337: Childhood Friend - Noah and Soya
---
"Good morning."
The day should have started peacefully with this simple greeting.
Although Rev had barely slept, he woke early, intending to help his mother prepare breakfast. Stepping outside, he was greeted by an unexpected sight.
The priest was there.
“Rev, the priest is asking for you. Co quickly.”
Oh, great.
Rev didn’t know what was happening, but it was clearly urgent. Life in this quiet mountain village had begun to shift dramatically, barely a day after the scenario started.
The Rev from two days ago might not have handled this so calmly. Back then, he would have tiptoed around, trying to dodge responsibility. But now? He faced the situation head-on. After all, he’d once commanded an entire battalion.
“Alright—what’s this about?”
“It’s urgent. Follow .”
But the priest, seeing only a child before him, spoke down to him. Rev shrugged at his mother’s questioning look—“Did you get into trouble again?”—and followed the priest.
As they walked, Rev noticed Leslie the monk escorting Lena out of her house next door.
What’s going on here?
This was unprecedented.
Since the scenario began, the only noteworthy things Rev had done were confessing his feelings to Lena and contacting Lean. Could Lean have caused this sohow?
Lena’s expression was complicated as Rev asked, “Did you get rid of Cocoren?”
She barely acknowledged him before following the priest.
Rev guessed it was because of her dream.
---
The reason beca clear when they reached the churChapter
“You two seem to have received a divine revelation,” the priest explained. “The Saint contacted us yesterday.”
Lena trembled at those words. Rev was the one who asked for clarification.
“And?”
“She said she’d reach out again this morning. Wait here.”
“That won’t be necessary. Or... maybe it will?”
Lena stepped forward, her words uncertain. She reached for the church’s holy relic. The mont her hand touched it, she trembled.
It wasn’t a dream.
---
Last night, Lena had been enveloped by {Divinity} and slept deeply. Almost as soon as her head touched the makeshift pillow of a basket, she dread. Perhaps influenced by Rev’s confession earlier, he appeared in her dream too, confessing once more.
But this ti, the confession was different.
He was crying, speaking nonsense about how his life had been repeating over and over. Naturally, she hadn’t believed him.
In the dream, she wished him good luck with Cocoren, clapping her hands for emphasis, before heading ho.
That was only the beginning.
What followed was an impossible adventure. The mountain boy and girl set out on a journey, eting nobles, a vengeance-driven knight, and eventually confronting an ancient evil god nad Oriax.
They toppled a monarchy that had been reduced to a puppet of a cardinal and beca nobles themselves.
It was a miserable life.
Lena cried in her sleep throughout the dream.
In that life, she had a beautiful daughter and a clever son.
She had them.
They were truly lovely children.
But her daughter was found with her head in a burning hearth, and her son was recovered from a well only when spring ca, his body waterlogged.
The culprit was obvious, but her husband, who had risen through the ranks from Baron to Viscount, to Count, and finally to Duke under the patronage of the Princess Lerialia de Monarch, had never blad her.
Instead, consud by madness, he had fought tirelessly against her.
“Ahahahahaha! Lerialia! Re-ri-a-na! Now you’ve torn my heart apart too!”
He had refused even a funeral for their children, heading straight to the battlefield. Only after Lerialia retired did he return to cremate their remains and scatter their ashes into the Irotasi River.
With that, their lives lost all aning.
---
As Lena touched the relic, mories overwheld her, and she sobbed silently.
The relic began to glow, and the priest murmured like a fool,
“A... Saint?”
It was unclear whether he mistook Lena for the Saint or believed it was the Saint herself contacting them. Regardless, Lena was communicating directly with the Saint.
---
Lena’s mories had returned.
Rev, who had been alone in his repetitive loops, was thrilled. At last, Lena shared his understanding of their twisted reality. He approached her with a hand extended in solidarity.
Smack.
Lena shrugged off his hand.
She was not standing on the sa emotional ground as him.
Turning to the priest, Lena said, “The Saint wants to speak with you. She has sothing to tell you.”
“Lena, what’s going on—”
“Brother Leslie, I’m sorry. I need to be alone for a while.”
Lena walked out of the church, Leaving Rev and Leslie exchanging bewildered glances. Rev followed her.
---
Lena sat on the church steps, burying her face in her sleeves.
She’s crying.
“...Lena.”
“Don’t talk to right now, you idiot.”
“...”
Why was she crying?
Rev, who had never experienced life beyond the endings, had no idea.
All he could do was wait. Lena finally lifted her head after a long silence.
Her eyes, swollen and red from crying, locked onto his.
“You don’t even know our kids’ nas, do you?”
“...!”
“They were Noah and Soya. Rember that. They... were beautiful. So beautiful.”
“...I see.”
“No. You will see.”
Their eyes t, and Rev was struck by her gaze—a gaze that spoke of soone who had accepted the past and resolved to face the future.
The Saint promised unlimited support.
“Use anything you need from the nearby churches. If necessary, I’ll authorize the requisition of resources from within a hundred-mile radius.”
Why now, after all this ti? It was unclear.
Even so, there wasn’t much they needed—travel papers for crossing borders freely and sufficient funds for their journey to the Aisel Kingdom, or possibly even the Aslan Kingdom.
Oh, and one more thing:
“The King of Bellita is an evil god. The Saint wants us to capture him.”
Lena delivered the ssage.
