114 – Climax (4)
One step at a time.
Every time you take a step, the surrounding scenery changes naturally, like flowing water.
The dark cave has suddenly become a street full of spring flowers.
The musty smell suddenly becomes a fresh flowery scent that pierces the tip of my nose.
Karrr, laughter can be heard from all over the place from the cadets who still have their hearts left.
My head turns. You can see the scene of Arden Academy, which seems familiar but is subtly different from what it is now.
You can see cadets who appear to be new students.
Wearing a uniform with a different design than now,
Wearing a cape that is long out of fashion,
Cadets wearing tacky ties or ribbons.
“···.”
Watched by the nostalgic scenery, I knew right away.
This vision that Celetina is showing me is the day when Celetina and I first encountered each other.
-Tuk, Tuk.
While I was thinking that, someone tapped my shoulder. When I turned my head, I saw a young man with an odd appearance, with short, light golden hair and jade-colored eyes.
“Dian, look over there! Wow, how can someone be that pretty?”
The young man’s identity was Darren in his youth. Yeah, I was pretty close to this guy at this point.
My eyes naturally follow Darren’s gaze.
Hair as white as snow,
Eyes as blue as sapphire,
A beautiful appearance that will make you exclaim with admiration.
The woman with a more beautiful appearance than I remembered was the Celetina I knew.
“Dian, I think I found my destined partner from the first day of school. So don’t try to stop me or intervene. “He’s mine.”
After saying that, the young-looking Darren headed straight to Celetina.
“Dian, do you know anything?”
Not even a minute later, Darren returned to my side and spoke in a determined tone while smiling bitterly.
“There is no tree that cannot be felled by taking ten shots. “No matter how princess that tree is.”
I heard no. I heard you couldn’t pass even if you took a hundred shots. I passed it right away.
I was about to answer when I saw Darren’s stupid expression, and I had a hard time suppressing the urge and looked back at Celetina.
Maybe I didn’t know about it because I wasn’t interested at the time?
Unlike my memory, Celetina said she hated me from the beginning.
She was looking at me and smiling shyly.
****
Just as I remember, just like before.
The scenery continued to change, and time continued to pass.
I memorized the oath at the entrance ceremony.
I walked around the academy with Mort, Darren, and Kalmia, and also read books in the library.
While ordinary daily life continued, Celetina, who felt special, started arguing with me whenever she got the chance.
As a year passed, I became the head of the magic department and Celetina became the second head.
She always wanted to beat me and put me under.
I hated losing to her, and yet I always accepted her challenges.
In the meantime, we discovered a battleground that was perfect for us, the Cave of Fantasy.
They tried to prove themselves to each other by showing off the illusions they had created.
One more year passed like that. Meanwhile, I was walking through a fantasy filled with memories.
At the same time, I realized something I had never known before.
Me at that time, Celetina at that time.
From Noble mtl dot com
We, who thought of each other as enemies or competitors, had already been looking at each other before that.
Although I didn’t want to lose to her Celetina, I waited every day for her to come to me.
Even though Celetina pretended to hate me, she smiled at me every single day.
It wasn’t a bad day. It was a continuation of time that I didn’t want to end.
I had a doubt. Why couldn’t I express my feelings honestly at that time?
I regretted it. Why couldn’t I do better back then? Why couldn’t we spend more time together?
Time continued to pass like that.
What I am experiencing is an illusion. That kind of awareness,
Maybe it’s not an illusion. Until it becomes that illusion.
****
Wolf Van Ranunculus. He, the head of my family and my biological father, notified me.
The engagement partner has been decided.
The other person is the princess of this empire, so don’t be harsh and behave neatly.
When I heard his one-sided notice, my heart raced and my whole body felt hot.
When I felt this, I finally realized.
The emotions I felt at that time were not anger and defiance, but excitement and overwhelm.
Celetina, who heard the same news as me, looked angry in front of the Cave of Fantasy.
I remember. In the past, I lost my temper when I saw that, and after arguing for a while, we came to a reasonable, very wizard-like conclusion: ‘Let’s just adapt to reality.’
Funny enough, back then, we absorbed each other so slowly.
Is it because I know the miserable future that lies ahead?
After seeing Celetina, for the first time, greed began to creep in, and desire began to bloom.
What if I act differently than I remember?
Wouldn’t the tragic ending be a little different?
Unlike back then, wouldn’t we be happier?
“Celetina.”
Lips open reflexively. Her innocent face and challenging gaze turn towards me.
“···.”
I am completely speechless.
The reason is that Celetina’s appearance looking at me is different from my memories.
I didn’t know. The fact that Celetina’s eyes at that time were full of excitement and anticipation as she looked at me.
And the fact that Celetina twitched the corner of her mouth was not because she was angry, but because she was happy.
“Thank goodness.”
For the first time, words that were not in my memory leaked from Celetina’s lips.
