(Volume 4 Chapter 5: Cruelty I) (Volume 4 Chapter 6: Cruelty II)

A week had passed.

Seven days of rain, wind, and the relentless, uncaring sun.

Yuisa did not move.

She sat on the Path for the Broken, her white dress now a part of the earth itself.

She didn't beg.
She didn't knock.
She didn't even look at the house anymore.

She just stared at the horizon with eyes that had seen the end of her own world.

But she wasn't dying.

Through the secret lessons with the maid, Yuisa had mastered Silent Healing.

Every time her fever threatened to consume her, she simply closed her eyes and thought the life back into her veins.

She kept herself alive—not because she wanted to live, but because she believed she had to stay in the place she "belonged."

She was a ghost that refused to leave the graveyard.

Inside the mansion, the silence was no longer "peaceful."

it was a heavy, suffocating weight.

Shin hadn't slept properly in a week.

Every night, he found himself drawn to the window, pulling back the heavy velvet curtains just enough to see the small, white figure sitting by the road.

Shin’s Thought: (Why?
Why is she still there?!
It’s been a week!
No food, no shelter, just the cold.
Why won't she just leave?!
Go to some other place i know she has no place but still find some place...
Go to a hospital!
Just get out of my sight! Tsk.)

He watched the way the rain hit her skin and turned to steam.

He watched the way she never shifted her weight, never shivered, never cried.
She was a statue of his own cruelty, and she was refusing to crumble.

Shin: (She’s doing this to mock me.

She’s staying there so I have to look at her every time I leave for work.
She wants me to feel guilty.
Aaagghhh!!
Well, it won't work! Stay there until you turn to stone for all I care!)

One day later at night:

Like always, shin look out of window to see yuisa but this time the place was empty where she sat...

Shin: (So, finally she leave that place i know
She is going to some place, but which?
Her relative, father, husband who is me has abdone her so where would she move to?
Oh, whatever i just go to sleep for now...)

Shin couldn't sleep...

When sun had four hours left to arrive shin step out of house for buy a drink and walk~~~or was this only his thinking...

The mansion was a tomb. For seven days, the "Silence" had been a scream Shin couldn't mute.

He stared at the empty patch of mud where she used to sit, and for the first time in years, fear—cold, sharp, and jagged—pierced his chest.

Shin: (Tsk.
She’s gone.
Finally.
She’s probably at a hospital or... or on streets.
Yeah.
She’s fine.
I’m going to sleep.)

But his body wouldn't obey.
His skin felt like it was crawling.
He walked out into the four-o'clock darkness, the air biting and cruel.
He found himself at a vending machine, his hands moving on autopilot.

CLINK.
CLINK.

Two hot teas.
One for him.
One for...

Shin: (Why did I buy two?
Aaagghhh!!
I’m just stressed.
I’ll just walk.
I’ll walk the path she took.
Just to see where the trash drifted to.)

Two men, smelling of cheap beer and malice, were leaning against a wall.

Man A: (Did you see her?
The mute one?
God, she’s sick but she’s cute.
Boss is gonna have his way with her in the alley.)

Man B: (Yeah, he’s gonna take advantage of that silence.
She can’t even scream!
After he’s done, it’s my turn.
I’m gonna fu—)

The air around them turned into liquid lead.
The shadows at their feet rose up like claws.
Shin stood behind them, his face a mask of demonic, vibrating stillness.
His eyes weren't human anymore; they were black holes of cosmic rage.

Shin: (Where.)

The men turned, their hearts nearly stopping.

They pointed toward the abandoned warehouse district, their voices trembling.
"The... the old garage!
Please! Don't—"

Shin didn't let them finish.
He grabbed their skulls, his fingers sinking into the bone. CRACK.

With a surge of his power, he didn't just wipe their memories—he burned them away until their minds were blank slates of static.

He left them drooling on the pavement and vanished into a blur of speed.

