The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 248

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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 248

“Y-yes, I understand. Thank you, Knight.”

Sion replied with a flushed face, stammering.

After he left, staggering away, Rita held her head in her hands.

No, Your Majesty the Empress. How can you just avoid dealing with this? The Empress was more of a problem than His Majesty the Emperor…

‘This is driving me crazy, really.’

This is why you shouldn’t carelessly meddle in affairs between men and women, and you have to listen to both sides’ stories.

That was what Sera Pascal had told her one day with a face that said everything was futile. Then she had looked at her and was about to say something, but passed it off with ‘No, you two will figure it out on your own…’

‘…Wait, then Sera already saw Gid and me as being in that kind of relationship? Why? Since when?’

Her head became even more complicated in an instant.

Rita unconsciously looked down at the black dragon quietly clinging to her shoulder, then seeing the small dragon nuzzling with an innocent face that knew nothing, she was suddenly struck by an impulse to throw it away.

“Damn Gid Pascal…”

As she gritted her teeth and muttered, the black dragon flinched and looked up with widened eye sockets.

-Grong?

Rita took a deep breath and smiled gently while stroking the dragon’s small head.

“It’s okay, I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at Gideon.”

-Groong…

This time you’re angry at me too… Gid’s protest didn’t reach Rita, and didn’t remain long in Gid’s own mind either.

The simple monster quickly felt reassured and happily hugged Lillieta’s neck tightly, burying its head contentedly.

Rita habitually patted the clinging black dragon while thinking.

‘For now, I’ll pretend not to know and wait for Sion to have a good talk with Jurlene… If the atmosphere doesn’t seem right, I’ll have to talk to Jurlene myself.’

Just in case she really was pregnant, they’d have to be careful in various ways during the journey ahead.

Then suddenly her thoughts reached a certain point.

‘Wait, then would that child become Melchizedek? Since it’s Jurlene and Elision’s baby?’

An elf-born, the emperor who would rule the early Kairam Empire for about 600 years after Elision’s death.

“Jurlene, that morning… when I said I would take responsibility, you said you weren’t sure. That you needed time to think.”

“And then we met the Knight that day, so we never got to talk properly.”

If the day that child was conceived was the day she and Gid got caught up in the star’s explosion and arrived in 821.

If that day was the very beginning of the star, the starting point of all events connected to Pascal.

‘No way.’

Something suddenly struck her mind.

The scene she had seen in Gid’s memories. The words Pascal, tied to a chair, had spat out to Gid while coughing up blood.

“Child. What do you think… I can see?”

“I, I see… a burned corpse. A necklace, a necklace remained… that’s how I knew it was my mother. And my wife… my wife, haha, hahaha, kugh, kek.”

“If I figure out the method like that, I can ‘return’ like you too, right? Then, heu, before I awakened that demon’s egg, to the time when my family was alive… keluk, I can go back too.”

The mother’s necklace Pascal had mentioned. The time when his family was alive. Mother and wife.

Jurlene always wore the Bone of the Moon necklace, a memento from her mentor.

Could this all be a coincidence?

‘Could Pascal be… in Jurlene’s belly right now? Was the day we arrived his starting point?’

Lillieta covered her mouth as chills ran down her spine. She breathed roughly, then manipulated her bracelet with trembling hands.

The artificial spirit infused with Od awakened and the butterfly pattern sparkled.

[Greeting: Good morning, user.]

[Concern: Did you sleep sufficiently last night? If you experienced any problems such as nightmares or auditory hallucinations, please be sure to inform little Minewg. Do not forget the main purpose for which the creator made this artificial spirit.]

‘Minewg, listen. I just…’

Rita quickly transmitted the information and speculation in her mind so the black dragon couldn’t hear.

After a moment of silence, the artificial spirit answered cautiously.

[Consideration: It is a hypothesis with logical leaps… but the creator sometimes said that intuition is more accurate than logic. The user’s intuition might be close to the truth.]

‘Then what should I do? If Melchizedek really is Pascal…’

If Pascal disappeared, if they could prevent him from being born at all.

Then what would happen.

Would all the suffering and death that Pascal’s Children experienced disappear? Would things like mana contamination or great disasters never occur at all?

Would the regression that Pascal and Gid repeated through the star become something that never happened?

No one dying miserably, not falling to irresistible disasters, with endless time loops and demonic whispers disappearing, just peacefully continuing…

What kind of world would that be?

‘No, I can’t. These thoughts are… dangerous.’

Rita cut off the thoughts that were rapidly expanding. The artificial spirit, having heard part of her thoughts, calmly continued.

[Reminder: The user’s judgment is correct. Do not forget why we have been working to ensure everything flows according to the founding myth.]

[Opinion: Also, if ‘Jurlene’ is not pregnant, the user’s hypothesis would be wrong from the premise. It would be best to approach cautiously until verification is possible.]

‘…Yes, you’re right. Let’s withhold judgment for now.’

She steadied her disturbed breathing and rubbed her face dry. Then she brought up another topic to cut off her thoughts.

‘Oh, Minewg, what was that story you were going to tell before? You said there were characteristics of the Bone of the Moon that would be good to know about.’

[Notice: Those characteristics were discovered through experiments Hecate conducted using the Bones of the Moon, and are already verified facts, not hypotheses.]

[Addition: Also, when concepts Hecate personally named matched concepts from the Ash-covered Era, they were translated and organized using Ash-covered Era terminology.]

[Example: What Hecate called ‘ancient mana’ is contaminated mana, ‘ancient monsters’ are monsters, and what she named ‘elven life force’ corresponds to Od.]

‘Wait a minute.’

Rita interrupted the artificial spirit’s rapid explanation. She refined what intuitively came to mind into language, then asked for confirmation.

‘Hecate called Od elven life force?’

[Affirmative: That is correct, user.]

[Addition: According to the data Hecate collected, that term was what the ancient elves called their own power.]

‘…The world before Year One was full of contaminated mana. But the world after Year One, the world we know… is full of Od.’

And Od responds to specific patterns or structures, gathering together. Sometimes it clumps together to form collectives that absorb and output information.

Just a mass of energy, yet like something alive.

Sometimes it’s drawn to strong will called oaths and becomes part of someone. It punishes humans who break their oaths.

Even though in reality, it’s just a side effect of escaping from weakened will’s control.

The process of suppressing Od’s punishment resembled persuading someone.

“Ah.”

Rita groaned briefly and muttered.

“Od is… the life force that elves scattered into the world as they died, a kind of ghost and remains.”

The energy that elves called life force filled the entire world after the elves’ extinction, creating flora and fauna and monsters, causing natural phenomena, and allowing humans to live.

Od collectives might really be gods. Gods in the sense that they created a world where humans could live.

Rita contemplated the Od dwelling and surging within her body with a strange feeling. The golden-tinted energy that had gathered because it liked her identity and vows felt like elven souls.

[Consideration: The direction the user understood is not wrong, but it is an exaggerated interpretation and excessive personification. Since Od has no ego or intelligence, it would be difficult to interpret it as ghosts or souls.]

[Opinion: However, the interpretation that Od responds to human will or oaths because it was originally part of elves seems correct.]

‘…Yes, anyway, these facts aren’t important right now. Knowing them won’t change anything… Continue telling me about the characteristics of the Bone of the Moon.’

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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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