Chapter 827 – #172_보라색 장미(7)
#821
1.
Elroa had finally achieved the contract of ‘cutting’ by directly breaking through the massive vortex of power.
Shiwoo had created and thrown a singularity.
It was a great clash where either side could have won.
-Crack
The sound of a precisely crafted metal device shattering echoed.
It was the belated sound of the angel’s halo, which had been fiercely rotating above Shiwoo’s head, being severed after the clash.
It was truly a terrifying blow.
A slash that disregarded the process and only derived the result.
Elroa had cut through everything in the path of her sword.
The singularity, which had condensed unprecedented magic and exerted attractive force.
The angel’s halo, which had been spewing out magic like a cornucopia.
The cumulonimbus clouds swirling in the high sky.
And even the space where all of that was located.
Watching the space, which had been rippling strangely like a torn curtain, being restored, Shiwoo felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
That last blow was clearly abnormal.
It wasn’t just about the power.
In a fighting game, it was like a slash attack with invincibility frames throughout the entire motion.
Even though he had tried to block it with maximum output, it was impossible.
Moreover, even though he had been watching her so intently, he only recognized her after the ‘cutting motion’ was over.
-Whoosh!
As the angel’s halo broke, the output of magic that had been boiling fiercely dropped to the bottom.
There was no more energy to amplify magic again.
Well, even if it was a dream, it would be strange if he had any power left after using that much magic.
But that would be the same for his teacher, who had used her last contract on that last blow.
In other words.
Shiwoo had won.
“Shiwoo, you did well.”
Elroa smiled gently, looking at the red branch that had stopped right in front of her throat.
Her face was covered in dirt, and her hair was a mess, but she was still his teacher.
Her beauty when she smiled was still the same.
“No, this is… a cheat, so to speak.”
“I guess so. I understand now.”
Seeing his teacher’s bitter smile, Shiwoo put away his spear.
He couldn’t see the obsessive fixation he had seen at the spire.
It was the teacher he always knew.
“By the way, haven’t you gotten stronger?”
“How could a teacher just sit by when her beloved disciple is always in danger?”
Even while having an affectionate conversation, Shiwoo was still replaying the battle.
He couldn’t shake off the aftereffects of the adrenaline that had filled his blood during the battle.
If his teacher had aimed for his neck instead of the angel’s halo in that last blow.
Would he have been able to react in time then?
He wasn’t used to the new power, but seeing that the fight was still close even with such a cheat, he was once again amazed.
And as he naturally thought about how she had gained that strength, his heart grew heavy again.
“This time, you saved me.”
“My beloved teacher went through so much to save me. I should at least try once.”
“You’re so eloquent.”
Elroa carefully approached Shiwoo and rested her forehead on his chest.
Shiwoo hugged her tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
His teacher’s shoulders and voice were trembling slightly.
“Just stay like this for a moment…”
If this was really a dream, then she had to accept the truth she had wanted to deny.
The two walked slowly to the mansion, side by side.
The lavender forest that had stretched to the horizon was collapsing little by little from the edges.
2.
When they returned to the Duke’s mansion after removing the otherworld barrier.
Lafi was waiting outside the garden.
She was holding a warm towel in her hand.
“Ugh, I can’t live because of you two.”
“Lafi.”
“What is this in the middle of the night? I couldn’t sleep and waited for you.”
Lafi grumbled, but carefully wiped Elroa and Shiwoo’s faces with the towel.
This is a dream.
A dream condensed with lingering attachments and foolishness.
Her memories from the outside had also returned.
Elroa thought she had accepted reality now.
But as her beloved disciple, Lafi, whose touch she could no longer feel, delicately caressed her cheek, she felt something surge up in her stomach.
When she felt the sticky heat that had started in her stomach scorch her throat, she was making her face a mess with tears again, despite Lafi’s efforts to wipe it clean.
They had to part now.
If this slowly collapsing world disappeared, she would never see this voice, this touch, or these loving eyes again.
Hadn’t she always wished for it?
That she could see Lafi just one more time.
That she could hug her again and tell her that she loved her.
That she could apologize for the slip of the tongue she had made that day, for the arrogance of the witch.
Her wish had come true.
Even though it was just an illusion, in a magical dream that was more precisely realized than any other illusion, Elroa had met Lafi again.
But meeting her like this made her want even more.
She wanted to stay a little longer.
She wanted to be buried in this dream forever.
She wanted it endlessly.
“Teacher.”
Wiping her blurry vision with her sleeve, she looked ahead.
“Lafi is really glad.”
The moment the owner of the dream became aware of the dream, the other characters in it also realized their false identities.
