Chapter 98

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Episode 22 - Inevitability [1]

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Twenty-three days had passed since the snowstorm had stopped for a few hours.

And from the very first day until now, thirty days had passed; in the real world, that was equivalent to thirty hours.

At first, it did not bother me. I could train all day without worries.

During the first and second weeks, I kept those thoughts, but by the third week, I started to grow impatient.

By that point, the snowstorm should have weakened already or, at the very least, calmed down like before.

However, it only got worse, and Luminus believed the storm would continue for at least another week.

When the third week arrived, I started to feel anxious. Time was beginning to work against me, and I had not even killed the villains yet.

Even so, I did not let myself lose focus on training, and eventually, the fourth week arrived.

The snowstorm was still present, but there were already signs that it was close to ending.

Then a few more days passed, and finally, the storm calmed enough for us to go outside for a couple of hours.

And now, today, the snowstorm had finally come to a complete stop.

I stood up from the ground and straightened myself, stretching my arms and back while letting out a faint groan of satisfaction.

Then I used my senses to perceive the surroundings.

Charlotte was sitting beside Luminus, watching the outside of the cave.

"You finally finished training."

Luminus asked without looking at me. I nodded and said:

"Yes, so the snowstorm finally stopped."

Luminus nodded.

"Yes, in a few minutes we will move out. The villains’ base is a couple of kilometers away."

I gave a slight nod, turned around, and walked toward the back of the cave.

I took off my clothes and then submerged myself in the hot spring.

’This will be the last change of clothes I have left.’

Inside my Inventory, all that remained was a thin long-sleeved shirt, a pair of military pants, and my underwear.

If it were not for Charlotte, I would still have more than half of my clothes unused.

Almost all of my dirty clothes were inside my Inventory, covered in sweat and dirt.

’Phew... she really does train hard, huh?’

Charlotte had already almost completely mastered the First Form of the Eternal Void Divine Art.

It would probably take Charlotte one or two more weeks to master it completely.

’From what my senses have perceived, this sword art is not complicated. It is about using emotions in general.’

In comparison, mine was far more complex. I had to master concepts such as Space, Time, and others similar to them.

’I wonder what the Third Form will be like.’

I was no longer far from reaching Maximum Mastery in the Second Form.

I estimated that I could begin training the Third Form during summer vacation, after finishing the first semester.

Anyway, I finished bathing, changed clothes, and finally returned to the campfire.

Luminus and Charlotte had already finished packing some of the things they had gathered throughout the entire month.

After about ten or twenty minutes, we prepared to leave the cave.

Charlotte and I nodded toward Luminus.

"Then, let’s go."

Luminus said before we finally left the cave.

Instantly, the freezing wind struck my face and the rest of my body.

Already accustomed to the extreme cold of this place, my body adapted quickly. Even so, I used Mana Coating and controlled my body temperature.

Then, using the ability of my attribute, Dark Void Step, I remained standing on top of the snow.

At this point, the snow had covered the ground to a depth of twenty meters.

It was impossible to walk without using a movement skill.

Charlotte and Luminus did the same.

Throughout all this time, Charlotte had learned all the most important basic abilities of her attribute.

Anyway, I turned toward Luminus and asked:

"So, what awaits us at the villains’ base?"

I was certain that the invading villains from the Memory Gate had joined forces with the villains from the Fallen Maiden storyline.

There had been no signs of activity from any living being for an entire month.

Aside from monsters or demons flying through the sky, there was nothing else.

"The villains’ base is located in a snowy field filled with frozen monsters and demons. That place is known as the Winter Graveyard. The leader of this base is a Class 9 villain; right below him is a Class 8 one. The rest are Class 5 or 6, with a few Class 7s."

"And what about your fiancé?"

Charlotte asked, prompting a long silence from Luminus.

During the last month, Luminus rarely spoke about Kyle or anything related to her past.

She tended to focus more on the present than anything else.

And one of Luminus’s goals in the Mountains of the End was to find Kyle.

Luminus took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, forming a faint cloud of vapor in front of her.

