The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 188

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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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Chapter 188

Lu’s death.

That unexpected obstacle made me look back at the questions I had pushed aside until now.

Why did I come to Astrosia 160 years ago?

This self-questioning was like a thorn stuck in my fingertip, bothering me constantly.

What exactly was the purpose of Dian’s legacy?

To look into my soul? Or to connect me to the past through that soul?

Was I called here to save Dian? Or to save Lu? The endless chain of questions always led to one conclusion.

I must return home.

I had to return to my reality where Lu, my friends, and my life were waiting.

But why was I called back to this desert again?

“Dian.”

My voice spread through the dry desert wind.

“What exactly do you want to do to me?”

A white thread emerged from near my heart. The thread that began to curl into a circle soon formed one giant sphere. It was my soul.

I can feel it.

Dian’s soul residing within me was trying to show me something.

Fragments of unfamiliar memories poured into my head one after another.

‘…This is.’

Pure white light swallowed me whole.

When I came to my senses, I was no longer standing on the desert.

The Black Castle shrouded in darkness.

The first sensation I recognized within it was the disgusting smell of blood piercing my nose.

A tingling sensation that swept over my entire body and evaporated. This energy was incomparable to when I faced a mere heart crystal stone, stirring excitement and heat that had been sleeping deep in my instincts.

-Kiiiiaaaa!

My eyes met with the owner of tremendous power that could cover all of Quin Island and more. I gripped my sword tighter with sweat-soaked hands and shouted.

“Mephistopheles!”

The Mage War that swallowed the entire continent in terror.

That’s right, I was standing here to put an end to that war!

I advanced with my sword to complete the final mission. However, despite my vengeful cry, our confrontation was pathetic.

The demon I faced after 10 years of wandering was a stuffed old man.

Mephistopheles was already dying.

His dry back and sparse white hair were connected to ten long tubes, and his hands and feet were blackened and rotting.

And most importantly, there was a large hole where his heart should have been.

Inside the hole, in the center of blood vessels connected like spider webs, I could see a pure white pearl. All the mechanical devices sustaining Mephistopheles focused their energy on the pearl.

‘I must destroy that thing.’

Even I, who didn’t know about heart crystal stones at the time, could clearly recognize that fact.

-Kiiiiaaak!

Every time the demon’s black blood splattered everywhere, vivid resonance echoed in my head.

-Kill.

As I tore through and cut down the pouring enemies, I suddenly remembered a forgotten fact.

-Cut them down.

This memory is my lost memory.

The memory of death that I lost 4 years ago.

Until now, the information I could recall about this moment was very simple. That Mephistopheles’ soul and mine collided. That I died once in that process.

This scene where I finally faced Mephistopheles after cutting down all the demons meant it wasn’t left in my memory at all.

“…Huff, gasp.”

But not anymore.

The demon who had been breathing roughly like a newborn baby while stuck in the wall raised his head. A hoarse voice that caused discomfort to the listener pierced my ears.

“Young one.”

In the two eyes that had been indifferently watching me climb over the demon corpses, something like emotion bloomed for the first time.

“I was once… a slave.”

That emotion was loneliness.

“The ship I was born on was a barge that transported slaves. My father was a slave who rowed that barge, and my mother was a prostitute who fell for a slave. Born as an object rather than a person from birth, I grew up learning to obey my master.”

Did even the wicked archmage who ravaged humanity become just a weak human before death? It wasn’t surprising.

“My life completely changed when I stabbed my master’s heart twelve times at age ten…”

The rest of his words couldn’t continue.

Thunk. His head, cut with a single stroke, rolled on the floor like a pulled radish. After shaking off the blood on my sword, I kicked the head at my feet with all my might.

“Making me let you babble five whole sentences.”

I should have killed him as soon as he opened his mouth, I regretted.

“Phew.”

After letting out a long sigh, I turned my gaze to the headless corpse.

The pearl that had taken the place where the heart should have been.

The moment I grabbed that strange pearl and tore it from Mephistopheles’ body.

Kwaaaaang!

Mephistopheles’ body exploded, and an intense typhoon struck.

The part of his soul that couldn’t be absorbed by the heart crystal stone colliding with my soul happened in truly an instant.

* * *

Then, I died.

Warm mist began to fill the gaps of my soul that was breaking into pieces. It was Dian’s soul.

* * *

Eventually, I was revived from the ashes.

It was a recovery that took a full 4 years.

* * *

When I opened my eyes.

I was standing on the desert again.

“Only when you know me, accept me, and abandon me does my ego become complete.”

I unconsciously turned around at the voice that suddenly came. I could see the ‘Four Walls’ that had fallen earlier.

Though they were now just sand, their traces were clear.

‘Taking control of life starts with knowing myself.’

The first wall that broke in Midwintry.

‘I absolutely cannot abandon this sword. If I can’t abandon it, I have no choice but to accept it and endure. I was confident I could do that. Because this sword’s resonance is me.’

The second wall that broke below the waterfall.

‘Stay healthy, and I leave the rest to you.’

‘Someone screamed my name like a shriek. I carried that call on my back as I advanced into the darkness. Down that path from which I would never return.’

The third wall that broke when I headed to Mephistopheles’ Castle with my own feet.

And.

‘I died.’

The lost 4 years of memory shown by Dian’s soul sleeping within me.

Death.

My death… shattered the final fourth wall.

.

.

.

Power seemed to dwell in my cracked soul.

.

.

.

I had overcome all mortal walls.

.

.

.

“…Sh.”

.

.

.

“Ash.”

.

.

.

Finally!

I can no longer see any wall blocking my path.

Beyond the crumbled sand, I can see the brilliant fixed stars floating in the sky. Day and night no longer existed in the heavens. The endlessly vast universe silently expanded as it looked down upon me.

The path spread before my eyes was incredibly long.

Beyond the hills of the barren desert lay a swamp surrounded by black mist, beyond the bubbling swamp was the Land of Lava burning red, beyond the hot solidified Basalt Region was a forest where beasts roamed, and beyond the grassland where the World Tree slept rose pure white Snowy Mountains above the clouds.

‘Ah.’

I suddenly realized.

That this path was the one I had to walk.

The moment I took my first step, no worries or concerns existed within me. My body, soul, and consciousness formed a perfect trinity as they gazed upon that distant universe.

“Stop, Ash.”

A firm voice demanded of me.

I naturally turned around. A blue-haired young man stood there, gripping my wrist. Like this, there is only one person who can visit my desert without permission.

Lu’s power.

He pulled me back.

“Don’t cross over to that world anymore. I won’t allow it.”

“Why?”

I couldn’t understand his choice at all.

“You know this. This is a chance to become complete. Now I can be free from all the fate that has been binding me.”

“Says who?”

His grinning smile was chilling. It was blatant mockery.

Taking a step closer, he cupped my face with both hands. As if exchanging greetings after a long reunion, he stared into my eyes for a while before sending me an infinitely loving gaze.

“Don’t be mistaken, Ash. How could you be complete without me?”

His gentle breath soothed me like comforting a naive child.

“It’s easier to give up. You don’t have the qualifications to walk that path.”

“I decide what qualifications I have.”

“Excellent answer. You have sufficient capacity to become a slave’s master.”

“You can’t stop me.”

Haha. Lu let out a dry laugh and pulled my face closer.

“You shouldn’t say such foolish things… Who was it that first made me fall to the ground?”

“…”

“It was you. Because of you, I became a half-star stuck in the ground. You’re not going to deny it, are you?”

“…”

“But Ash. Your original face is much prettier.”

With that mirage-like whisper as his finale, his lips devoured my breath.

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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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