Chapter 519. Farewell Festival
Under Chi-Woo’s will, Liber’s situation completely reverted to the time before the Sernitas’ invasion, and an enormous crowd headed for Shalyh. They were delegates from all over Liber dispatched after learning of the situation, but they quickly returned to where they had come from because of the warning Chi-Woo issued, which brimmed with a powerful will. He warned them to not waste their time here and turn back, and to use the time to think about how they should take care of Liber from now on instead.
How could mere humans do anything against a will that even the universe’s will couldn’t beat? Majority of them obediently returned to their homes and carried on with their day. Of course, Chi-Woo didn’t send everyone back, and thinking that they had had enough time to spend with their revived families, he called a couple of people to Shalyh, including Eshnunna, Hawa, and Wallie. As soon as Wallie was summoned, he barked wildly at Chi-Woo. It was as if he was complaining about why Chi-Woo was making him go here and there on his own.
Eshnunna rushed to Chi-Woo and was about to kiss him, but Evelyn stopped her with a barrier. She hadn’t claimed Chi-Woo’s lips yet, and she wanted Eshnunna to wait for her turn. But not knowing this, Eshnunna continued to press her lips against the thin barrier. Seeing this, Hawa stopped thinking about her sister and whether Chi-Woo had kept her dead because of her and scowled. After calming the extremely excited Eshnunna, Chi-Woo called in all the members of the Seven Stars.
“Everyone, good work,” he said while looking at everyone. “I called you all here...because of the festival tonight. So, I thought I should see your faces before then. I also have things to say too.”
The atmosphere turned serious, especially for the Liber natives. They also knew that when heroes who came from the Celestial Realm finished their mission to save Liber, they needed to return. Some heroes had even skipped the festival and returned as soon as they got a message from the Celestial Realm. Yet it was a different matter when what they expected was actually coming true. Feelings they couldn’t put into words rose inside their hearts as the time to pay their farewells arrived. The only thing they were certain about was that the heroes had no choice other than to return.
“Flora.” Chi-Woo took his eyes off Eshnunna, who had lowered her head, and said, “You’ll come with me. Do you remember the promise you made?”
Flora stared emotionlessly at Chi-Woo.
“I am your master, and you are my tool, so even if you don’t want to, I will bring you with me,” Chi-Woo said in an uncharacteristically resolute tone. In order to stabilize the loops rotating inside him, he definitely needed Flora. Thus, he planned to take her away even if she refused.
“Okay, I got it.” Surprisingly, an answer came easily, but not from Flora. “You’re going to treat me like a tool? But you’ll treasure me, right?” Though Chi-Woo had obviously been talking to Flora, Evelyn answered. “No, maybe it will be fine if you went a bit rough sometimes.”
As everyone’s eyes snapped to her, Evelyn explained, “Ah, I’m just talking about tools here.”
Flora didn’t respond, but she didn’t appear to disagree with the idea either. Instead, she seemed to have only expected this since it was her who had accepted the life that Chi-Woo had proposed. She didn’t have much qualms about it either and simply sniffed in response. Then, somebody raised their head and shouted.
“Me too!” It was Eshnunna.
“No,” Chi-Woo cut her off without listening to the rest of her words. “You must also know why you can’t.”
Eshnunna became speechless. How could she not know? Chi-Woo was the one who had allowed her to reunite with the family she had lost. But still…
“Thank you for the offer, but no,” Chi-Woo said under Eshnunna’s pleading eyes. His tone was so firm that it was almost cruel. Eshnunna’s face fell, and she hung her head. Chi-Woo looked towards Hawa next.
“…It’s not like you are going to accept it even if I say I want to go,” Hawa said honestly as soon as their eyes met.
“You know well. How smart.” Chi-Woo nodded like he was impressed. In response, Hawa crossed her arms and turned away with a snort. The rest of the Celestial Realm’s heroes appeared calm about the situation. After all, they had already witnessed and experienced a scene like this multiple times before.
