Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: A New Beginning
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1.
Ceres just stood there stock-still.
Behind her back, remnants of golden threads scattered like pollen, drifting down hazily.
Ri Cheng must have talent as a stage director too.
Truly a performance fitting for the climax, wasn't it?
Ceres looked at me, then at Eiming cradled in my arms, where he had breathed his last.
“…….”
It was hard to read her thoughts from her expression.
Ceres had always been a poker face with barely any tells anyway.
But I could tell her emotions were in turmoil.
Just as she opened her mouth after a long silence, it wasn't Ceres who broke the quiet.
“Ceres Cassian.”
Shit, that startled me.
A carp head phantom poking out from the pool of blood.
The carp opened and closed its mouth, speaking in a neutral tone.
Was that the Golden Carp Clan's patriarch's surveillance spell, Murky Water Eye?
“This is an order….”
But with a single wave of her hand, Ceres erased it.
Not even a puff of dust.
Ceres let out a long sigh and spoke.
“I… just don't get you at all.”
Let's think about this rationally for a second.
Quantitatively speaking, I've received a lot from Ceres.
She comforted me when I was at my most exhausted and drained, taught me magic.
Thanks to her help, I was able to handle Project Z smoothly.
In this hellish city, if I hadn't earned her trust, I never would've made it this far to begin with.
Her actions made sense too.
My moves this round had been pretty rogue-like, hadn't they?
She probably had ties to the True Ancestor too….
From her perspective, the spy she'd planted had colluded with Eiming and stolen away the True Ancestor.
And yet, she hadn't cast me out right away.
She'd tried to understand me to the end, even though I looked like a total traitor.
She'd protected me from Ri Cheng, who was out for my blood.
Right up to the very last moment.
She'd offered me a chance: tell the truth, and she'd cover for me and take my side.
In the end, she abandoned me only because I blew that chance due to the penalty.
Even then, after hearing about my sick sister, she'd looked after Arbel.
Since the Premium Route hadn't cleared yet, she must've kept that promise.
I admit it.
Honestly, I never expected Ceres to go this far for me.
From the start, our relationship wasn't built on rock-solid trust or deep bonds.
I'd approached her with the intent to use her,
and Ceres had been all too happy to use me in return.
The subtle tension between us was little more than a byproduct of our mutual interests—residue, really.
“Looks like it worked out great. Eiming, who you wanted gone, is dead. So I did what you asked, right?”
And yet here I was, sniping at her like this.
Paradoxically, maybe because I'd been leaning on her psychologically.
Thinking it over, it pissed me off a bit.
You fuck up the rules, and now you've seen all there's to see? Huh?
Even a loyal side character like Sedric can hit puberty under those circumstances.
Ceres's straight eyebrows twitched.
She took a breath to steady herself, suppressing a faint anger as she spoke.
“Cut the crap and follow me.”
“Where to?”
“You planning to stay here? Whether you rot here or head to Aden, you're dead either way.”
Ceres grabbed my wrist.
Her slender fingers felt unusually urgent, unlike her usual calm.
“You here to save me?”
She whipped around, snapping at me sharply.
“Yeah, you idiot! Do you even know what you've done?”
Hm.
Well, she is gonna save me after all.
Okay.
Sedric's grudges are easing up a bit.
If she does a mother-daughter double role-play later, it'll all be water under the bridge.
“…Sorry.”
But I couldn't go with her right now.
I quietly released her hand.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Eiming ham probably never dreamed of it, but…
With his touching last words, he'd triggered Death Verdict.
The moment Universal Currency ended up in my hand, this round was over.
In about three hours, Kisara Yagyu would arrive here.
The Executors.
Paradise Management Bureau's hunting dogs, guardians of Aden's order.
The pinnacle of human strength.
You don't tangle with them easily to begin with, but if you do, it's better to just swallow cyanide and call it a day.
The problem is, the moment that mighty Executor Kisara shows up all chipper in the Necropolis, she'll go after Arbel and me.
My death? Not a big deal.
Arbel dies first, round clears, then I meet Kisara and save point updates?
Catastrophe of catastrophes.
I can't lose my attachment doll!!!
All the investment so far!!!
Plus, Eiming ham croaks for good.
Relationship with Ceres stays wrecked.
She might even come faster than three hours.
I need to jump to the next round ASAP.
“Ha.”
Ceres let out a hollow laugh.
A short sigh that sounded like she was mocking herself.
“I don't get it. Why are you mad at me?”
“I'm not mad.”
“You're mad. Right now.”
No… I'm really not angry.
My emotions are running a bit high, but I don't hold any special grudge against Ceres.
Just a little disappointed, that's all.
“You think I look like someone who can just do whatever whenever I feel like it? You saying I should've saved Eiming? That corpse-loving creep who was always gunning for me?”
Ceres bit her lower lip hard, then spoke like she was making excuses.
“Fine, say I saved Eiming like you said. Say Twilight Resource Development Director Ceres Cassian saved the Phantom Ghost Clan's pavilion master Eiming, who's on the purge list. Then what? You think I'm a god or something?”
