Chapter 216: I’m Sorry
"I’m sorry."
"..."
"You are what?"
Braham stared with wide eyes at Anastasia, who was looking at the floor while apologizing to him.
’Did she lose her mind? Shit! I knew something bad would happen from visiting that anomaly!’
Panicking, Braham held his head with both hands: "My princess... I failed you again—"
Before he could continue his sentence, Anastasia held one of his hands with her own trembling hand, opened his palm, and placed a syringe on it.
As he looked at the syringe with confusion, Ana said: "First, use this. The radiation in your body is getting closer to the red zone."
"Wait, where did you get it from?!"
"That’s the cure you had given to me a while ago." Anastasia answered honestly: "Look at my collar. The radiation in my body is so little, and this is what remained of the cure after using it. Please inject yourself with it. You need it more than me."
"Huh? But I have one in my closet—"
"You need it more than me!"
Braham narrowed his eyes, staring suspiciously at the cure.
"I thought you would like to give it to the other prisoners behind my back." Braham whispered, ensuring that no one would hear him other than Anastasia herself.
Anastasia coughed awkwardly, but didn’t deny what he said. She had done that several times.
’Something is wrong.’
Anastasia suddenly apologized.
She gave him the cure instead of giving it to strangers.
And...
’Wait, did she just touch me directly?!’ Braham’s eyes widened at the realization.
Anastasia... she touched his hand to open it.
With her bare hands!
Braham stared at her hand, seeing her rubbing her fingers against each other and against her palm.
She was certainly uncomfortable with the touch... but she did it.
"Ana... are you possessed?" Braham asked with a forced smile, his breath uneven.
There was something wrong!
"No, I’m not..." Anastasia responded and bit her lower lip: "I just decided to care more about myself... I-I want to focus on helping you and myself before thinking about the others. I’m sorry for not listening to you—"
BAM!
The sound of something heavy falling onto the floor interrupted Anastasia and Braham. Looking at the source of the sound, they saw Kael staring at Ana with his mouth wide open.
And apparently, his chainsaw had slipped and fallen onto the floor.
"Sorry, I think I just misheard something." Kael grabbed the chainsaw off the floor and rested it over his shoulder before waving his hand to them: "You can continue. Don’t mind me."
"..."
Braham and Anastasia awkwardly looked at each other, then Braham dug deep into his ears and asked: "I think I have the same problem. Can you repeat what you said? A beast screamed at us so loudly that it made our ears bleed, so our hearing might be a bit bad now."
Anastasia nodded: "I said that I want to care more about you and myself... and I’m ready to accept your offer... the one about living in the same cell as you and Kael—"
BAM!
Once again, they were interrupted by the same sound.
Kael’s mouth was even wider than before. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly, trying to confirm if the person he was looking at was truly Anastasia or a doppelganger.
"BRAHAM! YOUR PRINCESS IS DEAD! The one standing before you must be A GHOST!!"
And Braham... he wasn’t any better.
"Kael! I think I’m dead... I’m DEAD! This is the afterlife, right? I won’t see my wife and daughter again..." Braham fell to his knees and pulled his hair aggressively, almost tearing it apart.
"..."
Anastasia stared with a deadpan expression at the mad men before her, one thinking he was dead, and the other thinking that Anastasia herself was dead while looking at her with terror in his eyes.
...Did she say something wrong?
’I think it was too sudden.’ Anastasia sighed, understanding their confusion.
Caring about him and herself more than the others was against the Charity Bloodline. They definitely couldn’t believe that she’d say such a thing after not seeing her for a few hours.
Adding to that the fact that she didn’t say meaningless words. She actually used actions by giving the syringe to Braham...
What they didn’t know was that she was now facing intense guilt.
Anastasia couldn’t help but glance at a giant who was sitting in a corner, hugging his knees with a depressing face.
He had begged her for the cure... and she refused.
And now, he was in debt. His life was completely ruined. And she could have prevented that from happening.
Yet she didn’t. She watched as the guards cured him and declared that he had to pay his debt if he didn’t want them to increase it.
’Is that... a sin?’
She could have saved a person, yet she didn’t. Was that considered a sin?
’Yes, it is.’
She rejected the idea of giving Braham’s hard-earned cure to a stranger. That didn’t follow the teaching of the Virtue of Charity, instead, it followed the path of Sin of Sloth.
Her only source of solace was the fact that the giant wasn’t really a great person. He had stolen the minerals of the other prisoners before.
Maybe... just maybe... she had saved several people by her actions...
The giant would start risking his life in the mines in an attempt to avoid punishment. He might have to face the wrong people or end up facing monsters.
If he died... that would prevent him from attacking the struggling prisoners. Maybe she truly did the right thing.
She was a sinner, but her sin might have resulted in a good outcome.
"I AM A SINNER!"
Braham’s voice interrupted Anastasia’s thoughts. Then he murmured: "Oh my beautiful precious wife... we promised to die together, yet I betrayed you and died first. I’m worse than demons."
"Braham, you and I are alive." Anastasia crouched before Braham and cut him off: "Let’s go and ask them to let me into your cell. I’ll explain everything to you there."
"In short... the anomaly convinced me to spend more time trying to recover—"
BAM!
"..."
Kael dropped his chainsaw for the third time, getting furious gazes from the annoyed prisoners.
"Yeah... your princess was turned into a lunatic by the anomaly."
"Maybe we should just tell the guards to behead her."