"Ah..."

At Yujin's words, Alicia blankly stared at him. And then...

Drip, drop.

"Huh, w-what...?"

Tears began to fall from her remaining eye, streaming down her cheek and gathering at her chin before dripping down.

"I... I'm sorry. I don't know why this is happening all of a sudden..."

Though Alicia tried to wipe away the tears, they wouldn’t stop.@@novelbin@@

"Ugh... hic..."

As if the accumulated hardships she had endured were surfacing all at once, she finally broke down and cried. Watching her, Yujin came to a renewed realization.

'You’ve been struggling all this time.'

Alicia was in an extremely unstable mental state. Yujin had known this from the start.

From the very first time they met, when she had seen Enkeos—more precisely, the artifact Yujin was carrying—and broke down crying as if she had shattered completely, it had been impossible not to notice.

At the time of their contract, Yujin had avoided offering help unconditionally. After all, it would have been difficult to gain even a little trust that way, and it wasn’t as if he had any obligation to help her for free. So, he had proposed what sounded like a demonic contract. But in truth, the agreement was nothing more than a symbolic promise, without any binding force. Yujin hadn’t even used any authoritative language in sealing it.

In reality, his intention was purely to help a student as an educator. Still, he couldn’t help but think—should he have said these words to her earlier?

'She’s more unstable than I thought.'

Yujin had no way of knowing what kind of struggles Alicia had endured. He didn’t know what battles she had fought within herself or how she had resisted the magi that crept in, threatening to consume her every moment.

That was why, after their first encounter, when she appeared more composed than expected during their subsequent conversations, he had forgotten for a moment that she was far from okay.

"I'm sorry."

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