She spat it out rapid-fire, not giving me a chance to respond.
“You betrayed my trust first. And still, I tried to protect you! I knew you'd betrayed me, but I gave you one last chance to explain! All you had to do was say the word! You threw away that chance!”
Right now, she looked smaller than any Ceres I'd ever seen.
Like a kid who didn't know what to do after a scolding from her parents.
Hold up.
This situation feels oddly familiar?
#Regret#Angst#Obsession
Tags flashing in my head.
Nah, no way.
Our Ceres isn't that kind of character.
She has a soft spot, so she promised to look after Arbel?
Could be.
Risking political fallout one more time to save traitor Sedric?
Unexpected, but…
Could be.
But Ceres losing her cool and on the verge of tears because she feels hated?
That's a bit too much otaku fantasy fuel.
Ceres had always been iron-willed.
“So you're gonna cling to your pointless pride and die? You think dying all stubborn like that makes you cool?”
The moment I pout with my lips and go “Hng… I'm upset,”
Instead of desperately begging “Don't die like that, acting all tough,” she should've just said “Then die.”
Hm….
Feels like she's toying with my heart a bit.
Ceres.
Just let me confirm this one thing, and we'll start the next round with no hard feelings.
“Whew….”
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, my eyes perfectly mimicked a deer's—sad and pure.
A faint smile of resignation and forgiveness tugged at my barely upturned lips.
“Ceres, I'm sorry.”
“What?”
“I wasn't honest with you. But… there really are things I can't tell you.”
Ceres's eyes narrowed.
“I know you've given up a lot for me. That you thought of me as special.”
“You right now…”
“As shameless as it is… please take care of my sister.”
Ceres's cheeks stiffened.
Her pupils trembled fiercely.
“Don't mess around. You think I'll blink if you pull that crap?”
Blue veins bulged on her clenched fist.
Killing intent she couldn't hide, and even thicker turmoil.
I closed my eyes like I'd accepted my fate.
“Please kill me.”
“…….”
“If I'm to die, I want it by your hand. I…”
I added a bitter smile.
“…I'm a traitor, after all.”
No lies there.
And now I really need to die.
Her reaction…
“You think I won't, so you're pulling this childish stunt?”
She was pissed. Furious.
-Whoosh
Black mana surged around Ceres's hand.
Denser, more overwhelming than anything I'd seen—on another level entirely.
“Then die.”
-Krunch!!!
Ceres swung her arm lightly.
That simple motion crushed space itself.
Like being chewed up by the jaws of some massive, invisible monster—everything in that space vanished cleanly.
The searchlight that had been there moments ago, the brick wall, the pouring rain.
Not a trace left.
To be precise…
Not me, but the space right next to where I'd been standing.
“…Why… would I… do something like this….”
But Ceres, who'd unleashed that terrifying strike, hung her head limply and muttered weakly.
Her hands trembled, lost.
Ceres turned her back to me.
Her slumped shoulders looked utterly forlorn.
Her figure faded like heat haze.
“Die. Die where I can't see you, Sedric.”
Her cracked voice lingered in the air before scattering.
I'd been waiting, half-expecting her to turn back and finish me.
“…….”
No way. For real?
She let me live?
Ceres's attachment to Sedric was beyond what I'd imagined… right?
I'd been skeptical myself.
But seeing it happen right in front of me left me dumbfounded.
“Anyway… this is really, really, really the end.”
With this, I'd squeezed out all the info I could before jumping to the next round.
All that's left is to charge toward the happy ending based on it.
“No.”
There's still something I can do.
.
.
.
A moment later.
I stood before Eiming's corpse.
“Whew….”
Death Verdict recreates deaths I've experienced more vividly the more I've been through.
And right now, I'm benefiting from Premium Fever.
Meaning every death this round is a Sedric super-boost event.
My body was slick with oil.
I'd doused myself head to toe with the Zippo lighter fluid from the Old World Mall.
“Fuck… but is this really gonna work?”
It's gonna hurt like hell.
No.
Enough weak thoughts.
Gotta dress Arbel in the bunny girl outfit, right?
Gotta see Ceres's mother-daughter role-play.
“Big bro, watch over me!!!!!”
Recalling Eiming's steadfast final moments.
I steeled my faltering resolve.
“Everything for the happy ending!!!!”
I gripped the lighter.
“El Psy Kongroo.”
2.
Magic is
the act of overlaying one's delusions atop the rigid laws of the world.
To deny cold reality, one needs something hotter, denser—stubborn conviction.
Something vast enough to escape control, sometimes even devouring reason.
The sole anchor binding oneself to the world.
The word that packages it convincingly is Heavenly Mandate.
“…Sedric.”
Ceres cradled the one charred corpse in her arms.
Her shoulders trembled slowly, as if they might shatter.
Thus, Heavenly Mandate can never be a noble calling.
A horrific void. Or beastly craving. Or endlessly twisted desire.
In the end, an eternal curse.