Chapter 99 |
Kraush was walking down the temple corridor, wiping his cold sweat after a harsh scolding, thanks to Bianca’s increasingly cold gaze as he tried to explain himself.
This was the first time he had seen Bianca looking at him so coldly, and it left him flustered.
Fortunately, they had reached an agreement to tour the Holy Kingdom of Freeman together later.
It was surprising that this was enough to calm her anger, given how they were always together.
[What a rogue, trying to bring in another woman again.]
At that moment, Crimson Garden appeared from the corridor window.
She adjusted her wings and looked at Kraush with disdain.
[Don’t you know what happens if a regressor plays around carelessly?]
“What do you take me for? I’ve never lived such a promiscuous life.”
“What’s corrupt is your mouth, Crimson.”
She spoke provocatively as if it were nothing.
[Tsk tsk, one day, a woman will appear claiming to be carrying your child, and you’ll have no excuse when you’re stabbed.]
“That’s not going to happen.”
He didn’t understand why she saw him that way.
Besides, until the end of this ruined world, he had no intentions of getting involved with anyone like that.
“By the way, Crimson, do you remember the thing I talked about regarding Bianca?”
[I’ve already called her to the Green Pine Mansion of Balheim.]
Crimson Garden let out a long sigh.
[I know how it feels to just watch without being able to do anything.]
Perhaps it was because she had often witnessed her kin die helplessly.
Crimson Garden seemed to be considerate of Bianca as well.
One way or another, Crimson Garden had developed affection for Bianca.
“Thank you. Bianca will be happy.”
[It’s better than trying to stop her from packing her bags to follow you.]
“Please, stop her from doing that.”
He couldn’t bear to see Bianca in such a state.
[That wouldn’t happen if you behave properly.]
Crimson Garden’s underlying message was clear: don’t let this happen again.
“I’ll try.”
[You didn’t say you would never let it happen again.]
Knowing the future, Kraush couldn’t give a definite answer.
If anything, it would get worse, not better.
[Now, go and chat with the saint.]
Kraush watched Crimson Garden exit through the window with a wry smile.
Then he knocked on the door he had arrived at.
“Miss Astria, it’s Kraush Balheim.”
-Ah, just a moment.
Along with a voice from inside, the door creaked open.
There stood Diona, a holy knight with dark blonde hair.
As he entered the room she opened, Astria looked at him.
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Kraush.”
Beneath her sunlit hair, Astria’s appearance was somewhat different from earlier.
She had changed her clothes and applied makeup, presenting a more adorned look.
In fact, this appearance was more familiar to Kraush.
As her public activities increased, Astria never neglected her appearance, always insisting she must look her best.
The Astria in Kraush’s memory always looked like this.
“Indeed. You seem well-prepared for our date. You look beautiful.”
When Kraush teased, she flinched and averted her eyes again.
It was the Astria he always saw.
“Diona.”
While averting her gaze, Astria called Diona.
“Miss Astria.”
“It’s okay. We’re not going out of the room.”
The sight of a saint with a man could not be shown to the public.
So she had no intention of showing herself alone with Kraush outside.
Of course, for Astria, just having a man in her room and talking together was enough to make her heart race.
She tried hard to hide it.
“…Understood.”
Diona let out a short sigh and stepped back.
She glanced at Kraush before closing the door and leaving.
She trusted that a direct descendant of Balheim wouldn’t cross any lines.
Thus, Kraush and Astria were left alone in the room.
A moment of silence passed between them.
Kraush was the first to move in that silence.
He walked to the opposite side of the chair where she was sitting.
Astria flinched again.
At the same time, her hand busily fidgeted under the table.
As Kraush pulled out a chair and sat down, he finally spoke.
“Thank you for arranging a place for us to talk alone.”
“Oh, yes, yes.”
“You don’t need to be so nervous. I’m not proposing an important deal or anything, just wanting to talk about the Holy Kingdom.”
No matter how mature she was, Astria was still only 14 years old.
When Kraush showed consideration, Astria’s eyes widened.
“What?”
Astria responded a bit blankly.
When Kraush looked at her quizzically, her face started to turn red.
“Oh, ah, yes, right! As a direct descendant of Balheim, it makes sense you might have something to say to a saint.”
Astria turned her words around in a flustered manner.
Kraush, watching her blankly, showed a puzzled expression.
“…Did you really think I was asking you on a date?”
Astria’s mouth clamped shut.
Her face turned bright red, clearly showing she had been hit right on the mark.
Seeing that, Kraush realized his mistake belatedly.
‘Was Astria less cunning at this age than I thought?’
