Chapter 88

Chapter 88

“Celine, I…”

Leonhard interrupted her for a moment. He was choked and could not speak properly.

“…I want you to do whatever you want.”

Celine couldn’t answer.

Her body, which seemed about to jump out, felt heavy as lead. Funny enough, she realized it the moment she heard that, that she would never do anything to make him sad… And the fact that she would never carry out the gruesome plan that had sprung up in her head.

“Leonhard.”

Celine opened her mouth slowly.

“I… I won’t die. Do not worry.”

She still didn’t look back, but she could sense that Leonhard, who had been standing tight, had softened considerably. Celine thought for a moment as her body, which was about to jump out, paused as she thought again.

At least for now, she felt that death was an easier option than life.

Death was a sure success, and life seemed impossible even if she struggled. Now, her plan to fall into thin air and die as soon as the rhythm game began was completely lost. She had to think of new plans and methods.

‘If you don’t want to die… then succeed.’

She closed her eyes tightly.

‘You can do it. You’ve already succeeded once.’

Celine tried to ignore the fact that that ‘success’ was only possible after seeing the dead ending five or six times in a row. She tried to recall the music that rang in the game as soon as she entered the top of the mansion.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

How could she remember the OST for a rhythm game that she heard only once in [ Celine’s Nightmare ]? However, she was able to roughly recall the pattern from the beginning.

Celine glanced down at her own feet.

‘At first… I ran slowly a few times.’

After that, she had to run a little faster to the faster and faster music. There were also sections where she went up to the top of the structure.

She gulped.

‘Let’s try it.’

As she rushed forward recklessly, the next moment, the music pierced Celine’s ears and reverberated through her body. Her whole body shuddered as if struck by lightning.

‘This…!’

It was music that she knew all too well.

It was the music that played every time she cleared a stage. She memorized it completely, and the music was clearly ringing in her ears. At the same time, the floor that had firmly supported Celine’s feet disappeared, and colorful blocks began to appear.

Celine’s face lit up.

She was able to keep her promise to Leonhard!

At first, it was much easier than she thought.

Celine moved her body according to the familiar music and succeeded in stepping on a block in the air that appeared and disappeared every moment. It was as if the music was guiding her to move her body in the right direction of her own accord.

However, the joy did not last long.

—Kiiiik!

As creepy noise began to be mixed with the music.

Celine wanted to stop and figure out the identity of the noise, but it was impossible as she had to keep her feet moving. Blocks appeared right under her feet and disappeared in an instant. Her vision didn’t help much, so Celine had to rely solely on her ears.

The noise grew louder, and her graceful movements became more and more blunders.

Fortunately, she was able to step on the blocks, just barely missing them, but unlike the early time, she couldn’t help but stumble.

A cold sweat ran down her chin and dripped into the air on her side.

Celine gulped again.

She wanted to stop and rest, even for a moment. But at that moment, her body would fall into the air like a sweat she had just shed.

“Captain, what the hell is that?”

The members of the Knights of Paradiso looked up at Libron Castle, which was enveloped in green smoke, with anxious eyes. While they were training hard as usual at the Bernoulli family’s villa, they heard about the situation at Libron Castle and immediately rushed to the place.

“I don’t know.”

Bart murmured blankly.

“What can we do…?”

Instead of answering, Bart took out a silver knife from his chest and put it into the green smoke. After a while, the blade he took out was discolored.

“It’s poison. As you can see.”

“….!”

“This… There is nothing we can do, only the wizards can.”

“If it’s poison, the people in there…”

“Don’t worry. The wizards will help you.”

Bart pointed to the wizards moving in and out of the mist.

“There!”

“There…?”

Just as Bart was about to frown, an imperial wizard he had never seen before screamed at him.

“What are you doing without giving first aid? Can’t you see these people dying? Are you here to be lazy?”

Bart, the leader of Carpathia, was in a position where he could fight them on an equal footing if he wanted to. However, he kept his mouth shut and crossed his arms. It was a sign of displeasure, but at the same time, it also meant that the words he had just heard from the wizard would be disregarded.

“Captain…!”

“Ignore it. What they say is not wrong, we should do what we can.”

He slowly approached the fallen.

‘If they have inhaled the poisonous smoke… they’ll need an antidote.’

Perhaps reading his thoughts, another wizard gasped and explained.

“They don’t need an antidote. Squeeze their lungs to get the bad air out. There will be no expert like you out there.”

“Did you hear? Do as they say.”

