Chapter 184 – My Love, My Eternity (10)

“What? I’m sure I was here a while ago…”
“Is it so?”
“Yes, he was talking to me. “That’s strange.”

Terra was not in the room we were shown to.
The tea, which was still hot, gave off steam on the table.
Lehel glanced around her room, then she suddenly threw herself onto the chair where Terra had been sitting and put her legs up on her desk.
Behavior similar to the complaining of an upset child.
It seems like Terra doesn’t really like her.

“What did you talk about?”

I asked, turning my gaze to the bookshelf decorating one wall of the study.
Someone had already stopped by once, and there were traces of several books missing.

“…”
“Chairman?”

When I turned my head to hear her inaudible reply, I saw Lehel continuing to blow her whistle in oblivion.
She had a strong will not to answer.
I was deeply shocked.
I can’t believe we were barely this close.

“Rosary confiscated for one month.”
“Oh, let me go!! No, give it to me!! Hurry!!!”

It was quite cute to see him jumping up and down and screaming when I took the rosary from his wrist.
At the same time, a bitterness filled my mouth as I remembered the past I had encountered in Baldur’s nightmare.
In his prime, he was much taller than this.
How did it become like Darling like this?
No, since I was like a child on the inside, it doesn’t really matter, right?

“If you want it back, tell me the truth. “You’re not really asking for a gambling hall to be built in the lighthouse, are you?”
“Well, that…” … ! That’s right! It’s conveniently located in the chairman’s office, so there’s at least one on an empty floor…”
“You’re lying. Cut it off?”
“Hiyaaaaa!? Sorry! “Use it well!!”

After some sincere persuasion without any physical violence on her part, I was able to hear her conversation with Terra.
Concerns about exchanging lifespan and inherent magic power.
It is said that if you give up your unique magic, you can stay like this forever.
The timing would also be appropriate, as the body that was younger would begin to age again.

“So, have you decided?”
“No, not yet. “I think I should listen to the boss’s opinion.”

The weight of my small buttocks on my knees was as light as a feather.
Even though it was wrapped around my waist, it felt like it would just fly away if the wind blew.
Lehel rested her head on her chest and turned the rosary beads she had retrieved from me, one by one.
He looked like a monk who was well versed in world affairs.

“To be honest, I think it would be better to stop now.”
“Stop it?”
“Yes! She found the happiest moment of her long life. “I think it’s time to give up on this too.”

Her words were gentle, but there was deep affection in her eyes as she looked at her most precious horse.

In my heart, I would like to tell you to continue to be by my side because it is okay to not have something like Gojimado.
I hope that you don’t worry about war and that you just stay by my side, smiling and joking around like you always do.
However, if I tie her down with my own desires, it will definitely not be her decision for Lehel’s happiness.
There was something else I had to do.

“I’ll wait.”
“President… ?”
“If you wake up in your cradle, you will return to Parencia.”
“…”
“No matter how much time passes, I will always be here.”

Her legs, which had been nervously kicking under her desk, stopped moving.
Her hand, which had been spinning her rosary, was now gently resting on her thigh.

“Well, then I can’t do it!”

After a while, Lehel spoke cheerfully as usual and she jumped on my lap.

“I’ll let you decide as I please.”

I don’t know what choice she will make in the end, but there was a carefree smile underneath the hat she was wearing as she looked back.

***

A few hours after saying goodbye to Lehel, who kept asking me to play, I was able to meet Terra at the top of her lighthouse.
The night sky dotted with galaxies was so beautiful that I forgot the chill of the winter.
The top floor of the Lighthouse of Horus.
There, the observatory, which can be reached through a small staircase, was the best place to view the stars.
Numerous telegraph wires were clinging to the railings like pigeons in the square, and Terra was sitting on the floor repairing one of them.

“Are you awake, Louis?”
“What are you doing?”
“Yeah, I’m fixing some broken things. There are a lot of guys coming in recently with injuries, right? “Maybe because it’s winter, it’s surrounded by a castle.”

As I opened the barbed wire fence and got closer, she lifted her sulky head up and looked at the sky.
When I saw her from the side for the first time in five years, she was exceptionally beautiful.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”
“…”

It was a straight-forward question that seemed to read my mind like a ghost.
Finally, she turned her gaze back to the night sky and said:

“What was it like where you lived? Were there stars like this there too?”
“There was. But not as many as on the continent.”
“Thank god. “I can see such pretty stars.”

When I was young, Terra would bring me into this world and find better things for me.
So that I can adapt to this place.
It was an effort to prevent people from having even the slightest pessimistic thoughts.
A wizard exploring new things might not know this, but to me, these were very trivial and meaningless things.
However, because there was a feeling of affection for me within it, I was very happy to see that Terra had not changed even after all this time.

“The children were very sad. “Luis when you fell.”
“…”
“We made a good relationship. “I’m a little jealous.”
“You were worried too.”

When I was lying motionless, she would come to me every night and stroke my hair.
In front of him, he didn’t show it at all, but with an expression full of pity and regret.
She is the one who brought me to this world as the secretary to summon the Hero, so how could I not know how she feels?
The resentment over the years of hardships and sorrows had seemingly been washed away.

