Chapter 93
Chapter 93
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: The Final Farewell
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In truth, Victoria and I were not officially in a relationship yet. After all, I had once rejected her confession.
However,
"What? You fell for him after seeing him trying to remove the flowers blooming on my body? But now they're blooming on our son..."
"Ah, that happened because Sir Astal was trying to save me. Originally, when I use a Miracle, I have the side effect of parts of my body turning into flowers."
p>"Our son must have worked incredibly hard to impress a beautiful Saint like you. No matter how I think about it, it doesn't seem like something one could do with ordinary resolve."
Seeing Victoria and my parents conversing happily like this now, I couldn't help but feel that something like a contract relationship was irrelevant.
Since they were so overjoyed that I had brought a girlfriend home, I didn't particularly want to tell them the truth and ruin the mood.
"So, how far have you two gone? Our son has always been rather clumsy with women since he was little."
"Oh my, is that really true? When he's with me, he looks at my body and face with such a heated gaze that I almost think he's a wolf..."
What kind of conversation were my parents and Victoria having? Sensing that it was gradually crossing a line, I was about to try and stop this discussion, but
Victoria secretly stroked my thigh with her hand, and I could only keep my mouth shut, unable to say anything.
"That's right, there were so many village girls who liked our son. Clara from next door kept telling everyone that Astal was going to marry her!"
Was there such a girl?
Having lived to this age, there had been countless girls who said they liked me, so I couldn't remember her well.
"Hmmm... Where does this Clara live now? As a Saint, I should fulfill my duty and have a little talk..."
Victoria, in a voice colder than ever before, looked around as if searching for the girl named Clara.
"Victoria, that seems a bit excessive. She was just a child. And talk of getting married when we grew up was just something she said on her own."
In the first place, I never gave a proper answer to that talk.
It was just a girl who wanted me, blabbing this and that to the kids around her.
"No, on the contrary, childhood friends like that are dangerous. It's even in a book I enjoy reading. A man meets a friend he promised to reunite with long ago, and even though he has a lover, he cheats..."
Even after hearing my explanation, Victoria didn't change her attitude. Citing the contents of the book she read, she ultimately said that devoted lovers like her are easily abandoned.
Just what kind of book has such salacious content?
Then again, considering how she modified her Saint's robes to seduce me or deliberately made sexual jokes, it made sense.
"...So, Astal, are the flowers blooming on your body really just a side effect of the Miracle?"
At that moment, my mother looked at the flowers still remaining on my body with a concerned expression.
Seeing someone deeply versed in magic say that made me intuitively feel something was off.
"Yes, is it perhaps not that?"
"The broad framework is correct. But if it were truly to balance the causality for the Miracle, something seems strange."
My mother, Celine Kaisaros, gently touched the flower on my body with her finger, wearing a somewhat dissatisfied smile.
Even the slightest touch made my skin burn with pain, and a tingling ache spread throughout my body, forcing me to grimace.
Seeing that, my mother let out a deep sigh and sipped her black tea with a sorrowful face.
"After all, the first Saint could use Miracles without such side effects. It doesn't add up."
"The first... Saint? But clearly, all past Saints had side effects..."
Hearing that, I doubted my own ears.
According to the records I saw in the forbidden library of the Holy Kingdom of Aurelium, there was a Saint who lost her sight in exchange for using Miracles, and another who could use them at the cost of her name or even her own memories.
"Actually, this place is being protected by the first Saint. Even if it looks like a corrupted holy sword on the outside, the reason the vengeful spirits inside can maintain their sanity is because of her."
This was something the Hero, Kyle, had mentioned before.
The first Hero, Dullahan, or Sieghardt, supposedly killed his lover, comrades, and even his own children with the holy sword to prove his surrender to the Demon King Ergothum.
Among them, the first Saint met the most horrific end. The reason Heavenly God Lumina placed restrictions between us was precisely because of such incidents.
"If you meet her, you might be able to figure something out. The way Mom sees it, even these flowers that look like a side effect of the Miracle probably have something to do with it."
"Such as?"
"If forcing people into suffering to maintain the world's balance is called the Law of Causality, then the word itself is strange, isn't it?"
Why hadn't I thought of it sooner?
For a moment, my thoughts froze at my mother's words.
Heavenly God Lumina had set the condition of Victoria and I gradually forming a physical relationship to remove the flowers blooming on my body.
