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Chapter 143
It's not like I'm so inexperienced kid going through my first love.
If I count my ti in Labyrinthos, I've lived long enough—so why was I so caught up in these strange emotions that I ended up staying up all night?
Looking at her, sleeping soundly beside as if she didn’t have a care in the world, made my blood boil for no reason.
"You ss with my head, and yet you sleep just fine, huh?"
Even though I grumbled at her, she didn’t wake up.
And I couldn’t just wake her up for no reason, so after stretching a little, I headed up to the deck.
I tried to shake off my unsettled feelings and recalled what had happened the previous night.
After a series of minor disputes that ended with us plunging into the sea, we received another magical boost from the rmaids and descended once more into the depths.
There, we finally hunted down the monster hidden in the darkness and reunited with the octopus-whale-like creature that had beco the new king.
Unlike the first ti, when it had lashed out at us with its tentacles, the whale-like beast remained silent, no longer seeing us as enemies.
Thanks to that, we were able to continue our search throughout the night.
My face was still flushed, and my body felt feverish, but the cold water of the deep sea seed to cool that heat.
"You searched through the night alone with her, didn't you?"
lissa was already waiting for on the deck.
"Yeah."
"Did you find anything?"
"No, we combed through everything, but there was nothing."
But that search had at least confird one thing.
Arsha's body was not there.
The tentacle monster devoured human bodies but left behind everything else.
If Arsha had been eaten, her belongings should have remained.
But even among the skeletal remains, we couldn’t find any of her possessions.
Could she still be alive?
Had she been caught in the Kraken’s storm and drifted sowhere else?
Honestly, the chances were slim.
She might have been swept away and rescued by soone, or carried to another part of the ocean.
If that were the case, finding her would be nearly impossible.
That thought made feel increasingly desperate.
Sowhere in this vast, endless ocean, my little sister might be out there, abandoned and alone…
—Brother! Hehe, a present for you!
I could still clearly rember the sight of my youngest sister, so small and adorable, smiling brightly as she handed a gift on my birthday.
lissa and I didn’t always get along, being only a year apart, but our youngest sister loved us both dearly.
She was the treasure that brought laughter to our ho,
A four-leaf clover that brought us happiness.
Even now, the fact that she was gone still tore at from the inside.
That's why I had to find her.
What had that sweet, innocent girl ever done to deserve such a cruel fate?
Of course, if I were being rational, I knew that Arsha's soul was no longer in her body.
Her spirit must have already left her flesh and entered the cycle of reincarnation.
I had seen it firsthand on the Death Road.
But still, this was sothing I had to do.
A way to atone for being the useless brother who couldn't save her back then.
"Are you heading out again?"
"I have to. Today, I'm going to search the entire forbidden zone."
If she wasn’t in that eerie, frozen place where ti stood still, then I had no choice but to search elsewhere.
"Don’t push yourself too hard. Even with the power of the sacred relic, enduring the forbidden zone for too long isn't easy..."
Nabel spoke with a bitter expression but still silently used the sacred relic to enhance our strength once more.
* * *
Two days passed as we continued the search.
And in that ti, I learned two things.
Arsha’s body and her belongings were nowhere in the forbidden zone.
And—
Even with the power of the sacred relic, the forbidden zone placed an unimaginable strain on the body.
On the second day, after just three hours, lissa started feeling nauseous and dizzy, forcing her to give up.
That alone was proof of how intense it was.
If even an expert-level fighter couldn't endure it, then ordinary people wouldn’t last even half a day, let alone an entire day.
There was no point in searching any further.
It was ti to accept the truth.
In the first place, it had been nothing short of a miracle that we had recovered our parents’ remains intact.
Honestly, this was a conclusion we should have reached within the first month after the accident.
The only reason we dragged it out this long was because of the tiny hope that maybe—just maybe—we would find her.
That maybe, by so stroke of luck, she had sohow survived.
But now that we had confird there was nothing more to find, there was nothing left to say.
Just as I was about to turn the bow of the ship,
"Th-That… what is that?!"
Startled by Nabel’s cry, I turned my head to see a massive shadow erging from the dark sea beyond the boundary line.
At the sa ti, a powerful current ford on the surface as the colossal head of a whale appeared.
"I-I’ll prepare for battle!"
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The startled holy knight drew his sword, and Nabel began preparing holy magic.
It was completely different in size and presence compared to the one we had seen when we first entered the forbidden zone.
Even the rmaids, their faces pale with fear, were frozen in place.
