Chapter 130
“Wake up, Odette.”
Hearing someone call her, Odette opened her eyes and lifted her upper body.
This is… that place from my dreams, the one I always see.
But unlike usual, there wasn’t a single hornet in sight.
Without the swarming hornets, the vastness of the space became even more overwhelming.
She felt as though she were stranded in the middle of an endless desert.
As she stared out toward the distant horizon, Odette placed her hand on the tree beside her to stand up. Then, looking up at the tree, she froze in shock.
It was because the appearance of the massive tree was completely different from the one she remembered.
When did it… get covered in this many flower buds?
The last time she saw it, the tree only had a single bud.
But now it was covered—absolutely brimming—with pale pink buds, ready to burst into bloom at any moment.
“…Are you the one who called me?”
For some reason she felt like the tree had summoned her, so Odette spoke to it. But of course, there was no reply.
What am I even doing…? As if a tree would answer me.
Just then, a crackling sound filled her ears.
A familiar sight appeared—an old, glitching status window, fractured like broken glass.
[ Retrying to activate status window… ]
[ Activation successful! ]
[ You may now use the status window inside Odette’s ‘inner world’! ]
…Inner world?
The familiar term made Odette frown.
Isn’t that something only Purifiers have? Why would it call this my inner world?
The flickering window buzzed, then new text appeared.
[ Hello, Odette? ]
Just from the tone, she could tell—
[ Finally, you… ]
[ Be careful outside the door. ]
—the one sending these messages was the very same existence that had spoken to her through the status window before.
“Who are you? How do you—”
[ That’s not important. ]
[ What matters is that your moment of awakening has finally arrived. The first miracle is about to begin. ]
Awakening?
Before she could grasp the meaning, Odette suddenly felt heat surge through her entire body.
[ I can’t speak to you anymore. The inner world of an awakened Purifier is flawless. ]
[ Just remember this, Odette. What you have is the purest of all. ]
“What are you saying?”
…No way.
Awakening. Inner world.
All those words pointed to one truth:
That Odette had awakened as a Purifier.
But she couldn’t accept it. Odette shook her head violently.
No. There’s no way I’m a Purifier. That’s impossible. I’m a fake Purifier. I was one in the game, and in my last life as well—
Her thoughts were cut off.
Because every last bud on the enormous tree burst into bloom all at once.
As if waiting for this exact moment, the buds unfurled instantly, exploding into full bloom.
A dizzyingly sweet peach-blossom scent filled the air as—rumble-rumble— the desert began to shake, like a massive earthquake.
But it wasn’t the ground shaking.
It was the tree.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
The tremors grew stronger. It felt like the entire space was on the verge of collapse.
Then, from the roots of the tree, an incredible amount of water surged upward.
Swooooosh—
It was just water pouring from the tree, yet it rose far too fast—like a giant tidal wave forming right before her eyes.
Odette could only stare blankly at the catastrophic sight.
Swooooosh—
The water rose quickly, sweeping her up. It reached her head almost instantly, and Odette reflexively held her breath.
Am I going to drown like this…?
At that moment—
“You cannot die here. You are the sole owner of this place.”
The same voice that awakened her earlier spoke again. Just as she had sensed, the voice belonged to the tree.
And the tree was right. Even though she held her breath, the water forced her to breathe naturally.
Even underwater, breathing felt natural—no, even more refreshing and effortless than breathing air.
Every inhale drew water in; every exhale sent it back out. Each breath made her body feel lighter and cleaner.
Why…? Why now…?
But unlike her body, which grew lighter with every breath, Odette’s heart sank deeper.
Because every breath reminded her—she was a Purifier.
The tree sent even more water, flowing harder and faster. The space filled, rising to meet the sky, turning into the deep, dark turquoise of an ocean trench.
Odette knew this wasn’t real seawater, yet she felt as though she were trapped in the deepest abyss.
Why did I become a Purifier now…?
It was so distant, so hopeless.
If only she’d been a real Purifier—how good that would have been. If only she could have been useful to her family. If only she could have eased the suffering of the Transcendents.
She had wished for those things desperately in her past life. Even though she’d known it would never come true, she’d held onto that childish dream for far too long.
And the more she dreamed, the smaller and more worthless she felt. How deeply she had come to hate herself during those years of longing.
How many heartbreaks it took for her to reach the point where she truly no longer wished for it.
I’ve finally stopped wanting it…
Only now, when the word “Purifier” had become completely meaningless to her—
—why now?
How could fate toy with her this cruelly?
Odette even felt humiliated.
She glared resentfully at the ever-rising water.
They said all Purifiers feel overwhelming joy at the moment of awakening.
But Odette felt no joy.
No happiness.
Not even a fraction of it.
Victor was drenched in blood from tearing apart the disasters erupting throughout the capital.
Spitting out a piece of hazard beast that got into his mouth, Victor frowned at his subordinate, who had just finished speaking.
“What the hell kind of bullshit is that?”
“It’s true! That vil—ah, no—sorry! Habit!”
Startled by Victor’s murderous glare, the subordinate quickly corrected himself.
“I mean, that wonderful and perfect lady, Lady Odette—she was really working at the hospital!”
“You stupid bastard. You dare hallucinate about my sweetheart?”
Victor pulled the massive polearm from his back, expression deadly.
“I-I’m telling the truth!”
“She’s a noble! Why would she be THERE? Unless you were having dirty fantasies about my sweetheart—”
That was when it hit him.
An unbelievably intoxicating scent stabbed into Victor’s senses.
“…This is her scent.”
But the scale—
It was incomparable to anything he had ever smelled from her before. Even the one time he sensed it inside the Imperial Palace paled in comparison.
If that had been a stream—
This was like being dropped into the middle of a raging ocean.
“…Huh? Peach blossoms nearby? Why do I smell flowers all of a sudden?”
Still dazed by the scent, Victor flinched at his subordinate’s remark and looked down sharply.
“You smell it too?”
“Uh? Yes… sir. But it’s a flower scent, right? It feels kind of… holy? Like divine grace.”
The subordinate tilted his head, wearing a blissful expression as if blessed.
Normal people shouldn’t be able to smell a Purifier’s scent. How…?
Something extraordinary was happening to his sweetheart.
Victor sprinted toward the source of the scent.
He arrived at the Rotbart River—and saw something unbelievable.
Odette lay collapsed on the riverbank, dressed like a nurse. And radiating from her form was an ocean of light.
“…What… is this…”
Brilliant white light rippled outward from her like waves.
And wherever the light touched the river, the water turned crystal clear.
The light reached the Rotbart, flooded the entire river, then spread to the village, and finally washed over the entire capital.
Even Victor—who had lived his whole life as a divine beast—had never trembled before a miracle like this. Never been so overwhelmed.
And it wasn’t just him.
The people of the capital who saw the light gasped and rushed toward it—toward the heart of the miracle, where Odette lay.
Toward the girl who had brought forth an unfathomable miracle.
