Ch.88The Savior Who Ruined Her. (2)

“It will take about one more week.”

Olivia said that to the crystal ball glowing with golden light.

She didn’t explain in detail why the schedule had been extended, but Melina just smiled faintly.

[Take your time and come back safely.]

It wasn’t just imagination that she seemed a bit depressed.

“…I’ll come as quickly as I can.”

Melina shook her head as if to say she really didn’t need to.

[Teaching a dragon is quite entertaining in its own way. No one visits me, and I enjoy the peace and quiet.]

Of course, she couldn’t be serious. She was never good at pretending with her emotions.

Even now, her image in the crystal ball showed a smile on her lips, but her eyes drooped like those of a melancholic puppy.

Looking at the dejected Melina made Olivia feel strange.

‘….’

Olivia lowered her gaze. At her feet lay Galdur, charred black and sprawled out. How would Galdur react if he saw Melina like this? Wouldn’t he throw a fit insisting that Melina would never make such an expression?

[Is there something on the floor?]

“No. I was just spacing out.”

[…..]

Melina stared at Olivia with a solemn face, then uttered a single sentence.

[No matter what anyone says, I believe in you.]

At those words, which sounded almost like a pledge, Olivia, who had been about to end the communication, froze in place.

[So keep your spirits up.]

With those final words, the crystal ball lost its light. Olivia looked alternately at the crystal ball and Galdur with a guilt-ridden face, then let out a short sigh.

‘…This isn’t easy.’

Olivia shook her head vigorously. Then, after shoving Galdur into the trash can, she quietly organized her thoughts.

Even if left alone like this, Galdur wouldn’t reveal her existence.

Being beaten by a witch and barely escaping with his life was too shameful for him.

Of course, there was a possibility he might reveal it despite the shame, but then he would have to acknowledge the existence of Melina’s disciple.

Galdur, who had nothing but pride, would never do that.

Just then, she sensed someone behind her.

She thought it might be some back-alley thugs, but it wasn’t.

The sound of splashing footsteps echoed in the silence. Olivia’s shoulders twitched at the sound, which felt both familiar and ominous.

‘…Why that sound.’

At this point, Olivia was conflicted about whether to turn around or not. She couldn’t run away. After all, the reason she came to Icail was to meet Esthie.

‘Though I didn’t expect to meet her in the middle of the city.’

The original plan was to confront Esthie in the middle of the ocean where there would be no witnesses. But now that she had come to the city, that method was no longer viable.

‘…Why?’

Olivia’s brain rotated quickly, reaching its own conclusion.

‘Because of the lightning?’

She thought she had used a relatively low-tier spell, but apparently it wasn’t subtle enough. Olivia swallowed and turned her head around.

“What a truly disgusting place. Don’t you agree?”

Esthie smiled, lifting the corners of her mouth.

It was too radiant a smile for someone who had lost their emotions.

“Who are you?”

Esthie’s eyes widened at Olivia’s words.

“Hmm… I didn’t expect this situation.”

She approached Olivia, tilting her head to the side.

Her red hair, slightly darker than ruby, flowed down to the floor. Her green eyes, filled with boredom, were quite different from what Olivia had seen in the “clue.”

They were more lively, with a subtle madness flowing through them.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Whether you remember me or not isn’t important. What matters is what you can do for me. Right, Olivia?”

Esthie smiled, showing her teeth.

“……”

Olivia couldn’t answer hastily. The current situation was something even she, who had been through all sorts of trials, had never experienced before.

A regressor who didn’t show hostility.

Olivia immediately checked Esthie’s status window.

[Esthie Aquar]

Level: 93

Affinity: ???

Occupation: Wavemaster

Title: Regressor, Wavemaster of Icail, Princess of the Fallen Nation

…Question mark?

How could affinity be a question mark?

“That dumbfounded expression… you’re definitely a bit different from the you I knew.”

Like stroking a stray cat, Esthie slowly brought her hand toward Olivia’s cheek.

“Cute. This personality of yours might not be so bad either.”

Olivia pushed away Esthie’s arm.

“…What are you doing?”

“See? I told you you’re cute.”