Shin burst through the rusted doors.
The smell of oil and rot was overwhelming.
In the center of the room, under a single flickering bulb, two men were closing in on a small, white figure huddled against a crate.

Yuisa.

She was trembling—sh-sh-sh—her fever making her skin look like glowing porcelain.
One man reached out, his hand inches from her chest.
Yuisa raised her hand, her fingers twitching to make a sign—a plea, a "Please stop"—but then, she froze.

Her eyes, dead and hollow, looked at her own fingers.

“If you ever used sign language... I’ll cut them off.”

She dropped her hands.
She closed her eyes.
She gave up.
She didn't fight.
She didn't pray.

She simply waited for the next nightmare to begin because her "husband" had taught her that she was worth nothing more than this.

Shin: (GRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!)

Shin moved like a thunderbolt.

He landed a punch so violent the first man’s jaw disintegrated instantly.
CRUNCH.

He grabbed the second one and slammed him into the concrete floor again and again until the floor cracked.
"Sob... ah... aaaaagggghhh!"

Shin wasn't just fighting them; he was fighting the image of himself.

The men lay broken and mindless in the dirt.
Shin turned to Yuisa.
She didn't look at him with relief.
She didn't smile.
She didn't even recognize him.

Her body finally gave out under the weight of the week-long fever and the terror.

She collapsed, her head hitting the oil-stained floor.

Shin: (Yuisa?
Wake up!)

He picked her up.

She felt like a bird made of ice—weightless, fragile, and freezing.

He hoisted her onto his back, her limp arms hanging over his shoulders.

As he walked back toward the mansion in the pre-dawn gray, her head rested against his neck.

Her skin was burning, but her breath was a faint, wet rattle.
"Hff... hff... ugh..."

Shin’s Thought: (What am I doing?
Why am I bringing her back?
She’s still sick. She’s still mute. She’s still a burden.
But... Fuck.
The house was too quiet.
The silence was killing me.
I’ll keep her in the basement.
I’ll keep her in the guest room.
Just... stay alive.
Don't die yet, you stupid girl.)

He gripped her legs tighter as he walked, his knuckles white.

He was a man carrying his broken treasure, still refusing to admit that he love the treasure...

The walk back to the mansion felt like an eternity. Yuisa’s body was a limp, burning weight against Shin’s back.

Every time her shallow breath—"hff... ugh... h-huuu"—brushed against his neck, a jagged bolt of electricity shot through his spine.

He stepped onto the marble floors of the mansion, ignoring the horrified gasps of the servants.

He didn't go to the guest room.
He didn't go to the basement.

He carried her into the Master Bedroom.

He laid her on the silk sheets—the very sheets she had sat on while he played those loud, cruel recordings to break her.

He pulled the heavy duvet over her shivering frame, tucking it around her chin with hands that were suddenly, terrifyingly gentle.

Shin: (Tsk.
Stay alive.
I'm only doing this because the house is too quiet.
That’s all. Just... stay.)

He sat on the edge of the bed.

For the first time in their marriage, he reached out and took her hand.

Her fingers were small, blistered from the laundry and the gravel, but they were incredibly soft.

Shin’s Thought: (What is this?
Her hand... it’s so warm.
It’s so small.
Why is my chest tightening?
I loved Yurina... I loved Elwin... but this feeling...
it’s like my very atoms are being rearranged.
I want her.
I want to keep her here, locked away from the world, where no one can ever touch her again.
I feel... safe.
Aaagghhh... sob...
Why do I feel safe with the girl I tried to suffer?)

For the first time since his birth, the heart inside Shin went quiet.

He leaned his head against the mattress and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, his fingers still locked with hers.

The sun rose, hitting the gold trim of the room.

Shin’s eyes snapped open.

He reached for her hand—but the bed was cold. Empty.

Shin: (YUISA?!)

He lunged out of bed, sprinting into the hallway.

He grabbed the maid by the shoulders, his grip nearly bruising her.

Shin: (Where is she?!
Where is the girl?!)

