Chapter 137
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 137
Throughout witnessing the memories left behind in the White Space, Chesa yearned desperately.
To change the past that had already slipped away.
Even knowing full well that time cannot be reversed, I repeated meaningless attempts.
I witnessed a horrific moment, yet the remaining memories did not end there.
Chesa also saw the "education" that Holy King Sianor had inflicted upon Hailon.
Originally, the process of forcibly injecting Holy Power was called education.
The reason Lemil sensed the Fairy's power was to push Holy Power beyond its limits.
The Fairy's power was mixed in to prevent the body from breaking down.
However, Hailon possessed talent superior to anyone else.
After devouring the Holy King's Holy Power, he had already reached his peak, making it impossible to inject Holy Power using patterns.
Having lost not only his Holy Power but also the youth of both arms and body, Sianor never forgave Hailon.
Yet Hailon was the most outstanding Holy Knight to carve his name into the history of Hilderd.
Unable to kill him carelessly, he decided to educate Hailon in a different manner.
Through infinite time itself.
A twisted space created by the power of patterns, discovered by chance during repeated experiments.
There, a mere one second of time became a full day.
After being confined for several days, it was no different from centuries having passed.
No one who underwent such education maintained their sanity.
Save for Hailon alone.
Hailon remained composed.
He accepted the education without emotion and emerged from the White Space unscathed after being imprisoned for over a week.
Yet even if he appeared outwardly serene, I could see his once-vivid blue eyes gradually wearing away...
Only Chesa could perceive it.
Watching Hailon undergo the Holy King's education, I came to understand.
'I think I know why it showed me this memory.'
The pattern had extracted and revealed memories entangled with Hailon.
As if it hoped Chesa would harbor hostility toward the Holy Empire and seek revenge.
The Fairy Queen's crown also desired something from Chesa.
The Fairy I met before arriving at the Holy Empire.
And the monsters trapped underground as well.
Everything connected to the Fairy was slowly converging around Chesa.
As if Chesa herself were becoming the Fairy Queen.
"...."
When all the memories the pattern had unfolded came to an end, I returned to the original space.
Chesa slowly surveyed her surroundings.
The White Space remained unchanged.
Except that the pattern whose edges had been stained red had returned to its complete blue color.
Chesa was held tightly in Lemil's embrace.
Lemil had not yet awakened.
Yet trapped within a terrible nightmare, I trembled and gasped continuously.
Chesa touched her own face.
It was drenched entirely with tears.
As if nothing had happened, she wiped away the moisture with the back of her hand, then struck Lemil's cheek sharply.
Like breaking through from the depths of water, Lemil's eyes flew open as he drew in a massive breath.
"Gasp... hah...!"
His small chest heaved rapidly.
Drenched in cold sweat from head to toe, Lemil desperately clutched Chesa in his arms.
He gripped her tightly enough to cause slight pain, then belatedly regained his senses and hastily released her.
"C-Chesa...?"
Judging from the wildly trembling pupils, it seemed Lemil had witnessed everything that had happened to Hailon.
Chesa waited for Lemil to calm down before speaking.
"You saw it too?"
"...Yes."
"If you continue, it becomes dangerous."
"But..."
She grasped Lemil's hesitant hand firmly.
Dozens of flowers bloomed at once, enveloping Lemil and Chesa.
When their vision cleared from the obstruction of petals, the boy and the girl were already in the Garden.
She warned Lemil, who stood frozen with wide eyes in shock.
"Don't push yourself. You'll die."
Lemil's body was already at its limit.
If she forced any more holy power into him, he truly might perish.
After setting Lemil beneath a large tree, Chesa gathered her strength once more.
There was someone she needed to meet immediately.
"...Chesa!"
Lemil cried out urgently.
His voice was so clear and distinct that it was hard to believe this was the boy who could never speak properly and always mumbled awkwardly.
Surrounded by flowers, Chesa hovered in midair, looking down at Lemil.
"What... what should I do from now on?"
His expression was desperate, filled with absolute trust.
As if he would die if Chesa commanded it at this very moment.
Yet Chesa did not give Lemil an order.
"Do as your heart desires."
"Ah... but I..."
Disappearing among the flowers, she left her final words for Lemil.
"You can do it."
With those words, Chesa vanished completely.
Lemil reached out his hand, but all his fingertips touched were flower petals.
Even those soon crumbled into light and scattered away.
"...."
Lemil slowly lowered his empty hand.
With vacant eyes, I gazed at my own hand, then suddenly flinched at a sharp pain in my shoulder.
Droplets of blood were seeping from my tattered lips.
I had bitten them savagely without realizing it.
Lemil had also witnessed the memory.
Yet there was one difference from what Chesa had seen....
"...Ah."
A brief sound escaped my lips.
While retracing the memory, I inadvertently harbored an unseemly thought.
Lemil squeezed my eyes shut.
I quickly offered a silent prayer of repentance, but it proved futile.
Once a thought took root, it would not easily fade.
Instead, it became etched into my mind as if branded there permanently.
"What, what should I do...."
The young boy muttered with a thoroughly dejected expression.
Lemil realized I had conceived a desire I could never fulfill.
***
The moment I saw Hailon, tears burst forth.
I truly had not wanted to cry, yet the tears poured out as if someone had pressed an invisible button.
Even as I wailed loudly and hurled insults at myself for being foolish and stupid, Hailon comforted Chesa.
He even apologized, saying it was his fault.
"There, there, young lady, please don't cry!"
"Look here, young lady. These are truly beautiful flowers."
"This one is a four-leaf clover!"
While Hailon held Chesa and soothed her, the Holy Knights all gathered around, attempting to comfort and console her.
A peculiar sight unfolded as the burly knights encircled her, desperately trying to pacify the child.
Having heard somewhere that fairies loved flowers and grass, they all eagerly plucked specimens and waved them before Chesa.
In the midst of that chaotic commotion, Daren, Hailon's adjutant, also joined in, fidgeting nervously.
Naturally, the knights' frantic attempts to soothe the child proved entirely ineffective.
"Enough."
Finally, Hailon stepped forward and brought everyone to a halt.
Holding Chesa, whose tears still would not cease, he sought out a quieter place.
Chesa, drained of strength, continued to hiccup while earnestly soaking Hailon's chest with her tears.
Seated on a chair beside the sparsely populated Fountain, Hailon gazed quietly at Chesa.
Then he exhaled a long sigh.
"...Sigh."
He gently caressed her eyes, which had begun to swell from crying so much.
"Don't cry. If you weep any longer, you'll damage your health."
His gruff voice carried a sincerity too profound to fully express in words.
Chesa sniffled and grasped his hand.
Hailon allowed himself to be held by her without resistance.
I gazed at our hands, so vastly different in size.
I wished I could embrace Hailon with large, grown hands instead of these small ones.
As The Witch Lichesia, who knew of the eight scars etched across his back, I longed to comfort him for his past.
But in this childish form, I could do nothing.
'I want to become an adult.'
It was a desire more intense than ever before.
Yet I also wished to remain as Chesa of Basilian.
For I had already given my heart to Basilian.
Contradictory longings tangled chaotically within me—the desire to remain a child and the desire to grow into an adult.
To gain one, I would have to surrender the other.
Though I knew I shouldn't be greedy, I couldn't let go of either.
No, even if I chose one.
There was no guarantee it would come to pass as I wished.
It was then, as I gazed at Hailon with tears blurring my vision.
That I understood.
Whether I lived as a child or as an adult.
Whichever path I chose, I would find unhappiness in what I could not have.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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