Book 12 Chapter 29

Side Story Part 2, Chapter 22

The Child Weaving Hearts (22)

Nene gained skills equivalent to a Glados (4-star) during the seven years since Yonghyun returned to state affairs. Nene was truly incomparably lovely and cute in this world, but Yonghyun strictly graded her magic exams. Up to Aquizad (5-star), it's a battle to see if one can perfectly wield modern magic. After that battle ends, one begins the race to realize the truth beyond. Yonghyun had one certainty: if Nene could just break the Aquizad (5-star) wall, she would break the 6-star and 7-star walls in one go.

"Nene."

"Yes!"

"Won't you come on a trip with us?"

Rain planned one last trip with Miria. Their eldest son, Elaham, renounced his right of inheritance and chose the path of an adventurer in the year he came of age. He was currently a Gold rank. Rem and Bart truly cherished him and taught him various adventures, so he could be said to have excellent backing. After all, backing is the most important thing in the adventurer industry. Thus, their eldest daughter, Seire, now held the right of succession to the family. Unlike Elaham, Seire was a magic orthodox, so there was nothing to worry about.

'Now, I should give Nene the last gift I can give…'

When he first learned magic, Dean Atlante took Rin all over the North. He visited places in need and freely bestowed the benevolence of magic, which became the foundation that shaped the current Yonghyun. It was a trip for that very purpose, and also a final anxiety born from the premonition that the end of his life was approaching.

'It's a foregone conclusion that the final era will come… Though I cannot be with them in that era, if I can delay its arrival as much as possible, until these children have fully grown.'

And so, the final journey began. When they departed, Nene, wearing an old straw hat, was nearing adulthood and was truly lovely. Rain liked to adjust Nene's hat string. He remembered the Dean always doing that.

"Alright, let's go."

From that day on, Nene traveled to countless places with Rain and Miria for five years. They talked about Nene and magic, and bestowed the light of magic upon lands in need. Nene deeply engraved and mastered all the appropriate ways of using and applying magic.

"Father, what kind of magic is this?"

"It's a sealing formation I developed."

"Sealing formation?"

Rain identified all the abyssal holes where the flow of the abyss became strong using Belle Qureus. If an abyssal hole is left unattended, it becomes a passage for monsters to crawl out. If an abyssal hole is left in a cave or if the area becomes ruins, a natural labyrinth can form. This sealing formation was created precisely to suppress the rampage of such abyssal holes. Though called a sealing formation, it was in reality the Ashura Soul Mirror divided into dozens of fragments and arranged. Now, there would be no time for him to use the Ashura Soul Mirror and step to the forefront of the Great Abyssal Battle. These fragments of the Ashura Soul Mirror, as crystals of light, would become lamps illuminating the world before the time of darkness arrived.

The journey was interrupted once as it approached its fifth year, and they returned to the <Belwin> mansion.

Miria's old age illness had deepened, and they felt it was right to give her time to say goodbye to everyone. Akilea and Mirngadia also set aside their demanding duties and flew at full speed to the mansion. Miria gently touched the faces of Elaham, Seire, Akilea, and Mirngadia in that order, smiling brightly.

"I… won't say any strange things unnecessarily. I've realized that's poison for those left behind."

[…]

"But Nene, there's something I really want to say to you, so will you come here?"

Nene knelt before the sickbed and met Miria's gaze. Miria kissed Nene's forehead.

"Nene, you possess a strength that no one else… not even Aki or Mir, has. Do you know what it is?"

"What is it?"

"It is courage. The courage to open your heart and embrace anyone in the world."

Miria continued, smiling proudly.

"Even though you know the evil in people's hearts better than anyone… even though you know how repulsive humans can be… Nene, you will open your heart again and again… embrace… comfort and forgive."

A sorrowful heart.

Pity.

Just as the meaning of its name suggests.

"It's such a relief that I could see Nene so strong at the very end…"

Among the Three Sacred Dragons, Nene felt the most exceptional closeness to Miria. If Miria was Yonghyun's companion to Aki and Mir, to Nene, Miria was truly a mother. She bestowed love like that of kin, no, even surpassing kin. How could one not call such a being a parent? Even her own children reached the age of independence and gradually grew distant from Miria, only meeting her during holidays, but Nene had always accompanied her for decades.

"Thanks to Mother, I learned. That it's love, not blood, that makes people a family…"

Transparent tears streamed continuously down Nene's face as she held Miria's hand.

"I will return that love to everyone. I will become the mother of all those pitiful children who must live in that final world…"

Miria smiled as if proud, as if sorry, and as if sad.

"I couldn't do anything so great for Nene…"

Yonghyun embraced Nene, comforting her cries, and had one last confrontation with Miria.

"Rin, do you remember that time? When you finished me off for good… you told me to come back and pick you up, didn't you?"

He must be referring to the time when Rista's body was controlled by Elamas, the third pillar of the Black Church.

"I'll ask the same question. If I come to pick you up again in that paradise… will you follow me then too?"

Yonghyun nodded. As he nodded, his vision was becoming blurry and fragmented. That bond, the radiant bond that began in the magic tower back then, its end was so warm yet faint, and so sad.

- I am Rista Alter Shirpeng! The Faithcarrier of the Orthodox Church of the Mad Dragon. I'm recruiting a hero party.