Maid: (I... I don't know, Mr. Shin!
She woke up an hour ago and just... walked out.
She didn't take anything.
She didn't sign.
She just left!)

Shin didn't wait.
He didn't put on shoes.
He ran out into the city.
He searched the mansion grounds, the office, the hospitals, the dark alleys where he had saved her.
Morning turned to afternoon.
Afternoon turned to a bloody, bruised sunset.

Shin’s Thought: (If I don’t find her... I’ll die.
The air in the house is poison without her.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
I destroyed her, and now she’s taken the pieces of me with her.
Please... please let me find her.
I’ll do anything!)

Twenty minutes before the next sunrise, Shin’s legs were shaking with exhaustion.

He found himself standing in front of the same vending machine where he had bought the two teas.

And there she was.

Yuisa was sitting on the cold concrete, huddled against the machine for warmth.

In her hands, she clutched a single, cold cup of hot tea—the very one Shin had bought for her the night before.
She hadn't finished it.
She was just holding it, as if it were the only proof that she existed.

Shin: (WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?!)

His voice cracked, a sob breaking through the shout.

He ran toward her, tears streaming down his face, his pride completely shattered.

Shin: (I’ve been looking for you for twenty hours!
I was about to die myself!
Aaahhh!
Sob...)

Yuisa slowly, painfully lifted her head.
Her eyes weren't warm anymore.
They weren't hopeful.
They were dead.
They were the eyes of a person who had already stepped into the grave and was simply waiting for the dirt to be thrown on top.

She looked at him with no recognition, no love, no fear. Just... nothing.

Shin: (...Yuisa?)

The sight of her "dead" eyes hit him harder than any cosmic explosion.

He realized that while he was "saving" her body, he had successfully murdered her heart.

He didn't scream this time.
He didn't curse.
He slowly took off his heavy designer jacket and draped it over her frail, shivering shoulders.
He sank to his knees in the dirt, right there in front of the vending machine.

He grabbed her small, freezing hand and pulled it toward his chest, pressing it against his heart so she could feel the frantic, pathetic rhythm of a man who realized he loved her too late.

Shin: (It’s so cold...
you’re so cold...
Sob...
aaaggghhh...)

He began to rub her hand, trying to friction-heat the life back into her, but Yuisa didn't move.
She didn't squeeze back.
She just sat there, wrapped in his jacket, staring at the gray sky as the sun began to rise on a world that had become a graveyard for both of them.

Shin’s forehead pressed against Yuisa’s freezing knuckles.

His shoulders shook with a violent, rhythmic sob—"Aaaggghhh... h-huuu... sob..."
He felt the pathetic, frantic thumping of his own heart against her palm.

Shin: (I know I am late...
I know I am so incredibly late.
But hear me, Yuisa! I love you! I love you! I LOVE YOU!!)

The words weren't whispered; they were a roar of desperation that echoed off the cold metal of the vending machine.
For a second, the world stayed silent.

Then, it happened.

The "Dead" look in Yuisa's eyes—the hollow, gray void—shattered like glass.

A deep, warm hazel color flooded back into her irises.
Her pale, translucent skin suddenly turned a deep, fiery crimson.
Her heart, which had been a slow, dying beat, suddenly hammered against her ribs—thump-thump, thump-thump!

Shin: (I love your eyes!
I love the way you smile even when I was a monster!
I love your hair, your face, the way you cry!
I can't even say it all... I... I...!)

Suddenly, a small, trembling hand—scarred from the hot coffee and the gravel—pressed against Shin’s lips.

It was soft, smelling of rain and the faint scent of tea. Shin’s voice died in his throat.

He looked up, his eyes wide and bloodshot, to see Yuisa’s face glowing with a blush so intense it looked like a sunset.

Yuisa (Sign Language): (Don't say it so loud...
it’s so embarrassing,
Mr. Shin.)

Shin: (Umm... sorry. I....)

Shin’s own face turned a matching shade of red.

