Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 188:

Chapter 188 Thank you for everything.

Flan stepped into the domain with his characteristic expressionlessness.The fertile land had become unbelievably barren.

The wind that tickled his nose carried the scent of hardened Mythril, which allowed him to quickly grasp the situation.

This had happened in just a week.

He had not expected this scenery, but he still furrowed his brows in displeasure.

He began to walk around and inspect the domain carefully.

It was a pitiful sight, reminiscent of the Reheln Hill, but he thought it was possible to restore it.

He had refined his ancient rune language skills to a great extent in the Fire World.

The first time Flan stopped walking was when he found the lord of this domain.

Trixie, who had been exhausted by fatigue, blinked her eyes several times.

The next moment, she opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish, and muttered with a voice crack.

“…Flan?”

Flan nodded slightly.

He did not bother to ask how she was.

The domain had suffered a huge blow, and a week was a long time.

The shock that Trixie, who had just become the lord, must have felt was immense.

“You’ve done well.”

So Flan said only that.

It was only four words, but many complex emotions crossed Trixie’s face.

The girl, who had been looking pale, soon nodded with a faint smile.

“Yeah. I’m working hard.”

“I won’t forget your efforts.”

Flan praised Trixie’s hard work and then asked.

“Trixie, where is the second princess now?”

“Huh?”

Trixie, who was approaching Flan, stopped for a moment as if she had faced an unexpected question.

There was no time to waste, so Flan asked again.

“The second princess. She must be here.”

“Ah…”

Trixie made a troubled expression as if she had recalled something awkward. But she could not withstand Flan’s straight gaze, so she soon took a breath and spoke.

“The center of the tower construction site.”

Trixie was not stupid enough to add any unnecessary comments. She filtered out the clear facts and delivered the information to Flan as it was.

The rough story was this.

Many people, including the academy, were hostile to the princess, and the princess herself, Aurora, was kneeling quietly in the center of the construction site.

Trixie especially emphasized that the princess’s mental and physical state was both strange, but Flan’s mind naturally pictured the scenes.

Promise.

Aurora seemed to have tried to keep her promise with Flan in her own way.

Trixie quickly blocked Flan, who was about to leave with a nod.

“Are you going to see her right now? Her condition is very…”

“That’s why I’m going myself.”

Flan’s red eyes turned to Trixie.

“There’s no one else who can step in but me.”

Trixie could not argue.

In fact, Flan was the only one who could solve the situation right now.

“Make sure to control the access around here. I’m asking you.”

Flan could not be stopped as usual. But Trixie was curious about his move and asked.

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“Tie up.”

Flan answered easily.

“It’s time to tie up this promise too.”

◈

No sunlight reached this place.

Even though the construction had been halted halfway, there was already a lot of Mythril piled up, and Aurora was in that site, which was almost as big as a mansion.

In this place where even the flow of time was not clear, Aurora was kneeling down. She waited endlessly for someone, without changing her posture.

“…”

A dark view, a blank mind.

Aurora, who was breathing blankly, had only one sense of mission left.

The promise with Flan.

That was all.

“…I have to protect him.”

Aurora muttered weakly.

The problem was that she had no way to fulfill her words.

Mythrile, who had frozen coldly, was already as big as a mansion. She did not have the ability to do the difficult task that would require several court magicians.

Let’s wait.

That was the simple conclusion she came to.

But then, thump, a sound echoed with her heart. Aurora instinctively clutched her chest at the unexpected sensation.

She understood it by instinct, beyond common sense.

The ‘expiration date’ that the masked Vampire Dust had mentioned. 

It seemed to have finally come for Aurora as well.

“Ugh…”

Aurora barely held on to her consciousness.

She did not feel pain, but her senses were fading. She knew by instinct that if she let go of her awareness now, she would never come back.

But at some point.

“…?”

She lost the feeling in her left arm. 

Aurora was amazed by the sudden change and touched her body with her right hand.

“The feeling…”

She only felt like touching a wooden stump in her left arm. Soon, the sensation on the left side of her face also seemed to dull.

“…”

Aurora checked again where she was paralyzed. She was afraid that the parts where she could not feel anything were increasing.

─Didn’t I tell you? There is an expiration date.

