Chapter 219
At my call, the man slowly turned to my side. "Lady."
A familiar voice called me.
Whether there was a violent movement, the rabbit mask was half-stripped off, revealing his bare face. "You......No, marquisWhat the h.e.l.l is this?"
I stammered in amazement, and then I ran to the mirror. "Marquis!"
Why was Vinter suddenly burning in front of the mirror of truth? There was no time to put up such things.
One step into the Magic Circle, I wrapped Vinter"s stomach with the sleeves of the robe I was wearing. This was the only way to put out the fire that was cutting through his body because there was no water. Puck, puck-!
"Ugh, Ugh! Hey, Lady, wait a minute!"
I hit his body with a sleeve, and he twisted his face and groaned. Unfortunately, however, the flames showed no sign of going out. "Just hang in there! Let"s turn off the fire first!"
"No, Ugh! Hold on! I was injured by it! You will get hurt too"
He shouted urgently. I stopped the gestures that were hitting him.
The rabbit mask, which had already been rattled by a sudden beating, was completely thrown off. His exposed forehead was stained with blood.
My eyes opened wide. "Did you get hurt?"
"A little."
"It"s because of this fire"
"It"s not because of the magic fire. Lady Yvonne, no"
He gently bit his lower lip and corrected it. "I was dealing with Leila."
A bad feeling hit the point. Before the demon crawled to me, she went to Vinter. "The piece, it"s taken away."
"I"m sorry."
My words quickly darkened the Vinter"s face. "Raon was brainwashed."
"Raon? When"
"Maybe it was at the Solleil."
He murmured in a bitter tone.
"I couldn"tkeep anything after all."
A deep defeat and sharp pain pa.s.sed over the face of Vinter.
His face was visibly haggard as if he had suffered a lot since I hadn"t seen him.
Raon was brainwashed, and I understood at once why the pieces were taken away and why the children became hostages.
Apart from being angry with him, his feelings were understandable.
The helplessness and utter despair I felt when the duke was swallowed by the earthworm. It would have made me feel even more miserable.
Because everything was his fault. "Howdo I extinguish this fire?"
The situation was too bad to pick up the water that had already spilled. I still stared at the burning flames over his body.
It was amazing that the fire was so vivid and still alive. Does a wizard have a strong will to live? "Isn"t it hot?"
"Doesn"t the young lady feel hot?"
Come to think of it, I had also jumped into the midst of the fearless burning magic to save him. I looked around slowly.
"It"s not hot."
"I"m not hot either. Not yet."
As he murmured in a daze, Vinter answered in a calm voice. "But you still have to go back, so just give me a watering spell." "It won"t be useful."
"Why?"
"This isn"t reality, it"s a future that hasn"t happened, it"s past."
I narrowed the gap between my eyes to his words, which I didn"t know. "What"s that"
"Did you encounter Yvonne?"
After stopping asking questions, Vinter changed the subject. I nodded coolly.
"I"m on my way back from a fight." "Did youtake the piece?"
His dark blue pupils shook in a flash.
Instead of answering, I took a piece out of my pocket and showed it to him. I couldn"t give him any more certainty of security.
But instead of being relieved as expected, Vinter stretched out his arms, which were bound by fire, and clasped my arms together, holding the piece.
"You must never let Yvonne complete the artifact. It was later a key to unlocking the seal that the ancient Leila had removed from part of the mirror of truth. This is what Yvonne is trying to do."
I was already known through the hidden route that the mirror of truth showed me. It was good to know that Vinter also knew. I asked urgently.
"How do I stop it? Please tell me how."
"If Yvonne has already gone to the Imperial Palace, there is only one way..." Vinter said after he suddenly asked all the questions.
Then, after a while, he uttered a difficult and absurd remark. "There"s no way to stop it."
"What?"
"Take this, and hide."
The following words were even more amazing. "Are youtelling me to run away?"
"If necessary."
I thought I might have misheard, but he answered firmly. "Is he crazy because he"s about to burn?"
I looked at Vinter with unfamiliar eyes and said.
"Please tell me how to kill Yvonne. I won"t blame you if I get hurt in a fight."
"You can"t use magic to kill her unless you"ve perfected yourself with the fangs of the golden dragon." "What!"
I opened my eyes wide. It was the first time I heard it. "Why are you telling me that now!"
Unconsciously, I spoke to him in informal language, and the face of Vinter trembled. "I haven"t known you for long"
"I should have just killed her earlier!"
Vinter cringed at my harsh words. But it didn"t touch my eyes.
Whether the duke was caught by a giant earthworm or not, I had to just shoot the magic as it was. When the chance to kill her easily by one place was far away, I felt crazy.
After lamenting over and over, I managed to regain my reason and asked. "What happenswhen she makes her body perfect?"
"Even if there is a mirror of truth, it will be so strong that it can no longer be sealed. Besides, if you hold this last piece in your hand and resurrected the sealed rails."
".........."
"Then Lady won"t be able to deal with it alone. Sotake the piece and hide in a safe place."
The story came down to flight again.
I didn"t come to Vinter just to hear I run away. "Then the children."
A dreary voice came out.
