The moonlight slipped through the thin inn window, spilling across the room and settling gently over the girl's face.
It made her look almost unreal—pale skin washed in silver, damp strands of hair clinging to her cheeks, and eyes that now held something unmistakable.
Life.
Not the hollow, unfocused gaze she had before.
She was seeing.
Light's fingers tightened slightly at the realization.
"But… how?" he muttered aloud.
The words broke the fragile quiet of the room.
The girl blinked, as though pulled back from somewhere far away.
"E—eh…?" she let out weakly, shoulders twitching in surprise.
Her lips parted as if to respond properly, but the thought didn't come cleanly. It scattered halfway, like her mind was still struggling to organize itself.
"You… Twilight?" she asked slowly, voice thin and uncertain. "Y-you were there…?"
Her eyes searched his face now with growing unease.
"And… I was there too… with you and Eu… Euphy…"
Her breath hitched slightly as the name surfaced.
"…Euphy…"
She looked away from him abruptly, scanning the small room as if expecting to find someone else sitting in the corner.
"No…" she whispered. "Was she… real?"
That question landed heavier than anything else she had said.
Light's expression tightened.
"What do you mean, 'was she real'?" he asked. "And how do you know that name?"
The girl flinched slightly at his tone, shrinking into herself.
"I—I saw it…" she said, but the words came out broken, uneven. Her throat seemed dry, forcing her to pause between phrases. "I… I remember…"
She pressed a trembling hand to her temple.
Her brows knitted as she fought through the fog in her mind.
"It was hard…" she continued, voice barely above a whisper. "Very hard…"
A shaky breath escaped her.
"Looking for food every day… not knowing if we would eat…"
Her ruby eyes lifted briefly toward him, unfocused but earnest.
"But… it was also…" she hesitated, lips trembling faintly. "It was… fun. The most fun I ever had…"
A faint, fragile smile touched her face—like it hurt to form.
Light watched her carefully, analyzing every word.
She didn't see my full life… just something shared.
That much was already clear.
"It was you and Euphy… but also me," she continued slowly, piecing it together as she spoke. "The three of us…"
Her voice softened.
"The town wasn't very big. Just a small place surrounded by fields and forests. Most people spent their entire lives there."
She swallowed.
"There wasn't much work… and even less for children…"
A faint, tired exhale.
"Especially children like us…"
A weak laugh slipped out, almost airless.
"You were always… making plans," she said, eyes drifting toward him. "Bad ones…"
Her lips curved slightly.
"You once spent an entire afternoon trying to convince us that we could become rich by collecting shiny rocks from the river and selling them as magical gemstones."
A pause.
"No one bought them…"
Another pause.
"Though you did manage to convince Euphy they were real."
Her gaze softened further.
"She carried those stones for weeks…"
The memory seemed to drain what little strength she had, her shoulders sagging slightly.
"She tried so hard to help…" she murmured. "Even when she couldn't…"
A pause.
"She hated… being useless…"
Silence lingered for a moment.
Then her voice dropped lower.
"You never let anyone mock her…"
A faint tightening of her expression.
"Not even me…"
She glanced down at her hands.
"You acted strong" she said quietly. "But everything… was for her…"
"Every coin…"
"Every skipped meal…"
"Every fight…"
A breath.
"It was always Euphy…"
Her expression dimmed slightly.
"There were nights… when there wasn't enough food…"
Her voice faltered.
"You… always gave it to her…"
"And said you weren't hungry…"
A small, almost broken laugh escaped her.
"You thought we didn't notice…"
Her arms drew in closer to her body, as if she were cold.
"But Euphy… she knew."
"She always split it anyway… into three pieces…"
Her eyes softened again.
"That's how it was…"
"You protecting Euphy…"
"Euphy worrying about you"
"And me…" she hesitated, then gave a faint, tired smile, "trying to stop both of you from doing something stupid…"
A pause.
"We weren't strong…"
"We weren't anything special…"
"Just hungry… tired… scared…"
Her voice grew quieter.
