Let the World Burn Without Me

In the tenth year I stayed in this world, I found out my husband, who used to say he loved me more than his life, was unfaithful. He cheated with my so-called sister, the one who took my place growing up. For her, my parents called me cold, and he called me selfish. Somewhere along the way, everyone forgot that I had only stayed to save this world. I used my own lifespan and life force to keep the world from falling apart. Ten years passed, and the world got used to it. Even the people who once treated me like a goddess started saying I was petty, that I didn't see the bigger picture. In the end, not a single person stood on my side. So I chose to let it all go and go home. The moment my consciousness began to fade, the world started to break. Floods, earthquakes, tidal waves all hit at once. In the middle of it, I thought I heard someone crying, calling my name. Chapter 1 Thunder cracked overhead. I turned on instinct, reaching for the man beside me, but my hand met cold sheets. "Derek!" Panic rose, fast and sharp. I searched the palace from one end to the other before I found Derek Ingram in a quiet, out-of-the-way wing. A woman was nestled in his arms, and he was so wrapped up in her that he never noticed me standing in the doorway. Lightning flashed, and I saw her face. Vanessa Cole, my adoptive sister, who had taken my place at Cole Manor. I stood there, staring at Derek's back, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. "Ah!" Vanessa noticed me first, her eyes flicking toward the door with a brief flash of surprise. "What is it?" Derek asked as he started to turn, but she tightened her arms around his neck. "Careful," she said softly. "You're hurting me." He let out a low laugh and pulled her closer. Vanessa looked at me again, this time with a small, knowing smile. I was about to push the door open when a flat, mechanical voice cut in right beside my ear. [Gratitude points insufficient. Remaining lifespan: two days.] I froze. Another crash of thunder followed. The voice came again, clear and emotionless. [Before your physical body dies, you may exchange your remaining merit either for passage home or to delay the world's destruction. Please make your choice.] For a moment, everything blurred, and I was back ten years earlier. I had finished the mission and was about to leave when the system told me the world was about to collapse. Everyone would die: the people who treated me like a god, my parents, and Derek, who loved me more than life. "I'll stay," I said. "I'll save them." That was the deal. I used the merit I had earned across worlds to hold everything together, and when it wasn't enough, I burned through my own lifespan. Every storm, every disaster, every illness came at a cost. [If the people of this world feel gratitude for your sacrifice, those points will sustain your life.] I was overjoyed. Then the system's cold voice cut in. [Humans are fickle. Gratitude only declines.] When it reached zero, I would die, and the world would fall apart anyway. Back then, it felt far away. I thought I had time, enough to live out a full life with the people I loved. But I didn't. Ten years was all it took. My marriage was broken, and I was almost out of time. I had only two days left. Why? Why would everyone betray me? I didn't go inside. My legs gave out before I could. By the time the rain came down hard, Derek was back in our room, damp from the storm. "Why are you up? Is the thunder bothering you?" His voice was as gentle as ever, but the scratches across his chest stood out under the lamplight. "Come here. I've got you." He looked genuinely worried, as if he hadn't been cheating on me just moments before. Every time the weather turned bad, I had to trade pieces of my life to keep the world steady. After a while, thunder alone was enough to set my nerves on edge. Whenever that happened, he would hold me until I calmed down. "Why are you crying?" He gently wiped away my tears, and only then did I realize my face was already wet with them. "When did it start?" I asked. "You and Vanessa." He went still, and his expression fell. "You…went out tonight?" He didn't answer right away. When he did, his voice was steady. "You've already seen it. There's no point in hiding it. Vanessa loves me. She's been waiting ten years. She wants to enter the palace. I can't turn her away." Pain welled up inside me, and tears poured down my face. Ten years ago, he had held my hand and sworn he would be the first king in history to keep only one queen. "If you won't turn her away," I said, "then you're turning me away." I held on to the last bit of hope I had. "If I die in two days, and the world goes with me, are you still going to choose her?" His expression cooled, disappointment replacing whatever had been there before. "Charlotte, don't say things like that. I love you. You'll always be the queen. Even if Vanessa enters the palace, she won't threaten you." He looked at me, faintly annoyed. "You can't have children. When she does, we can put the child under your name. That solves everything." Something hollow opened up in my chest. "What do you mean, it solves everything? I have two days left—" "Enough," he cut me off. "Don't talk about dying just to get a reaction out of me. I'm the king. Taking a mistress isn't a big deal. You're blowing this completely out of proportion." His gaze went cold. "I've stayed