Chapter 460

I stood silent, forehead to forehead with Adeshan. A shiver ran through my veins.
Like a complex machine, most of Akasha’s bizarre behavior suddenly made sense.
“It was for this.
He must have drained the life force from Ceniel in this parallel world.
I’ve often wondered what the structure of the orb was that allowed it to regress, so that each soul in the world could turn back time once.
However, Akasha’s identity was sinking deeper into a quagmire of mystery.
‘Akasha. You are—.’
The marbles that made regression possible were the beginning of the story.
I couldn’t understand why someone from the future would do this. Furthermore, if Sogi’s purpose was to create and deliver the orb, why would he want to destroy the entire world?
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing—?”
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out. In fact, it wasn’t even a time to think about it.
Adeshan coughed out his embarrassment.
“Kulk, kulk, kulk, what is this?!”
The sudden realization that she had swallowed something seemed to frighten her.
His response was that the pain had subsided, but his hearing and vision had not yet recovered.
“It’s a time-turning orb, and if I’m not mistaken, you can turn it back up to four times.”
I slowly pulled our foreheads apart.
Adeshan was now gagging.
“Ew. Ouch.”
“Don’t spit it out. It’s going to be okay.”
I gently stroked her hair. Her stony expression slowly softened. Fortunately, her sense of touch seemed to have returned to some extent.
Adeshan’s eyes widened as he pulled the cord from around his neck.
“Well, there’s someone—!”
The blood stopped, but the focus was blurry. My vision hadn’t returned. Of course, I was grateful to be able to see those beautiful ashen eyes again.
I patted him on the head to reassure him not to worry, and he responded with an emotional response.
“Thank you–thank you so much–kool-aid, kool-aid, forgive me for not getting up and saying hello.”
“It’s okay, you can rest now.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I’ll never forget you—I’m so glad I met someone like you before I died—Now, I can leave in peace.”
Adeshan let out a faint sigh. Her breathing was getting weaker and weaker.
As expected. Ceniel’s life force had only eased the pain, not taken away the shadow of death. A cruel history would begin with her death.
“——In fact, I don’t want to die.”
Suddenly, the smile faded from Adeshan’s face.
“Huh?”
“I’m so, so angry–after what happened to me–after what happened to that monster–and I haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
Tears welled up beneath her dark lashes. The tears were red, not unlike blood, as they dissolved the stains on her face.
She kept her vacant gaze to the sky as she spoke, her words bordering on sobs.
“—I don’t want to die—I have to protect people—people, people!”
“Adeshan.”
“Will someone remember me—at my death?”
Judging by his condition, he wouldn’t last more than thirty minutes. Adeshan was now clutching my hand with all his might. His nails dug into my flesh as if he were trying to hold onto a soul that was trying to leave his body.
I listened to her, forgetting to breathe. What I was looking at now was the rock upon which a great army of iron-blooded warriors was built. Her obsession with life, over and over again, created the warlord I knew.
“I don’t want to die.”
After about five minutes, his voice broke. The strength in his clasped hands was slipping away. Death was near.
“—My name is Ronan.”
Finally, after some thought, I opened my mouth.
“Haa—haa—.”
“I’m from the future, I know all the endings, listen up, you succeed, you meet me, you save the world as a result, and now there’s not a bald man left in all the world.”
He didn’t answer. Not surprising, since they wouldn’t hear it in the first place.
I didn’t mind, I said.
“But it will be a very long time before we meet. Fate has never worked out as well as I thought it would. We’ve been separated, we’ve died before we’ve met—we’ve barely met, and we’ve failed to recognize each other’s prowess, and it’s been catastrophic. Our enemy is too strong.”
“——.”
“But you win in the end, and of course you’re not forgotten. You accomplish great things, you’re hailed as a hero—even Jaifa, the enemy of your mother and brothers, later repents of his wrongdoing and works for you. How’s that for a deal?”
This time, no answer came. Her white hand hung limp like a sack soaked in water. I took a moment to catch my breath, and then I clasped her hand firmly.
“I was happy to be with you, even if it was only for a moment.”
The wind was dying down. Adeshan stared blankly at the sky. The blue in his ashen eyes was beautiful. The glow of the dying irises signaled the end.
“So, even at the end of your fourth life—”
My throat was tight and I could barely make a sound. My vision was so blurred that I couldn’t even recognize the face of the person directly in front of me. I closed my eyes.
“You must find me. Captain.”
Hot tears rolled down my cheeks.
Suddenly, a soft voice rang out from beyond the darkness of his eyelids.
“——is warm.”
“What?”
I jerked my eyes open. Adeshan’s face was as peaceful as if she had fallen asleep. I could no longer hear her breathing, and the corners of my mouth tilted up as I studied her face.
“—See you soon.”
I stopped short of burying her myself. From beyond the wasteland, the sound of hooves pounding the earth was getting closer. It was reinforcements from the Empire.
