Chapter 753
It was a strange feeling, to have one’s existence fade away.
Before Richard and Anna could break the Sealed Letter and look back, Simon vanished, melting into the air.
‘I wanted to see their faces, at least one last time.’
In an instant, his vision was swallowed in gold.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
The sound of clock hands filled his ears.
His head spun from dizziness.
It felt as if his mind might scatter away.
Just when he thought he could endure no longer—
“......Hahk!”
His eyes snapped open.
A cool breeze swept by with a whirr. His breathing steadied, strength returned to his body, and his reason grew clear.
Lying in the grass, he stared blankly at the night sky, then raised his hands and opened and closed his fists.
They moved well.
When Simon sat up and looked around, he saw Leshill. Everything that had happened felt like a midsummer night’s dream.
‘Ah.’
He came to his senses and looked down.
A girl lay collapsed like a painting. Her white hair was spread across the grass like a fan.
“Lete! Lete!”
Simon urgently shook her awake.
With a faint groan, her eyelids quivered, and then slowly opened.
“Ah.”
Seeing Simon’s face, Lete spoke in a dazed voice.
“You’ve come back.”
“That’s right.”
Simon supported her shoulder and helped her sit up. Lete rubbed her eyes with drowsy hands.
“Hiya!”
Suddenly, Neftis’ face popped out of nowhere. Startled, Simon gasped.
“L-Lady Neftis......!”
“Welcome back?”
Neftis wiped her brow with the back of her hand in an exaggerated gesture.
“That was close! Just barely safe before disappearing completely!”
Simon, still caught between dream and reality, looked around blankly.
This was not the horribly polluted Leshill.
Though the rain had ruffled the grass and trees, it was still the beautiful homeland of before.
“......How much time has passed in the present?”
Simon asked.
Neftis folded her tiny fingers one by one, thought for a moment, then laughed sheepishly.
“About five, maybe six minutes since you entered the portal? I was counting, but I lost track!”
“By any chance, in history—”
Simon suddenly leapt to his feet.
“Did anything change?”
“Hmm.”
It was right after their time travel.
If there was a change, then it was likely because Simon, Lete, and the Executioners had interfered.
Neftis frowned slightly, lost in thought, then replied.
“Doesn’t seem like it?”
“......Really certain?”
Lete narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Neftis smiled brightly.
“When you dip your finger in a flowing stream, the current splits, right?”
She mimed lowering a finger.
“At first, it looks like the current splits, ripples form strangely, and it seems like a big change, right? But when you lift your finger out? The water fills back in, and everything flows as it did, just like it had for hundreds of years before.”
She pulled her finger away and hid it behind her back.
“That’s how it is! The people you met in the past probably don’t even remember you properly. Time travelers are beings that violate the laws of this world, and the whole world itself makes it so.”
“Ugh, seriously.”
Lete made a sour face.
“So you’re saying, even if we went through hell, in the end history still flows as it was?”
“No one knows that~”
Neftis shrugged.
“It’s a matter of ‘time’ after all. The variables in temporal events are countless. Especially the Executioners, they weren’t trying to dip a finger in the stream, but to drop a boulder in it.”
“.......”
“Well, in any case! The fact that nothing happened means you two did well! Good job!”
Afterward, Neftis asked briefly about what had happened in the past.
In the end, the Legion’s Betrayal incident had played out fully, and after hearing that Bleto, who had crossed over from the future, vanished from existing too long, Neftis nodded in relief.
“Thank you so much, Lady Neftis.”
Simon bowed deeply.
“For sending us into the past, for letting my father and mother reunite again. I will repay this grace one day.”
In that place, Simon had witnessed Richard and Anna’s love. Beyond his own existence, he was most grateful and relieved that the two had come together again.
“Hehe, I’m the one who should be grateful!”
Neftis beamed.
“A new age of peace has opened, and I got back our Student Council President, who almost disappeared...... huh?”
Drip—
Black blood trickled from Neftis’ nose. With a gasp, she stumbled back and covered her face.
“Lady Neftis!”
“Ah, haha! Maybe I pushed myself too much? Time travel is really—”
She collapsed onto the grass, still covering her face. Simon rushed to her side in panic.
