Novel Full Chapter 351: The End of All (4)
Chapter 351: The End of All (4)
The interior of the uppermost floor of the empty lighthouse was filled only with bookshelves, a desk, a chair, and books, while beyond, the sky was thick with darkness and a celestial body within it released brilliant mana, as the ground vibrated roughly and the wind rustled meaninglessly.
In this place where Ria had disappeared—no, where Yoo Ah-Ra had departed—I looked at the spot where she had just been standing.
“How completely ridiculous.”
It was utterly laughable that a hollow laugh escaped me as I looked back and saw the hints everywhere—her face, which was much like Yoo Ah-Ra’s, her habits that would sometimes surface, her reckless personality, and above all…
“… There is no way.”
The blue flower on the desk caught my attention as I placed a finger on the small bud and gently traced its surface.
“To know with a single flower such as this,” I muttered.
… I cannot believe there could be another person on this continent besides me. Let alone that it would be you. You are not an insignificant person to me, and because you are so precious, I cannot presume to think so, I thought.
“… Yoo Ah-Ra.”
It is only because you found the courage to speak my name that I finally came to know this, at this very end.
“You are just as you were,” I said with a smile.
The emotions for her remained vivid because she was the one who had occupied the largest part of Kim Woo-Jin’s soul and the person who had been with him for half his life.
“… But.”
Rather, the years before you were with me have been lost to Kim Woo-Jin’s memory. Therefore, in essence, you were all I knew as Kim Woo-Jin.
“It was nice to see you again,” I continued, my eyes falling upon the forget-me-not on the desk.
Although I am glad to have known you, I cannot be glad, happy, or say I love you, for the final moment is close at hand. Even for your own sake, this is an end that must be tied in a knot.
Whooooosh…
Just then, the blowing wind enveloped my body.
Is this a signal? Or is it comfort?
My hand tightened around the staff.
At that moment, Yukline’s mana rose and resonated with the natural mana, the undulating resonance representing the fusion of energies and the blossoming of a spell, as my magic softly blossomed and this power spiraled from the very bottom of the lighthouse, rising steadily until it finally reached the top, where it would manifest my grand magic.
[24 : 00 : 00]
There was only one day left, and I had no worries about the spell being broken or destroyed because until then, my knight would hold strong.
Whoooosh—
Suddenly, at the sight of mana overflowing like light and the spell of harmony etched into the air, I closed my eyes, adjusted the lighthouse’s mana, and muttered.
“… Kim Woo-Jin.”
Kim Woo-Jin and Deculein, which of the two am I? I considered the question for a moment, but the answer came quickly. It was too easy and simple a problem, and there was no need to even wonder about it, meaning I need not waste my Comprehension.
“I believe it was all thanks to you.”
I was Deculein, and at the same time, I was Kim Woo-Jin. Deculein received help from Kim Woo-Jin, who in turn received help from Deculein. Deculein acknowledged Kim Woo-Jin, and Kim Woo-Jin acknowledged Deculein, and together we accepted our harmony.
Whooooosh…
The wind that blew once more seemed to chill around my feet.
Craaaaack—
I opened my eyes again and looked at the door, at the frigid energy that had instantly frozen the cuff of my suit pants.
“… Yulie.”
Yulie was the one who made Deculein’s heart ache, and my sword was there, protecting me.
***
… Yulie’s life was pure white, as were every path she had blazed, endured, and walked, devoid of memorable colors and tinged only in purity, which made her unable to distinguish which memories were keepsakes and which were wounds.
Yulie was aware of that reason—that she couldn’t accept happy events with happiness or sad events with sadness—and it was possible that her heart was not pure white but had, instead, been bleached.
“… Yulie,” Sirio called her name.
He was a former comrade, but he was now an enemy who had sided with the Altar, and he was looking at Yulie with a somewhat sorrowful expression.
“You are breaking down.”
To be told I am breaking down angers me, but I find it difficult to deny as this puppet’s body is already shattered. My consciousness is clouded, and I am only managing to hold on. When all of this is over, or even before… Yulie thought.
“Will you be alright?” Sirio asked.
Yulie gripped her sword instead of answering, not needing to speak because the sword that Deculein had forged had already become one with her and was frozen solid, meaning it would not fall even if her body shattered.
“… It seems I asked the wrong question,” Sirio continued, scratching the back of his neck before looking around with a fresh perspective. “You have done a good job. You have all but won, haven’t you?”