Nevertheless, his words were not enough to convince his members. Even one of his members, who couldn’t overcome his temper, jumped into the smoke, saying that it would be better to rescue people himself, and then lost consciousness and was dragged out.

Bart immediately shouted.

“From now on, anyone who goes inside without my orders will be expelled from our Knights!”

“Yes!”

Members who saw their colleague fainting answered in contemplation. They immediately rushed over to the fallen and began pressing on their chests.

It wasn’t just the knights who were mobilized.

“What is all this…”

While taking a few days off sick leave and resting at home, Rose, a wizard belonging to the Imperial Family, muttered blankly in the middle of the green smoky Libron Castle.

All members of the Imperial Family staying at Livron Castle escaped safely with the help of the wizards belonging to the Imperial Family.

The Emperor was furious, but he had to accept that it would take a while to uncover the green smoke’s identity. Eventually, he gave the order to rescue all the people remaining in Libron and went into hiding.

Libron Castle was a huge castle with four palaces and many more subsidiary buildings. Because of that, even Rose, who had taken sick leave and had a good rest, was brought in.

“Where is everyone… Emily! Mabel!”

Rose looked around, annoyed. Still, none of the comrades who had decided to gather on the spire, the only one whose high top was not obscured by green smoke, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Did they all accept their missions and leave?’

Maybe she was much later than the others.

It was true that she came as late as possible because she was annoyed by the sudden call while she was on sick leave.

‘If I had known this was going to happen, I would have jumped out right away… how can I know if it’s urgent?’

She let out a sigh and moved her steps toward another place where the people might have been laid.

“Oh…!”

Rose let out a low moan.

It was because her foot stepped on something hard and soft. As she immediately bent down and looked down…

“….!”

A man who had completely lost consciousness was lying flat on the road. Rose used her magic to lift the man up and, at the same time, blocked greenish smoke from entering the area around her nose and mouth.

‘I can’t get off work today…’

She moved quickly towards the entrance to Livron Castle, untouched by the smoke. It never crossed her wildest dreams that Celine Hunt was fighting to death right above her head.

Celine tried to hear the actual music in the midst of the growing noise.

‘Ding… Dingding…’

Nonetheless, it was next to impossible to ignore the noise that grew louder, like someone shouting right next to her ear.

Naturally, her feet had to slow down.

Funny enough, the slower she slowed her feet, the faster her heart beat that it became impossible to focus on the music any longer.

“Right now, run!”

Suddenly, a sharp voice pierced her head.

It was Leonhard.

Celine didn’t think about it and acted on the voice. In the next moment, his voice began pouring into her.

Run, stop, stand, higher, higher… lower.

This was possible because no matter how loud the noise was, she could only discern Leonhard’s voice. Her fast-paced heartbeat gradually began to subside. After a while, Celine realized that the music was coming to an end.

‘…No.’

Suddenly, as if she had been doused in cold water, her mind was awoken. By the time the music and rhythm game came to an end, her feet were still rapidly moving.

‘The sound is decreasing.’

Celine was seized by the sudden panic.

First, the noises were increasing, then this time, the whole sound decreased. For the first time, she felt the will of the stage itself.

‘You’re trying to drop me. By all means… you’re trying to make me take that choice.’

She felt nauseous.

What was even more terrifying was that her mind was starting to get complicated.

‘Shall I continue to do this in the future? ….Why? If I fall, I’ll have to choose. Then Leonhard…’

Fortunately, the moment Celine remembered Leonhardt’s name, she immediately came to her senses.

‘I cannot die… because I promised Leonhard.’

She made her way through the situation as she listened to Leonhard’s voice, which sounded soft to her. However, she could fully predict that even this rope would soon be cut.

‘Let’s memorize it. It’s been repeating since before…’

Celine traced her memories and listened to Leonhard’s voice in her ears as she weaved the patterns one by one. The very moment she barely memorized all the patterns.

Silence arrived.

Neither the noise, nor the music, nor Leonhard’s voice… only her feet moved in the space where everything had disappeared. All around her was so still that the pounding of her heart could be heard as loud as thunder.

With her eyes closed, Celine drew a pattern she had already memorized in her head and ran to it.

After some time, even ‘Hermes’ shoes’ had reached their limits, and Celine’s feet were sweaty from overwork. The strength in her whole body seemed to have drained away though she still had to move.

—Ding!

Her blue-gray eyes flashed open.

Just then, she heard a loud pop that didn’t match the music in her head at all. At the same time, Celine realized that she had stepped on the air.

The music has changed.

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