Novel Full Chapter 271: Voyaging Star’s Farewell [2]
Chapter 271: Voyaging Star’s Farewell [2]
“Professor, you’re… sick…”
Vanitas said nothing.
From the clues here and there, it was not difficult for Karina to piece the truth together.
“…Just like my mother…”
She turned to face him fully.
“How long do you have left…?”
Still, Vanitas did not answer.
“Okay.”
Karina lowered her gaze. Without another word, she relented anyway. He clearly didn’t want to tell her. And Karina was in no position to demand answers from him.
As they turned to look, past Vanitas was coughing and wheezing as though in the middle of an asthma attack. He nearly collapsed outside the hospital entrance before someone hurried forward and caught him by the arm.
“Are you alright?”
The Vanitas of the past looked up, struggling to breathe.
“I’m—Cough! …Fine”
“There, there…”
The man supporting him was none other than Romulus Neuschwan.
Yet there was no recognition in his eyes. And just as surely, Vanitas did not recognize him either.
“….”
Karina bit her lip at the sight.
Without realizing it, she reached out slowly and grabbed Vanitas’s hand. He did not pull away, holding at as firmly as she did.
“I’m so stupid…” she whispered.
Vanitas said nothing.
“You were so close,” she continued. “If only…”
Karina turned toward him again.
“Hey, Professor… no, Vanitas. You would’ve helped me, right?”
And still, Vanitas did not answer.
But that silence was enough.
Karina did not need words.
From the way his shoulders remained rigid, from how tightly his jaw was clenched, in the line of blood dripping from his lip, proof that he had been biting down hard enough to hold back saying anything that was pointless.
Because what was there to say?
It had already happened.
No amount of comfort or sugarcoated words could undo what had been done.
For the next few moments, they simply followed the Vanitas of the past without saying much.
Unlike the man standing beside her now, this Vanitas was frighteningly weak. He stumbled as he walked and trembled with each step. More than once, he doubled over, coughing against the ground with no one stopping to help him.
And yet, somehow, he forced himself to stand again, finding his way back home.
——Vanitas!
At the sound of that voice, Vanitas’s eyes widened.
Slowly, he turned.
Standing at the doorway, having just pulled it open at the sound of her brother’s steps, was none other than Charlotte Astrea.
“Charlotte… what is it?”
Charlotte hesitated, eyeing her brother from head to toe.
Traces of dark magic were slowly receding from his body. He didn’t even bother trying to hide it.
Vanitas was already well aware he had resorted to dark magic only to keep himself from breaking apart from within.
To survive.
But Charlotte did not know that.
From her perspective, her brother had strayed, choosing to dabble in dark magic for reasons that could not possibly be pure.
And yet, this little sister of his, ever the actress she was, pretended to be oblivious.
“There’s a banquet this coming evening,” she slowly said. “The Earl of Rischadel was wondering if you would be in attendance…”
“You’ll go in my stead.”
“P-Pardon?”
“I have matters to attend to.”
“Even more important than—”
“Charlotte!”
She flinched, taking an unconscious step back at the sheer tone of his voice.
“…Yes. Understood.”
That was how most of their conversations went.
For a fleeting moment, Vanitas almost wished he could choke the man he used to be.
But he held himself back. It would not be possible anyway.
“It was to protect her, wasn’t it?” Karina turned to him.
Exposure to dark magic was harmful to the human psyche. Especially toward a mage. That was how Karina understood it.
But Vanitas shook his head.
“There were better ways.”
“Then you should have been kinder to her.”
“…You’re right. I should have.”
“It’s okay. We all make mistakes.”
Vanitas nodded. Then he turned away and walked toward the direction Charlotte had gone.
Karina instinctively stepped forward, as if to reach for the man walking away, but stopped herself.
“Wait here,” he said. “I’ll come back.”
“Go see her.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
If interacting with the past was truly possible, if turning back time was not just a theory but reality, then Vanitas held onto one, desperate, hopeless wish.
To hug his little sister one more time.
Vanitas glanced around the halls. It was the old Astrea Estate, exactly as he remembered it. The very place he had later demolished because it brought nothing but painful memories for Charlotte.
“….”
There, on the balcony, was Charlotte Astrea, facing the scenery in silence as she let the breeze brush past her hair and dress.
Vanitas swallowed before stepping closer.
“Charlotte.”
She did not turn.
She couldn’t hear him, after all.
Vanitas stepped forward and stood beside her.
Up close, he could see her clearly. It really was Charlotte, albeit younger. But nevertheless, she was still the same little sister he had cherished so deeply in his heart.
He reached out, intending to cup her cheek. But his hand passed straight through.
A bitter smile crossed his face as he lowered it.
“I have many things I wanted to say to you.”
“….”
“Many words left unsaid. Many dreams left unfulfilled. You know, before you were gone, I had already drafted a formal contract to build you a new home. Your own estate.”
“….”
“I even arranged for maids to accompany you. I told them to keep everything quiet until the grand reveal after you graduated.”
“….”
“I thought we had a lot of time.”
“….”
“I was clearly wrong.”
“….”
“By now, that house is probably nothing but cinders. It’s under my name, after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if I returned to my own home only to find it reduced to rubble.”
A laugh left his lips.
“This entire continent abhors me. It’s almost amusing when you think about it.”
“….”
“But it’s fine. I’m no God. But if I can build a world you would have wanted to see, then that is enough for me.”
“….’
