BOOM!

The back of the warehouse pierced with a crashing roar. The smoke accumulating in the warehouse quickly escaped through the hole in the wall. Gray dust and blackened smoke from the shattered walls entangled together.

“Cersinia!”

Ben was the first to run after hearing the roar. He pierced through the smoke blocking his view and approached the silhouette of red hair fluttering.

“Cersinia, are you okay?”

Cersinia stood upright without a word. She glanced at the man approaching her with a slow glance.

“Are you hurt?”

Ignoring his worried words, Cersinia stood on the wall she crushed and looked around leisurely.

“Hmm.”

She threw Verne to the floor with an intriguing smile as if brushing off the dust. Without a single change in her expression, she tilted her stiff neck to the left and right and turned away.

Ben paused and hardened when the smoke cleared and the view of Cersinia came clear.

“Cersinia…?”

There was something strange. Her appearance was Cersinia, but somehow the aura and atmosphere were different. His whole body shivered at the fore aura felt deep in her body.

“Are… you okay?”

Her eyes slowly turned to him.

“…”

“…”

The two’s eyes met. Ben’s eyes shook violently. He couldn’t call her name, even though her name was on the tip of his tongue. It was because Cersinia’s eyes were a different color than usual. The warmth from them was nowhere, and her blood-red eyes flashed terrifyingly.

‘How should I express this feeling? As if she were not her?’

“I’m okay.”

She said with a smirk. The corners of her mouth were raised, but her eyes didn’t smile. Goosebumps sprang up in his spine. She didn’t look like Cersinia whom Ben knows all the time. In an instant, the voice he had heard before resonated in his head.

“Ben. Sometimes I feel like I’m not myself.”

After her confession-like words, she added more words.

“It’s not the ‘me’ you know. Even in the same body, I’m a completely different person with that.”

‘A completely different person even though they are in the same body. Why do the words of that time come to my mind now?’

He stared at her with a complex face and opened his eyes wide. Red heat was emanating from her body. Cersinia was bursting with heat and smiling about what was so funny.

“Your Excellency, are you okay?”

“Don’t let anyone come!”

When Ben heard the sound of Archen and servants approaching, he hurriedly shouted at them.

“I’ll take care of this place, so please put out the fire first!”

He stopped the approaching people from coming. There’s no way he could show Cersinia to anyone now. The sound of rushing footsteps was heard again.

Ben looked at her quietly. Facial expressions, actions, and even releasing the power that has never been revealed in front of people. There was nothing that resembled Cersinia he knew. His eyes, which were shaking, quickly became cold. That woman was not the Cersinia he knew.

“…Who are you?”

His merciless voice separated the two. Cersinia answered with a mysterious smile as to whether his question was interesting.

“Ben, it’s me.”

He flinched at the familiar voice. The person standing in front of him had Cersinia’s face, voice, and anything else. But a feeling of rejection rose from the depths of his heart and told him that woman is not Cersinia.

“Where is she?”

“Hmm, I got caught?”

The voice sounded so sharp and creepy enough to make his head stand up.

“What have you done to her?”

He didn’t take a single step back.

“I don’t know.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed.

The ambiguous answer chilled Ben’s heart. He was afraid that he could no longer meet Cersinia. Ben crumpled his face while chewing his lips hard. He had no idea what to do with this situation now. He had to replace and save the missing Cersinia. Still, he couldn’t hurt that woman because that woman possessed Cersinia’s body. His hands trembled slightly in fear.

Cersinia giggled as if the situation was funny, then sharply hardened her face and looked down at her own hands. Her hands, wrapped in the blazing heat, were shaking greatly. Her face darkened. Her stiff body, which rarely uses her power, could not withstand it because it absorbed too much heat at once.

“Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue for a short time. She was very upset with nausea feeling that she was about to vomit. Her head was dizzy as if suffering from motion sickness. She was in such a weak physical condition. It was natural because she had lived a modest life for three years. To turn all the absorbed heat into mana, she had to stay in this state for over three days. Just thinking about it made her feel annoyed and blue veins stood up on her neck.

She couldn’t do it. Spending a few days in such a weak condition was a nuisance. Then with a cold gaze, she smiled at him.

“See you again.”

“What kind of…!”

She exuded all the heat she had absorbed. The red heat headed towards the warehouse.

BOOM!

The warehouse exploded with a tremendous roar.

“Kyaaa!”

The screams of people over there pierced the sky. The walls cracked, and the shattered stones crumbled and fell with a sound. The ground rang with a huge gust of dust.

Ben was so surprised that he looked at her stiffly. He could see her standing without any agitation in the hazy smoke. It was a strange and bizarre sight that he couldn’t believe even when he saw it with his own eyes. It happened so quickly that he couldn’t even use his hands. The sounds of people wandering around resonated with his ears.

“…”

When all the heat was released, Cersinia’s eyes closed. Her staggering body leaned forward helplessly.

“Cersinia!”

Ben quickly grabbed her with both of his arms. It was after Cersinia had completely lost her consciousness.

* * *

“It’s because of me… Huhu…”

Verne shed tears endlessly. May also looked at Cersinia, lying on the bed with a gloomy face on her face.

“I think it was because she inhaled too much smoke.”

“…”

Ben didn’t respond to the doctor’s words who was examining Cersinia. Verne, who had lost consciousness, had already woken up and cried while looking at Cersinia. But Cersinia had already closed her eyes for half a day, as if dead.

“But why is it only Cersinia doesn’t wake up…”

May asked out of frustration.

“We’ll have to wait a little longer.”

The doctor could only tell them to wait. Her condition was perfect for a person in the fire, so there was no way for the doctor to know why she didn’t wake up.

“Everyone, get out.”

A cold voice rang in the room. The doctor trembled at the bloody voice, then quickly packed up his belongings and left. May left the room with Verne, who cried while saying it was her fault. Only Cersinia and Ben remained in the room.

Ben was sitting in a small chair next to the bed. There were many thoughts in the eyes that sank heavily. He carefully swept and touched her hand, which was emitting heat. The back of the hand and palm were clean without any wounds. It was to the point where he couldn’t believe her hand was the hand that exuded hot heat.

The warehouse collapsed completely beyond recognition. Fortunately, there were no casualties due to the explosion, as everyone was standing outside the warehouse.

‘The woman who used her power without thinking about who would be hurt was definitely not Cersinia.’

Cersinia would have been terribly afraid of someone getting hurt because of herself. That’s why she confessed that she was afraid of hurting him. But Ben was confused. It was also because of her power that he saw for the first time. Still, the main thing that confused him was the appearance of other beings in Cersinia’s body.

‘How…’

How can two people exist in one body?

The two were as different as black and white as they were not thought to be people with the same ego.

“What should I do…?”

He wanted to help her somehow, but he had no way of knowing what to do.

“If I changed and didn’t come back to the way I was, and if I injured other people or you, grab your sword.”

What she said kept lingering in his mind. The words that he thought lightly wouldn’t happen appeared right in front of his eyes.

Anxiety surged in Ben. He buried his face deep in his hands. When Cersinia woke up, he feared that a stranger would face him again. He was afraid that Cersinia would disappear forever.

When she woke up again like this, I was afraid that a stranger would face me again.

“Come one, wake up…”

‘In Cersinia original form. Please come back as usual and make me feel at ease.’

He prayed again and again. 

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