Chapter 188:

Chapter 188:

Chapter 188 Thank you for everything.

Flan stepped into the domain with his characteristic expressionlessness.The fertile land had become unbelievably barren.

The wind that tickled his nose carried the scent of hardened Mythril, which allowed him to quickly grasp the situation.

This had happened in just a week.

He had not expected this scenery, but he still furrowed his brows in displeasure.

He began to walk around and inspect the domain carefully.

It was a pitiful sight, reminiscent of the Reheln Hill, but he thought it was possible to restore it.

He had refined his ancient rune language skills to a great extent in the Fire World.

The first time Flan stopped walking was when he found the lord of this domain.

The blue-haired girl, who had turned around carelessly at his presence, soon froze.

Trixie, who had been exhausted by fatigue, blinked her eyes several times.

The next moment, she opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish, and muttered with a voice crack.

“...Flan?”

Flan nodded slightly.

He did not bother to ask how she was.

The domain had suffered a huge blow, and a week was a long time.

The shock that Trixie, who had just become the lord, must have felt was immense.

“You’ve done well.”

So Flan said only that.

It was only four words, but many complex emotions crossed Trixie’s face.

The girl, who had been looking pale, soon nodded with a faint smile.

“Yeah. I’m working hard.”

“I won’t forget your efforts.”

Flan praised Trixie’s hard work and then asked.

“Trixie, where is the second princess now?”

“Huh?”

Trixie, who was approaching Flan, stopped for a moment as if she had faced an unexpected question.

There was no time to waste, so Flan asked again.

“The second princess. She must be here.”

“Ah...”

Trixie made a troubled expression as if she had recalled something awkward. But she could not withstand Flan’s straight gaze, so she soon took a breath and spoke.

“The center of the tower construction site.”

Trixie was not stupid enough to add any unnecessary comments. She filtered out the clear facts and delivered the information to Flan as it was.

The rough story was this.

Many people, including the academy, were hostile to the princess, and the princess herself, Aurora, was kneeling quietly in the center of the construction site.

Trixie especially emphasized that the princess’s mental and physical state was both strange, but Flan’s mind naturally pictured the scenes.

Promise.

Aurora seemed to have tried to keep her promise with Flan in her own way.

Trixie quickly blocked Flan, who was about to leave with a nod.

“Are you going to see her right now? Her condition is very...”

“That’s why I’m going myself.”

Flan’s red eyes turned to Trixie.

“There’s no one else who can step in but me.”

Trixie could not argue.

In fact, Flan was the only one who could solve the situation right now.

“Make sure to control the access around here. I’m asking you.”

Flan could not be stopped as usual. But Trixie was curious about his move and asked.

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“Tie up.”

Flan answered easily.

“It’s time to tie up this promise too.”

◈

No sunlight reached this place.

Even though the construction had been halted halfway, there was already a lot of Mythril piled up, and Aurora was in that site, which was almost as big as a mansion.

In this place where even the flow of time was not clear, Aurora was kneeling down. She waited endlessly for someone, without changing her posture.

“...”

A dark view, a blank mind.

Some thoughts came to her mind, but they just stopped there.

They could never lead to actions or become reality.

Aurora’s eyelids began to fall slowly.

I have to keep my promise...

She felt a faint light between her half-closed eyelids.

It was still too weak.

. . .

‘Mom, do you really have to throw it away? He’s someone I really cherish, isn’t there a way to fix and use him? We’ve been together for so long...’

‘Affection is trivial. If there is a defect, just get a new one. It’s more expensive to fix a broken thing than to buy a new one.’

‘Get a new one, you say...? But that’s a completely different thing. I like this one.’

‘Neither things nor humans are meant to be fixed and used. You have to remember that if you want to live safely.’

‘...’

‘Are you crying? Stop crying right now!’

‘I’m, I’m sorry...’

The things that Aurora remembered were always like this.

Memories were based on the past, and there were never any happy days in Aurora’s past.

She realized that she had never tried to fix anything.

If she deemed something defective, she discarded it, even if it was a human.

If something broke, she looked for something else that could replace it.

She wanted to be something irreplaceable.

And yet, she wanted to change herself now.

“Ha...”

It was a vain decision, and looking back, it was a dark life.

Aurora had no more patience left.

She closed her eyes quietly, waiting for death to take her away as it approached her.

But at that moment.

Thud-

Something landed on the bridge of her nose.

It tickled.

Like a strand of hair stuck to it.

But being ticklish meant that her senses had returned. Aurora opened her eyelids with a question in her mind.

Flutter- Flutter-

A very warm light filled her vision. It took her quite a long time to realize that a dawn butterfly was sitting on the bridge of her nose.

“...Your Highness.”

At the cold and heavy call, Aurora noticed who was standing behind the butterfly.

The princess slowly lifted her head and looked up.

Flan looked down at her.

“You have kept your promise.”

His voice was filled with the warmth she had longed for.

Aurora wanted to say something in this reunion.

Perhaps an apology, but she failed to utter a word. Her body was still not fully moving.

“So, this is my promise to you.”

A gentle breeze blew, and the frozen Mythril began to melt away.

A brilliant light poured from the sky, and the gray and hard Mythril scattered like white petals.

Aurora felt her heart beating again, and tried to take in the events unfolding before her eyes.

A swarm of butterflies, which could be called a ‘flock’, was flying towards her.

The dawn butterflies landed on her body, starting from her shoulders.

The light that she had wanted to embrace so much was now so close to her.

The princess barely raised her hand and grabbed Flan’s hem.

Aurora’s facial muscles moved in a way that they had never done since she was born.

...It was a smile.

“Thank you for everything.”

With just those words, she finally fell into a peaceful sleep.

◈

“Sigh.”

As soon as he arrived in the void, Maiev let out a sigh.