Chapter 827
Chapter 827
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 827
Chapter Title: Purple Rose (7)
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1.
Eloa, who had charged headlong through the vortex of immense power and ultimately forged the contract called 'Benda'.
Siu, who had generated a singularity and hurled it forth.
It was a clash where either side emerging victorious wouldn't have been surprising.
-Crackle
The sound of intricate metal mechanisms shattering rang out.
It was the belated sound of the angel's halo, which had been fiercely spinning above Siu's head during the collision, finally being severed.
It was truly a terrifying strike.
A slash that disregarded the process and simply produced the result.
Eloa had bisected everything along the trajectory of her sword.
The singularity that had drawn in everything with its condensed, unprecedented mana.
The angel's halo that had spewed mana endlessly like an inexhaustible spring.
Even the cumulonimbus clouds swirling in a vast circle high in the sky.
And the very space where all of that had existed.
As he watched the bizarrely rippling space, torn like a rent curtain, slowly mend itself, Siu felt the fine hairs on his ears stand on end.
That strike just now was unmistakably abnormal.
Not just in terms of power.
If it were a fighting game, it was a slashing attack with invincibility frames throughout the entire motion.
Even when he'd tried to block it at maximum output, it had been impossible.
Moreover, despite staring at her so intently, by the time he'd registered her presence, the 'slashing motion' was already complete.
-Whiiiiiing!
With the angel's halo severed, the violently surging output of mana plummeted to the bottom.
There was no leeway left to amplify mana again.
Well, even in a dream, if she'd wielded magic on that scale and still had power left over, that would have been the strange thing.
But the same went for his master, who had poured her final contract into that one strike.
In other words.
Siu's victory.
"Siu, well done."
Eloa smiled faintly as she gazed at the red branch halted right before her throat.
Caked in dust and her hair a tangled mess, yet still, she was his master.
Her beauty when she smiled remained unchanged.
"No, this... it's like I cheated."
"I suppose so. Now I understand."
Watching his master smile bitterly, Siu lowered his spear.
There was no trace of the paranoid obsession from when they'd faced off at the spire.
She was the master he'd always known.
"By the way, haven't you gotten even stronger?"
"How could I, as your master, sit idly by when my beloved disciple only brings danger wherever he goes?"
Even as they exchanged words brimming with affection, Siu was still mulling over the battle.
He couldn't shake off the lingering aftertaste of adrenaline that had thickly filled his bloodstream during the fight.
What if his master had targeted his neck instead of the angel's halo with that strike?
Would he have made it in time even then?
He wasn't yet accustomed to this newly awakened power, but the fact that even such a bluff had turned the fight into a muddy brawl made him newly appreciate her prowess.
And naturally recalling the reason she'd attained that strength made his heart grow heavy once more.
"This time, you've saved me."
"My beloved master suffered so much saving me. It's only right I make an effort once in a while."
"Your words flow like a clear stream."
Eloa carefully approached Siu and rested her forehead against his chest.
Siu firmly embraced her shoulders.
"I have no face to show."
His master's shoulders and voice were trembling faintly.
"Stay like this just a little longer..."
If this truly was a dream, she had to accept once more the truth she'd wanted only to deny.
The two walked slowly back to the mansion, step in sync.
The lavender forest stretching to the horizon was crumbling bit by bit from the edges.
Beautifully disintegrating.
2.
When they dispelled the reverse barrier and returned to the duke's residence.
Rafi was waiting outside in the garden.
A warm wet cloth in her hands.
"Good grief, you two really know how to make my life impossible."
"Rafi."
"What is this in the dead of night? I couldn't even sleep waiting for you."
Rafi grumbled even as she meticulously wiped Eloa and Siu's faces with the cloth.
This is a dream.
A dream condensed with lingering attachments and follies.
Memories from the outside had returned as well.
Eloa thought she had accepted reality now.
But as the delicate touch of her dear disciple—no, Rafi, whom she could never meet again—gently caressed her cheek, something surged up from the pit of her stomach.
When she felt the sticky heat rising from her belly scorch her throat.
Without any regard for Rafi's careful wiping, tears were once again ruining her face.
Now they had to part.
When this slowly crumbling world vanished, this voice, this touch, these lovely eyes would be gone forever.
Hadn't she always wished for it?
Just once more, to see Rafi.
To hold her again and say she loved her.
To apologize for that day's foolish words, for the witch's arrogance.
Her wish had been granted.
Even if merely in imagination, in this dream woven by magic more intricate than any fancy, Eloa had met Rafi again.
