Chapter 460
Chapter 460
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: 2-130. A Slightly Serious Conversation (3)
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I was silent, my forehead pressed against Adeshan's. A shiver raced through my veins.
Like a complex machine suddenly clicking into place, most of the bizarre actions I'd witnessed from Akasha all made sense in an instant.
'This was all for that.'
He must have absorbed life force from Seniel in this parallel world as well.
I'd often wondered about the structure that made the bead capable of regression. It turned out it could rewind time once per soul of a world.
But Akasha's true identity plunged me even deeper into a swamp of questions.
'Akasha. You...'
The bead that enabled regression was the beginning of it all.
I couldn't understand why someone from the future would do such a thing. And if the goal was creating and delivering the bead, why was he trying to destroy the entire world?
"What the hell are you really up to...?"
No matter how much I pondered, I couldn't figure that out. Besides, this wasn't the time to get lost in thought.
Adeshan, who had been coughing, let out a gasp of bewilderment.
"Cough, hack! W-what is this?!"
It seemed the sudden sensation of swallowing something had terrified her.
From her reaction, the pain had subsided, but her hearing and vision hadn't recovered yet.
"It's a bead that turns back time. If my memory's right, it can do it up to four times max."
I slowly pulled my forehead away from hers.
Adeshan was now dry-heaving.
"Urk. Blegh."
"Don't spit it out. You'll be fine."
I gently stroked her hair. Her tense expression gradually softened. Fortunately, her sense of touch seemed to be returning.
When I removed the dog tag necklace from around her neck, Adeshan's eyes snapped wide open.
"Th-there really is someone...!"
The bleeding had stopped, but her gaze was unfocused. Her vision still hadn't returned. Of course, I was just grateful to see those beautiful ash-gray eyes again.
I patted the top of her head to reassure her, and she responded with heartfelt gratitude.
"Thank you... truly, thank you... cough, cough! Please forgive me for not being able to stand and bow."
"It's okay. Rest now."
"I don't know who you are, but I'll never forget you... I'm so glad to meet someone like you before I die... Now, now I can go in peace..."
Adeshan let out a faint sigh. Her breathing was growing weaker by the moment.
It was just as I'd expected. Seniel's life force had only eased her pain—it hadn't banished the shadow of death. The cruel history would begin with her passing.
"......I don't want to die, actually."
Suddenly, the smile vanished from Adeshan's face.
"Huh?"
"I'm so, so frustrated... To suffer like this at the hands of such a monster... and I haven't accomplished anything yet."
Tears welled up beneath her thick lashes. The tears melting the bloodstains on her face flowed red, no different from blood.
Staring blankly at the sky with hollow eyes, she continued in near-sobs.
"...I don't want to. I don't want to die... I have to protect people... the people, the people...!"
"Adeshan."
"Will someone... remember... haa... my death?"
From her condition, she wouldn't last another thirty minutes. Before I knew it, Adeshan was clutching my hand with all her might. Her nails dug into my skin, as if trying to hold onto a soul about to depart.
I listened intently to her words, forgetting to breathe. What I was witnessing now was the bedrock that forged the iron-blooded Grand General. Her obsession with life, repeated time and again, had created the Grand General I knew.
"I don't... want to... die..."
After about five minutes, her voice cut off. The grip on my hand was loosening. Death was closing in.
"...My name is Ronan."
Finally collecting my thoughts, I spoke.
"Haa... haaa..."
"I come from the future, and I know all the endings. Listen closely. You succeed. You meet me and end up saving the world. Baldy's gone for good across all worlds now."
No response came. She couldn't hear me anyway, so it was expected.
I continued regardless.
"But it'll take a very long time before we meet. Fate doesn't work out as nicely as you'd think. We miss each other, die before meeting... Even when we finally crossed paths, there were times we failed to recognize each other's skills and met our doom. Our enemy is just that strong."
"......"
"Still, we win in the end. Of course, you won't be forgotten. You'll achieve great feats, be hailed as a hero... Even Jaipamajer, the enemy who killed your mother and brothers, will repent and serve under you later. How's that for an ending?"
No response again. Her pale hand hung limp like a wet sack. I took a breath and gripped her hand tightly.
"Even though it was brief, I'm happy I got to be with you."
The wind was dying down. Adeshan stared blankly at the sky. The blue in her ash-gray eyes was beautiful. The flickering light in her irises signaled the end.
"So, even at the very end of your fourth life..."
My throat tightened, and my voice faltered. My vision blurred so much I couldn't even make out the face right in front of me. Closing my eyes, I finished.
"Please find me, Grand General."
Hot tears streamed down my cheeks.
Suddenly, a soft voice echoed from beyond the darkness of my eyelids.
"......It's warm."
"Yes?"
