Chapter 192
When Kierne realized he had crossed time and arrived in the past.
He watched his past self and Rose, thinking to himself.
From now on, all I have to do is wait.
Rose had given Kierne no explanations until the very end.
She kept everything secret and, in the end, left him.
Only at the moment of parting did Kierne confront the truth that she was a fairy.
He had known nothing, and ended up clutching only dried flower petals.
Amid the crumbling petals, he picked up the wedding ring that shone alone.
He couldn’t quite remember what emotion he had felt in that moment.
Probably because his reason had been paralyzed.
After that, he was out of his mind.
Kierne only regained his sanity in front of the coffin filled with flowers.
And he resolved to bring the dead back to life.
From that day on, Kierne began gathering every scrap of information about fairies.
He learned that the grotesque illusion and withered petals Rose had shown in her final moments were signs of a fairy’s death.
Fairies were beings made of spirit.
Thus, when their spirit shattered, they met death.
Just then, there was talk of a mad fairy wandering the continent, so he went to find it himself.
Unfortunately, by the time Kierne arrived, the mad fairy was already dead.
Only the one who had witnessed the fairy’s death had turned into a snake beastman, left as its final trace.
He took him in as a subordinate, and Kierne continued his investigation into fairies.
Attempts to resurrect the dead using black magic had existed for a very long time.
There were no records of success.
Even if there were, they would naturally have been concealed.
For defying divine providence.
Gathering scattered clues like fragments, he eventually completed the resurrection spell’s formula.
Kierne simply tested the completed magic.
At first, he revived small creatures, and once familiar, he brought in death-row criminals who had committed heinous crimes in the Basilian Territory, repeating the process of killing and reviving them for practice.
After mastering the magic perfectly, he began collecting the necessary sacrifices.
If Rose had been an ordinary human, she would have returned to Kierne’s side long ago.
But since she was a fairy, a special sacrifice was needed.
Namely, the Fairy Queen’s crown.
Thus, he brought Cheshire to the Basilian family.
That was the origin of all this.
After many twists and turns, Kierne finally saw the fruit of his long efforts.
He was at last able to cast the magic to revive Rose.
Due to various powers mixing together, the magic activated in a slightly strange direction.
But Kierne was rather glad.
By drifting through past timelines, he learned why Rose had left him.
Even while believing in eternal love, he had agonized over the possibility, just maybe…
That her affection for him had faded, and that’s why she left.
Now that even the slightest doubt had vanished cleanly, all that remained was to live happily together.
Smiling, he approached Rose as she wandered over the field.
Kierne blushed shyly and whispered to her.
“From now on, let’s stay together forever.”
Rose didn’t hear Kierne’s words.
But Kierne continued speaking anyway.
“I missed you, Rose. So you didn’t leave because you hated me. Just take me with you too. You must have been lonely alone…”
His unheard soliloquy mingled with Rose’s laughter.
It was a grotesque scene, but none of those creating it felt any strangeness.
Kierne was simply happy.
Because he was finally at Rose’s side.
The fact that he was trapped in the past was fading from his mind.
“Dad!”
To Kierne, right now was the present.
“Dad, snap out of it!”
Because time, which had stopped after Rose’s death, was beginning to flow for the first time.
“Please… Kierne!”
Kierne, who had been walking joyfully in step with Rose, suddenly halted.
Reason briefly returned to his fogged mind.
Kierne looked at the woman clinging to him.
She resembled Rose.
“If you stay like this, you’ll be trapped in the gap of time forever.”
Her eyes looked like they might burst into tears at any moment.
He gazed long at the pink eyes that resembled Rose’s.
Kierne slowly moved his lips.
“…Che, sha…”
He roughly rubbed his face with his hand.
It seemed he had lost his mind for a moment.
Confirming that focus had returned to Kierne’s eyes, Cheshire quickly continued.
“I don’t know how far the past will extend, but since you used black magic to revive Mom, it will probably… continue up to the part where she dies. Let’s skip through time as quickly as possible until then, and after that, find a way to escape.”
Cheshire bit her lower lip hard.
She bit until the blood drained white from her lips, then released and said.
“It will be really hard, but… there’s no other way. Because this space isn’t made entirely of fairy power, I can’t control it as I wish…”
What could be hard about it?
This was a place with Rose.
He didn’t understand, but Kierne smiled and replied.
“Okay.”
“……”
For some reason, Cheshire’s face darkened even more at Kierne’s smile.
The moisture in her eyes seemed about to spill over any second.
Then, the silver-haired man beside her grasped Cheshire’s hand.
It was a sight that displeased him, but Kierne couldn’t stop it immediately.
It took a slight moment to recall who that man was.
Fortunately, he remembered that he was Hailon, the Inquisitor from the Holy Empire.
“If you’re going to go mad and die, do it alone.”
Hailon shot coldly, extending his arm toward Rose.
His hand touched Rose.
It happened before Kierne could even try to block it.
The world crumbled again, heading to the next timeline.
“Are you laying hands on another man’s wife without permission?”
Glaring as he spoke, Hailon let out a scoff.
There was no time to waste arguing with him.
Kierne immediately set out to find Rose.
Rose was singing a lullaby as she headed into some forest.
Tangled hair, dirty face, clothes no better than rags.
It was hard to believe this was the once-renowned beauty, the Countess of Basilian.
But to Kierne, even that appearance was endearing, and also heartbreaking.
Rose’s belly was round and swollen.
Childbirth seemed imminent, but she was in no state to care for the baby inside or her own body.
She just staggered along, singing the lullaby.
Kierne anxiously followed Rose.
She who had been sucking the life from everywhere her feet touched, laughing joyfully and singing, suddenly collapsed with a thud.
“Rose!”
He rushed over and knelt beside her.
“Haa, ugh…”
Her body, curled up clutching her belly, convulsed in tremors.
Rose, groaning in pain, finally managed to sit leaning against a tree.
And with a long exhale, she whispered.
“Kierne…”
The moment she called his name, Kierne held his breath.
“Kierne, it hurts… It hurts so much, I’m so tired…”
“Ro, Rose.”
“Kierne, Kierne…”
“Rose, I’m here. Yeah? It’s okay, it’s okay…”
Beside Rose, who was shedding tears in streams, Kierne whispered desperately.
Rose sobbed while clutching her belly.
“What do I do? If I die like this, the baby, haa, our baby…”
Rose realized.
This moment, when her sanity had at least returned, was her last chance.
She wept until her cheeks were soaked, pressing both hands on her belly.
Then, flowers began to bloom around Rose.
In the forest where all life had died, these alien flowers alone appeared, but their forms were malformed.
The flowers growing entangled in thorny brambles were grotesquely enormous.
On top of them, Rose poured out her last strength.
With a blinding light, Rose vomited blood.
“Ah…”
She looked at the baby in her arms, blood dripping from her mouth.
A very small, tiny baby.
Seeing the infant not even the size of a forearm, Rose smiled.
“It’s a girl.”
She vomited another surge of blood.
Hastily turning her head so the filthy blood wouldn’t touch the baby, she coughed up blood for a long while.
Once the bleeding finally stopped, she reached into the thorny brambles and plucked a flower.
“Surely… haa, he would have loved her… I want to show her to Kierne… She would have been a beloved youngest daughter…”
With hands mangled from the thorns, Rose wrapped the baby tightly in petals and whispered.
“Isn’t that right, Cheshire…”
