

Memories of the seven years of being born and raised in Eldeer Castle. That should be all, but memories from other lives lingered in her head. Where there was science instead of magic, and machines instead of spirits. Memories of 28 years of living in a world distinctly different from this one.

‘What are these memories?’

She looked up into the empty darkness and repeated her thoughts. These qualitative memories were organized and established. Ariadne slowly realized.

‘These are memories from my previous life.’

At that moment, the darkness disappeared as if a curtain were lifted, and the surrounding scenery changed. A view of a room filled with golden bookshelves from floor to ceiling. The floor was transparent glass, and the ceiling and walls were made of the same material. And beyond those glass walls and glass ceilings, there were rooms similar to the one she was in.

Above, below, and beside, the endlessly connected bookshelves of golden bookshelves. Books stacked neatly on a bookshelf All of them were untitled.

‘Where am I? Is this a library?’

It was a strangely familiar landscape. As if she had been in that strange place many times. Had she seen that place before?

‘…That’s right, I’ve been here. A lot of times.’

She thought she had had dreams like that since she was very young. There was an endless series of glass rooms That was God’s library. A golden bookshelf full of untitled books.

‘I’ve seen it several times, but I can only look at it and not be able to move inside.’

But now she could move inside. Why? Wass this not a dream but real? Or was it because it reminds her of memories from her previous life?