Chapter 1008 – Afterword ─ Eve Terra Has Already Learned Something From Venus
“This is a pretty quiet place.”
Venus, who followed Eve Terra while dragging Ceres by force, was able to enter a certain purple building.
The purple building was a very quiet place. The first food factory I visited in Pandemonium was deserted, but there was noise made by machines and androids that worked constantly.
The noise they made was harmonious in a sense and was a sound made as naturally as a human heart beating.
‘There are people who come here, but everyone is silent and quiet.’
Venus quickly read the atmosphere of this place.
All the demons who came to the purple gift were calm. Unlike the people who laughed, talked, and leisurely enjoyed their desires on the sparkling streets, the expressions on the faces of those who came here seemed even solemn.
After calmly examining their faces, Venus very carefully put his foot forward without asking Ceres and Eve what kind of place this was.
“This place… Is a graveyard.”
Although I heard a brief explanation from Eve, it felt different to realize with her senses that it was a place to remember the dead.
‘To me, until now, demons were vicious beings that attacked people on earth…’
No matter how much you know and keep in mind that while there are good demons, there are bad demons, there are times when you cannot handle it emotionally.
‘It’s a good thing you came here.’
Venus, clenching her fists, began to look around not at people this time, but at the entire purple building.
There was a huge pillar in the center of the building and there were quite a few small doors. If you look inside through the glass door, you can see the walls with writing engraved on them.
“I think I know what kind of place it is.”
Venus, who was carefully looking inside the door, took a few steps back and looked down at Ceres.
“It’s a place so quiet you wouldn’t think it was Pandemonium, right?”
“Can’t we play loud songs and dance in a place that honors those who passed away?”
After saying a word, Venus twitched his fingers for a moment.
“Of course, there could have been a race with such a culture, but at least the demons don’t seem to have such a culture.”
“It’s just as you thought. We demons like to keep quiet in places like this.”
Venus nodded his head and walked towards Eve Terra a short distance away.
“You came to see Lilith, right? There’s no need to tell me every nook and cranny of this building, so let’s go right away.”
“Thank you for your thoughts, Mr. VIP.”
“Shouldn’t there be this level of compassion?”
Unlike usual, Venus did not pat Eve and Ceres on the buttocks. Eve smiled and slowly approached the elevator provided in the building.
“… Anyway, I thought you would be quite surprised, but you didn’t say anything.”
“What do you mean? Is there anything surprising here?”
“Unlike the ‘cemetery’ analogy I explained, it’s a place where you can’t see a place to bury a coffin, and all you see is letters engraved on the wall, right?”
Venus smiled slightly at Eve’s words.
“What are you talking about? There are always many ways to miss someone who has passed away. There are ways to bury the coffin, and there are also ways to return the body to nature in the first place.”
When the elevator door opened, Venus lightly patted Eve on the shoulder.
“Demons must have their ways. For me, a stranger who knows nothing, to say something is strange, wouldn’t it be an insult to those who solemnly commemorate here?”
“… As expected, Mr. VIP, you sometimes say surprisingly mature and nice things. Thank you.”
Eve spoke with a smile, gave Venus, who was waiting in front of the elevator, a good look, and then slowly walked forward.
“Ah… Your Majesty, I am…”
“Stop saying anything strange and follow me. Judging from the story between you and Eve, it seems like you two have never been to this place before?”
Venus grabbed Ceres’ hand and pulled him, who was still inside the elevator, and made Ceres follow behind Eve Terra.
“I’m a little late in explaining this, but this building is a space to commemorate those who passed away a long time ago. No matter how nectar you may be, there are cases where people die in accidents, get caught up in fights, or die of old age.”
“There can be no graveyard.”
“However, it was not possible to make a coffin and bury it. There were cases where the body could not be found, and since the person died on earth in the first place, the fact of death was often found decades later.”
Eve spoke carefully and slowly extended her hand toward the wall in the dark space.
“So, our nectar decided to commemorate this…”
The wall touched by Eve’s hand created a small hologram with pure white light.
『Reasons to always have hope ─ Lilith Terra』
Eve looked silently at the hologram with blue letters engraved on it.
“The release is…”
Eve opened her mouth very slowly, took one look at Ceres, then kicked the floor with her toe, causing her box to come out, radiating cold from inside. Eve took out a bottle of alcohol from the box as if it were a given, and took out three glasses and handed them to Ceres and Venus.
