I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 144

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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 144
Kalien asked in disbelief.
“What are you doing right now?”
“I know full well that you’ve been saying things you don’t mean.”
“Rosy!”
“You have no confidence in staying by my side, so you’re trying to simply disappear on your own. Isn’t that right?”
There was no way he wouldn’t have considered using the Revival Crystal on himself when it was plainly in his own hands.
I am his Elixir. One could tell just by touching that the Elixir’s existence was precarious.
Kalien clenched his teeth and glared at me.
“So? Why are you giving this to me? Is it my turn now? Even if I die, I’m supposed to keep coming back to life? I’m supposed to watch you die again and leave me over and over? Is that what this is?”
“Something like that.”
“Is that the punishment you’re imposing on me…? Rosien, don’t you think you’re being far too cruel to me right now?”
“Then what about you trying to leave without my permission and die somewhere I don’t know about?”
“Because I thought it would be better for you…!”
“Did you ask me for permission?”
“That’s why I came to ask for it now!”
Kalien finally lost his temper. This growling suited him far better than his usual composure. I fixed him with a steady gaze and spoke with absolute conviction.
“Then unfortunately, you can’t leave even more. Because I won’t allow it.”
He still wore an expression of incomprehension. I reached out and pressed my hand over the crystal embedded just above his heart.
“It’s not a fusion. I’ve simply attached it to you. That means whenever I withdraw the spell, I can remove it from you again.”
“So?”
“When I feel I’ve lived this world to my heart’s content, I’ll withdraw it from you as well.”
“…”
“I’ll take you with me when I die. Don’t you understand yet? For you and me, there is no such thing as eternity anymore.”
I would live out my natural lifespan as it was given to me and die according to the natural order of things, and at that moment, I would reclaim the Revival Crystal I had placed within Kalien. Stripped of the crystal, Kalien would naturally fade away.
That way, neither of us would have to endure immortality alone.
I gently stroked Kalien’s still-wet cheek and spoke calmly.
“Let’s live together for a while, not forever.”
“For a while…?”
“Just once, let’s live properly and without regret, then naturally dissolve into the cycle of circulation. Like humans do.”
That was the conclusion I had reached upon returning from this ordeal.
“From now on, the crystal will restore you to being human. After all, it’s the Power of Stars. It will take time, but you’ll recover gradually. Your soul, fragmented and on the verge of shattering, and that body you created.”
“…”
“You always wanted to return to who you were before. That’s the only purpose I’ll use it for.”
This being before me, who bore the name Karga, despised and hated humanity while simultaneously yearning endlessly to be human. Kalien said he could never return to his former self, but as long as the Cosmic Rulers existed, nothing was impossible in this world. Was I not the product of their transcendent power?
“Tell me if you don’t want this. I’ll remove it.”
“…”
“You don’t want it?”
Kalien looked up at me blankly. His parched lips opened and closed several times in a daze.
“I…”
He squeezed out his words as though a blade were lodged in his throat.
“Rosy. I don’t care what happens to me, as long as you love me. As long as there isn’t a single moment in my life where you’re absent.”
“From now on, I swear I will never leave you. Not for a single moment.”
“How can you be certain? You’ve already left such a terrible mark.”
“Because now I can say with confidence that I love you.”
“….”
“I can say that I love you far more than you could ever imagine. Isn’t that enough to convince you?”
Kalien hesitated for a long while. The crystal embedded in his left chest pulsed in rhythm with his heart, gradually revealing its true nature.
I felt it too. A soul that had seemed like cracked glass on the verge of shattering was knitting itself back together.
That soul, transformed into something neither human nor beast, stirred slowly as it sought to find its place once more.
Recovery wouldn’t happen immediately. It would likely take considerable time, and perhaps even a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to restore him to a perfect human form.
But even so.
The moment focus returned to those crimson eyes that had wandered for so long, and our gazes finally met.
I realized we had reached the same conclusion. Kalien whispered in a suppressed voice.
“I want to become like you.”
At last, it was the right answer.
“I want to live a life like yours, free from anxiety. Rozentia. I want that too. I….”
“….”
“From the moment I first saw you, all I wanted was to approach you just to the very edge of those prison bars.”
Fragmented memories overlapped. A pair of crimson eyes that had pursued me relentlessly with their gaze alone, buried in the darkness of that detention camp. What had seemed so distant then now trembled violently right before my eyes.
“Really….”
My own voice, catching, quivered thinly.
Tears I had held back since dinner came surging forth.
Emotions that had accumulated since I heard his delirious words right after recovering my memories in Alfheim broke through the dam of my tears.
“Are you an idiot? Why did it take you so long to find such a simple answer?!”
I clenched my fists tightly and struck Kalien’s shoulder hard. My vision blurred so much I could barely see where I was hitting.
“You bastard, you gave me a ring and then suddenly disappeared—where the hell did you go?!”
“Ow, that hurts. Rosy.”
“Hurts? You should hurt more. I died three times because of you and suffered through everything, and after finally recovering all my memories, this is what you say?!”
“I thought you would resent me….”
“We’re past that stage, you idiot, you absolute fool….”
“Rosy, don’t cry.”
Now it was I who was shedding tears across both cheeks. All my resolutions—’I absolutely must not cry,’ ‘I need to stay calm and comfort him’—proved useless.
While Kalien suddenly came to his senses and fumbled about searching for a handkerchief, I hiccupped and poured out all the words I had been holding back.
“I thought you’d naturally smile and hold me, hic, and I didn’t die because I wanted to….”
“That’s right. You did nothing wrong, Rosy.”
“But I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know back then, hic. If I’d known you’d end up looking so hideous, I would never have told you to live forever. I kept feeling guilty, thinking I was the one who made you this way….”
“How could that be your fault? It’s not.”
Our positions had completely reversed from just minutes before. I didn’t mind. I wiped my cheeks roughly with the back of my hand, just as he had, and glared at him.
“So you stop being so pathetic and uncharacteristic. Come back to being my shameless, affectionate rabbit.”
“…Rozentia, don’t call me that nickname….”
Kalien bolted upright. Before I could even rise to follow, he wrapped his arm around my waist in one fluid motion and lifted me onto the desk. Then he pulled me into an embrace so fierce I could barely breathe.
“I told you I hate that nickname.”
“A rabbit is a rabbit—what else would you call it!”
“Fine. I love you.”
“…I love you too. Thank you for coming all the way to Alfheim to find me….”
I should have said this first, truly. Kalien buried his face against me, shaking his head vehemently.
“I’m the one who should be grateful—for letting me stay by your side.”
“No, I’m far more grateful.”
“That’s impossible. God, really. I love you so much. Everything is complicated because of that, Rozentia. Because I love you far too deeply….”
“I feel exactly the same way.”
“If you love me even half as much as I love you, never leave me alone in a world without you. That would be better for you and for the world itself. You understand….”
Kalien’s voice grew thick again, wavering with emotion. Even as tears streamed down my face, I found myself laughing softly at this endearing threat of his.
But what did anything matter anymore?
I had finally laid bare all the words I’d buried deep within, and now I would simply live right beside him, pouring out love abundantly so that no wound in my heart would ever fester again.
A life filled with love without doubt, brimming with the certainty of being loved without reservation. A time of unwavering faith.
For finite beings, eternity must be something like this.

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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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