Chapter 557: Jealousy is My Power (57)
Chapter 557: Jealousy is My Power (57)
The sky, draped in the Milky Way, was silent.
Even the moonlight could not boast its brilliance before that silver river. Fragments of the collapsed barrier drifted through the air like pollen.
It was a fantastical sight.
Even a wedding to decide one's lifelong partner would likely not be this extravagant. By the time the forest clearing where the man and woman stood had become a stage, the moon and stars had become guests, quietly looking down upon the earth.
The man’s golden eyes, which had been glancing behind him, finally turned forward.
His attitude betrayed not a single shred of lingering regret.
Even though the girl’s slender hand was clutching the hem of his trousers, he took a step forward without hesitation—as if such a weak grip could be shaken off at any moment.
However, there was one variable he had failed to calculate.
The girl holding onto him was no pushover either.
Scrape, scrape, scrape.
Though she gasped for breath, the girl did not loosen her grip on his trousers. She persisted even as she endured the humiliation of being dragged along the dirt.
In the end, it was the man who surrendered first.
He let out an irritated sigh and cast his gaze behind him once more.
As if responding, the girl lifted her head. Her blue eyes, which had been hidden by the brim of her pointed hat, were finally revealed.
Her pupils shone with a brilliant light even amidst the shroud of night.
It was a gaze of unwavering resolve.
"You... you're Ian, aren't you?"
"I don't know what you're..."
"You're the Ian I know. I'm Elsie Lainella... Do you think I wouldn't recognize my first love?"
His attempt to feign ignorance was instantly thwarted.
At the girl’s voice, thick with conviction, the man shut his mouth tight.
Come to think of it, it had always been like this.
No matter what lie he tried to tell, no matter how tightly he tried to lock away his heart.
She would sense it with supernatural intuition and relentlessly dig for his true feelings.
What a tragic tale.
It was a memory from long ago.
The Great Forest had burned, and precious people had lost their lives. It was a tragedy that had repeated itself several times since then.
Scabs form over wounds left neglected for a long time.
The same was true for the wounds in his heart. They had long since become scars, and he had stopped feeling the pain ages ago.
And yet, to have the memories of his most innocent days revived now of all times.
The man tried to take another step, but he eventually faltered and closed his eyes tight.
"...Stop it."
His tone was cold.
His voice, devoid of even a fragment of emotion, was so dry it sounded sharp.
It was a reaction intended to wound.
Nevertheless, the light in the girl's eyes did not waver.
"No."
"Even so, my mind won't change."
He was a man who had always used polite honorifics with her.
But not anymore. The cold, informal way he spoke now carried many meanings.
None of them were positive.
"This story is already over... What's the point of wasting more time now?"
"Because I love you."
It was a simple confession.
But that short sentence instantly erased the countless rebuttals the man had been considering.
Elsie’s gaze remained stubbornly fixed on him.
"Because I like you, because I want to see you one more time... I just want to talk to you one last time. Is that not allowed?"
"...In the distant future."
With a slightly softened tone, the man exhaled a ragged breath.
"In the distant future, when everything is over... then."
That was his final ultimatum.
The man began to move his feet again. His stance was so firm that he did not stop even when the girl was dragged across the ground, covered in dirt and groaning in pain.
He did not stop even when Elsie’s body jolted against a rock and her skin was torn.
Yet, the girl still did not loosen her grip. On the contrary, she forced back her groans and even managed to shout.
"Why... why can't it be now?!"
"Because there are more important things to do."
Her body was already a wreck.
No matter how much she endured, there was a limit. Elsie flailed desperately, clutching at his trousers, but her trembling arms were reaching their breaking point.
The man spoke without stopping his stride.
"...I don't have much time left."
"Neither... neither do I...!"
Snap. It was then that the girl’s fingers, which had been clinging to the hem of his trousers, finally slipped away.
She tried to reach out, but her body wouldn't listen.
She looked utterly pitiful.
This was a woman who had lived her entire life as a high-ranking noble. How many times had she, a woman built of pride and arrogance, ever acted this desperately?
The man was not unaware of this.
That was why he couldn't take that final step immediately.
Exhaling a pained breath for the first time, the man turned around.
Wheeze, wheeze.
The eyes of the girl, who was panting heavily, had grown hazy. It meant she was on the verge of losing consciousness.
It was only natural.
Her body had nearly been crushed within the collapsing barrier. She had squeezed out her last bit of strength, but it was truly the 'last' of it.
