CHAPTER 149…………………………….
Step. Step.
Her own footsteps felt unfamiliar. They were clearly hers, yet she didn’t know where she was going. Feeling both stifled and afraid, Adele hastily waved her hand to brush aside the branches blocking her view.
…Where is this place now?
She had been looking down at the marquis’s residence from the hill, but what appeared before her eyes was somewhere entirely unexpected. Still, it wasn’t completely unfamiliar.
The vast, white palace she had seen in her dream before stood before her once again.
“This can’t be real.”
When had she come all the way here again?
Adele tried to stop, hesitating mid-step, but her body refused to obey her will.
Passing through the massive palace gates, she reached out to the guards standing there, pleading for help. No matter how loudly she called out, it seemed they couldn’t see her at all.
“…Ah. What is this now?”
She already felt like crying, and now the tears threatened to spill over. She had so desperately wanted to avoid coming here, yet she could guess where she was.
Maidservants dressed just like those she had only seen in newspaper illustrations moved busily about.
Even though she wanted to grab one of them and explain everything, she realized her body still wouldn’t respond to her intentions.
“Oh my, Your Highness. You’re here?”
“Please look this way. This is something prepared especially for you…”
Instead, she slowly turned her head in the direction of their whispers. Amid the bustling figures in the enormous courtyard, gray hair came into view.
A child much smaller than herself—perhaps even younger than when Kaiden had first entered the Sergio household.
…Aaron?
She didn’t know why the sight of the boy made her think of Aaron, but it matched perfectly with the childhood version she had seen in the novel.
Sharp, intelligent eyes. A physique befitting royal blood. Above all, the radiant smile unique to a child loved by all made him stand out.
“Your Highness!”
Even knowing he couldn’t hear her, she forced her way forward. Cheers erupted as he received a lavish sword and grasped it with excitement.
Truly, nothing could be more fitting for a protagonist’s childhood. With a mix of admiration and detachment, Adele watched Aaron quietly.
He really was cute and lovable… but that was all. She smiled faintly, as if watching a passing child.
Then Adele started walking again.
She didn’t know where she was headed, yet her heart was already racing. If this was the imperial palace, it wasn’t a place meant only for the protagonist. Just thinking of the person she was searching for made her chest ache with anticipation.
Here? Or maybe there?
As she moved farther inside, Aaron’s laughter faded, and the air grew colder. It didn’t feel like a place a child would be, yet since he wasn’t there, she had to go deeper.
A child…
It was hard to believe that the man she knew had once been a child.
But unless he had fallen straight from the heavens, he must have been born of someone and raised with care.
That was the natural order Adele knew—the world as the gods had made it.
“Ah…”
She walked and walked through the palace, so vast its end wasn’t even visible.
It was astonishing how large it was, and even more astonishing that she still hadn’t found the person she was looking for.
Just as anxiety rose to her throat, fearing she might never see him, she sensed a presence.
It was faint—no laughter, no applause, no cheers. In this vast gray space, there was nothing except a single person standing alone.
“….”
From afar, she saw hair whipping through the air as he swung his sword.
Holy, shining silver hair. Even seeing a single strand made her heart pound uncontrollably. The back of the boy—his age impossible to guess—shook her to the core.
“Dan… Killian!”
Without realizing it, Adele called out and moved toward him. She thought he wouldn’t hear her, but this time was different. The young shadow flinched and turned halfway toward her—then twisted away.
“Don’t go!”
“….”
“It’s me! Adele!”
There was no reply.
His steps quickened, as if he were running away from her. Though he was only about the same age as Kay when she had first met him, Adele couldn’t catch up.
“Where are you going? Can’t you see me?”
“….”
“Let’s go together.”
The boy’s back twitched, just out of reach. Seeing his hesitation, Adele’s voice grew more desperate.
“Don’t you recognize me?”
Maybe he didn’t. She didn’t even know whether this was a dream or reality—she alone was happy to see Killian.
