I Became the Narrow-Eyed Character in the Little Prince Game

It was a common story.

A girl who had lived her entire life in darkness saw light for the first time, but, unable to adjust to its warmth, she became frightened and ran away.
A paradox of misery.
Though she wept, wishing to escape unhappiness, she inevitably returned to the misery that was most familiar to her.

In her wandering life, the only home she ever knew was that sadness.
A life that ultimately lingered in existence.
The girl before me was no exception.

"You were here, Miss Neria."
"You…?"
Silver hair rippled in the harsh wind.

The starlight swirled around her.
Blood and tears dripped from her cheeks, while a deep wound marred the right side of her face.
Transparent eyes stared blankly in my direction.

"Not too late, it seems."
I spoke as if answering her vacant gaze.
After realizing she had disappeared, I hurried after her and, at the very least, had managed to stop her before the worst came to pass.

My palm, pressed tightly against the dagger, sizzled as the flesh cooked.
The iron, holding the light of the stars, burned with intensity.
Even so, I locked eyes with her without showing a trace of pain.

"Do you know how worried I was?"
The girl’s expression grew complicated in response to my playful reproach.
Her lips, caught in a moment of silence, finally murmured hoarsely:
"You… chased after me… even through this relentless snowstorm."

"I promised to take responsibility."
"…Yes, that’s just like you."
You’re that kind of person.

With an odd mix of emotions, the girl let out a resigned laugh.
Her calm voice betrayed a sense of surrender.
"That’s why I left you."

Because you’re too kind.
The warmth and kindness you so carelessly offered, the devotion you extended to make a home beyond misery, were overwhelming and suffocating for a creature like me, a wretched monster.
I was afraid this cursed fate would hurt even you.

So I chose to leave your side on my own.
"This is my choice."
"Miss Neria."

"But I enjoyed the time I spent with you. Enough to crave it, without realizing it… But it ends here."
The hollow dream shattered into pieces.
Her smile still lingered on her lips.

It seemed the girl had made up her mind as she wandered through the snowstorm.
That faint warmth she directed at me was her final farewell.
"Hey. I have one last request."

Her silver eyes lacked any spark of life.
She was like a flower on the verge of wilting.
"Kill me."

It was a prayer for suicide.
Even the faint relief in her expression crumbled into despair.
The starlight that blanketed the area grew brighter and brighter.

"I’m so tired now."
She didn’t want to become a monster.
She didn’t want to hurt anyone, didn’t want to keep trembling in solitude and darkness.

In the end, her decision was to escape into misery once more.
Back to the only home she ever knew.
"Before I become a monster, before it’s too late… please, kill me with your own hands."

"…"
"If it’s you, I don’t think I’ll have any regrets."
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

Tears streamed down her wounded face.
It felt as if I was being crushed under the weight of the moment.
Perhaps she took my silence as agreement, for she slowly raised the dagger we had been holding together.

The still-hot blade now pointed toward her fragile neck.
She didn’t exert any force.
As if she were leaving the act entirely up to me.

It was truly cruel.
"My body will soon lose control. I’ve tried to suppress it, but I can feel my mind slipping away."
Whoosh—

As if her words were a signal flare, her condition began to deteriorate rapidly.
The light surrounding her flared violently, spilling out its power from the stars one by one.
As the landscape was swallowed by the rising heat, even the weather seemed to thin out.

Her eyes closed gently, as if to emphasize her point.
"If you don’t kill me now… this entire area will be engulfed in starlight."
A warning.

If I didn’t kill her here, many more would die.
As if to prove her words, the resistance of the light grew stronger.
The brilliance erupted into countless thorn-like rays, piercing and searing my skin.

The pain of flesh burning in real-time was anything but pleasant.
I bowed my head.
"Please."

Her plea echoed in my ears.
As I reflected on the texture of her words, memories of my time with her surfaced.
"Why… are you doing so much for me?"

That question lingered in my mind.
Back then, I had brushed it off with a vague answer, but now, I needed to reach a conclusion.
Even as blood drenched my body, I continued to ponder, as if looking back on myself.

‘Why…?’
Why had I devoted myself so fully?
She was, at best, an extra.

A seed of disaster that would one day burn a tenth of the continent to ash.
Why had I offered her comfort?
‘I don’t know.’

Maybe…
It was because it had been so long since I had cared for anyone.
Because that faint warmth felt precious.

Though she bore no resemblance to my sister, every time I faced her, I was reminded of the grief I had buried in the recesses of my memory.
The withering flower carried a part of my unfulfilled sorrow.
I smiled faintly.

‘I see myself in you.’
Perhaps I had seen that child in her.
Or maybe I saw myself.

Abandoned thoroughly by the world, despairing over unintended misfortune, fighting desperately to survive, only to lose to merciless absurdity.
Losing love so easily.
With nowhere to turn, the words that made us who we were shattered into fragments, leaving only me behind in that cold winter.

And just like you now, there were children trembling in the cold.
That’s why I couldn’t pass you by.
Even as a seed of disaster, I couldn’t kill you.

Because every scar you bore reminded me of us.
I wanted us, from back then, to find complete happiness.
‘A selfish desire.’

The devotion I offered was based on such selfishness.
Because the reflection of myself in the mirror wouldn’t leave my mind, I acted on a hypocritical mercy that prioritized myself over others.
I didn’t feel ashamed of it.

I simply wanted to be an absolution for your pain.
I didn’t want you to hate the reflection of yourself in the mirror.
I wanted you, someone like me, to not resign yourself to life, to keep breathing with that fragile existence.

It might have been selfish.
But even so, I…
"Miss Neria."

