- Her Fear -

Nothing else around them, no one else near them. There were just the two of them, with one restrained with chains and looking miserable while the other one was standing with her head looking down at her.

The space where she was in was not the space where she would meet the pink- haired lady. Although she hadn't been there for awhile, she still remembered, the tree where the two of them would meet, the mountains at the distance and the wind whispering softly. There would be a lake near them with pink lotus buds waiting for the right time to bloom.

It was so quiet and relaxing there.

But in that space, she was standing on a bridge made of stones. Beneath her, there was a river made of shinsu. Behind her, there was a forest. In front of her, there was a giant wall becoming the end of the bridge. The night had arrived and covered everything with its blanket of chillness and darkness. Her only source of light was the flowers blossoming on the bridges. The purple chrysanthemums that grew there naturally glowed in the middle of the night.

The one who she was looking for was right at the large wall. The large giant wall with chains became a place that restrained her. She was in the center of the giant wall, waiting for destiny to break her free.

Those purple eyes were exhausted, she could tell that. She was quiet when she was trapped because she knew that there was no way for her to escape from the wall and chains, so she gave up. She could only wait for the right time.

She was above her, but she was restrained. Her purple eyes noticed her presence. And she frowned.

"My sworn enemy and my past." "My sworn enemy and my future."

The two of them spoke in the same time.

Her sworn enemy had a mockery smirk, "It's truly a surprise. You are here to see me? But though this is a surprise, some surprises don't feel pleasant at all."

She hated her, she hated her badly that she wished to cut her to countless pieces.

How deep can one possibly be afraid and hate herself, to the point that there was no ounce of warmness shown through her words. Charlotte knew that there was no one else to blame but herself. She had been avoiding her past just because she feared her.

"Is it simply because of fear?" Her past suddenly asked her.

Charlotte blinked in surprise, "What?"

"Don't be surprised. I don't need any magic powers to be able to read your thoughts," she said with a rather courteous smile. But Charlotte knew better than anyone that it was a smile forced to bury her malice and to laugh at her.

"Your thoughts, and feelings, I don't need any secret tricks to understand them or to guess them. I guess it's because we share the same body and mind."

"................."

In another words, Charlotte was sure that her past had the high chance of being able to guess what she was thinking and was she was planning. She didn't need to have the ability to read minds for it, she just need the fact that they used to be the same person.

'Which also means that lying won't work for her.'

Well, she wasn't there to lie anyway.

'Brother Bam taught me that if I want to have someone to trust me, then I must not lie to that person.'

"I would like to ask you," her sworn enemy spoke again. "What is the reason for you to come here?"

Charlotte took a deep breath.

"....... I want to reconcile with you."

There was a dead silence. Her sworn enemy blinked both of her big purple eyes in disbelief. The fact that she was surprised now after what she had just said that she was capable of reading her mind made Charlotte wonder if she was being too fast in showing her intentions?

"Ha... ha...."

Her sworn enemy suddenly laughed out loud.

"HAHAHA!"

"Is there something funny...?" Charlotte asked as she was completely certain that she was joking. And she was sure that her sworn enemy shouldn't be laughing over this matter.

"Of course. Don't you realize it? You, who have always feared of me, want to reconcile with me? Can I really trust your words are not merely some false hopes?"

"..........."

Charlotte looked at her sworn enemy. She knew what she wanted.

'She wants to be free from those chains.'

She was not a fool. Cutting those chains will result in her sworn enemy being free and there was a chance of her attacking her. But if she didn't cut those chains, then she wouldn't believe in her sincerity.

"Well? What will be your decision?" Her sworn enemy asked her. Charlotte was sure that this was a mockery.

Gathering shinsu in her right palm, Charlotte made her decision and replied, "Fine. I'll free you."

The baangs that she created destroyed the chains rather easily. Her sworn enemy looked at how each chain that was binding her was destroyed easily and quickly. One by one, quick and accurate, after all the chains that bound her were destroyed, she fell to the ground.

