Chapter 249
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 249
The man’s body thudded as it collapsed to the floor.
As he rolled over, his pale face was revealed. And then…
“Why are you here? How did you get here so suddenly…?”
“Dammit… almost… didn't make it…”
A pale Klaus managed a faint smile.
“...You’re… not hurt… right?”
Cough. A spray of crimson blood erupted with his cough. I froze instantly.
“Don’t talk… Don’t talk! You’re bleeding…!”
There was a gaping hole in Klaus’s chest. If I looked just a little closer, it felt as if I could see his heart still pulsing.
I would have preferred to see his insides that way.
But the hole piercing his chest was so horribly clear that I could see the scenery on the other side…
He was bleeding.
He was losing too much blood.
The red blood poured out without stopping, soaking my hands, my body, and my face.
I pulled Klaus into my arms and looked up.
“Ahahaha! Ahahaha!”
The pink-haired woman was laughing like a maniac. Like a doll made only to laugh, she repeated that eerie laughter over and over like a scream.
Even through the fog in my mind, I realized it belatedly.
The woman couldn't move now. Perhaps it was because of the hole in her own stomach. Though she looked abnormal—not shedding a single drop of blood—it seemed she had taken a fatal blow.
“Hahaha! Hahaha!”
But her lips, stretched wide like a starving ghost's, continued to erupt in laughter as if mocking Klaus and me.
“Ahahaha! Dying like that again! Always dying like that! You fools…! Aaagh!”
[System] Activating Benefit ‘Kingdom-Toppling Beauty’!
[System] ‘Your Clone’ takes a hit!
“Ahahaha! No matter how much you attack, that wolf brat is… Aaaagh!”
[System] Activating Benefit ‘Kingdom-Toppling Beauty’!
[System] ‘Your Clone’ takes a hit!
[System] Activating Benefit ‘Kingdom-Toppling Beauty’!
[System] ‘Your Clone’ takes a severe hit!
.
.
.
[System] Activating Benefit ‘Kingdom-Toppling Beauty’!
[System] ‘Your Clone’ is beginning to collapse!
Only after hearing the word ‘collapse’ did I stop frantically spamming the Benefit.
The woman was like a sandcastle beginning to crumble. She was breaking into pieces and slowly scattering.
“Ahaha… Hahaha… Hahaha… Aaaagh!”
Tears streamed incessantly from my eyes.
Even as she screamed, the woman didn't stop her horrific laughing. I wanted to grab that long, flowing pink hair right now and check her damn face.
‘It’ll just be Han Ina’s face anyway, or Tulia’s!’
Because they said she was my clone!
Why on earth was the Grand Temple hiding my clone and putting so much effort into creating it?
What were they trying to do?
My head wasn't working properly.
Just as one instinctively avoids facing something terrifying, I actually wanted to kill that crazy woman and make her vanish from my sight forever.
I couldn't find the courage to look down at the man I was holding in my arms.
“Klaus.”
I tried to block the wound in his chest with my hands, but the blood flowed out without stopping. It was as if to say my hands could stop nothing.
“...Klaus. Answer me.”
His body temperature was slowly cooling.
He had died once before. No, he had met me while he was already dead.
But back then, I was able to save him. I was shocked and flustered to see him dead, but I wasn't as terrified as I was now.
But now…
“Klaus…”
Those playful blue eyes that were always stuck by my side, teasing me, were now hidden beneath pale skin.
“I’m not hurt, so answer me! I’ll even bow to you and thank you for saving me, so just say something!”
I screamed with a trembling voice, but not even a single strand of his ash-gray hair stirred.
It was as bleak as facing an eternal darkness.
When a person dies—when someone you never expected dies while trying to protect you.
Time around me seemed to move at a deceptively slow pace, and my chest felt cold, as if cut by countless icy blades.
It was even hard to breathe; I gasped several times like a drowning person.
“Benefit…”
If I used Kingdom-Toppling Beauty to destroy Klaus’s death, wouldn't he come back to life?
I knew it was a nonsensical thought, but I tried it like a person who had lost their mind.
However, Klaus…
“...”
