Chapter 129

He spread one arm to block the way with his gesture.

As if to say he really wouldn’t let this go if she went any further.

But he knew he didn’t have the power to stop her.

He couldn’t fight her, nor could he let her pass, so he was truly caught between a rock and a hard place.

“I’ll give you anything, staking the Magic Tower on it. If you want me to wage war against the Empire, I’ll do that, and if you want me to destroy the Magic Tower, I’ll do that too. But please, not this place.”

He spoke with a desperate feeling.

But after a brief silence, Angelina’s foot moved. Toward the fog barrier.

Of course, Aesi didn’t just let her walk past. He firmly grabbed both her arms.

“Why are you doing this?”

He felt suffocated by how unfamiliar it was for his tender-hearted sister to push him this far.

“I can really do anything for you.”

“…You’ve always done everything for me.”

A sigh escaped through Aesi’s teeth.

That was also true, so his argument lacked persuasiveness.

From the beginning, even without this situation, he was a man who would do anything for Angelina. Wasn’t he the kind of man who would willingly destroy even the Magic Tower if she said she wanted it gone?

“Do you want to see me go crazy?”

“If I don’t go there, I think I’ll go crazy.”

Neither Angelina nor Aesi seemed willing to back down.

“What exactly are you so afraid of?”

Just as Angelina asked, something happened.

While the two were arguing, Pudding’s legs, which had been stomping toward the fog barrier, touched it.

Swoosh—

A gust of wind blew.

The fog cleared.

And before them spread a brilliant rose garden.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Red, yellow, white, orange, pink, and even some black and green roses were blooming in a colorful array.

Unlike the surrounding Dark Forest, the bright light was intense.

Even though it wasn’t the season for roses, all the roses were in full bloom, proudly displaying their beauty.

“……”

Ante’s arms fell limply as his face spread with despair, and Angelina walked toward the place as if enchanted.

Entering the rose vine garden felt like entering another world. But it was discordant.

Though the scene was beautiful enough to take one’s breath away, it was a place where an inexplicable discomfort welled up.

The reason could be understood the moment her hand touched a rose.

“…Has time stopped?”

A space frozen at what should have been its most beautiful moment.

No, is it really… beautiful?

It was at that moment the question arose.

“That… isn’t that the sacred object?”

Blake pointed to the center of the rose vines. There was a rose there that was notably larger than the others.

But it was transparent.

Moreover, unlike the other roses, it wasn’t in full bloom.

It looked like it had stopped blooming midway.

Resembling a tulip if seen incorrectly.

“Why… did you bring it back here?”

It was the sacred object that Ante should have stolen from the Order.

 

19. The Truth

 

Angelina reached out toward the sacred object. But she was stopped by Ante again.

He grabbed her arm tightly.

When she turned to look, his face was completely distorted.

“…Promise me. No matter what you see, you won’t be disappointed in me.”

Angelina’s brow furrowed slightly.

“What… do you mean, ‘see’?”

Could it be that her brother could also see those memories when he touched the sacred object? Was she not the only one who could see them?

“No, it’s fine if you’re disappointed. It’s fine if you hate me. Just promise you won’t despise me.”

Despise?

Angelina was a bit confused.

How would seeing those memories lead to despising him? What was contained here?

But Angelina’s answer was already decided.

Angelina took Aesi’s hand. She removed it from her arm while stroking the platinum ring on her pinky finger.

“You already know my answer.”

“……”

The most precious person in the world. Someone she would gladly dedicate her fate to and give her remaining time to.

That’s what she had said when giving him this ring.

But his expression was as if he couldn’t believe it.

But since there were no more words she could give him, Angelina let go of his hand and took a deep breath. Then she grabbed the sacred object.

As it touched her, the transparent rose, or rather, the rose-shaped glass, began to turn blue.

Eventually, when it became a complete sea color…

Whoosh.

The surrounding space was swept away.

“…!”

“This is……”

Angelina and Blake’s eyes widened as much as they could.

