TL/Editor: Butter Cat

    Status: 4/week mon-thurs

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    〈 Chapter 83 〉 Chapter 83. Standing at a Crossroads

    (TL Note: Just a note, I use * * to refer to Alice, since the author puts the continuation of Alice’s dialogue outside of " ".)

    * * *

    **

    Send the precious child on a journey.

    A difficult journey where sharp thorns lie in wait below and hot molten metal flows from behind.

    Place tall signposts along the way for the child to see.

    Magnificent signposts that can lift the child’s wavering legs when they try to give up, gently pushing their reluctant body forward.

    Like that, one by one.

    The day when the child overcomes all the hardships and adversities that everyone said they would give up on, even as their legs are blistered, and their hands covered in calluses.

    We, who have been secretly watching from behind, will witness the breathtaking moment when a swan takes flight across the vast sky.

    At that time.

    "I, too, will depart on a journey."

    My life will be completed (perfectly?).

    (TL Note: In the original raw, ‘??(完?)? ???’ The word ?? (wangyeol) is the Korean equivalent of Finn/The end. Essentially stating the END of a story. I don’t really know how to translate something of this level in English, so I’m hoping you readers will be able to understand the meaning from this TL Note.)

    **

    —Step.

    "Once upon a time, there were two seeds that flew to me on the wind."

    With the final scraggly seed, its insides exposed and crushed in various places, carefully buried in the ground.

    Alice finished the labor that had taken so long, carefully burying one by one all the many seeds she had chosen.

    A gentle smile, filled with infinite affection.

    Alice''s smile, which had been directed at me, was now turned towards the small mounds that had risen above the field.

    Tap, tap.

    Gently patting the small mounds of earth with her bare hand.

    Alice''s story began, like the song of a bard starting the verse of a grand epic poem.

    Or like the narration explaining the background for a long play about to begin.

    It started with a small monologue.

    "Because they had warm hearts and personalities, able to care for others and empathize with their pain, I thought those two seeds could bloom into flowers more beautiful and magnificent than anyone else."

    "......"

    "...Yes. Flowers that would grow more fresh than my favorite white baby''s breath, more radiant than the five-petaled cistus."

    *Heehee, even as I tried to hold onto them tighter.*

    *My meager strength was barely enough just to plant those two*

    Alice looked around the greenhouse with dreamy eyes as if recalling the distant past, and murmured about past events in a voice tinged with an inexplicable maturity and mystique, all while performing a strange, dance-like movements. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Twirling around and around.

    She suddenly spun around while walking, and reached out her fingertips towards the empty air.

    And then, with a small hop.

    As she passed the field, she jumped over the flat furrows as if crossing a narrow stream, though no obstacles were visible.

    It was like someone standing in the present, carefully pulling out and reminiscing about memories from the past one by one.

    "......"

    Or perhaps, it looked like the last struggles of someone about to disappear.

    But even despite my gaze, as if I could see countless things within her.

    Even despite my silent plea for her to stop, to return to her normal self.

    "But if left alone, the two seeds were destined to be crushed underfoot by someone, or to fall into a dark valley where not a single ray of light enters."

    "....U-Uh, yeah. I see. Ha, haha."

    Alice''s incomprehensible behavior showed no signs of stopping, and just continued as she moved up and down here and there.

    Why.

    Why is she trying to plant only seeds that already look rotten, that seem like they won''t grow.

    Rather.

    Wouldn''t it be much better to plant the perfectly fine, healthy seeds visible right next to them.

    Trying my best to push down the instinctive feeling of rejection that was trying to surface, I asked Alice as naturally as I could.

    If anything was wrong.

    If she had any worries, she could tell her big sister.

    That I would do whatever it took to solve them all.

    ''.......''

    ''...Alice?''

    But what I got in return was.

    Neither affirmation nor denial, nor any reason or intention behind her mysterious behavior.

    ''─Sis Sia. I have a question.''

    ''...U-um?''

    It was Alice''s evasive response, asking if I could answer her question, running parallel to my own words.

    No.

    It was as if our conversations were two lines that would never intersect, no crossroads in sight.

    I doubt it could even be called a response.

    Of course, in such a sudden situation that I couldn''t accept, there was no way Alice''s words could properly reach me.

    And the deep feelings hidden within were not something that I, in my confused state, could easily accept or notice.

    In the end, all I could do was nod my head to show I was listening well to Alice, or give soulless replies.

    What on earth was happening?

    I moistened my dry lips with my tongue, continuing to mutter such meaningless words.

    "Hey hey, Sis Sia."

    "....Yes?"

    "─Isn''t it strange?"

    Tap, her footsteps stopped.

    Alice, who hadn''t been looking at anything in particular until now, raised her head for the first time and met my eyes as I stood still.

    Flowers of all colors blooming against a blue-green background.

    Alice''s eyes, tinged with a rainbow of colors, seemed to contain a blazing fire.

    A fiery inferno, hotter than anything else.

