CH 668

Luna Artorius.

She revealed herself as the eclipse occurred.

Had she been watching from somewhere?

When she spoke of the blessings of the sun and the moon, I had assumed it was just a customary phrase to wish for good luck.

Was it important that I had refused the deal, or was something else more important? I didn't know.

The promise to not sadden Ellen.

Was my determination to keep that promise what caused Luna to intervene?

I couldn't know the exact reason.

As far as I knew, the person closest to the Absolute in the world had appeared.

It was impossible for me to defeat Ellen in her current state.

But Luna might be able to.

Alsbringer summoned an avatar.

However, she was the avatar of two gods.

She could undoubtedly do it.

"How were you able to come this far?" she asked, seeming both pitiful and proud.

Luna looked at me with a wistful smile.

"I'll take care of 'that' for you," she said, plainly stating her purpose.

Take care of it.

"So Ellen will..."

"Return to her original state. In the form you desire, the form you've been longing for. Completely whole."

At those words, my heart raced like mad.

I could have Ellen back, whole again.

Back to her original state.

All the vengeful spirits would vanish, the Gate Incident would end, and I would gain everything I desired.

That would be enough.

That would do.

Had the time I spent traveling to Rezaira to meet Luna not been about making me stronger, but instead about causing a change that would allow Luna to intervene in the world?

"I'll leave the matters of the future to you," she said.

Luna walked silently toward Ellen.

It seemed there was no need for further discussion.

Was this the end?

With everything resolved.

There would still be other issues, but would they simply be matters of the world that could be resolved if only we tried?

That's how it was.

That's how it was.

In this damned world.

There could be nothing but good fortune.

"What about you, mother?"

"..."

At my call, Luna's steps halted.

If it had been so simple, there would have been no reason not to do it by now.

There had to be a reason for Luna to appear only now.

If it had been as easy as turning her palm, she should have done it sooner.

Watching, watching, and watching.

It was clear that she had no choice but to appear.

"Will you disappear?"

"..."

"That's what's going to happen, right?"

There would surely be a price to pay.

If there were no price, Luna would have intervened long ago.

In the Tomb of the Lich, Luna had tried to kill me.

She had said that if she killed me then, she would have disappeared from the world as the price.

The same was true this time.

By doing this, she would disappear.

That's why she had appeared only now.

She wouldn't want to disappear either.

She appeared because I still wanted to keep my promise.

She must have wanted to help in any way she could.

"I was never a being that belonged to this world in the first place," Luna said, stopping and turning to face me.

"I've existed without origin for a long time, performed actions without origin, and experienced happiness without origin. I have no regrets."

"..."

"If I have no regrets, what reason do you have to feel sad for me?"

Would that be enough?

If Luna sacrificed herself to restore Ellen, would that be enough?

I didn't know.

I didn't know how to defeat Ellen.

Even if I won, I didn't know how to extract those vengeful spirits from her and extinguish them.

Luna said she would take care of it all.

Was that enough?

That was...

Such a convenient conclusion that it was difficult to accept.

I think I knew the reason for the future too.

I would have rejected Luna's intervention as well.

If Luna intervened, she would disappear.

I would have rejected her intervention and made the deal.

And Luna couldn't prevent Ellen's self-destructive actions.

I wouldn't have wanted Luna to sacrifice herself when I could solve everything on my own.

But things had changed.

I knew the outcome after accepting the deal.

The predetermined future where I knew nothing and the present were clearly different.

Leaving Luna to sacrifice herself was the best solution I could find through the future I saw?

Was I really...

Incapable of doing anything and playing any role?

"What about father?"

"..."

My question might have been too irrelevant in this desperate situation, as Luna seemed a little taken aback.

As if it were pathetic for me to ask such a question in this situation.

"I finished talking with Ronan."

As if to say that I didn't need to worry about it since they had talked enough.

But...

Contrary to the image in Rezaira, I had a rough idea of what their relationship actually looked like.

The wife, an incarnation of the gods.

A human husband.

Of course, Ronan wouldn't have had any say in the matter.

"So, it's not because you decided to do that, that you told him, right?"

"..."

"You're right."

I had no choice but to know that Ronan had been informed, as Luna only stared at me without speaking.

Luna, who was about to approach Ellen, eventually came to me with a very annoyed expression.

-Poke

Luna pushed my forehead with the tip of her index finger.

"In a situation like this."

-Poke

"A good child."

-Poke

"Should be shedding tears of gratitude."

-Poke

"And staying quiet."

-Poke!

"That's what manners are."

-Slap!

"Ouch!"

I fell back from the final slap of her reprimand.

Despite the situation.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't want that."

"..."

"I promised not to make Ellen sad, but it's not right for you to die either."

"I'm not dying. I'm just returning to the will and power I originally belonged to."

"If I can't see you anymore, how is that any different from dying?"

"..."

In the end, it was just replacing one sorrow with another.

If I exchanged Ellen for Luna, wouldn't Ellen still end up being sad?

Whether I died to get Ellen back, or Luna disappeared.

In the end, something important would be lost from Ellen all the same.

The irritation disappeared from Luna's expression.

Her face turned cold.

The first time she saw me.

It was the expression she had when she tried to kill me in all seriousness.

Just facing that expression sent chills down my spine.

"Then, do you have any other options?"

"..."

"If I disappear like this, you'll die in a reckless fight, and that thing will go mad."

"..."