The bright rose garden disappeared without a trace, and the artificial sunlight vanished.

What remained were traces of burnt roses and a collapsed building. It resembled a temple that could be seen in any village, but it was in ruins.

The moment they took in the destroyed place that looked as if a crazed beast had swept through it, a different scene flashed through Angelina and Blake’s minds.

“No…!”

What Blake saw was his younger self returning to a place scorched so badly that not even ‘that child’s’ body remained, screaming in despair.

The ruins of this place were startlingly similar to that place.

As if the same beast had passed through.

Meanwhile, Angelina was hearing the voice of an unexpected woman.

“Darling, come here and try putting your power into this.”

A voice that seemed gentle but was sharp.

It was at that moment.

“…Aaaah!”

A pain-filled scream from afar pierced her mind, and Angelina’s head began to ache sharply.

“Huh!”

She grabbed her head and collapsed on the spot.

“Lina!”

“Miss Flaubert!”

“Grr?!”

The two men and Pudding gathered around her simultaneously. But Angelina was hearing other voices.

“..scared and won’t come… “

“Because you’re smiling…”

“…how wonderful it would be… “

Broken voices.

But all from the same person.

Her mind was like a foggy haze where nothing could be seen.

But contrary to her splitting headache, her heart was warm enough to feel full.

It was a truly strange phenomenon.

‘It’s a boy’s voice again. But it’s different from that child. What is this…’

It’s not His Grace’s voice.

Another memory?

‘My memory?’

It’s not the Saint’s memory contained in the sacred object.

This was undoubtedly her own memory.

Perhaps…

‘What my brother meant when he said not to hate him after seeing…’

She could intuitively understand.

That it was related to this place.

Then another memory struggling in the fog briefly revealed itself.

“Ohhh…! Yes, that’s it. Ah, this beautiful light…!”

A man’s voice praising with chilling enthusiasm, though she’d never heard it before.

“Come here and touch this.”

Another voice that gave her a disgusting feeling.

But between them came…

“Child, please don’t cry, okay?”

A gentle and pitiful soft voice.

But the fog took away the memory again without properly illuminating any of it.

And this time, as if determined not to be discovered, it locked the door firmly and hid everything again.

The headache disappeared.

“…So this is it. The place where my power first manifested.”

Only fragments were visible, but she could piece them together.

From the woman asking her to put in power to the men praising the light and asking her to touch something, it was like a strange obsession with the Sun’s power.

Angelina’s head turned toward Ante.

“Was this it? What you were trying to hide from me?”

At her question, Ante’s shoulders jerked greatly.

His eyes looking at her contained a desperate desire to confirm how much she had seen.

“Just now, that voice…”

Just as Angelina’s mouth opened again.

Suddenly, the sacred object in her hand began to glow.

“…?!”

There was no time to be surprised.

Light began to emanate from Ante’s pocket, and he took out the object.

Two sacred objects.

“Why is this happening?”

The light pouring from the sacred objects grew brighter until they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

Then, matching perfectly with her sacred object, it instantly changed to crimson, blue, and black, and merged into one.

The light that fused into one was white, and before they could react, it pierced Angelina’s heart.

And her vision changed.

It wasn’t just her.

The vision of the two men who had reached out to her in surprise was also pulled somewhere else, changing.

***

At the same time, the Crown Prince’s Palace was in an uproar because the Crown Prince had suddenly collapsed.

***

At the same time, Catherine, who was practicing holy power amplified by the sacred object on the top floor of the Magic Tower, recalled memories she had forgotten.

***

At the same time, the people of Kuns Village, who were busy rebuilding the village, stopped.

They instinctively felt that the time had come, and that they had successfully completed their duty as ‘messengers,’ and their eyes reddened.

***

At the same time, the ‘Black Land’ of the duchy, which had been contaminated by magic power, began to gradually reveal its true form.

***

At the same time, the tombstone in the grave guarded by the Crimson Thorn cracked as if it had completed its task.

***

And Angelina opened her eyes in the ‘memory.’