The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 198

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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 198

“What’s wrong with sleeping outdoors? I’ve slept in proper beds less often.”

“That’s from the Ash-covered Era. Your current body isn’t a soldier who rolled around battlefields, but a delicate noble lady.”

The blue-haired boy who retorted with furrowed brows let out a deep sigh as he spread out a sleeping bag beside the campfire.

“If you sleep in a place like this, you might catch a cold… Sera said your current body is completely like paper, so I should take proper care of you.”

“She was exaggerating. I’m fine.”

Lillieta smiled bitterly and added.

“Besides, I was the one who urged us on. You wanted to sleep at the inn at the bottom of the mountain.”

“If I’d known we’d end up sleeping outdoors on a mountaintop, I wouldn’t have listened even if you urged me. Ugh, we had to run into a pack of monsters.”

Rita, who had been quietly listening to Luca grumble, asked.

“Luca, didn’t you say this was a path where monsters rarely appear?”

“Yes, it’s one of the more passable roads for people, so our family regularly clears it. We also set up devices to prevent monster approaches each time. So they usually don’t come out. Even if they do, it’s just one or two occasionally?”

“For so many monsters to pop out on such a road… Could it be a sign of the great upheaval?”

“S-surely not. It’s true that the beasts appeared much earlier than in history, but that’s Pascal’s doing, and there are no signs of magical contamination yet, right? The sun is still fine too…”

Lucas asked back with a frightened face. Lillieta replied dryly while resting her chin on her hand.

“It might not be because of magical contamination, but because of Gid.”

“Huh? Because of Brother Gid? Why?”

“If a named-class beast that appeared out of nowhere rampages through the Black Forest, wouldn’t all the startled monsters come pouring out?”

“Ugh.”

The boy who shuddered swallowed dryly.

“B-b-but we don’t know if Brother Gid really entered the Black Forest. Of course, if it’s this direction, there’s nowhere else but the Black Forest…”

That was certainly true.

They didn’t know where Gid had headed or where he was now.

However, since a black dragon flying through the sky was inherently conspicuous, Beacon could roughly track his route using witness accounts collected through their respective information networks.

The black dragon had departed from Lamcard and crossed straight through the northern Empire. The last witness account was from a hunter in the White Mountains, Winterfield Estate.

Based on this, Beacon speculated that Gid was likely currently in the Black Forest. Olivia added her speculation to that.

“He probably thought he needed to get as far away from people as possible while he still had his reason.”

Rita thought so too.

If he had judged that he might soon lose his reason and go on a rampage, entering the Black Forest would be the best choice. There were only monsters there.

That’s why she was heading to Winterfield Estate with Luca.

After persuading her worried family members and shouldering her comrades’ expectations.

Since it was much faster for Luca, transformed into a giant beast, to carry Rita and run than to take a carriage or ride horses, they had minimized their luggage and departed as just the two of them.

“And if something like that really happened, a messenger would have departed from the estate. Right along this road. Then we would have encountered them already!”

“Well, that messenger might be rushing down this road right about now.”

“What?”

Lucas, startled, stared at the mountain path with his blue eyes. As if an urgent messenger might burst out at any moment.

He watched like that for a while, but there was no change in the road shrouded in darkness.

He dropped his tensed shoulders and looked back at Lillieta. She was smiling slightly.

“It’s okay, Luca. There’s still no sign of anyone within my detection range.”

“Ah, you really… You were teasing me, weren’t you?”

Earlier wasn’t teasing but genuinely considering possibilities, but staying silent while Lucas looked around with wide eyes was indeed teasing.

As in the Ash-covered Era, teasing Beacon’s youngest had an excellent effect on relieving tension.

Rita smiled while gently patting the head of the boy who was pouting.

“I meant not to let your guard down since it’s possible. Now let’s sleep, you must be tired from running mountain paths all day.”

“…Rita, don’t smile like that with that face.”

“Hm?”

