The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 229

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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 229

 

“Ah.”

 

“Ah?”

 

“Huwt… it, migh, huwt.”

 

Inaccurate pronunciation flowed out slowly and clumsily, like a young child who had just learned to speak. Rita asked back in a daze.

 

“It might hurt? Me?”

 

Gid nodded with his still statue-like expressionless face and put his tongue to her wound again. Rita watched him continue to lick her hand in a dazed state, then suddenly said.

 

“That won’t make it heal.”

 

Gid paused and looked at her. Rita added with a sigh.

 

“It’s a wound you bit in the first place, so licking it won’t make it heal. Stop and…”

 

The words she was about to continue with—let go of my wrist and let’s talk—mumbled and scattered in her mouth.

 

Because Gid’s eyes, frozen with her blood all over his lips, reddened and filled with tears.

 

“Did, I.”

 

“…”

 

“Huwt… you, bad, ly?”

 

“…”

 

“Rita.”

 

Among the jumbled pronunciations, only her name was distinctly clear.

 

Then Gid was startled by the name he had spoken. He rolled those short syllables in his mouth several times, then pronounced it again as if confirming something.

 

“Rita.”

 

Suddenly, expression came to his face. A face that seemed to have realized something.

 

He lowered his head close to her, lying beneath him. He gazed at her.

 

His moistening golden eyes grew large and began to shine as if lit on fire. Color returned to his wax-like face, making it vivid.

 

Gid called her name urgently from a distance where their noses almost touched.

 

“Rita? Rita?”

 

“…Yes, it’s me.”

 

Rita, who had been looking up at him in bewilderment, replied a beat late.

 

Then on his face—that face which had seemed cold when expressionless—an infinitely defenseless smile appeared. A smile so full it seemed ready to overflow and scatter.

 

“Rita.”

 

This too was an expression she had never seen from him.

 

Without any wariness or calculation, just nakedly revealing the emotions welling up. A face where his heart overflowed and finally spilled over.

 

“Rita, Rita.”

 

His low voice flowed down one after another, filled with warmth.

 

“Rita, you, look, diffe, rent…”

 

Large hands approached. Those hands carefully cupped her face and felt around as if confirming.

 

“…Different. You’re different, but still… you’re Rita. Right… I know.”

 

His pronunciation became a little more accurate. And the already close distance narrowed even more.

 

Their noses touched. Their foreheads touched. Blinking eyelashes brushed against each other. His sharp lips relaxed gently. His eyes looking at her crumbled infinitely softly.

 

“Rita.”

 

Repeating only her name, as if she was the only one in the world. Like a broken music box repeating only one phrase.

 

“Rita, Rita, Rita.”

 

Looking up at him like that, something rattled inside her chest. An emotion that was hard to explain and unfamiliar sprouted. Tender, sorry, or perhaps piercing, aching…

 

“Rita…”

 

Their bodies pressed close together. He clung to her as if wanting to get even a little closer.

 

Body heat so warm it made her forget the cold enveloped her entire body. He embraced her as if wanting to swallow her into himself. He gripped her painfully tight.

 

“Rita, Rita…”

 

Lillieta, who had been entranced by his defenseless face and broken-record-like calling, suddenly came to her senses. Because she felt something as he embraced her with his whole body.

 

Gideon was completely naked, not wearing a single thread.

 

“…!”

 

She had seen partial undressing several times while helping with emergency treatment, but complete nudity was a first. Her face instantly grew hot.

 

She was startled and tried to push him away.

 

“Gid! Get off!”

 

He didn’t budge. It felt like pushing against a stone wall.

 

Gid was holding her tightly while rubbing his face against her nape. Beast-like movements burrowing into her warmth. The calling that seeped into her ears gradually mixed with crying.

 

“Rita, Rita…”

 

“Damn Gid Pascal! I said get off!”

 

What had sounded only pitiful before didn’t feel that way now. As her mood changed, the weight pressing down on her entire body began to evoke unpleasant memories.

 

Come to think of it, was this why Gid had been careful not to put his weight on her? Even when they were trapped under the collapsed fortress wall…

 

“I told you to get off…!”

 

Finally Rita moved her legs. The legs that still had the enhancement magic she had cast earlier.

 

Having fought countless monsters much larger than humans, she knew several methods she could use in this situation. Things she had learned more desperately since age fourteen, when she was helplessly crushed by a Mimic and all her ribs were shattered.