The Altar’s priests, the Scarletborn chimeras, and even the high apostles—all numerous enemies who had tried to break through Yulie—were now frozen solid, and it was impossible to tell if they were dead or alive.
“… Therefore, I must ask,” Sirio added, a dry chuckle leaving his lips. “Were you alright?”
With that question, Sirio gave his sword a light swing, and the lively strike that followed disrupted Yulie’s stance.
“Yulie?”
Many of the Altar’s forces were frozen and rendered incapacitated, but the situation itself had already ended because the time that Yulie had held out was a day and a half.
“… What is it that you are asking about?” Yulie replied.
“What, you could speak all this time?” Sirio said, his eyes widening in surprise.
As Sirio asked if she was able to speak, Yulie closed her mouth again.
“Anyway, about your life. I always felt pity for you whenever I saw you,” Sirio continued with a smile.
It was a feeling of pity or sympathy, as the Yulie that Sirio looked at was precisely that—no, the Yulie everyone had in their minds would be like that.
“Even back when we were in the Knights’ Order.”
While other cadets rested, Yulie held her sword, while other cadets ate, Yulie held her sword, while other cadets went on secret dates, Yulie held her sword, and while other cadets were with their families, Yulie held her sword, and her life was only the sword, and pitiably, it was nothing but the sword.
“You never had any other desires. It was always just the sword, and nothing else.”
Yulie continued to be silent.
“But you are going to die like this? Bound only by a knight’s code, pursuing only the development of swordsmanship as a knight, living without passion or love, and in the end, protecting Deculein…” Sirio said, his voice trembling slightly at the last words. “It’s Deculein whom you hated the most, isn’t it?”
Whether out of disbelief or sadness for Yulie, Sirio felt that she was pitiable and pathetic because she was sacrificing herself for Deculein, who had stained her life with hardship, and she was doing it on her own, without any coercion.
“Was all that effort for nothing more than this miserable end?” Sirio continued, his words like daggers, spoken as if in true worry for Yulie.
However, Yulie was composed, offering no response, and wore a face as frigid as ice.
“Yes, that is so. I find happiness, even now, at this time,” Yulie replied.
Yulie glared at Sirio… no, rather, with a look that found him ridiculous, she began to discuss happiness.
Sirio’s face, which had been set in a smile, hardened into a cold expression.
“Sirio, as you said, I have always walked a path for nothing but the sword.”
In a monochromatic world of black and white, sword and snow, it was Yulie’s world, and her memory was nothing but pure white.
“… However, at some point, a certain person came into that path.”
Sirio listened to Yulie’s words without a word, not knowing when the certain moment she spoke of was but seeming to know who the certain person was.
“… Deculein,” Sirio said.
“Yes,” Yulie replied.
“But is that a good thing? It is a bad thing, is it not? Your path has been corrupted.”
Yulie smiled as she reflected that the part Deculein held in her life was large—no, too large—because at one time he was her greatest obstacle, at another an enemy she wanted to kill, and now the person she desired to protect the most.
“Bad?” Yulie replied.
Yulie did not yet understand the emotion of love very well, but she thought that perhaps this was enough to be called love, or enough to say that this was the person she loved the most.
“He is the one who brought the greatest color in a world that was once only white.”
If Deculein had not been there, Yulie might have become a guardian knight—a knight who would guard the Empire forever—a goal she once most desired.
However, Yulie, as she was now, knew.
“Had he not been there, I would have been a meaningless person, chasing the most meaningless of goals.”
A knight with no one to guard was meaningless, and vaguely guarding the Empire was no better, even if one became the most honored knight, if they were protecting someone without reason.
“Because of the Professor, I have only now come to know the meaning. I have learned the reason for my life.”
What Yulie had realized was the reason itself—that a human needs a reason to live, a knight needs a reason to guard someone, and in that reason lies a value that can never be understood by mere obligation or duty—and she had realized this all thanks to Deculein.
“Therefore…”
From Yulie’s body, from that body of a puppet that had seemed completely empty, mana once again originated and gushed out like a waterfall.
“I will see to it that the Professor is protected,” Yulie concluded.
Yulie’s mana was spreading gradually, very gradually, and its current moved slowly enough to be tracked with the eyes, but Jaelon and Sirio could not recklessly approach her.
“This seems dangerous,” Jaelon said.
Along with Jaelon’s exclamation of dismay…
Bang!
His right arm, already frozen and prepared for the battle soon to come, shattered as it turned to ice.