I hurriedly opened my eyes. Adeshan wore a serene expression, as if asleep. No more breathing sounds came. Looking at her face, I raised the corner of my mouth.
"...See you again."
I considered burying her myself but stopped. Hoofbeats drumming the earth were approaching from beyond the wasteland. It was the Empire's relief force.
I wrapped the bloodstained dog tag around Adeshan's hand. The Imperial army took good care of their fallen, so she'd be properly recovered. With Akasha off to shatter the giants' world, there were no more threats left.
"Shall we go?"
There was nothing more to do. It was really time to return.
I rummaged in my coat's inner pocket and pulled out a glass vial. Unscrewing the lid and sprinkling it scattered red liquid. Akasha's blood dispersed in the air, forming a rift just big enough for one person.
A rift connected to the original world.
After one last look around the battlefield, I stepped into the rift.
The battle ended on the evening of the third day.
"Hoo... huuu..."
Adeshan, barely catching her breath, lifted her head. The landscape was like hell itself.
The rain-lashed wasteland was covered in thoroughly mangled corpses. Rivers of blood and entrails overflowed in all directions.
She was leaning against a massive boulder. Her last memory was Ahayute's spear embedded thirty paces ahead. A sea of thunderclouds roiled overhead, flashing lightning.
"Ugh."
A sudden sharp pain made her grimace. Looking down, she saw her right arm severed below the elbow. Blood dripped from the stump, exposing white bone. Her guts and legs were injured too—she couldn't move.
"Did it... work?"
But that was secondary. Her focus was solely on the operation's outcome.
No more ear-shattering explosions rang out. The quiet battlefield was filled only with the patter of rain.
Whether they'd succeeded in killing Ahayute or the one who annihilated the Imperial army had moved on, it was over.
Closing her eyes, Adeshan sent telepathic magic in all directions. She had to confirm the results. Duaru and Nirvana had taken down the Mother of Fire and Rorhon with them, leaving only Ahayute for her.
No response, so she sent it again. She desperately hoped for success.
There was only one chance left to save the world. Despite gaining four lives, trial and error had killed her twice before even reaching this battlefield.
"Haa... haa..."
Either way, she'd sent the telepathy—she'd done all she could.
To conserve strength, she curled up. The cold rain seeped through her torn uniform.
Suddenly, she realized the current scene was eerily similar to what she'd seen right before dying in her first life. A crater-riddled field strewn with corpses.
The only difference was that she was the one who'd given the orders this time.
"...Damn it."
She gave a bitter smile and lowered her head.
How long had she waited like that?
"Grand General."
A familiar voice rang out from right beside her.
Adeshan looked up. A man on the brink of death staggered toward her. His sunset-orange eyes gleamed fiercely through the downpour. She knew the face.
"You are—"
"Grand General Adeshan."
Ronan called her name again. He seemed as shocked as she was. His sunset gaze was fixed on her severed arm.
Adeshan's heart sank. As a key part of the operation, Ronan would know the battle's outcome.
"Private Ronan."
It was hard to keep her composure. Forcing calm, Adeshan struggled to prop her upper body against the wall.
"Just one question."
She had to ask.
Her ash-gray eyes, reminiscent of cinders, fixed on Ronan.
"Ahayute?"
"I killed him."
Ronan answered flatly. Adeshan froze. When she asked again to confirm, he said the body was nearby. Her lips trembled.
"......I see."
Her long-cherished wish had come true. Ahayute was dead.
A single tear traced down her grimy cheek.
"He's dead."
"Damn it, Grand General!"
Ronan rushed over. He supported Adeshan as she tried to rise despite her injuries.
Adeshan tilted her head. Ronan seemed more concerned for his clumsy superior's well-being than his own heroism.
'I can't understand it. After I drove so many to their deaths.'
Skin met skin. Amid the chill of the rain, a faint warmth transferred over. It felt strangely familiar. Managing to stand with his help, she expressed her thanks.
"Thank you."
"It was my duty."
Ronan said with a light chuckle. It was an innocent smile, like he'd just done something trivial—retrieving a kid's shoe from a tree. Rain soaked his hair, dripping along his sharp jawline.
In that moment, a needle-like pang stabbed near Adeshan's heart.
'What is this?'
Adeshan flinched. It was a pain unlike any she'd felt before. Amid the agony, she inexplicably felt like laughing.
'No idea.'
She wracked the brain that had endured three lives to find the cause, but to no avail.
She never figured out the nature of the pain, the emotion causing it, or why Ronan's body heat felt so familiar.
Giving up, she leaned on his shoulder and gave a faint smile.
"...Thank you, Private Ronan."
But Adeshan liked this swordsman.
Enough that, if something happened, she'd have no regrets handing over her last remaining life to him.