He bowed his head, his heart racing so fast he thought his ribs might snap.
"What is happening to me?
My chest... it feels like it's going to explode!"

Yuisa reached out and touched his cheek, her eyes soft but filled with the weight of her past.

Yuisa (Sign Language): (Mr. Shin... before you say anything else... please.
You must hear everything about the girl you say you love.
Hear my truth first.)

Shin nodded, his grip on her hand tightening as if he were afraid she would evaporate.

Yuisa (Sign Language): (I was born a disappointment.
My parents saw a mute girl, a sick girl, and they saw a debt they didn't want to pay.
For four years, a maid cared for me... until even she called me a burden and walked away.
My father dragged me to school only so I could read his business papers.
The other children... they didn't see a person.
They saw a target.
They called me 'Rot,' they called me 'Trash.'
I spent my life locked in a dark room, or being hunted in the hallways.)

Shin’s jaw tightened.
A low, demonic growl started in his throat, but Yuisa’s touch silenced him.

Yuisa (Sign Language): (I never dreamed of a prince.
I knew my place.
I was a burden to be sold.
When I was married to you, I kept my eyes on the floor because I didn't want to see the hate in your eyes.
But when you spoke to me... even when you were cruel... it was the first time I felt real.
My father... he didn't just throw me out.
He used his belt.
He cut my skin apart three times a day just to release his anger, not only that he even throw me in washing machine and then start it , torture me with some tools and then used healing magic to recover me so he could do it again the next morning.)

Yuisa (Sign Language): (Compared to my father...
you were the best thing that ever happened to me.
You let me wash your clothes.
You let me stay in your house.
So now... now that you know I am truly just a broken thing that was beaten into submission... you can decide.
Choose me... or reject me forever.)

The silence that followed was more powerful than any explosion.
Shin felt the "Lead Wall" around his heart turn into dust.
He thought of the ice room.
He thought of the burnt food.
He realized that while he thought he was being a "monster," he was actually the only "mercy" she had ever known—and that realization broke him completely.

Shin: (Ugh...
sob...
aaaaagggghhh!!)

He didn't speak.
He simply lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her shoulder.

He held her with a strength that said I will never let go.

He cried into her hair, his tears soaking into his own designer jacket that she was still wearing.

Shin’s Thought: (She thinks I was kind?!
She thinks the ice and the mud were 'better' than her life?!
My God... what have I done to this girl?
I don't want to choose... I want to serve.
I want to spend every second of my life making sure she never feels like 'trash' again.)

Shin’s forehead pressed against Yuisa’s.

The heat from his feverish skin met the cooling warmth of her healing touch.

He closed his eyes, his voice trembling like a child’s.

Shin: (My answer will always be yes.
I choose you.
I will choose you in every life, in every timeline, until the stars burn out.
But... you should know who I really am.
My life... it isn't a story of a ordinaary man.
It’s a story of a coward.
Do you still want to see?)

Yuisa didn't hesitate.
She nodded, her eyes shining with a "beautitful" clarity that saw through his leaden mask.

Shin: (I have never shared this with anyone.
Not the Butler, not Yurina... no one.
Only you.
Because I love you the most.)

He surged his power—not to destroy, but to connect.

Suddenly, Yuisa wasn't sitting at a vending machine anymore.
She was inside his head.

She saw shin born in somoko family and then murders of his family mother, ,maid, butler, butler nephew and then his summon into this world not as hero but as a victim only to be suffered by someone who look exactly just like his mother , he admired some girls and thought he love them but after some time they died or replaced...

All of memories inside shin head she felt and saw it...

She felt the jealousy, the rage, and the terrifying loneliness of a man who thought he had to be a monster to survive.

She saw the "Ice Room" from his perspective—the way he hated himself every time he turned the key.

Shin: (Now you know.
I’m not a prince.
I’m the villain)

Yuisa looked at him.
She didn't look away.
Instead, a soft, radiant smile spread across her face—the kind of smile that could heal a dying universe.
Her hands moved with a grace that felt divine.

