I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 140

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16. A Being Between Eternity and Finitude
When I opened my eyes, a familiar ceiling greeted me.
Perhaps lingering traces of the dream colored the entire world in shades of yellow.
I fumbled at my neck, touching it gingerly. The sensation of that moment when my neck and body had separated was far too vivid. Could I have felt the suffocation any more acutely?
‘Water….’
I staggered out through the door. Someone stood at the end of the corridor.
Black, coarse hair and dark skin—it was Luize.
He approached me urgently.
“Are you alright, Sister?”
“I don’t think I am, particularly.”
As if my neck had been severed and reattached, each word I uttered felt like my throat was tearing apart.
“Here, take this.”
Luize pressed something into my hand—the small circular disc I habitually wore around my neck.
The lid of the disc, which had never budged no matter how much I examined or touched it, now hung wide open. Inside, an intricately crafted miniature cosmos slowly rotated, scattering light.
I never knew such beauty could be hidden within this crude wooden disc, unmarked and unadorned. My hand moved of its own accord.
The moment I touched one of the pearl-like planets orbiting within, the disc expanded dramatically.
A small universe studded with stars that seemed to pour down from above unfurled before me. Despite the awe-inspiring spectacle that made my jaw drop, my mind remained numb.
“…Memory storage.”
Without needing to recall how to operate it, my hand moved again of its own volition. Countless rectangular windows materialized before my eyes. Another version of me—one I didn’t know—was contained in each of them.
Within this lay the intact memories of my other past lives, erased from my current recollection. The memories of Rosien Wynyak and Rosien.
“Did Karga bring this to you?”
“Yes.”
“Is he telling me to see it all? *Cough*, ugh.”
The taste of blood rose in my throat. Luize, who had rushed off somewhere, soon returned with a glass of water.
“Would you like to go speak with him, Sister?”
“No, *cough*. I don’t want to.”
I shook my head while barely managing to swallow the water. The sensation of my severed neck felt as fresh as if it had just happened. The terror of the extreme situation I had endured still ravaged my entire being so violently that I couldn’t even define my feelings toward Karga.
“Tell him to stay there. Don’t move a single step until I finish viewing everything. Not one step.”
“Why not rest a bit first? Your complexion looks terrible.”
No, I had to finish this while I had the resolve. I couldn’t afford to stop halfway.
Luize supported me and led me back to my room.
I collapsed onto the bed and opened the oldest memory stored within the Planetarium.
The first memory began with a woman with black, wavy hair staring down at the screen.
[“Regina, this Planetarium is responding. Among those we created before, this was the only one that never opened for so long that I thought we should discard it. It seems it has finally found its owner.”
“I see. Such a strong response is rare. Shall we go search for them?”]
The scene of a woman who appeared to be the Family Head of Kirges wandering throughout the Delpiam Empire in search of the new Planetarium’s owner flowed past like water.
Before long, she found what she sought—absurdly, in the middle of a street in the Capital.
A small girl with vivid red hair scattered wildly about her head. A child no more than three or four years old glared at Regina with wary eyes.
[“Found you. The owner of this Planetarium.”]
Regina smiled warmly and bent down to meet the child’s eye level.
[“Don’t you want to become a Transcendent, little one?”]
A small child with bold green eyes gleaming across the Planetarium’s screen. She bore a striking resemblance to my—that is, Rozentia’s—childhood self. One could say they were virtually the same person.
Soon a bright smile played at the child’s lips. The little one spoke with lisping excitement.
[“Yes, I want to! Please give me this!”]
* * *
After that, countless scenes flashed before my eyes in rapid succession, appearing and disappearing in an endless cycle.
I didn’t need to examine all nineteen years of Lozietti Kirges’s memories. Fragments naturally surfaced at intervals throughout.
As I pieced them together, Lozietti Kirges’s life completed itself seamlessly.
And at that end, I died once more.
The piercing shock of a heart being run through resurfaced vividly. Hanging followed by a fatal wound?
“Damn it. Damn it all. What is this…!”
Lozietti’s life ended futilely, and the Planetarium’s light extinguished. Having lived two lives and died two deaths, only one remained.
The third and final life—entangled with Kalian Wynack, another manifestation of Karga.
The memories stored in the Planetarium began from the moment I, born as Rosien Wynack at fifteen years old, reclaimed the Planetarium in the Kirges Observatory.
It was also the first scene in which Kalian Wynack appeared in the memories.
[“Kali, how are you—how are you here right now…?”]
[“You wrote me a letter, Rosy. You said you wanted to see me right away. So I came.”]
The memories unfolded in sequence.
[“Is this form your true self?”]
I doubted him.
[“No matter what you see, don’t be surprised. Don’t be afraid. And if you ever run away—”]
[“If I run away?”]
[“I might truly come to resent you. I don’t want to feel that way toward you, Rosy. It keeps hurting here.”]
I pitied him.
[“Why did you care so much for a woman like that?”]
[“Who?”]
[“Rozentia.”]
[“Did you care for her that much?”]
[“Yes. The name Rozentia carries a meaning unlike any other.”]
I grew jealous of another he cherished.
[“Putting this in you was the best thing I’ve ever done. It means I’ll never completely lose you.”]
[“You’ll live with me forever. You’ll die and come back to life, again and again, repeating infinitely.”]
I became captivated.
[“This time, let’s go somewhere no one can interfere.”]
“….”
[“Let’s leave the Transcendent Families to Owen. We’ll separate from the Lost Soul too, and go far away. Somewhere we don’t have to worry about the Stars watching us.”]
Until I reached a feeling closest to love.
And then the death crisis that followed, and everything after falling to Alfheim. The scattered fragments of memory gathered one by one, completing Rosien Wynack’s life.
As I witnessed, heard, and felt all of it with my five senses, time slipped away unnoticed. Perhaps I was barely conscious at all. Reliving three lives and three deaths in their entirety was far more difficult than words could convey.
When I finally came to my senses, I found myself lying haphazardly on the cold floor, my face pressed against it.
‘…I’ve returned.’
At last, it was ‘me’.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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