Snowbelle
Timothy Grayson has been frail and sickly since childhood, yet he dreams of fighting on the front lines.
I ask the system to strengthen his life force, and the price is that we exchange each other's pain and wound.
From then on, Timothy fights without fear, knowing someone else is bearing the pain for him. With every battle, he grows bolder and earns countless military honors.
For three years, I bear every bit of his pain alone.
Every time a stray arrow pierces him in battle, the pain is so intense that I nearly bite through my own tongue.
Meanwhile, the only pain Timothy ever gets from me is a dull ache in his lower abdomen for a few days each month and the occasional headache or fever.
I accept it all.
But after meeting Sarah Tucker, Timothy grows increasingly reckless.
Fearing she'd get caught in the rain, he drapes his coat over her. Yet, I spend the entire night suffering through a bone-deep chill.
Sarah is afraid of the dark, so Timothy ventures into a fever swamp to find her a luminous gem. I spend the next three days bedridden, coughing up black blood in his place.
Even after returning home victorious from war, the first thing Timothy says to me is, "Ana, you've endured three years of suffering in my place. I'll never forget what you've done for me. But Sarah is the woman I love. I could never ask her to be my mistress."
That's when I hear the system's voice for the first time in a long while. It says, "Loss of hope detected. Once the death condition is triggered, you may return to the real world."
I nod without a word.
From then on, Timothy and I go our separate ways.