And of course he wouldn’t know her. This was before he had ever met her.
Suppressing her regret, she lowered the hand she had reached out.
Adele stopped walking, just as he did—neither approaching nor fleeing. The air, already lonely and desolate, grew cold enough to sting. She wrapped her arms around herself, but it did nothing to chase away the chill.
Cough.
When Adele coughed, he hesitated again.
So it really is him.
For some reason, she found herself smiling. Instead of grabbing him, she slowly looked around.
“Ah…”
Something was wrong. Not just because it lacked the flashy splendor of the places Aaron stayed. This place felt more lifeless than anywhere she had ever known.
Yes. It was dead.
No other word fit.
People clearly lived here, yet there was no vitality. And what chilled her the most was that even from the one living person here, she felt nothing.
The eyes that had smiled as they called her name.
“Please… take my hand.”
The large, warm hand once extended toward her.
“I’ve waited for you for so long.”
The burning lips and breath that once touched her cheek.
All of it scattered like an illusion.
There was no laughter, no tears, no joy, no anger—nothing at all.
Where emotions should have overflowed, only emptiness remained, and cold rushed in to fill the void.
Cough.
The chill deepened, sending shivers through her body, her nose stinging sharply.
But more than the cold, her heart ached at the sight of the boy standing before her.
“Killian.”
She called again, but he avoided her. Unable to see his face clearly, Adele reached out.
“Let’s go back.”
“….”
“This isn’t your home.”
Her voice trembled with desperation.
She had planned to glare at him and unleash all her anger when she met him at the marquis’s residence—but she couldn’t.
Her heart hurt too much. She just wanted to hold onto him, somehow.
“Let’s go together, okay?”
“…I…”
His faint voice, barely audible, made her heart ache unbearably.
But no matter how she tried to catch him, he was already far ahead.
Passing through door after door, the gray walls grew darker. Though she was chasing him, it felt like wandering deeper into a maze with no exit.
And the silhouette that waited briefly for her again and again kept growing larger.
From a young boy to someone more mature. Taller. And then, grown fully into the man she knew.
“Killian!”
Before her stood Killian exactly as she remembered—the man who had once held her in his arms.
She clenched the hem of her dress, unable to endure not calling his name.
Instinctively, she knew this was the end—his final memory left behind in this frozen palace.
Panicking, Adele reached out, but Killian moved forward again. No matter how much he had grown, the gray world surrounding him hadn’t changed at all, making her nose sting.
Thud.
She picked up the sword he had dropped while running.
Good heavens.
Forcing herself to lift the sacred sword—too heavy for her hands—she called out to him.
“How can you just drop the holy sword like that?!”
“…That has no meaning.”
“No meaning? Then what does have meaning to you?”
She reached out for him to take it, but he kept drifting farther away. It was infuriating—and heartbreaking.
She wanted to shout at him to come back, to ask if he was really going to leave her behind like this. Her throat burned.
But the words she truly needed to say wouldn’t come out.
“Hngh…”
The tears welling up caught her by surprise. She hadn’t even made a sound, yet Killian reacted first, suddenly reaching out with a large hand beneath her cheek.
Her vision blurred, and though she couldn’t see his face clearly, his breath—panicked and unsteady—was hot against her skin.
“Adele.”
“It hurts.”
She tightened her grip, trying to keep him from leaving, when a sharp pull seized her lower abdomen. Unlike the heat at her eyes, her whole body shook with chills.
A cold?
No—her stomach hurt far too much. The tearing pain made her squeeze her eyes shut.
When she tried to speak, her mouth instantly went dry.
“Ah—!”
Her knees gave out. Like the sword he had dropped moments earlier, she collapsed to the floor.
Startled by the deep cold rising from below, she lifted her head—but his face was already shrouded in a hazy mist.
“Ki… Killian.”
She barely managed to call him, but he stepped away again.
