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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“……!”
A sudden pang of guilt struck me.
But the gentle fragrance of Eris’s lingering intoxication wafted from beside me, proving that her words weren’t born of calculated knowledge.
“Why? You told me before, remember? You said you had the ability to see the future, that you saw a future where you and I were together. That’s why you came to love me.”
“Yes, I did.”
I had used the excuse of the Goddess of Time to explain the information I had from my regressions, and I had forgotten that it was known this way.
It had been quite some time, after all.
“How does it feel?”
Eris asked again.
Her gentle gaze felt like a restraint, preventing me from escaping.
I took a deep breath and answered honestly.
“It’s awful.”
“……”
“It’s so awful that it makes me angry. Knowing a world that no one else remembers is a kind of responsibility, Eris.”
You shared your warmth with me until the very last moment, breaking the chain of distrust I had towards people.
The reason I was able to interact and behave so naturally with others after my regression was because of you.
“I will never forget them, and I can’t forget them, but they’re nowhere to be found.”
The memory of Rin, who worried about me even as she was dying, surfaced. She never spoke her feelings aloud until the very end.
She swallowed them down, wanting to free me from the curse that was herself.
“……”
Eris looked at me, her lips slightly parted as if in shock.
Perhaps it was because I had never received such a direct question before, but my emotions surged, and my answer burst out.
“I’m sorry, forget it.”
I took a deep breath and tried to turn my head away from Eris, but she gently took my hand and approached me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
I was about to ask why she was apologizing to me, but I didn’t get the chance.
Eris’s warm embrace gently enveloped me.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember.”
“……!”
Eris’s voice was tearful.
She was genuinely sorry, apologizing to me. She was crying and asking for forgiveness, even though she didn’t know what I had been through.
In truth, she was also a victim.
“I wish I could share that burden with you.”
At first, I was going to say something.
That she didn’t need to apologize, or that it was unavoidable.
But whatever I was going to say, it never made it out of my mouth.
“When one day, God permits.”
It was like listening to a softly whispered prayer.
I was defenseless, listening to her every word from the closest possible distance.
“Or in that fleeting moment when miracles overlap.”
I couldn’t feel any mana, yet her words settled comfortably within me as if she had cast some kind of spell.
“If the time comes when I can share the burden of the forgotten world you remember.”
I felt like a rock was being chiseled away in my chest. The rough debris that had been stubbornly stuck inside was falling away naturally.
“I will seek you out, not for the sake of the world, but for you, who supported it.”
Eris lowered her head slightly, meeting my gaze. She was a little embarrassed but whispered with a smile.
“And I will love you again.”
The strength slowly drained from Eris’s hand.
I stared at her blankly, mulling over her words, and smiled wryly.
“Can such a miracle happen?”
I was about to add that it probably wouldn’t, but Eris shook her head. The night breeze gently touched her hair.
“What are the odds of a guardian elf, who has lived for centuries, falling in love with a young human?”
“……Very.”
It always seemed to be like this.
When we were living together in the Demon Realm Forest, and when we talked in this life.
In the end, at the very end, I found answers through my conversations with Eris.
“Very, low odds.”
“A miracle has already happened before you. What reason is there not to hope for another miracle?”
With a faint laugh, Eris slowly approached.
Her touch, intertwined with my hand, was too soft to push away.
For a brief moment, we shared this time together.
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“So, are Rin and Ares staying in the royal capital?”
Eve, feeling motion sickness, closed the book she was reading and placed it on her lap. Sen was leaning on my shoulder, asleep, so I whispered softly.
“Yes, Elise and Kurika are there, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
The two designated as the end were to remain in the royal capital, just in case.
Elise, being a princess, agreed to accompany them, and Kurika took a firm position to protect and monitor them.
“Adriana went to the Demon Realm Forest. We need the help of the Great Witch, and there’s something we need from there.”
According to the Rin of the past life, there was a possibility that the staff of the tyrant Sharcal, who lived in the Demon Realm Forest, still remained.
We needed to acquire any helpful items, so I asked Adriana to retrieve it.