He did not wake up.
The moment I slowly blinked my eyes.
Suddenly, a very familiar color sparkled before me.
[System]
‘System?’
Why was the system window appearing when I hadn't even called for it…?
My dazed blinking lasted only a moment.
Words I had never even imagined were etched into the air.
[System] Klaus Rocheva achieves Main Quest A-Rank!
A cracked voice escaped my lips.
“...What?”
Regardless of whether my eyes were wide with shock, the system window sprayed more text over my blurred vision.
[System] As a Special Reward for achieving Main Quest A-Rank, Klaus Rocheva’s wish will be granted!
“...!”
If I hadn't been holding the bleeding Klaus, I surely would have bolted upright.
I stared at the system window in a daze for a moment.
“Klaus, Klaus.”
My breath began to quicken.
“Klaus. You’re coming back to life, right? That’s it, isn't it?”
Klaus was someone who had already used a Benefit to bring back a life that had once ended.
So this time, too.
It would be the same this time.
Surely, it would.
‘I have to support Klaus and run toward the door.’
If I attacked that woman any further, she looked like she would truly crumble and disappear completely.
I couldn't lose that woman—who seemed like such vital evidence—just because I was consumed by a moment of rage.
I took a deep breath.
“Klaus.”
As I called his name and quickly mapped out an escape route in my head.
[System] Klaus Rocheva’s Wish
[System] To deliver the past he discovered to you.
[System] Special Reward 4, Klaus Rocheva’s wish is being executed!
My eyes froze.
Words tumbled out of my mouth unconsciously.
“Special Reward 4?”
What do you mean, Special Reward 4?
Does that mean there’s a Special Reward 3, 2, and 1 as well?
Meaningless thoughts wavered like a light breeze.
But at the end of it, a surge of uncontrollable anger erupted.
“Klaus! Are you seriously insane?”
There was no answer.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing right now! Huh?!”
I screamed through my tears.
In a situation like this, what wish could possibly be more important than his own life?
Why would you trade something as precious as your life for something like that?
Just how valuable was this past that…
The moment my entire body stiffened, my vision was dyed black.
* * *
“...What is this?”
Ferdinand, who had been cutting down wave after wave of creatures, paused in his tracks.
One of the Imperial Knights, who had also been hacking through creatures while heading toward where Tulia Frezier was likely to be, immediately asked.
“Your Highness? What is the matter?”
His voice was filled with confusion. Ferdinand almost instinctively asked the knight back.
Can you not see this?
But the knight’s expression held nothing but a question. It was the same for the other knights as well.
It was as if this mysterious entity visible to Ferdinand was completely invisible to them.
“It’s nothing. Keep moving. We must find and protect the Crown Princess.”
“Understood!”
The Imperial Knights returned to their task of slaying creatures. Ferdinand adjusted his grip on his sword, then stared blankly at the entity before him once more.
From the sky to right before his eyes.
A single star was slowly falling.
Like a snowflake falling from the heavens, it looked as if it would melt the moment it touched his hand.
Moreover, it looked incredibly tattered. It was as if a young beggar had walked through the snow clutching a starving belly. It was enough to evoke a strange sense of pity.
Perhaps it was because the tattered star was the same color as Tulia’s eyes that he couldn't look away.
Ferdinand instinctively caught the falling star, and his pupils dilated instantly.
The star, which had been limp and flickering weakly, greedily began to devour his divine power the moment it landed in his palm.
It wasn't a bad feeling, like having blood sucked by a leech. Rather, it felt like an inexplicable tenderness, like feeding milk to a starving puppy.
He was surprised to find such an emotion within himself.
In the end, Ferdinand left the star to busily consume his divine power and moved quickly, cutting down creatures as he went.
* * *
“...!”
When I snapped my eyes open, I couldn't get my bearings for a moment.
Pink hair was shimmering in front of me again.
But it didn't belong to that monster-like woman from before.
These few strands of hair softly brushing against my cheek were…
‘Mom?’
But no voice came out. Furthermore…
‘What’s wrong with my arms? Why are they so short?’
My hands and arms had shrunk, small as a baby's.