The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 155

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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 155

The moment she saw that face, Lillieta was certain once again. Gideon had no intention of telling her everything.

‘But he won’t lie either.’

Revealing small truths to hide bigger ones. That was Gid Pascal’s usual way of keeping secrets.

He rarely told complete lies. He knew well that fabricated stories inevitably had flaws.

So she felt both relieved and hurt at the same time.

‘Gid, did you think I wouldn’t be able to read your expression?’

Gid’s smile when he truly laughed versus the smile he created when he had to laugh. No one would know the difference better than her.

She had been able to distinguish them since childhood, when they first met at the training camp at age 10.

During the years they spent together, as he became skilled at disguising, she also became familiar with him. She could still recognize Gid’s fake smile at a glance.

Instead of pointing this out, Rita kept her mouth shut and quietly listened. She had decided to hear everything first instead of hastily stirring things up or showing suspicion.

She might have misjudged him.

‘I’d rather have misjudged him.’

Whether he knew Lillieta’s complicated feelings or not, Gideon looked down at the tea water sparkling in the sunset light and spoke in a calm voice.

“Right after you died the first time.”

Her heart sank from the very beginning. ‘The first time’ she died. Rita bit the inside of her mouth to keep her expression steady.

“When we were all out of our minds while recovering your body from the underground research facility… when we couldn’t decide what to do next and everyone was in a deranged state for about three days. That’s when Pascal appeared.”

“…!”

“He asked if we had successfully recovered the Star, and before we could answer, he saw the Star that Oli was holding in a glass bottle, and said in a voice filled with ecstasy, ‘Finally succeeded, finally…'”

Gid glared at his teacup with blazing eyes as if Pascal’s image had appeared in the tea water. Even so, he continued speaking calmly.

“Pascal looked extremely happy. He seemed very excited. Unlike what we knew, he talked a lot… As if we weren’t there, as if he was used to talking to himself, as if he was relieved that he no longer needed to hide anything, he poured out words.”

“…What did he say?”

Gid hesitated for a moment, then closed his eyes. As if recalling and extracting the memory of that moment.

With his eyes closed, he spoke.

“‘No matter how many times I tried before, you wouldn’t head beyond the Last Line of Defense until I guided you, and only focused on uselessly turning the Command Center upside down, but this time you didn’t touch the Command Center and for the first time departed on your own to find the source of contamination, so I had some hope.'”

Then he paused for a moment.

As Rita mulled over those words and gritted her teeth anew at the fact that Pascal had repeated time with ‘Pascal’s Children’ to conduct experiments as Oli had speculated, she wondered if the Beacon Squad had originally clashed with Command every time.

‘Did they confront Command every time after squad members died in the Kraken subjugation? That would make sense.’

But he said ‘this time’ they didn’t touch Command.

The moment she heard those words, she remembered the winter when snow fell on the tombstones. And the conversation she and Gid had there.

“Would you like us to establish a new Command?”

“No. I’d just like it to end with us no longer following Command’s orders.”

“Then what do you want to happen in the future?”

“I want this war to end. And I want all of us to survive and live peacefully in a world without monsters anymore.”

“Alright, if that’s your dream, let’s make that my dream too.”

“Was your original dream different?”

“A little. But it doesn’t matter.”

Could that moment have been the turning point that changed Beacon’s direction?

In other timelines, had she given Gid a different answer? That she wanted revenge on Command?

The moment she had that question, an unexpected answer flowed from Gideon’s lips.

“‘It must be the influence of ‘Rita Pascal’ joining the squad, right? This is the first experiment where I put that girl in, and not only did the squad’s name change, but even the squad’s direction changed.'”

Lillieta’s eyes widened. She thought rigidly.

‘Originally… I wasn’t in Beacon? Even our squad’s name was different?’

If in the timeline where she joined, the squad’s name changed for the first time and they departed beyond the Last Line of Defense instead of clashing with Command, then from Pascal’s perspective, she was.