"You gave her the piece because of them, why don"t you just stand, and turn away from me whether I die or not?"
"The children"
Sure enough, Vinter"s face was distorted when I touched the bull"s eye.
He was going to do this, but why did he keep saying things that he didn"t mean? "I"m the one who drove them to their extremities. Lady has nothing to do with it." He chattered.
"If the Leila is revived, the children will probably be used as her prey. They"re young, but they"re wizards anyway."
"..........."
"Before that, it"s more for children to have peace"
"Ha. I didn"t know you were such a jerk." A cold smile poked out of my mouth. "Lady."
Vinter opened his eyes wide at my rather harsh words. I stared at him coolly and replied calmly.
"If I survive with that piece."
"......."
"When will Yvonne appear, where should I hide the piece, or if I should be brainwashed?" I"ve been dragged here and done it until I"m tired of it.
Now I saw the end.
I had figured out a way to end this f.u.c.king game. "Do you want me to shiver all my life?"
I clenched my teeth.
"I"d rather drink the poison you gave me, but I can"t. Vinter Verdandi."
"It was a waste of time. I"d rather go back with Jean and figure out how to kill Yvonne."
As I looked down at his face, which was gradually falling apart, I soon jumped out of my seat. "Looks like you"re a long way from here."
"........."
"You take care of yourself. I"ll take care of it whether Leila resurrects dozens or hundreds." It was no longer a matter of knowing whether the fire burned his body or ate him alive.
I turned from the center of the magic circle, raising my mirror wand. It was just a moment when I was about to take a step back.
"Just before the piece was taken away by Leila, I did some taboo magic." A dry voice rang out.
"I tried to touch the time to see the future. To find a way to stop Leila"
".........."
"But what I saw, it wasn"t the future. It was the past, the future, that already happened, what might happen."
My foot that was trying to move in a hurried manner stopped suddenly.
Somehow, even in the severe situation where his limbs were tied to the fire, the calm face was a little strange.
Like he knew it was going to be like this. I slowly turned back towards Vinter. "You... know everything?"
He frowned playfully at my question.
"Just before you got here, I was really afraid of what the cost of using taboo magic would be." ""
"It was all useless. In the past, I"ve gone so far as to turn back time." The blue eyes, which were facing the air, moved slowly toward me.
"You"re right. I can"t get out of the magic circle in exchange for touching the time. In fact, I"ve never been away from it."
"Then the magic circle"
I shut my mouth as soon as I noticed the ident.i.ty of the magic circle surrounding him.
He managed to escape from Yvonne, who had taken over the world, and he was the one who stood in front of the mirror of truth.
He gave his life away to turn back time.
His image, flashed before me as he was burning alive in a magic circle.
"I didn"t want to force you to make any more sacrifices, but why did you become so nice?" ""
"What are all the people who have caused you to die?"
Now I can see why he abandoned the children and told me to run away. Hnowing all the past, Vinter looked at me and laughed as if crying. "Don"t get me wrong."
But he didn"t seem to know this.
I was moving not to live anymore, but to finish these sickening things. "Because everything moves for me."
"Is that so?"
In spite of my rather cold words, he unexpectedly accepted. Sympathy and anguish toward the past were brief.
His distant eyes returned to reality.
"Do you still have the rose I gave you the other day?"
Suddenly he asked something out of the blue. I also took out the one I had with the piece and showed it to him.
The withered stalk, with all its petals gone, was just like a stick.
I could have thrown it away, but I used to carry it with me because I couldn"t forget the roots that were wrapped around the piece.
His face changed quite a bit when he saw the rose flowers. "Thenlisten to me carefully from now on, lady."
The dark blue eyes looked straight at me.
"You can see from the office before coming here, but just before the piece was taken away, I made the explosion."
"............"
"I didn"t get rid of the pieces... but there was a fine crack." ""
"She won"t let the relics go from her arms. If you lose it to someone else, you won"t be able to control the resurrected Leila. So"
He told me in a calm voice how to end this situation.
After his words, it was my turn to shake my gaze as if it was an earthquake. "Whatif I fail?"
I asked him in an unconfident voice.
"If I lose the pieces, and I"m killed by Yvonne"s hand, what happens next?" "Don"t worry, Lady."
He spoke in a rea.s.suring voice. "I"m here to turn back time."
I made a terrible a.s.sumption watching the fires that had across his limbs. "What if I don"t come back forever after you turn back time?"
"Then I"ll repeat it forever."
To me, speechless, he smiled and added.
"Think of it as a punishment for those who hurt you." It was then. Gaiaaa- The mirror wand vibrated.
At the same time, white light fell from the handle mirror on the top. "It"s almost the time the mirror gave you. Go ahead."
Vinter spoke in a hurry. I approached the new door, nodding my head. Just before entering the door, I paused to look back.
"If I succeed, will you be able to escape?" "WellI don"t know."
"I"ll try hard." "Don"t overdo it."
There was a cliche of greeting. At last, I entered the door.
When I recited the crazy spell, my eyes were flashed with white light again. So I didn"t hear the last murmur of Vinter.
Purple rose petals began to fall into the ground in his alone s.p.a.ce.