I wanted you to live.
"You’ll be fine. I told you that, didn’t I?"
I let go of the dagger in my hand.

The silver blade fell to the ground.
Without giving her a chance to react, I spread my arms wide and pulled her slender frame into an embrace.
The raging starlight threatened to consume us both, but I didn’t let go.

Just as I tamed you… you tamed me as well.
Responsibility for taming doesn’t rest on one side alone.
A relationship is built by both parties, requiring equal effort without hierarchy.

That’s why I didn’t allow your escape.
Just as I took responsibility for shielding you from misery, you also had an obligation to shield me from loneliness.
Holding on to her faint breath, I let a gentle lie seep into her consciousness.

It was the fulfillment of responsibility.
"You don’t have to hurt anymore."
Cutting, stabbing, burning—it all hurt.

Responsibility was painful.
And yet, if I had to name the reason I refused to turn my back on this pitiful girl, it would simply be this:
"Let’s go home together."

For the sake of comforting your pain.
***
"Please."

The girl was waiting for death.
This was the end of her long, tumultuous life.
She had no regrets about her choice.

It was the best decision for everyone.
There was no such thing as a story where even a monster could find happiness.
Tightly closed eyelids blocked out the tear-streaked view.

So, this is the end.
It had been a painful journey.
But, at the very least, she felt she could close her eyes peacefully now.

Because someone had come to tie the final knot for her.
“I’ve come to take you.”
The boy who had taught her warmth for the first time in her life.

This was more than she could have ever hoped for as an ending.
The heat lingering near her neck testified to the dagger’s presence.
Once its sharp edge pierced through her breath completely, even this wretched life would find rest.

Tears flowed.
And yet… I’m still a little scared.
Her shoulders stiffened on their own.

She tried to calm herself.
Amidst the storm of emotions—fear, freedom, resentment, tranquility, liberation—the stars grew brighter.
As she waited for the conclusion to come, something suddenly enveloped her body.

Woosh!
"You’ll be fine. I told you that, didn’t I?"

The tepid warmth.
Her reflexively opened eyes reflected the image of the boy holding her close.
He was cradling the blazing starlight within himself.

"Let’s go home together."
His voice brought her back to her senses.
The world around them, painted in starlight, began to shift.

The monster desperately tried to push away the body clinging to her.
If things continued as they were, they’d both surely burn to ashes.
"What are you doing?! Let go right now—!"

She had asked him to kill her.
She hadn’t asked for them to die together.
Leaving him had been her decision, made so he wouldn’t get hurt.

What meaning would there be if they both burned away in vain?
The girl struggled with all her might to escape the warmth that encased her.
But it was futile.

"You’ll get caught in this too! Do you want to die with me?!"
"Shh."
And yet.

Despite her desperate cries, the boy only smiled.
He should have been in pain, but his expression was serene.
With a flick of his fingers, darkness began to ripple.

Snap!
"Focus."
Shadows crept in, wrapping around the area.

The jet-black curtain slowly dimmed the radiant starlight.
The rampaging energy regained its calm flow.
An unfamiliar sensation began to set in.

"…Ah."
The girl stopped struggling and stood still.
This wasn’t like any healing she’d felt before.

The violent energy slowly settled.
It wasn’t just being suppressed—it was being purified at an astonishing speed.
The boy was deciphering the starlight in real time.

Swish…
The manifested shadows melded into the starlight, neutralizing it.
With an exhausted voice, the boy murmured:

"Fortunately… I found a way. A way to seal that starlight."
It had taken three months, but at least he hadn’t been too late.
The light dimmed, then disappeared completely.

The rampaging energy didn’t just recede—it vanished.
The power she had lived with her entire life was gone.
He had forcibly sealed it.

"This… this can’t be… How? How did you…?"
The girl’s voice trembled in confusion.
It was as if she were witnessing the impossible, yet the boy merely grinned mischievously, as always.

The warmth of their embrace remained.
"Because I’m here, by your side."
It was a promise he had made days ago.

A promise to protect her.
He whispered in her ear.
This was the moment the curse was unraveled.

"From now on, there will be no loneliness, no pain, no misery for you."
"…"
"I’ll make sure of it."

His voice, solemn and unwavering, pledged his life completely.
Like a lie.
And like a miracle.

The boy had come.
"So… won’t you return with me?"
To hold the lonely monster close.

"To our home."
"…Ah…"
The words she had longed to hear.

From anyone.
Words that gave her permission to stay in this world, even with her cursed fate.
Words that gifted a home to someone as solitary as her.

"Ah… Hic…"
She couldn’t hold back her sobs.
Tears spilled in warm, glistening drops.

But those tears no longer carried resignation or despair.
Only pure, unadulterated joy overflowed.
Why was I even born?

For twenty years, her life had been an endless winter.
But now, for the first time, spring had arrived.
Even the storm that seemed eternal had come to an end.

Transparent dewdrops fell.
The girl leaned into the boy’s embrace.
"So warm… hic, it’s so warm…"

Warmth.
Comfort.
Shelter.

How long had she yearned for these words?
How long had she thirsted for this feeling?
Burying her face into his broad chest, she wept like a child.

Her cries filled the empty snowfield.
"Hic… Sob…"
"You’ve worked so hard all this time."

Only the name remained on the ground.
A dagger that had once symbolized her past rejection.
Next to it, a single flower bloomed.

It seemed to announce the end of a long winter.
What winter left them with was spring.
A single flower born from its stirring.

Even a withered heart could sprout anew, every pain blossoming like petals.
And so.
We can now live the seasons to come.

Promising pure hope.
Like that, we move forward.