Never Saved You

What was it about timing that made things work out in the end only when it’s already too late?

Ophelia went out the hallway without a lamp. There in the corridors of the stone building echoed hurried, frantic footsteps as she ran away.

With her disoriented mind covered by a fog, what happened just a moment ago played once more.

The mess where Ian had knelt down as Ophelia cried.

Ian looked up at Ophelia as though her tears were his pain. There were no signs of deceit in his gaze.

If he truly suffered from Ophelia’s tears, if he was truly touched by Ophelia’s sorrow, he should have made a move earlier.

Why did he need to wait for Ophelia to open her mouth first. Ha, ha. Unable to bear the prolonged silence, she laughed sharply.

—How on earth?

—What?

—Is there anything else I need to ask you other than ‘How on earth are you here?’

—…That’s also something I want to ask. When I opened my eyes, I was already at Ladeen. But I definitely lost you in Ronen.

Whenever he talked about her, Ophelia was overcome with the urge to cover his mouth.

If she had known this would happen, she just wouldn’t have saved him.

‘No. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to have Yennit come here.’

And no matter how much she hated Ian, it was against her nature to let him die.

She can just hand him over to someone else.

‘Just what did Ariel want?’

What did she want so much that even Ian had memories of the past?

She didn’t know what to think of anything, but there was one thing she was certain of.

‘Ian should never be involved in my plan.’

By the time Ophelia had stopped crying, she regained her senses.

But as she faced this Ian from the past, it was like a lie that she had regained her rationality. She cried and laughed once more.

“I still love you.”

Her hands and feet went cold, as though she had been hit with frigid waters.

The words of Ian who she once loved. For Ophelia, it was an ominous signal.

If she were to be captivated like this, she would only follow in the footsteps of her past.

Ophelia did not love Ian anymore. How could emotions be cut off so easily?

Hatred and resentment intertwined—this could have tied Ophelia to Ian once more.

But Ian’s own words of love could just set her towards the path of regret.

At this time, Ophelia had become cold faster than anything else.

‘I will never live that life again.’

She would never love again. She would never regard anyone else as her salvation.

That had already once been her whole life. That’s why she had been set on going to the magic tower from the beginning.

However, Ian didn’t let go of Ophelia easily.

Here, Ian held Ophelia’s hand and said.

“Even if there was someone else who saved me, to me, you are my only savior.”

Who on earth wants such a thing.

Why, what more do I have to cut off so that you’d let me go? Are you trying to tie me up like this again in this life?

She hated the way he looked and spoke as though he cherished her.

She didn’t want to see regret in his eyes. She despised the fact that he so easily spoke of a new beginning between them.

Ian’s behavior was really strange. It was almost impossible to think that he was the same person who didn’t return to the castle all day just because he didn’t want to meet her.

It’s like he truly felt a deep-seated regret that she didn’t wake up from swallowing Ariel’s scale.

‘That’s even more laughable.’

He did not want to see her face when she was alive, but now that she was dead, he was on his knees regretting it all.

This was the worst.

She almost wanted to ask. What did he feel? What change did he have after she died?

But in the end, she couldn’t ask.

If the worst case scenario she had envisioned would come out of his own lips, Ophelia wouldn’t be able to endure it. She would hit him.

But the most terrible thing was that Ian was the kind of person who wouldn’t let Ophelia go even after having been slapped by Ophelia.

She knew Ian well. After all, she had loved him and waited for him to return to her after such a long time.

Oh, how those silver eyes burned without hesitation in the face of a strange yearning.

A ship’s binnacle points towards only one direction

Otherwise, you would likely be lost at sea.

There should only be one route for everyone on the ship.

And Ian was someone who knew the laws of the sea better than anyone else.

His right-hand man, who survived the shipwreck, was the first to return to Ian’s side, and this was what he said.

That he was like the wind, one that would not be tied down anywhere.

—That’s why I always needed to watch him. I didn’t know where he’d go off to next. I knew this would happen one day.

And what he was referring to was Ophelia, about how Ian had tied himself to her.

—It’s not quite right of me to say this, but I already expected that His Grace would cause something like this one day. Before meeting Your Highness, His Grace was… how do I put this. It was like he was the embodiment of the calm before a storm.

His aide said that he had more experience at sea than Ian did.

And he knew very well how this calm before a storm brought unease—how sinister it was.

—The silence is similar to a bright, sunny day, but the wind blows differently. You can feel it brewing far away. And the most frightening thing is that you know that you are only safe for now.

This vague fear, the aide said that this was something he felt from Ian.

And how fortunate it was that he met Ophelia. He had become a calm, windless sea.

Everyone who knew Ian well said something similar.

Ian’s yearning, which had been burning aimlessly, had shifted to Ophelia.

In other words, Ian had become entirely fixated on her.

‘At that time, I laughed it off without knowing what it truly meant.’

Naïvely, she just thought that Ian’s love for her was seen in that way through other people’s eyes.

She didn’t know that, in another sense, it was a strange obsession.

Ian was that kind of person.

He was a person who could madly be fixated on one person just because she saved him.

And It wasn’t that important who it was.

So when he mistook Ophelia as his savior, he fell in love easily.

In fact, that was perhaps the same reason why he fell out of love just as effortlessly. Because it was a misunderstanding.

But then Ian, who had this mindset, had come here with all his memories of the past while telling her that he still loved her?

‘Never.’

With his judgement skewed, more than Ophelia’s greedy father and more than the temple, Ian would be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

Especially while Ophelia was still unwed.

Ian knelt down in front of Ophelia and hung onto her.

Please. Let’s go back to Ronen together. Let’s have a new beginning.

“Ophelia, please. You need me, too. I’ll do anything, so please… please give me another chance…”

“That’s not possible.”

A ‘chance’ would be taken only when the person wants it. For Ophelia, going back to Ronen would never be something like a ‘chance’ or an ‘opportunity’.

Because she did not want it.

What did he mean by a new beginning?

Ronen was Ian’s hometown, his domain.

Ophelia never considered it her own home.

However, Ophelia did not wish to argue with Ian by explaining all of this.

She did not want to provoke Ian even more, and she had no energy to argue with him.

And so, this was what she said.

“I don’t love you anymore, Ian. If I did and if I still wanted to be with you so much, I wouldn’t have chosen death.”

“Ophelia, I’m sorry—I’m sorry for everything. There’s so many things I want to apologize for.”

“Have you realized? Ever since I met you again, that’s all you’ve been saying. That you’re sorry. You’re still someone who prioritizes your own feelings above others.”

So why should she love someone like him?