Chapter 137
Throughout watching the memories left in the white space, Chesha desperately hoped.
That she could change the past that had already flowed by.
Even though she knew full well that time gone by couldn’t be turned back, she repeated those meaningless attempts.
She had witnessed the horrific moment, but the memories left behind didn’t end there.
Chesha also saw the ‘education’ that Holy King Sionel performed on Hailon.
Originally, the process of forcibly injecting divine power was called education.
The reason fairy power was felt in Remil was to push divine power in beyond the limit.
It was mixed with fairy power so that the body wouldn’t shatter.
But Hailon possessed talent surpassing anyone else.
After devouring the Holy King’s divine power, he had already reached the pinnacle, making it impossible to force more divine power in using the patterns.
Sionel, who had lost not only his divine power but also the youth of his arms and body, never forgave Hailon.
However, Hailon was the most exceptional holy knight, one who would etch his name into Hilderd’s history.
He couldn’t kill him recklessly, so he decided to educate Hailon in a different way.
Namely, through infinite time.
A twisted space created by the power of the pattern, accidentally discovered amid repeated experiments.
In that place, a mere second transformed into a full day.
After being trapped for just a few days, it was no different from hundreds of years having passed.
No one who underwent the education maintained their sanity.
Except for Hailon alone.
Hailon was simply impassive.
He accepted the education without emotion, and even after being confined for over a week, he emerged from the white space completely unscathed.
However, even if he appeared calm on the surface, his once vivid blue eyes were gradually eroding away…
Only Chesha could notice it.
As she watched the scene of Hailon being educated by the Holy King in its entirety, she thought.
‘I think I know why it showed me this memory.’
The pattern had pulled out and displayed memories intertwined with Hailon.
As if hoping that Chesha would harbor enmity toward the Holy Empire, and thus exact revenge.
The fairy queen’s crown also had something it desired from Chesha.
So did the fairy she had met before coming to the Holy Empire.
And the monsters that had been trapped underground as well.
Everything connected to fairies was slowly coalescing around Chesha.
As if Chesha were truly the fairy queen herself.
“….”
Once all the memories the pattern had unfolded came to an end, they returned to the original space.
Chesha slowly surveyed her surroundings.
The white space remained unchanged, just as it had been.
Except that the pattern, whose edges had been stained red, had returned to its complete blue hue.
Chesha was held tightly in Remil’s embrace.
Remil was still not awake.
Yet, as if ensnared in a horrific nightmare, he trembled incessantly and groaned.
Chesha touched her own face.
It was utterly soaked with tears.
As if nothing had happened, she wiped away the moisture with the back of her hand, then smacked Remil’s cheek with a sharp slap.
Like surfacing from deep underwater, Remil drew in a massive breath and opened his eyes.
“Huk, heok….”
His small chest rose and fell rapidly.
Remil, drenched in cold sweat from head to toe, hurriedly clutched Chesha in his arms.
He squeezed her so tightly it almost hurt, then, belatedly regaining his composure, hastily released her.
“Che, Chesha-nim…?”
Judging by his wildly shaking pupils, it seemed Remil had also witnessed in full what Hailon had endured.
Chesha waited a moment for Remil to calm down before speaking.
“Did you see it too?”
“…Yes.”
“If we keep doing this, it’s dangerous.”
“But….”
She firmly grasped the hand of Remil, who hesitated in his response.
Dozens of flowers bloomed all at once, enveloping Remil and Chesha.
When the view obstructed by the flower buds cleared, the boy and the baby were out in the garden.
She warned Remil, who stood frozen with his eyes wide in shock.
“Don’t do it. If you don’t want to die.”
Remil’s body was already at its limit.
If more divine power was forced in here, he could truly die.
After placing Remil beneath a large tree, Chesha summoned her power once more.
There was someone she needed to meet right now.
“…Chesha-nim!”
Remil called out urgently.
It was a voice so clear it was hard to believe it came from the boy who always mumbled incoherently because he couldn’t speak properly.
