Chapter 144
Flower petals scattered in disarray along the path of the demonic sword slashing through the flower bushes.
Kierne swung the demonic sword desperately.
It wasn’t just Kierne.
“Karha, cut from this side first.”
“Ugh…! What is this!”
“Be careful not to hurt our little sister!”
Belzeon, Karha, Ishuel too.
All the men of the Basilian family clung to the bushes, trampling and tearing out the flowers.
However, the speed at which the flowers bloomed was far faster.
Ishuel used magic to set the flower bushes ablaze, but it was futile.
He only managed to burn a small portion, and the flames were buried under new flowers and extinguished.
The flowers blooming in a grotesque profusion filled the air with their fragrance.
As if mocking those struggling to save Cheshire, they burst open with a pop, creating swarms of sparkling butterflies like fireworks.
The people entangled in the bushes began to laugh at some point.
They smiled happily while listening to the crown’s song.
Their entranced eyes and joyful laughter were anything but normal.
At least the knights, priests, and mages with strong powers were holding out.
But the others were all falling into a fairy-tale-like trance.
Cheshire clenched her teeth tightly.
Her head buzzed from the crown’s song that had been playing since earlier.
She could barely hear the voices shouting toward her.
‘I’ve got to do something about this…!’
She strained and tried once more to remove the crown.
She attempted to use her fairy powers, but they felt stolen away; she couldn’t sense any strength at all.
Feeling her body empty, Cheshire inwardly cursed at the crown.
‘This is all my power.’
The flower bushes covering the square were all created by the crown drawing out Cheshire’s power.
‘Hailon.’
If he were here, he could have bound her with the Chains of Condemnation.
But even amid this commotion, Hailon was nowhere to be seen.
He seemed to be outside the Holy Empire altogether.
Cheshire looked at the men of the Basilian family.
Belzeon, meeting her wavering pink eyes, swung his demonic sword and snapped lowly.
“Don’t think useless thoughts.”
“Yeah! Stay still, baby! If you move, you’ll get pricked by thorns.”
Karha echoed Belzeon’s words with a shout.
Telling Cheshire to stay put because of the thorns, while they themselves were all covered in wounds.
Ishuel was the same.
The boy who cherished his face terribly had a long gash on his cheek.
Fragments of thorny bushes had flown, and blood was trickling down, yet he seemed unaware of the pain.
In a deranged state, he fired off meaningless spells wildly.
“I’ll get you out soon, I, I’ll, hurry, get you out…!”
Watching Ishuel shout made her vision blur.
Her body was gradually being covered in flowers.
Now, entangled in the bushes, she couldn’t move her limbs freely.
Only her face was slightly exposed.
Cheshire thought.
‘There’s no way.’
And it seemed Kierne had the same thought as Cheshire.
“Damn it!”
Kierne spat a curse and threw down the demonic sword.
To get Cheshire out, he began tearing at the thorny bushes with his hands.
“No, no…!”
His eyes reddened to their limit.
Sensing the ominous aura at the same time, the shadows on the ground writhed violently.
Seeing the flickering shadows, Cheshire urgently shouted.
“I’ll come back!”
She somehow moved her body to barely make eye contact.
Looking into his shattered red eyes, she shouted again.
“To Daddy, to Basilian, I’ll definitely come back, so…!”
She would absolutely return.
So don’t use black magic.
She cried out with desperate sincerity.
“…Liar.”
Kierne laughed.
With eyes that looked like he was crying, he pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled.
The hand clutching the flowers trembled finely.
From the tattered leather gloves pierced by thorns, bright red blood dripped like tears.
“You won’t come back.”
His whispering voice held no strength.
To this man filled with distrust and despair, Cheshire reached out her small hand with all her might.
The tip of her tiny finger precariously touched the corner of Kierne’s eye.
The coldly chilled skin was dry.
Stroking the man who wasn’t crying but looked no different from it, she promised.
“I promise. Really, truly.”
Kierne caressed the fingertip exposed through the flower bushes and pleaded.
“No, Cheshire, don’t go, okay? Daddy can get you out, with magic…”
“No magic.”
“…But.”
“No. Absolutely…”
“…Cheshire.”
Kierne distorted his face and whispered in agony.
His desperate call of her name sent a pang through her heart.
He must have begged the late countess not to go in the same way.
The situation where she had become the fairy leaving him again felt cruel.
This moment, ripping open the wound still raw and red in Kierne’s heart, was horrific.
But all Cheshire could do was promise.
“Chesha is Basilian…”
Cheshire met his red eyes and swore firmly.
“I’ll come home.”
Kierne parted his lips.
But she didn’t hear the last words.
Cheshire’s vision was completely covered in flowers.
Soon, everything went dark…
The small baby trapped in the flower bushes vanished without a trace.
Only shimmering fragments of light and flower petals marked the disappearance.
“……”
Kierne knelt on the flower bushes, blankly staring into the void.
Without blinking once, he gazed and gazed at the spot where Cheshire had left.
Clinging to a sliver of hope that a miraculous event might occur, leading to a happy ending like in a fairy tale.
But as in the past.
The one who left did not return.
The three brothers of the Basilian family gathered around Kierne, who was dazed staring at the empty space.
They said nothing and simply stayed by his side.
The surroundings were noisy, but this spot alone was horrifically silent.
In the stillness, Kierne looked down at his empty hands.
Hands covered in blood.
Neither Cheshire nor the Fairy Queen’s crown…
Hands that held nothing.
“I’ll come back!”
The child had promised her return to him.
Being a good child, she would surely keep the promise.
Using any means necessary, she would return to the Basilian family.
Because she was Cheshire Basilian.
Kierne trusted the child’s kind heart.
But when?
If after waiting a month, a year, even decades, she didn’t return.
If she came back to his rotted, decayed grave and said she kept the promise.
What meaning would there be then?
Rose had left him alone in this way too.
Abandoning him in hell, which made him resolve to revive her with his own hands.
And now Cheshire too…
“…Ha.”
Kierne let out a dry laugh.
In the moment of realizing the loss.
He couldn’t help but laugh.
Just as he had laughed embracing flowers at the rainy funeral in the past, Kierne clutched the flowers scattered on the thorny bushes and laughed.
Kierne, who had been guffawing while gripping the blood-stained flowers, abruptly stopped laughing.
He slowly inhaled and exhaled.
And murmured expressionlessly.
“Damned fairies.”
Now, Kierne didn’t want to be left alone anymore.
Since he had resolved to revive the dead fairy.
Retrieving one runaway fairy should be easy enough, right?
Kierne slowly licked his dry lips.
If he killed all the fairies.
This damned cycle might end.