But meeting her like this only birthed an even greater greed.
She wanted to stay a little longer.
To bury herself in this dream forever.
She wished endlessly.
"Master."
She wiped her blurred vision with her sleeve and looked ahead.
"Rafi... she really thinks it's a relief."
The moment the dream's master became aware it was a dream, the other figures within realized their falseness as well.
Just as Siu's father and Malika Merigold had.
This Rafi was a fake so close to the real thing, born from Eloa's unconscious—it was only natural.
"You didn't commit any wrongs because of me."
Rafi was smiling.
In reality, the red lotus had shattered.
Rafi hadn't been revived as payment for sins.
She smiled warmly, as if nothing brought her more relief.
"I believed Master would always choose the right path."
Hearing Rafi's earnest words, Eloa felt a discordant jumble stir in her chest.
Guilt, gratitude, regret, relief, pity, shame, humiliation—all tangled at once.
Her face was such a mess she couldn't tell what expression she wore.
She wanted to hide, to run away.
Yet with so little time left together, she didn't want to waste her final moments with her disciple like that.
Eloa confessed her true feelings, chewing on the words.
"I... I'm not righteous... I've only drowned in regret and wandered mad with vengeance. Where in that is the righteous path?"
Unable to forgive herself, she'd turned that rage toward her enemies.
Because Rafi's dying words were 'I want to protect humanity,' she'd established the waypoint and purged the homunculi.
When she did nothing, every moment of life felt like torture, but wielding her sword in the name of justice let her forget remorse and pain.
Sometimes, she even felt a pitch-black elation.
Thus, there was no justice in it.
Just like this dream world.
Only hollow self-satisfaction wrapped in a plausible shell.
"Master."
Rafi hugged Eloa.
"No, the master I know isn't like that. Right?"
The sudden question flew to Siu.
But Siu didn't falter.
He nodded without hesitation.
The Eloa he'd watched was more upright and noble than anyone.
Someone who's suffered pain doesn't always make the same choices.
Eloa had countless options.
Among them, paths to become a public figure like in this dream, paths of despair preparing the next successor, paths of doing nothing at all.
Yet at every crossroads, Eloa had chosen to carry her painful past and press forward.
She'd saved countless lives and eradicated countless evils.
No matter what anyone said, that was undeniably the 'right path.'
The only reason she couldn't let go of self-recrimination was because she couldn't focus solely on such 'results.'
A person lingering in the past can't see the present.
"Master, I wish you'd be happy more than suffer."
"......"
"That's why I was glad to see Siu. It felt like you're finally moving forward. Because, you know, commemorating and eternal torment are different things."
Rafi's voice was gentle, soothing her tactless master.
"You've even got a wonderful boyfriend now, right?"
"......"
Eloa bowed her head.
Within Rafi's familiar scent, her chest grew damp drop by drop.
"Then... can you now... forgive me...?"
The words stuck in her throat, too shameful to utter, too painful to even think of—words she'd meant to bury forever.
They barely slipped past her lips.
Was this plea for forgiveness directed at Rafi?
Or an empty murmur to herself?
If this was a dream, wasn't even this futile self-satisfaction?
The crumbling world had narrowed to the mansion's vicinity.
The moment of parting approached.
"Good grief, such a stubborn master. You know already."
Rafi pulled away from the embrace for a moment.
And with a mischievous smile, she said,
"I've never once resented you."
Eloa's mouth parted slightly, then clamped shut.
From between her tightly bitten lips leaked a strange writhing that was neither laugh nor cry.
In truth, she had known.
That Rafi would surely say that.
That she wouldn't seek resentment or apology, only wish for Eloa's happiness.
The truth Eloa confronted after a century of self-punishment wasn't particularly surprising or novel.
It was merely unearthing an answer she'd long been able to imagine.
She could finally accept it now.
Eloa wiped her tears.
"Rafi, I promise you this. I will continue to walk the righteous path and fight for justice."
It was a vow, and a resolve spoken to the self who had wavered even in this dream.
The contract sword in her hand gleamed.
Here and now, she made the contract.
This sword would henceforth be swung to protect the weak and the good.
"You'd do it anyway, even if I tried to stop you."
Rafi grumbled even as she smiled sadly.
"Could you give me one last kiss?"
"Of course."
As she kissed Rafi's forehead, the remnants of the dream still holding form collapsed.
"I love you so much, Mother."
"I love you too, Rafi."
The mother who had lost her child finally forgave herself after endless wandering.