The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 219

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

Thud.

It was Tesagh who caught Elisha’s body as it collapsed as if something had snapped.

Ailren watched the scene from beside them.

It was when ‘that thing’ was desperately pleading with Elisha. Ailren, who had been gripping ice shards in place of his sword that had turned to powder, was about to rush forward immediately.

However, Tesagh’s arm blocked him. When he turned around, Tesagh shook his head and gestured toward Elisha with his eyes.

Only then did he see it. Unlike ‘that thing’, Elisha’s eyes were so clear they were shining. Eyes that understood others but were never swept away, pupils that could discern essence and true intentions.

Ailren knelt on one knee before his god who had succeeded in victory without letting anyone get hurt.

“How is Lady Elisha?”

“She’s unconscious. She seems to be sleeping.”

Their lost speech had returned. But neither of the two men paid any attention to that fact.

Tesagh roughly wiped his wounded hands and then carefully caressed Elisha’s cheek.

Though anxiety suddenly surged, the body temperature of the real Elisha—not the terrible phantom Elisha he had seen moments ago—was warm. Realizing this fact, air flowed into his lungs that had been dried up like someone who had held their breath for too long.

Tesagh let out a long breath and gently kissed the forehead of Elisha, whose lips were curved upward as if she were having a pleasant dream.

“I can no longer sense divine power from Lady Elisha. The same goes for ‘that thing’.”

“Good.”

Tesagh truly thought it was fortunate. It was proof that Elisha had succeeded, and above all, she wouldn’t regret the disappearance of divine power.

But then the wounds on his hand that had been stroking Elisha’s eyes smoothly disappeared.

Ailren, who had manifested healing divine power, answered with uncharacteristic hesitation.

“However, I can still use divine power. It seems the force called divine power still remains in this world.”

“Magic exists without a source to begin with. Divine power probably works on the same principle.”

Tesagh, who had been thinking, added lightly.

“Or it could be an inheritance.”

“…Do you think the World Tree intentionally left it behind?”

“Yes. A final gift left for its hateful but beloved creations. It probably hoped they would use it well and usefully.”

Tesagh raised his head and heard Ailren’s distant voice.

“Then it’s really gone. …Both the World Tree and the god.”

He was a Knight. His heart must be quite complicated, but surprisingly, Ailren seemed to calmly accept that fact.

Trees wither someday. That time was simply now.

The empty space left by the single tree that had created and sustained the world would be large, but just as flowers bloom on burned ground, someday that place would be filled with other beautiful things that had taken the tree as nourishment.

Silver ash settled on Ailren’s hand as he looked at the swaying sprouts and thought of the barley field. It was a greeting left by the final breath of a massive life slowly and quietly covering the sanctuary.

Ailren gazed at that wondrous yet somehow sorrowful scene and briefly offered a silent prayer for his sleeping god and for the devotion that had passed.

“Let’s go now. To the place we should return to.”

The place to return to.

Ailren was inwardly anxious. Now that the god had disappeared, what would Elisha become? Would that Elisha still be the woman he knew?

However, Tesagh’s tone was calm. The place to return to could also mean the place where Elisha would return.

Ailren, who had been rolling that word around in his mouth with fresh realization, nodded his head.

“Yes.”

Tesagh, who had lifted Elisha in his arms, glanced at Ailren who was similarly holding Princess Katarina, then looked at ‘that thing’ lying collapsed with eyes closed in an expression exactly like Elisha’s and grumbled.

“This guy is troublesome to the very end.”

Though it seemed like a heartless remark, Tesagh hadn’t used the word ‘that thing’.

He grumbled as he usually did when dealing with the cardinal, and before long he had Crescens slung over his shoulder.

Ailren smiled slightly as he watched Tesagh’s retreating figure walking ahead and took one last look at the sanctuary.

“…”

And then, he began to walk.

*

Deep in the night.

A man knelt in a graveyard where the soil was still red.

『Beatrix Rionet』

The wrinkled eyes of the man who had been stroking the tombstone engraved with his daughter’s name as if she were his daughter closed tightly.

Having buried not only his daughter and son-in-law but also the life of a child not yet born beneath the earth, the man did not pray.

Because he did not believe in god.

He had never believed even once. He thought there was no need for such a thing as god. If something like a god existed, the world couldn’t be like this, he thought there was no way it could crush even a father’s small hope for his daughter’s safe return.

But god betrayed his expectations once again.

「Michele Fiochedade Rionet.」

By appearing before his eyes at the most desperate moment.

The man sneered. Instead of revering or admiring ‘that thing’ that appeared wrapped in light like a veil with even time stopped, he asked.

“What is it?”

