Ch.219Lapis (3)

Every witch possesses a mystery.

A mystery, a rule that transcends providence.

Witches acquire their mysteries either innately or through experience, and in Lapis’s case, it was the latter. Her mystery was determined on the day she turned 15.

Until she was 15, Lapis, unaware that she was a witch, lived among humans. A girl with just a little talent for magic—that’s how Lapis saw herself, and the villagers treated her as an ordinary human.

That is, until knights and clergy visited the village and revealed that Lapis was a witch.

“Filthy thing.”

“Dirty, putrid, evil thing.”

“Do you think hiding among people conceals your stench? Your essence is that of a foul witch. A psychopath who delights in killing and burning humans!”

The clergyman pointed his finger. The knight drew his sword. Lapis looked around at her friends and the village elders, but they only stared back at her with terrified eyes.

Fear. Disgust. Contempt. Betrayal.

In their eyes, there was no trace of the familiar warmth she once knew. Of course, she couldn’t blame them. In that era, their reaction was all too natural.

It was a time when the Witch of Abyss had burned half the world and blackened the other half, and demons and witches gathered under her shadow to slaughter humans.

In such times, witches were like a terrible plague, feared above all else. Countless people had lost their villages and loved ones to witches, so their anger was all directed at Lapis.

She was butchered with blades.

Stabbed countless times with swords and spears.

Burned and stoned.

Her mother, who had taken her in when she was abandoned in the forest and whispered, “You are my daughter, and I will always be your mother.” That same mother who had smiled so gently at her now threw stones that split her forehead and made her bleed. As blood flowed, Lapis thought:

How worthless trust is. How empty the promises and vows that humans speak.

At fifteen, a young girl confronted with the world’s malice was a witch, and she had the right to choose her mystery. On that day when everything she had believed in became utterly worthless, Lapis chose her mystery.

That day, at that moment, Lapis’s life was determined.

Distrust.

She would believe in nothing. If she gave her trust to no one, she would never be hurt. Trust was worthless, merely an empty shell.

Lapis, the Witch of Distrust.

That day, Lapis burned all those in whom she had placed her trust. Thus, the Witch of Distrust was born.

10 years, 50 years, 100 years…

The Witch of Distrust lived for many long years hating humans, but she couldn’t spend her entire life hating them. After all, humans were at her beginning.

She could never forget the warm smile of her mother. She missed the warmth of that smile, the tranquility of the cottage where she had lived with her mother.

Eventually, she extinguished her flames.

She secluded herself in her cottage, seeking peace, but she remained the Witch of Distrust. A witch who trusted neither humans, nor other witches, nor even herself.

“……”

Then one day.

“Child.”

Lapis discovered a human who resembled her.

A human who lived burning their life away, but with nothing left to burn. A human with the paradoxical desire to both give up on life and to live.

“Are you that famous witch hunter?”

Lapis spoke to this human who resembled her.

With a thought of “perhaps…”

“Me?”

With slight interest. A small deviation. Like a spring breeze tickling her hair. With such a light heart, Lapis reached out to a certain human.

“Lapis.”

The Witch of Distrust, Lapis.

2.

It was a light-hearted feeling.

She didn’t have great expectations.

Lapis thought it would be just a momentary amusement, a pinch of salt or sugar to sprinkle on her dull, dry life.

“Hey.”

However.

“Hey, witch.”

Just as the world had always betrayed her.

“Lapis.”

Anton defiantly contradicted Lapis’s thoughts. As if to show he wasn’t such a trivial man, Anton Kehano kept knocking on the cottage door.

“Lapis, today it’s morning glories.”

Appearing covered in dirt, Anton handed her flowers with shining eyes. As if expecting some reaction from her. When Anton did this, Lapis would reluctantly consider smiling, but upon seeing the flowers he offered, she would burst into genuine laughter out of sheer disbelief.

“Where did you get these? Aren’t morning glories hard to find in the Outer Continent?”

“Ah, yes, it was certainly difficult. But between ‘difficult’ and ‘impossible’ lies an enormous gap.”

“I see this is going to be another long story. Come in. But dust off that dirt first.”

“Oh my. I couldn’t possibly step into a lady’s house covered in dirt.”

Lapis covered her mouth and chuckled again at Anton’s theatrical manner and exaggerated speech.

“So where did you get this flower from?”

“Do you know the Star of Celestial Flow?”

“Ah, that control freak? Yes, I know of him.”

“The sky whale of the Star of Celestial Flow has a vast garden spread across it. I snatched it from there.”

“…From there? Are you insane?”

“It was truly a heart-pounding adventure. Would you like to hear the details? The tremendous adventure behind this morning glory.”

