Chapter 338
Chapter 338
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 338
Chapter Title: Given Time (7)
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The rain poured down.
It showed no signs of stopping, drenching everything day and night.
If he listened closely, a multitude of sounds reached his ears.
The patter of raindrops bouncing off leaves, the splashes in puddles on the ground, the drumming against the church windows.
And Sara's prayers.
Taking in the cacophony with one ear and letting it flow out the other, Kyle continued his meditation. The only change overnight was that he had picked up the holy sword he had set aside.
"......"
Gripping the holy sword, Kyle reflected.
What came to mind was the wall within him.
...A hero was originally unaware of the wall inside. It was only natural. Awakening as a hero meant shattering that wall with starlight, breaking through the growth limit with a cheat.
Something he shouldn't have been aware of.
A wall that shouldn't even exist.
But during his reunion with the Sword of Death, Kyle had become aware of the wall within. It wasn't the wall of Kyle Toven as a hero, but of Kyle Toven as a mere human. The sturdy barrier that had existed in the heart of the coward who believed he could do nothing without the star.
He had seen it.
And he had slashed it down.
After cleaving the wall that day, Kyle had become a superhuman.
Now, Kyle stood beyond the wall. Before him stretched a vast plain. On that plain, he recalled the scene from his dream.
The first hero, Ganikalt van Galatric.
Where was he positioned?
How far must he travel to reach that realm?
Once, he had wondered if that realm was just a delusion, a fantasy of his own making. It had seemed utterly unattainable, so he had sought a shortcut.
But now.
Now, he could see it.
A man stood on the wind-swept plain. Covered in scars and missing one arm, the man stood there waiting for Kyle. Kyle gauged the distance between himself and the man.
'...Far.'
Far and treacherous.
The road ahead still felt endlessly long.
'But.'
He could see it.
Confirm it with his own eyes.
Because he could see it, the realm truly existed.
And because it existed, he could surely reach it.
"......"
Kyle opened his closed eyes.
The inner wall vanished, and time returned to reality. In reality, Kyle gazed at the sword in his hand. A single blade. With this one sword, he would accomplish the feat.
His mind was calmer than ever.
His body lighter than ever.
Yet one thing nagged at him: all of this was a contract made without the slightest consideration for Raniel's will. Kyle knew full well that she would never agree to such a "half-baked" plan.
Something she neither consented to nor desired.
Kyle would force it upon her anyway. He would save her on his own terms. A selfish choice made under the pretext of repaying a debt. And so, he hesitated, just a little.
That hesitation, that wavering.
As he deepened his meditation to shake it off, he sensed a presence outside amid the pouring rain. Incredibly light, yet an immense presence impossible to ignore.
That presence knocked on the church door.
Kyle narrowed his eyes and opened the door. The moment he did and faced the figure standing there, his body stiffened.
"...You?"
At Kyle's question, she spoke.
"It's been a while."
Raniel van Dragonic smiled.
"Really been a while, Kyle."
She smiled painfully.
2.
Kyle looked at the woman before him.
She had introduced herself as Raniel from 13 years in the future. An absurd claim, but her overwhelming presence made the absurdity believable.
She was no human.
Nor one chosen by the star.
A being that transcended all that.
Humans reverently called such existences gods (?).
In a dilapidated church built to serve the star, another god—neither of star nor shadow—sat.
"You..."
Kyle asked.
"Are you a being like the star?"
"In terms of lineage, we're similar. Fundamentally different, though... hmm."
Hard to explain.
She murmured and grinned broadly. Whatever amused her so, she kept smiling throughout their conversation, as if the mere act of talking with him brought her joy.
"It's not that complicated, really."
Still smiling, the Raniel from the future said.
"I'm just a god in name only. No one prays to me from the start."
"...What do you mean?"
"No one believes in me. Guess I'm not that great. No one offers prayers to me?"
She laughed lightly.
In that laugh, Kyle sensed something off. It was the smile Raniel often wore when telling lies or putting on a brave front.
But it was hard to be sure.
It was slightly different from Raniel's smile.
Besides, the woman sitting before him wasn't the Raniel he knew. Nor did she closely resemble Lania.
Sarah.
The short hair swaying above her shoulders no longer held its ashen hue. It was closer to white. The eyes peeking through slender lashes had long lost their sparkling blue.
Empty blue eyes.
Meeting that hollow gaze, Kyle fell silent. Compared to Lania, she didn't look much older. It was just the aura she exuded that made her seem worlds apart.
'...Strange.'
Kyle's eyes narrowed further.
No matter how he looked at her, she wasn't the Raniel he knew. What had happened over those 13 years? What had she endured to change so? Kyle couldn't know. Couldn't even guess.
"...You said you came from 13 years in the future?"
"Your eyes say you want to know if that's possible."
"Becoming a god-like being makes even that feasible, I suppose."
"Nope?"
Raniel tilted her head.
"Being a god isn't that grandiose. We're bound by providence just like you—actually, even more tightly. That's why my body's like this, right?"
Raniel spread both hands toward Kyle. Her palms were faint, as if they might scatter away at any moment.
"I broke a taboo. The greatest one. This is the price."
Unable to interfere with the world.
Her body crumbling.
Raniel smiled bitterly and hid her hands. Defying the ordained providence to return (回?) naturally demanded an enormous toll.
