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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Climax (4)
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Step by step.
With each step I took, the surrounding scenery flowed and changed naturally.
The gloomy cave had, before I knew it, become a street blooming with spring flowers.
The musty smell was now a fresh floral scent, tickling my nose.
Giggles erupted from here and there, the laughter of students who still had a touch of childishness about them.
My head turned. I saw the familiar yet subtly different scenery of Arden Academy.
Students who appeared to be freshmen were visible.
Wearing uniforms of a different design than now,
cloaked in capes long out of fashion,
students with old-fashioned ties or ribbons.
"..."
Enveloped in the nostalgic scene, I instantly understood.
This illusion Celetina was showing me was the very day Celetina and I first met.
-Tap, tap.
As I was thinking that, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned my head to see a young man with a mischievous expression, striking with his short, light golden hair and jade eyes.
"Dian, look over there! Wow, how can someone be *that* beautiful?"
The young man was Deren in his youth. Right, back then, I was quite close with this guy.
My gaze naturally followed Deren's.
Hair as white as snowflakes,
eyes as blue as sapphires,
an appearance so beautiful it evoked spontaneous admiration.
The woman, even more beautiful than I remembered, was Celetina, whom I knew.
"Dian, I think I've found my fated partner on the very first day of admission. So don't even think about stopping me or interfering. She's mine."
Young Deren said so, then immediately headed towards Celetina.
"Dian, do you know something?"
Deren, who returned to my side in less than a minute, spoke with a bitter smile yet a determined tone.
"There's no tree that won't fall if you hit it ten times. Even if that tree is an imperial princess."
Not true. You couldn't knock it down even if you hit it a hundred times. I, on the other hand, knocked it down in one go.
I was about to reply like that, but seeing Deren's foolish expression, I barely managed to suppress the urge and looked back at Celetina.
Was it because I wasn't interested back then that I didn't know?
Unlike my memory that Celetina had disliked me from the start,
she was looking my way, smiling shyly.
****
Just as I remembered, in the same way as before.
The scenery continued to change, and time flowed ceaselessly.
I recited the oath at the entrance ceremony.
I walked through the academy with Mort, Deren, and Kalmia, and sometimes read books in the library.
As ordinary daily life continued, Celetina, who felt special to me, would pick fights with me whenever she had a chance.
A year passed like that, and I became the top student of the Magic Faculty, while Celetina became the second.
She always wanted to defeat me and keep me beneath her.
I hated losing to her, yet I always accepted her challenges.
Then, we discovered the Cave of Illusions, a battlefield perfectly suited for us.
We showed off the illusions we created to each other, trying to prove ourselves to one another.
Another year passed like that. During that time, I wandered through illusions permeated with memories.
And then, I realized something I hadn't known until now.
The me back then, the Celetina back then.
We, who considered each other rivals or competitors, had already been looking at each other even before that.
I hated losing to Celetina, yet I waited every day for her to come to me.
Celetina pretended to dislike me, yet she smiled at me without missing a single day.
They were not bad days. It was a continuous stream of time I didn't want to end.
A question arose. Why couldn't I express my feelings honestly back then?
I regretted it. Why couldn't I treat her better back then? Why couldn't I spend more time with her?
And so, time continued to flow.
What I was experiencing was an illusion. That awareness,
perhaps it wasn't an illusion. Until it became such a misconception.
****
Ulf van Ranunculus. The head of my family and my biological father, he informed me.
That my fiancée had been decided.
That the person was the Imperial Princess of this Empire, so I should not entertain any wild thoughts and conduct myself properly.
When I heard his unilateral announcement, my heart pounded, and a hot sensation spread throughout my body.
Upon feeling this, I finally realized.
That the feelings I had back then were not anger and rebelliousness, but excitement and overwhelming joy.
Celetina, who had heard the same news as me, stood before the Cave of Illusions with an expression that seemed full of anger.
I remember. The old me would have thrown a tantrum at that sight, and back then, we bickered for a long time before coming to a rational, very wizard-like conclusion: 'Let's just accept reality.'
Amusingly, we slowly permeated each other's lives like that back then.
Was it because I knew the miserable future that lay ahead?
After seeing Celetina, desire began to subtly creep up on me for the first time, and longing started to bloom.
What if I acted differently from my memories?
Wouldn't the tragic ending change a little?
Unlike back then, couldn't we be happier?
"Celetina."
My lips parted reflexively. Her haughty face and challenging gaze turned towards me.
"..."
My words caught in my throat.
The reason was that Celetina's expression as she looked at me was different from my memories.
I hadn't known. The truth was, back then, Celetina's gaze held a mix of excitement and anticipation when she looked at me.
And the truth was, Celetina's twitching lips weren't from anger, but from joy.
"That's a relief."
From Celetina's lips, a phrase I didn't remember hearing before, escaped for the first time.