“I know, I really thought we had almost won,” Sirio replied with a chuckle and a nod.
Yulie’s mana, whether a current or something else, was freezing everything, literally everything, as first the air froze and vision was obscured and then space itself froze and all sense of distance became ambiguous.
“… What kind of monster is she now—”
Sirio’s dry chuckle froze as well, becoming cold and rigid because the medium in the air crystallized, preventing further vibrations from being transmitted, and cooling the mana, sword aura, and sword qi that Sirio radiated.
It was an absolute force that froze not only the physical bodies of men, but even the very time of this place… an endless moment of eternity and an eternal winter.
Alone and silent in the frigid cold, feeling her consciousness grow cold and recede, Yulie suddenly heard a voice whispering near her ear.
“… Yulie.”
Although she could not distinguish whose voice it was, Yulie decided to think of it as Deculein’s.
“… I am proud of you.”
Because she felt she could fall asleep a little more happily, and because she felt she could disappear without any regret…
“And I, too, am proud of you, Professor,” Yulie replied with a smile.
***
Craaaaaaack—
A sound of something freezing came down from the uppermost floor of the lighthouse, causing Sophien and her Elite Guard to briefly stop while Sophien, without a word, peered over the stairs.
At that moment…
Fwoooosh—!
At the frigid coldness that poured down like a waterfall and the current of mana that seemed to warp space and time, Sophien uttered the Holy Language, and in a strange turn of events, the current stopped its movement and instead made a path for Sophien.
“… Your Majesty, there is great danger here!”
Belatedly, Delic and Gawain rushed out to block Sophien’s way.
“That is enough, now begone, for this is Yulie’s doing,” Sophien replied, smacking the back of their heads.
“… Yulie?”
From the mana that could be felt faintly within this current, she could be certain that it was Yulie’s doing.
“By Yulie, Your Majesty…” Gawain said.
“Deculein’s knight,” Sophien replied, then resumed her ascent of the stairs, glancing over her shoulder.
The ones who remain are few. Two Scarletborn, Delic, Gawain, Ganesha. This should be enough to turn the tide. Have the rest been lost? Sophien thought.
“… We shall proceed.”
Regardless, Sophien took a step forward.
Craaackle—
Sophien walked up the stairs, which were filled with the thick sound of crumbling ice, moving one step at a time with dignity and purpose.
After an unknown amount of time had gone by…
“What… could this place be~?” Ganesha said from behind Sophien, a note of admiration in her voice as her breath misted in the air.
It was the same for the other knights as it was for Ganesha because they were all speechless and looked around the space, which was an understandable reaction since those who had been climbing the stairs had suddenly found themselves in the middle of some ice cave.
“It is a magical space,” Sophien replied, a smile on her lips as she rubbed two fingers in the air, the air crackling and becoming tangible. “The entire uppermost floor of the lighthouse has been frozen. Time and space, all of it…”
Then, directing her words to the Elite Guard at her back, Sophien continued, “You shall wait in this place.”
“Pardon?! But, Your Majesty—”
“Regardless, you will not be granted entry,” Sophien interrupted, her legs moving with a slow rhythm. “I can sense Yulie’s will in this space. Yulie is permitting my passage alone, not yours.”
Thud— Thud—
“You have only to stop those who would obstruct me here,” Sophien continued, her footsteps graceful as she appreciated the beauty of this crystal world.
Suddenly, Sophien became curious—wondering what kind of appearance Yulie had and with what kind of effort she had created such a beautiful magical space.
“… However, Your Majesty. Exactly who is it that we are to stop them~?” Ganesha asked.
Sophien turned to look at Ganesha.
“I doubt anyone would be able to cross here, you see~”
As she had spoken, even Ganesha was afraid of freezing and did not dare to approach Sophien.
The Altar’s pawns are one thing, but even their God would find it difficult to withstand this frigid cold, Sophien thought.
“Why do you ask?” Sophien replied in a dry voice. “Any who would obstruct me…”
Those who tried to obstruct Sophien were not only the Altar but also included a man whom Yulie could not harm.
“In other words, any who would oppose my attempt to kill Deculein…”
For instance, his younger sibling, Yeriel, who was currently hurrying toward this place, was also included.
“You are to block them all as this is the most steadfast imperial decree I shall issue…”
After giving those commands, Sophien advanced along the path.
Thud— Thud—
With each step, Sophien moved forward, filled with both the anticipation of seeing him…
Thud— Thud—
And the sense of loss that she would never see him again.