The hero…

The legendary hero who brought peace by overcoming the turmoil of the era, but could not find peace for himself and thus could not rest…

Only at that moment, that point in time, that period, with these final words, did she fall into eternal sleep with a truly peaceful smile…

"I'll go ahead and have fun with Friede and Kies… so Rin, you can come slowly…"

* * *

After Miria's funeral, the journey with Nene resumed. The formation of sealing formations on the Acrad continent was complete, so they now headed towards the Tersh Archipelago. They looked around the cultural relics that Demon Slayer Cassel Ringcan had built, longing for Rin. However, because there was an abyssal hole deep inside that vast tomb, they formed a sealing formation. Beyond the Tersh Archipelago, they set their course towards the Adrion Continent and then to the ends of the earth, exactly as they had 300 years ago. It was the final revisiting, the closing of a life's journey.

'And I wanted to tell Nene the stories of what happened on this land.'

He wanted to tell her more, in greater detail and specificity, but now, all he could truly remember were broad narratives like those found in fairy tales or history books.

'Nothing at all…'

He couldn't clearly remember anything from that time: no warmth, no joy, no sadness, no tears, no smiles.

It took one year to traverse the entire continent, and before reaching <Fire Expanse> to meet Aki, they arrived at the yellow city of <Raptus>. It was the place where the final battle with Zernix took place for both Rin and Rain. Nene gazed for a long time at the stone statue erected in the center of the city. The appearance from a full 60 years ago was carved exactly into that statue. At that time, Nene was a baby, Aki was young, and Yonghyun was also young. Yonghyun, who understood Nene's feelings better than anyone, placed a hand on her straw-hatted head. Yet, he was enveloped in strange emotions. The final battle as Rin was far more brutal and tragic than the final battle as Rain. Zernix, at that time, had tried to relocate an ancient city above this city and fully awaken the Lizard Lord. There was a journey to prevent that, but strangely enough, the detailed parts of that journey he could not remember. Something, a veil of oblivion that could not be pierced by anything, was obstructing it. When he retraced the journey and arrived here, he had hoped that he might remember some of it, but it was merely regretful.

"Father, are you alright?"

Nene asked.

Yonghyun nodded.

After meeting Akilea in <Fire Expanse> and sharing a reunion, they rode on Nene's back, whose dragon-form flight was now complete, and returned to the <Belwin> mansion.

* * *

Two years after the journey ended, Yonghyun now prepared for his farewell.

'No regrets.'

Karen-den, even by disrupting the order of creation, had allowed Yonghyun to enjoy the joy of being with his old comrades.

'Therefore, there should be no regrets.'

The radiant bonds formed over two lifetimes, having to resolve those bonds and leave this world made the world seem truly fleeting and impermanent.

'Though there should be no regrets.'

That transience and impermanence were sad.

'To think that in this heart that considers things transient and impermanent, such great lingering attachment still remains…'

'Those young ones…'

'The world praises them as the successors of the Three Divine Dragons… but in my eyes, they are still just young and tender. To have to leave them behind…'

Nene was not by his side, but she would arrive soon. After returning to the mansion after the journey, Nene had expressed a desire to explore the world alone and had been "out of the house" for several years. However, contact had been made all around, so she would soon arrive with her siblings.

"Father."

As expected, Nene was the first to arrive, and it was clear at first glance that she had completely changed. It wasn't just because her appearance had fully matured into an adult form, though that was certainly surprising. There was something more important than that.

Divinity.

He felt the divinity that dragons possess, and strangely, it resonated with a sense of kinship. Rain soon recognized that it was not the divinity of a dragon, but the serenity that only those who have comprehended the Truth, referred to as the 7-star realm in the magic world, can possess.

"Nene, don't tell me…!"

Nene smiled brightly.

"Yes. I've broken the 7-star wall. Now, I can see into your heart, Father. Does that mean we're on a similar level? It was truly, truly a harsh process, but I was able to arrive without being late like this."

"Not late?"

"When I looked into Mother's heart, I realized there was interference somewhere in her memories. As if they had been torn out by something… No one else in the world had such memories, except for you and Mother."

He didn't understand what Nene was saying, yet at the same time, he felt like he was starting to understand. Something, something… Yonghyun felt as if he had been searching for something his entire life. He hadn't been actively searching, yet he felt as though he had been searching while crying.

"Now, those memories are clear to me. I will show them to you too, Father."

Nene gently sat Yonghyun in a rocking chair, and as Rain used to do, she placed her forehead against his and whispered a lullaby.

"Father, you have yearned for… 300 years ago your whole life. I will show you your memories exactly as they are. Not just visual information, but also smells and voices. Before you depart for that distant sky, see those 300 years ago one last time."

That was the beginning of the journey. The beginning of a journey… radiant, and as radiant as it was longed for and sad… revisiting 300 years ago.

"You are going to meet that friend again, who was destined to be forgotten forever… amidst the schemes of the abyss."

◀ ◀ ◀

Yonghyun closed his eyes in his daughter's warm embrace, then opened them in a chill that enveloped his entire body. The chill. A terribly familiar chill.

'This is, yes, that scene that occasionally reappeared in my nightmares.'

Yonghyun, no, 'Rin'.

Rolling in the slums, his twisted and grimy fingers idly fidgeting, he finally understood this inexplicable phenomenon.

'This is the slum.'

That his very memories had returned to the slum of <Winter Horizon> where he had wandered before being given to Dean Atlante.

Side Story Part 2

The Child Weaving Hearts (End)

To be continued in 'Part 2: Prequel'