Chapter 52

Celine’s head stopped.

‘That’s what I have to say…!’

Leonhard had been doing impossible things for her. At the thought, she suddenly pondered of what would happen if another ordinary powerful man had become entangled in her own curse like Leonhard.

‘Maybe, I could have been locked up for the rest of my life, so I can’t go anywhere and never die…’

As soon as Leonhard saw that she would be killed endlessly and come back to life, didn’t he also panic?

“Leonhard is…”

Celine’s words were immediately interrupted by him.

“Why does it matter who I am?”

“That…!”

He then moved his body slightly and made eye contact with her again before continuing his words, “What were you just thinking, let’s guess.”

At his words, Celine couldn’t breathe as he stared at her tenaciously.

“You must have thought you didn’t do anything.”

All she could do was weakly nod her head.

It was because what he said was right. Not only did she do nothing, even if she seemed to be helping Leonhard, but in the end, it was all for herself.

‘Everything that I did to help Leonhard’s mission was in the end for me… because his and my interests coincide.’

However, Celine wasn’t brazen enough to bring these facts out of her mouth, so she just lowered her gaze to the ground.

“Are you worried about me?”

“That’s a given.”

She answered weakly, and then she began to count the patterns on the floor. She could not understand his intentions. Celine didn’t know, perhaps, it was his unique consolation. But, Leonhard shook his head and made a clear sign of denial.

“It’s okay to fail, so come back uninjured… You were the first to tell me that.”

“…Leonhard.”

Celine no longer avoided his gaze. Again she gazed straight at him.

She had to correct this.

“That’s not a big deal. It’s just something Leonhard should have heard of.”

“You are the only one who thinks that way.”

Even though she opened her mouth to refute it, he took a step faster and added, “Until now, I have only lived to kill warlocks and demons.”

“Leonhard did the right thing.”

This time, even Leonhard agreed with her.

“Yes. No shame, no regrets. I will probably continue to kill evil things for the rest of my life.”

Then, he looked deeply into her eyes, who now avoided his gaze.

“Still, only when I helped you… I felt that I was doing what I truly wanted.”

Celine couldn’t say anything. It was because if she spoke, she would be crushing Leonhard’s heart, which was too much for her.

“….!”

Leonhard’s eyes widened, and his whole body stiffened.

Celine was hugging him. It was as cautious as if he was someone dear to her. They’d shared a few hugs so far. Nevertheless, it was all for him to confirm her survival, nothing more.

Leonhard’s heart raced to his throat.

His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid that the sound would reach Celine. Moments later, he noticed that Celine carefully pulled away from him, and she glanced up at him with a determined look.

“I don’t want to wait until tomorrow. We are leaving now.”

* * *

Celine wondered whenever Leonhard called their destination just a ‘volcano.’ However, as soon as she arrived at the destination after several days of riding the horse, she realized why. She had never seen one that fit the name of a volcano as much as this one, among so many photos and videos of volcanoes.

The smell of sulfur and ashes suffocated her to the point of not being able to breathe properly.

Seeing the scenery, she thought that she would be okay if she didn’t touch the lava just like she did in the game. Meanwhile, Leonhard released Black to the area where there was still grass.

“Is it really necessary to come here?”

When she nodded her head, an unexpected reply came back.

“That’s good then.”

“What…?”

“It must mean you saw it in a dream, Prophet.”

Celine frowned and recalled the game stage. It was not easy for her to memorize the details because it was quite some time ago.

“We need to find a place where only lava flows on a flat land.”

“Well.”

Leonhard pointed his finger somewhere.

“Right now, it seems flat and full of lava.”

Her eyes then followed where his fingers pointed. There, Lava was flowing over the land far away from their location.

“Let’s go.”

Leonhard followed Celine’s instructions without asking what she was thinking.

As they walked silently through the ash dust and often splashed with lava-land, the ashes piled up to knee-high, so Leonhard had a hard time walking.

Still, Celine was able to walk lightly, leaving only the marks of her shoes on the ashes. At first, she thought that it was because of their size difference. Although she soon realized that her steps were strangely light.

So, she paused for a moment and looked down at her shoes. Hermes’ shoes, which were the reward for clearing the second stage of the true ending route, caught her eye.

Celine carefully took off her right shoe.

“Celine!”

“Wait.”

Celine immediately restrained Leonhard, who was terrified, and put her right foot on the ashes. While she only used light force, her feet sank down.

‘…As expected.’

