The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 195

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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 195

Ethan and Hanna escaped through the side gate of the garden without encountering a single monster.

Hanna looked around with a bewildered expression and sent a communication to Lillieta.

[Wh-wh-what happened? Miss, how on earth did you…?]

“I’ll tell you later. Do you see the bell tower nearby? Come this way.”

Rita replied calmly while forming a new bullet. An explosive round filled with plenty of Oath power.

Then she stood up, roughly aimed her gun and fired it, before turning around and jumping down from below the bell tower.

[Casting: Using fall prevention magic.]

The moment she landed, an explosion sound came from far away. It was the sound of the Black Joker exploding.

* * *

In the central square of Lambcard, dozens of pitch-black cannons were positioned.

In the age of knights, mages, and priests, cannons were weapons that were looked down upon. Like guns, they were even more so due to poor stability caused by insufficient technology.

Because they were ignored, proper development and investment weren’t made, so technological advancement was also slow. There were hardly any people researching cannons at all. This created a vicious cycle of poor performance.

It was Crown Prince Gideon four years ago who broke that vicious cycle.

He proceeded with cannon research and development almost simultaneously with establishing the Special Knight Order, and ordered mass production as soon as usable prototypes emerged.

All the cannons made this way were stationed with the capital guard.

Knights who could properly use aura joined knight orders, not the capital guard. Since proper combat and serious crimes were handled by the Royal Guard, the guard’s main duty was catching petty thieves under the banner of maintaining order in the capital.

So originally, they were a group that didn’t train properly and had little motivation.

The Crown Prince changed that group in just four years.

Following the Crown Prince’s command that cannons would someday play an important role, they learned how to handle the cannons stationed with the capital guard. The Crown Prince held artillery competitions every quarter and even gave rewards from his own pocket to encourage them.

Thus, more than half of the capital guard transformed into skilled artillerymen.

The Crown Prince’s foresight shone in this sudden disaster.

When the Special Knight Order roughly finished rescuing citizens and formed ranks in the square, the capital guard immediately began operating the cannons.

Citizens were anxious about the very unfamiliar sight of black cannon barrels lined up, but gradually began to admire and feel relieved.

Every time the cannons spat fire, the charging monsters collapsed in heaps.

Since most of the monsters were card soldiers with paper bodies, they were even weaker to cannon explosions.

The capital guard themselves were surprised and encouraged by the results.

Their cannons, which had been dismissed as the Crown Prince’s toys, were defeating things that even aura-using knights or mages from the Magic Tower couldn’t handle.

The guardsmen, filled with pride and loyalty to the Crown Prince, fought even more passionately.

The few monsters that withstood the cannon fire were handled by the waiting Tritoma Special Agents who rushed out.

The injured were brought by blue deer or birds of prey, then quickly healed by Saint Seraphina and sent right back to the battlefield.

The card soldiers that had endlessly swarmed after reviving no matter how many times they were killed began to noticeably decrease in number after the Red Queen’s death. Since they could no longer revive infinitely, they were increasingly pushed back by the firepower.

The city was stabilizing in this way.

Olivia who rescued Lucas, and Lillieta who rescued Ethan and Hanna, arrived at the square echoing with cannon fire at similar times.

Lucas had been fighting desperately against the Heart Jack that kept reviving no matter how many times he killed it, then at some point managed to barely kill the Jack that had lost its revival ability before collapsing unconscious.

“Both of you look like complete rags.”

Olivia clicked her tongue as she alternately looked at the tattered Lucas and Ethan, then pushed them both toward Seraphina. Soon Sera’s nagging poured down on them like hail.

After also entrusting Hanna, who had fainted from accumulated fatigue, to Sera, Lillieta handed the bundle of documents Ethan had given her to Olivia.

“This is what Ethan and Hanna found at Duke Adickl’s mansion.”

Oli, who quickly flipped through the documents, was impressed.

“Wow, once this situation ends, we can immediately hang that damn Duke Adickl’s neck, right? Gid will be so pleased.”

In front of the giggling Olivia, Lillieta’s expression rapidly darkened.

Oli, who belatedly noticed her complexion, spoke with puzzlement.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“…”

Rita opened her mouth then closed it.

How on earth should I explain this? That Gid went berserk and became a monster?

Why?

Because she saw his memories? Because she witnessed the things he wanted to hide until death, due to Pascal’s scheme? What kind of memories were they that just being discovered by her made him…?

