Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Peter didn’t understand her words, but knew he could go back, and that was enough.
Inside the lodge at Alpine Mountain Range.
From afar, Peter saw Kim waiting under the cedar tree: “Kim, I’m back.”
What he didn’t notice was Angela behind him, staring intently where he looked.
“Hello, can I talk to you?”
Peter stared at Angela in shock-she was the first person besides him who could see Kim.
He knew it wasn’t his imagination now. He started to speak.
“Kim” nodded at Angela: “Alright.”
Then she turned to Peter: “I’ll talk with this young lady first.”
With that, she led Angela inside.
“Young lady, you’ve lingered here too long. Time to leave. Peter loves Kim, not you.”
Angela stared into “Kim’s” eyes and said.
The other shook her head.
“As long as Peter believes I’m ‘Kim,’ I am. What he wants now is for me to stay.”
Angela glanced at Peter outside: “Fine. I’ll make him face reality.”
She’d known all along-this ‘Kim’ was the woodland spirit Peter met on the mountain.
Back then, drawn by Peter’s love for Kim, she’d taken Kim’s form to save him.
Otherwise, Peter’s mortal body couldn’t have survived three days after the avalanche.
“But I can’t bear to leave him.”
The woodland spirit was made of devotion. Peter’s longing moved her too deeply.
“If you stay, he can’t live normally. Won’t you go?”
The woodland spirit hesitated: “If I leave… can she return to normal life?”
“Yes.”
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Chapter 23
Angela promised.
The woodland spirit finally nodded. Coming out, Angela told Peter:
“She’s not Kim. I’ll take you to the real her.”
Without waiting for his reaction, she touched his forehead.
Instantly, countless images flooded his mind.
From Kim’s death to her receiving the Grim Reaper’s permission, to her seeing him.
Peter sobbed uncontrollably: “So… it really wasn’t her…”
Everything connected. Peter knew the whole truth.
The illusion around the woodland spirit shifted. Her form began fading.
Eyes red, Peter watched. Before she vanished, he whispered: “Thank you.”
“Live well…”
The woodland spirit’s last words to Peter.
When all settled, Angela said: “Leave this place. Go home.”
Peter looked at the empty lodge: “They’ll both live well, won’t they?”
Angela gazed at the mountain: “Yes.”
The woodland spirit and Kim-both would have their own brilliant lives ahead.
Years later, Peter became an old man, having lived alone his whole life.
Nearing his end, he returned to Alpine Mountain Range.
He sat under the cedar tree before the lodge, quietly watching the mountain. His eyelids grew heavy.
As they closed, he seemed to see Kim smiling, reaching out to him.
Peter, I’ve come for you…
–THE END——