Just like Shiwoo’s father and Malika Marigold had done.
The Lafi here was a fake created by Elroa’s subconscious, infinitely close to the real thing, so it was only natural.
“Because you didn’t do anything bad because of me.”
Lafi was smiling.
In reality, the red lotus had shattered.
Lafi had not been resurrected as a price for sin.
She was smiling warmly, as if that was more reassuring than anything else.
“I believed that you would always choose the right path.”
The moment Elroa heard Lafi’s upright words, she felt a discordant dissonance in her heart.
Apology, gratitude, regret, relief, pity, shame, and humiliation were all intertwined at once.
Everything was a mess, so much so that she couldn’t tell what kind of face she was making.
She wanted to hide, she wanted to run away.
But she didn’t want to waste the last moments with her disciple, with whom she had so little time left, in that way.
Elroa confessed her true feelings as if she were chewing on them.
“I am not right… I have only wandered, immersed in regret and obsessed with revenge. Where is the right path?”
Because she couldn’t forgive herself, she turned that anger towards her enemies.
Because Lafi’s last words were ‘I want to protect humans,’ she established the location points and subjugated the homunculi.
When she wasn’t doing anything, every moment of her life was like torture, but when she wielded her sword, shouting for justice, she could forget her regrets and pain.
Sometimes, she even felt a dark joy.
Therefore, there was no justice there.
Just like this world in her dream.
There was only a pathetic self-satisfaction wrapped in a plausible shell.
“Teacher.”
Lafi hugged Elroa.
“No, the teacher I know is not like that. Right?”
The question suddenly flew to Shiwoo.
But Shiwoo was not flustered.
Without hesitation, he nodded.
The Elroa that Shiwoo had been watching was a more upright and noble person than anyone else.
A person who has experienced pain does not always make the same choices.
Elroa had countless options.
Among them, there was the path of becoming an enemy like in this dream, the path of giving up and preparing for the next succession, and the path of doing nothing.
But Elroa chose to carry her difficult and painful past and move forward at the many crossroads.
She had saved countless lives and eliminated countless evils.
That was undoubtedly the ‘right path,’ no matter what anyone said.
However, the reason why she couldn’t let go of her self-blame was probably because she couldn’t focus only on those ‘results.’
A human who only dwells in the past cannot look at the present.
“Teacher, I want you to be happy more than you are in pain.”
“……”
“So I was happy when I saw Shiwoo. It seems like you are trying to move forward now. Because that’s why, mourning and being in pain forever are different issues.”
Lafi’s voice was gentle, as if she was comforting her clumsy teacher.
“You also got a wonderful boyfriend, right?”
“……”
Elroa lowered her head.
In the scent of Lafi that she had missed, the area around her chest was getting wet with tears.
“Then… can you… now…”
The words that were stuck in her throat, that she was too ashamed to say, that she had tried to bury forever because they were painful just to think about.
Barely squeezed out of her lips.
“…forgive me… can you?”
Was this a plea for forgiveness towards Lafi?
Or was it an empty murmur towards Elroa herself?
If this was a dream, wouldn’t even this be just a vain self-satisfaction?
The crumbling world had narrowed its range to the vicinity of the mansion.
The moment of farewell was approaching.
“Ugh, you’re so frustrating, teacher. You know.”
Lafi took Elroa out of her arms for a moment.
Then, she said with a mischievous smile.
“I’ve never resented you.”
Elroa’s mouth opened slightly, then closed again.
A strange wriggling, neither laughter nor crying, flowed from between her tightly closed lips.
She actually knew.
That Lafi would definitely be like that.
That she would not expect resentment or an apology, but only wish for Elroa’s happiness.
The truth that Elroa, who had been punishing herself for a hundred years, had faced was not particularly surprising or ingenious.
It was just a belated revelation of an answer that she could have naturally thought of.
It was just that she could finally accept it now.
Elroa wiped away her tears.
“Lafi, I promise you. I will continue to fight for the right path and for justice.”
It was a resolution, but also a determination she was telling herself, who had been swayed by delusion even in a dream.
The contract sword in her hand shone.
She would make a contract in this place.
That this sword would continue to be wielded to protect the weak and the good.
“You wouldn’t listen even if I tried to stop you anyway.”
Lafi grumbled, but smiled bitterly.
“Can you kiss me one last time?”
“Of course.”
At the same time as she kissed Lafi’s forehead, the remnants of the dream that had still maintained their shape collapsed.
“I love you so much, Mother.”
“I love you too, Lafi.”
The mother who had lost her child had forgiven herself after a long wandering.