A pale purple morning glory.

When she first received the flower, she thought nothing of it, but Anton’s tale of adventure made Lapis interested in the morning glory. By the time the story ended, Lapis had carefully placed the morning glory in a vase.

“It’s pretty, this flower.”

Like handling a precious treasure, Lapis carefully caressed the petals of the morning glory. Then, without even realizing it herself, she smiled.

“It was worth the trouble to get it.”

When she smiled, Anton would nod with satisfaction. As if he would gladly endure any hardship just to see that smile once.

Such days continued.

Anton made Lapis laugh in countless ways. Lapis, who had thought herself incapable of laughter, found herself bursting into laughter many times when she was with Anton.

“Pfft, heh, hehe… What, what is that!”

She clutched her stomach and burst out laughing.

She lowered her head and shook her shoulders.

Sometimes she laughed in disbelief.

As such days continued, Lapis gradually began to look forward to Anton’s visits. On days when Anton didn’t come, she would sit by the window and gaze outside listlessly. On days when he was expected, she would spend the previous day wondering what clothes to wear and what stories to share.

Throb.

And every time that happened.

Squeeze.

Lapis felt her heart pounding. The pounding was accompanied by pain. Distrust—the fear that Anton might someday betray her. Taboo—the rule engraved in her soul that she must never love a human.

“…Let’s stop, let’s stop here, Anton.”

On a day when her heart was pounding unbearably.

Finally, Lapis made a choice.

To distance herself from Anton.

To not get any closer than this.

“Let’s stop here, us. I don’t want to be hurt by you.”

“……”

“Here. Just up to here. Yes, let’s not cross this line. You’re doing better now, aren’t you? I’ll return your heart to you, and you keep only good memories of me. The end. Clean and simple.”

To keep only pleasant memories and end the story before they betrayed each other. She could end it now. That’s how Lapis took a step back, but Anton didn’t retreat.

“Then you take it. My half.”

“What?”

“If you think I’ll betray you, you can burst that heart. I’m not asking you to trust me. Doubt me. Keep doubting if you want.”

Instead, he confronted her.

Distrust—even affirming her most terrible aspect, Anton knelt and smiled at her. As always, a handsome but somewhat awkward smile.

“I love you, Lapis.”

Lapis couldn’t forget those words.

“Find me.”

That’s why, even though she knew she shouldn’t, even though she thought she mustn’t, she spoke those words.

“Find me, Anton.”

I’ll be waiting.

That was the trust offered by the Witch of Distrust.

The trust extended by a witch who had resolved to believe in nothing, who denied her entire life. As she offered that trust, Lapis constantly denied herself. I’ll be betrayed. As always, expectations will be betrayed, and trust will be trampled.

But at the same time, Lapis thought:

With Anton Kehano, it might be okay. Even if her trust was betrayed, even if she was hurt, if it was Anton, it would be alright.

And so time passed.

10 years, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years…

400 years of time.

After 400 years had passed, today Lapis lifted her head and looked ahead.

“Lapis.”

There he stood.

“I kept my promise.”

Anton Kehano, offering a red rose.

Even after 400 years, still handsome, yet still with that awkward smile. The moment their eyes met, all the worries and anguish that had filled Lapis’s mind vanished completely.

Once again, Lapis burst into laughter.

A smile unchanged from 400 years ago.

3.

“A rose.”

“Yes, a rose.”

“And it’s red. How did you manage that?”

“When you research for 400 years, things tend to work out somehow. The story behind this rose is endless. I’d have to start with the oldest garden first.”

“Really.”

“Yes.”

“Really.”

Lapis carefully caressed the rose petals.

“You kept it. Your promise.”

She wasn’t just talking about the rose.

Lapis had asked him to find her, and Anton had indeed found her after 400 years of searching.

“It must have been difficult. Finding me.”

“Ah. It certainly wasn’t easy.”

“Was it hard?”

“It wasn’t hard. Traveling while thinking about collecting stories to tell you made the time pass quickly.”

And that friend helped too.

As Anton said this, he gestured slightly behind him. There was Najin, catching his breath after dealing with the monsters. As if suggesting they talk, Najin nodded slightly to Anton and stepped back a few more paces.

“I have many things I want to say, but.”

Anton took a deep breath.

“Right now, I only want to say one thing. Lapis?”

“Yes, Anton.”

“Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for waiting for me.”

Lapis caught her breath.

As she opened her mouth to make excuses, Anton shook his head and pointed to her heart. More precisely, to his heart that would occupy half of that space.