Kraush had met Astria at the graduation ceremony of Rahelrn Academy.
‘She had grown more by then than she is now.’
Kraush scratched the back of his head for a moment.
Then a question suddenly arose.
‘Then why did she accept the date?’
If she had genuinely considered it a date, she should have rejected it outright.
After all, asking a saint on a date was an outrageous thing to say.
Coming from a man whose face she found distasteful and whose personality was rude, the offer of a date.
Even if he was a direct descendant of Balheim, a saint could have easily rejected it.
So why did she accept it?
“…Miss Astria, don’t you find my face distasteful? Because it looks sharp and mean.”
“N-no?”
Embarrassed by her own misunderstanding, she answered without thinking.
“In fact, I think you’re quite handsome…”
Unable to maintain her usual composure due to embarrassment, she answered honestly.
Realizing what she had said too late, her eyes began to spin.
She was so embarrassed she felt like crying.
She had never revealed her inner thoughts so openly to anyone before.
Meanwhile, Kraush’s body stiffened upon hearing her words.
‘Is her opinion that different from back then?’
Judging from Astria’s extremely embarrassed state, her words seemed sincere.
Could someone’s preferences change so drastically in just a few years?
‘Or maybe…’
Perhaps they had been the same from the beginning.
Kraush, who belatedly grasped the situation, began to recall his memories one by one.
What various statements from Astria had meant.
He had thought her affection for him had grown over time.
But it turned out Astria had feelings for him from the start.
The harsh words she occasionally uttered were all to hide her embarrassment.
Only now did he realize this.
Kraush swallowed a bitter smile.
Astria had controlled herself so well that even a perceptive Kraush hadn’t noticed back then.
Since a saint shouldn’t harbor feelings for the opposite sex, she had thoroughly restrained herself.
And then, in the end, she had shown her true feelings.
Kraush had responded to those feelings by not going on the date.
Kraush gently brushed his face.
‘What a scumbag.’
Despite the idiocy caused by the new realms, he had done something extremely disrespectful to Astria.
‘Now that it never happened, I can’t even apologize.’
Kraush looked at Astria, who still couldn’t lift her face.
“Miss Astria, do you know about the fake saint?”
To relieve her embarrassment, he decided to get to the main point.
Astria barely regained her composure.
“A fake saint…”
“Yes, the saint who has recently appeared in the Holy Kingdom.”
Astria tilted her head.
“Actually, what if that saint is not fake?”
Astria’s expression immediately changed.
Finally, Astria returned to her usual self.
She began to focus on Kraush’s story rather than her embarrassment.
“In fact, it might be better if you didn’t hear this story from your perspective.”
What Kraush was about to say was the deep secret of the church.
So he hesitated briefly even as he tried to speak.
“It seems you’re about to tell me something very important.”
Astria smiled as brightly as the sun.
“Please tell me. I don’t want to remain ignorant of things related to me.”
Her appearance perfectly matched the word ‘saint.’
Thus, Kraush spoke the truth.
“The person called the fake saint is a saint who was recorded to have died 300 years ago.”
“…What?”
Astria’s smile froze at the completely unexpected reply.
It was a story she had never heard before.
“And she is also your future.”
Bang!
At that moment, the door burst open violently.
Standing there was none other than Diona.
She had been silently eavesdropping outside and had come in as soon as she heard Kraush’s statement.
“Diona.”
Astria’s eyes turned colder than ever.
She was signaling not to interrupt this moment.
“Miss Astria!”
Diona’s eyes trembled.
She looked at Kraush.
How could the boy, a direct descendant of Balheim, know this?
This was a fact known only to a very few within the Holy Kingdom.
“It’s okay. Please continue.”
“A saint is half-immortal.”
A saint’s body, full of divine power, is almost immortal.
Because the cells in the body do not age due to the divine power filled within the body.
Perhaps, the saint is the closest to Crimson Garden.
However, there is only one thing that divine power cannot suppress.
It is the mind.
While the body remains intact, the saint’s mind typically deteriorates around the age of 250.
As saints, they lead lives solely devoted to healing others within the Holy Kingdom.
Most of them eventually lose the will to live and reach a mental limit.
Therefore, the Holy Kingdom roughly replaces saints every 200 years.
The method is to put the mentally deteriorated former saint into a glass coffin and forcefully draw out all the divine power, infusing it into the water inside the glass coffin.
Then, the infant candidate for the next generation saint spends their time in that water.
That is the Holy Grail.
And that is the inheritance of the saint.
After explaining everything, Diona lowered her head.
Because she knew the story.
“In short, the fake saint is the shell of a former saint.”