“I don’t even know if something like this exists…”
Ceres was embarrassed, but Eve silently poured the drink into his glass.
“On the day I made an irreversible mistake, Lilith was in another country. There was no reason for her to be by my side. We both had different areas of genius.”
Shaking her glass as if enjoying the scent of her drink, Eve began to tell her old story.
“I thought things would be different from the time travel I experienced.”
“I don’t know what kind of woman I was there, but… Just like Ceres said, I was a woman who loved work to the point of being barbaric. Lilith at that time… To explain it to VIP in an easy-to-understand way, I worked in a laboratory in the Holympus Mountains. There was.”
Ceres pursed her lips as she heard this story for the first time.
“Eve Terra was trying to do the ridiculous thing of trying to tame the old gods by becoming the highest person in the country where she was born, while Lilith Terra was doing amazing things in the mountains of Holympus that were making humans a little bit greater.”〈 Br〉
“… In the end, isn’t it me and our royal family that Lilith created?”
“It means that Lilith was the right answer. Even if the results were revealed thousands of years later. Lilith was smarter in the field of biology to begin with… But it was an obvious conclusion.”
Eve let out a bitter laugh and took a small sip of her drink.
“After the ‘Great Mistake’, we were in a situation where we had to do anything to survive. People under the influence of the Old Gods attacked their fellow humans indiscriminately, and society quickly became very barbaric. Thanks to this, Pan in the Holympus Mountains I couldn’t even come to Daemonium.”
“… Lee, didn’t you abandon Lilith’s mother?”
Ceres took two large sips of her drink and spat out her words.
“I may be heartless and look like human trash in your eyes… But I have never once abandoned Lilith.”
“Really? You didn’t say anything when all the other demons were saying that her mother must have done that!”
“It’s because it wasn’t worth refutating. The truth that I loved Lilith will never change, so there’s no need to fit in with the stories told by those who were born later and don’t know the past.”
Ceres frowned. Eve held the cold glass tighter.
“And don’t be too angry, Ceres. In the first place, in front of Lilith, I gave you other, more important…”
“No! This is a more important story! In the first place!! Thanks to that thought, I have spent my whole life! Until now! I thought Lilith’s mother was abandoned! I never thought she would come to the graveyard like this, drink alcohol, and reminisce about the old days! “
“The truth doesn’t change.”
Eve shook her glass with an expression of loneliness.
“I made an irreversible mistake, and you don’t need to know what happened between Lilith and me, and even if you did, it wouldn’t change anything.”
“What kind of nonsense…”
Ceres blatantly bit his lip.
“Have you forgotten that I am her mother’s daughter?”
“I always remember.”
“The one who remembers sends his daughter as part of a project that is being carried out with the intention of burning the earth? By branding her back and engraving a curse on her! By making her whole body burn with pain if she does something she is not told to do!?”
Ceres approached Eve, grabbing her by the collar and shaking her.
“I have nothing to say.”
“Tell me what! Mother! Why did you do that? I am your daughter! Not Ceres, but Virgilia! Virgilia Terra! Isn’t that me?!”
“That… Is an obvious fact and the truth. But…”
Eve held her glass tightly.
“That was the best move… You, the child born between me and Lilith, were able to adapt to the earthly atmosphere without any treatment, unlike other Nectars. You are a mutant who can utilize nectanium from birth…”
“Do you have to say that now?”
“So… You… Were able to use magic, to put it in today’s parlance… So you were the most helpful in my project to purify the earth…”
“Mom!!!”
At Ceres’ cry, Eve opened her eyes wide and took a moment to exhale deeply. She subconsciously lifted the glass of alcohol in her hand to her mouth, but there was not a drop of alcohol left.
“If you listen to my explanation, you will understand…”
As she spoke, Eve put her hand to her bottle, but Venus had already taken the bottle, so she could not bring it back to her mouth.
“Eve. Do it right.”
“… Ugh.”
Eve pursed her lips and pressed her left hand to her temple.
“Are you sure… That’s the end of what you’re going to say here… In front of Lilith’s mother?”
“Strictly speaking, this space is a place to commemorate Lilith, but not where her body is buried…”
“… Do whatever you want, Mom.”
Ceres looked like he had given up and was about to throw the glass in his hand, but held back and placed the remaining drink on a nearby table.