“Yggdrasil is in the care of Eris, so there’s no real problem there. We are the most important.”
Eve was right.
To stop the Following Apocalypse, the help of Yggdrasil and the dragon Shakarim was desperately needed.
With the guardian Eris there, Yggdrasil was not a big concern, but we were.
The kingdom had requested that we be allowed to enter the dragon-kin’s land without any trouble, but originally, there was little interaction between humans and dragon-kin.
Honestly, I thought it would take some negotiation and time, but the fact that they accepted so easily was unexpected even for the royal family.
‘And there’s one more important thing.’
Hatsim Bellok, the dwarf who returned to his land, and Hayun and Tana, who followed him.
The Rin of the second iteration told me that there was another Sealing Dagger left by the Goddess of Time in the dwarves’ land.
That would be another weapon to stop Ares’s Following Apocalypse.
‘Two daggers.’
The Rin of the second iteration also questioned it herself.
Why were there only two? Would everything be over if we stopped two apocalypses?
‘Why didn’t the Goddess of Time tell me that there was another dagger in the first place?’
Lately, I couldn’t communicate with the Goddess of Time at all. She was unilaterally ignoring me and remaining silent.
Kurika suggested that something might have happened to her.
But I didn’t get that feeling.
‘It feels more like she’s keeping her mouth shut because it’s a critical juncture.’
It felt like dealing with a young child who had simply shut their mouth, perhaps because they might make a big mistake if they spoke carelessly.
“Daniel? Is there a problem?”
Perhaps I had been frowning without realizing it, because Eve looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I brushed it off, saying it was nothing, but my thoughts were spinning like a top.
We traveled by carriage for several more days. We had to use the Sky Rail in emergencies, so we didn’t take it this time.
Along the way, we passed by the gods’ monument where we had once traveled by warp. Back then, we had come here through the eccentric mercenary that Elise had summoned.
‘Eccentric……’
In fact, I had obtained enough information about him through the Rin of the second iteration.
Rin had brought death to the entire continent, and of course, the eccentric was no exception.
As I stared blankly out the window at Sen, I thought that one day I should tell Sen the truth about him.
“We’re here.”
“Ugh! My body aches!”
Eve, who had read three books during the journey, twisted her body and came out of the carriage.
Sen looked at her, sighed faintly, and followed.
“Are you guys the same species?”
“You’ve been paying a lot of attention to that lately.”
Even so, I think you’re too weak to consider Eve a rival.
Anyway, we had finally arrived at Dragon’s Boundary, and the border guards were already preparing to greet us at the entrance.
Among them, of course, was Diana.
It hadn’t been that long, but seeing her again made me smile, and she returned it with a wink.
Now that she was a guardian under the name of McLean, she stood solemnly at the front instead of greeting me warmly.
“Diana is there. If I say hello, will I get in trouble?”
Sen, who had lived in our village during the winter break, fidgeted, wanting to say hello, but I told her to hold back.
]Diana had just joined as a recruit.
If she stood out, it wouldn’t look good to the other seniors.
“You’re here.”
“It’s been a while.”
I greeted the captain of the border guards, whom I knew well.
He was the captain when I broke through the barrier and crossed into the dragon-kin’s land.
At that time, I was just a student, but now I was a kind of envoy representing the kingdom, so his attitude had changed completely.
The captain said the dragon-kin were waiting for us and escorted us, and we naturally arrived at the barrier.
On the other side of the barrier, the Inquisitors of the dragon-kin were also standing in a rather impressive manner, waiting for us.
There was no entrance in the barrier between the humans and the dragon-kin, so I wondered how we would cross, but one of the Inquisitors infused mana into his fingernail and made a small hole in the barrier for us to pass through.
“Everyone, salute!”
The border guards, as if to show that they were not intimidated by the Inquisitors, saluted us with perfect form.
Diana, who was among them, winked at me while saluting and cheered me on.
In front of the entrance made by the Inquisitor, I spoke to the two people on either side of me.
“First, there’s one thing you should know for sure.”
“Yes?”
“What?”
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