Chapter 145
Belzeon slowly narrowed his eyes.
The sky was blue and clear, yet he kept hearing the sound of rain.
The hallucination clinging to his ears and the flower scent so thick it stung his nose constricted his breath.
That day, the rainy funeral, was no different from this moment.
It would have been better not to have known from the start.
His mother, and now his new youngest sibling.
They had fallen like bright stars into the gloomy serpent’s castle, shining brilliantly.
They gave abundant, dazzling warmth, made him realize what happiness was, and then vanished.
Those left behind were forced to embrace an irretrievable past and suffer.
Pierced all over by thornbush-like memories, in pain yet unable to let go…
This must be the true curse.
A hollow laugh escaped him involuntarily.
His strength drained, he released the sword he had been gripping.
Leaving the demonic sword to fall carelessly onto the flowers, he stared at Kierne.
He was already completely out of his mind.
The only reason he hadn’t used black magic in the final moment was purely thanks to Cheshire.
If not for Cheshire, Count Basilian would have unreservedly revealed himself as a black mage right in the heart of the Holy Empire.
Dizziness kept rising, so he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
At his mother’s funeral, Kierne had resolved to revive the dead, casting his mana into darkness and falling into corruption.
So what would he attempt this time?
Now that he had lost his young youngest sibling and the sacrifice to revive his dead wife.
Belzeon uttered a title he hadn’t used in a long time.
“…Father.”
Kierne, who had been staring blankly at the spot where Cheshire had vanished, turned his head expressionlessly.
“Snap out of it.”
Hearing the same words as that day, the corner of Kierne’s mouth curled up slightly.
He looked at his sons.
The blood-related kin shared the exact same thoughts and emotions.
Eerily precise and identical.
Kierne, who had never learned how to cry, smiled.
The sinister smile was dazzling, yet precarious, as if it might shatter at any moment.
“…To be honest, I want to kill them all.”
Kierne whispered with a sigh-like laugh.
“But then I’d be hated, right? I have to be a good dad…”
He rubbed his face with his hand.
Red blood smeared across his pallid cheeks.
In his disheveled state, he slowly looked around.
With Cheshire gone, the flower bushes were gradually disappearing.
Those who had been enchanted by the fairies were also regaining their senses one by one.
They were bewildered by the fact that they had been momentarily entranced, yet they couldn’t forget the brief but intense ecstasy, replaying it over and over.
Remi, who had yielded the crown to Cheshire and caused this entire incident, sat on the ground with a foolish expression.
Staring intently at Remi, Kierne parted his lips.
“The Holy Empire has fairies locked up for experiments… Maybe I should go look for them.”
It would be much faster to find captive fairies than to chase wandering ones.
And since they were fairies, they would surely know the way to the fairy kingdom.
Kierne murmured with a twisted smile.
“If I catch them all and ask… At least one should guide me to where my daughter is.”
He didn’t want to just wait obediently until Cheshire returned.
No, he couldn’t wait.
The Basilians would no longer pine for anyone.
“Kyaang!”
Cheshire screamed.
When her vision, completely obscured by flowers, cleared again.
Her body began to fall.
Flailing her short limbs, Cheshire’s eyes widened.
“Ah…?”
The rapid falling speed slowed gradually, and her surroundings came into view.
Cheshire was plummeting through a narrow passage like a rabbit hole.
All sorts of miscellaneous items floated buoyantly in the passage.
A chessboard, broken dolls, crushed and shattered cakes and sweets, vividly colored flowers, and tangled thorny bushes.
They all looked familiar.
Examining her surroundings closely, Cheshire reached out and grabbed something at random.
After scrutinizing it carefully, she murmured in astonishment.
“This is from my illusion realm?”
Everything existed in Cheshire’s illusion realm.
They were just slightly smaller to fit the narrow rabbit hole passage, but identical down to the damaged parts.
While checking them one by one, Cheshire suddenly realized.
The way to reach the fairy kingdom.
It was through the fairy’s illusion realm.
‘Because the fairy kingdom is also made up of a vast illusion realm.’
By opening a new path through the illusion realm, one could go to the kingdom.
That explained why objects from Cheshire’s illusion realm were floating here now.
‘But…’
Cheshire blinked slowly.
The falling speed had now reduced enough to leisurely observe her surroundings.
‘This isn’t in my illusion realm.’
Very rarely, things not from Cheshire’s illusion realm were mixed in.
Cheshire cautiously grabbed the unfamiliar object.
It was the silver pocket watch Kierne carried.
Tick, tick, tick.
Holding it to her ear, the second hand’s movement sounded clear.
After hesitating, she pressed the top to open the lid.
Inside the watch, elegant cursive writing was engraved.
[Rose]
She stared intently at the letters meaning rose.
Tick, tick, the second hand’s sound drew her ear unconsciously.
“…!”
Suddenly, the surroundings melted like paint.
As darkness dissolved away, a new landscape unfolded.
What appeared before Cheshire was a vast flower field.
A woman was lightly strolling through the meadow bursting with blooming flowers.
Her long blonde hair hung loosely, and she wore a loose white dress, so dirty it was hard to tell it had been white.
Her bare feet were caked with dirt and blood, and her exposed limbs were covered in all sorts of wounds, painful just to look at.
The woman, her face obscured by her disheveled hair, walked while singing.
And with each step she took.
Following her footsteps, flowers wilted and the field dried up.
Lush leaves instantly lost their vitality, turning yellow, withering, and crumbling.
Everything was being ruined, but the woman was smiling.
She sang an unknown song, staggering endlessly forward.
Why, though.
Cheshire couldn’t tear her eyes away from her.
Her gaze, fixed as if rooted, suddenly shifted to the woman’s belly.
In her otherwise emaciated body, only the belly was roundly swollen…
A lightning-like intuition struck her mind.
Cheshire parted her lips without realizing.
“Mom?”
It was a word she had never uttered before.
It burst out from within, calling her, but the woman didn’t turn around.
She just kept walking forward.
Lacking the courage to call again, Cheshire hesitantly followed her.
The woman walked for a long time, laughing and singing, then suddenly collapsed.
“Mom…!”
Cheshire rushed to her side.
But this was a fragment of memory held in the illusion realm.
Like when she saw Hailon’s memory, Cheshire’s hand passed vainly through the woman.
The woman, sprawled on the ground, gasped painfully.
Groaning in agony, she trembled and clutched her belly.
Cheshire stopped breathing in that moment.
She watched her without even breathing.
The child conceived from an unwanted union.
Perhaps because of me, Mom couldn’t properly escape the lab.
No, perhaps she went mad because of me…
She had speculated as such.
So she thought Mom must resent Cheshire.
She assumed she would curse the child in her womb, scream in rage.
“Baby.”
The woman whispered with swollen lips.
“My beloved baby.”
On the dead flowers, she embraced her swollen belly and whispered tenderly.
“Mommy’s sorry…”