As I stared at Celetina with a blank expression, she continued, a bright smile blossoming on her face like a blooming flower.
"Seeing your expression, it seems you don't entirely dislike it..."
Where had her usual bold demeanor gone? I saw Celetina fiddling with her fingers, blushing with embarrassment.
"I've never disliked you. I've only ever liked you."
Was it because I had made up my mind? Like water bursting from a broken dam, the true feelings I had kept hidden began to pour out of my mouth.
"So from now on..."
"Pfft, pffft!"
"…?"
I was clearly about to say something cool.
Celetina chuckled playfully, staring intently at my face, and I, feeling awkward, clamped my mouth shut.
"How can you phrase things in such a cheesy way? Pfft, pffft! That's so you, Dian."
Giggles, Celetina held her stomach, laughing at me for a long time.
But why? Celetina was clearly mocking me, yet the corners of my mouth, which had lifted, wouldn't go back down.
"Ahem, ahem!"
After a long moment, Celetina cleared her throat, then looked at me with a serious expression and spoke.
"Dian, could you perhaps promise me something?"
"Anything. Even the stars hanging in the night sky, I would..."
"Pfft, pffft! That kind of idiotic line isn't romantic at all, so could you just listen quietly?"
"...Uh."
Seeing Celetina's lovely face, I nodded and firmly closed my mouth.
Honestly, I didn't know. I didn't know that wouldn't work.
"Later, much later, that is."
While my heart wavered between disappointment and regret, Celetina began to speak, her expression sad.
"Something sad will happen to me, and to you."
"Something sad...? Can't we avoid or prepare for something like that?"
"No. That day will inevitably come. I will spend every day regretting it with tears, and you will live every day consumed by longing and resentment."
My mind became complicated. Questions began to arise.
Was Celetina referring to the day she would fall into sin?
Did that mean Celetina at this time already knew the future?
"Dian. That's why I'm telling you. Far in the future, when that inevitable tragic day comes..."
Celetina opened her trembling lips, her eyes filled with unspoken emotions.
"Will you be able to save me?"
I nodded reflexively, and Celetina pulled a black orb from her pocket, beginning to show me the distant future she had seen.
****
Celetina showed me futures I didn't know and futures I wouldn't have known.
In the future visible within the orb.
She longed desperately for me, who had joined the Hero's party, and headed towards the battlefield where I was.
While resenting the Hero who had taken me away, she devotedly supported the Hero's party for my sake.
Within her mind, dedicated to meeting me again, a seed of evil was planted.
She endured for my sake but eventually fell into corruption.
Corrupted, she longed for me and became a Sin.
As a Sin, she gnawed on loneliness and despair, enduring each day.
Having endured thus, she finally gathered the courage to approach me.
I was angry. At myself, ignorant and clueless, who had known nothing of her devotion to me, nothing of the tragedy she had to endure, and who had been unable to prevent any of it.
I was sad. Because of the countless negative emotions she must have felt. Because no one had offered a comforting hand to her, who must have suffered more than anyone.
A myriad of emotions crossed my mind.
My heart would sink coldly, and then my insides would boil.
As I oscillated between the extremes of emotion, a sorrowful voice reached my ears.
"Dian, the future from this point on depends on your choice."
Within the orb, a future far more distant than my memories began to appear.
"If you don't take my hand..."
I saw Celetina torn to shreds by a sword imbued with starlight.
I saw an enraged evil god descend upon learning this, annihilating the world.
A hell where blood and screams had dried up, covered only by viscous black sludge and hideous beings.
As I despaired at that sight.
A trembling voice reached my ears.
"If you save me..."
The future visible within the orb began to change.
Red and black turning into green and blue,
a dried-up hell turning into ordinary, everyday life,
the Sin who had been torn apart and died, becoming a woman holding a child born from our union.
Seeing this, a fervent wish began to form in my heart.
I wished this moment, happier than any other, would never end.
-"Just remember one thing. Now is --------!"
As I wished that, someone's stern voice, which had suddenly echoed in my mind, was...
"Dian, I... I don't want to lose you."
...cut off by a sweet and lovely voice, and a strange sensation on my finger.
My gaze dropped. The ring I had been wearing was gone, replaced by an unfamiliar black ring.
My head lifted. I saw the beautiful and lovely face of my fiancée.
The longing for me in her eyes stirred my hidden desires.
My lips slowly, very slowly, parted.
"...Me too."
Her eyes, which had been looking at me, slowly closed, and her hand wrapped around my waist like a snake.
My head moved. My lips extended, and my eyes slowly began to close.
As I was about to defy tragic fate and choose my own destiny, in my ears...
-CRASH!
...the sound of the destiny I had chosen shattering.
"Oh, for heaven's sake. It's gone completely off the rails."
...and the angry-sounding voice of the boy who had shattered that destiny, suddenly echoed.