"So you eventually removed them by some method, right? Seeing how little remains on your body now, I think this is nothing more than perjury or deception to fool someone."
It didn't add up.
If it was to prevent a child from being born between Victoria and me due to the first Saint's death, then she wouldn't have encouraged such a risky act.
Moreover, she made Victoria's inner thoughts audible to me.
This was an ability I couldn't even verify with my own eyes, and if it wasn't a divine power, it seemed like something she herself would be most angry about.
Thinking of the God's contradictory actions, I couldn't shake the feeling that the Gods were hiding something.
"Dad thinks so too. It's strange that a Demon King with the power to kill all past Hero parties doesn't step forward."
My father also chimed in after hearing my mother's words. Moreover, he said it was suspicious that they sent four Heavenly Kings just to kill a kid like me.
"I still don't know why they chose our village as their first target. If they wanted to threaten the world, targeting a high-ranking person like the Grand Duke of the North or the Emperor first would have been more effective."
If the Demon King truly wanted to sow chaos in the world, there were many other good options besides our village.
Thinking about it, he was right.
If they had disguised the Emperor's death as an assassination by another country, or killed the Grand Duke of the North to let monsters flood down from the border, they could have ended the world without even sending troops.
But the Demon King didn't do that.
"...I think there was a prophecy that I could defeat the Demon King."
As Dullahan mentioned before, the Demon King was closely watching a kid like me, not the Hero Kyle.
"Then the entity that made that prophecy is likely the problem. The Demon King must have backing, which is why the Gods are acting passively..."
Listening to my father and mother's words, it felt like the mysteries we had experienced so far were being resolved.
The strange mural I saw in the Holy Kingdom of Aurelium.
The contradictory actions and words shown by Heavenly God Lumina.
And the stories told by Dullahan and Bellamora about me being chosen as the one who could defeat the Demon King.
"Where is the first Saint? I'd like to meet and talk with her."
"Probably if you leave this house and walk forward. This is, after all, a frozen past. To move toward the future, you must go forward."
With those words, my parents wore a faint, bittersweet smile.
Seeing them speak as if this was our final conversation, I intuitively realized that the moment we must part again was approaching.
Where there is meeting, there is also parting.
I wanted to ask my parents not to leave, but this place was, after all, not a place of rest but inside Dullahan's corrupted holy sword.
"You're not leaving already, are you? I haven't even had a proper conversation with Mother and Father yet, and I wanted to hear more stories about Sir Astal's childhood..."
As if sensing the mood, Victoria held their hands with a sad expression.
"We can't stay here forever. Even if the first Saint is protecting this place now, this holy sword has drunk too much blood and too many vengeful spirits."
"If we don't attain peace, going mad or vanishing is only a matter of time. At our age, we don't want to be a burden to our son and new daughter."
Looking at my parents' expressions, I wanted to beg them not to go, but the words wouldn't come out properly.
If we part now, we might never meet again.
I should tell them how much I missed them, how much I truly loved them.
"...I'm sorry. For not being able to protect you."
Inadequate and immature, that was all I could say.
"No. You don't need to apologize. We said we'd be by your side no matter what."
"Even if we attain peace, it'll probably be okay. We'll become the wind blowing beside you, the nameless wildflowers blooming on the roadside, the shade that blocks the scorching sun. We'll always be there."
My parents hugged me gently, speaking in a warm voice as if telling me not to worry.
"You've grown so tall, Astal. My wish was to have a drink with my grown-up son someday and talk about life... I've achieved something similar, at least."
"I'm sorry I couldn't love you more. I wanted to buy you nicer clothes and delicious food, and I wanted to take you to meet your grandfather someday."
"Mother... Father..."
"I'm sorry we couldn't celebrate your 10th birthday. Mom and Dad always kept it in their hearts..."
Tears continued to stream from my eyes, and emotions I hadn't been able to convey kept bursting forth, but the journey wasn't over until the Demon King was slain.
"Mom, Dad. I love you. Really, truly..."
"Yes, Astal, you must be truly happy from now on, okay? Mom and Dad will be watching over you from the sky... You must get along well with your girlfriend."
Swallowing my tears, I could only bid my parents a final farewell, and
"It'll be okay. Sir Astal is kind enough for me to fall for him. So... please don't worry too much. We will definitely defeat the Demon King and live happily..."
Watching their figures fade away like a mirage, Victoria also couldn't hold back her tears, wiping them away with her hand.