Chapter 18
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 18: To You, 1000 Years Later (3)
The materialized Selene bore a strange resemblance to Cassian's daughter, Yveline.
No, to be precise, it was to the extent that one could be certain that the woman in front of his eyes was the completed form Yveline would reach in the future.
In front of the miracle beyond common sense called the Founder's manifestation.
The desperate fighting spirit he had squeezed out lost its driving force in an instant.
"How...... such a thing......."
Cassian's pupils tremble violently.
Selene, who opened her eyes in the halo of light, also looked a bit surprised facing Cassian for a moment.
She soon cleared her throat once.
"Ahem."
To equip the dignity befitting a Founder, she deliberately straightened her back and opened her mouth.
"Yes, I am your ancestor, Selene von Estal."
Cassian's face turned pale blue.
The name engraved first in the heart of the one who becomes the head of Estal.
Selene von Estal.
Although some academic circles dismissed her as a fictional myth rather than a real person.
Cassian never doubted her existence for a single moment.
Because he was a scholar who devoted his whole life believing that the clue to prevent the family's destruction was in this treasure vault.
"Cassian. You did your part more brilliantly than anyone since you were young, why do you try to choose such a foolish path at the end. I have been watching you all along."
Affection enough to numb the heart is contained in the Founder's rebuke.
"Don't tell me...... are you really, really the Founder?"
"Yes. Thanks to my teacher who borrowed this child's body, I was able to stand before you for a moment."
At that moment, Cassian collapsed.
The arrogant sense of omnipotence he had gained by breaking through the wall of the 7th Hierarchy just now scattered vainly like a handful of dust.
In front of the mythical existence who reached the peak of the 9th Hierarchy.
He is neither a Duke commanding the Empire nor a great mage.
He is merely a pitiful child who met his roots after wandering lost.
"I was scared......."
Cassian heaved his shoulders and vomited the confession he had suppressed deep in his heart for 10 years.
"That cursed prophecy that said it would swallow the family, I was afraid it would eventually strangle my child's neck....... I just wanted to sit face to face at the table with my family normally tomorrow morning too."
Cassian is originally a scholar before being a family head.
He was a person accustomed to analyzing and controlling incomprehensible phenomena.
However, any magic formula is powerless before fate.
The deeper the knowledge, the more painfully the fear given by that unknown power approaches.
Selene approached Cassian slowly.
Soon she stroked Cassian's head gently.
Warmth like spring sunshine permeates the basement where cold mana hovered.
At that affectionate touch, the tears Cassian had suppressed burst out from his eyes.
"Do not worry. Didn't you learn and know? That my unique magic is future foresight."
Deep radiance as if containing the Milky Way dwells in Selene's blue pupils.
She stared straight into Cassian's eyes and whispered.
"It is already visible in my eyes. The future where you are smiling happily under the warm sunlight with Yveline, and your wife, Elisa."
Cassian looked up at her with wet eyes.
"So lay down that heavy burden now. Let this child, Rihan, go. You don't have to suffer by binding yourself anymore. Everything you wanted to protect will never collapse."
"Ah...... Aaaaaah......."
Tears flowed endlessly down Cassian's cheeks.
The weight of being a family head.
The pressure that the family's lifeline might be cut off in his generation.
The fear of prophecy that kept him awake for 10 years disappears like melting snow at the Founder's single word.
Cassian cried loudly in Selene's embrace.
Eventually, as if the tension that was pulled tight loosened.
He lost consciousness as if falling into a deep sleep in the Founder's bosom.
At that time, Eleanor opened her mouth.
"Rihan. The body is at its limit. If I occupy your body any longer, permanent cracks will form in the vessel of your soul."
As soon as the words finished, the control returned to Rihan.
"Haa, haa......!"
As soon as consciousness returned, terrible muscle pain and dizziness due to mana exhaustion rushed in.
It seems the brain cells went on a group strike.
"Urp. Bleugh—."
Retching burst out as if vomiting an empty stomach.
The body condition is a mess.
Fishy iron smell vibrates in the mouth.
I'm going to die like this.
'Senior......, is this really okay......?'
"There will be no permanent problem. However, I overdid it too......."
Thick fatigue permeates Eleanor's voice as well.