It was the fastest and surest path to confronting Astroth.
The priest refused outright.
“She said Lord Binar would never forgive her for that. He’s already scolding her incessantly!”
“...Can a Saint really talk about gods like that?”
Lena shrugged at Rev’s incredulous expression.
"What else should we ask for?"
"Hmm... not much, I think? The job this ti is pretty simple. We just need to et the king in the Aisel Kingdom, and if possible, in the Aslan Kingdom too."
"That’s what you call ‘not much’? A king is one thing, but we’re traveling across half the continent. Shouldn’t we ask for a horse and carriage?"
“No need for a carriage. I have a horse already. I even unlocked the ‘Mount’ achievent, so I can summon one whenever I want. It’s amazing—I’ll show you later.”
"And what about ?"
“Huh?”
"I don’t have a horse, and I don’t know how to ride one either. Is your horse strong enough to carry both of us?"
“Ah... not really...”
The horse Rev would summon was likely to be Bante, a flashy but unreliable steed, nowhere near strong enough to carry both of them. If it were Kus, Ray’s powerful black stallion, that might have been different.
But the issue wasn’t about the horse. It was about what ca next. With a somber expression, Rev said:
“You can’t co with .”
"Why not?"
“You need to go to the cathedral and retrieve the Brass Chalice. This is our final loop. We don’t have a choice.”
"You’re an idiot. The Brass Chalice? Whatever that is, we can just ask the Saint to send it here." Lena waved her hand dismissively and touched the holy relic again. “...Wait. No, we can’t. She says it’s a sacred artifact, so only soone chosen by the divine can carry it. What now?”
---
Rev sighed and shrugged, a hint of sadness in his deanor. It was their last loop, and he couldn’t share it fully with Lena.
He didn’t show it, but the thought made him bitter.
Sacred artifacts that couldn’t be moved? That was absurd. The Almighty shouldn’t have any limitations, so why couldn’t this be done? It felt like another arbitrary rule. He could only try to convince himself that there was a reason beyond his understanding.
At Least... I won’t be separated from Lena forever.
That was how Rev consoled himself.
This was just a temporary separation—a year, maybe less. In the grand sche of life, wasn’t that rely a fleeting mont?
But... no.
For him, there was no life beyond the ending.
After the final scene, he and Minseo would be erased. He didn’t know what would beco of Lena or the others, but his existence would end with the conclusion.
Perhaps, everything that made him “Rev” was just fragnts of his past selves carried over through Minseo’s mories. And even if the world continued after the ending, all he and Lena had ever seen were a few lines of text summarizing it.
---
As darkness threatened to engulf his thoughts, the nas of the children—Noah and Soya—shone like a beacon.
Yes. The future must exist. It had to. There was no other choice but to believe.
God, this is unfair.
But even his bitterness was sothing Rev accepted. After all, a toy was ant to be used and discarded.
---
"Aha!" Lena suddenly exclaid, interrupting his musings. “Paper! Where’s the paper?”
Still holding one hand against the relic to maintain her connection with the Saint, she grabbed a quill and began scribbling with the other. Rev steadied the paper for her.
"Rev, I think you made a mistake. This isn’t our last loop, is it?"
“...It is. The next loop is the ‘Betrothal Scenario.’ Ray and Rera will conclude everything. We’ll be there, but...”
"Exactly. So, there’s one more loop after this one, right? That ans this isn’t the last one."
“...What? No, that’s the sa thing. The next loop is the last one. So, this is—”
Lena waved her hand dismissively again.
"No, no, no. Let’s keep it simple. There’s this loop and the next one, right?"
“...Right?”
"Then why do you keep calling this one the last? You dummy. I only need to go to the cathedral and get that chalice during the final loop, right?"
“...???”
"So I don’t have to go this ti, do I? Perfect. I’ll go in the next loop."
“???”
“What are you staring at?” Lena crossed her arms, glaring at him as if he were the one not making sense.
“Lena, I don’t think you understand. Once a loop progresses, the events beco fixed. If you don’t go to the cathedral this ti, you won’t go in the next loop either.”
"Says who?"
“Says... our observations. That’s what we’ve Learned from everything we’ve been through.” Rev tried to explain, but Lena’s obstinate expression only deepened his frustration.
"Then what about those changes between loops? You said things can be altered."
“That’s only when a previous loop influences the next.”
Lena huffed, puffing her cheeks in mild annoyance.
"Fine. Then we’ll just make it influence the next loop. Easy, right? And here’s how."
“...How? Oh! We could wake soone with the mirror, but the Betrothal Scenario starts in winter, so—”
"Not that! This!"
Lena pointed at the relic under her palm.
"The Saint is right here! She’s already contacting us and isn’t bound by ti, right?"
“...Oh?”
"So next ti, the Saint just has to remind to go to the cathedral. Problem solved. She’ll do that much for us, won’t she?"
“...Oh!”
“What’s with that look? Why are you—ah!” Lena squeaked as Rev suddenly cupped her puffed-up cheeks with both hands.
"Lena! You’re a genius!"
He squeezed her cheeks, making her lips flatten comically like a fish, before pressing a kiss to her forehead.
---
Though their ti together would be fleeting, Rev couldn’t contain his joy. For this loop, at Least, they wouldn’t have to part.
Even if it was only a trick of fate, for soone with a short and fragile existence like his, it was more than enough.
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