Yuisa (Sign Language): (Yes. I would be happy to live with you, Mr. Shin.
After knowing the pain you carried in the dark... after seeing how lonely you were behind that high wall...
I have come to love you even more.)

Shin: (Aaagghhh...
sob...
h-huuu!)

Shin collapsed into her arms, his head buried in her neck.
He wasn't the CEO of Somoko anymore. He was just a man who had finally been "found."
They hugged in the dirt, their tears mixing with the morning dew, two outcasts finding a home in each other’s heartbeat.

The sun finally crested over the horizon, painting the sky in violent streaks of orange, pink, and gold.

The "Graveyard of Ice" was melting. The light hit the "Path for the Broken," turning the gravel into shimmering jewels.

They sat there for a long time, watching the world wake up.

The silence was no longer heavy; it was peaceful.

Yuisa’s head began to heavy on Shin’s shoulder.

The week of suffering, the fever, and the emotional explosion had finally exhausted her.

Her eyes fluttered shut, a tiny, content sigh escaping her lips.
"Hff... mmm..."

She fell asleep in the arms of the man who had thrown her out, knowing she would wake up in the arms of the man who would never let her go again.

Shin stood up, moving with a gentleness he didn't know he possessed.
He tucked his heavy jacket around her one last time and lifted her into his arms, bridal style.

He didn't use his powers to teleport.
He wanted to feel every step.
He wanted to feel the weight of her—the "girl" he had almost crushed.

As he walked toward the mansion,
he looked down at her sleeping face, her skin finally regaining its natural glow.

Shin’s Thought: (I’m going to change everything.
The guest room is gone.
The lead wall is gone.
I’m going to build a world where she never has to sign 'I'm sorry' ever again.
I’ll be her voice... and she’ll be my soul.)

He walked past the gate where she had sat for a week.
He didn't look at the mud.
He only looked at her.

And then after arrivng home she lay her on the bed and sleep next to her hug her behind gently...

The first morning after the "Vending Machine Confession" was the only time the mansion felt like a home.

Shin had carried her into the master bedroom, laying her down as if she were made of spun glass.

He didn't leave.

He stayed, sleeping behind her, his arm draped gently over her waist, his chest pressed against her back—the most intimate, safe contact they had ever shared.

When his eyes opened at dawn, the bed was cold.

Shin: (YUISA?!)

He lunged out of bed, his heart hammering in his throat.

He ran through the hallways, his breathing ragged.
Not again.
Please, not again!

He checked the guest room, the laundry, even the front gate.

Finally, he burst into the kitchen.

There she was.

She wasn't on the floor.

She wasn't shivering.

She was standing at the stove, the soft morning light catching the steam from the tea she was brewing.

Shin didn't say a word; he simply crashed into her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and burying his face in the crook of her neck.

He held her so tight he could feel her heartbeat through her skin.

For that one moment, the world was perfect.

"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!"

The scream tore through the nothingness,

The White Void and the crushing weight of memory.

Shin’s knees on the invisible floor with a bone-jarring crack.

looking at his hands—the same hands that had held her in the kitchen, and the same hands that had thrown her into the ice for three months.

The guilt was no longer a shadow; it was a physical weight, pressing down on his lungs until he could barely gasp for air.

Shin’s Thought: (It was perfect... for a moment, it was finally perfect.
But then the 'events' happened.
I want to go back.
I want to rip through time and space and stay in that kitchen forever!
But I can’t... every time I try to reach for that version of her, the void rewrites me.
It forces the 'old me' back into my head.
It poisons my memories with lies.
I am a prisoner of my own power!)

He gripped his hair, pulling until his scalp bled.
He was a God who could destroy universes, yet he was powerless to save a single morning with his wife.

Then, the "Voice" returned.

Yuisa: (...I love you... I love you... I love you...)

Yuisa: (...I love you~~~~ I love you~~~~ I love you~~~~ )

Shin: (~~~~)

Volume 4 chapter 5 & 6 ended...