"Even though there's no other way but for me to disappear, you're just throwing a tantrum because you don't want me to?"

"Yes."

Luna's brows narrowed at my words, which had come out without any hesitation.

"How can you be so... so..."

Luna heaved a deep sigh.

"Could you be any more stubborn and foolish..."

Her words weren't just empty; she seemed genuinely disappointed. Even in this situation, when everything could have been easily resolved by someone else, I was throwing a tantrum without any solution. It seemed unbearable to her that I was so pathetic.

There was no way, no method.

I was just being obstinate.

I wanted to get Ellen back.

But I didn't want Luna to disappear either.

Was there no better outcome?

Why did something always have to be sacrificed?

"That's how it always was."

"..."

"You know."

Looking back, it had always been like that.

There had never been any clear way.

I didn't know how to become stronger.

I didn't know the cause of the Gate incident.

I didn't know how to find Rezaira.

I had never had a complete solution for any problem.

But I had faced them head-on.

While I had failed countless times, miraculously, I had found some way or somehow resolved the problems.

Though not absolute, I had become stronger.

The Gate incident happened, but I eventually found out why.

I didn't know the way to Rezaira, but I had found it somehow.

That was why Luna appeared before me now.

"You think I don't know that? But how everything worked out until now was truly miraculous."

"That's why."

"Shut up and listen."

"..."

"Where's the guarantee that it will be like that this time?"

"There isn't one."

It was reckless.

Refusing the only solution while having no alternatives was undeniably foolish, even by my standards.

But what could I do?

I didn't want to lose anything.

If I accepted Luna's sacrifice now because there was no other choice.

What about next time?

Since Luna had accepted her fate, she would eventually make another sacrifice when she deemed it necessary.

I knew that compromise was necessary to survive.

But if I grew too accustomed to compromise, I would eventually sacrifice everything I held dear.

I was afraid of taking that first step.

It might be impossible to live a life without compromise.

But I didn't want to live a life accustomed to it.

I had clenched my fist tight.

And I didn't want to let go of anything.

Neither Ellen nor Luna.

I didn't want to grow accustomed to the idea that I had to give up one thing to have another.

"You foolish boy."

Finally, Luna turned her head away from me, grinding her teeth.

She was clearly furious.

Considering everything she had done for me, it was only natural that she was angry when I stubbornly refused her help despite having no alternative.

"Don't think I'll help you twice."

That was the truth.

After much deliberation, she had made up her mind to help me. But I had chosen a path that could only lead to death, rejecting the easy way out.

She wouldn't appear to help me twice.

It had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

With Luna's help, I could have gotten Ellen back, and it would have been the solution to everything.

But I had refused, so there wouldn't be a second chance.

Since I had no intention of accepting the deal with the vengeful spirits, I was highly likely to die.

I would probably regret not accepting Luna's help as I faced death.

But the decision was mine to make.

I didn't want to get Ellen back from a world where Luna had disappeared.

A mother died for her daughter, and I didn't want to rejoice that the daughter had returned.

Luna turned her back on me and walked toward Ellen.

With a disgusted expression, Luna looked down at me lying on the ground.

She waved her hand in the air.

Then, in her hand appeared a sword.

A cloak was draped over her shoulder.

"…What?"

"This is all I can do."

What she held in her hand was unmistakably the Moon Sword Lament and the Sun Cloak Lapelt.

The Void Sword and Sun Cloak that Ellen had held in the stopped world had disappeared.

Luna had stolen Ellen's divine relics, which had been the biggest problem.

This was something that hadn't been in the preview.

The changed future had produced a different result due to my changed words.

I didn't know what had changed.

But something was definitely different.

"See, there is something."

"Hey!"

-Smack!

"Ouch!"

In the end, I got hit.

That probably wasn't something for which she needed to pay the price of disappearing.

Right.

In the end, there was something.

There was something she could do without paying the price of disappearing, without compromising.

I wouldn't have known this if I had just stayed put.

I would have had to console myself with the words "I had no choice" and just relayed the message to Ellen that her mother had saved her and disappeared.

My thoughts must have been written all over my face.

"Even in this situation, you're annoying to the very end."

Luna looked at me, gritting her teeth.

I was so detestable that it seemed to drive her mad.

Yet, she couldn't bear to see me die like this.

She couldn't just leave me be.

"If you still can't do anything after all this, you might as well die. You're such a worthless guy."

She cursed at me while looking at me.

Her expression was angry, annoyed, and incredulous.

She wasn't the type to reveal so much in her expression.

Come to think of it, Ellen was the same.

I must have had a talent for infuriating people with similar personalities to Ellen.

"Weren't you the one who asked if I had plans to have another child?"

"Uh? Oh… yeah."

Could it be that she really tried…?

"I never want to give birth again."

Luna clenched her teeth.

"If I have a child who's as high-maintenance as you, it'll be a disaster."

Luna and Ronan were Lucky with Ragan and Ellen.

What if their luck had run out and they ended up with a child like me?

That's why she felt anxious and scared to give birth again.

"But still…"

She said those words.

"Live."

Even though she had told me to just die, she ultimately said that.

"Whether you are a good son, or a bad son."

"Whether you are a strong son, or a weak son."

"I don't need any of that."

"I…"

"Most of all, I like my living son."

"Like how you want me to be alive, not the me that helps, but the me that you can meet anytime."

"I feel the same."

And so,

Leaving behind those sad words that stemmed from her experiences,

As she always had,

She disappeared with a single step.