Chapter 109

(Lurelia’s Belated Bonus – Update 7/14 🎉)

 

Angelina muttered as she watched the bean-sized ‘power’ hovering over her palm.

The reason she had confined herself was precisely because this ‘power’ had truly formed.

She could use this power just by realizing and thinking about it, even though she had never learned how.

Of course, it was only the size of a bean and accompanied by headaches, making it difficult to maintain for long, but nonetheless, it was true that this mysterious power was generated by her will.

Could it be because her memories were unlocked?

Because she hadn’t tried before?

Because of the holy water?

Or the necklace and earrings?

Was it like a blocked meridian that had been opened? Should she find that merchant again and ask more questions?

“That can’t be… If drinking holy water allowed anyone to use holy power, all of humanity would be priests.”

Angelina brought the round power floating above her palm closer to Pudding.

This ambiguous power that was neither magical power nor holy power. Or perhaps it would make more sense to say it was both.

That was precisely why she couldn’t insist it was just a temporary phenomenon caused by the holy water.

Because it wasn’t ordinary holy power.

“I guess this is what Yansen called the ‘power of the sun’ or whatever.”

It felt similar to what she had felt when retrieving the Crimson Thorn sacred object.

That one had a musty smell from being stagnant for so long, but this was clean and fresh.

It was also similar to the energy emitted by the music box in Kuns Village that had absorbed both Haley’s magic and Mason’s holy power.

“Sniff?”

“You’re bewildered too, right? I’m bewildered as well. But apparently, the energies in my body were so tangled up that I couldn’t create this until now.”

“Kyu.”

“Ridiculous, isn’t it? I also…”

“KYU!”

While she was lamenting, Pudding made a bright expression and stuck his front paw into the power.

“Oh, be careful…”

At that moment, the small power that had been the size of a quail egg instantly grew to the size of an ostrich egg.

Pudding had infused it with his own power.

Angelina’s eyes widened.

“What is this…”

She looked at Pudding with trembling eyes.

“Pudding, could you be…”

Pudding excitedly wrapped his body with that power. As if showing off, ‘Look, I can do this too!’

It was a much larger amount of power than she could use.

Not content with just surrounding himself, he was even giving it to Angelina, which reminded her of a passage she had recently read in a book.

「By that person’s side were a million divine beasts offering protection.」

“Divine beast…?”

“Kyu!”

“Ahhh!”

Angelina jumped up from her seat in shock.

As the startled Pudding opened his eyes wide, the door flung open.

“Lina!”

It was Ante.

He had rushed over immediately upon hearing that something was wrong with Angelina, despite needing to be at the Marquis residence publicly.

“No, Pudding…!”

Angelina didn’t care about such details. She simply pointed at Pudding with trembling hands.

Since when had he been a divine beast?

Were the black market merchant’s ramblings not just provocative talk but actually true? Is this even possible?

‘Could it be because of Pudding…?’

Could it be that the power emerged not because of her memories or the holy water, but because of him?

“No, ow.”

As new thoughts filled her mind, her head started to ache again, and Angelina tightly closed her eyes and gripped her hair.

The headaches hadn’t stopped since she realized she was the Saint. Her heart also seemed strangely louder.

Even more so than when she realized this world was inside a novel, or when she learned her brother was the Magic Tower Master.

The truth was gradually becoming too much to bear. She couldn’t keep her sanity.

If she had known it would be like this, she wouldn’t have sought out those memories. It felt like she had opened Pandora’s box out of curiosity for the truth.

Ante rushed over and embraced her tightly as she moaned and pulled at her hair.

“Lina, your brother is here. It’s okay now.”

He firmly held her arms to prevent her from harming herself further and embraced her tightly from behind.

So tightly she couldn’t move, almost suffocating her.

“I’m sorry. Lina, your brother is sorry.”

He whispered in a torn voice and tightened his arms even more.

Angelina’s breath, which had seemed on the verge of convulsing, quickly calmed at Ante’s voice.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Right. I shouldn’t be like this.’