"...If what you say is true."
And Kyle asked.
"What reason would you have to return to the past at such a cost?"
Was there reason to do so?
Why return to this time?
The Raniel from the future didn't answer immediately. She let out a faint breath, then slowly, very slowly, opened her mouth.
"Because it started here."
She said.
"Everything went wrong from here."
Her hair swayed.
"Everything fell apart."
Through the swaying ashen strands, her blue eyes emerged. The empty eyes no longer smiled.
"You know, Kyle?"
As if unable to meet his gaze, she bowed her head. Head lowered, she spoke to Kyle.
"...You told me I suited the hero more than you. Thirteen years ago, right here, you passed the star to me and said that."
If anyone suited being the hero.
If anyone could save the world.
It was surely you, Raniel.
"But you were wrong."
A dry laugh escaped Raniel's lips.
"I failed, Kyle. Miserably. Utterly miserably. I couldn't protect what I wanted to protect, couldn't achieve anything I set out to do."
Kyle watched her bowed head.
"Do you know what happened to my world? Yeah, sorry. I lied earlier. My world perished, Kyle. It's not that no one prays to me—nothing lives there anymore."
Because I failed.
She murmured.
"My world became ashes."
Kyle silently regarded Raniel.
Though he sat before her, he intuited she wasn't speaking to him now.
"I'm no hero."
She was confessing.
Not to the him here, but to the Kyle from the time she had endured.
"Not the perfect being you wanted. Even becoming a god (?) as you hoped... in the end, I couldn't be perfect."
Raniel raised her head.
"Look at me, Kyle."
She spread her arms wide.
Only then did Kyle realize. The clothes she wore were the hero's garb. Identical to what he wore now.
"Do I look like a hero to you?"
Like the perfect human you wanted?
Kyle couldn't answer that question.
"I'm a failure. A pathetically hideous failure."
He couldn't deny that either.
"You asked why I came back to the past? I came to ask you—no, to convince you."
She said.
Pleadingly.
"Don't pass the star to me, Kyle Toven."
Tears flowed from her empty eyes.
The tears falling from those hollow eyes hit the ground but didn't wet it. They simply crumbled without form, not even allowed to leave a trace.
"Just... let me die here."
She pleaded.
And Kyle...
3.
Cardi lounged in his chair, staring out the window. Night had deepened. Listening idly to the pouring rain, he recalled the person he'd met days ago.
Raniel from 13 years in the future.
A human turned god.
She had committed the taboo of defying time, but even she couldn't achieve everything. She had said her interference was limited to the time of Kyle's contract.
The encounter with the Sword of Death, Ganikalt.
And now, this moment of attempting the final trial.
Raniel had passed the former and arrived at the latter, ready to execute her plan now. Cardi recalled what she had said.
"Kyle made the contract to save me."
"I'll stop that contract."
"I have to die here. I must. Even if I live, I achieve nothing. I just keep failing."
She had spoken in a hollow voice.
"The future that awaits is destruction."
"My world became ashes. We can't repeat that future. So, we have to change it."
Are you telling me to kill Raniel?
Or will you do it?
To Cardi's question, Raniel shook her head. She said she had no intention of making such a harsh request... and that she couldn't interfere greatly in this time anyway.
"It requires Kyle to break the contract first. So, I have to convince him."
Convince.
"I'll convince Kyle."
"That the end of your contract leads to this. That saving me is meaningless. That I'm not as great as you think."
I'll show him that.
"The failed me."
"Once he sees the wretchedly broken me."
"Surely something will change, right?"
That's the only way.
Cardi had looked at the Raniel from the future with mixed feelings. Her face seemed ready to crumble at any moment.
...What if persuasion fails? What then?
Cardi had asked.
In response, Raniel revealed her second plan. One she hoped wouldn't be needed, yet had prepared regardless. Hearing it, Cardi promised his cooperation.
Because he was certain.
Certain that the plan would be needed.
"...No way it'll work."
Now, time had passed.
Gazing out the window, Cardi muttered.
"It won't. Raniel."
Cardi recalled Kyle's face from their encounter.
It was the face of one resolved.
And also the face he'd seen long ago on an old comrade. At his final moment, Ganikalt, pleading with him, had worn the same expression.
"Do it, Cardi."
"This is the only way."
Damn sword-swinging bastards.
Murmuring that, Cardi smiled bitterly.
"...That guy never listened either."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Kyle looked at Raniel.
Tears streaming, she slowly slid from her chair and knelt before him. Like a confession. Like announcing her sins, she begged him.
To let her die.
That she had only failed.
That in the end, she would crumble.
"Just... let me die here."
Raniel pleaded.
And Kyle opened his mouth.
"Stand up."
Kyle grabbed Raniel's arm and pulled.
Forcing her to rise from her knees.
"The you I know doesn't talk like this. She never kneels before anyone. Stand up, Raniel van Trias."
Not Dragonic, but Trias.
Raniel's expression crumbled.
It had to.
"Stand up."
Those were the words Raniel had thrown at Kyle countless times. Receiving them back now, the reason of the Raniel from the future snapped.
"You."
Raniel said.
"What do you even know about me?"
Seeing her like that, Kyle smiled bitterly.
Kyle murmured inwardly.
Now the roles are reversed.
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