Chapter 254
He found his child. He uncovered Freesia’s whereabouts. He had finally achieved the only goal that had sustained him for the past three years.
Izar had never once dared to imagine what reality awaited after achieving that goal. The greatest hope he had ever allowed himself to hold was simply the certainty that Freesia had passed away peacefully.
The reality before him was far better than anything he had dared hope, and yet, the daughter he had finally met looked at him as though he were a monster. And his wife, the woman he had seen in his nightmares night after night, slept in a glass coffin.
Only after the personnel surveying the underground lake of the Sanctuary withdrew was he finally left alone with her.
“…Freesia.”
He murmured her name quietly and swept his hand across the glass coffin that stood between them.
The coffin itself was said to be a device that gathered the Sanctuary’s magical energy, and he had been warned never to open it unless Freesia herself pushed it open first.
Recalling that caution, he let out a faint, self-mocking laugh.
‘No wonder Nova made such a fuss…’
Riegel hadn’t exaggerated when he said she was bright. He had nearly ruined everything in a fit of longing.
Now that he knew she was alive, the overwhelming tide of longing dulled his hearing, but he held himself back, gazing spellbound at her closed eyes.
Regaining his composure, he saw Freesia more clearly now.
‘She hasn’t changed at all from three years ago.’
He had aged, but she remained exactly as she had been. Perhaps that was thanks to time having stopped while she slept.
Seeing that beloved face before him twisted his insides with conflicting desires. He wanted to wake her right now, to meet her eyes and speak even a single word.
‘But what if this time… really is the last time she’ll wake up?’
If her remaining time ran out as soon as she woke… Wouldn’t it be better if she remained asleep like this forever?
“…All I ever thought about was seeing you again.”
He gently stroked her cheek over and over as he muttered.
“I never once thought about what would come after…”
The pain scorched his throat like molten lava, but he clenched his teeth and forced it down.
No matter how hopeless things were, this was still better than his worst nightmares. While he worked to uncover why Freesia still couldn’t wake, he would try to close the distance with Nova.
“Haa…”
He lifted his head with effort.
The lake, shimmering like it held a sky full of stars, was mysterious, but compared to the brilliant sunlight of the surface, it felt faded.
‘I wish Freesia could wake in a brighter place.’
But this was the spot where the magic concentrated most—there was no choice. Even so, he hated the thought of her being left in this place, even in sleep.
Yet the more he examined this place, the more a strange sensation crept over his skin like shimmering heatwaves.
At first, he’d assumed it was the lingering effects of residual mana. But.
‘Déjà vu?’
It felt exactly like a long-forgotten memory, as if he were suddenly faced with a place he had seen in a dream long ago and then completely forgotten with the rising sun.
〈……Oh, Adamant!〉
〈I gave you everything—!〉
What had that hallucination just been?
As Izar instinctively turned his head to scan his surroundings, he suddenly felt something strike his leg. A pebble.
“What the…?”
“Get ouuut!”
The one who had thrown the rock was none other than his daughter.
A tiny child stood at the entrance, fuming with a crowd of attendants—most of whom were several times her height—behind her.
Those attendants, who knew both Izar’s identity and his relation to Nova, were utterly pale-faced.
“Why do you keep coming to see Mama!”
Though she had hiccuped in fear the first time she saw him, she was now fearless—perhaps because she knew her uncle was nearby.
Nova ran at him with all her might, kicking at his leg and raising her voice.
“Eek! Go away!”
“……”
“Go away from my Mama! Y-You…!”
When the man didn’t move, Nova grew even angrier and stomped her feet.
Why didn’t he show any sign of being hurt?
Izar, on the other hand, was speechless in wonder.
Do three-year-olds normally speak this well? Or was it just Nova?
‘Since Riegel called her bright, it must be the latter.’
But more than her intelligence, he was relieved she had grown up healthy. They had said her life had been in danger due to the difficult birth…
More than anything, he liked how expressive she was. The innocence of letting her emotions out so freely, believing no one would ever hurt her.
Neither he nor Freesia had ever had that luxury as children.
‘She likes dolls, huh? Looks like it’s true.’
Izar silently watched his daughter kicking at his leg and fuming.
Riegel had told him what Nova liked: storybooks, running, ball games, wild roses, and dolls.
But perhaps because she was throwing such a fit while hitting him—
“Ah!”
The doll slipped from her tiny hands and tumbled right into the lake.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.