She had no choice but to listen to the voice that pierced her head. Dust’s voice played vividly in her mind.

─Are you surprised to hear my voice? It’s not such a strange thing. All the dolls are connected to me.

Dust’s voice was still grotesque and unpleasant.

─You acted foolishly and were also abandoned by the royal family, so you have become a completely useless doll. Now you have to dispose of it.

He sneered and no longer spoke. 

Only intense pain followed.

It felt like being stabbed with a needle, and then there was a bang, and a shock inside her body.

“Cough─!”

Aurora spat out blood. 

She could not breathe as her organs twisted.

The fear that crept up on her.

The death that her instinct warned her of.

“…”

But even so, Aurora endured.

She did not know how long she could last, but she was determined to hold on until her limit.

“I have to, endure…”

She had to endure for the sake of her promise with Flan. 

She had endured for eight years in the dark basement, so endurance was not unfamiliar to Aurora.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Aurora wiped her nose with her trembling hand. 

The nosebleed was flowing incessantly.

Again, one second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

She clenched her teeth and endured, but it was futile. 

It was impossible to overcome her nature with just her willpower.

There was a thud, and she felt a pain in the back of her head.

“Ah.”

Her vision blurred and her mind faded. Aurora eventually fell back and lay down.

This place was still dark.

Just like the underground prison where she had spent eight years.

A hollow laugh escaped from Aurora’s lips.

…I never escaped the darkness in my whole life.

Some thoughts came to her mind, but they just stopped there. 

They could never lead to actions or become reality.

Aurora’s eyelids began to fall slowly.

I have to keep my promise…

She felt a faint light between her half-closed eyelids. 

It was still too weak.

. . .

‘Mom, do you really have to throw it away? He’s someone I really cherish, isn’t there a way to fix and use him? We’ve been together for so long…’

‘Affection is trivial. If there is a defect, just get a new one. It’s more expensive to fix a broken thing than to buy a new one.’

‘Get a new one, you say…? But that’s a completely different thing. I like this one.’

‘Neither things nor humans are meant to be fixed and used. You have to remember that if you want to live safely.’

‘…’

‘Are you crying? Stop crying right now!’

‘I’m, I’m sorry…’

The things that Aurora remembered were always like this.

Memories were based on the past, and there were never any happy days in Aurora’s past.

She realized that she had never tried to fix anything.

If she deemed something defective, she discarded it, even if it was a human.

If something broke, she looked for something else that could replace it.

She wanted to be something irreplaceable.

And yet, she wanted to change herself now.

“Ha…”

It was a vain decision, and looking back, it was a dark life.

Aurora had no more patience left.

She closed her eyes quietly, waiting for death to take her away as it approached her.

But at that moment.

Thud-

Something landed on the bridge of her nose.

It tickled.

Like a strand of hair stuck to it.

But being ticklish meant that her senses had returned. Aurora opened her eyelids with a question in her mind.

Flutter- Flutter-

A very warm light filled her vision. It took her quite a long time to realize that a dawn butterfly was sitting on the bridge of her nose.

“…Your Highness.”

At the cold and heavy call, Aurora noticed who was standing behind the butterfly.

The princess slowly lifted her head and looked up.

Flan looked down at her.

“You have kept your promise.”

His voice was filled with the warmth she had longed for.

Aurora wanted to say something in this reunion.

Perhaps an apology, but she failed to utter a word. Her body was still not fully moving.

“So, this is my promise to you.”

A gentle breeze blew, and the frozen Mythril began to melt away.

A brilliant light poured from the sky, and the gray and hard Mythril scattered like white petals.

Aurora felt her heart beating again, and tried to take in the events unfolding before her eyes.

A swarm of butterflies, which could be called a ‘flock’, was flying towards her.

The dawn butterflies landed on her body, starting from her shoulders.

The light that she had wanted to embrace so much was now so close to her.

The princess barely raised her hand and grabbed Flan’s hem.

Aurora’s facial muscles moved in a way that they had never done since she was born.

…It was a smile.

“Thank you for everything.”

With just those words, she finally fell into a peaceful sleep.

◈

“Sigh.”

As soon as he arrived in the void, Maiev let out a sigh.