She fell to the ground. She looked at both of her hands. They were free. Nothing was stopping her right now so even though she felt pain after falling from such a height, she could endure it. As long as she was free.

"Thank you....." She thanked Charlotte with a smile, sincerely. "Thank you...."

"FOR GIVING ME A CHANCE TO ATTACK YOU LIKE THIS!"

Charlotte dodged her right hand that was reaching for her throat. This was not because of reflex, but because she understood herself.

Her sworn enemy could predict her movements because they were the same person, so why couldn't she do the same? Although her sworn enemy was now filled with anger and rage, but she was still the old her. And the old her, no, whether it was Charlotte Everest or 25th Charlotte, neither of them liked to be controlled and restrained by something, especially by force.

Their personality was supposed to be rather simple. It should be obvious now that Charlotte was someone who acted mostly with her fists first before regretting it later with her brain, although she rarely did that when things were related with the plot of the story as she was confused whether to follow her head or her fists.

And her doubts caused her to fail to save two people.

'But this is not the time to mourn!'

Because if she was distracted at this time, then she would be attacked again. When she fought against Anan, she was distracted by Khun and received her consequences.

Both Charlotte Everest and 25th Charlotte were not saints. At the end, they were just ordinary girls trying to make their lives better. So they couldn't escape from the claws of emotions and desires, they were bound to wish for something no matter how trivial that wish was. They were bound to be selfish no matter how much they wanted to be selfless, no matter what motive drove them to be selfless.

They were living beings, and although it was wrong for them to commit sins, it was inevitable for them as they weren't born with large amount of patience like anyone else. They weren't Gods.

It was not hard for Charlotte to catch both of her sworn enemy's hands, mainly because she was not completely healed yet. Her sworn enemy was slowly recovering without the help of lotus or hourglass that she had, so she was not in her best condition to fight her. But still, she was still dangerous and Charlotte had no intention to look down on her.

Her sworn enemy could attack her many times, she could also defend herself many times. And as they were fighting, they were unconsciously stepping on the chrysanthemum flowers that were blooming. The petals of the flowers that they kicked were carried by the wind, flying as high and as far as they could. It was a beautiful sight, but it was a pity that there was no one there to appreciate it.

'She is not strong,' Charlotte thought whenever she blocked her hit, 'but it was amazing for her to be able to attack me without stopping after the wounds she received.'

The wounds that she received must be from her brother Bam and Noah. As they were yet to be healed, they became a trouble for her to fight.

They were one person to begin with. If she could read her memories just by that fact, why she couldn't do the same thing towards her? The reasons why her sworn enemy was still standing despite of her wounds and condition was because she knew her, and the other reason was because Charlotte never intended to harm her. Right now, she relied on shinsu to boost her strength and relied on her combat skills that she learnt along with her brother.

"I trusted you and broke those chains for you," she said in the middle of the fight. "Why do you still refuse to reconcile with me?"

"RECONCILE WITH YOU?!" her sworn enemy echoed. "Do you really can trust the words you said by yourself?"

Charlotte Everest was 25th Charlotte. They were similar in many ways.

"YOU PUSHED ME ASIDE, TRIED TO FORGET ME AND BLAMED ME FOR EXIST AS YOUR WEAKNESSES AND UGLY SIDE!"

Charlotte blocked her sworn enemy's punch. Next, with her arm, she blocked her sworn enemy's kick that was aiming for her head.

"AND AFTER ALL YOUR DESIRES TO CUT ME OFF, YOU WISH FOR ME TO RECONCILE WITH YOU?"

Her sworn enemy jumped and tried to land a kick on her from above, in which she blocked her fist.

"DON'T YOU THINK IT'S RATHER ABSURD?!"

Their powers and energies clashed against each other. Her sworn enemy leapt backward and increased their distance again.

"...........How is that absurd?" Charlotte asked as she swung her right arm to her right side after blocking her sworn enemy's attack.

Her sworn enemy huffed and huffed. This was not a battle she would win. But since she was going to be erased anyway, since no one wanted her to exist, as her existence had always caused her to be tormented, so what if she risked her life and fought in a battle that will result to her death?

