How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 131

“They say it takes hundreds of years to become a sacred tree. No matter how much you’re a descendant of dragons, isn’t your lifespan human?”

“And you, being just a rose, what makes your lifespan so long?’

‘It’s all thanks to the Sun’s blessing. Hehe.”

“You madman. Are you the only one who received the Sun’s blessing? Is there anyone here who didn’t receive a drop of light?”

“But I was the first! Haha, jealous? ”

“You #$%#@!”

Again, the bickering fight began.

“…Pathetic fools.”

“Ahaha.”

Artoas’s sigh and Sun’s laughter filled the space.

Until then, they were truly happy.

A strange light briefly passed through Sun’s dazed eyes. But tears welled up too.

She tightly hugged her arms.

Did we know then? That this is what it meant to not be people of this world?

“I will hold this place.”

At Artoas’s unchangingly calm tone beside her, Sun swallowed her tears and turned her head.

He, who had finished wrapping bandages around his arm, drew the sword he had stuck in the ground.

“Sun, please go further from here. You should be able to find a safe zone soon.”

He said this, but he also knew. That there was no safe haven in this world for the Sun.

The world tainted by the witch was already trying to erase the Sun. Their ultimate goal, after breaking the sword, dropping the dragon, and corrupting the rose, was the Sun.

Nevertheless, all he could do was protect her until the very end.

That was the mission he had to keep as her sword.

Soon after, the shouts of those creatures began to be heard from the end of the cave.

“Catch the witch!”

“Kill her without fail!”

Voices filled with malice.

“Foolish things. They’ve actually come this far.”

He muttered softly as he swung his sword. Lightning began to fill the blade.

Lightning that brings divine punishment to insignificant beings who do not cherish the Sun. That was how the Sun’s knight protected her.

At that moment, the space changed again.

The last place left by memory.

It was the same hill as the one seen first.

The place that was once filled with happiness was now immersed in deep sorrow.

And a woman standing alone under the sky dyed in twilight.

Having lost her voice, her friends, and her love, she watched the world where the Sun’s blood was spreading more deeply with unfocused eyes.

Shortly after, the bottom of the hill became noisy.

The witch’s army was climbing the hill to capture her.

The woman slowly closed her eyes.

‘I command in the name of the Sun.’

Woong.

She began to emit a strong light. The light was as intense as if the Sun had descended to earth.

The light that blinded everyone’s eyes rose to the sky, divided into strands, and spread to various parts of the continent.

‘I command in the name of the Sun.’

Thus, their end became.

‘As your sword, I will surely punish the traitors.’

A mission and.

‘As your priest, I will surely protect your children.’

A healing and.

‘As your believer, I will surely set everything right.’

An apology became.

「The Sun shall shine again.」

A waiting.

When the light was withdrawn and the witch’s army had climbed all the way up the hill, the Sun was no longer there.

There was only a willow tree standing, drooping and quietly letting the world’s storms pass by.

***

Crack-! Crash!

The world shown by the fragments of memory shattered.

“Huh.”

As if she had forgotten to breathe, Angelina quickly inhaled. The men on either side of her did the same.

After taking a short breath, Angelina exhaled it long and slowly.

For having so much information enter her mind instantaneously, her body was strangely calm.

Calm like the eye of a typhoon.

“Grr?”

The only one who waited for the three people who suddenly staggered and sat down to regain their senses was Pudding.

He lay down in front of them, nodding off, then slowly crawled to Angelina who had opened her eyes. Still not having reduced his size, he rested his large face on her lap.

When the soft fur touched her, emotions began to stir. Like the beginning of a typhoon, like throwing a stone into a calm lake, fierce ripples rose in her heart.

“…So your original name is Phoebe.”

“Grr?!”

At her small mutter, Pudding let out a big snort and blinked his rounded eyes repeatedly.

Angelina slowly turned her head.

Beside her were Ante and Blake, looking as confused as she was. Of course, Ante was still wearing his mask, but…

She could tell they had all seen the same thing.

Angelina, taking her gaze away from the two looking at her, scanned the forest that had cleared as the fog lifted. The cries of beasts could be heard from somewhere.

“They were… divine beasts protecting the Sun.”

Beasts that had been abandoned for too long, stagnating until the Sun’s power turned into magical power.

And even that became contaminated and diminished, losing even their reason to become monsters.

They were all once divine beasts.

And the priest who ruled them and followed the Sun.

Angelina turned her head to look at Ante again.

It wasn’t because he was the Magic Tower Master that he controlled the Dark Forest.

‘This entire area is already one with me. Fighting me is like fighting this forest.’

Because he was Zeplictus, because this place was created by his will, he was the master of this place.

He seemed to have just realized this too, exhaling a faint breath with a somewhat shocked expression.

Then Angelina’s gaze slowly turned to Blake. Along with the sack tied to his back containing Artoas.

‘As your sword, I will surely punish the traitors.’

The scabbard hadn’t been passed down through generations and then lost.

Artoas wasn’t the name of that sword, but the Kadenhart Duke bloodline itself.

The Sun’s sword wasn’t that sword but Blake, and ‘Artoas’ was… the scabbard that contained the power of that sword.

Blake seemed to have the same thought as her and put down the sack he was carrying on his back. He unwrapped the cloth and picked up Artoas.

Now they knew. What was needed.

Angelina placed her hand on Artoas’s blade, and he did the same, grasping the blade.

The two made shallow wounds on their thumbs, smeared blood on the sword, and simultaneously infused it with power.

The one that had swallowed the Sun’s power began to awaken and connected the will remaining in the sword with the energy of its master, Artoas.

Crackle.

The seal was broken, and lightning began to rise in the sword.

“Ha.”

A sigh escaped through Angelina’s teeth.

Tears flowed.

These tears were not her own.

They were the tears of the ‘Sun’ who had lost everything and remained alone hundreds of years ago.

The desperate and complicated feelings of her who, before dying, placed her lingering attachment in the places that were most precious to her filled Angelina’s heart and then slowly drained away.

They didn’t stay.

As if the future now belonged to the future’s people, she shook off her last emotions and left without lingering.

But there was no emptiness. The empty hole was quickly filled with the present Angelina.

Her relationship with Blake.

The time she spent with Ante.

The past existed for the truth, but the present was theirs.

“After all this, it’s funny to try to keep hiding.”

Breaking the silence, Ante laughed self-deprecatingly and took off his mask.

Angelina was surprised, and Blake’s eyes widened slightly. Ante’s appearance that had been hidden under the mask was revealed as it was.

“Lina. You asked where Zeplictus is?”

He pulled her hand and placed it on his chest.

“Here.”

Angelina’s gaze wavered greatly.

She could feel the heartbeat pulsing strongly in her palm.

But Angelina could also faintly sense the Sun’s power, not magical power, matching that beat.

She didn’t know before.

When she didn’t know how to use the Sun’s power, even when she heard her brother’s heartbeat, she couldn’t recognize that this energy was the Sun’s power.

“…So it really wasn’t there originally.”

Angelina laughed emptily.

“I had my suspicions, but I never imagined I would witness such direct confirmation.”

Blake spoke. His words were directed at Ante.

“That’s why I don’t show myself to people.”

Strangely, everyone notices. Even those oblivious Magic Tower guys.

At first, I was puzzled. I thought I was acting quite well.

It took me a long time to realize it was because of my behavior toward Angelina.

So I just stopped meeting people altogether. The habit of overprotecting Angelina wasn’t something that could be fixed just by wearing a mask more often.