"It’s okay. Can we move the ship a little closer over there?"
At my request, the rmaids’ eyes widened in shock.
"Handso brother? W-What do you an…?"
"It’s okay. That’s not an enemy."
Just as I said, the creature simply stared at us without taking any action.
Still looking terrified, the rmaids slowly moved the ship closer to the boundary of the forbidden zone.
Then, as if it had been waiting, the octowhale reached out its massive arms from the water.
BOOOOOM!
"Kyaaah!"
"What the—?!"
The rmaids scread in fear, and the holy knight went on high alert once again, but soon they could only stare in bewildernt.
The octowhale had placed a strangely glowing deep-sea fish onto our ship with a thud! before disappearing without a trace.
"Heavens! A Rainbow Fluke?!"
The rmaids’ eyes sparkled as they gasped in excitent.
"You know this creature?"
"Of course! It’s an extrely rare species found only in the deep sea. It’s delicious, and its belly contains many precious pearls. A healthy Rainbow Fluke can also be sold for a high price as a decorative fish."
"But… why would that massive being give us this…?"
"It must be a gift of gratitude."
"Gratitude?"
That octowhale had been among those caught in the ti-frozen forbidden zone when we fought, and we had cast healing and buff magic on it.
It must have wanted to return the favor.
Though so didn’t seem to understand, I didn’t bother explaining further.
The creature silently watched us as we left before disappearing into the depths of the forbidden sea.
* * *
The Rainbow Fluke, a parting gift from the octowhale, was purchased by the rmaids at a reasonable price.
Apparently, even among rmaids, the Rainbow Fluke was considered an exquisite delicacy.
As soon as we returned to the port town, we prepared two coffins and placed my mother and father’s remains inside before returning to the estate.
Nabel had no reason to stay any longer now that her original mission was complete, but she chose to remain to offer prayers as we laid my parents to rest.
The once-bustling estate, stirred by my return with lissa and Luna, quickly turned solemn upon hearing that we had recovered my parents’ bodies.
Especially those knights and soldiers who had once followed my father but had not been sent to the Demon Realm—they abandoned their leaves and gathered at the estate.
Since the funeral had already been held, there was no need for another ceremony.
Instead, in a solemn atmosphere, we carefully cleansed my parents’ bodies, dressed them in clean burial garnts, and laid them to rest in the cetery.
Even after composing myself, tears still welled up as I silently placed their remains and keepsakes into the once-empty coffin.
I carefully placed a letter I had written on top of their bodies.
It was such a brief reunion, only to be followed by a farewell once again.
"O Holy Lord of the Heavens, your servant offers prayers for the peace of these two souls."
Kneeling in prayer, heedless of how her pristine white robes were dirtied, Nabel radiated divine energy as it enveloped the gravestones.
I knew well that her prayers held no real power.
My parents’ souls had already entered the cycle of reincarnation, and no blessing upon their remains would change anything.
Even so, wasn’t it fortunate that, if nothing else, they had received the prayers of a saintess?
Though I hadn’t been able to serve them well in life, at least I could do this much for them now.
What lingered in my mind, however, was the fact that we had yet to find Arsha’s body.
Once everything was completed in solemn silence, I returned to my room, overco with a strange fatigue, and drifted into sleep without a single thought.
Perhaps it was the first ti since returning from the Labyrinthos.
The first ti I had fallen asleep without Luna’s help or the exhaustion of my aura depletion.
Still, in the depths of my slumber, I vaguely felt a gentle touch brushing my cheek, my lips, and slipping between my fingers.
* * *
I had already shed all the tears I could for my mother and father’s deaths.
I had already wept all I could.
Now, it was ti to move forward and return to my true self.
lissa, who had been silently gazing at the tombstone while running her fingers across it, finally swallowed her sobs and left, saying she would prepare for her return to school and resu her work as the estate’s steward.
The saint, Nabel, though weary, insisted that she needed to return the sacred relic as soon as possible to prevent any complications and left with her holy knights.
And beneath a starlit sky, Luna led by the hand to my bedroom terrace.
"This is a sight I’ve never seen before."
"Hm? What do you an?"
She gazed at the night sky, hands behind her back, before turning toward .
"In the past, there were no stars. Neither those stars nor those enormous planets up there."
Wait, stars are usually billions of years old, aren’t they?
"I have a question."
"Ask away."
"Just how old are you…?"
I never finished my sentence.
In an instant, Luna grabbed by the collar, her eyes gleaming with a faint madness.
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