Ch.242Past Stories: Olivia Eleonora – 8

“…What are you saying? What do you mean by killing someone first?”

“I mean exactly what I said.”

Despite the questioning response, Olivia simply smiled and answered.

“I’m asking Master to decide which human I should kill first. Should I start from the bottom? Or from the top? If you don’t like either option, I can mix things up a bit and start from the middle.”

“…I don’t understand.”

Abel tried to maintain his composure while avoiding unnecessarily provoking Olivia. It felt as if his shoulders were being crushed by an immense pressure. Even breathing seemed difficult.

Moreover, every time he looked at the two black eyes fixed on him, chills ran down his spine. He couldn’t understand why the color of her pupils had changed.

The pair of pupils that had been shining like amethyst jewels just moments ago had transformed into a black deeper than the abyss.

“Master. Ah, my Master.”

A giggling laughter echoed in his ears. That laughter seemed to contain mockery at times, and sympathy at others.

“You know, I like you, Master. I like you so much I can hardly bear it. Right now, I want to embrace you, intertwine our tongues, bury my face in your chest, join our bodies and become even more intimate. And I want us to live together for the rest of our lives.”

Abel wasn’t surprised by those words. He had somewhat anticipated that Olivia’s gaze toward him contained unusual emotions.

He simply had no way to reject it.

He couldn’t just blurt out nonsense like “I think you like me, but stop liking me from now on” right to her face. Besides, if Olivia denied it, that would be the end of it.

Moreover, Abel already had Helena. Therefore, he absolutely could not accept Olivia’s feelings.

“So, Master. Let’s live together, just the two of us. Far away, building a simple little cabin, living there together forever. Let’s kill all the humans here, kill all the humans who sent me here, just the two of us. You can do that for me, can’t you? You can grant me this one lifelong wish, can’t you? I only need you, Master. I don’t need anything else. So, so, you only need to need me too. I’ll do anything for you. Please?”

The voice directed at Abel gradually became soaked in madness. Her pupils dilated, her face drew closer bit by bit, and her speech gradually accelerated.

If Helena hadn’t liked him, and if there hadn’t been talk of killing all other humans, he might have accepted that proposal. That’s what Abel thought.

Love is heavy? What does that matter to a body that doesn’t die anyway? Limbs restrained? Arms and legs cut off? He had already experienced such things tens of thousands of times.

No matter how heavy the love Olivia offered, he could bear that weight sufficiently.

Besides, Olivia, having healed all her burn marks, was objectively one of the most beautiful women on the continent.

But this situation was different.

“Olivia, I’m sorry but—”

“Is it because that bitch Helena likes you that you can’t accept me?”

Abruptly, Abel’s words stopped.

A kihihit-like laugh flowed from lips stained with madness. The expression Olivia wore was already something difficult to call human. It was exactly the kind of expression a demon in hell might wear.

“Then if that bitch no longer likes you, that would solve it, right? Then you could like me, right? Right?”

With those final words, Olivia suddenly stood up. Abel had an ominous feeling. He needed to stop Olivia first, regardless of what might happen next. Abel also stood up.

“Olivia, wait a moment—”

Before Abel could block her path, Olivia rushed out of the room. Abel, his mind filled with thoughts of stopping her, followed after her.

Or tried to.

Click, click. Instead of turning completely clockwise, the doorknob stopped with a faint metallic sound. No matter how much he turned the handle, the door refused to open. It was locked.

His assessment of the situation was quick. Instead of struggling with the locked doorknob, Abel rammed his shoulder against the door. Crack! His left shoulder collided with the door, shattering the bone. His shoulder caved inward.

In contrast to his cleanly crushed shoulder bone, the door didn’t budge at all. The result was the same no matter how many times he tried. Having cleanly given up on a frontal assault, Abel turned his attention to the window.

Although Olivia’s room was positioned at the very top of the magic tower, he could simply jump out the window and regenerate at the bottom. After all, he wouldn’t die from something like having his body smashed.

It was actually a method he often used when he was too lazy to go down to the first floor. The magicians who witnessed it were horrified, though.

“…It’s not working.”

As if she had anticipated even that, the window was also firmly locked. Abel even brought over a nearby chair and tried to break the window, but it was futile. Instead, the chair he swung broke apart.

“Shit.”

Abel quietly cursed. Olivia’s suddenly changed demeanor, and her question about whether he could like her if Helena no longer liked him.

Combining these factors, what Olivia was about to do was obvious. He needed to stop her, he had to, but there was absolutely no way to escape from this room.

Time passed mercilessly. By the time Abel’s body had been broken, torn, and shattered countless times in attempts to break through the door or window:

“Master! I’m back!”

While Abel stood dumbfounded in the middle of the now chaotic room, the door that wouldn’t open no matter what he did opened all too easily. An energetic voice echoed from beyond it.