Don’t go.
Clutching her abdomen, Adele clawed at the floor with her remaining hand, as if trying to grab him.
“…We—”
The pain intensified, spreading from her lower abdomen until her whole body writhed. She felt nauseous, unable even to straighten her fingers, breathing growing difficult.
Don’t go.
It wasn’t anger she felt—it was fear. There were still things she hadn’t said, things she still needed to hear.
Her vision spun wildly as she tried to endure.
“Ahh…”
Just as she felt she was about to lose consciousness, a red light enveloped her body, bright enough to cover everything around her.
The light was overwhelmingly hot—and warm. Just touching it seemed to dull the pain. Adele forced her eyes open and gently touched the light wrapped tightly around her.
“…Balrog?”
She didn’t know why she thought of him.
Balrog should have been in the greenhouse.
But even without seeing clearly, there was no way she could mistake his unique presence.
—You’ve seen everything, haven’t you?
“….”
—Then I suppose it’s finally my turn.
A vertically elongated eye, larger than her head, stared straight at her.
Despite the overwhelming presence, she didn’t feel afraid—only curious.
As Adele stared blankly, the red eye curved as if smiling.
—Of course, I understand you’re surprised, but…
“Balrog! Since when could you talk?!”
—….
“And why are you speaking informally to your noona?!”
Did I teach you that?!
Even while sighing heavily, Adele scolded him sharply, as if disciplining a rude child.
The ancient being, having lived thousands of years, blinked in confusion at her unchanging demeanor—even in a moment like this.
“…What are you doing, Balrog? Don’t you know who I am? Are you going to act like everyone else too?”
—N-Noona.
“That’s right! Noona! You think I wouldn’t recognize you just because you changed your appearance?”
I’m sick of being fooled!
Hngh.
Swallowing a sob, she pulled his massive head into her arms. At that moment, the enormous body holding her unraveled like a severed rope.
As the pain returned and Adele grimaced, Balrog pressed his head close to hers and stared at her intently.
—….
The smile he wore—for the first time in thousands of years—was deep.
She had never seen or heard of a sacred beast, neither human nor animal, smiling before. But Balrog was unmistakably smiling.
“Balrog… I’m glad at least you can smile.”
—….
Suppressing the pain, Adele traced her hand along Balrog’s cheek.
It suits you.
No matter how much his form had changed, the sharp ridges she felt when touching his head were unmistakably Balrog.
“Balrog, I wanted to keep protecting you, but you’ve grown too big now.”
—….
“If you could just go far away, somewhere people won’t notice…”
—It’s already too late.
Noona.
The short reply was heavy with sorrow. If asked why it sounded sad, she wouldn’t know—only that it did.
“Balrog?”
—I had fun. I can guarantee that—I’ve never been this happy before.
“….”
—This was my choice. So don’t blame anyone.
Even so, the sincerity in his voice wrapped around her neck.
As Balrog, like Killian before him, began to fade, panic seized Adele and she raised her voice desperately.
“Wait! Where are you going?!”
—I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be with you.
“…Balrog!”
—We’ll meet again. I promise.
With Balrog’s laughter, a lightning-like gust roared past her ears. As she opened her mouth to call him again, something suddenly filled her chest.
“Kh—!”
Her breath caught. She clutched her throat, trying to force it out, but it was useless. As if with a will of its own, warm heat spread deep inside her body.
“Ah…”
Without realizing it, Adele’s hands returned to her lower abdomen.
The tearing pain had vanished completely—but the ache in her heart, longing for someone, remained.
As she stared at the spot where Balrog had disappeared, the red mist before her slowly cleared, revealing a figure.
“…Adele.”
He stood there, having sheathed the sacred sword, looking straight at her.
His eyes were different from before—not the empty gaze she had seen in the palace.
As the fog dispersed, every emotion a person could hold filled his eyes.
“My life’s only meaning is…”