“Don’t say it’s not true. You weren’t anywhere else in this tower. You could have waited for me in dreams. You could have lived in dreams in the layer just below this one, the layer that shows happy dreams. You had that opportunity.”

But you didn’t.

“You were waiting for me in reality.”

For a full 400 years.

“I’m grateful for that wait.”

“…Really.”

Lapis ran her hand over her face.

“Don’t you know my name?”

“I do. It’s Lapis.”

“I am Lapis, the Witch of Distrust.”

“That’s not important. Whatever comes before your name, you are still you.”

“Distrust. That’s my mystery. I can’t believe in anything. I can’t give my trust or my heart to anyone.”

Because she was betrayed by humans.

Because she was betrayed no matter what she believed in.

She simply distrusted.

“So, I am the Witch of Distrust.”

“I know. Because you told me.”

“……”

“……”

“By now you should have figured it out, you fool.”

Lapis smiled wryly.

“I am the Witch of Distrust, but.”

She looked at Anton.

“I believed your words. I believed you would come to save me, and I waited for you at the top for 400 years. I tried to doubt you, but I couldn’t. Even if 1000 years had passed, it would have been the same.”

Lapis both cried and laughed.

“You said you would give up being a knight because you loved me?”

As if it were nothing, as if it didn’t matter, Anton had said 400 years ago. He said he could throw away everything for her.

“You know.”

What she couldn’t answer then.

What she could say now.

“I gave up being a witch to love you.”

Anton’s eyes widened.

Lapis placed her hand on her heart and spoke.

“What kind of Witch of Distrust doesn’t distrust?”

Just as you threw everything away for me.

Just as you changed everything for me.

“I am Lapis.”

I too will change everything for you, and throw it all away.

Wouldn’t that be fair?

“Just Lapis.”

The Witch of Distrust trusted a human. That trust was rewarded after 400 years. The moment her trust was rewarded for the first time, Lapis’s mystery lost its color, and the elements that constituted her faded.

The chains that bound her to the Black Tower.

The “restraints for imprisoning witches” created by the Witch of Abyss came undone by themselves. Because Lapis was no longer a witch.

“Thank you for finding me, Anton.”

As she said this, Lapis looked as if she might crumble at any moment. For this moment of reunion with Anton, she had denied her mystery and the “witch” element that formed her soul. Without denying those things, she couldn’t reunite with Anton.

But she couldn’t escape the price of that denial.

A star that denies itself is bound to break.

Flash.

The nine stars she possessed fell. Lapis’s soul and body began to wear away and crumble. Despite the reunion after 400 years, the moment of farewell was approaching.

“Ah.”

Looking at her crumbling body, Lapis murmured.

“When I saw Lena, the witch who loved a human, I mocked her as a madwoman. I never thought I’d make the same choice. It’s all because of you, Anton.”

Lapis smiled bitterly.

“Unfortunately, Anton, this is the inevitable end of love between a witch and a human. Still, we should have about ten days. In those ten days, unforgettable…”

“Ten days after waiting for 400 years. That’s too short.”

“It can’t be helped. The love between humans and witches only brings tragedy.”

“Tragedy, huh.”

Anton grinned.

“Lapis, do you remember what I said before?”

This time, not an awkward smile, but a perfect one.

“I said it’s up to me to decide whether it’s a tragedy or a comedy.”

“…What?”

Anton embraced Lapis. He pressed his forehead against hers. At a distance close enough for their breaths to mingle, Anton whispered in Lapis’s ear.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know you’d make such a choice? And that I wouldn’t have prepared a solution despite having 400 years of time?”

Anton smiled mischievously.

“No way.”

Anton divided his star in half. The half of the star he divided headed toward Anton’s heart, which occupied half of Lapis’s heart.

Because Lapis had Anton’s heart.

Because they had both given up themselves for each other.

Because they were everything to each other.

Half of Anton’s star transferred perfectly to Lapis. This was far from simply dividing a star or giving starlight. It was two humans sharing one complete constellation.

Lapis’s body, which had been wearing away after losing her stars, was restored.

As a surprised Lapis opened her eyes wide and looked at Anton, he smiled as if even that expression was lovable, and kissed her.

“I love you, Lapis.”

Even after 400 years, still.

As nine stars fell, a new star rose among the falling stars. The legendary lover, or legendary fool, who was known as the human who loved a witch, finally achieved a feat over 400 years.

A feat no one in human history had ever accomplished.

The heavens acknowledged that feat.

Anton Kehano and Lapis received a new star.

Both Anton and Lapis burst into laughter at the name given to that star.

Trust.

It was the most fitting star for Lapis, who had ceased to distrust, ceased to be a witch.