The Laute family was not really a simple family.
I realized this fact again and again as I studied the data I had transferred to my watch in Rian Laute’s office.
Their connections, their past endeavors, their place in the underworld...
And I also realized that I was right on one point.
If we had attacked the family together with the kingdom, we would have had a real problem.
No, not because there was a traitor, although there were people among the counts who worked for them.
It’s because they have the communication frequencies used directly by the kingdom.
The Laute Family... knew about every decision the Cevilian Kingdom made, almost everything they did in secret.
Even the seer who died a few months ago, even though they never seed to pass this information on to anyone.
They had so many helpers who could co to their aid if they foresaw an attack on them that it was a blessing that we could do it in one day.
But the greatest blessing, actually...
I had all this information in my hands right now.
All of it.
To the last detail.
"Aren’t you tired?"
I paused, my eyes shifting slightly to the right from the countless screens in front of ... towards the door of the dark room I was in.
A figure stood there, leaning against the door, arms folded across her chest.
"I rember giving you a copy of the house key..."
She sighed deeply after what I said.
"I did get in with the key."
Huh?
I turned back to the screens, pressed a virtual button on the bottom left screen, and the notifications window appeared.
Oh...
"That’s why I’m asking, aren’t you tired?"
I took a deep breath, turned off the screens, and the room plunged into deep darkness. But Celine quickly turned on the room lights, not letting us stand in the dark.
"You don’t look well."
I didn’t react to the sudden comnt, I simply replied as I sighed lightly.
"It’s because I’m tired."
But he shook his head from side to side.
"No, not physically."
"..."
"Did sothing happen?"
She moved from the doorway she was leaning against and sat down in the chair across from . She didn’t look too serious, she had a tiny smile on her face.
Yet... she looked serious at the sa ti.
"Yes, sothing happened."
My answer at the end was simply an honest one.
I didn’t want to... lie to her.
"I’m just... a little... tense, that’s all."
But I didn’t want to tell the truth either.
"What kind of tense, for example?"
"Celine... I don’t think I want to talk about it."
What, that I’m slowly killing myself? And that I’m going to keep doing it because I has to.
Well, it’s actually not that there is no solution... After all, I even have an ability to be reborn in the first place. A New Beginning is not sitting there for nothing, even if I haven’t yet fed it enough to make it active.
But... still... I don’t want to utter the word ’dying’.
Especially when I have no idea how fast this is happening.
"And I’m not forcing you to talk about it, Aiden. You can tell if you want to, or not if you don’t want to. I’m... just trying to create an environnt where you can relax, maybe even help, by talking and telling your problems."
She widened her smile knowingly.
"If talking makes you more uncomfortable instead of relaxed... that’s fine."
And she just stayed where she was.
She kept looking into my eyes.
She kept smiling.
Maybe she was waiting for to say sothing. Or maybe... she was just standing there on purpose.
I have no idea.
But, after a while... she got up from her seat.
Again, she didn’t say anything. She simply approached , leaned slightly... then hugged .
She didn’t do anything else.
She just... hugged .
For seconds, even... minutes, she remained silently in that position.
And...
In fact...
It was relaxing.
It really was.
For a brief mont, it replaced the emptiness inside with a tiny warmth.
In fact...
I found myself raising my arms.
In the sa way, trying to hug her.
But my arms remained in the air the mont I realized what I was doing.
"Forget."
And then they slowly ca back down, as I squinted.
"Forget ."
Forget .
Forget...
Why...
Why would you say sothing like that...?
I know, actually, why you did it.
I realized a long ti ago why she said those words, the first ti I spoke to Celine.
She wanted the last thing I had left of her in my mind to be not that we were together, but that she saw no problem in forgetting her so that I could move on.
But...
...
...
I suddenly found myself staring into space.
No, it was not the Absolute Mind that cleared my mind this ti.
Rather... it was myself.
I narrowed my eyes, then realized that my hands were shaking slightly.
Nevertheless, I continued.
I slowly raised my arms again, which I had deliberately lowered, forcing myself to... try.
I hugged her... the way Celine had hugged .
...
...
"Celine."
She didn’t step back, she continued to stand where she was.
"Yes?"
"Do you rember what I promised you back then?"
She paused, her breath caught in her throat.
She backed away slowly, but not too far. Her face was quite close to mine, her violet eyes looking at in a way I couldn’t quite make out.
Concern?
No... sothing else.
I don’t understand...
But it’s not that important.
