Chapter 297
A grave of petals
When Freesia came to, what she sensed first wasn’t the smell of dirt or blood, but the freshness in the air.
It was crisp, like the kind of air that filled her lungs when she climbed the hills at dawn to herd the sheep.
“Ah…”
Freesia had felt this sensation once before.
‘It’s like the feeling I had when I opened my eyes again.’
It was the feeling she’d had the morning of the day a new year began, when her mother was still alive.
“Ugh… ah.”
Freesia looked down at her body and parted her lips in confusion. When Canopus had smothered her into unconsciousness, she had been so broken and battered that she thought she might die.
But now, though her body felt a bit stiff, her wounds had healed completely.
‘What happened?’
She looked around. The scenery wasn’t much different from where she had lost consciousness. Somewhere in the shaded underbrush at the base of the cliff.
But as she turned her head, Freesia gasped when she saw the carcasses of monsters scattered around her.
Gasp…!
So Canopus had truly intended to leave her to the monsters while he fled.
But perhaps because she had awakened sooner than expected, the monster had failed to endure and crumbled away like white petals.
‘I have to find help.’
If Canopus hadn’t taken her with him directly, it had to mean reinforcements had arrived, and he was caught up in a standoff. That meant she had to escape to where her allies could help her.
Freesia crawled through the brush, keeping her body hidden as much as possible while scanning her surroundings. Though unfamiliar with the terrain and a bit lost, she cautiously moved toward the direction where she could hear people shouting.
“Huff.”
The deeper she went, the more monster corpses and unmoving bodies she found. The pale green brush was so soaked in blood it had nearly lost its color.
‘What happened to Nova?’
Had she managed to escape safely from this horrific scene? That young child… How far could she even have run? If she hadn’t gotten far, then in the end, she would’ve fallen into Canopus’s hands again…
‘Don’t think about that.’
As she trembled with fear, Freesia stopped just as she was about to step out into a clearing beyond the brambles.
“Ah…!”
Of all things, it was the very place where Izar and Canopus were locked in combat.
Freesia covered her mouth in alarm, worried that the sound she made might dull Izar’s focus.
‘If I make a sound now, Canopus will know where I am…!’
If she distracted Izar now, it would only get in the way of him subduing his opponent.
If there was one thing she was certain of, it was that, even in her subconscious, she had never once thought Izar would lose to his half-brother.
But her pale green eyes trembled as she studied the situation.
‘Wait… something’s wrong with Izar.’
This was the man who had once brought down even a skyborne monster. Even Canopus seemed to be struggling due to his physical condition, and the monsters he summoned were weaker than those from the Hunting Festival.
So why was Izar having such a hard time?
‘Like someone fighting a beast with bare hands…?’
And when a wolf-type monster finally managed to sink its teeth into his shoulder, Freesia couldn’t stay silent any longer.
“Izar!”
Though Izar struck the wolf monster down with his bare hands, blood spurted violently from his shoulder.
The moment his knees touched the ground, Freesia’s legs were already running toward him.
* * *
“Haa…”
Canopus let out a ragged breath as he looked down at Izar, who had dropped to his knees. He had despised him, but had never been confident of victory. Now, at last, he had brought his half-brother to his knees.
At last.
“Haha…!”
Freesia had been wrong.
If he hadn’t been chosen by Adamant, would he ever have been able to defeat Izar like this?
His half-brother, weakened by excessive blood loss, couldn’t even get up, only groaned in pain.
“Ugh…”
Watching him in such a miserable state, Canopus’s sneer deepened.
‘This truly is the end.’
Once he severed this man’s head, his revenge would finally be complete. But just before tying off that final knot, a scent of grass—completely out of place in the blood-drenched air—tickled his nose.
Izar turned his gaze in that direction faster than Canopus could react.
‘Freesia…?’
Despite the pain that had pushed him to his limits, he instantly recognized that she was approaching. Her scent. The sound of her hurried footsteps. Her breath catching as it hit the bottom of her throat.
This time, Freesia was running toward him. Not broken, not soaked in blood, not a ruined corpse.
“Izar!”
He barely knocked aside the falling sword and tried to run toward where she was.
‘Why did you come here…’
Should he feel joy at hearing her call his name?
No. More than that, there was something he had to confirm.
“Freesia…”
Had God kept the promise… just as he had wished?
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