The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 180
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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 180
A young man with hair turned white. Pascal lies motionless as if asleep. Even as Gid places his blood-soaked hand on his neck and grips it pleadingly.
“…His soul isn’t here.”
Gid, who had muttered quietly, looked back at the trembling Dorothy. For an instant, countless indescribable emotions flashed across his face.
Hope, despair, trust, distrust, affection, hatred, will, exhaustion.
“Ten years.”
He removed his hand from Pascal and crouched down in front of the cowering, trembling woman as he spoke.
“The years I spent watching over you, believing you were Rita. The days I endured by convincing myself that circumstances had changed and conditions had shifted, so you had just changed a little. I thought it didn’t matter how you changed if you were really her…”
“…Wh, what? What are you talking about?”
“Dorothy, for your sake as you called Pascal father and followed him, I did whatever that bastard ordered. Pretending I knew nothing about stars or regression, I carried out all his commands thoroughly. I even tried to forget my hatred for him.”
Gid reached out his hand toward her.
“Because you said Pascal was precious… because I wanted to believe you were her…”
As the blood-dripping glove approached, Dorothy had a fit and backed away while still sitting.
“D-d-don’t come near me!”
Gid stopped his hand and contorted his entire face. Words that seemed squeezed out flowed from him.
“Dorothy, do you know whose blood this is?”
“I-I don’t know, how would I…”
“It’s Oli Pascal’s blood.”
“…Huh?”
“Pascal apparently wanted to experiment in this cycle to see if he could succeed in returning when Oli Pascal went berserk. When I went after receiving orders to deal with Pascal’s Child who was rampaging, Oli was there.”
Gid covered his face with his blood-stained hand. Oli’s blood flowed down his cheek like tears.
“There was no way to calm her down.”
“…”
“You used to stop me before. Right? I tried to imitate you, but my words didn’t reach Oli at all. Of course they wouldn’t, since in this timeline I’m… not her friend but just a disgusting dog that Pascal uses.”
“…”
“Do you understand? I killed Oli Pascal.”
“…”
“I, with these hands…”
Gid swallowed the end of his words, let out a groan like a wounded beast, and curled up his body.
Dorothy flinched and moved further away from him. Feeling that movement, Gid raised his head and blinked his blood-soaked eyes open. Then he smiled.
“Dorothy, you probably don’t understand why I’m saying these things. You wouldn’t even know who Oli Pascal is.”
“…”
“Actually, you and Oli have met before. I introduced you… you two really didn’t get along.”
“…”
“You were annoyed, saying Oli was a strange crazy magician who only talked about guns and magic all day, and Oli disliked you, saying that for Pascal’s daughter, you were like a greenhouse-cultivated flower, a kid who knew nothing and didn’t want to know anything.”
“…”
“It’s strange, really. You two were so close and got along so well. Enough that I was secretly jealous.”
He let out a hollow laugh and tilted his head back.
“I guess it’s time to finally accept it.”
He fumbled around his waist while keeping his gaze in the air. He drew the regulation pistol from his combat uniform belt and aimed it at his own head.
With the muzzle pressed against his temple, he wore a bitter smile.
“You’re not Rita, Dorothy.”
“Wh-what, what are you trying to…”
“Sorry for misunderstanding on my own.”
Just as he was about to pull the trigger.
Lillieta, who had only been watching, grabbed his hand.
It was an impulsive action, but because she didn’t want to suppress that impulse, it was a conscious choice.
She overlapped her hand on his hand holding the gun. She forcibly twisted the direction of the muzzle.
Gid looked back at her with his blood-stained face. He looked up expressionlessly. With the unfamiliar eye hidden by the eyepatch and the one eye she knew.
Fog rolled in.
All scenery disappeared.
She walked as if pushed by the wind.
The scent of roses stung her nose.
Following that, a smell of blood so intense it seemed to cover even that fragrance came. It was a terrible smell mixed with stench.
Startled, Lillieta blinked and saw a scene flickering before her eyes. This time, the fog cleared in just one step, revealing a new scene.
Pascal was sitting in a chair. No, he was tied up. Tortured and stained with blood.
It was a secluded room with cracked walls. It was a place she’d never seen before, but she felt like she knew where it was. The patterns on the plaster walls, the shape of the pillars, and the design of the window bars were familiar.
