Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: A Fleeting Spring Dream
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Camilla was in a good mood.
For one thing, she was thrilled to be freed from her suffocating confinement.
For another, the collapse of the barrier had plunged the entire city into chaos—a delightful turn of events.
And third...
"What are you doing? Come sit over here."
"……"
She loved the reluctant expression on Colton's face as he sat down across from her. Was there anything more satisfying than watching the man who had once clubbed her over the head and thrown her in prison squirm in embarrassment?
"You bitch, how... "
His words came out laced with bewilderment. Yet his tone remained calm, his poker face intact—hardly matching the situation.
Should she call this quick thinking on his part? Or was it the magnanimity befitting a city lord?
Whatever the case, his speech was awfully rough. Had he forgotten the gun barrel pointed right at him?
"By the way. Were we ever on casual terms? If my memory serves me right, I was the one using informal speech with you, while you always spoke politely to me."
"Didn't I let that slide last time? You know, up in the Hero Association's top floors. Where you got backstabbed by me."
"Ahaha! Was that how it went? Oh no. Thinking back on it now, my finger's itching to pull the trigger."
Click—the revolver's cylinder spun halfway. Colton shut his mouth.
"There we go. Isn't the silence so much nicer?"
"……"
"And hey. That was just a brief free period back then, wasn't it? If you have any conscience, you shouldn't hold that one little thing against me... or should you?"
Camilla eased the pressure on her finger. The half-turned cylinder clicked back to its original position.
"Eh, whatever. Let's drop the formalities. What kind of grudge are we holding onto anyway!"
They'd each screwed the other over once, hadn't they? Staying awkwardly distant forever would be the real lack of camaraderie.
Normally, she'd have mocked or threatened him more, but Camilla graciously allowed the casual speech. It was proof of just how elated she was feeling.
"...What are you scheming?"
Colton probed suspiciously. Camilla shrugged.
"Scheming? What scheme?"
"Don't play dumb. Anyone can see you're trying to sabotage us by taking over the situation room."
"Sabotage? Why would I?"
Camilla tilted her head. For the first time, Colton's steadfast poker face twisted in irritation.
"Because it throws both central command and the front lines into chaos, giving the demons the upper hand."
"Pfft, haha. Wrong."
Of course, chaos was one of Camilla's favorite things.
So she welcomed the city's turmoil and had even nudged it along to some extent...
But that didn't mean she had any intention of helping the demons.
The reason was simple. She'd been free from her contract for a long time now. She had no particular allegiance to their side.
Taking over the situation room might look like aiding demons and magic beasts from the outside, but it wasn't.
It was just a coincidence that things had shaped up that way.
If anything, it was like boarding the same bus because their destinations were in the same direction—for a short while.
Calling her a fellow passenger just for that brief overlap would be unfair. Strictly speaking, her stop was at a different station from the demons'.
So Camilla at least hoped they wouldn't lump her in with them. The demons might crave humanity's extinction, but she pursued something slightly different.
"Sophistry."
Colton snapped curtly. Why, that grumpy old man.
Camilla had no ties to the demons anymore. She couldn't care less about their grand human annihilation plot. She was simply moving toward her own goal.
Sure, several people had died—or been killed—in the process. Trivial stuff. Once the magic beasts swarmed in earnest, far more would perish. A handful of deaths now hardly mattered.
Colton was the one who'd barged in uninvited. Showing up out of nowhere and getting mad at someone quietly doing their own thing was just bewildering.
"Even if the destinations differ, same direction means we're cut from the same cloth, doesn't it? Any reason not to treat us the same?"
Colton gestured to the numerous corpses strewn about the room.
"Heh. Is that so?"
Camilla chuckled lightly, her body shaking with mirth, before approaching the complex control panel in the center of the situation room. Above it sprawled monitors of various sizes displaying the city's overall state.
"Hmm, how does this thing work?"
Camilla fiddled with the controls, grunting with effort. She wanted to shut off the evacuation alarms blaring across the city.
"This one? Ah, got it."
After pressing a few buttons, she succeeded in silencing the alarms. Then she stepped up to the microphone and tapped its head a couple of times.
"Testing, testing. Can you hear me? Situation over. Evacuation order lifted. Citizens, return home as is. Heroes... uh, do whatever. Repeating: evacuation order..."
Colton watched the scene with a look of utter disbelief.
No interest in humanity's destruction?
From the looks of what she was doing, she seemed more invested than anyone.
If she truly had no interest, what was the point of all this?
"Curious?"