“Well, if you want to see us so much, why don’t you become a hero and come to the Celestial Realm?” Yunael smirked and said jokingly. Wordlessly, Hawa threw Yunael a glance.
A momentary silence circled the room, which was broken by a commotion outside. “It looks like it has begun.” Chi-Woo glanced out of the window and got up. He had said pretty much everything he wanted to say. “Let’s go.” Each of the members of the Seven Stars got up and followed Chi-Woo outside.
“Let’s enjoy our last moment here.”
The festival to celebrate their remaining time on Liber commenced. The streets were the colors of sunset, and the Seven Stars’ members disappeared between the dancing and singing crowd. Out of them, Ru Hiana enjoyed the festival most normally. She went around while grabbing Ru Amuh by the hand, sharing happiness and dancing. And because of that, Ru Amuh, who had planned to return to the Celestial Realm after a drink or two, ended up getting dragged around by Ru Hiana the entire festival. Unfortunately for Emmanuel, there was a fact about himself that even he wasn’t aware of: he was an extreme lightweight. After being swept by the mood and accepting a couple of drinks, he lost consciousness and collapsed in the corner of a street. While he was sleeping in a drunken stupor, the corners of his mouth kept rising like he was having a good dream.
In his dream, Emmanuel was playing out the desires in his heart. After returning to the Celestial Realm, all formidable figures of the Eust.i.tia family, including his father, mother, and the elders, greeted him with astonishment and looked at him differently. His siblings didn’t want to acknowledge him no matter what, but Chi-Woo suddenly appeared before them, and everybody had no choice but to kneel and lower their heads. It was a far-fetched dream where in the end, Chi-Woo chased away Ru Amuh and had Emmanuel as his forever right-hand man.
While Emmanuel was dreaming such a fantasy, the members of the Seven Stars’ fourth team dined together. Yunael started the conversation quite seriously by saying that when they parted ways, they should bring good memories with them while leaving the bad ones behind. Thus, she told everyone to not hesitate if anyone had something they wanted to say at the end. And Jin-Cheon honestly said, “It was embarra.s.sing that during the war against the Abyss, when we went to the Astral World, all the teams managed to deal with the situation at hand except for us.”
Enraged, Yunael jumped to her feet, and Jin-Cheon ran away as if he had expected the reaction. But of course, Yunael soon caught him and beat him up. Aric and Abis laughed at the sight, and Yunael also hit them, asking what they were laughing at. Aida alone sipped alcohol with a soft smile on her face.
Evelyn tried to not leave Chi-Woo’s side for even a moment. She appeared a bit anxious, but realizing how she was feeling, Chi-Woo whispered something in her ear, and Evelyn’s eyes widened. With a relaxed expression, she giggled softly for a while before breaking into a smile brighter than any other time.
Yeriel forcefully dragged an unwilling Apoline to Chi-Woo. Then, after putting Apoline right in front of them, she rubbed her cheeks against Chi-Woo in a blatant attempt to annoy Apoline. Apoline stared blankly as Chi-Woo pushed Yeriel away with a troubled look, but when Yeriel went so far as to lick Chi-Woo’s cheek, she couldn’t endure anymore. Hurling all kinds of curses that could not be put into writing, she unleashed fearsome flames. When people saw Apoline chase after Yeriel while shooting fire, they thought it was part of the festival and cheered.
Murumuru, who was already very drunk, couldn"t overcome their excitement when they saw the pillar of fire and took off their s.h.i.+rt. It was then Chi-Woo finally realized that Murumuru wasn’t a man but a woman with a husky voice, and he was incredibly shocked. Meanwhile, Philip was wandering around the dark alleys of the streets while gulping, saying that surely something was bound to happen in this mood. Then, he rushed back to Chi-Woo and whined at him to quickly make him a body so that he could partake in what he saw. Then, after having a good time, Eval Sevaru informed Chi-Woo that he would take his leave first and returned to the Celestial Realm.