He withdrew the hand that had been stroking the tombstone and stared at ‘that thing’ with narrowed eyes as if facing the one who had killed his daughter.

There was no emotion on the face of ‘that thing’ wrapped in light. It was clear and pure light, but to the man it felt rather like an ambiguous silence trying to cover everything.

‘That thing’s’ gaze reflected the man’s abyss. As if giving an answer since he had asked, the god’s long life flashed before his eyes. It was a generous gesture that explained the reason for manifestation in an instant, but instead of being moved by it, the man asked again.

“I asked what you want.”

「There is something I must entrust to you.」

A hollow laugh escaped.

“What could you possibly entrust to me now, after taking everything from me.”

Instead of answering, ‘that thing’ drew forth something blindingly bright.

Starlight gathered and took form.

What appeared was life. A child with closed eyes. It was a cruel joke.

To entrust a child to a father who had just lost his daughter—it could only be a heart-wrenching joke.

「Leave this place immediately, Michele Fiochedade Rionet.」

「You must protect this child so that it can become a guide, so that it won’t fall into others’ hands.」

His insides churned.

Rising anger, sorrow, and futility mixed together and pierced his chest.

The man could not understand this heartless decision to entrust new life to him who was facing death.

“Is this your mercy?”

It was when the man who had been striking the ground raised his head.

‘That thing’ was stroking the tombstone. With the same solemn and slow mourning that he had done.

Something flowed down from the expressionless ‘thing’s’ eyes. With light that might have been tears, sorrow, or perhaps regret in its eyes, ‘that thing’ murmured.

「No. It is your wish.」

Then it dissolved into light and disappeared.

In the void filled with darkness as if nothing had happened, something fell with a thud. It was a red necklace. The man who had been watching that sight lowered his eyes.

The child who had opened its eyes at some point was looking at him.

“…”

His wish? What irresponsible words.

His thoughts remained unchanged that it was a cruel joke and heartless deception.

However, the violet eyes that resembled his daughter, or the child that should have been born, scattered hot water over his torn heart.

The man lifted the child who had been born alone in the land of death.

“Grandfather, don’t you go to places like temples?”

The child who had grown up asked. He wore the traces of a god around his neck.

A child and incarnation created by a god who wanted to disappear from this world for his own end.

The god had shown him. This child would eventually turn to ash and disappear. Without realizing anything.

He couldn’t seek advice from anyone. Like all those who had glimpsed the future, he was bound by restrictions on speech and writing.

The man who had been staring at the child for a moment opened his mouth.

“I’m not the type to believe in things I can’t see.”

Even after facing the god directly, the man still didn’t believe in the god. To be precise, he didn’t believe in what it had shown him.

It was close to some kind of notion. The future it showed was nothing but an illusion.

So.

“I should believe in what I can see. Don’t you think?”

I will save you.

I will believe only in you. In you who exists, in you who smiles and embraces me now.

You, who I thought was speaking nonsense, but who ultimately became my wish.

There will surely be many hardships…

But you will eventually become someone who creates your own path, not a guide who walks the path that was made.

“We’ll be able to get along well.”

Michele, recalling words he had once said, gently stroked the child’s head.

It was warm.

*

“Mmm…”

Opening my eyes, I looked up at the white ceiling.

Where is this? I suddenly feel a sense of déjà vu. I feel like this has happened before…

“Elisha!”

The moment I opened my eyes, someone’s body temperature as they pulled me into their arms with their tense body was somehow familiar too.

“Are you conscious? Is there anything wrong with your body? Does anything hurt?”

Blinking my eyes, I stared at the red-eyed man who was asking rapid-fire questions while worriedly touching every corner of my face, then opened my mouth.

“Sorry, but who… are you?”

Thud.

The man’s hand dropped.

“…What did you say?”

Seeing his face turn pale in an instant, I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Sorry, Tesagh. You were so startled, what should I do.”

“You, then.”

“Of course I remember. I just wanted to say something like that at least once in my life, but I never had the chance.”

“Why on earth would you want to say something like that?”

“Anyway, I’m perfectly fine, as you can see.”

Just like when I fainted at Delphia Manor, Tesagh must have stayed by my side the entire time.

To convince him at once that I was unharmed after he had been worried sick, I just needed to show him directly.

That I was still the same.

Tesagh was probably looking at me with his usual ‘what kind of nonsense is this’ expression…

“What kind of nonsense is this…”

Hmm, I didn’t expect him to say it out loud.

In any case, the tension finally left his body that had been rigid with worry. He pulled me close, supporting my back, and whispered tenderly.

“I missed you.”

“Yes, me too.”

I’m back.

I smiled and leaned against Tesagh.

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