The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 156
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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 156
Rita anxiously poured out her questions. Gid rubbed his lips once and answered calmly.
“We didn’t do it that many times. Was it the sixth time or the seventh time… Anyway, when our squad members finally all survived and cornered Pascal, he screamed in rage.”
“…”
“That we could never kill him, that he was a body that couldn’t die even if he wanted to. Did we even know what he had tried to do to die?”
He raised the corner of his mouth diagonally, recalling that moment.
* * *
Pascal, cornered by Beacon’s offensive, lost his inhuman atmosphere and the composure he always wore like a robe.
With his hood removed, he was a young man with white hair like an old man and plain features. His eyes gleamed with a strange color, the exact same hue as the ‘star’ that Beacon had recovered.
“You can’t kill me anyway! Never! Damn bastards, how do you already know the magic I’m going to use like…!”
He glared with eyes that shimmered like aurora and screamed, then suddenly his expression disappeared as if he had been doused with cold water.
“Wait a minute.”
His eyes whirled around and captured Gid Pascal precisely.
“You, don’t tell me… do you remember?”
Gid didn’t answer and swung his sword. Pascal, who reflexively activated his barrier, muttered as if his soul had left him.
“You do remember, you’re the one who remembers. That’s why like this…”
“…”
“Just like the old me… Then you have the qualifications, the possibility of being chosen… If you’re chosen, will I be liberated? Would that be better? Give up everything, yes, would that be better? Can I die? Can I rest… can I rest? Ah, mother, honey, I’m sorry, I can’t anymore…”
The great mage who had been rambling suddenly released his barrier.
“…!”
The moment Gid’s sword, swung without resistance, pierced through his chest, Pascal grabbed that sword with his bare hands.
The young man whose hair had turned completely white looked up at him with strangely glowing eyes.
“You have someone you want to save, don’t you?”
Gid still didn’t answer. He didn’t particularly want to exchange words with the bastard who had raised them, killed them, and used them countless times.
“I’m talking about that child who self-destructed trying to save you all. What would you do if there was a way to bring her back to life?”
However, the words he brought up this time were absolutely impossible to ignore. The short question dyed his soul like deadly poison. He found himself unconsciously listening to Pascal.
The great mage coughed up blood and raised the corner of his mouth.
“Try making a wish to that ‘egg’ over there. It might grant it!”
The bastard laughed madly. That insane laughter embedded itself in Gid’s ears.
“You’ll probably just fail endlessly and go crazy like me! Hahaha! But who knows, maybe you’ll succeed unlike me! So beg earnestly for that child to be brought back to life, to the demon inside that egg!”
And Pascal died.
Time rewound once again.
When he closed his eyes and opened them, Gid Pascal was sitting collapsed in the underground research facility, clutching Rita Pascal’s eyeball.
Pascal’s last words thundered through his mind.
“You have someone you want to save, don’t you?”
Yes.
She’s in his hands right now.
He keeps seeing her body torn to pieces. He keeps repeating the three days right after she died. He’s already collecting her corpse for who knows how many times. He keeps picking up pieces of her body.
“I’m talking about that child who self-destructed trying to save you all. What would you do if there was a way to bring her back to life?”
Of course.
If only he could save her. If only he could get her back. If only he could hold her intact hand again instead of pieces of flesh in his hands.
Somehow. By doing anything. Any crazy act. Even by begging a demon.
The moment he thought that, he felt the backlash of his oath surging up.
The Oaths began to punish him. Dizziness struck and the taste of blood filled his mouth. Pain shot through his entire body.
Gid recalled his oath.
I swear not to be blinded by love.
Even after hearing the words to beg a demon, even after hearing Pascal’s insane laughter, at this moment when the bastard’s words felt like a ray of hope.
At this moment when the Oaths’ punishment was falling.
He realized belatedly. It was a terribly painful realization.
Ah, I, her, Rita Pascal.
