Chapter 630.1: Moonlit Confession (1)
Chapter 630.1: Moonlit Confession (1)
Roel slowly opened his eyes and looked at the remnants of the battlefield before him in a daze, not knowing what had gotten the better of him.
He was a deep sleeper, especially after he was severely injured in a battle. It would have been nigh impossible to wake him up, to the point that it wouldn’t have been surprising to think that he was in a coma.
High transcendents had resilient bodies far beyond the imagination of a mortal. In no way exaggerating, a high transcendent could have enough time to write a will even after having half their body blasted off.
However, this resilience only applied to their physical bodies. Their souls were still no different from that of an ordinary mortal.
Roel had known that it would take a long time for him to recover after undergoing Sia-fication, and the conditions he was afflicted with weren’t helping. Just the side effects from using the five Crown’s Stones would have put him in a world of suffering if not for Indestructible Body, not to mention the side effects from the Loborian serums too.
It should have been hard for him to wake up even if he wanted to under such circumstances… but he was actually experiencing insomnia.
Something’s wrong.
Roel scanned his surroundings as he tried to trace the vague feeling tingling in his heart.
He sensed that it wasn’t a warning of imminent danger, but out of wariness, he still plunged the Nine-headed Serpent Staff into the ground and infused his mana into it.
A green light suffused the staff, as the cells of the ancient beast quickly multiplied underground amidst light tremors. Just like that, the area of a hundred-meter radius around Roel was transformed into a snake’s nest.
Nine massive serpent heads used their keen sensory organs to keep track of everything happening in the surroundings to ensure that no danger befell their owner. Even the slightest movement would trigger a retaliation from the heads.
Feeling much more secure with this layer of protection, Roel turned around to look at the fast-asleep Alicia. She had been placed in the shade, and her limbs had been tightly bound.
Knowing it would be unwise to let his guard down around Alicia, who had inherited the Mother Goddess’ powers, he had specially prepared several means to curb her.
The chains used to bind Alicia might have looked ordinary, but they were the handiwork of Witch Queen Artasia. It would be foolish to underestimate their potency. Furthermore, Edavia had constructed a soul seal in Alicia to suppress her powers.
They had even put her in the shade to slow her recovery, knowing her power was bound to surge if she bathed in the moonlight on the night of a full moon. It would be troublesome if she recovered and kicked up a fuss right now.
But it should be fine if it’s only for a while, right? Roel thought as he looked at her sleeping visage.
With a sigh, he propped up his fatigued body and lifted Alicia up.
Just then, the Witch Queen manifested in mid-air and asked, “Hold on for a moment. My hero, may I ask what it is you’re trying to do here?”
“…It should be fine if it’s just a short while.”
“It should be fine? You do know there’s a limit to how much mana my chain can absorb. What if she unleashes her Divine Domain again?”
“There’s Edavia’s seal… and Alicia should have recalled a bit of her memories, too.”
“…Do whatever you want,” Artasia snorted in displeasure before vanishing into thin air.
Roel heaved a sigh of resignation. He understood Artasia’s concerns.
If Alicia insisted on activating her Divine Domain after waking up and succeeded in pulling it off, the tables would be turned on him right away. If it had been any other enemy, there was no way he would have taken such a risk.
But Alicia was different.
From the start to the end, he had never seen Alicia as his enemy. He had been thinking about her so much in recent days that it was difficult for him to control his emotions now that she was right in front of him.
Holding her small body and looking at her ravishing visage, his expression slowly smoothened as a tinge of warmth and bliss sprouted in his heart.
Her sudden disappearance from his life had nearly driven him into despair, especially after he read the letter she had left behind. The feeling that he was about to lose someone important to him was so awful that he had felt a searing pain in his brain.
With a deep breath, he took in Alicia’s faint fragrance and supplemented his severe Aliciatonin deficiency. Like a drug addict getting his fix, he was finally able to compose himself.
What should I do next?
Before Roel could decide on his next move, he suddenly heard a murmur.
“Lord Brother…”
…
A jolt to the soul was a fatal attack, or at least it was so to the woman named Alicia.
The memories she had subconsciously turned her eyes away from slowly rose to the top of her mind, and she began feeling intense emotions she had never known she was capable of.
The first thing she remembered was their first meeting, where she had timidly hid behind her foster father while eyeing a black-haired boy.
That had been an unforgettable piece of memory she often dreamed of, for that was the turning point of her life. Yet, it felt weirdly foreign to her now.
The features of the black-haired boy looked blurry to her now, or maybe she simply had no impression of it because she dared not raise her head back then. Even so, she felt a tinge of warmth from that memory, and it put her heart at peace.
How weird, this feeling…
It was a peculiar sensation—itchy, yet warm and sweet. It was unlike anything she had ever felt.
She had felt a sense of belonging to the Mother Goddess, whom she shared a soul bond with, but never before such a feeling of peaceful warmth and intoxicating sweetness.
Not even the most exquisite dessert could compete with the sweetness suffusing her heart.
It was as if she was bathing in a pool of syrupy affection. Just thinking about him made her mind heat up and her heartbeat hasten, as if he was a drug she was hooked to. She could no longer turn her eyes away now that the memories of him had started surfacing.
But that was not to say that it was all sweet.
There were also memories that evoked bitterness and frustrations, and those formed a stark contrast to the sweetness. However, the most salient emotion she felt was still yearning.
She missed his face. She missed his warmth. She missed his touch. She missed hearing his heartbeat when they shared a bed. These yearnings built into a powerful tsunami of emotions that culminated in two words.
“…Lord Brother.”
“!”
A shudder ran through Roel’s body.