 

Among them, the most effective technique when there was a size difference flowed like water.

 

She raised her knees and planted her feet on the ground. With explosive leg strength, she lifted her pelvis, and his body, losing balance, tilted to one side. She didn’t miss the brief opening and skillfully rolled across the ground to escape.

 

“Whew…”

 

Finally she could breathe easily. The rejection that had been slowly rising also subsided.

 

Taking a deep breath and supporting herself on the ground to raise her snow-covered body, Rita heard an ominous crack.

 

“Ah.”

 

The light that had been rippling and illuminating the surroundings suddenly disappeared. Hoping against hope, she lifted the foot she had stepped on the ground and saw shattered orb fragments. It was the already cracked ‘Moon’s Bone.’

 

“Ah, damn.”

 

A curse escaped her lips. If this was broken, then surely.

 

Rita swept back her disheveled hair and turned toward Gid.

 

A small black thorny dragon sat there covered in snowflakes, tilting its head and crying.

 

-Grooong?

 

“…Really damn…”

 

Lillieta unconsciously gritted her teeth. As her expression turned fierce, the Black Dragon shrank back and watched her carefully, then suddenly was so startled his thorns trembled, spread his wings and approached her like lightning.

 

“What, what is it.”

 

The small monster that grabbed her flustered left hand lowered its thorns and drooped its tail while crying.

 

-Grrrr…

 

The Black Dragon was looking at her wound. It seemed to know it had bitten her. Blood tears filled its eye sockets and dripped down.

 

‘…It seems he doesn’t remember that he just turned back into human form. Does he only remember biting me?’

 

Even when in human form, his memory and mind didn’t seem intact in many ways. Seeing how he said she looked different, it felt like he only remembered ‘Rita Pascal’ and not ‘Lillieta del Nisa Raskail.’

 

‘It definitely wasn’t a complete return. Was it like… a fragment of Gid?’

 

That might have been a shard of Gid Pascal from the time when he was breaking down, wandering and searching for her through countless regressions.

 

Her head throbbed and her feelings became complicated. She deliberately took a deep breath while sweeping back her disheveled hair.

 

‘Anyway, I don’t really know what happened or how… but I can definitely see that the ‘Moon’s Bone’ has an unexpected function.’

 

Rita recalled the small orb that had cracked while absorbing the black energy. It seemed like that stone was absorbing Gid’s corruption.

 

Thinking of the light that burst from the orb and the ‘Star’ that had emitted tremendous magical power during the investigation in the Ash-covered Era… the gem called Moon’s Bone might have the property of absorbing corrupted magic and returning it to normal magic.

 

‘But if it has such properties, why did it become the starting point of magical corruption in the Ash-covered Era? Magical corruption was definitely spreading from near the Star.’

 

Rather than being resolved, her questions felt bigger, but one possibility became clear.

 

‘A larger Moon’s Bone might be able to completely restore Gid.’

 

An unexpected hope clearly revealed itself. The vague expectation that there would be clues if she followed the founding myth was rewarded much earlier than expected.

 

Her heart raced.

 

‘I can get Gid back!’

 

It became even more necessary. The Moon’s Bone that Jurlene had, similar in size to the ‘Star’ she knew.

 

‘Was the secret to Pascal maintaining human form and ego while using monster power also the ‘Star’?’

 

Indeed, what he experienced wasn’t ordinary monster transformation. Since it was corruption accumulated through regression with the ‘Star,’ it felt natural that it could somehow be treated with the ‘Star.’

 

In the midst of being overwhelmed with hope and joy, cold reality suddenly poured down.

 

‘…How do I get Master Jurlene’s keepsake?’

 

In a situation where she couldn’t reveal that the Black Dragon was actually a human turned monster, there seemed to be no way to obtain it through gentle means.

 

Or should she target the Holy Empire’s ‘Sun’s Egg’ which was almost identical to it?

 

‘Since it’s also needed to return to 1770, I must obtain the Star no matter what.’

 

But how? While already struggling with myth recreation, how could she do it practically alone?

 

Suddenly, terrible fatigue washed over her. Along with the pain she had been suppressing.

 

Her throat was bitter from swallowing back blood. Her head was dizzy and her whole body felt hot.

 

‘…Later. I’ll think about it later.’

 

Rita stopped thinking and looked down at the Black Dragon who was holding her left hand and crying loudly.

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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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