Olivia glared at Esthie with sharp eyes. Receiving such a gaze, Esthie chuckled.

Olivia couldn’t control her confused emotions.

‘…What’s with her? She wasn’t like this originally.’

A machine-like human who didn’t think.

An insensitive, mechanical human—that was Esthie.

But this was just a crazy woman, wasn’t it?

“Hmm…”

Esthie, who had been prowling around Olivia with flashing navy eyes, looked toward the trash can and said:

“The Red Tower Master? I was wondering what that lightning was… you used it ‘here’? But he’s still alive?”

Esthie stared down at the tattered Red Tower Master, then snapped her fingers.

Bang! Seawater shot like a bullet but was deflected by a shield.

“Huh?”

“Don’t kill him. I deliberately kept him alive.”

If Esthie killed Galdur here, the pacifist ending would immediately be ruined.

Not only direct killing but also involvement in killing would be considered “murder.”

That’s why the pacifist ending was difficult.

“……”

Esthie, who had been silent, spoke.

“You really are different. The you I knew wasn’t like this. Or has my perspective of you changed?”

Esthie looked at Olivia with an indecipherable smile.

“You weren’t such a merciful person.”

“……”

Each regressor has a different way of gaining affinity.

For the regressors so far—Kiel, Melina, Livga—approaching them with goodness was the key.

No matter how twisted their personalities were, they knew how to maintain their roles as members of society while upholding their own principles.

That’s why Olivia could become Kiel’s friend, Melina’s disciple, and Livga’s sister.

But there were also regressors who weren’t like that.

Those closer to evil than good.

Those closer to chaos than order.

The first of these was Esthie.

“You’ve been talking as if you know me, but I was always merciful.”

“No, you weren’t…”

Olivia felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort from Esthie.

The look in her eyes seemed certain that Olivia was not a merciful person.

“Well, if it’s not you, then I have no choice…”

Esthie, who had been speaking with a smiling face, suddenly stopped.

It was because of the incessant “voices” whispering to her.

‘Argh…!’

How could this happen so soon after she’d stopped hearing them?

Esthie groaned and clutched her head.

Esthie curled up from the overwhelming pain.

She trembled and grabbed Olivia’s collar.

Her pupils were sinking in real time.

It was evidence that she was losing consciousness.

Esthie managed to say:

“Take me… to the s-sea…”

This was why Esthie couldn’t easily leave the sea.

The further she got from the ocean, the louder the voices became.

The louder the voices, the more blind and mechanical she became.

“…Please.”

There was no trace of the earlier smile in her trembling eyes.

Instead, they were filled with tears.

“Ah, aah…”

Just as Esthie was about to completely lose consciousness with a death rattle, sparks flew in the air.

Crackle!

Her vision flickered for an instant. Beyond the blurry sight, she could see “enemies” screaming.

Esthie instinctively moved the waves. Sounds she had heard thousands of times echoed in her ears.

The screams of being swept away by waves, sinking underwater, exhaling the last breath…

In exchange for extinguishing the lives of the “enemies,” the “voices” subsided.

Slowly, her focus began to return.

“I told you.”

Olivia said.

“I’ve always been a merciful person.”

To Esthie, Olivia was a liberator.

A liberator solely for her.

*****

Livga slowly lifted her eyelids, feeling an inexplicable emptiness.

It felt as if she had dreamed a long dream.

The hard, cold stone floor.

If she had slept in such a place, her whole body should surely be stiff, but surprisingly, there was no such feeling at all. It was as if she had been held in a warm, comfortable embrace.

Livga murmured in a voice lacking reality:

“Sister…”

Had it truly been a dream?

Something damp touched the tip of her finger. It wasn’t a puddle of water. It was too sticky to be water. Livga slowly brought her hand before her eyes. The next moment, she drew in a breath.

It was blood.

Though it had lost its warmth, it hadn’t yet congealed.

Livga’s expression quickly darkened.

‘…It wasn’t a dream.’

She had definitely been leaning against Olivia’s knee.

– …It won’t happen this time. I’ll change it.

She seemed to have heard such words.

Livga looked outside the Hall of Repentance with a complicated expression.

‘Sister…’