146 – Bright blue bruise
Black hair and a sheen floating above it.
The moment I saw Latera. Siron fell to the floor with his knees down. My entire body lost all strength, as if a taut thread had been cut.
This is because the time spent walking along the pillar of light was too long.
Even though I had a tendency to wait until the end to resolve my decision, I thought about stopping several times while walking along the white pillar of light.
‘I thought I was losing my mind.’
What if there’s nothing there? Or, the cause may be vagueness about how to respond if something completely unexpected occurs.
“…This is a really sh*t place.”
Walking in this crazy space where there was no sound or anything was no different from torture.
Seira, you b*tch, I thought it would be good if you came to your senses and talked to me.
“I’m sorry. I came so late.”
So instead of just thinking about it, I muttered. I had my eyes closed right now, so there was no way to check if I was hearing correctly, but I just wanted to mumble.
“You should have come sooner.”
Siron lifted his head from the floor. Latera was there smiling brightly, as if she was really happy.
“It’s okay. The hero came sooner than I expected.”
“…okay?”
“I really thought you wouldn’t come back until you became a grandfather. So I’m so happy.”
“Then I’m glad.”
Siron sighed and lay down. I don’t know if it was due to physical fatigue or mental fatigue, but my whole body felt so heavy that I even felt the desire to fall asleep like this. As I closed my eyes for a moment, I felt the touch of a small hand caressing my cheek.
“You’re really a hero, right?”
“Could it be that you forgot your face?”
“That’s not true… It’s because you look younger than the last time I saw you.”
Latera continued talking while touching various parts of her face.
“Even though I don’t look any different, I feel strangely like that. There are no scars under my eyes, and I feel like I’m a bit more plump.”
Siron slowly raised his body and faced Latera.
“Why is that so?”
“What if you ask me that?”
Siron frowned, suppressing the fatigue that weighed down his entire body.
“I’m not even sure if this is the same place I was last time.”
“Well, this is the hero’s house. What made you think that?”
“The last time I came, I couldn’t find anything like a pillar of light.”
From noble mtl dot com
Siron looked at Latera a little closer. Then, a wound I had not seen before came into view.
“It’s not just that. It’s different because I wasn’t naked when I fell here, and I didn’t come in through the starter. Also, I couldn’t see you, who always greeted me first. I thought Seira teleported me to some strange space.”
“The pillar of light is because this is a sacred place.”
“Braham?”
Siron made an action that required further explanation. Latera nodded and opened her mouth.
“Yes, the hero came to the hero’s house from quite a distance from Braham, right? It was so far away that I couldn’t see the pillar of light. I am sorry for not being able to meet you.”
Latera leaned back to hide the wound on her hand. Although some time had passed, it had not completely healed and there was a throbbing pain.
“…Then what on earth is this?”
slap!
Siron, who noticed Latera’s abnormality, slapped the sleeping Seira’s buttocks. Even if I slapped her or slapped her, she didn’t wake up.
“Under the circumstances, it looks like Seira was the one who sent me here, but the guy who did this is sleeping peacefully.”
“That means this is the home of a warrior. Do you remember what I told you last time? Only those who are qualified can come to the home of a warrior.”
“Are you saying that Seira is not qualified?”
Qualification.
Shiron understood that as an altruistic heart that knows how to sacrifice for others.
However, it was not enough to fully accept Latera’s words. It was because Seira had an erratic side, but he was a person who knew how to put in enough effort for others.
“Even though you sealed the demon together with Kylie 500 years ago?”
“She’s not good enough to be a hero. As evidence of that, she’s so distracted.”
“…I think you helped me without paying for it.”
“Well, I think it would be unreasonable to see that there is no price.”
Latera smiled and patted Seira’s head.
“Isn’t it possible that he gave his liver and gallbladder to the only person who remembered him because his heart was stolen?”
“…You talk like you know it well.”