It was a room deep underground created solely to commemorate Lilith, so there were chairs and tables to sit on, but it had not been used properly for thousands of years.
“Let’s go up… Your Majesty.”
Ceres, looking exhausted, turned towards her elevator.
“Eve.”
Venus took one look at Ceres and patted Eve’s back with her hand.
It was the last chance.
Eve Terra, who was smart, knew that much.
“Ber!”
“… That’s enough. I’ve been hearing stories about what is true and what had to be that way for too long…”
“Oh, I’m sorry mom!”
Eve put her drink on the table and shouted briefly.
“… What now…”
“I… Was stupid. Mom was stupid. So why don’t you give me one chance?”
Eve pointed to herself with one of her hands and took Ceres’ hand with her right hand, making him look at her.
“Are you… Calling me stupid now?”
“Yes, I was stupid. If I had been smart, I wouldn’t have done that to my daughter. I was a fool. I was so proud that I didn’t know what the truth was, and I was a mother who never wiped my daughter’s tears when she was crying, right?”
Eve’s expression was a little comical as she barely managed to spit out the words that came from her heart rather than her head.
“Ha… Haha… Oh, my…”
Ceres saw that expression and laughed. Eve, with her eyebrows furrowed and unable to move her facial muscles properly, really looked like she had pulled everything out.
“I’m not crying… I’m not frowning because my pride is hurt… What are you thinking when you make that face?”
“This is…”
“Are you really apologizing to me?”
Ceres turned around and held Eve’s hand tightly.
“I’ve always thought that way until now. Will apologizing for what I’ve already done for thousands of years work for you? Will it at least heal your broken heart?”
“A smart mother would have felt that it was a meaningless act.”
“That’s right. But… Mr. Venus told me.”
Eve naturally looked at Venus.
“It’s foolish to cling to an irreversible mistake, and my desire for revenge was like a fool trying to fix something that couldn’t be fixed.”
“It’s not something you should belittle that much.”
“… Isn’t that the same in my relationship with you, Vere? I’ve already… Done something so bad to you that I can’t properly call you a mother. However, from now on, I won’t apologize to you for doing such things and will build a good relationship. The reason I don’t try to see it is…”
Eve swallowed his saliva. Afraid to be told that it was already too late, she closed her eyes, hoping that the tenuous connection with her daughter would not be broken.
“I didn’t think she would be there… I mean, give mom a chance to apologize… More.”
“… That’s enough, Mom.”
Ceres smiled. And she gently kissed Eve’s cheek.
“You know that what you did to me is something that can never be forgiven, right?”
“… I was crazy at the time. I really thought that was the best move.”
“You also regret burning my body every time I disobeyed you.”
“… Even if you came now and put the same pain on my body, I regret it so much that I wouldn’t be able to say anything.”
Ceres burst into laughter.
“Are you willing to do anything because you want to be forgiven by me?”
“… What can I do by talking about it?”
“Are you always sorry and want to apologize to me?”
Eve nodded her head.
“Then that’s enough. Since you are my one and only mother, I should give you a chance.”
“Really? But I…”
“I also learned from your majesty that if you don’t give them a chance, you can’t do anything in the first place.”
Ceres smiled and looked at Venus, and her Eve could barely smile.
“Ha… Haha… How long has it been this easy…”
Looking at Eve smiling awkwardly, Ceres naturally looked at Venus and opened her mouth.
“Ah… But Mom, I feel like I’m a little inadequate because I only received an apology in words like this… Would you like to leave a good memory?”
“Try saying anything.”
Eve nodded her head and looked at Ceres.
“It would be better for you to show something rather than giving the impression that you only listened.”
“Hehe, okay. Then, please keep your words. Mother?”
Ceres smiled and approached Venus and whispered something in his ear.
“… What?”
As soon as Venus heard the words, she looked at Eve with a surprised expression.
“Well… Eve obviously has no reason to reject Ceres’ offer…”
“… What on earth did you say?”
Eve had a slightly sad expression and looked at Ceres with her anxious eyes.
Haha… Ceres said he wanted to know if you sincerely apologized to him. Don’t worry too much. It was just a very mischievous prank on Ceres.”
“That prank… Couldn’t have been a prank in bed, right?”
Unlike Eve, who spoke with eyes full of anxiety, Ceres was smiling brightly.
“If you’re sincerely apologizing, is this okay? Mom?”