loyal to you all these years. Even if you did stay for me back then, that's more than enough." Chapter 2 I didn't sleep that night. At dawn, a message came from Cole Manor saying Mother was ill. I dropped everything and rode back, my chest tight the entire way, while the system repeated the same prompt in my head over and over. [Exchange your remaining merit either for passage home or to delay the world's destruction. Please make your choice as soon as possible.] I still couldn't answer. If I chose to leave, the world would begin to fall apart the moment I died. Everyone here—countless people and my parents—would be caught in it without warning. In my real world, I had no one, no family to return to, no place that had ever felt like home. Here, at least for a time, I had that. Even if they had grown cold toward me because of Vanessa, they were still the only family I had. When I walked in, Mother was lying on a chaise, her face pale. "Your sister will be joining the royal court. Your father and I have already agreed," she said, her eyes fixed on me. "You will not stand in the way." My throat tightened. "You knew? All of you?" So everyone knew. They had all been lying to me, helping my husband and my sister carry on right under my nose. I had been the fool, the only one left in the dark. Before I could say another word, a bowl came flying at me, striking me squarely in the forehead. I clutched the wound as blood streamed through my fingers. The pain was so intense that my entire body trembled. "Are you questioning me?" Mother snapped. "I heard you've been talking about dying and destroying the world, trying to force them apart! How can you be this selfish? How long are you going to keep using that story about saving the world to fool us?" The words stuck in my throat. I should have known. I was her daughter, but I hadn't grown up with her. I couldn't compete with 20 years of shared history. Vanessa might not have her blood, but she was still the child Mother cherished most. There had always been a condition to her love for me: I would always come after Vanessa. "I've never lied to anyone." I pressed my hand against my forehead, trying to stop the bleeding. "I saved this world. I saved everyone in it." Tears blurred my vision, mixing with the blood as they fell to the floor. "Mother, you keep hurting me for her. One day, you're going to regret it." She let out a short, cold laugh. "So now you're threatening me. Those little tricks you picked up in the countryside don't work here." Her gaze hardened. "You're not breaking them apart." The words settled, and something inside me went quiet. On my way back, I had been worried about her. "Don't worry," I said. "I won't interfere. That shameless couple deserves each other." Derek had already made his choice. If Vanessa wanted to be his mistress, she could have it. After I was gone, if she wanted my place, that could be hers, too. A sharp crack cut through the air. Mother grabbed a porcelain vase and threw it straight at me. "How dare you call Vanessa shameless! You're the one who came in from nowhere!" The heavy vase came hurtling straight for my head. I jerked back, but still hit the edge of the table, pain shooting through me and stealing my breath for a second. When I first returned to Cole Manor, Mother had cared about me. She had stood by me when people talked, when I didn't know how to act or what to say. "You are a Cole. You carry my blood," she had told me. "Don't look down on yourself. I'm here for you." I believed her. I loved her. I even gave up years of my life to keep her safe, to keep her healthy. And now, she stood there and called me someone "who came in from nowhere." "Don't think being my daughter gives you the right to go after Vanessa," she said. "If I hear you talk like that again, I won't let it go!" She looked at me as if she could rip me to pieces without a second thought. Just then, a deafening boom ripped across the sky. The color drained from my face. First the violent thunderstorm, now this inexplicable blast... This world was already on the brink of collapse. There wasn't much time left. Chapter 3 "What's all this noise about?" Father walked in from outside, already irritated. "Do you have to turn the house upside down every time you're upset?" I pressed a hand to my forehead and forced myself upright, unsteady on my feet. Blood slipped through my fingers and down my face, but he didn't even glance at it. He hadn't always been like this. When I first came back to Cole Manor, he was still a powerful man, but he treated me with an easy kind of patience. "You've had it hard out there," he told me then. "You won't have to deal with that anymore. I'll take care of you." People laughed at me for not knowing the rules, for being out of place, and he never once minded. I held on to that. Every year on their birthdays, I would carefully prepare a grand party and wish them a happy birthday. They would always smile, touched, and pull me into a hug. It changed the first time Vanessa cried because of me. That was when I realized blood ties meant less than the years they had shared, even if I hadn't done anything wrong. After that, the way Father looked at me shifted. The first time Vanessa said I had bullied her, he didn't ask for an explanation. "You're out of line. It must be all those bad habits you picked up out there." I had never seen him that angry before. He kicked