Ante’s voice had the power to bring her back to her senses.

His tight embrace allowed her to hear his heartbeat, which helped her calm down more quickly.

‘If I’m like this, he’ll blame himself again.’

Since she had collapsed after he showed her that hideout a few days ago, he must be very concerned about it.

No matter that his outward appearance was Aesi, his core was still her brother, so he would think her condition was because he had shown her such a scene.

“Brother, you’re here?”

Unable to let her brother blame himself, Angelina called out to him in a deliberately calm voice as she opened her eyes.

She also relaxed her body to reassure him.

But although she had regained her composure, her crimson eyes were flickering with a strange light.

A docility that seemed forced rather than genuine calmness.

“Your brother is sorry.”

Ante didn’t easily let her go. He buried his face in her shoulder and whispered.

“Why are you sorry, brother?”

He must be thinking about a few days ago, but Angelina first recalled her memory from when she was seven.

His apology felt like it was for what happened at the temple back then.

“It’s not your fault, brother.”

She still didn’t know how she ended up at the temple.

But whatever the reason, it wasn’t her brother’s fault. Even if her brother had let go of her hand, it wasn’t his fault.

What she experienced at the temple, how she ended up in the Dark Forest, and how all those memories disappeared entirely due to the great shock.

“It was never your fault, not once.”

It’s this damn world’s fault.

Angelina, freeing herself from his arms, didn’t look back at him. She walked forward and approached Laura, snatching the diary from her hand.

Laura, who had followed Ante in and seen the diary open on the table, was wearing a surprised expression.

She must have seen the [First Flower = Me] on the open page.

‘Well, I wasn’t trying to hide it anyway.’

After giving Laura a slight smile, she swept back her disheveled hair and turned to Ante.

“But brother.”

She began, closing the diary with a thud.

“Did you know?”

Her expression and behavior were as calm as usual.

But perhaps because her usual neat appearance was disheveled, the atmosphere felt rough. Moreover, her eyes, which had always been pure, now held a different energy.

Subtle, but…

“Hmm…”

Something similar to madness.

“Lina?”

“The Saint doesn’t have blonde hair.”

“…What?”

“So none of it was your fault, brother.”

It was a disconnected statement.

But Ante understood.

“Lina. What are you suddenly talking about?”

In contrast to his greatly shaken gaze, Angelina spoke calmly.

“The temple knew. They knew very well, right up until the moment they abandoned me in the Dark Forest.”

“…How much do you remember?”

Ante’s lips trembled.

“You’re asking ‘how much’… so there’s a lot to remember, I guess?”

“Lina.”

“Come to think of it, it was strange. No matter how young I was, how could I not remember anything at all?”

She had thought everyone was like that.

But that wasn’t the case.

She felt it once while talking with Blake, and felt it again while conversing with Yansen.

Her memories had been deliberately erased.

Whether it was done by her subconscious or someone else’s interference, it was clear that someone wanted her not to remember this.

Angelina hoped it was herself. That she had experienced something so traumatic that her mind had blocked the memories as a defense mechanism, causing shock-induced amnesia.

But it seemed too consistent for that—specific objects triggered memories when touched, and meeting specific people brought memories back.

“There’s a magic like that, they say. A strange magic that neatly packages a person’s memories and seals them away in a corner of the mind.”

Ante’s breathing quickened.

“Have you heard of it, brother?”

“…I’m not sure.”

“Do you really not know?”

“Lina.”

“Was it for my sake? Because I was suffering?”

“…Lina, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but let’s sit down first.”

Ante took a step toward her.

“Let’s talk sitting down. Let’s calm down over some tea…”

“If you won’t answer…”

But Angelina took a step back.

“I’ll have to ask Aesi.”

As she raised her hand to her forehead, Ante’s face turned pale.

There was magic inscribed there by ‘Aesi.’

A tracking magic and summoning magic.

Ironically, it was magic that had been made strongly compulsory so she could go to him in any situation.

Back then, he had left it as powerful as possible out of concern for her safety, but now it was coming back to him like a boomerang.