It was a voice so bright that it was hard to believe it belonged to the same Olivia who had been wearing a chilling smile right before leaving the room.

“…Helena?”

Of course, the reality was horrifying.

Olivia’s body was covered in blood, and in her left hand, she held Helena. Helena, whose teeth had all been pulled out, whose eyes had been crushed and were streaming blood instead of tears.

Abel was so shocked by the sight that he didn’t even have time to question Olivia. Regardless, Olivia shook Helena’s body, which she was holding carelessly like a bundle of luggage.

“Come on, hurry up and tell Master. Hmm?”

Helena made a mumbling sound and continued to bleed from her eyes and mouth. Blood flowed down her cheeks in place of tears, dripping from her chin. Her blood-soaked blonde hair swayed cruelly.

Hearing those murmurs, Olivia smiled brightly.

“Did you hear that, Master? This bitch says she no longer likes you. No, she says she was only pretending to like you from the beginning. Playing with your feelings, she was nothing but trash. It’s fortunate. That you weren’t deceived by such a woman. Now, the only person in the world who likes you is me. Only I, Olivia Eleonora, can be the only woman who loves you. So now you’ll run away with me, right? Yes? We’ll kill all this trash and you’ll love me forever, right?”

Abel gritted his teeth. Having seen Helena in such a state, he had one more reason why he absolutely should not follow Olivia.

He had long since erased the tower master’s pleas from his mind. Even if he were to follow Olivia now, it didn’t seem like he would be able to sleep peacefully.

“No. Absolutely not.”

At that firm denial, the black pupils darkened even more and curved into a smile.

“‘As expected,’ I knew you would say that, Master.”

“What?”

Before he could ask what she meant by “as expected,” Olivia, who had carelessly thrown Helena to the floor, strode toward Abel.

“Ah, Master. My lovely Master.”

“And one more thing. I’m not your master. Don’t misunderstand.”

“No, you are my master forever. You were in the past, you are now, and you will be in the future. You are my eternal, immortal master.”

Olivia grabbed Abel’s hand and placed it on her heart. The soft mound sank beneath his palm. The soft fat bulged between his fingers.

Of course, he was in no mood to appreciate the sensation of her breast. Abel was focusing all his energy on being wary of Olivia.

“Why exactly am I your master? Did I teach you something? No, I didn’t. I haven’t done anything for you. So why—”

“Master has already taught me so many spells, you know?”

Olivia’s grip became increasingly aggressive. Now she was pressing down on her chest as if to crush it.

“You know what soul binding is, don’t you, Master?”

“…!”

Abel was silently shocked. Due to the dangers it posed, soul binding was a magic that had been collectively banned by magicians, to the point where its very existence was all but forgotten.

Not a single magician on the continent knew how to use it, or even that such magic had existed. All books had been burned, and all people had either died naturally or through unavoidable accidents.

Only Abel knew about the existence and usage of soul binding.

“How… did you…”

“It’s simple. I looked into your mind completely.”

Abel’s eyes widened. Reading thoughts? No one on the continent had yet reached the level of looking into someone’s mind.

“Your knowledge became my knowledge, and the theories you thought about all came to fruition in my hands. See? How can you say you’re not my master? That’s impossible.”

“…”

Only then did Abel realize that Olivia’s magical achievements were at a level that could never be reached through magic books alone. It was possible because she had taken all that knowledge from his head.

All those hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge, now lost and forgotten magic.

“Master, I have one more thing to tell you.”

Olivia giggled.

“Actually, it wasn’t time for me to confess to you yet. ‘Originally,’ I was supposed to be rejected once and that would be the end of it.”

The distance between them slowly narrowed.

“But, it was just too much. Every time I thought about soul binding with you, my lower abdomen ached and ached, and I just couldn’t bear it anymore.”

Abel’s hand sank into Olivia’s heart. Somewhat regaining his senses from that eerie and chilling sensation, Abel tried to pull his arm out, but it was futile.

“This time, I will never let you go.”

Black mana rose from her body.

“That should be enough.”

Ancient interrupted my words. Since there was nothing to gain for me in talking about my past entanglements with Olivia, I promptly closed my mouth, thinking it was just as well.

“Do you understand?”

The question was directed at Serena, Christine, and Olivia. The three were silent for a moment, then nodded almost simultaneously. I was the only one left confused, not knowing what conversation had taken place.

“So what exactly? If it’s about when Olivia started killing her other selves from different timelines, I already have a rough idea. But that’s not it, right?”

“It’s a very simple story, my child.”

Ancient refilled the teacup with steaming tea with a light gesture and tilted the cup, sipping its contents.

“It means that two different timelines of memories coexist in the child’s head.”