Camilla turned back to Colton with a grin. He didn't bother nodding.
He was curious, but he saw no need to know.
He knew from experience that trying to read a madman's thoughts yielded only insane echoes.
Reason didn't work on such people. Engaging only drained one's own energy. So Colton's response was lukewarm.
Undeterred by it, Camilla turned back to the array of monitors before her.
"I'm... going to see the cherry blossoms."
She spread her arms wide.
Her face brimmed with anticipation, flushed like a child waiting in line for a ride.
Colton sighed deeply, as if he'd expected as much.
"You're insane."
As predicted—a total nutcase.
Life is but a fleeting dream.
Camilla loved that saying.
Don't we all live dreaming such dreams? Ones that feel endlessly vain when we look back after time passes.
Moments of desperate effort, moments stained with pain, moments of laughter and joy...
In the end, they all scatter into oblivion like they never happened.
Wasn't that how it was for the powerless situation room staff Camilla had massacred? Those desperately resisting to survive right up to their final moments.
They never let go of hope until the end. Rather than getting sentimental before death, they focused on what they could do right then.
You can see a person's life in their eyes. Theirs brimmed with vitality even facing death.
They must have lived such lives—ones of unwavering hope and effort, bearing fruit in the end. A beautiful resolve.
But.
How fleeting is life's end.
When it arrives, everything turns to bubbles, like a dream in the night.
Hope, effort, will—perhaps even life itself.
All rendered meaningless.
Wasn't Yoon Kang-woo like that?
He burned his own body to block the magic beasts amid their horde, yet no one truly remembers him.
What people recall is a fragmented shell, stripped and severed of so much.
All that's left is the bare fact that "Yoon Kang-woo sacrificed himself to stop the magic beasts."
People's memories of others are so fragmentary.
Only oneself can fully remember one's own self.
No record remains of what he felt in that moment, what memories flashed by, or his final thought.
Because the one who remembered it all was already dead.
Death is truly cruel.
It robs you of your whole self, letting others interpret, chop, and remember you to their taste.
And in the end, you fade into haze and vanish—like a dream in the night.
Lives lived so differently all scatter equally before death.
Vainly.
Camilla loved this vanity.
Isn't life so ephemeral?
Its ephemerality makes it beautiful.
Once scattered, doesn't it carry a fragrance?
Thus, life is a spring dream scented with cherry blossoms.
Lives that bloom red and scatter—ephemeral, vain, yet beautiful.
"I'm... going to see the cherry blossoms."
Countless monitors reflected countless lives. Camilla's gaze turned to the most beautiful among them.
Anis, will your end be beautiful too?
After all that struggling in your wretched life, what will yours be like?
Will the emotion you feel then be emptiness... or relief?
And how beautiful will the lives be of those meeting their ends because of you? You're not killing anyone right now, it seems, but I'd love to see if the chance arises.
Why aren't you killing?
Is there a reason to hold back that much?
I want to see you swinging that sword.
Betty.
Can I only see it if you die?
Anis relied on you quite a bit.
What will your end be like?
Probably empty. Hollow. That's the life you led, after all.
And you'll surely curse it out.
With lame logic, pathetically. You're just a big kid, after all.
Han... dead?
Can't see you anywhere.
What a shame. Truly.
I don't know you all that well, but your end still would've been quite the spectacle.
Honestly, your actions so far have been a real show—pretending to care for Anis with your words while your deeds did the opposite. That contradiction.
What about Han U-sol and Yoon Na-rin?
Things look like they're not going smoothly for them.
Glad the seeds I planted are sprouting properly.
If everything went too perfectly and Anis got totally convinced, that'd be boring, right? Don't feel too bad.
So when will it end?
Will catastrophe come? If so, when? Where?
It's fun.
Just watching this unfold.
She'd engineered the situation to some degree, but from here on, even Camilla didn't know what would happen.
"Colton, what about you?"
Camilla turned to him. Until the end drew near, he was her conversation partner to stave off boredom.
"...What about me?"
"Aren't you worried about that kid? She's one you care for, right?"
Beyond the monitor she pointed to, Ronel writhed in agony on the ground.
"……"
Colton's gaze flicked to the monitor briefly, but he said nothing.
For one, he didn't want to rise to her provocation. For another, he had no desire to chat with a lunatic.
Yet Camilla seemed satisfied with the reaction, letting out a long laugh before turning back to the monitors.
Camilla simply waited in anticipation.
For the cherry blossom scent soon to arrive like a dream.