The current fake saint, who is actively roaming, is a 300-year-old former saint turned into an old woman due to divine power extraction.
The saint is the Holy Kingdom’s disgrace and a secret that must never be revealed.
The reason she could roam outside was due to a new faction within the Holy Kingdom opposing the inheritance of the saint.
‘And this was also the beginning of the Holy Kingdom Freeman’s attempt to sever the line of saints.’
All of this was a story Astria had personally shared.
Even the current Astria must have known about the Holy Grail.
However, she would not have known the process of how the Holy Grail was made.
For a good reason.
She learned this story after the Diona Stella here joined the faction opposing the inheritance of saints.
It was after she had died facing the Holy Kingdom head-on.
And that was also when she had joined the Skyborne Generation.
With the Skyborne Generation, heirs from various kingdoms and empires backing her, she threatened the Holy Kingdom and the temple.
Would she expose her existence to the world and shake the foundation of the Holy Kingdom?
Or would they grant her freedom?
The answer was simple.
She officially joined the Skyborne Generation to support them as a saint.
Continuing the will of Diona, who had tried so hard to free her.
Astria, who had been silent, looked at Diona.
“Diona, you didn’t tell me this because you were thinking of me.”
“…I.”
Diona couldn’t finish her sentence and looked at Astria with a heavy heart.
She must have hoped she wouldn’t suffer from knowing such a fact.
However, Astria was strong.
[If, really, if I could go back to that time. I want to make sure Diona doesn’t die because of me.]
And Kraush remembered what she said.
That’s why he told her this fact today.
“This is all I wanted to tell you.”
Astria looked back at Kraush.
She couldn’t understand why Kraush was telling her this.
From Kraush’s perspective, this was an extremely disadvantageous story.
If he possessed such information, it could become a card to shake the Holy Kingdom someday.
Conversely, if he spoke out, he might become a target of the Holy Kingdom.
Yet, he directly told this fact to her, who could be said to be the foundation of the Holy Kingdom.
No matter how she looked at it, it wasn’t something one would casually reveal.
“Why did you…”
“Are you asking why I told you?”
Astria fell silent.
Seeing this, Kraush briefly smiled.
“I’m the type who can’t let go of a debt.”
At the time when the vanguard of the Skyborne Generation had left.
The fiercest attack erupted in the rear.
Kraush and Astria, caught in it, were on the brink of death.
Both suffered severe injuries, but Astria, being a saint, could somehow recover.
On the other hand, Kraush was in a state beyond even Astria’s healing abilities.
Due to the curses accumulated over a long time, the injuries caused them to run rampant, gnawing away at Kraush’s body.
What Astria did then was simple.
[Don’t die. You can’t die as you please.]
Just like during the time of the Holy Grail for the saint’s inheritance.
She poured all her divine power into Kraush.
Just to save Kraush.
When Kraush woke up later.
[…Astria?]
Astria was no longer in this world.
Despite her own injuries being not fully healed, only the corpse of Astria, who had poured out all her divine power into Kraush, remained.
That day, Kraush received a great favor.
And because of that, Kraush could survive.
The divine power in Kraush’s body, as if it were Astria’s will, continually healed his body.
Unless it was a fatal injury like having his neck completely sliced or his heart pierced, his body would constantly heal.
Because of that, Kraush endured countless curses and survived.
Because he couldn’t bear to face Astria if he died.
And now it was time for Kraush to repay that favor.
Of course, Kraush didn’t mention that.
“The reason I’m alive now is thanks to you, Miss Astria. So, it’s only right to help you so you can choose the direction you want to go in, as someone who has received a favor.”
“That was merely the obvious reward for your heroic deeds. As a saint, it was something I should naturally do for someone who fought against an 8-star erosion species and ended up in such a state.”
But Kraush shook his head.
Instead, he declared.
“The one who saved me wasn’t just a saint, it was you, Astria.”
Astria’s expression showed her surprise.
It was the first time anyone had ever told her that.
No one had ever expressed gratitude directly to Astria, not as a saint.
“Someone once told me to take care of myself first.”
She had heard it so often from him that it sometimes felt like nagging.
“I think it wouldn’t hurt for Astria to think about it at least once.”
Kraush finished saying that and stood up.
Then, he conveyed his final words to the dazed Astria.
“Despite how I look, I will become quite strong.”
With a playful smile, he looked like someone of his own age for the first time today.
“If the shackles get annoying, let me know. I’ll cut them off for you.”
That last remark was directed at Astria, not the saint.
Leaving Astria, who was unable to respond, Kraush walked out of the room.
Astria still stared blankly at Kraush’s departing figure.
End of Chapter