I slipped the bloody army number into Adeshan’s hand. The Imperials take good care of their dead, so it would be cleaned up. With Akasha gone to destroy the giant world, there seemed to be no more threat.
“Let’s go.”
There was nothing left to do. It was really time to go home.
I rummaged in my coat pocket and pulled out a glass vial. He unscrewed the lid, and red liquid poured out. Akasha’s blood splattered in the air, creating a crack just big enough for a man to pass through.
It was a rift in the original world.
I took one last look around the battlefield and stepped into the rift.
****
It was the evening of the third day when the battle ended.
“Whoa—whoa—whoa–.”
Barely catching his breath, Adeshan looked up. The scene was like hell on earth.
The wasteland was covered in a torrential downpour of rain and the bodies of the thoroughly destroyed. Rivers of blood and guts flooded everywhere.
He found himself sitting with his back against a huge boulder. The last thing he remembered was the spear Ahayute had thrown at him, striking him thirty paces away. A sea of dark clouds roared overhead, flashing thunderbolts.
“Ugh.”
She frowned at the sudden pain. She lowered her gaze and saw her right arm was completely severed below the elbow. It was cut open, dripping with blood, revealing white bone. She couldn’t move her body, wondering if her intestines and legs had been injured as well.
“Did you succeed—?”
But that was of little concern to her. Her attention was focused on the end of the operation.
There were no more eardrum-splitting explosions. Only the sound of rain filled the silent battlefield.
Whether they succeeded in killing Ahayute or the creature that had wiped out the Imperial army had moved on, it was proof that the end had come.
[Is anyone there. I’m injured and can’t move].
With her eyes closed, Adeshan sent her aphrodisiac magic in all directions. It was her duty to see the results. Duaru and Nirvana had been destroyed by the Fire Mother and Lorhon, respectively, leaving only Ahayute in her charge.
[No one—none].
She didn’t get a response, so she sent it again, hoping it would work.
Now I had only one chance to save the world. At most, I had four lives, but twice I had died before even reaching this battlefield due to trial and error.
“Haa—haa—.”
In any case, we’d sent the message, so we’d done all we could.
She hunkered down to conserve as much strength as she could. The cold of the rain pierced through her torn uniform.
Suddenly, she realized that the landscape was very similar to what she had seen in her first life, just before she died. A field of corpses, gaping with craters.
The only thing that was different was that he was the one giving the orders.
“—Damn.”
She smiled bitterly and shook her head.
How long have we been waiting.
“Captain.”
A familiar voice rang out in the distance.
Adeshan looked up. A man staggered to his feet, looking like he was about to die. His yellow eyes shone brightly in the downpour. It was a familiar face.
“You are.”
“Captain Adeshan.”
Ronan called out to her once more. Like himself, he seemed quite surprised. His amber gaze was fixed on his severed arm.
Adeshan’s heart sank. Ronan had been the mastermind of the operation, and he would have known how the battle would end.
“Ronan—Corporal.”
It was hard to keep a straight face. Desperately trying to keep his composure, Adeshan pushed himself up and leaned against the wall.
“Let me ask you a question.”
I had to ask.
Gray eyes, reminiscent of ashes, stared at Ronan.
“And Ahayute?”
“I killed it.”
Ronan replied dryly. Adeshan froze. She asked again, just to be sure, and was told there was a body not far away. Her lips twitched.
“——.”
It was a moment of fulfillment. Ahayute was dead.
A single tear rolled down his dirty cheek.
“Dead.”
“Damn you, Captain!”
Ronan rushed over and supported Adeshan as he struggled to his feet.
Adeshan scowled. Ronan seemed more concerned with the well-being of his ugly boss than the fact that he was a hero.
“I don’t understand, you’ve killed so many people.
Skin to skin. Despite being chilled by the rain, there was a vague warmth. It was a temperature that felt somehow familiar. She managed to pull herself up and was grateful.
“Thank you.”
“It was something I had to do.”
Ronan smirked as he said it. It was an innocent smile, the kind you’d get when you pulled a child’s shoe out of a tree. Rainwater soaked his hair and trickled down his sharp jawline.
At that moment, Adeshan’s heart throbbed as if it had been stabbed with a needle.
“What is it?
Adeshan winced. This was the first kind of pain he’d ever felt. Somehow, in the midst of the pain, he felt like laughing.
“I have no idea.
I racked my brain for three lifetimes to figure out what was wrong, but to no avail.
She couldn’t figure out what the pain was, what to call the emotion that was causing it, or why Ronan’s temperature was so familiar.
Giving up, she leaned her shoulder against Ronan’s and smiled weakly.
“—Thank you. Corporal Ronan.”
But Adeshan liked this knife holder.
So that when something happens, you won’t regret giving up one life for another.
The Academy’s Genius KnifemanChapter 510