Chapter 166: If It Were Now (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 166: If It Were Now (6)
The second of Sispanian’s spaces he discovered carried an even deeper sorrow.
It was a strange, fleeting sentiment. Perhaps it was because his companion was different this time. For a moment, Calian tried to picture Alan standing there instead.
"It's here."
After stating the obvious to Franz, who was following behind him, Calian walked over and stood before the fragment of the Axis of Time. Franz followed in silence, coming to a halt at his side.
Calian watched as Franz’s light green eyes swept over the fragment. He didn’t seem to recognize what it was. That was only natural.
Turning his gaze from Franz, Calian closed his eyes and offered no explanation.
Bern.
He reached for the sole, intact memory of a man who no longer existed. He unsealed the deepest corner of his mind, where he kept those memories locked away.
When he opened his eyes again, it was as Bern—the man who had spent his life with his back to the world, who had lived to protect and fought to defend, only to die having failed to protect anything at all.
Looking at the golden ring before him with those eyes, he spoke.
“…The Axis of Time.”
He still didn’t know if this would be poison or medicine for them both. Unsure, he began to lay out the story, piece by piece.
“It was originally in Secritia. Even in ‘this’ timeline, it remained there, intact, until last year. I heard it vanished suddenly around then, but not long ago, it was found here, with only this fragment remaining.”
He spoke as if recounting an old story told over breakfast, a plausible legend from a forgotten book. As if it were someone else’s life entirely.
“It is an object said to possess the power to turn back time exactly once. We suspected it was a sacred artifact, but nothing was ever proven.”
Having said that much, Bern turned his unfittingly red eyes toward Franz. He faced him, his expression not of resentment, but of quiet curiosity.
He harbored a single question: Why did you do it?
“One day, a war broke out between Secritia and Kairis over this very object.”
He didn't say that he and Chase had tried to protect it from Franz. There was no need to reopen old wounds by phrasing it that way.
Up close, it was a tragedy—a life someone had lived through and could never escape. But from a distance, it was merely a war between two nations. A simple conflict with a clear cause and effect, the kind that had always littered the pages of history.
Someone won, and someone lost.
Someone died, and someone survived.
The Bern of the present understood that it was as simple as that.
And so, he chose his words carefully, allowing Franz to view the events from a slight distance. It was the greatest consideration Bern could offer him.
“Ha.”
Yet despite his efforts, a sound that was half-sigh, half-scoff escaped Franz’s lips.
Franz was clever.
He brushed aside Bern’s consideration, stepping closer to listen. He understood. A past version of himself had started a war and ruined countless lives just to seize that object.
“Just…”
What was hidden here.
Franz could never have guessed the true weight of the secret he had insisted on sharing.
“Just to steal that one thing…”
His voice was already trembling.
Bern figured Franz had only expected to find some relic tied to his past—a key to unlocking the secrets Calian guarded so fiercely. He certainly hadn’t expected to come face-to-face with the very catalyst of Bern’s death and Secritia’s fall.
“Yes. Just for this.”
Bern took a quiet breath.
He was still breathing. Franz was breathing, too. As long as they were both breathing, they could endure this. So Bern continued, knowing it was better to distract Franz than to leave him alone with his thoughts.
“No envoy was sent. Instead, a letter arrived, tied to the leg of a hawk. I have no idea how you found out about the Axis, but you demanded we hand it over. There wasn’t even a proper explanation, so I refused.”
Bern let out a soft chuckle.
It had been a brief letter, devoid of justification. Looking back, it struck him as an incredibly Franz-like thing to do, and the thought made him smile. Knowing how much Franz detested talking, it made perfect sense that he would send such a curt message.
He smiled at the memory, but it was a painful smile.
On the day he first spoke of his past to Alan, the mage had remarked, “Since both Chase and Bern sought me out regarding the Axis of Time, the two of you must indeed be brothers.”
The smile on Bern’s face now was similar to the one he had given Alan then, yet it carried a vastly different, far more aching weight.
“If it were now… would I have understood your brief words?”
If it were now, perhaps he wouldn’t have dismissed it as the absurd demand of a mad king. Perhaps he would have understood the feelings behind the letter, reading between the lines to grasp everything left unsaid.
“Well, it’s too late for that. Never mind. Anyway…”
He chose not to dwell on the letter’s contents. He was afraid that if he did, he might actually understand it—and that prospect was both absurd and terrifying.
Shifting his gaze from the silent Franz back to the fragment, Bern began tracing the mysterious characters etched along the ring’s edge, simply because he needed somewhere else to look.
“Less than a month after we sent the bird back, the war began.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Franz snapped his head toward him. Bern stood in silence for a moment before Franz spoke.
“That… makes no sense.”
It certainly didn’t. Kairis and Secritia were not neighboring countries. For a war to break out less than a month after the messenger returned was impossible.
