Chapter 188
Kierne and Cheshire looked at each other.
Kierne said nothing.
No, he couldn’t.
Amid the hair tousled by the swirling wind, his red eyes trembled narrowly.
Kierne slowly moved his lips.
“…You have to die?”
Instead of answering his question, Cheshire said something else.
“Because I forcibly unfolded the illusion realm… I don’t have much life force left. So, it would be better if at least one of us lives.”
Her voice kept sinking low, as if weighted down by a heavy pendulum.
Cheshire could no longer meet Kierne’s gaze.
Staring at the black magic circle drawn at her feet, she whispered to herself.
“I’m sorry for lying…”
Even though she had grown close to adulthood, she still seemed like a tiny baby.
Like an immature child who couldn’t even offer a proper apology.
She waited for Kierne’s words with the mindset of facing the rod.
Soon, a hollow laugh reached her ears.
“Ah, so that’s it.”
Kierne spoke in a fierce voice, laced with sarcasm.
“You’ve been deceiving me all this time by pretending to be a child, and now you’ll pay for that sin with your life, is that it?”
It was a tone Cheshire had never once heard from him.
Kierne, openly revealing his anger, dragged his hand down his face.
“Why… How could you.”
His breathing shook unsteadily.
Following its master’s turmoil, the shadows swirling in the black magic circle momentarily lost strength and faltered.
With eyes parched dry, Kierne whispered.
“As if you know what I’ll choose.”
Beneath the arid whisper, boiling emotions could be felt.
It didn’t matter what he chose.
Since it was a life destined to end anyway, she just wanted to use it in the most useful way at the last.
But contrary to her resolve, Cheshire couldn’t bring herself to act decisively.
She hesitated, unable to leap into the black magic circle.
Because there was someone who hooked her to life’s regrets like a grapple.
“Lichesia.”
Cheshire squeezed her eyes shut.
And slowly turned around.
Hailon, bound by shadows, was looking at Cheshire with an expressionless face.
In this place where black shadows ravaged every direction, his bright silver hair stood out unusually.
Cheshire thought he was like a star in the night sky.
This one, white and pure like starlight alone, neither got angry nor saddened.
He simply called her name again.
“…Lichesia.”
As if asking her to look at him.
Cheshire couldn’t respond.
The days when she had ignored him, fully aware of how he longed for Lichesia, now crushed her with suffocating weight.
Cheshire drooped her eyelids downward.
‘In a moment like this, I have no idea what to do.’
She knew she was immature when it came to emotions.
It was only natural, having never built a proper relationship with anyone.
If the orphanage hadn’t burned down and remained as it was.
If she had gotten along smoothly with the teachers and friends, and met Hailon and the men of the Basilian family under ordinary circumstances.
Then, perhaps in this situation, she could have said and done something a little better.
No, maybe she could have led to a better outcome than now from the start.
She truly didn’t know what to do or how.
She could return his deceased wife to Kierne, but for Hailon, there was nothing she could offer.
“I’m sorry.”
With no other words coming to mind, she could only repeat it over and over.
Hailon’s eyes narrowed thinly.
He just stared at her silently like that.
It was a blue gaze as calm as the sea right before a typhoon.
Knowing those eyes were on the verge of exploding, but what more could she do here?
The pain she felt in her body was gradually intensifying.
Now, there wasn’t much time left.
After hesitating, Cheshire finally turned her head away from Hailon.
And took a step toward the magic circle.
Kierne, who had been standing still like a statue atop the magic circle, warned coldly.
“Stop, Cheshire.”
The magic had already begun, and only the final sacrifice remained.
If Cheshire set foot in the magic circle, even Kierne would have no way to stop it.
“I said stop.”
Kierne glared at Cheshire with bloodshot red eyes and issued another warning.
Cheshire moved her steps on her own and comforted him.
“It’s okay.”
Wasn’t she the love of his lifetime?
It was only natural to choose the one he had longed for and loved enough to devote his life to, over a fake daughter who had lied.
“It’s really okay.”
It was the moment her foot was about to touch the black magic circle.
Clatter!
The sound of chains rang out.
In the blink of an eye, every direction filled with pure white chains.
Cheshire let out a small groan as the chains squeezed her torso painfully tight.
The white chains filled the Black Forest entirely, stretching endlessly beyond.
A chilling frost circulated through the chains that covered everything.
Before she knew it, Hailon had approached right in front of her.
He grasped Cheshire’s chin with rough hands.
The gaze she had wanted to avoid inevitably clashed.
This one with a sacred appearance that seemed to purify all impure darkness was burning with the deepest and darkest emotions.
“Kill me first.”
With eyes like blue flames, Hailon brought his face close to Cheshire.
His breath tickled her nose and lips.
“Whether you behead me with your axe, split my head, or rip open my heart. Kill me by any means necessary.”
Just as he had demanded to be made the first one, he declared with unwavering eyes.
“Otherwise, I won’t let you go.”
The scene of black darkness swirling in the wind and white chains enveloping every side was even more bizarre than Cheshire’s illusion realm.
In this space like a chessboard where black and white coexisted, Cheshire shouted.
“I’m going to die soon anyway, so I’m just trying to do the last thing I can…!”
“So I should just watch you die right in front of me?”
It was the most rational and sensible choice, but Hailon cut down Cheshire’s resolve in an instant.
His chains tightened around Cheshire to the point of suffocation.
“Ugh, Hailon, it hurts…!”
Even though she said it hurt, he didn’t loosen them at all.
It was the moment Cheshire struggled to shake off the chains.
A sharp bursting sound rang out.
“…!”
Cheshire, Hailon, and Kierne too.
They all flinched in surprise and widened their eyes.
The space was collapsing.
The black magic that Kierne had poured all his mana into completing.
And the holy relic that Hailon had unleashed by drawing out every bit of his divine power.
The two immense, polar opposite energies had converged and were now rampaging.
“No…!”
She couldn’t let Kierne’s final wish be wasted like this in vain.
Please, for the last time, just once.
Cheshire squeezed her eyes shut and gathered her strength.
She was already in a state where she had used all her power, scraping even her life force.
There was no way any strength remained, but she recklessly invoked the fairy’s power.
Vibrant colors were added to the black-and-white space.
The moment flowers bloomed atop the entangled black shadows and white divine chains.
The three energies mingled and soared into the sky.
After the energy that pierced the heavens like a shot vanished.
Nothing remained in the Black Forest.
And the two people and one fairy.
“…Ah.”
Awoke in the past, having traveled back in time.
It was the moment when Rose, the Countess Basilian and Fairy Queen, first fell into the Black Forest.