“Do you know whose blood this is?”

“It’s Oli Pascal’s blood.”

“You understand? I killed Oli Pascal.”

The image of him crouched over, soaked in Oli’s blood and making beast-like groaning sounds, came to mind. Her breath caught.

How much should I tell? No, is this even something I can talk about in the first place?

But without saying these things, can I explain why he became a monster?

The things she had forcibly suppressed due to the combat situation crawled up her throat.

Show me. I want to see. I died quickly to see this. It’s been broken for a long time anyway. Since you’re gone, everything is getting stranger and stranger. You’re like a curse. It means becoming an accomplice to the world’s destruction. I think I’m going crazy. No, am I already crazy? I wish someone would kill me forever. It’s disgusting. It’ll be like it never happened if I regress anyway. It doesn’t matter what I do, right?

His last appearance she saw smiles.

Can’t you forget?

Right, it can’t be undone.

The black dragon that pierced through him and soared up.

She felt like vomiting.

Lillieta covered her mouth and thought again and again.

‘No, it can be undone.’

I wasn’t punished by the Oath.

He didn’t attack me.

Rather, he killed the monster.

So there’s a possibility. A possibility…

At the same time, something else that had been suppressed in a corner of her heart raised its head.

Do you really have to try to turn it back?

He already crossed the line.

Crossed it by far.

What’s the difference between Pascal and Gid?

Pascal also did that crazy stuff for hundreds of years to save his family, to regress to a time when his family members were alive.

How is that different from Gid who tried to revive you?

Haven’t they already become the same kind of existence?

Do you still want to save him?

Why?

Because he’s a friend?

No, if he’s really a friend, you should cry and kill him.

Since he’s become so broken.

If you had become like that, if it were you, you’d want a friend to kill you and end it, right?

He also wanted someone to kill him, didn’t he?

You know what would be best, right?

You don’t like it?

Why?

Because you fell for Pascal’s trap?

Then you should get revenge on Pascal, not try to save him who’s already become a monster.

Guilt?

Because you feel like it’s your fault he became that way?

No, that’s your misconception.

You never wanted him to become like that.

Not once did you want him to do such things for you.

And he knows that too.

That’s why he tried to hide it from you until the end.

So, what excuse is left now?

That he loves you?

That you seem to love him too?

But you saw everything.

You learned how heavy and twisted his heart is.

You can’t handle him.

You don’t even know how to treat him anymore.

You don’t love him that much.

Your feelings were as light as cream puff.

Just, thinking it might work out, wanting to touch his face, wanting to spend time together, wanting to monopolize him, nothing but strange greed.

You couldn’t destroy yourself and the world like he does, heading toward ruin.

It’s just such ordinary, gentle emotions.

And you’re going to save him?

How?

Do you think you can crawl into his abyss with those trivial, light feelings?

The weight of your hearts is too different.

Give up.

Be grateful that he left on his own before something more terrible happened.

Forget about him, and just protect your remaining family and companions.

You’ll be quite sad for a while, but you’ll be able to forget eventually, right?

You definitely thought about it, didn’t you?

Even if you lived and he died, you would have accepted that sadness and lived on. That you wouldn’t have become like that.

That assumption just became reality.

Gid is dead.

There’s no way to save him. He’s the same as those monsters wearing human clothes that you shot.

Your oath didn’t react?

That just means you don’t want to admit that he’s a monster.

Possibility? Hope?

There’s no such thing.

Gid already showed you vividly what happens when you cling to such things.

You actually know it well too, don’t you?

So now just accept that he’s dead and live on.

That’s for the best. That’s right.

Your feelings weren’t that deep anyway, so it’s fine.

Isn’t that right?

…Even so?

Why?

“Rita?”

Olivia grabbed her shoulder.

“What are you doing? What’s wrong?”

Ragged breath burst out. Lillieta finally realized she had been holding her breath until just now.

She opened her mouth blankly in a confused state.

“Oli, Gid is…”

At that moment, someone came riding from the direction of the Imperial Palace, shouting at the top of their lungs.

“I convey by order of Duke Adickl! His Majesty the Emperor has passed away due to an attack by a vicious monster!”

June 28th, 1770, midnight.

With the end of National Foundation Day, the sound of history’s upheaval could be heard.

– End of Part 1

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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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