‘I really was a variable?’

She remembered the night the Mimic attacked, when Pascal possessing Hanna had tried to kill her.

While she was confused, Gid slowly finished his words.

“‘Is that why it succeeded? Because there was no friction with Command, the squad preserved its full capabilities? Yes, that’s why you succeeded in recovering the Star for the first time. Well done, well done, finally, at last…’ Those were the kinds of things he said.”

“…”

“I could quickly understand why he poured out the truth so recklessly.”

Gid opened his eyes. With pupils that looked like metal, coldly hardened, he added.

“Pascal planned to kill all of us there and steal the Star.”

Rita stared at him with her mouth open, then spoke as if suddenly realizing something.

“Wait, don’t tell me he used us because it was impossible for him to recover the Star himself? The purpose of the experiments repeating time multiple times wasn’t return?”

“The purpose was probably both return and Star recovery. While conducting return experiments, he was also looking for someone to recover the Star in his place and chose our squad. Because he had placed a seal on the Star that he himself couldn’t break or approach.”

“Why on earth did he seal the Star and then try to get it back?”

For an instant, Gid’s gaze wavered slightly. He slowly closed and opened his eyes, then answered in a flat voice.

“What’s contained in the Star is magic that manipulates time, and the more you use it, the more magical contamination spreads like a price. He probably sealed it to prevent contamination, but even after stopping its use, contamination kept spreading from the Star, so he tried to get it back.”

“…”

“Or maybe he wanted to use the Star again regardless of contamination or anything else… Anyway, that’s what I’m speculating.”

Gid had just hidden something.

Rita detected and remembered that fact from the momentary wavering. Collecting clues for her goal.

Even though Gid had opened his eyes, he wasn’t looking at what was in front of him. With a gaze wandering through distant past, he spoke dryly.

“Anyway, everyone died that day, by Pascal’s hand.”

“…Everyone?”

“Oli, Ethan, Senior Is, Senior Sera, even Luca. All killed by Pascal’s hand. He was a great mage who had lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and we were still unable to recover from the shock of your death.”

“…”

“Still, we, Beacon… don’t waste our deaths meaninglessly. Just like you did.”

Rita couldn’t say anything. Gid continued speaking calmly.

“Based on everyone’s deaths, I, who remained last, cut Pascal’s throat. I killed him. And at that moment.”

Gid slowly closed and opened his eyes again. A sunken voice flowed out.

“When I opened my eyes, time had returned to three days earlier. Right after you died.”

“…What?”

“The comrades who had just died by Pascal’s hand were all alive, gathering pieces of your corpse and wailing. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was unable to think straight when Pascal appeared again. This time after two days.”

No way.

Rita asked back like a groan.

“Time rewound the moment Pascal died?”

“Yes.”

Gid nodded and continued.

“The second time, I already knew most of the techniques Pascal used. Still, I couldn’t save everyone. Oli and Senior Is survived. The three of us killed Pascal, and when I closed and opened my eyes, it was right after you died again.”

Imagining that process made her feel like she was going insane. Gid, who looked at Rita’s face, gave a bitter smile.

“To cut to the conclusion, whoever possesses the Star can rewind time to a specific point. It can be done consciously, but if they die, it automatically rewinds.”

“Good God.”

“Pascal was the Star’s owner, and the moment he realized we had recovered the Star… that is, when you caused that massive explosion, he realized we had finally succeeded and changed the ‘reference point’ to that time. Right after you died.”

“He changed the regression point?”

“Right. He planned to kill us and steal the Star, but if he happened to die to us in the process and had to start the ‘experiment’ from the beginning, that would be troublesome. From his perspective, it would be the first successful case after many attempts.”

“…Ha.”

“So Pascal changed the reference point and came to us. We had unsealed the Star then, which made such manipulation possible. The owner can use it even when far from the Star.”

“…How did you know all that? How many times did you try until you figured those things out? How did you stop Pascal’s regression?”

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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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