Chapter: 16, Three Words
"I don't believe it." Mark said in the silence of the cave at night, between the crackling sounds of the campfire beside them.
Sunless finally changed her expression with that of panic. She asked hurriedly while tightly grabbing his hand, afraid it would slip away "W-Why? Why don't you believe me? D-Did I do something wrong?"
Mark directly looked at her eyes without showing any emotions and said what he knew about her "Because you're not the type of person who'd throw away their freedom just like that.
"For you, freedom is much more valuable than even your own life. You'd kill your loved ones if it is the only way you can regain your Freedom.
"But now, you're giving yourself to become my slave. I don't believe it because it isn't who you are."
Taking a deep breath he continued "And I refuse to believe that you, a Fated Individual, is oblivious to the fact that your feelings are caused by an outside influence, My Flaw. You are not someone who would accept something about yourself that didn't come out genuinely from yourself.
"But, despite knowing this fact, you are still falling into it. Tell me, why would I believe you?"
With that Mark stopped talking, waiting for the other to answer. Sunny looked down, avoiding eye contact. An awkward silence appeared between them.
Everything he said was something he knew very well. These things are something that won't change no matter which timeline you go to. These things make sunny 'sunny'. If these things are changed, the person would be a completely different individual, not sunny.
"So, you know me well." Sunny after a long pause said. She looked back at him and continued
"Yes, you're right. Freedom is something very important to me. And yes, I know my feelings are like this because of your flaws.
"Yes, I hate it when my feelings don't come from myself and when I'm helpless against them. I did hate you, but what did it bring me?
"In my past life, my hate towards you led to your death. I should've been happy that the uncontrollable feeling would finally be gone. But they didn't, the feeling didn't disappear."
Mark was stunned. What did she mean by past life? What did she mean by his death? Did she come back from the future?
"After thinking about it, I realized. There are two types of Flaws. First one in Your Physical body and the other one in your Soul.
"Cassie and Effie's flaw is physical type and Nephis, me, Kai and your flaw is soul type. The difference is that our flaws solely affect us while your flaws affect both yourself and the people around you.
"And when a soul dies, their flaw disappears with them. But with physical flaws, the flaw will still be there if only the soul is destroyed and the physical body is completely safe."
This also clicked in Mark. Nobody ever questioned what type of Flaw there can be? And this explanation is also quite reasonable. After all, a human only has two things that can affect them greatly, the body and the soul. Anything outside these two will not be counted as a Flaw to them.
Take Kai as an example, she gets a feeling when someone lies to her, which can be counted as a soul type flaw.
While Effie has a big appetite, making her eat more than usual. This can be considered as a physical flaw. In this sense, Mark's own flaw can be considered as a soul flaw.
Sunny continued, getting him out of his thoughts "Why do you think even after you became a Hollow, my feelings for you didn't disappear?"
Mark was speechless and couldn't reply, so he waited for her to continue.
"It's because at some point, I actually fell in love with you. That is why those feelings still remain in my heart. Even now, I can say that my feelings are not affected by your flaws, since I already love you."
After a moment, Mar finally asked "What if my flaw can affect people even after my soul is destroyed? What if it is a dual type flaw, which affects both the physical body and the soul?"
Sunny shook her head in denial and said "If that was the case then others wouldn't have moved on, unlike me. Nephis became numb to your existence, Effie got together with someone else and others went back to their own life. If your flaw was like what was said, I wouldn't have been the only one to be stuck with you.
"Now, in this life, Loving you has also become my second Flaw."
Mark stayed silent. He couldn't really decide what to do about this. The son who almost killed his crush because of his freedom is now offering it to him. But it was also the same sunny who looped for hundreds of thousands of years to save his crush. But even then, he wished to be free.
But now, a different version of that same sunny is now offering herself and the entire Cohort to him.
He would be lying if he said it wasn't tempting. He literally can't accept it but also can't refuse it.
He can't accept it because all this time, he viewed sunny to be a guy. He isn't like 'oh, you were a guy but now you suddenly became a girl and confessed to me. I accept',
Definitely not!!
He also can't reject it because the offer is too good to refuse. He also can't be like 'Oh, you are offering me a complete treasury from several kingdoms, but I have to refuse since I won't be able to adapt to it.'
Also definitely not!!
Making his mind Mark looked at her eyes and holding her soft hands gently he said in a single breath "I need time to accept it but I don't want to lose this chance. So I want you to stay by my side, until I can."
Sunny widened her eyes with excitement as she heard Mark's next Words.
After a brief pause Mark said the words that sealed both of their fate "Stay with me… Lost From Light"
To be Continued…