Chapter 387: The Garden of Time (3)

Chapter 387: The Garden of Time (3)

6.

Leaving The Garden of Withered Flowers, Sword Emperor slowly strolled.

Under the gradually setting sunset, in a place where the dead slept as flowers, the Sword Emperor said this:

– Well done.

Instead of retorting back asking what nonsense he's trying to say, I said this.

– Thank you.

Instead of asking why I was so compliant, as if I had eaten something wrong, the Sword Emperor said.

– It's nice that even the soil is dead.

– ....

– On the day I awakened my Qi, I placed a grain of soil on my palm and observed it closely. When I focused my eyes and ears, I found that soil, seemingly quiet, is actually quite noisy. On that tiny grain, inside it, how many things were busily competing.

The Sword Emperor crouched down and caressed the rotten earth with his fingertips.

Though his fingertips merely brushed over the soil, a coincidental breeze scattered the grains of dirt, creating a scene as if the ground was caressed by the Sword Emperor's touch.

– I saw and heard more things that day than any other day before.

– ....

– But the soil here is truly quiet. And that silence is what the flowers here need.

The Sword Emperor straightened his back and looked back at me.

– Even before feeling such true tranquility, Gong-ja, I am truly amazed that you had already created such a place.

I did not banter this time either.

I simply nodded quietly once.

– Thank you.

– Yes.

We walked in silence for a while.

The area we were walking through was known as the [Summer Zone]. In a place where the air flowed lukewarm like breath under a flipped blanket, Estelle was preparing to call the rain with her hands clasped together.

– This too is nice.

– Yes.

I nodded.

Passing by Estelle who began to cry, the Sword Emperor said:

– Gong-ja.

– Yes.

– You remember when I said that if you can't ascend to the 99th floor, old man Marcus might climb it instead?

Of course, I remembered his words.

– Do you remember what I added then?

I certainly remembered.

– It's funny to say instead, isn't it? The old man is not my substitute.

The Sword Emperor nodded.

– Nevertheless, I believe you also know what I meant by that.

Indeed.

– So.

The Sword Emperor asked.

– What do you think I meant by that?

– It was a topic I pondered over several times anyway.

So the answer flowed easily.

– Simply that you believe in me, so cheer up? Or was it out of consideration that Sword Saint could do better than me, so it's okay to rest if it's hard?

– It was neither, right?

I walked alongside the Sword Emperor and looked at him.

My steps had become as natural as the words flowing from my mouth.

– Because I also remember what you added next.

[ Frankly speaking, it's okay even if you fail. ]

[ .... ]

[ Belief means thinking that the other person will give their best. And the best isn't something decided by others but can only be determined by oneself. So, a relationship based on trust means that each decides their best and accepts the other's decisions. That's all there is to it. Nothing more.] Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

– The important thing here is not that it's okay to fail.

– It's the part where right after saying you believe in me, you explained to me what [belief] means.

Therefore.

I was able to respond like this.

– [Either way, it doesn't matter.] ...That's what you meant.

– Whether I overcome this ordeal. Whether I fail and become a prisoner of the eternal desert. Whether Sword Saint carries my will and climbs to the 99th floor. Or even if he also encounters an unexpected accident and becomes a visitor of no return. Really, either way, it doesn't matter because that's what you meant.

The Sword Emperor did not stop his steps. Just like in the World of True Heaven, his pace only quickened.

Unlike before, when I had to grit my teeth and run to catch up with him, I was able to continue speaking by his side.

– And it's not because you don't trust me. Nor is it because you don't trust the Sword Saint.

On that skill card, it was written:

+

[You Can Become Just Like Me]

Rank: F

Effect: You can see all the skills your opponent possesses.

※ However, opponents who have been defeated by you can copy one of your skills to make it their own. Opponents who have already lost to you once are excluded from this skill effect. Additionally, which skill gets copied is determined randomly.

+

As if possessed, I raised one hand.

– Skill Card Open.

I took out and looked at the first skill I had.

+

[I Want To Become Just Like You]

Rank: S+

Effect: Automatically activates when killed by an enemy. You copy one skill from the enemy that killed you, making it your own. You cannot copy from the same opponent more than once. Which skill gets copied is determined randomly.

※ However, you die!

+

The two cards touched.

An F-rank skill and an S+ rank skill. The two skills mirrored each other like facing mirrors.

Between the two skills, in a world of similarities, there were the Sword Emperor and I... we were facing each other.

I said.

– Sword Emperor.

– Yes.

– What is your sanctuary like?

I said, standing in my sanctuary.

– Even Constellation Killer had a sanctuary. And since you are now on the 99th floor, you must have created a sanctuary too. I...

I.

– I am curious about what your sanctuary is like.

– Hmm.

The Sword Emperor raised his hand.

His robe fluttered, rippled. And then.

– Ah.

A world unfolded before us.

■.

In a forest with faint sunlight, the morning glory stretched its neck even longer

To half the size, bending their heads halfway, again to half the size, the crown of the morning glory flower shrunk and shrunk as much as morning turned to midday, midday to evening, the sun dying in the sunset

As the sun grew tired,

In a rain-sparse wilderness at night, sunflowers spread their petals wider and ah...

Ah

In that season of sparse rain and thin sunlight, those who could not blossom and perished, the flowers of people and the people of flowers, along with the ten million flowers that they tried to embrace, the ten million flowers that they could embrace, the ten million flowers that they were meant to embrace

Morning glory flowers, spinning top flowers, frost flowers, peony flowers, rose flowers, globe amaranth flowers

The world

A man seated in lotus position was there.

'....'

It was a man dressed in tattered robes.

Seated in the lotus position, with a sword as tall as himself planted into a flowerbed blooming with hundreds of millions of flowers beside him, there sat a man. I knew that man well—very well. I had seen him. Watched him.

Countless times, yet,

this was the first time I saw that man, who was not translucent, in this way.

Sword Emperor.

The reason I couldn't say that, might be because I am not actually here right now.

Nevertheless, I saw him. I could see him.

I could only know that he was showing this because he wanted to.

The man—the Sword Emperor, with his eyes closed, without opening his eyes, simply quietly opened his lips.

And, 'spoke'.

"Come. Kim Gong-ja."

That was the first time I heard his voice.

"Here."

On the 99th floor.

"I will be waiting for you."

He was waiting for me.