“Think about it. You’ve been a loner for 500 years, and then a warrior on a white horse suddenly appears, right? That makes everyone want to do something. I’m sure you’re right. Even now, I still feel a huge crush on the warrior I met for the first time in 500 years. Because there is.”
Latera puffed out her chest and spoke confidently, and Siron felt embarrassed and turned his head to the side. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any parts that I don’t understand.
Siron also knew what the feeling of loneliness was.
Loneliness makes people crazy. Even through the simple act of following the pillar of light, he felt various negative emotions eating away at his mind in real time.
After organizing his dizzy thoughts, Siron quietly looked at Latera. Is it because my confused mind has been sorted out? My excited emotions calmed down and my perspective broadened.
“It must have been very difficult.”
“…No. It wasn’t difficult at all. I had a firm belief that the hero would come someday.”
“But the last 500 years must have been difficult.”
Siron hugged Latera and patted her back. Her voice had started to become watery earlier, and it looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment.
“…I don’t cry.”
Latera slowly pushed Siron’s chest. Her face was very red, and tears seemed to fall from the corners of her eyes at any moment, but she kept her mouth shut and tried to hold back her tears.
“It’s okay to cry.”
“No. I will not cry. I am the hero’s guardian angel. The person who protects the hero by his side cannot show weakness.”
Latera made a smile and spoke softly, wiping her eyes roughly.
“It’s not over yet.”
“…yes.”
Siron stood up, placing his hands on his knees. I didn’t feel like staying in this white space for long at all. But other than that, there was something else that bothered me.
‘The city of Braham will dry up and die.’
The conversation I had with Assad before coming here.
All I had to do was to quietly bring Latera out, but I couldn’t figure out why that noise was coming out.
Siron looked ‘piercingly’ into the glass tube. Kylie’s body was just as it was when I first saw it, with a body covered in wounds and limbs that had been burned black. And, above it, a pillar of light extends into the sky.
“by the way.”
“yes.”
“What on earth is this?”
Siron pointed to the pillar of light with his hand. When I saw it from afar, I thought it was just light spreading out, but now that it was so close, I couldn’t help but be aware of it, even if I wanted to ignore it.
Siron felt enormous divine power in the pillar of light.
“Maybe what the hero thinks is right.”
“…”
Siron couldn’t believe it even after seeing it. No matter how hard he squeezed the holy sword, the divine power that Siron could produce was barely enough to reach the ceiling of the throne room. However, the divinity that extends endlessly into the sky… Regardless of the diameter, if it pours out this much, I couldn’t even imagine the extent of Kylie’s divinity.
“But… it wasn’t like this from the beginning.”
While Shiron admired, Latera sighed as she ran her hand over the coffin.
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s no way this much divinity could have spewed out. Think about it. How can you keep spouting this much divinity when you’re not even a living person? No, even a living person would never be able to spout this much divinity. “
Latera shaded her face and wiggled her fingers.
Even hundreds of years ago, the pillars of light were not so thick.
Now it had a diameter of the size of a house, but as far as she knew, even a few hundred years ago, it stretched into the sky with a thickness barely the size of a palm.
However, at some point, the amount of divine power slowly pouring into the sky began to increase. I didn’t notice it at first, but it was only when it became as wide as my body that I was able to notice and react.
What changed was not only the divine power gushing upward.
Kylie’s body was also a little more charred than before. Like a candle burning itself and producing flames, the damaged part of the body began to gradually expand.
“Do you remember what I said about there being people trying to come in here?”
Latera lowered her head and sighed.
“okay.”
Siron looked at the back of Latera’s hand. The blue-tinged bruise had been bothering me ever since.
‘The city of Braham will dry up and die.’
‘So, while you’re staying here, I hope you don’t do anything that might make you uncomfortable.’
‘If you just keep quiet, you will be able to maintain hundreds of thousands of people’s fortunes.’
Siron thought of something to do before leaving.