Her chest tightens. "Why are you talking like that?" she sobbed. Heavien composed herself. She needs to be strong. "Anyway, it's never too late. Wait for me here, and I'll get what I can to treat your wounds. Or maybe Author will arrive soon. We can ask for help and-"
"I couldn't help it... I insulted and ridiculed you. But believe me, I didn't mean any of it. I was envious of you two. You looked at me intensely," he continued. He's referring to Trake. "This game is awesome. You get to play with different players. You get to know their purpose in winning the game. And you have a chance to save your loved ones, just as I did."
He's reminiscing about the first time he played tri-games. All of his memories must have been fully recovered.
"No, no. You will live. You got stabbed in the back. Author mentioned, you will only die if you are stabbed in the chest, so-"
"I struck myself with my knife."
Because of what he uttered, she checked him, and there was blood on the left side of his chest.
"Why did you do that?! No, we've got this. There's still hope. You can be cured."
"This one's different."
It took her seconds to realize what he meant. "Don't tell me?"
And he was just silent, meaning it's true. No! His knife is the one that contains poison, among others! Just a simple scratch on the skin can kill you.
So, that's why Seyah and Trake died without being hit on their chests. And she has also learned that when the knife is big, it is dull, but when it is small, it is sharp. He got the smallest knife. The sharpest and most poisonous one.
"Was it just an accident?" she questioned him.
"No, I purposely chose the knife with poison to simply kill others and myself."
"But how did you know it was poisonous?"
"I was the winner of the third tri-games. My memories came back, so I already envision the outcomes of this last level." She is trying to absorb his statement. "By now, you must be aware of the whole truth."
Her eyes widened when all of her memories came back. When Leonthan revealed that she now fully understood everything. This game is not the fourth tri-games… This is the fifth tri-games!
Why does she only now remember?
That's the reason why she wrote a comic based on this tri-games. That's why it gave her an idea to write a comic about it.
Leonthan was a player in the third tri-games, and it was also his first time to play. He went back to the game and joined her in the game to save her life, that was the fourth tri-games. She won the fourth tri-games because he sacrificed his life as he did for her tonight.
Before Heavien finally lost her memory for 60 days about the game, she wrote a comic so she wouldn't forget all the details about it. The 60-day interval before losing memories is the time frame given to think about how to use the tri-prize. Before the 60 days ended, she burned her sketchpad—that's the thing she received from Author as a remembrance gift from the game. They have to destroy the gift they received from the game if they want to get back in the game, but they have to sacrifice the prize of 'time' that they've won in the game.
Her time travel started when she attended the moving-up ceremony. She thought she played the fourth tri-games again, but that was actually the fifth. She used 'wealth' so they got financially stable. She also used 'health', so mama got better. And she used 'time' to get back in the game and save Leonthan. However, he saved her… again.
"That guy, Trake, and I knew during level 2 stage 2. And he planned to do these."
Wait, what? The two of them already knew that this was the fifth tri-games?
She can't ask vocally because of what she heard.
"I had an intuition that you went back again to the game after the fourth one, but ignored it. He confirmed it to me, and we were right. His memories of the fourth tri-games came back earlier than ours because it wasn't his core memory, which comes back last."
"What plan?"
"He wants to keep this a secret from you until you win, but you have to know what kind of person he is. He helped me keep you alive at the mansion and plotted that I was dead. He planned for me to betray you and pulled off a show so that you could kill me. Initially, he would like to be the winner of this. But he risked his life because he already knew that he lost the fourth tri-games and didn't deserve to be in the fifth anymore. He accepted his fate of losing the game and let me do my thing."
Heavien didn't notice that Trake was part of it. He pretended to hate Leonthan so that she would hold a grudge against Leonthan and not hesitate to kill him.
"Actually, I heard you talking in the living area. That promise he asked you, the real meaning behind it is for you to accept the truth that this is now the fifth tri-games and to forgive yourself for not achieving what you hoped for."
He asked her to accept the risky decision that she had made when she went back to the earth after the second. And what's worse is that she failed to do her mission to protect them or even save at least one of them.
The purpose of her returning to the fourth tri-games is to save them, if possible, and she believed it was. Leonthan actually saved her in the fourth game. It has become useless for her to play again. She even harmed herself and joined the fifth game. She just wasted his effort and suffering. She should be the one to save them, but... it all went fruitless. Trake, tell me, how can she forgive herself after all of this?
And so, the reason that the mansion collapsed is that the game is over. There was already a winner.
"Don't cry."
After Leonthan told her more of the truth behind these confusing games, she didn't realize that he was smiling. She wiped away her tears at once.
"No, Author will come here for reinforcements. Let's just wait a bit. It'll show itself in no time."
She is grasping for the hope that only Author could help them in their current state. The iconic hologram should appear by now.
"Please don't blame yourself. Everything happens for a reason. Live your life to the fullest, and I will be the happiest." He coughed.
She did win the second game and got the prize. She did live again. She did live on the nth planet. She did win the fifth game once again. But she can't be with the friends who gave it all to her. What's the use of all this?
Leonthan is just making her cry more. You don't make her feel better. She doesn't deserve all of this.
"I hate you."
"The more you hate, the more you love, haha," he even makes a joke out of it. He reminds her of Trake's puns.
She just avoided looking at him. He slowly sat up and embraced her even though he was in pain. Her heart is pounding again.
"But please do remember, the burden that you are carrying would not bring you anywhere but drags you where you began to carry it."
She was struck by what he quoted. Burden. Yes, she has it. Her resentments and anger towards her father. He knew about that. Maybe he knew she was traumatized when she saw someone get hurt because he knew what she was going through. That's why he understands the meaning of her painting.