Love Blooms Again

Freya instinctively reached for the bulging scar on her waist.

The pain from ages ago seemed to resurface in that moment, and her body recalled it as if it had just happened.

After she saved Magnus five years ago, she was hospitalized to recover from her injury. The housemaid informed her that Magnus was concerned about her injury and that she had taken a picture of the scar to show Magnus.

At the time, she assumed the scar would help bring them closer to each other. To her disappointment, Magnus had been nothing but cold toward her even after she had been discharged.

All he ever did was hover around Ifrit and ask about her well-being.

She assumed it was because Magnus had forgotten about the scar.

Now that she thought about it, what happened must have been that the housemaid had sent the picture to Ifrit beforehand.

“Answer my question, Freya!” Magnus demanded. “Why do you have that scar? Did you weasel your way into my family five years ago?”

Freya tried to suppress her turbulent emotions, and just as she was about to answer, Ifrit suddenly threw herself into Magnus's arms and burst into tears.

“So this was the trump card Miss Stein was telling me about! Now I understand why she told me that if you ever see the scar, you would abandon me and devote yourself to her.

“I can’t believe you would cut yourself so you can get a scar to fool Mr. Harett into thinking you were the one who saved him five years ago!

“All I have ever wanted was to love him with all my heart. Why do you have to come between us and tear us apart?”

Ifrit ran up to Freya and gripped her shoulders hysterically while launching her tirade.

Freya winced from the pain of her recent wounds.

Just as she tried to back away, Ifrit flopped away and launched herself into the doorframe.

The moment Magnus noticed a thin trickle of blood flowing from Ifrit's forehead, he shot a furious look at Freya.

"How much more cunning can you get?

“Did you think a scar is enough to make me change my mind and decide to fall in love with you? It only means something if it’s on Ifrit, whereas when it’s on you… It only disgusts me.”

Freya tried to speak but realized there was nothing worth explaining anymore. She knew nothing she said could ever hold up to Ifrit’s crying.

She was just about to excuse herself and walk through the crowd when she heard Magnus’s voice calling out from behind her.

“Did I permit you to leave?”

She paused and turned back to confront him, “What else do you want?"

Magnus ignored her question as he tenderly held Ifrit.

“Don't you ever use your sinful body to try to get in between me and Ifrit.

“I don’t know how you got that scar, but you better get rid of it.”

With that, he motioned to his men, who proceeded to drag Freya into the operating room.

She barely had the chance to struggle at all before she found herself pinned on the operating table.

The doctor did not bother to use anesthesia before putting the scalpel to her flesh.

She was butchered mercilessly.

Her agonizing cries became lodged in her throat. She had never felt so much pain in her life.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and watched as the scar was forcefully cut apart from her flesh.

All of the memories contained in her flesh were brutally torn apart, effectively severing any connection she had to Magnus.

When the doctor sliced into another part of her flesh, she suddenly recalled a memory from when they got married.

She had picked out a wedding dress and cheerfully went to meet him, only to be met with a scowl.

With the next cut, the scene changed again.

She recalled making a pot of soup to visit Magnus, who was paralyzed. When she accidentally grazed against the bracelet that Ifrit gave him, he mercilessly threw the bowl at her and scalded her.

With the last cut, she recalled the sheer look of disgust and contempt in his eyes when he refused to collect her body from the morgue.

Try as hard as she might, she could not recall Magnus ever displaying an ounce of kindness toward her in their last life.

Her heart seemed to give up on all the pain she had suffered, and she could not feel anything anymore.

She let her body collapse onto the operating table and slowly closed her eyes to surrender to her fate.

Darkness engulfed her.

It effectively blocked off the sound of Magnus tenderly comforting Ifrit, along with all the cruel, nasty things he had said about Freya.

In that moment, the darkness kept her from harm.