1 What If: Hilde ending Shiyoon with her own hand

In the midst of rubbles and smokes, between ruins and remnants of what should have been called houses and buildings in the past, lies a single young boy. Bleeding profusely, he stared at the sky, unknown what may have been in his thought. 

Sound of footsteps echo loudly in the empty wasteland. A woman, with a young appearance and short stature, yet mature and cold demeanor appears right in front of the dying young boy.

The boy locked his gaze onto the suddenly-appearing woman and says: "You're finally here, Master."

"How deplorable you're looking right now, my foolish Apprentice." Mocked the woman in a cold tone suggesting she's trying to hide her emotion.

"Haha." The boy chuckled, knowing how typical it is for the woman to act like that, even on his deathbed.

"You know that I'm here to finish you right? How do you even have the audacity to laugh?" 

With both hands gripping tightly her precious twin swords, Gram and Balmung, the woman asked the boy, although she knew how it was so like him to act so frivolously even when she's about to end his life.

Knowing each other's habits so well, that it may suggest that their relationship is that close.

"Well, ever since I did that kind of thing, I never once believed that you'll spare me haha - *cough*"

"Spare your breath, I'm not asking that question for you to answer... So... any last word, my foolish one?". 

The woman raised one of her swords, pointed right at the boy's neck, with her trembling hand. Face twisted so bad that it seems like she's about to break down and just have everything reset to how it was before, the woman then continued, "before I end you personally with my own hand."

The boy averted his gaze from the woman's shaking eyes and looked right up at the starry sky above. 

"Master, you know, since the day you picked me up, I'm not sure how should I act towards you... You're my saviour, yet you're my nemesis. You're such a straightforward person, yet hiding so many secrets. You're my light, yet you're the embodiment of darkness..."

"..."

"I'd even act frivolously to prevent others from finding what's wrong about myself, and more importantly to delude myself from thinking too seriously about my own past..."

"You-"

"Master...". The boy the casted his gaze back to the woman's face, stained with tears, and lips that's bitten so hard that it bled. "Even after knowing you for so long, even when I've been observing you for the past years we've been together, even when I've been looking for clues about you, I still cannot completely understand you."

The woman dropped her swords, and faced upwards to the sky, with the darkness clouding her expression right now.

"Master... will you forgive me?" asked the boy jokingly

"I..." stuttered the woman, and looked back to the boy, only to see an expression that's been satisfied with what he's experienced in life, an expression that has embraced death itself as something welcoming, not to be afraid of.

"I've said it before, but I'll send you off with my own hands." Uttered the woman calmly, not as an answer towards the boy's question, but simply as a way to convince herself to do what she should be doing.

"Ah man... looks like I won't be able to prank Mina again haha... well, not that I can prank her without any limbs..."

"That girl...  she's in the dark about everything that's happening here."

"Yes, I know. Even though I still don't understand why you're so protective of that girl, but I'm sure you have your own reason."

"Do you-"

"No, I don't need to know about it. Master, you've been shouldering such a heavy burden, please don't add anymore regret for me when I'm about to move on haha"

"..."

"Well, Master... right now, my sight is slowly being engulfed by darkness... I don't think I have any more time... please... do what should be done."

The boy then closed his eyes, while the woman picked back up her sword. Step by step, she inched closer to the boy lying  on his back. Standing right beside him, she can feel his life leaving his body. 

She raised her sword and then stabbed it right into where his heart was, hoping to end this very nightmare as soon as possible.

"Mas...ter..."

"!"  Shocked and unsure of what she'd just heard, she quickly knelt by his side, putting her face as near as possible to his face.

"Tha...nk you... for every...thing..."

Tears stained her face that's filled with regret and pain, wishing desperately that this is all just a bad dream.

"I... love you... mom"

Just at this moment, everything went white in her vision, and she knelt down right next to the lifeless body that have just stopped breathing. She pulled that body into embrace and then whispered right next to his ear:

"I love you too, my dear family, Joo Shi Yoon."

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