"I told you I’d find that man, I told you I’d make him suffer as much pain as I could."
"Aiden..."
For the last few days, she had been smiling all the ti, trying to act cheerful, never... in a low mood.
But, this ti, there was a tremor in her voice that she couldn’t hide.
Ah, wait...
Now I get it...
"Don’t wear yourself out over sothing aningless."
This is...
A mixture of disgust and regret.
"I... I don’t care that much."
She feels disgust, for that man.
She doesn’t even want to rember him.
She wants to erase him from her life.
At the sa ti, she regrets that she didn’t stop from making this promise.
I picked up my watch, made a few simple clicks on it, and an image popped up.
But I didn’t stop there. I also took sothing specific out of my ring.
"But I’ve already kept my promise, even if it’s not quite finished yet."
On the holographic screens that appeared in front of us, erging from my watch, were several photographs.
Photos of that man’s... soulless, lifeless body.
And the mont Celine saw them, she was completely stunned.
"I found him during the attack. And we had a little fight."
I showed her the stone, even though she wasn’t looking at it and was completely focused on the photos.
"I ripped his soul out of his body, trapped it in this, and when the ti cos... I’m going to throw it in a place where he will burn forever."
Only after these words did her eyes turn to the small stone in my hand.
Her breathing was labored, her heart was beating like crazy. Her whole body was trembling and she seed to have difficulty focusing her eyes.
"I avenged you, Celine. I’m sorry you weren’t there to see it at the ti, but... I’ll make sure he suffers forever as I promised. Don’t worry."
I sighed lightly as I saw how her eyes, turned to the stone, flickered, then I placed it back into my ring.
Celine just kept staring into space.
For an entire minute, almost.
But then her eyes, which were slowly returning to normal, focused on .
As her body stopped shaking, as her heart and lungs finally cald down... first, her eyes narrowed slightly, then her lips trembled.
She looked... like she was going to cry. Explore more at .Côm
"Huh?" I couldn’t even hide my surprise, "I’m... I’m really sorry you didn’t get to see it."
"No, Aiden. No..."
"What no-"
But I couldn’t finish my words.
She hugged again quickly, leaving my lips open and my arms in the air.
She didn’t say anything or do anything other than hug .
But... I could still feel her body trembling.
It still hadn’t returned to normal, even though it seed to have stopped from the outside.
And for so reason... she didn’t seem happy or satisfied.
It wasn’t like she was trembling because she knew she had been avenged.
It was sothing else.
Rather than joy... it was a negative emotion.
But why?
I couldn’t understand...
Why isn’t she happy?
I...
I wanted her to be happy.
I wanted to see her smile more sincerely, not just the smile she forced when she was standing next to .
I wanted to see that I had made up for my mistake.
I... I wanted to feel that I had at least accomplished sothing for her, when my life was so full of failures.
So why... why do I still feel like she’s comforting , when it should be the other way around?
"What did I do wrong?"
I... thought I could finally try.
I chose to try to move on with my life, the way Sue wanted to.
I even thought that maybe, just maybe, I could return Celine’s feelings.
"You didn’t do anything wrong, Aiden. I... I’m sorry, I just..."
Why is she apologizing?
For a few seconds, I was lost in my thoughts like this, constantly thinking about what the problem was.
And in the end, the most logical conclusion I could reach was...
Is she blaming my promise to her for Sue’s death, thinking I used up my mana dealing with that man? She surely knows that it doesn’t take a small amount of mana to imprison a soul.
As ti went on, it made more and more sense, especially when I thought of soone like her.
And, at the sa ti, I involuntarily realized sothing about Celine.
She tells not to bla myself and does the opposite.
She tells that I need comfort and then she breaks down like this at the first thought she puts in her head.
Everything she tells not to do... she does.
...
In the end... what I thought in my mind was quite simple.
It was difficult, really...
But it was simple.
I’ll do it.
Like Sue wanted to do.
I’ll try, at least.
And with that thought, I slowly pushed Celine back. I looked briefly into her violet eyes, like athysts, but she couldn’t look at that long.
Nor did she need to.
I brushed her hair aside with my hands and looked at her face.
As I brought my face closer to hers, a very different atmosphere prevailed in the room compared to the previous one.
It was different from the sudden move I made when I couldn’t think straight, when I hadn’t sent all my emotions into the void.
It was real... rather than simply a test I thought I was running to feel sothing.
And so, our lips t.
Reviews
All reviews (0)