“P-please rest! Do you want to come to our home?”
“No, no. I already contacted Jane. It’s better to rest on Roke Island where the recovery facilities are.”
She winked.
“I’ll send the mission fee quickly, though it’s small. It’s late, so you two should head back.”
When Simon hesitated out of worry, Neftis added with a gentle smile,
“Aren’t you curious? About what happened to Richard and Anna, after you changed the past.”
Simon and Lete returned home.
Each step was heavy. Simon kept swallowing dryly. Lete’s face was tense with the same nervousness.
Though only five or six minutes had passed in the present, the two of them had just spent time with Richard and Anna in the past, and had gone through the Legion’s Betrayal incident.
Now it was time to meet the two, twenty-two years later.
‘This doesn’t feel real at all.’
Neftis had used the metaphor of dipping a finger into a stream, but since it was a matter of time, anything could happen.
Though not by choice, there had been countless variables in the past, countless influences left behind, and it worried him.
‘Please.’
Simon stopped in front of the door.
‘Please, let nothing have gone wrong......!’
Just as his hand hesitated on the knob.
“Already back, Simon?”
Anna’s voice came from beyond the door.
Not the sharp, ringing voice of her saintly days, but a gentle and warm tone.
The moment he heard it, Simon felt his hesitation vanish like a lie. His trembling hand tightened on the knob, and he flung the door open.
Clatter!
The door swung wide, and Simon froze in place.
‘Ah.’
There they were.
The mischievous 7th Legion Commander Yona, and the Saint of Miracles Anna.
Standing side by side, twenty-two years older, with warm smiles as middle-aged figures.
“Come in, Simon.”
“Lady Neftis didn’t scold you too much, did she?”
The instant he heard their voices.
Relief surged over him like a wave, and tears streamed from his eyes.
“Father! Mother!”
Simon shouted with all his strength, running forward and throwing his arms around them both at once.
“S-Simon?”
“Thank goodness! Thank goodness!”
Simon cried out in a hoarse voice.
“You two are just the same......! I’m really so glad......!”
Richard and Anna blinked with puzzled expressions.
“What are you saying, Simon? Hardly any time has passed.”
Simon couldn’t even answer, he just clung to them and wept. At that moment Anna turned her head.
“Oh my.”
Lete, who had followed in, stood with reddened eyes, struggling to hold back tears. But when her gaze met Anna’s, she couldn’t suppress it and let out a hiccuping sob.
She had promised herself not to cry when she came in.
“Lete?”
But that was impossible.
“Anna teacheeeer!”
Lete also couldn’t hold back and ran forward, throwing herself into Anna’s arms.
Sob, sob.
Hic.
Richard and Anna, holding the sobbing Simon and Lete each in their arms, exchanged flustered looks.
“Dear, why are the children suddenly like this?”
“Perhaps Lady Neftis scolded them too harshly.”
“Come on! Would children cry this much over something like that?”
And so, for a while, only Richard and Anna remained bewildered in this tearful reunion of joy.
* * *
Sleep had already fled.
The four decided to have a late-night party. Anna quickly prepared some snacks, and Richard brought out a cherished bottle of wine from the cellar. They enjoyed it lightly, sharing stories.
Simon and Lete begged to hear the story of their first love from the very beginning, and Richard and Anna, looking a bit embarrassed, began.
“Well, I met your mother while doing volunteer work at the orphanage in the Neutral Zone. I can still clearly recall the stern face of the head of orphanage.”
“As I remember, your first impression was terrible. You fought with another volunteer, didn’t you?”
“Hmph, that fellow picked a fight with me first.”
Simon and Lete burst into laughter.
Unbelievable.
It was only a small change, but the past really had shifted. The story Simon and Lete had just experienced themselves not long ago, Richard and Anna now recounted as though it were a distant memory.
“I rode a spirit and carried your mother out over the sea. You two should have seen the look on her face then.”
Lete suddenly cut in.
“Who confessed first?”
“Well, the confession itself I made much later, but the one who tempted first was Anna—”
“Richard!”
Anna jumped up, her face flushed red.
“If you’re going to spout nonsense like that in front of the children, then go to bed! I know exactly what you did, and yet you—!”