“I know in my head that you’re Rita, but I’m still not used to it. It’s bad for my heart.”

“Oh, is this kind of face our youngest’s type?”

“Ack!”

When she playfully leaned her head closer, Luca turned bright red and screamed while hurriedly backing away.

“Ah, uh, B-B-Brother Gid! I’m innocent! I didn’t have impure thoughts! Actually, your face isn’t my type! I just turned red from surprise!”

After blurting out words that were either confession or excuse to thin air, Luca hurriedly slipped into his sleeping bag and buried his head completely.

Rita laughed in disbelief, then suddenly looked up at the star-filled sky. Then she spoke as if nothing had happened.

“Luca, do you think we’ll be able to see Gid again?”

“Huh? Why are you asking something so obvious?”

A yawning sound came from inside the sleeping bag. The blue hair rustled, then a mumbling voice followed.

“You’re invincible when Brother Gid is in front of you. And he’s someone who would somehow grab his scattered mind and stuff it back in when he sees Rita… So there’s no need to worry…”

His voice gradually stretched out, then soon steady breathing sounds came.

Even Lucas, whose stamina and endurance were exceptionally strong even for an Augmentation Pact Holder, had accumulated fatigue from repeatedly maintaining beast form and carrying her for days.

Lillieta adjusted the sleeping bag of the boy who had quickly fallen asleep, then sat on her own sleeping bag and hugged her knees.

The journey so far had been too much of a forced march for her untrained body, making her tired in various ways, but sleep wouldn’t come.

‘Everyone believes in me.’

Everyone believed that she would somehow manage, that she would use any means necessary to restore Gid to normal.

Yet she herself wasn’t certain.

Whether she could save Gid.

Whether she should even try to save him.

‘I’ve already killed countless people who became beasts. That Gid would be an exception is just my wishful thinking. The more coldly I think about it…’

Olivia’s calm question echoed in her ears again.

“But no matter what, you can’t be cold about it, right? Because it’s Gid.”

The questions she had asked herself amid the confusion came to mind.

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. Right?

But still?

Why?

Why can’t you give up on him?

‘Because everything will fall apart without Gid?’

As Oli explained, because the great Emperor Gideon is needed for the survival of Beacon, this Empire, and furthermore humanity?

Rita recalled how she had felt when she heard that explanation.

‘I was relieved.’

She felt as if she had been submerged in deep water where she couldn’t breathe, then suddenly pulled up to the surface.

Why?

Because her desire to save Gid was a path that would help everyone.

Because it became a rational decision and necessary work, not a foolish and selfish judgment. Because she no longer needed to make excuses.

Because it felt like permission to try to save him. Because she had justification to do her best.

‘So Oli is right. I actually, regardless of reasons or anything, just want Gid…’

She held up her left hand in front of her eyes.

The image of him supporting this hand and kissing it came to mind. The boy from long ago who used to hold this hand came to mind.

The moment he calmly persuaded her while gripping this hand came to mind. The shoulder that touched this hand along with the music box came to mind. The ugly cream puff she picked up with this hand came to mind. His hand that trembled while caught by this hand came to mind.

The image of him crouched before the stars came to mind. His gaze looking up at the void came to mind. His expression as he pointed a gun at his own head came to mind. His scattered corpses came to mind. His voice calling her a curse came to mind.

Barely managing to create a smile, the question he had asked came to mind.

“Can’t you forget me?”

The answer he had given himself to that question as well.

“Yes, there’s no turning back.”

“And I shouldn’t… turn back either.”

Lillieta clenched her left hand.

She swallowed back down beneath the surface the moments that had risen like bubbles. She calmed the anxiety and conflict that rippled like waves.

What remained after that. The pure sincerity reflected on the now-calm surface was simply.

Only herself, unwilling to give up on him.

‘Yes, I don’t know the reason. I can’t explain it either.’

Some reasons become more desperate precisely because they cannot be explained.

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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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