WebNovels

Chapter 6 - Chapter 6: The Vanishing Act (Final Chapter)

Eve's mind was a whirlwind of logistics and deceit. The clock was ticking. King Arthur's proposal would arrive on the same morning as Mary's return, creating the perfect political cover for her disappearance.

"If I make it look like a sacrifice—a payment to the demon or whatever power returned their Mary—no one will try too hard to find me, right?" she whispered to the flickering candle, the wax illuminating the cruel calculus of her plan.

The next day, Eve was a different person. She walked into the dining hall with a genuine, infectious smile, not a forced one. She wasn't just faking happiness; she was genuinely thrilled to be escaping her nightmare loop. Her two past lives, combined with her Morgan bloodline—a formidable blend of Magician Knight prowess and an unfathomable genius memory—had prepared her for this.

"You look happy. Why?" Leon asked, frowning at her sudden buoyancy.

Eve just shrugged playfully and continued eating, a lightness in her movements. Duchess Rosie felt a strange mix of relief and anxiety, brushing off the change as excitement for Mary's arrival.

That night, Eve performed her masterpiece at dinner. She was sociable, attentive, and even curious, peppering the family with questions about Mary.

"You... what happened to you?" Luke finally asked, his confusion evident.

Eve tilted her head, her smile wide. "Hmm. I keep having good dreams these days. Maybe because Mary will be back. Ah, but… I'm kind of scared a bit, hehe..."

"Scared?" Luke pressed.

Eve lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I found an old book. It said that sometimes twins are better kept apart, or else one could disappear, or like that... But since Mary arrives tomorrow, there's no way it's real, right?"

The lie was deliberately stupid, designed to be remembered. The Duke finally looked up, his expression unreadable.

"That's just folklore," Dyroth mumbled, avoiding her unnerving gaze.

"I—I know, hahaha," Eve laughed in her mind. The warm, intimate dinner ended, leaving the Duchess with a lingering, unsettling fear—the organization she'd used to find Mary had given her similar, vague warnings.

The Silent Exit

"Everything is packed in this magical bag. The door is locked and the window. The bed is neatly made." Eve checked off her list in the dead of night.

She was a natural. Morgan blood granted her innate magical strength, and her intellect had perfected it. Before leaving, she made one final, crucial preparation: using a concealed knife, she made a shallow, clean slit on her wrist, letting a generous amount of her blood pool on the white sheets before staunching the wound with a secret, neutralizing salve.

"Random Teleportation," Eve whispered.

With a barely perceptible shimmer, she vanished. The Duke, a master sorcerer, felt the minute distortion in the magical barrier covering the mansion—a tiny ripple he mistook for a passing bird or a minor storm. A mistake he would regret for years.

Eve, relieved to have escaped the magical net, took a deep breath of pine-scented air. "I should camp out here." She swiftly raised a powerful Triple Barrier—for detection, for beasts, and for magical pursuit—before lighting a fire and falling into the deepest, most relaxing sleep of her three lives.

The Aftermath

Early the next morning, Anna, seeking a spare key to wake her mistress, collided with David. They were halted by the noise of the main doors opening. Mary had arrived.

The morning proceeded as Mary had planned: Rosie, weeping and joyous, ran to embrace her golden daughter.

"Where is Eve? She was so excited for Mary's arrival, and now she's the one who's late," the Duchess said, her happiness undercut by annoyance.

The Duke arrived moments later, just as Anna ran into the hall, her face white with terror.

"D-Duke! Lady Eve... she's gone! There is blood on her bed!"

The Duke's face froze. "I should have checked it out when I felt that last night," he muttered, teleporting immediately to Eve's room. The sight was undeniable: the blood was fresh, smeared across the white pillows.

The Duchess arrived and, unexpectedly, dissolved into genuine, heart-wrenching tears—the first time she had ever truly wept for her silver-haired daughter.

"The book!" Luke shouted, beginning a frantic search for the folklore Eve had mentioned, unaware that the book had never existed.

Mary, standing in the foyer, maintained a perfectly worried expression, though a thrill of triumph shot through her. Eve is finally gone.

The Wanderer's Smile

A thousand miles away, Eve Morgan was happily roasting a wild boar over an open fire.

"Omg... I wonder how they reacted to my precious blood on the bed," she chuckled, completely unfazed. "Anyway, where should I go?"

Skipping her way out of the dense forest, Eve began her life as a wanderer. She understood the pattern now: "I should have known that even if I ignored her, or just followed the path laid in front of me... if I was still there, in her sight, she would never let me go."

The years bled into one another. Eve explored the continent, always moving, always erasing her trace. The Morgan men searched relentlessly. The fleeting, happy memory of Eve's last free laugh had burned itself into their minds, fueling their guilt and their regret.

King Arthur, feeling abandoned, used his own resources to aid the Duke, but Eve was too good. She was the best at vanishing, because she was running from herself, from her fate.

Then came the news: her father, the powerful Duke Morgan, was neglecting his duties, visibly aging, still searching.

One rainy twilight, Eve, cloaked and hooded, felt a pull. She approached the edge of the capital, where the Duke was overseeing a small search party.

"Father?"

Duke Morgan spun around, his eyes wide. "Eve... is that you? If it is you... please come back home."

Eve's heart twisted. The threat of the Demon Invasion was growing—a threat more terrible than Mary's schemes. She smiled, a profound, serene expression that held all the sorrow and all the love she had denied herself. It was the smile of a woman finally at peace with her choices.

"I will come back home, but not yet."

She vanished once more. Her four brothers, who had rushed to their father's side, had all seen her: beautiful, capable, and free.

The Duke stood tall again, a new resolve hardening his face. "She said not yet. I will be waiting." He returned to his duties, finally knowing she was alive.

Eve Morgan, now wrapped in the black cloak of a seasoned traveler, whispered to the empty air: "In the end, I still love them." And then, she continued her journey, not running from Mary anymore, but running towards the rising threat of the Demon Invasion, ready to use her third life to save the world she had twice lost.

More Chapters