"... you have the face to ask this?" Her sworn enemy asked back. This was a very simple question that she didn't need to explain the answer. "You still dare to ask this?"

This was laughable.

"All my pains right now..."

She raised her right hand and pointed her index finger straight towards Charlotte, "They were caused by you, aren't you very aware of that?!"

Charlotte had nothing to say. She was calm, she did not say anything to defend herself. This was because she knew that she was wrong. And she was not there to defend herself, but to receive her own karma.

"You are very miserable, you know that, Charlotte?"

Charlotte's calmness was instantly replaced with surprise and disbelief.

"You thought that your life is better now since you have that second chance, but in reality, you've gotten worse. You've gotten weaker, more miserable, pitiful."

The more she spoke, the more wounded Charlotte's expression looked like. It was because she never thought that in her second life, she had gotten more miserable.

"Yes, you survived from so many things. You survived from the torments FUG gave to you, survived from White, Karaka and many more. Others may praise you for being better and cooler, but you don't deserve them. Because someone who couldn't even face herself, deceiving herself, sacrificing her dignity and pride just to get a little bit affection and attention... how are you better than Rachel who blamed her misfortunes over anything else?"

The last line offended her.

Water from the river descended upwards. As they were made out of shinsu, under the command of a Wave Controller, they began to rise and form a sword. And before the sword was even done yet, Charlotte had already ran towards her enemy. By the time she stood close enough with her enemy, her sword had completely took a form as she pointed it to her sworn enemy's throat.

"Don't you say those words," Charlotte threatened her. Her expression showed how much she hated to be said as similar with Rachel. "We are not the same."

The sword could have just sliced her throat any time. She knew that if she pressed her further, she could die. And it would be against her wish to stay alive.

"....................................."

As her sworn enemy was pondering, there was another blanket of silence before her past smiled.

"Do it then, since you are so powerful," she said which shocked Charlotte and left her lost in words, before she managed to ask her sworn enemy a question,"........I thought you want to live?"

"I do want to live. But what about you? Do you even want me to stay?"

Upon seeing Charlotte being surprised by each of her words and actions, she added again, "Charlotte, you should have known better about yourself. No, you should have known better about Charlotte Everest."

"Although my life is filled with disasters and chaos, at least I didn't try to deceive anyone with my own identity. I am afraid of death, but I am more afraid of losing myself. So even if today I have to die by you, then I will also die after saying the words that I want to say. But what about you? You are afraid of death just like me and it's understandable. Many living beings want to live longer so that they won't have to die soon. But the biggest difference between you and me and the biggest similarity between you and Rachel is...."

Her purple eyes became colder as she glared at Charlotte.

"... is that you both hate yourself."

"People like you love to deny yourself and would do anything to get what you want. To get a little bit of attention, you guys tried all methods. She tried to snatch someone else's fate and you attempted to snatch someone else's identity. Do you understand now?"

"I..."

Her sword made of shinsu trembled as Charlotte was trying to understand what her past said. It was not hard to understand what her past wanted to say, but it was harder to accept the truth that was thrown to her by each word she had spoken.

"This is why you are miserable. And why you will never get stronger."

When she was distracted, her sworn enemy took that chance to hit the sword away from her hand. It worked. Her right hand was bleeding out of the injury and her sword was thrown away and fell to the river under the bridge.

She looked at her sword that fell to the river. The height was bothering her, but it couldn't bother her more than the words and truth that her sworn enemy was telling her. And as if it wasn't enough to see her lost and doubting herself had improved herself or not, her sworn enemy continued to speak.

"Because people who couldn't love herself, who couldn't embrace the truth and accept her flaws will never be able to move forward. And so, you will sink. Sink to the pool of inferiority and delusions without anyone capable of saving you."

She reached out for her wounded right hand and pulled Charlotte close to her, so that she could see it clearly, the demon within her heart, and all pieces that she left behind to start a new life, they whispered to her ear,