Chapter 193
At her whisper, Chesha held her breath.
It probably wasn’t just Chesha who felt that way.
The hand that had been tightly clasped with Hailon’s now gripped even harder.
Leaning on his hand, Chesha trembled faintly.
When she had decided to enter the orphanage.
She had used the name Chesha without much thought.
It wasn’t a name chosen with any particular meaning in mind.
She had simply used it because it popped into her head at that moment.
But the instant Rose uttered that name, she realized.
Why, out of so many nicknames, she had chosen ‘Chesha’ of all things.
The one who had made Chesha into Chesha was Rose.
After wrapping the tiny baby in layers upon layers of flower petals, Rose carefully placed her finger on the outermost petal.
Following her touch, a name was engraved upon the petal.
[Lichesia]
It was Chesha’s true name.
Rose had named her child Lichesia and called her by the affectionate nickname Chesha.
She stared blankly at the elegant cursive script.
‘I thought there was nothing beyond just giving birth to me.’
She had given Chesha a name and left her a lullaby.
It was the only gift a mad, wandering fairy could give her daughter.
Even after finishing everything, Rose caressed Chesha for a long while.
Knowing she had to let her go now, yet unable to release her hand, she kept stroking Chesha.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut.
Letting out a pained groan, she pulled Chesha into her arms one last time.
Pressing her lips carefully to the small forehead, she whispered.
“I’m sorry….”
She must have known it too.
Because Rose had traversed time like the wind, Chesha had become entangled in a twisted timeline.
Rose, who had traveled from the past hundreds of years ago to the present, fell in love with Kierne and gave birth to three sons.
And to prevent the world from collapsing due to her existence, she crossed time again while pregnant with Chesha.
But by then, Rose’s mind was already corrupted.
Unable to wield her power properly, she only managed to go back a mere few years, not to her original timeline.
Thus, Chesha became both the youngest and the eldest of the Basilian family.
The storms that would ravage Chesha’s life were all but predestined from her birth.
For with her birth, she was burdened with the heavy duty of unraveling the tightly knotted threads of time.
Even if she tried to ignore all responsibility and live an ordinary life, it would be impossible.
Because she had inherited the blood of the Fairy Queen.
Tears welled up in Rose’s eyes.
Even though she could clearly see the turbulent life her child would lead because of her, the helplessness of being unable to do anything about it made her weep endlessly.
Rose struggled to steady her breath and offered her final blessing for Chesha.
“May your life be filled with nothing but dazzling happiness….”
Black flowers bloomed around Chesha.
Chesha knew what would happen next.
Once completely enveloped by those flowers, she would be left in front of the orphanage.
Rose’s desperate wish was for Chesha to go to the safest and happiest place to grow up.
As per her fervent desire, Chesha spent a happy childhood in the orphanage until she manifested her fairy powers.
It was the moment her final question was resolved.
But there was no refreshing sense of relief.
Chesha simply stared blankly at Rose and her infant self.
Just before the small body was covered by the black flowers and vanished.
The baby opened her eyes for the first time.
They were the crimson eyes of the Basilian County family.
The moment she met those ruby-red eyes, Rose finally burst into tears.
She clutched Chesha tightly, but nothing remained.
Just like Kierne, she too ended up holding only flower petals in her arms.
Rose sobbed in agony.
In response to her emotions, the thorny brambles writhed and grew.
The thorns that filled every direction pierced and scratched her tender flesh all over.
But Rose cried on, oblivious to the pain.
Unable to bear the sorrow of sending away a baby with eyes identical to Kierne’s, she writhed in torment.
Her mind, which had barely been holding on, finally shattered completely.
Sensing her impending death, Rose smiled hollowly.
Her parched, cracked lips whispered the name she longed for.
“Kierne….”
Until then, Kierne had been frozen in place.
Unable to make the slightest movement or utter a single word, he simply stood rigidly by Rose’s side.
Then, at her call, he inhaled sharply as if awakening from a dream.
He reached out to Rose.
His hand passed right through her as if it were natural, but the scene before him didn’t change.
This was because it was Rose’s final moments.
There was nothing more to show, so the scene remained unchanged.
He had no choice but to watch her death, immobile.
In a daze, Kierne gazed at Rose calling his name.
His eyes had long lost focus, and his breathing was unsteady.
“Kierne, haa, Kierne, sob, heu….”
Rose called for Kierne through her tears.
She repeated the name she couldn’t reach, even though it was right in front of her.
“My children…. Belzeon, haa, Karha, Ishuel…. I wanted to be with them until they grew up, hic, and the baby, I couldn’t even hold her properly, that newborn I….”
She wiped her tears with bloodstained hands.
“Kierne, I’m so scared…. I don’t want to die….”
Kierne trembled violently as he tried to embrace Rose.
But again, he passed through her in vain.
Moisture slowly gathered in his red eyes.
With lips quivering as if chilled, Kierne replied.
“It’s, okay, Rose…. It’s okay….”
The tears pooling at the corners of his eyes rolled down his deathly pale cheeks in beads.
They gathered at his chin and dripped, plop, plop, to the ground.
Kierne didn’t even realize he was crying.
He knelt down, gasping for breath.
“I’ll, Rose, I’ll, somehow….”
Kierne tried to summon his magic.
But no intervention was possible in the past.
The forest’s darkness remained silent, unresponsive to Kierne.
Rose stared into the void and wept.
“It hurts…. I don’t want to die alone in a place like this….”
“No, Rose. I’m here. See? Rose, Rose.”
“Kierne, I’m sorry…. I miss you….”
Her body heaved greatly.
The blood she coughed up this time was mixed with flesh.
With no strength left to move, Rose collapsed onto the thorny brambles.
Pierced all over by thorns, she murmured.
“Just once more, even if it’s just once, I want to see you….”
“Rose, I’m here.”
“Ah, I’m such a fool…. I shouldn’t have said I’m sorry. Just, haa, that I love you….”
“Please, Rose! It’s my fault! Don’t die, don’t die in front of me!”
“I should have told you I love you one more time….”
Kierne thrashed wildly in a frenzy, screaming.
But his cries didn’t reach Rose.
In the cold, dark depths of the forest, Rose died alone and desolate.
Even with her beloved right before her eyes, unaware of his presence, Kierne screamed madly, sobbed, and called her name in front of Rose.
Rose’s life slowly faded away.
In her final moment, Rose smiled faintly and whispered the most precious name in her life.
“Kierne.”
I love you….
Her last whisper scattered.
Tears fell from her pink eyes, and soon the light in them extinguished completely.
Unable to even close her eyes in death, she soon turned to flowers.
She vanished without leaving even a proper trace of her existence.
It was the lonely death of Rose, the Fairy Queen and the Countess of Basilian.
