When she was young, she would tug at the hem of my clothes, afraid I would venture into danger. Her tall figure, draped in a wide crimson dress, was like a great red umbrella shielding me from wind and rain. Even now, whenever I raised my head, the sky still seemed to be under her protection. No matter how heavily the rain fell or how much hail came crashing down, I feared nothing.
At some point, her existence gradually faded from my world. I grew up, basking in the nourishment of heaven and earth and enduring the trials of the mortal world. Yet even so, her existence was branded into me, making her impossible to forget.
She had saved me so many times that they were as numerous as carp crossing a river. There were so many that I had nearly forgotten the cruelty this world had brought me. She had always led me forward through this world, and she had given me the peace to sit on the ground and play chess.
Yes, she had been like family, like an elder sister, like a wife. She was my Ninth Princess, my fiancée, an irreplaceable part of my entire life.
We had even had children together. We respected and cherished each other like honored guests, reveled in the joys of family, and stood shoulder to shoulder against the world's injustices.
But all of that seemed to have fallen like a curtain at this very moment. My entire world was dark as an abyss. On the horizon of my vision, only a thread of scarlet remained. That red was the color of blood, more dazzling than the setting sun and more savage than the blood splashed about when slaughtering living beings.
Kill.
If she no longer existed in this world, what