Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: The Heretic of the Magic Tower (10)
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I feel like I'm dying.
Ermina clutched her head, a tangled wreck from the hangover and nightmares, and stumbled out of the tent. It was still a long way off from morning, so aside from a few diligent elves and Justina training alone in the distance, no one else was awake.
She staggered over and sat on a rock in the grassland. Memories bubbled up of last night, when they'd plied her with drink after calling her a precious guest.
With the memories came a surge of vomit. She secretly scraped at the ground with her foot, heaved it out, then covered it with dirt.
How embarrassing.
It wasn't an unreasonable amount she'd drunk, but the raw liquor favored by nomadic folk was packed with impurities. It had a gut-turning effect far beyond just its high proof.
"Ugh... Haah."
She pulled out the water they'd stashed in the tent with her and drank some down. It helped a bit, but her mind was still a whirlwind thanks to the dream she had no desire to dwell on.
The previous dream had shown utterly untrue events with Julius. She'd had something similar this time—no, a dream that picked up right where that one left off.
"Mr. Kiss..."
"Oh, what? You call my name?"
"Y-Yes?! You startled me."
"That's what you get for tossing out elf names like that. What's up?"
"No, it's just... I had a dream. A nightmare, kinda like the one from before."
She wasn't sure if she should say anything, but figured spilling it to an outsider might cause fewer issues than to one of their own. Cautiously, she began her tale.
First, about the man named Julius and the wrong she'd done him. Next, the first dream she'd had. And finally, the one from tonight.
In tonight's dream, he'd regained a bit of confidence—at least enough to believe he could handle anything alongside her now.
Then the incident struck, sometime in the future: early autumn of their third year at the academy. As the kingdom's northernmost reaches began to freeze over, troops were pulled away for reconstruction and to cull the increasingly savage monsters. In that gap, Karthys's legion—silently building strength—launched its invasion of the kingdom.
With all major forces deployed elsewhere, the academy's personnel alone had to hold the line.
She wielded light magic and was called a saintess for it. Deeming it wisest for her and the now-most-trusted Julius to take him down together, she'd set out for Karthys's lair alongside his sister, Justina.
They were met by a legion of elf corpses. The three of them desperately broke through, arriving at last for their showdown with Karthys.
She fought not wanting to lose anyone dear; Julius, to finally show his family his growth for the first time. They pressed forward a step, slashing and purifying the foe.
In the end, the siblings put a long-standing rift to rest and reconciled. And she drew one step closer to Julius.
That was the story. Kiss's expression turned subtly complicated.
"First off, I'm not mocking you. No bad intentions here. I'm just laying out the facts as I know them."
"Got it. Thanks for hearing out my weird story."
"The World Tree bestows revelations on those it watches with interest. Usually in a form that's easiest for them to accept. You're a light mage it favors, so that dream's probably some kind of oracle."
"But it's so far removed from reality..."
"Elves get similar revelations. And they usually depict what might've happened if someone had made a different choice... You'd call it a parallel world, maybe. Some say it's communing with the World Tree of that world to glean needed info."
"...So this is a timeline where Julius never properly grew?"
"Could be."
"In the future I saw, you and all the elves turned into Karthys's zombies."
"...For real? Guess I owe Julius my thanks."
"It really was him."
"...I came here worried about the guy, and he baits me."
"No, I didn't mean to trick you into spilling. It just... happened."
"I know. Damn. I'm the idiot. You weren't even trying to fool me, and I spilled like I was possessed."
Kiss scratched the back of his head vigorously, let out a deep sigh, and gazed at the pre-dawn purple sky.
"Anyway, Julius himself doesn't seem keen on getting tangled up with you lot. Bluntly put, if he'd planned to return, he could've leveraged slaying Karthys to re-enter Imir nobility circles."
"I know. But he left so suddenly, without even a goodbye. I just wanted to exchange a few words somehow."
"Yeah. You own your mistakes, wanna apologize—admirable stuff. But you're here on commission to resolve an issue, and he's our tribe's benefactor. If your dream's a true oracle, even more so. Can't tell you his location, period."
"Then... at least pass my words to him? I won't ask where he is. Please."
"...Ugh. Fine. But absolute secrecy from the rest of your group."
"Yes."
Ermina's eyes brimmed with desperate tears, her expression resolute. Kiss eased up for now. It was already out; time to cement the debt so she could never wriggle free. With that in mind, he'd come prepared with a recording crystal orb.
"Go ahead. Pretend you're talking into a comm orb."
"Okay. Sniff... Sniff... Julius. I-I'm so, truly glad I can at least get these words to you somehow. When you first left the academy, I had no idea what to do. You must've been so disappointed in me, and there was nothing I could fix, so for a while I just wandered in a daze, thinking only of you."
She hastily wiped the tears starting to flow, pressing on with a choked voice before they fully burst.
"What if I'd pushed aside relations with others and bet everything on you? Would things have turned out different? I wondered that. If I'd shut out even the possibility of Prince Christoph showing interest in me. I regretted it over and over. Instead of being a help, I'd been a burden—too ashamed to live, I even wished I could die."
Unable to hold back the streaming tears any longer, she covered her eyes with her hand and forced out the words. Even Kiss found it pitiful; she squeezed her eyes shut.
"I don't know how much time I have left, but even if I never see you once in all that remains, I couldn't resent you. Still, someday in life, if our paths even brush—clothes grazing, whatever—I'll recognize you for sure. Even if we're both aged and changed, if we ever get the slightest chance to face each other, I'll remember."
Unable to stem the flow any longer, she let the tears pour while straining to smile with her lips.
If this was goodbye, she wanted to end it with a smile, at least.
"You always seemed so gentle and kind on the surface, but that steadfast core of yours was wonderful. The way you saw right through people trying to exploit your goodness and sent them packing? Cool as hell. Stronger than anyone, yet never lording it over others? Admirable. Noble-born with immense power, endlessly patient and kind to children and elders? Adorable. So..."
Her lips trembled with a forced smile as she wrapped it up.
"I love you. I always will. And I'd love to see you again, but I can't. Even hearing your voice is forbidden to me. So... truly, farewell. Julius."
Kiss caught Ermina as she collapsed after finishing and carried her back to the tent. Honestly, he was stumped. He'd figured a light video letter, but this weighed heavy—could he send it as-is? Or time it carefully?
And if she was this sincere... maybe a little leniency?
It wasn't his call, but her raw desperation hit hard.
"Aigoo. Your life's no easy ride either. Wonder what it felt like to throw it all away."
Guaranteed status. Guaranteed life. Envied, yes—but never hated.
What had shaped him so? What drove him away? What sort of man was this comrade he'd met so briefly?
And.
"Early autumn, huh. If time dragged on, that'd be just when they'd settle scores."
Autumn is harvest time. Conversely, early autumn is when stockpiles run dry. If raiding grew tough, their only play was a showdown with Karthys. They'd go all-in, naturally—and facing that force head-on? Clean defeat.
So even her corpse became one of his mockery fodder.
"...And he could help us because he left the academy—split from them. That's what made it possible."
Did their suffering save us?
If fate exists, it's cruel indeed.
For the first time in ages, she offered sincere prayer to the World Tree—nosy as it was.
If the day came when the scars on Julius's heart faded, may they too find salvation, as they'd been saved by others' misfortune.