    "Why was it that a kind and warm future wasn''t waiting for those two seeds, but a hot and bloody battlefield."

    "....Alice, wait. Let''s calm down for a moment. I don''t understand what you''re say—"

    "—Why did that have to be what awaited the two seed, Sis?"

    I don''t understand the meaning of your words.

    I forced my lips to twist and open, I was about to utter those words, but Alice''s strong voice rang out again, cutting me off.

    And my lips, which had been carefully parted, were now tightly shut, like a clam.

    "—I decided to raise flowers."

    Swoosh, a cloud passing through the sunlit sky cast a small shadow on the ground.

    That shadow that had freely flown through the air. Before I knew it, it had darkened the area around Alice that had been bright.

    Me, standing stiffly in the space where warm sunlight shone down.

    Alice, standing alone in the small darkened space.

    The shadow of a metal frame between us, like a boundary line, clearly separated Alice and me.

    In the middle of the darkness, in the midst of the light, Alice curled up the corners of her mouth and gave me a lovely smile, her loose sleeves fluttering.

    Yes.

    The bright and cheerful smile she always showed me every morning when I opened my eyes.

    "........"

    But why did that ordinary smile, which seems no different from usual, feel so terrifying to me now?

    I couldn''t understand anything at this moment.

    Step, and.

    Alice began to slowly walk towards me, making small footsteps.

    "I sprinkled fertilizer over the small holes I had dug, and sprayed water over the dry soil to moisten it underneath."

    As she took that first step, Alice''s voice began to grow more agitated.

    "Worried they might be lonely, I sang to them day and night, and gently stroked their soft cotyledons. —All for the sake of those seeds."

    By the second step, Alice''s voice gradually began to mix with sobs.

    "And so, those flowers grew vigorously, their petals blooming so beautifully that I was certain every animal in the world would admire their beauty."

    With the third, and fourth steps, Alice''s sobbing voice began to shake uncontrollably.

    And then—

    —Tap.

    The last, final step.

    "But then, you see."

    Alice had now come right up to the edge of the long shadow cast by the metal frame.

    At that distance of about a hand''s span, where it seemed I could touch her if I reached out, Alice stopped and came no closer.

    As if an invisible wall of glass existed between us.

    Or as if she was saying this line could never be crossed in her lifetime.

    Looking at that sight, for some reason I felt the distance between Alice and me had grown by the width of that single line drawn between us.

    Despite being only about an inch apart.

    The current Alice felt so very far away.

    "After I had so beautifully finished everything. I was about to return them to nature, to where they originally belonged, but."

    "........"

    "But then, you see. Suddenly, several stems grabbed my legs tightly! HaHAHahAhA!"

    "........"

    "Isn''t that strange, Sis Sia? It''s strange, so strange!"

    With a loud "Boo!"

    Alice pretended to scare me by flapping her sleeves widely, as if imitating a ghost.

    But as if finding my unresponsive, frozen state amusing, Alice burst into laughter as she looked at me.

    Alice''s mouth stretched wide, wider than I had ever seen before in laughter.

    But the eyes of Alice that I saw were not laughing at all.

    No.

    "HahA, HAHahA..."

    Rather, they looked like they were crying.

    Alice said.

    "They told me not to go, not to send them away. That they wanted to stay here in this greenhouse."

    *Even though I said I couldn''t do anything for them anymore.*

    *...Continuously.*

    "That they wanted to live with me, hidden away in this small flower garden, instead of proudly showing off their petals beautifully and being admired by everyone."

    *Even though I said I no longer had anything to offer them.*

    *...Without stopping.*

    *Again and again, like that.*

    "That''s what they kept saying."

    "........"

    With each sentence, Alice''s voice grew quieter and quieter.

    But the trembling and instability only intensified, and I knew instinctively that Alice''s long speech was nearing its end.

    "What should I do?"

    *Hey hey, answer me, Sis.*

    "What—what am I supposed to say to them?"

    "........"

    And.

    I, too, instinctively knew that the moment of choice had finally arrived.

    Someone once said.

    If you gaze into the abyss long enough, the abyss gazes also into you.

    Therefore, those who fight monsters should be careful lest they become monsters themselves.

    And those who don''t even have the strength to fight, shouldn’t even put themselves in a situation to encounter monsters in the first place.

    But.

    "Hmm? Sis Sia?"

    "........"

    But in the depths of a dark well where even light loses its way.

    In that place where everyone said a monster lurked, there was only a single girl, sitting with her legs neatly folded, staring straight at me.

    The child with a sad expression reached out her hand to me as if begging for salvation.

    And faced with that outstretched hand.

    "I—"

    I had to do it.

    I had to give her an answer.

    Even if it would lead to a cruel outcome.

    I must return that answer.

    **

    "I think you need to forcibly detach the flowers, even if it''s against their will."

    **

    "Couldn''t you do as the flowers wish?"

    **

    An important choice.

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