She then brushed the ashes off the soles of her feet and put the shoes back on.

“What are you doing?”

The next moment, Celine turned her back and pointed to the ashes where they had left their footprints before opening her mouth to him.

“Leonhardt, don’t you think it’s strange?”

“What is the problem?”

“Footprints! Only my footprints were left strangely light.”

“…Ah.”

Leonhard frowned slightly.

“I thought it was because you were so light because you were so skinny.”

“….”

“If that bothers you that much, eat better in the future.”

Celine didn’t tell Leonhard as she walked away that it was because of her shoes. And, they soon reached the lava-filled flat land that he had pointed to.

“What…?”

Leonhard looked around in bewilderment. Obviously, when viewed from a distance, the lava that erupted from the crater was at a level where the lava flowed down to the flat ground. The volcano was barely visible on the horizon in the distance.

“…Strange.”

At that, his face hardened. On the other hand, Celine looked full of confidence.

“It’s like a dream.”

“What on earth is your dream… So, what should we do here?”

“We have to go to that volcano.”

“…What?”

Leonhard doubted his ears and asked back again.

“Crossing across? There…?”

“Yes.”

Celine stood at the edge of the safe zone full of ashes, bending her waist slightly and examining the scorching lava.

Suddenly, something pulled her back.

“It looks dangerous.”

He responded briefly to the silent protest.

Leonhard couldn’t help but watch her slender body leaning so precariously as if it would fall into lava at any moment. Suddenly, Celine pointed to a spot above the lava. Amidst the seething lava, a rock that could barely stand a single person, stood firm.

“I will go over there.”

He did not ask why.

Surely, Celine must have seen in her dreams how to walk on this lava. The distance between the rock and the land was about one meter, which was a distance that could be run without difficulty.

Just as he was preparing to skip, Celine pulled his sleeve.

“I’ll, I’ll go first!”

“….?”

“Even in that dream, I went first.”

Leonhard gazed up at her, who was looking up into her eager eyes, still holding his sleeve. Anxiety or fear was nowhere on her face.

Instead, all he could think of was her concern for him.

Leonhard hesitated for a while. It was easy for him to shake off her hand and jump over that rock, but if he did, it would be shouting that he did not trust her. Just a few days ago at the Bernoulli Castle, Celine was trembling with a sense of insecurity.

In the end, he smiled at her.

“…I see.”

Celine took a deep breath.

She told Leonhard that she was confident, though it wasn’t easy for her to risk melting herself into the lava if she stumbled. There seemed to be enough space between the edge of the safe zone and the rock.

Closing her eyes tightly and opening them, she then kicked the ashes.

‘….?’

Her body was much lighter than she thought, and her landing was stable. She could easily recall why.

‘…Hermes’ shoes.’

For the first time, she felt fortunate that she was on her way to the true ending route. If she had been on the regular route, she would have died over and over again because she didn’t get the right shoe.

Celine peered straight ahead.

Another rock appeared a little further away than the distance she had just skipped. She then ran towards the spot without hesitation. At the same time, Leonhard landed on the rock where she had been just before. Seeing that, she ran about two more.

Suddenly, the entire lava began to boil.

As her body stiffened with tension, she took Ringzor from her arms without hesitation and leaped right away.

“Celine…!”

Celine’s time in the air was only fleeting. Meanwhile, a gigantic lump of burning coal rose from the lava, crashed into the rock where she had been a moment ago, and burned.

—Bang!

As she cut a piece of coal with Ringzor, it exploded as it turned to ashes, and she fell to the ground.

‘No…!’

…Could it be that she was careless?

Celine landed, stumbling heavily and losing her balance. Her blue-gray eyes were filled with an intuition that she was going to be swallowed by lava.

At that moment, two tight hands grabbed her.

“Le, Leonhard…”

Celine gasped for breath.

“Didn’t I say I would go first?”

There was a glimpse of dissatisfaction in his voice, but in that voice, there was his care for her more than anyone else in the world.

“You don’t know the way, right?”

“My eyes are not bad. Can’t we just go over there next?”

When Leonhard pointed to the rock on the right, Celine shook her head.

“It’s over there.”

His eyes widened before they hardened. It was obviously a rock that he had not seen until she pointed it out.

‘…Did I see it wrong?’

Celine shook her head as if she had guessed his thoughts.

“You won’t see it until I tell you.”

“…I can’t believe it.”

Then, she gazed up at Leonhard, who frowned his brow with his mouth shut, and replied.

“You have to believe it.”

__