me to the ground and cursed the woman who had raised me. After that, I stopped pretending not to see it. They loved me, as long as I didn't cross Vanessa. "She refused to let Vanessa join the royal court, and she had the nerve to call her shameless," Mother said coldly. "She's selfish, cruel, and utterly heartless. She thinks being our daughter gives her the right to bully Vanessa. Sometimes I wish I'd never had her." Father's expression darkened, and his hand came down hard across my face. The sound rang out, leaving my ears ringing and my vision swimming with pain. "You troublemaker! We should never have brought you back!" I stared blankly at my parents, their faces twisted with cold fury. The color drained from my face. "The one tearing this family apart isn't me. It's Vanessa. And the mistake wasn't bringing me home. It was letting Vanessa stay." The system had already warned me that this world's remaining gratitude wasn't enough to keep me alive for another two days. Tomorrow, I would die. "This is the last time I'll call you Father and Mother." My legs gave way beneath me, and I sank to my knees. "Thank you for giving me life. For giving me a home." Blood dripped onto the ground between us. Father's expression shifted, just for a moment. Right then, Derek's voice came from the doorway. "So now you're crying because the rest didn't work?" He stood there watching me, something like disappointment in his eyes. Vanessa stayed close to him, half-hidden, her face pale as she leaned into his arm. "Charlotte, what happened to you?" he said. "You threaten to die every time things don't go your way. Do you really think that's going to make us give in? Vanessa's kind, and she's never done anything to you. Why won't you leave her alone?" It was always the same. Whenever something happened between Vanessa and me, they always thought I was the one at fault. Something cold settled in my chest as I raised my head. "But she took everything from me." She took my place at Cole Manor. She took my family. Now, she was taking my husband. She told everyone the world ending was a lie, that I had never given up years of my life to keep it from happening. The people who once believed me stopped. Day by day, their gratitude drained away. I had one day left. A quiet laugh slipped out. "She's the one who won't leave me alone. And if I have nothing left, neither will you." Chapter 4 "Charlotte, are you really going to accuse me like that? Do you want me dead?" Vanessa's face drained of color as tears spilled over. "I know you hate me, but you shouldn't curse Father, Mother, and the king." She turned toward them, her voice shaking. "I won't enter the palace. I'll enter a convent instead." She swayed as though she might collapse at any moment. I almost laughed. The same move. It worked every time. As long as she cried, everything turned on me. I didn't expect this time to be any different. "Enough!" Derek pulled her into his arms and glared at me. "Whether you agree or not, we're together. Vanessa will enter the palace, and I'll make her my official mistress!" A flicker of satisfaction crossed her eyes. I looked at them and felt nothing. "Fine. No need to wait. Hold the ceremony tomorrow." Tomorrow would be a good day. The day my husband and my sister celebrated their union. The day I died. Maybe he thought I would change my mind, or maybe he just didn't want to wait. Either way, the ceremony was held the next day. He took Vanessa's hand and led her up the platform step by step. They looked right together, like they had always belonged there. I stood below and watched them exchange vows. "The king should've taken a mistress a long time ago. The queen's the only reason he didn't." "She's been using that story about saving the world to control him, making all of us thank her." "Even if it were true, she chose it. Nobody asked her to." The comments kept coming. "Ten years, and still no child. What good is she?" "Maybe this is what happens when you lie too much." I stared numbly at the cold, mocking faces around me. Something inside me went quiet. Maybe this was on me. The system had warned me from the start that this world wasn't worth it. I was the one who stayed. I thought if I treated people with kindness, they would do the same. I gave everything I had, and this was what it amounted to. For a moment, I thought of the system's words again. [Humans are fickle. Gratitude only declines.] It wasn't wrong. They could raise someone up and call her a god, but they could just as easily drag her down and laugh while they did it. On the platform, Derek held Vanessa's hand, smiling as if nothing else existed. Father and Mother watched with approval while the crowd cheered. [Exchange your remaining merit either for passage home or to delay the world's destruction. Please make your choice.] The prompt came again. I closed my eyes and made up my mind. "I'm going home." There was nothing left here worth staying for, no one left worth saving. [Exchange complete. Passage home will now open.] As the words settled, the sky shifted. A crimson glow spread overhead as the earth began to tremble, a deep rumble rolling beneath our feet. "It's a sign from the heavens!" The crowd erupted in celebration. People cheered, pointed at the sky, and praised what they believed was a blessing. Amid the chaos, the system spoke again, calm and emotionless. [World destruction sequence initiated.]