TPVSR 136

Chapter 136

Hella rested her chin on her hand as she quietly stared at Shion. A subtle silence passed between them. Eventually, the corners of Hella’s lips curled slightly upward.

“Why do you think that?”

“Judging by your reaction. This isn’t the first time I’ve asked you this, is it?”

At Shion’s calm response, Hella’s eyes trembled ever so slightly. Then she smiled awkwardly and brushed her hair back.

“As expected, you really are annoyingly perceptive, old man.”

Shion didn’t answer. He simply looked straight at Hella.

“So, how many times has it been?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hella.”

“I really don’t know. How am I supposed to remember all of them?”

Hella answered with a frown. There was irritation in her voice.

“If you erased your own memories, you should’ve been prepared for something like this. Why do you always get angry at me?”

She muttered quietly. Her tone sounded partly like she was whining and partly like she was genuinely troubled.

Meanwhile, Shion wore an expression of complete disbelief.

“…I erased my own memories?”

The memories of a Tower Master were not something that could easily be erased. Who could possibly tamper with the memories of someone who had lived for 800 years? Even Hella, who had been with him for hundreds of years, could not even attempt such a thing. Therefore, if Shion’s memories had been erased, he must have done it himself.

But why?

Even when he looked back on his life, he couldn’t think of a reason that would have driven him to do such a thing. Had something significant enough happened during those 800 years that he would need to erase his memories? He had first met Lorea three years ago, and before that, he had lived a fairly ordinary life… No, it couldn’t exactly be called ordinary, but at any rate, he had lived without any major incidents.

Wait.

Had that really been the case? Was it truly the first time he had met Lorea three years ago?

Hella watched Shion for a long while as he sank into thought with a dissatisfied expression. Then she let out a deep sigh.

“Honestly… you always leave the troublesome things to me….”

She reluctantly continued.

“To be precise, you didn’t erase your memories. You simply accepted the possibility that they would be erased.”

“……”

“You know too, don’t you? That it’s magic that requires a ‘price.’”

At those words, the look in Shion’s eyes changed.

The Tower Master could use almost every existing form of magic without restriction. However, there were several forbidden spells. When using such magic, in the worst-case scenario, the Tower Master’s very existence itself had to be offered as collateral.

One such spell was—

“The magic to turn back time.”

Shion spoke in a low voice.

Hella shrugged. That was confirmation enough.

This was not a simple regression. It meant turning back the entire world’s flow of time. Magic on such a massive scale, magic that interfered with the very order of the world, could not be used recklessly, even by the Tower Master. If he had repeated such a spell countless times…

“Is it a miracle that I’m not dead?”

“Something like that.”

Hella answered Shion’s mutter without much concern.

“That woman… I mean, Lorea. You made it so that every time she died, the world itself would become distorted. The reason you can’t remember her each time is a side effect of that magic.”

“…Lorea said she dreamed. She said she dreamed of a woman who looked like her.”

“The fact that she’s beginning to recover her memories means that your magic is becoming that much more unstable.”

Hella waved her hand dismissively, as though she couldn’t be bothered to explain any further.

Shion nodded as if he had roughly understood the situation. Then, suddenly curious, he asked,

“When exactly did I start having feelings for her?”

Hella chuckled.

“Who knows? About 500 years ago?”

“……”

Five hundred years.

The number settled heavily in his chest. Five hundred years ago was so far in the past that the existence known as Lorea had not even been born in this world.

And yet, he had already held her in his heart since then?

Shion narrowed his eyes and said,

“You know, Hella. You’ve seemed strangely uncooperative since earlier. Am I imagining it?”

“Try to understand. If you were me, would you feel like cooperating?”

Hella crossed her legs as she answered.

“It isn’t exactly pleasant being the only one who remembers countless spans of time that everyone—even the Tower Master himself—has forgotten, simply because I’m similar to the Tower Master in nature. Darling.”

She added, lightly moving the tip of her foot.

“Every time time is turned back, you start over again, but I remember everything. How desperate you were, how hard you struggled, and how you failed every single time. Every bit of it.”

Hella’s voice dropped slightly. Her pale, white eyes stared intently at Shion, whose face still carried something between that of a boy and a young man.

“This is your fault too, Shion, so indulge me this little bit of whining.”

Shion didn’t answer. The questions that still had no answers continued to swirl through his mind. Why had he made such a choice? What exactly had happened 500 years ago? What kind of relationship had he and Lorea shared?

Hella stroked her chin as she looked at Shion. After remaining like that for a while, she finally spoke.

“If you’re really that curious, think about it.”

“About what?”

“Why the existence known as a Purifier disappeared 500 years ago.”

Shion’s eyes narrowed once again.

“I’ll only tell you that much.”

Hella stood up. It was a silent indication that she had no intention of saying anything more.

“Why don’t you return the book you borrowed last time while you’re at it?”

Seeing her languid smile, Shion scratched his forehead. It seemed there was no way he could squeeze any more information out of Hella. With no other choice, he stood up and prepared to leave, when a melodious voice came from behind him.

“Oh, right.”

When he turned around, Hella was looking at him over her shoulder.

“Make sure you succeed this time.”

“……”

“If you’ve put your existence on the line as the price, you should start seeing some results by now. So it won’t all be in vain.”

Shion quietly looked at Hella. She had spoken as though it were a joke, but her eyes were serious.

“…Yeah. I understand.”

After a brief silence, he answered,

“See you again, Hella.”

After Shion disappeared, Hella stared at the empty spot for a while.

She sighed.

“Honestly….”

She felt pathetic for continuing to help him despite everything. No, perhaps pathetic wasn’t the right word. She was simply exhausted. Watching Shion repeat the same thing for hundreds of years without ever giving up made her think he was remarkable, but at the same time, she couldn’t help wondering how long this could possibly continue.

Muttering to herself, she walked away. She stopped in front of a bookshelf deep inside the room. When she reached out and touched the spine of a particular book, a faint light flickered. The sound of an ancient sealing spell being undone echoed softly.

From deep within the bookshelf, she pulled out an old book.

Its cover was worn and faded. The passage of time was evident everywhere on it. Yet the magic contained within remained as powerful as ever. The book itself was a magic circle.

She opened it.

Countless records filled its pages. Shion and Lorea’s meetings. And their deaths. It contained records of time being repeated over and over again. Shion did not remember any of it, but Hella remembered everything. And she had recorded every single event in this book.

She turned to the first page.

Alongside a date from 500 years ago, a single sentence was written.

‘The last Purifier and his lover enter into a pact.’

She stood silently and read the introduction. It was a story from 500 years ago, before the miasma had yet covered the world. It was a record of the day the Purifier and the Tower Master first met. Lorea had a different name and appearance back then, but her soul was the same.

She turned the pages with her finger.

Rustle, rustle.

Countless records passed before her eyes. Meetings and partings, deaths and regressions endlessly repeated. A history of failures. A cycle of hope and despair.

She opened the final page.

There were no more pages left.

It meant this was the last time.

It also meant that the price of the magic Shion had cast was reaching its limit.

Hella picked up a pen. On the empty margin, she wrote a short record.

‘The final magic is activated, and the lover regains her memories.’

She set the pen down and quietly watched the ink dry.

“He really has to succeed this time.”

She murmured softly.

“Because there isn’t much time left.”

She closed the book.