Richard, his face reddened from wine, chuckled.
“You were the one who kissed me first when I said do as you like. And again when we parted.”
“Richard!!”
Ahahaha!
Simon and Lete burst into loud laughter.
‘Haah.’
Leaning back against the chair, Simon was filled with immense happiness and relief.
At the same time, he realized how precious this ordinary life was.
Richard and Anna had fought against the world to gain this simple countryside life. They had never bent beneath prejudice and malice.
Though they were his parents, Simon felt a deep, genuine respect.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re crying again?”
Lete teased, tapping Simon’s shoulder. Anna, who had been scolding Richard, turned in surprise to look at him.
“Son, did something happen outside?”
“Nothing at all.”
As agreed with Neftis, Simon chose not to speak directly of the time incident.
It would only confuse them.
Instead, he smiled as he replied.
“I’m just happy.”
At those words from her son, Anna’s eyes welled with tears too, as if the emotion was contagious. Only Richard, drunk and grinning, teased them to stop crying so much on a good occasion.
The drinking grew merrier, the atmosphere warmer.
“Anna teacher, Anna teacher, but—”
Lete, cheeks also red, rested her chin on her hands and asked.
“Do you remember, back when you did volunteer work, if there was someone beside you?”
“Hm?”
“A messenger of love! Someone like that.”
Anna smiled wryly.
“Well, I wonder?”
The stories Richard and Anna told had one thing in common.
The presence of Simon and Lete was completely missing.
In one sense it was a relief, in another it was disappointing.
Richard, who had drunk the most wine, scratched the back of his neck.
“I don’t know about any messenger of love, but I do remember being stressed, feeling like someone was watching me back then.”
“!”
Hearing that, Simon’s face lit up in a bright smile. Richard, seeing his son, chuckled too and ruffled his hair.
“Hmm, now that I think of it, maybe there was someone around then.”
Anna touched her lips thoughtfully.
“No matter how I try, I can’t remember, and it feels ticklish. My heart aches, as if I’ve forgotten someone important.”
“It’s okay!”
Someone important.
At those words, Lete, with the look of one who owned the world, hugged herself tightly against Anna.
-Though we part now, one day, we will meet again.
With a radiant smile, she cried,
“See, we’ve met again like this!”
* * *
Holy Federation, Heaven Island.
Clack, clack.
A young priest, dressed in officer’s uniform, stopped before a door. Gazing at her reflection in the marble, she straightened her attire, then drew a deep breath.
With a tense face, she knocked.
“Lady Israfil, this is Penelope, I’ve come to deliver the report on the western provinces.”
“Come in.”
At Israfil’s voice, the priest entered.
Inside the quiet, stately office, a woman with sea-colored hair sat signing papers with a quill. Her eyes remained closed.
“Welcome.”
“Ah, yes!”
To be in the same space as Lady Israfil, the Holy Federation’s symbol of peace, was a rare experience.
With a pounding heart, the young priest laid down the report respectfully and spoke of various matters.
Despite her busyness, Israfil listened with a gentle smile.
“You’ve worked hard, Penelope.”
“Thank you! Ah......”
Her gaze turned to a frame placed at the center of Israfil’s office. Within the carefully crafted frame was inscribed a phrase.
“Is there something more you wish to say?”
“That inscription......”
The priest pointed at the frame.
“You often move your office, but you always bring that with you. Does it hold special meaning?”
“Oh, that?”
Israfil covered her mouth and laughed shyly.
“It’s a phrase that has always supported me. Without its comfort, I might have collapsed under the trials long ago.”
“That’s wonderful. Who told it to you?”
“Well now.”
Israfil tilted her head slightly, eyes still closed.
“Feels like someone once told it to me? Or perhaps it just came to me in my mind? It’s hazy.”
“??”
Israfil smiled warmly.
“I can’t recall clearly, but does it matter?”
“Yes! If it comforts you, Lady Israfil......!”
With a proud expression, Israfil turned her gaze back to the frame.
<It is Anna who opens the new age, but it is you who sustains it.>
Each time she saw it, it felt new.
Each time she saw it, her heart burned.
“Somehow…”
She murmured softly.
“I find myself missing our Lete’s face.”
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