“Try making a wish to that ‘egg’ over there. It might grant it!”
He moved his blurred vision. He looked at the ‘star’ in the glass bottle next to Oli.
That small sphere brilliantly shining while wrapped in aurora-like energy. The same color as Pascal’s strange eyes.
Gid stood up as if entranced.
Blinded by love.
Even while being punished, he didn’t stop. He swallowed blood. He walked staggering. With trembling hands, he picked up the glass bottle containing the star.
Oli looked up at him in bewilderment.
“Why are you suddenly taking that?”
He didn’t answer her. He opened the lid. He took out the star with his bare hands.
Oli, realizing that his atmosphere was somehow ominous, jumped up.
“Hey, why are you taking that out! Don’t touch it with your bare hands!”
Oli’s voice didn’t register well in his ears. Amid the pain of punishment tearing through his entire body, only Pascal’s words echoed.
“So beg earnestly for that child to be brought back to life, to the demon inside that egg!”
Being blinded by something means not seeing anything else. Not seeing means not thinking about it.
Not considering anything else. Not worrying about the future. Not judging right from wrong. Not weighing probabilities. Not pondering consequences. Not considering surroundings.
Only keeping one thing in mind. Like the only afterimage remaining in distant vision.
The chance to revive Rita Pascal.
Beg, he said. How do you beg?
He looked down at the star in his palm. He tried begging inwardly.
‘Bring Rita Pascal back to life.’
The demon supposedly inside the egg gave no answer. He rolled the star in his grip.
A sphere smaller than a child’s fist.
They had called it a star for now, and Pascal had called it an egg.
Gid recalled Pascal’s eyes that had been exactly the same color as this.
Come to think of it, wasn’t this star actually similar in size to an eyeball? Thanks to Rita’s eyeball that he had held and examined every time, he could gauge the size precisely.
Eyeball. Pascal’s eyes. Prosthetic eye.
He happened to be one-eyed.
He untied his eyepatch and pulled out the prosthetic eye that had been in his empty eye socket.
Screaming voices sounded distantly far away. Someone grabbed his forearm. He couldn’t remember if it was Ethan or Is.
He shook them off and inserted the star into his empty eye socket.
It fit as if made to measure. One of his eyes glowed aurora-colored.
Gid Pascal made a wish.
That he wanted to bring Rita Pascal back to life.
What was inside the star heard his wish. Something the great mage had called a demon whispered to him.
No, it felt like whispering. It wasn’t language, but it permeated him like language.
I will give you the chance to turn back time. In exchange, stake your time as collateral.
* * *
Gid slowly closed and opened his eyes.
Sometimes it felt strange to have both eyes. The years of having only one eye, the years of having a Star embedded in that socket, had been too long.
He didn’t let himself be shaken by memories of the past. As he had prepared and practiced beforehand, he revealed a portion of the truth.
“That Pascal who said he couldn’t die even though he wanted to… his eyes were exactly the same color as the Star we had seen.”
“His eyes were exactly the same as the Star?”
Rita was looking at him with a worried and anxious expression. That pleased him. The fact that she was focused on him for whatever reason.
Gid pointed to his right eye area as lightly as possible, as if it were nothing special.
“I suddenly found that suspicious… After Pascal died and time rewound, I touched the Star. Then I tried switching it with my prosthetic eye and putting it in.”
“What?”
“Then even after killing Pascal, time didn’t rewind. From that moment, the ownership of the Star had changed to me.”
Lillieta muttered like a groan.
“The Star… you put that thing in your eye? You did?”
“Not in my eye, in my eye socket. It wasn’t particularly difficult since it was already empty.”
“…”
She was speechless with a shocked expression. Gid smiled faintly.
You shouldn’t be this surprised, Rita. I’ve done far stranger things than this. Among them are things I regret so much that I find myself disgusting. Times I never want to recall again.
That’s why I don’t want to tell you about them.
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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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