Looking at Celetina with her blank expression, she continued her words with a smile as bright as a blooming flower on her face.
“Looking at their expressions, it seems like they don’t just hate me…”
Her always confident appearance has disappeared, and we see Celetina wriggling her fingers and looking embarrassed.
“I have never hated it. “Even though I used to like it.”
Is it because I made up my mind? Just like water bursting out of a collapsed dam, inner thoughts that have not been expressed for a while begin to gush out of the mouth.
“So from now on…”
“Fu, fu-huu!”
“···?”
I was definitely trying to say something cool.
Celetina looked at my face with a mischievous smile, and I, embarrassed, kept my mouth shut.
“Is it possible for expressions to be so cringe-inducing? Fu, fu-huu! It’s really you. Dian.”
Whoa, Celetina held her stomach and laughed at me for a long time.
But why? Celetina is clearly laughing at me, which is why the corners of my mouth that were up before she knew it weren’t going down.
“Hmm, hmmm!”
After a while, Celetina cleared her throat, then looked at me with a serious expression and said.
“Dian, can you make me one promise?”
“Whatever. “I am even a star hanging in the night sky…”
“Fuu, fuuu! “I’m not excited at all by such idiotic comments, so will you just listen quietly?”
“···Uh.”
When I saw Celetina’s pretty face, I nodded her head and pursed her lips.
Honestly, I didn’t know. I didn’t know this wouldn’t work.
“Later, really later.”
While my feelings were going back and forth between disappointment and regret, Celetina began to open her lips with a sad expression.
“Something sad will happen to me and you. “
“Sad…? “Shouldn’t we just avoid or prepare for something like that?”
“No. That day will inevitably come. “I will spend every day in tears with regret, and you will live in resentment every day with longing.”
Her mind becomes confused. Questions begin to arise.
What Celetina is talking about is the day when she falls into sin?
So, did Celetina already know her future at that time?
“Dian. That’s what I’m saying. “In the distant future, when that inevitable, tragic day comes…”
Celetina opened her trembling lips, with unspeakable emotions in her eyes.
“Can you save me?”
I reflexively nodded her head, and Celetina took out her black orb from her arms, and she began to show her the distant future she had seen.
****
Celetina showed me a future I didn’t know about and a future I didn’t know about.
In the future seen within the marble.
She missed me terribly after joining the warrior party and headed to the battlefield where I was.
Although she resented the hero who took me, she devotedly supported the hero’s party for me.
A seed of evil was planted in her mind as she devoted herself to meeting me again.
She stood up for me and eventually fell.
She fell and longed for me and became a sin.
She became a sin and endured each day, consuming loneliness and despair.
After enduring so much, she eventually gathered her courage and came to me.
I was angry. The devotion she gave me, the tragedy she had to go through. She was ignorant and ignorant to me, who didn’t know anything and couldn’t stop anything.
I was sad. Because of the countless negative emotions she must have felt. Because of the fact that no one offered her a hand of comfort when she was hurting more than anyone else.
Fifty thousand emotions are crossing in my head.
Sometimes my heart feels cold and sinks, and sometimes my stomach boils.
As I go back and forth between the end and end of my emotions, I hear a sad voice in my ear.
“Dian, the future after this depends on your choice.”
In the beads, I begin to see a future that is much further away than my memories.
“If you don’t hold my hand…”
You can see Celetina being torn apart by a sword filled with starlight.
An evil spirit, enraged by this fact, descends and destroys the world.
A hell filled with dried blood and screams, filled only with slimy black waste and hideous beings.
When I saw that, I was in despair.
I hear a trembling voice in my ear.
“If you save me…”
The future seen within the beads is changing.
Red and black become green and blue,
The dried hell turns into ordinary, everyday days,
A woman holding a child born as a result of the sins of being torn to death.
When I saw this, a desperate wish began to arise in my heart.
I am happier now than ever, I hope it never ends.
-“Just remember one thing. Now is the time ――――!”
When I hoped for that, someone’s stern voice suddenly echoed in my heart.
“Dian, I don’t want to lose you.”
I am cut off by the sweet and lovely voice and the unfamiliar texture I feel from my fingers.
The gaze goes down. The ring I was wearing was everywhere, and there was a black ring I had never seen before.
I raise my head. I see the pretty and lovely face of my fiancé.
The desire for me contained in the eyes stimulates my hidden desires.
The lips open slowly, very slowly.
“···Me too.”
Her eyes that were looking at me slowly close, and her hands wrap around my waist like a snake.
My head is moving. The lips stick out, and the eyes slowly begin to close.
In my ear, trying to defy such a tragic fate and choose my own destiny.
-Wow!
The sound of the destiny I chose breaking.
“It’s crazy. “It’s crazy.”
The boy who broke that fate suddenly heard an angry voice for some reason.