"I don’t know... I don’t know if I’ll be able to find him. I’ve searched everywhere, and the only clue I could find was that someone saw a person similar to him entering these mountains."

"So you’re not even sure he’s really here, let alone whether he’s at the villains’ base."

At first, Luminus had thought Kyle was working with the villains.

She had said she did not want to believe it, but possibilities and whatever fate held could still toy with her.

Even so, even if her suspicions were true, Luminus still wished to see him at least one more time.

More than a decade had passed since the last time she saw him.

Her emotions reflected longing whenever she spoke about Kyle.

She longed to see him again, but she was afraid of not finding him or discovering that he truly had become a villain.

That was the greatest fear reflected in her emotions.

’I don’t have a Trait related to fate or premonition, but...’

Somehow, the ending of this Chapter One felt suffocating to me.

It was simply an intuitive feeling more than anything else.

"No, I’m not sure."

Luminus replied in a low voice, almost breaking from helplessness.

Charlotte stared at her and said:

"I believe we can find him. Maybe the villains captured him and are keeping him imprisoned, but him being a villain... no way. Everything you’ve said about Kyle makes it clear that he isn’t and never will be a villain."

Luminus looked ahead without turning toward Charlotte and forced a faint smile.

"Yes, I hope so."

Despite saying that, her emotions reflected the complete opposite.

Noticing her unstable emotions, I sighed inwardly.

Although my current self could not truly feel emotions, it was not as though I was completely empty of them either.

I had a past life, and perhaps even more than one that I could not remember.

But I had experienced the emotions of those lives and knew perfectly well how they felt.

I was not someone completely devoid of emotions; with just a slight push, I could easily feel them.

’Luminus’s emotions have already begun to suffocate Charlotte. My Trait is still resisting, but not for much longer.’

I had to complete this Chapter as soon as possible.

***

Ten years ago.

Luminus and her father had an argument, and in the middle of the darkness of the night, she left home.

She had already grown tired of living in that place.

Her mother had died three years earlier, leaving only Luminus and her father behind.

Luminus had no brothers or sisters, although secondary branches of her bloodline did exist.

There were boys and girls who could be considered her cousins, even distant brothers and sisters.

However, Luminus never considered them as such.

They had not been born from her mother’s womb.

They were the children of commoner women or prostitutes.

Considering them part of her family would be the same as accepting those women as stepmothers.

And the very thought disgusted her.

’Father really wants to send me to the army. I’m barely at the First Star; I’m not even a Second Star yet.’

It was obvious that someone with her strength would die quickly in either the kingdom’s army or the Federation’s.

She was only fifteen years old.

She had recently lost her mother, and her father had turned into a drunken bastard who had even struck her on several occasions.

Luminus felt a strong urge to kill her own father, but he was still the only family she had left.

Even if he was like this now, Luminus still remembered the times when her father had been as kind and gentle as her mother.

’Kyle was also forced to join the army.’

Luminus walked for several hours, took a few carriages, and finally arrived at the Kingdom’s Capital, where Kyle’s ducal residence was located.

She went directly to the Military Academy where Kyle was currently studying.

The two of them had not seen each other for weeks.

They exchanged letters from time to time, but that was no longer enough for her.

She no longer wanted to keep reading simple letters.

She wanted to hear his voice and meet him again, as if it were the first time they had met.

Even if he was busy, she would wait for him.

And even if he did not have time to see her, she would still wait for him.

She only wanted to see him one more time and tell him about her plans for the future.

She intended to leave her home for good.

Continuing to live beside a drunken father who hit her during his drunken episodes only strengthened her desire to leave.

So she entered and crossed the main gate of the Military Academy.

She asked several cadets about Kyle, and shortly afterward, she went up to the academy’s rooftop.

Kyle was sitting there, watching the dark sky with a melancholic expression.

Then he heard footsteps and turned his head.

The two of them looked at each other.

Luminus smiled brightly, and Kyle asked in confusion:

"What is my future wife doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home or in your room?"