"But when something happened…"
"We stayed together…"
"Winter nights… we shared the same blanket…"
"When someone got sick… the other two stayed awake…"
"When someone cried…"
Her lips parted slightly.
"The others… pretended not to notice… until they were ready…"
She turned her gaze toward the window.
"It was hard…"
"There were days I thought we wouldn't make it."
Her fingers curled faintly.
"But then…"
A faint smile returned—thin, fragile.
"You'd be arguing with someone twice your size…"
"Or Euphy would show us a flower… growing through stones…"
Her voice slowed.
"Or Euphy…"
She stopped.
Silence swallowed the room.
"…Euphy got sick."
Nothing followed that sentence.
Only the weight of it remained.
Light moved without thinking.
His hand came to rest gently on her shoulder.
"I see," he said quietly.
The girl didn't move away.
It seemed she wasn't fully in the present anymore—still caught somewhere between fragments of memory and reality.
'So she experienced it too' He thought.
Not as a passive observer like him.
But as someone who had lived inside it.
A shared existence.
A shared past.
And that realization made the connection between them feel far more binding than before.
He exhaled slowly.
"You experienced some of my worst years," he said, trying to soften the air between them. "So I'll answer your question."
The room felt wrong.
Too quiet. Too close.
The girl he had met at the auction house—cold, distant, unreadable—was gone.
In her place was someone the same girl he had seen grow up, through her very own memories.
They were connected now.
By his blessing.
There was no easy way out of it.
"Yes," Light said finally. "Euphy is real."
A pause.
"She's alive. Healthy."
His jaw tightened slightly.
"She did get sick… badly, for a while."
A brief shadow crossed his expression.
"But she recovered."
He forced the next words out more steadily.
"In a few days… we'll be back home. You'll see her."
The girl's head snapped up slightly.
"R-really…?" she asked.
Her voice cracked in the middle, weak from exhaustion, but something bright flickered behind it.
She leaned forward too quickly, as if forgetting her own frailty.
"Really… Euphy… alive…?"
Light gently pushed her back before she could topple into him.
"Yes. Yes. She's fine."
"Now stop leaning so close."
"Oh…" she murmured, blinking rapidly. "Sorry…"
She scooted back, unsteady.
Then, almost immediately—
Her expression broke.
Tears welled up again, but this time they didn't fall.
Because something interrupted them.
A soft, shimmering light began to wrap around her body.
It wasn't aggressive.
Not painful.
It was… stabilizing.
Like something within her had been corrected.
Her breathing steadied.
Her trembling eased.
Even her tearful expression softened into something calmer, almost blank in surprise.
"What…?" she whispered. "What is… this…?"
Light's eyes narrowed.
"Hey," he said sharply, trying to push himself upright. "What just happened to you?"
"I don't—kn—"
Her words cut off.
A familiar warmth rose in Light's vision.
Then—
Translucent boxes unfolded in front of him again.
But this time, they weren't close.
They hovered farther away closer to the girl
[Miracle Arts Activation Complete]
The girl tilted her head slightly, squinting at the air.
"…Miracle… Arts…?" she repeated slowly.
Her pronunciation was broken, unsteady—but she had clearly read it.
Light noticed immediately.
She can see them too now.
Before he could process it further—
A sudden emptiness hit him.
His strength vanished.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
"—!"
His body dropped forward, catching himself against the floor before fully collapsing.
Breathing heavier now, he forced himself back upright against the wall, arms trembling.
"What… is this…" he muttered.
His muscles refused to respond properly.
Across from him, the girl stared blankly at the floating panels.
Then more text unfolded.
[Name: ???]
[Blessing: Warfare {New - Read Description}]
[Brilliance: Mediocre - (0/1000)]
[Mana: (400/400)
[Title: ???]
[Miracle Arts: Hand-to-Hand Combat | Soul bound {New} | Mana sense {New}]
A final line appeared beneath it.
[Twilight's soul has been bound with your own. New Miracle Arts acquired.]
Silence filled the room.