It seemed to be the ruins of the castle where Beacon had found the star, the Adickl Ducal Castle after 200 years had passed. It appeared to be some room within that castle.
Gid passed by her side as she stood blankly. As if he couldn’t see her, keeping his gaze only on Pascal.
The same age and same outfit as when she had last seen him just before her death.
That same person grabbed the collar of the drooping Pascal and struck him with his fist.
“Kugh…”
Pascal spat blood. Tooth fragments mixed with the blood he expelled fell to the floor.
Gid asked him in a cold voice she had never heard before.
“Are you a bit more conscious now?”
“Kheh… kugh…”
“Sleeping somewhere. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I last slept.”
“Heh… Why, when I close my eyes, khuk, I see that child shattered to pieces? Kheulk, how many times is this for you? About ten times, huh, I suppose?”
Pascal laughed while spitting blood. Gid’s eyes blazed. The man giggled and said.
“Khuk, kuk… Child. What do you think… I see?”
“…”
“I, I see… a burned corpse. The necklace, the necklace remained… so I knew it was mother. And my wife… my wife, you see, haha, hahaha, kugh, kuk.”
Pascal spat blood continuously while laughing, then continued with words mixed with wheezing breath.
“You too, would want to go back to the past. Heh, to before your precious person… became like that… like me.”
“…”
“But… it will seem within reach but never be caught. That demon, haha, khulk, shows hope, makes it possible to turn back time… kugh, but you can’t return to before meeting it… kuk, you can’t go back… haha.”
“…”
“Isn’t it ridiculous? Your precious person died, and you want to bring them back to life… heh, so you put that thing in your eye, but there’s no way to return to the past before putting it in your eye. No matter what you do, you can’t go back to before then. Then what exactly am I… haha, hahaha, khehek, khulk.”
She could see strength entering Gid’s jaw. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly while standing blankly, looking down at the giggling Pascal.
He slowly opened his mouth.
“So that’s why you created us.”
“Kheuk, kuk, yes…”
“You created magic to track ancestral souls and observe the past… summoned us from the past, implanted future memories, then sent us back to the past… to make influential figures ‘return’ and try to change the past you couldn’t change?”
“Yes, and if you succeed in returning… if history changes because of you… kheh, I’ll know immediately. The world will change somehow… If those who know of the coming disaster appear in the past… kugh, hah… that very change will prove the experiment’s success.”
“…”
“Once I figure out the method that way, I can ‘return’ like you too, right? Then, heh, to before I awakened that demon’s egg, to the time when my family members were alive… kheulk, I can go back too.”
“…”
“…Child.”
Pascal raised his head. He smiled with unfocused eyes and said.
“There’s one experiment I couldn’t do… heh, won’t you try it?”
Lillieta watched that scene with a face drained of color and thought.
This magician is insane. He’s not in his right mind. He’s broken. She shouldn’t listen to him, and shouldn’t be persuaded by him.
She believed that Gid couldn’t possibly not know that either.
‘You know, Gid. Don’t accept it.’
Even while repeating this to herself, she anticipated the outcome of this scene.
Gid slowly closed and opened his eyes, then asked quietly.
“What kind of experiment?”
“Heheh, heheheh.”
Pascal continued speaking with a bizarre laugh.
“It’s an experiment to make humans who have used demon eggs go berserk… You’ve used one too, so you know, right? That thing, even if you use it just once… leaves traces on the soul. You could call it contamination… *cough*. If you make a human full of those traces go berserk, and attempt regression within that state… what do you think will happen? Heh heh, aren’t you curious?”
“…You want me to make you go berserk and get caught up in it to regress.”
“That’s right. If I go berserk and regress by myself… it’s the same as being dead, heh, so there’s no real change.”
“You’ve already tried it alone.”
“Child, how much do you think is left that I haven’t tried? Haha, I even went so far as to seal the egg here myself, you know? Haha, hahaha!”
Pascal shook his entire body as he laughed, then raised the corners of his mouth. Revealing teeth stained reddish with blood, he whispered like a demon.
“No matter what you do, you just need to succeed. If you succeed just once, you can reverse everything.”
“…”
“As long as you know how to succeed, you can just start over to get the best results… so what does the process or means matter?”
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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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