Once all her energy was spent, fainting was inevitable.
The man quietly knelt down and looked down at the girl, a lingering scent of an unknown emotion flickering in his eyes. Eventually, he hesitantly reached his hand toward her.
But he never touched her.
Before he could, he flinched and withdrew his hand.
Instead, he merely let out a suppressed confession.
"I am no longer the person you knew... I'm sorry."
With those final words, the man quickly stood up.
As if he were afraid the woman might grab hold of him again.
However, before he could take even a few steps, the girl squeezed the air from her lungs for one last act of defiance.
"...So what!"
It was a scream—or rather, something closer to a shriek.
The girl's eyes were already blurry and failing her. But she must have sensed it instinctively.
The fact that the man's footsteps had suddenly stopped.
Because she knew everything about him.
"So what if you've changed? Did you think I'd just give up quietly? Don't give me that bullshit... I don't care what you say!"
Her trembling voice suddenly found its center and became steady.
The sound of her grinding her teeth spoke for her resolve.
"I am Elsie Lainella! I never give up... I never let go! Just you wait. Just like you did... I will never give up—!"
The limit always arrives at the most unwanted moment.
The girl was no exception. Perhaps because her physical strength had finally run out, she could not overcome the weight of her eyelids as they began to droop.
Her body slumped onto the ground.
The man stood there for a while, unable to find his way out.
Finally, with a bitter smile, he turned his head. He had already heard such empty words several times before.
The games were over now.
The novice was repeatedly refusing to take back his body, but even that had its limits. Ultimately, two conditions were required for the man to manifest in this world.
First, the original owner had to be unconscious.
Second, the man's consciousness had to desire to remain here.
As of now, neither condition was being met. The man desperately wanted to go back and rest.
He had already fought far too many battles.
Yes, it was only right to collapse like this.
If only an uninvited guest hadn't barged in.
Clang.
The man didn't even turn his head. A sword had surged up like a ghost to block his path.
With a sizzling sound, fragmented sparks formed a hemisphere and seeped inward. Only then did the man's puzzled gaze turn forward.
There was nothing there.
Which made it all the more bizarre.
His entire body was screaming. That a sword was before his eyes, and that the sword was aiming for this body.
And yet, not even a shadow appeared on his retinas.
The man tilted his head, and then—
A bolt of lightning split the world in two.
A horizontal line connected one end of his vision to the other. It was an illusion as if every object in the world had been severed into upper and lower halves.
Cracks were forming along that boundary line.
A single figure rose within the man's vision.
"Finally... you've finally shown yourself... kid!"
Dark blue hair, blue eyes.
It was a girl who looked to be in her mid-to-late teens at most.
The man couldn't help but look bewildered. He had met many people, but the only person with those physical characteristics was his former liege.
And to think she had blocked his strike.
The man let out a hollow laugh and tried to brush the girl aside, only to be met with a startling result.
She wouldn't be shaken off.
The sword coiled around like a snake, and the girl continued to smile in front of him. She gave off a scent of excitement more intense than a viper of the Great Forest.
Eventually, the man chose to remain silent.
His indifferent golden eyes scanned the surroundings. After looking up, down, left, and right, a sigh filled with disbelief finally escaped his lips.
The entire world was a sword.
His inhalations and exhalations, the wind brushing against his skin, even the moonlight and starlight blurring his vision.
In the end, the man could only speak in a voice full of suspicion.
"...Could you perhaps be the 'Sword Duke'?"
"Who else would it be... you brat!"
Then, with a crack, the air of the entire world became blades and descended upon the man.
A few seconds later, all the blades shattered with a pop, revealing the man's figure.
He wore a truly miserable expression.
Now, a lovely-looking girl stood before him, and looking at her, the man thought:
At this point, wouldn't it be better if the world just ended?
The sound of his sigh was exceptionally pathetic.
*
A collapsing world.
He had never experienced this before. Forcing oneself to remain in the space of the unconscious was no different from drifting through the man's memories.
Jumbled monologues scraped at his ears.
Amidst it all, there was a sound the man shouldn't have been able to hear.
There was no proof. He just had a strange, plausible conviction.
It was the sound of a woman sobbing, someone strangely familiar.
Before I knew it, I had arrived in front of her.
And I saw.
A girl in a pointed hat, crying, having locked herself inside a cage.
"...Senior Elsie."
At that one word I blankly uttered, blue eyes brimming with tears met mine.
She wore a face I had never seen before.