Vol 7 Chapter 40

#(3)

As his body felt lighter, when Kapros opened his eyes, Ilumine was standing before him holding only an empty scroll rod. At first he almost got confused thinking this was still part of the memories, but seeing her hair reaching down to her feet, he could tell this was the present.

"You've seen it all."

"Is this the end?"

"The remaining memories are over. But what I want to tell you starts now."

Ilumine said this as she dropped the scroll rod to the floor.

"What are your thoughts after seeing everything?"

"...It's worse than I expected."

Just as Kapros was about to ask if she was asking him, Superior muttered through his mouth.

"To think I was such a thoroughly manufactured being. And I'm surprised that you were involved in it. A second birth secret at this age, of all things."

"He and I spent years researching to find a way to stably divide one person into two."

After saying this, Ilumine let out a long breath.

"Since the memories sealed in the scroll were left almost entirely from his perspective, I want to speak from my perspective too. Will you listen? I've waited a very long time for this day."

"Do as you please."

Though Superior's words had become strangely cold, Ilumine didn't seem to mind much.

"When he came to find me, it was quite some time after what humans call the Demon God War, the Gran Perdi Race War, had ended. It was when all surviving intelligent beings were consumed with post-war reconstruction after the entire continent had become ruins and even the northwestern terrain had been overturned. It was also a time when no one expected things could return to how they were before."

Ilumine's expression darkened momentarily.

"We elves had to leave as the Rama Forest, which was practically the center of our homeland, was lost, and the dwarves lost most of their unpolluted underground ore veins where they worked. Dragons suffered a blow to their pride and position of overseeing the continent's axis, and humans lost their leaders."

It was a time when everyone was too busy keeping themselves alive to worry about exactly how the demon god had disappeared or what had happened to those who had remained fighting until the end. Ilumine's voice was extremely dry as she said this.

"Even I only headed to the final battlefield left in the west months later, temporarily postponing gathering my people after the war."

But by then it was too late, and nothing remained there.

Finally learning only that the land would become a barren desert where no life could grow again, Ilumine decided to grow a forest at its edge, avoiding humans.

"It was a time when wariness and hatred toward other races had reached their peak amid the chaos. When he came to me while I was working on rebuilding a second forest, he made that request as you saw in the memory just now."

For a moment, fragments of memory Kapros had seen in the cabin where Superior had supposedly stayed when first coming to meet Ilumine flashed through his mind. Perhaps that was when it happened.

"At first I intended to stop him from dividing himself in two, but in the end I couldn't stop him completely. The last thing he told me was that as long as I maintained the order he wanted, I could do as I pleased with my choices. So that's what I intend to do."

"What choice?"

At Superior's question, Ilumine raised the corner of her mouth.

"Well. I can't tell you easily since I'll think about it while watching your future actions. Whether you change into a parasite or find another possibility. Do as you please. There's nothing to stop you. That's all I'll tell you."

"...Fine. Then I can ask what I'm curious about too, right? You must know by what criteria my complete past self divided into two, so why won't you tell me?"

"Because not telling that was part of my promise with him. As you say, I know but cannot tell."

"Then second."

After hesitating briefly after speaking, Superior slowly asked Ilumine.

"Can I... still call you Lumi like before?"

"Do as you please."

It was unclear whether Ilumine answered quietly indicating she didn't mind despite understanding the true meaning of that question, or whether she didn't understand. Superior's lips moved as if wanting to ask something more, but he fell silent. Kapros felt the need to ask another question in that gap.

"Ilumine. Then can we now hear the answer to Kor the Flame Dragon's question?"

Ilumine looked into Kapros's eyes and nodded.

"Now that what I've been waiting for is finished, I can tell you. If you want to hear that answer, let's return now. Stay alert and follow me, child."

As he followed Ilumine who had quietly started walking past him, Kapros glanced back. He could see the empty scroll rod abandoned alone in the space where nothing remained now. Everything he had seen here had been so shocking that he felt he would never forget this scene.

Superior going insane and Superior divided in two. What were his "two thoughts" that he had cleverly glossed over when speaking to Ilumine? Unlike the early quest that had seemed like they just needed to deal with the reviving demon god, Kapros didn't know what to think of the current situation that was heading in increasingly unexpected directions.

'...'

He turned his head and quickly moved his feet before Ilumine's footprints disappeared. Somehow it felt like wind was blowing from behind him, though it shouldn't have been possible.

When they returned to the cave where Kion-hyung was waiting, hyung ran over with visible delight.

"Kar, you're back!"

"Yeah."

"I thought I was going to die of boredom. Your business? Did it go well?"

When hyung asked quietly so Ilumine passing by toward her original place couldn't hear, Kapros also nodded slightly.

"...It seems so."

Though he felt somewhat uneasy, for now at least...

At his answer, hyung smiled brightly and patted his back.

"Good, well done well done."

"You two. I'd like you to come sit down."

At Ilumine's cool voice from where she had already returned to her original place, hyung froze with his smiling face.

"Ah, yes."

As soon as they sat down in front of Ilumine, Kion-hyung began his question.