“If even you find it strange, imagine how we felt.”
Rather than voicing the sheer shock, confusion, and despair they had felt, Bern simply shrugged and offered a light, almost playful reply.
“Despite the vast distance between Kairis and Secritia, your army arrived incredibly fast. And we had absolutely no idea.”
They had been completely blind. Until a massive army of mages and knights appeared on their border, they hadn’t suspected a thing. With such a large force on the march, not a single spy had sent word. He had wondered if they had betrayed Secritia, much like the spies of the present, but it wasn't a conclusion he could easily accept. As far as Bern remembered, they had been nothing but loyal birds.
“Perhaps the birds were all killed. Or perhaps someone else had the same idea as me and made preparations in secret.”
Betrayal, slaughtered spies, teleportation circles—there were endless possibilities. They were nothing but hypotheses now. There was no way to know if the spies had refused to send word, had been unable to, or if there was some other reason entirely. And even if he could find out, it was pointless. Too much had already gone wrong.
Bern’s calm voice continued.
“And so, the war began.”
Back then, they had even less of a luxury. There was no time to investigate the cause. By the time they realized the army was there, it was already too late. Before they could uncover anything, it was all over.
“As you know, Valkan was too strong to stop. On top of that, you didn’t even touch the surrounding territories, marching straight for Secreta. You could have taken your time, but you were as relentless as ever.”
Bern chuckled. Franz would never know just how many curses Bern had hurled at him back then.
“Secritia’s knights were wiped out. My master, Sir Teilan Castrin, who taught me how to wield a sword, managed to delay Valkan’s advance for three days. While he bought us time, we made our final preparations, and everyone except me… died. I held out for quite a while myself. I can’t remember exactly how many days and nights passed, but I doubt I shamed my master's record. But then, the Valkan Corps Commander stepped forward.”
Recalling the crazed mage who had asked for his name right before blasting him apart, Bern chuckled once more.
“And the result, as you already know, is this.”
Bern lightly gestured to his own body.
That was how it ended.
And how it began anew.
That was the weight his gesture carried. That was the end of Bern’s memories. He chose not to describe what Franz had looked like on that fateful day. It would only serve as poison to the current Franz, so there was no reason to speak of it.
“That’s the end of my story.”
Having finished, Bern closed his eyes once more. He gathered the scattered memories, gently packing them away and burying them again in the depths of Calian’s soul.
When he had composed himself, he returned as Calian and opened his eyes. He saw Franz quietly exhaling a long, slow breath.
Calian spoke, his voice low and steady. “As I said, the Axis of Time can only turn back time once, and I heard it vanished from Secritia on the very day I woke up here. Yet, here it is. I had planned to smash it to pieces so it could never be used again, but unfortunately…”
Calian reached out with his foot, tapping the empty air before him. A soft tap, tap echoed as his boot met an invisible barrier.
“I’m in a bit of a bind, as I can’t even vent my anger on it.”
Calian, who had previously rejected the chance Franz offered to resent him, spoke lightly.
Having listened to everything in silence, Franz finally spoke, his voice low.
“I see.”
His tone was entirely devoid of emotion, prompting Calian to offer a faint, enigmatic smile.
“If you gather the pieces, you might be able to use it again. If your memories return, you might find yourself desiring the Axis of Time once more.”
It was a suggestion—a chance to undo his deepest regrets, or perhaps, if the Franz of the past remembered why he had wanted it so badly, a chance to turn back the clock once more.
“The moment you finish speaking, you start spouting nonsense,” Franz retorted instantly. “How do we get rid of it?”
He knew all too well that the object was neither an opportunity nor a blessing. He was asking for a way to destroy it.
“Not yet. I don’t know how. That’s why I plan to meet Sispanian.”
Franz’s eyes narrowed at the name, but Calian offered no further explanation. He had promised to tell him about Bern, not to lay bare everything about Calian.
“But first, I need to take care of more pressing matters.”
Knowing full well that he was the source of those ‘pressing matters,’ Franz frowned. Calian swept his gaze over the stone fragments one last time, then turned toward the stairs.
“Wait.”
Franz’s voice stopped him. He still had one more question.
Calian, who was about to leave, turned back to look at him. Franz asked a brief question.
“Your name. What was it?”
Calian didn’t answer right away. With an unreadable expression, he turned back toward the stairs leading to the surface. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Franz was asking for Bern’s name. He was simply caught off guard, staring blankly into space.
“It’s not hard to remember a name. Just tell me.”
And your age, too, if you don’t mind.
Standing a short distance from Franz, Calian suddenly burst into laughter. It started small, but it quickly grew into a clear, genuinely amused sound.
“I am…”
Having finally laid the ghost of Bern to rest, Calian spoke.
“I am Calian, brother.”
With that, he walked away with straight, steady steps, heading out to let the rain wash away whatever lingered.
Once again, he left his age unmentioned.