NEOMA clutched her chest tight when she felt a pang in her heart.
And she knew exactly what the pain was about.
It was trauma.
"You stabbed me in the heart with the Calypso that you inherited from Papa Boss," Neoma said bluntly. "I've forgotten about the pain of being stabbed by my own twin brother. But it hurts when I look at you now, Nero."
The current Nero looked horrified.
However, the old Emperor Nero just scoffed. "Am I supposed to feel bad about it? When we were kids, you turned a blind eye to the fact that I was being poisoned. And then years later, I found out you were trying to bind our life forces together. You've done nothing for me."
"Well, I'm sorry for being so busy surviving as a neglected princess in an empire that treats princesses as shit," Neoma said sarcastically. "Before I could get the chance to make it up to you, I was kicked out of the palace and had to be adopted by the Quinzels.
I was mentally and emotionally abused by Duchess Quinzel there, betrayed by my fiancé, and found out that bastard was planning to kill me with his mistress. I lost my mind and became desperate. Although I lived a shitty life, I didn't want to die by their hands. Hence, I became desperate and tried to bind your life force with mine in order to force you to protect me."
Nero looked horrified while listening to Neoma recount her shitty past life.
The older Emperor Nero, on the other hand, remained pokerfaced.
"But I bet you already know that," Neoma said, and then she suddenly burst out laughing. "It sounds silly now, doesn't it? We were young and stupid then. Not to mention abused. We were so busy trying to survive in a cold palace with no one to lean on."
And that was exactly why Neoma didn't exact revenge on Nero as soon as she came back as the neglected princess of the Great Moonasterion Empire.
"You were a victim as much as I was," Neoma said while approaching the older Emperor Nero. "As your older sister, I apologize for failing to protect you back then."
And then she did the thing she had always wanted to do before.
[Finally.]
Neoma hugged the older Emperor Nero while gently patting his back. "I know you and the other Neoma had already made up in the previous timeline. But I still want you to know that I'm really sorry. And that I don't resent you. I love you, my little brother."
To be honest, she was ready for the older Emperor Nero to push her away or complain that she was being disgusting.
However, it didn't happen.
Emperor Nero didn't say anything, but he hugged her back and gently patted her back.
That was enough.
There was only one "chapter" that Neoma had to close from her first life in order to completely move on and live her full life in the present.
[My baby...]
Ruto nodded before he proceeded. "The land where Vitu's Seedling was planted got infected badly. The Goddess of Life couldn't remove it because the Seedling was empty. Hence, in an attempt to save both Vitu's Seedling and the God of Death, she put the God of Death's soul in the Seedling."
She wouldn't say she was surprised.
After all, she already expected that during the time that she was just starting to retrieve her memories little by little.
"That's why I called the God of Death 'Vitu...'"
Her mother instincts kicked in right away.
"Ruto, what will happen to our Vitu once the God of Death leaves his body?"
"We will save him."
"What?"
"Neoma, to be honest, our Vitu's Seedling is dying because it was removed from the Garden too soon," Ruto said hesitantly. "But I already asked His Lord Majesty and Her Lady Majesty to help us recreate a small version of the Garden here."
"Ruto, wait," Neoma said, clutching her chest when panic started to overwhelm her system. "Are you saying that our Vitu is dying when it's not yet time for him to be reborn?"
***
"YOU CANNOT recreate my Garden– you do not have the right soil for it."
Admittedly, Mona was discouraged when she heard what the Goddess of Life said.
The goddess appeared when Mona and Nikolai were in her personal garden, trying to come up with a plan on how to recreate the Garden of Life in a smaller scale.
Both Mona and her husband were startled when the Goddess of Life suddenly appeared.
"Are you saying that it's impossible?" Nikolai asked the Goddess of Life, scoffing. "Commander Ruto wouldn't ask us to do it if he knew we couldn't. Moreover, he said that he and Neoma were able to succeed in the past."
"It's because they have the ingredients that they didn't know they needed for the Garden. It was something that the two of them had, so Yoan didn't realize that it was the main ingredient."
"What is it then?" Mona asked. "We'll try to procure the missing ingredient.
The Goddess of Life paused for a moment before she responded. "You need to bury gods and use their heavenly bodies as fertilizers."
Oh.
***
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