“Oh, that’s right! I left for a while to form an alliance with the Sakel Alliance, but Nova said she had something to tell you. A butler with a bouquet of flowers escaped from Bahran’s envoy’s quarters, and he told me to run away quickly before he arrived in Parenzia. I heard he’s been secretly jealous for a long time too…”
“…”
“The battlefield is getting wider, so wouldn’t there be a higher chance of dying on the way? Most of the city has been sealed off, and even magic towers with locked doors are appearing. There’s nothing to worry too much about. If anything happens, this sister is just…”
“Terra.”

She knows a lot about various things in the world, and once she starts talking, she could talk for a lifetime.
When I interrupted her, she was silent for a moment.

“Long time no see.”
“…”

She urged again, and after sending one of the repaired boats into the sky, she finally looked back.
And she slowly came over and hugged me.

“Louis…”
“Okay.”
“I didn’t want to leave you alone and hide…”
“It had to be done. “Because of your help, I was able to keep my oath until the end.”
“I didn’t want to just watch you struggle…”
“You covered it all with telegraph wires. “The reason I was able to live quietly for ten years after defeating the Magic Tower was all because you looked after me.”
“You…”

She muttered softly in a throaty voice.

“… “I didn’t want to send him to war again.”
“…”

Unfortunately, that wish cannot come true.
Both she and I knew that fact well.
It was already decided that Seongguk would summon the warrior.
Penheim, which was on the verge of falling as its capital, suffered too much damage to fight another war.

“It’s okay, Terra.”

But it’s okay now.

“It was a war we couldn’t have prevented with our own hands.”

The stars in the night sky, which she had been looking up at without taking her eyes off her, have now regained their brilliant light.
Archdukes with unique magic are still able to withstand the Holy Kingdom and demons in various parts of the kingdom.
And above all——

“We can finish it with our own hands.”

I’m back.
By breaking their expectations.
I will crush the heads of those who believed that my oath would be broken and that I would die at the same time as my oracle was taken away.
This was the last move that had been prepared for a long time to end the war.
Now there was only one thing left.

“Receive.”

Terra handed me the keys.
It was the key to the store that was always hidden under a flower pot.

“I made iron soldiers and finished the construction of the basement. If you go and dig a little, you will find the holy sword.”
“Thank you.”
“You just have to come out before the sun rises. “The princess will come to visit tomorrow morning.”
“Okay.”
“… Louis.”

As I was about to leave, she called me.
Also, I was just about to wave my hand because I didn’t want to hear someone say something awkward like thanking me for keeping my oath.

“Take a good look at the tombstone.”
“What?”
“It’s the last gift I can give you.”

Before we know it, Terra is sitting back down and repairing the remaining telegraph wires.
I left her behind and came downstairs.

The dark store with the lights off was filled with a gloomy atmosphere as it had been untouched for a long time, but it was my most precious treasure.
I carefully cleaned the stalls, counters, and floor.
It made me smile every time I saw small dust and stains as traces of students bustling around.

I checked the money box and the lighting without any sense.
Then I sat down at the counter and looked around the store.
It was a place with many memories.
It was a place filled with memories with many people.

Darling told me that he might have to repeat the grade because he was unable to write his graduation thesis.
Fortunately, it is said that the treatment of graduate students has improved a lot so that they are no longer dragged into the sewers.
The face that was complaining about not being able to see its face again for another year didn’t look that unpleasant.

Adela and Erzsebet will be promoted to second year, and Liv will be a senior.
As I imagined them wearing blue and red capes, I felt a sense of pride.

I will work hard at my business next spring as well.
Even after winter ends, our peaceful daily life will not change.
In order to do that, you don’t have to be the guy who guards the academy’s cafeteria for a while.
I guess I should become a warrior and pick up a sword.

Crash.

I entered the tightly closed basement and closed the door.
As Terra said, the handle of the holy sword was exposed under the evenly dug floor.
I knelt in front of the stone monument erected when I first came here.
Under the colorful bouquets of flowers that seemed to have been left behind by former colleagues, there was a note.

***

“Uh? Is it a royal carriage? Besides, there is also the Ruhilen family.”

Late morning.
Karen, who was in the dormitory, saw two carriages stopping in front of Bayou Pavilion.

“The rest of your academic schedule must have been declared public for both of you. What happened?”

She asked Liv, who was reading a pile of books she had brought from somewhere that she had never seen before.
Her roommate, now that she has the title of archduke, is more distant than before, but she has to share a room since they both chose not to return to their hometowns at the end of the semester.

“…”
“Live?”

She said something to ease the awkwardness, but her dirty friend was just staring at the paper.
She would pick up a pen and write something next to her, then crumple it up and throw it away.
I’m worried that her pretty, frowning face might become wrinkled.
In response to her growing seriousness, Karen tried to encourage her to take a break.

“Are you okay… ? Hey, if you’re hungry, would you like to go to the snack bar? No… “Did you say it’s closing now?”

Widely!

“Hi! “Well, sorry if I disturbed you!”
“… “I have to go.”
“What?”

As if he suddenly realized something, Liv threw away the book he was reading and jumped up from his seat.
She said she was conducting research on a former saintess, but her expression was frighteningly complex.

“Uh, where are we going… ?”

Just then, in the distance, the two carriages started moving again.
At the end of the academy’s main street in the thick dusk, there stood a huge tower emitting a mysterious light.

“To the lighthouse.”

Finally, Liv headed there as well, crumpling the long piece of paper she would scribble on into her pocket.
To meet Terra Ernie Sten and confirm her truth.