"It seems borrowing your body again will be possible only after a very long time, so you take care of the remaining work. Rihan."
"......Yes. You worked hard, Senior."
This much means Eleanor did all her work.
Although it's regrettable that the Joker card disappeared, surviving against Cassian is something.
In front of me, Cassian was lying unconscious in Selene's arms.
The monster who eventually broke through the wall of the 7th Hierarchy.
He awakened much earlier than the original work and more powerfully at that.
Even I cannot gauge what waves this butterfly effect will bring in the future.
'If it's 7th Hierarchy...... now he can't be caught by ordinary means?'
I wonder if the power balance in the romance fantasy is allowed to collapse to this extent, but what can I do.
Since it already happened.
Anyway, the most important thing is that the urgent fire right now is extinguished.
"Phew......."
It was the moment I tried to forcibly raise my upper body while calming my breath.
Eleanor's doll that climbed on my shoulder reached out a faintly trembling hand towards Selene.
"......Are you going."
In the empty air where fingertips don't reach, her gaze is chasing only her disciple.
Selene makes a bitter expression.
Soon she smiled playfully like usual and looked down at her body.
"I think so, Master. Since my role is up to here."
"........."
"It's okay. Don't be too sad. Because the worth of waiting for a thousand years was sufficient."
What does this mean.
Going? Where?
I flusteredly intervened, piercing the heavy air between the two.
"No, wait a minute. Where are you going? We just introduced ourselves?"
Selene smiled softly looking at me.
Golden light particles are scattering like grains of sand from her body.
"The world is such that if something is created, it disappears someday. From the moment the seal was released, it was my fate to return. A thousand years was too long a time for a thought form to endure."
Selene continued speaking lightly as if someone we'd see again tomorrow.
"Hehe, Junior! You don't have to worry! Now I'm too old too. I want to rest as well."
"........."
It's a lie.
Because Selene's eyes looked terribly sad.
A disciple who waited only for one voice of her teacher in the dark treasure vault for a thousand years.
Now she heard that voice and reached out her hand.
But she has to return to nothingness again.
"No, where is such a thing. Wasn't ours a happy ending? If you just go abruptly, what are the people left behind supposed to do."
I cannot accept ending like this.
"You told me to clean the treasure vault, told me to tell you stories. Was all that a lie?"
I asked Eleanor desperately.
'Senior, can't we do something?'
"......As long as the power of the main body is not intact, one cannot go against the flow of Causality (In-gwa) forever."
"........."
Eleanor's doll looks unusually small.
Even she, who was always arrogant, was bowing her head.
She is accepting it too.
The inevitable parting.
The extinction that started from Selene's toes began to gradually rise up.
She looked at me and offered her last greeting.
"Rihan, I'm really glad a junior like you appeared. Master is lucky with disciples too. Probably you can climb to a higher state than me, maybe even higher than Master. My Master...... please take good care of her."
The silent figure of Eleanor is excessively pitiful.
The reunion met after waiting a thousand years ends in just a few minutes?
If serialized like this in a romance fantasy, it's a perfect development to get coordinates stamped by readers and get shot.
'I can't let you go easily. Absolutely.'
I am a guy who received a lot.
I received a ring, and received a bracelet too.
My conscience doesn't allow me to just close my mouth after receiving grace.
Above all, such a bad ending happening in front of my eyes doesn't fit my taste.
For me, a supporting actor, to be happy until the end in this harsh world.
At least I have to make the people by my side happy.
'.........Just have to fix it.'
The sensation when Eleanor borrowed my body and used the Ring of Words just now remains at my fingertips.
The Ring of Words is a tool that interferes with concepts, not phenomena.
I just have to rewrite the definition of a thought form that should disappear into a fixed image that does not disappear.
Whether it will succeed is unknown.
As Eleanor said, my soul might burn.
I know without punching a calculator that it's not a realm a mere researcher who only glanced over the shoulder can handle.
But, that degree is enough.
Because in physics, impossible is just a word that doesn't exist until the proof is finished.
'Fuck. Screw it, let's try.'
I reached out my trembling hand towards Selene.
I squeezed my empty magic circuit and injected mana into the Ring of Words.
As my heart beat as if to burst, the pattern of the ring burned red.