Chesha, surrounded by flowers, floated in the air as she looked down at Remil.
“What should I do from now on?”
His face, as he asked, was desperate, brimming with absolute trust.
As if, in this very moment, he would die if Chesha told him to.
But Chesha didn’t issue any commands to Remil.
“Do as you please.”
“Uh…. I, but….”
As she vanished amid the flowers, she left her final words to Remil.
“You can do it.”
With those words as her last, Chesha disappeared completely.
Remil extended his hand, but all that touched his fingertips were flower petals.
Even those soon crumbled into light and scattered away.
“….”
Remil slowly lowered his empty hand.
He stared at his hand with vacant eyes, then suddenly felt a pang of pain and hunched his shoulders.
Blood droplets were seeping from his ragged lips.
It was because he had unconsciously chewed them to shreds.
Remil had seen the memories too.
If there was one difference from Chesha, however…
“…Ah.”
A short sound escaped his mouth.
As he retraced the memories, he unwittingly entertained a wicked thought.
Remil squeezed his eyes shut.
He quickly offered a prayer of repentance in his mind, but it was of little avail.
Once it had arisen, the thought refused to be shaken off easily.
Instead, it embedded itself firmly in his mind, as if inscribed with a tattoo.
“What should I do….”
The young boy murmured, his face twisted in distress.
Remil realized he had come to harbor a greed that he could never fulfill.
The moment she saw Hailon, the tears burst forth.
She had really tried not to cry, but it was as if someone had firmly pressed the cry button, and the tears poured out.
Wailing loudly right from the start, calling him an idiot and a fool, yet Hailon comforted Chesha.
He even apologized, saying it was his fault.
“Waaah, baby-nim, don’t cry!”
“Look at this, baby-nim. A really pretty flower.”
“This is a four-leaf clover!”
While Hailon held and soothed Chesha, the holy knights all gathered around, trying their best to coax and calm her.
A bizarre spectacle unfolded: massive, mountain-like knights forming a circle, desperately attempting to soothe the baby.
They all seemed to have heard somewhere that fairies liked flowers and grass, so they rushed about, each plucking one and waving it in front of Chesha.
Amid that chaotic frenzy, Hailon’s adjutant, Daren, joined in and bustled about as well.
Naturally, the uproar the knights created in their attempt to soothe the baby had no effect whatsoever.
“Stop.”
In the end, Hailon intervened and made everyone halt.
Holding Chesha, who still couldn’t stem her tears, he sought out a quiet place.
Exhausted, Chesha hiccuped as she diligently soaked Hailon’s chest with her tears.
Seated on a bench beside a secluded fountain, Hailon gazed quietly at Chesha.
Then he let out a sigh.
“…Haah.”
He gently caressed her eye area, which was starting to chafe from all the crying, with his finger.
“Don’t cry. If you cry any more, you’ll harm your body.”
His blunt voice carried a sincerity he couldn’t fully express.
Chesha sniffled and grasped his hand.
Hailon obediently allowed himself to be held by Chesha.
Gazing at their hands, so vastly different in size, she thought.
Not with this tiny hand, but with a large one—she wanted to embrace Hailon.
As the witch Lichesia, who knew of the eight scars etched on his back, she wanted to comfort Hailon’s past.
But in her baby form, she could do nothing.
‘I want to become an adult.’
It was a longing more intense than ever before.
Yet she also wanted to live as Basilian’s Chesha.
She had already given her heart to the Basilians.
The conflicting desires—to remain a child and to become an adult—tangled wildly within Chesha.
To obtain one, she must forsake the other.
She knew she shouldn’t be greedy, yet she couldn’t release either.
No, even if she chose one side.
There was no guarantee it would unfold as she wished.
It was while she gazed at Hailon with eyes blurred by tears.
Chesha realized.
Whether she ended up living as a child or as an adult.
Whichever path she took, she would be unhappy because of the one she couldn’t have.