Shersha was also weak to alcohol. Though she didn’t faint and dream like Emmanuel, she surprisingly became quite cute. In a nasal, almost lisping voice, she clutched to Chi-Woo and hung onto him, pleading him to not go, that he should go to the Demon World with her, and that she would be good to him. Seeing this, Astarte cheered her on while waving her clenched hands. However, Chi-Woo simply gave her a somewhat incredulous look and used the loops inside him to forcefully sober Shersha up. After regaining her senses, Shersha’s eyes opened wide, and her face reddened before she ran away like a stray cat, and following her, Mangil came to see Chi-Woo.
Mangil clutched onto Chi-Woo’s hands with teary eyes. He said he had never imagined such a day to come and confessed that even this moment felt like a dream with tears in his eyes. He hung onto Chi-Woo’s hands like it was some kind of lifeline and collapsed to the ground while crying out loud like a child. Feeling a bit fl.u.s.tered by the situation, Chi-Woo sought out Dalgil for help. Though Dalgil came immediately, he was also very drunk, and he joined in when he saw Grandpa Mangil crying. Chi-Woo felt a headache brewing.
After Chi-Woo barely managed to comfort the two crying buhguhbus, a freckled girl with pigtails came to see him. It was the Last Dragon, Raphine. Though he didn’t know the reason, Raphine shed tears as soon as she saw him. She stopped momentarily when Chi-Woo told her to stop crying, but she soon wailed again, saying loudly that she wanted to see Chi-Hyun. It was then Chi-Woo realized that as long as he stayed in the middle of the streets, it would be impossible for him to quietly enjoy the festival. Thus, Chi-Woo excused himself, saying he wanted to look around.
Evelyn, Asha, and Wallie secretly followed Chi-Woo as he left. The festival had reached its climax. Teresa and Du Eun-Hyang were fighting. It was because Teresa kept boasting that she was a member of the Seven Stars, and Du Eun-Hyang responded that she was showing off too much when she had joined late and didn’t do much. Seeing the two fight while pulling each other’s hair, Umaru immediately made it into a match. He pa.s.sionately commented on the situation while receiving everyone’s cheers and backings, but in the end, got beaten up by the two women. It was as the famous phrase went, rather than a scolding mother-in-law, the sister-in-law who egged her on was more annoying.
Allen Leonard bravely challenged Byeok to a drinking contest and was thoroughly beaten. While disguised, Ismile went around asking people if they had heard of Ismile Nahla, a hero comparable to Chi-Woo; but after hearing that no one recognized the name, he became sullen and returned to the Celestial Realm alone. Noel didn’t interact with anyone. She drank alone while reminiscing her memories with Chi-Hyun. On the other hand, Zelit didn’t even partic.i.p.ate in the festival. He stayed holed up on the highest floor of the Apertum tower and busily wrote on the thick book he usually carried around. After spending the whole night awake and finis.h.i.+ng his writing, he closed his book and smiled quietly before returning to the Celestial Realm.
Eshnunna and Hawa spent the night in a similar way. Though they partic.i.p.ated in the festival, they couldn’t enjoy it. They sat on the ground at a table and seemed to ponder deeply about something. Unlike them, Flora was happy. It was the first time she even felt the emotion, happiness. People greeted her with a smile and welcomed her wherever she went, and when she simply reached out with her hand, people filled it with things to eat and drink. She was so happy at the moment that she wished it could last forever.
Then, Flora stopped walking. It was because she heard someone call out to her from far away. Although she couldn’t put a name to it, the voice was clearly calling her. She instinctively headed in the direction, but stopped for a moment. She turned around slowly and looked at the streets where the festival was taking place. After staring at it for some time, she began to run in the opposite direction of where the fire light was. She ran to the voice calling out to her, where she also wanted to be. As she quickly disappeared into the darkness of the streets, not even the slightest sign of lingering feelings or regret could be seen in her.