“I know my recent actions have been questionable,” he continued. “But I think you would never question me, Charlotte. Because I don’t intend to repeat my mistakes.”
The wind brushed past her hair as if she might answer.
“If a simple price of lives is all it takes to buy eternal happiness, then wouldn’t that be a pleasant world to live in?”
“….”
“So I will play the part. I will become the villain this continent rises to destroy. And in doing so, I will free this world of its sins. I will tear away their indifference toward one another. All for the sake of a utopia.”
“….”
“But I’m no hero. That was never a title meant for me. Not after all the lives I’ve taken.”
“….”
“I don’t need anyone on my side. I only want to see this through until the end.”
“….”
“…Until my end.”
“….”
“So wait for me, Charlotte.”
Vanitas turned to leave. But just as he stepped past the threshold…
“I hate you so much…”
Charlotte’s voice broke the silence.
“I wish you’d just go and die already…”
Vanitas froze, before a bitter smile curved across his lips.
Right. That was how it should be. Charlotte, around this time, had absolutely despised him in the first place.
“See you soon.”
With that, Vanitas returned to Karina’s side. She was visibly observing the room, checking from corner to corner.
“With how tidy your office is,” she said, “I’m surprised your room is this messy.”
“I didn’t have the energy to clean.”
“Because you only come home when the symptoms kick in?”
“I only come home because I don’t want people knowing I’m dying.”
At the time, as a Viscount, his status was everything.
The image he presented to the public determined his worth. If word spread that Vanitas Astrea was a dying man, his value would’ve plummet.
Fewer opportunities would be offered, and fewer people would be willing to invest in someone whose time was already running out.
In this world of observation, time in the past flowed on in a constant stream, yet for the observers themselves, it remained perfectly frozen.
Side by side, Vanitas and Karina watched the sights of Aetherion as it once was.
But Vanitas knew.
“….”
His time was running out.
“Professor, look.”
“That…”
Vanitas followed her gaze to Karina’s trembling hand. Particles of light fluttered around it as she slowly reached out and touched a fallen leaf on the ground.
And this time, she grabbed it.
Until now, they had been unable to interact with anything. Objects and people alike had phased straight through them.
Yet at this moment, there was no denying that Karina had just touched something from the past.
“You’re anchoring…”
Her frequency was changing, slowly blending with the past.
Vanitas crouched and reached for another leaf. His fingers passed through it without much resistance.
“And you’re slipping… Professor…”
Unlike hers, his hand had begun to turn faintly translucent. It made sense. The mana that orbited his body was slowly thinning out.
Karina’s mana, which had stabilized him through her wind barrier, was gradually fading away.
“Give me more of your mana.”
Karina turned to him. “Do you understand what that means, Professor?”
“I don’t,” he said. “So do it. Quickly. Before I disappear.”
“The more I resonate with the frequencies,” she replied, “the more I can stabilize my existence.”
“Karina.”
“I can make amends.”
While Vanitas was being forced out of this plane, Karina was becoming anchored to it.
Vanitas grabbed her shoulders. He was still tangible enough to do so.
“You don’t have to,” he said. “I forgive you, alright? So don’t do this. If you mess with the past, the consequences will—”
“I can go back and save Charlotte.”
“….”
In that instant, it felt as though all the air had been ripped from Vanitas’s lungs. That single moment of hesitation was all Karina needed to shrug him off.
“Goodbye, Professor.”
“Karina!”
“And I’m sorry…”
Like a fading reflection torn from its source, Vanitas was expelled from the past.
“For everything…”
As the last visage of Vanitas’s figure disappeared, Karina gathered what remained of her mana. With her frequencies etching themselves deeper into the fabric of time itself, she forced herself further back.
“No…”
Further still, if it were possible.
Back to the very moment Fyodor was born.
———!
If she could kill the Prophet with her own hands, then perhaps all the suffering that followed would never come to be.
“Ugh…”
But it was not possible.
Karina stumbled, dropping to one knee as she clutched her aching arm.
She had pushed her authority as the Origin of Time too far. Her frequencies flickered unstably and were on the verge of breaking once more.
“Come on—Damn it!”
Still, it was impossible. She could feel it. If she forced herself any further back, she would be the one who vanished.
After catching her breath, Karina slowly stood and looked around. For all the mana she had poured into this attempt, the result felt almost laughable.
Because she had not even gone back a full century.
“….”
Only ten years.
Karina made her way toward her old home. But what greeted her there made her chest tighten, and her eyes widen.
“….”
Through the window, she saw that very moment.
——Happy birthday, Karina!
A happy family gathered around the table, celebrating their daughter’s birthday.
And sitting beside that birthday girl was someone who looked completely out of place.
“What…”
It was the exact same moment she had once witnessed alongside Vanitas when they were still mere observers. A younger Vanitas Astrea, seated at the table, celebrating a younger Karina’s birthday with her family.
Only this time, things were different.
Her future self, Karina Maeril, was there as well.
Not as an observer phasing through the past, but as something tangible, something that had embedded itself directly into that moment in time.
“What am I supposed to do…”
Karina felt utterly lost.
She did not even know if returning to the present was still possible.
And now, she had arrived at a point in time where it was already too late to prevent the beginning of everything. By this point, her mother had already contracted the terminal illness that would slowly take her away.
“….”
No. There was still something she could do.
If she could not stop the past from unfolding, then at the very least, she could change one part of it.
She could save her younger self from her stepfather, Romulus.