KFBRV Pt 2 Ch 5
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
The moment he stepped onto the ground, the surroundings instantly transformed into a desert landscape. Into the endlessly vast and utterly barren Erwin Desert.
[Zion] "Odette!"
He sprinted across the desert, chasing her. The sun blazed against his back. Sandstorms invaded his lungs with every breath. The arid air scratched his throat.
The sickening stench and the endlessly captivating scent of peach blossoms had vanished from her. He barely caught up and snatched her arm.
[Zion] "......!"
The world shattered like a mirage. Opening his eyes, he faced the vast ocean once again.
The Sea of Meursault, where the water churning around his waist frothed into white foam.
[Alfredo] "Your Excellency....... Please......."
The butler stared at Zion with a suffocating expression. The emotion carved into his face had morphed from worry into absolute despair.
I didn't even fall asleep this time.
The old butler recognized the grim reality. Zion now drifted through dreams without even closing his eyes. This time, he lacked the luxury to feign composure or project bravado.
He opened the hand that had gripped Odette's arm. A butterfly with a broken wing fluttered within his palm. He released the insect with a devastated gaze.
[Zion] "Let's return. I hallucinated for a moment."
The following morning, Alfredo left the estate. Zion offered no resistance.
Consequently, nobody realized Zion was crumbling.
He still delivered arrogant jokes during meetings with the Pope, persuaded the Emperor in private audiences, and manipulated the Noble Council.
He executed inspiring speeches for the Commoner Council, extracted information from prisoners through torture, and commanded the Intelligence Department.
An object of terror and the absolute sovereign.
Therefore, no one recognized the truth. The flawless Marquis of Kleist suffered from hallucinations of Odette everywhere he went.
She manifested in a lavish dress, as a gaunt figure with a bob cut, or in a simple chemise nightgown.
She sat beside the Pope, stood behind the imperial throne, or occupied a corner of the Noble Council chamber.
[Odette] "Answer me, Zion. Is there no escape now?"
She constantly questioned him.
Whenever those gatherings concluded, Zion chased the phantom.
Every single day ended with him soaked in seawater. The tide rose higher each time he opened his eyes.
The water level had escalated from his waist to his chest, and now it surged toward his neck.
Zion understood his descending madness better than anyone, yet he rejected all rest.
Resting only invited suffocating regret.
To suppress the urge to end his own life, hr forced himself to work relentlessly.
Side Story 3. Karl's POV
Reverse. Reverse. Please, reverse.
Karl poured out his ability like a madman.
The carriage, tearing through the rainstorm, halted before the Meursault Grand Temple.
He had continuously reversed the corpse's timeline throughout the journey. His hand snapped to a halt like a marionette with severed strings.
The moment he arrived at the grand temple, a fierce realization pierced his mind.
This corpse is not your master.
It struck like a divine revelation or a sudden wave of déjà vu. The phenomenon manifested as if a god had spoken directly to him.
Instantly, his vision cleared. The objects before him sharpened with astonishing clarity.
The corpse still mirrored Odette perfectly, but he recognized its fabricated nature. It was an absolutely flawless replica.
[Karl] "I need to check...... the villa."
Following the epiphany, the words slipped from his lips like a bewitched incantation. The sentence flowed as if voicing a divine mandate.
Karl abandoned all hesitation. He willingly left the replica of Odette in the carriage and sprinted toward the Albrecht villa in Meursault.
[Karl] "Please. Master. Please......"
He pleaded continuously as he ran. This desperate chant constituted the very first prayer of his life.
If that object was not Odette's corpse, Odette herself might still draw breath.
His heart constricted painfully in proportion to his soaring hope. Desperation made his legs stagger multiple times.
Upon reaching the Count's villa, he shoved the door open with bone-shattering force and scrambled up to the second floor.
He arrived at the very room where Odette had plummeted to her death. Standing frozen in the center, a dizzying emptiness consumed him.
Why did I run all the way here?
He had rushed over, swelling with hope at the bewitched command to check the villa.
Yet he remained utterly powerless.
Crash, craaaash.
The violent waves colliding against the cliff and exploding into foam dominated the silence of the room. Rain battered the balcony windows with a deafening roar.
Helplessness drowned him entirely.
What on earth can I possibly verify here?
A heavy restriction shackled his ankles, replicating the exact sensation from when Odette delivered her final farewell.
Right then.
Check the balcony.
That revelation-like mandate pierced his mind once more.
An invisible force guided his steps toward the balcony. His focus landed squarely on the rain-slicked railing.
Odette's blood, which had previously drenched the railing, had vanished without a single trace.
Karl brushed his fingertips across the metal. A strange, knowing glint slowly illuminated his crimson eyes.
[Karl] "Reverse the time of the railing...... To the moment Master died....... To the moment I awakened."
A dark red ring erupted from his body and coiled around the railing.
The ring, which had been tilting sluggishly clockwise along with the natural flow of time, rapidly shifted into reverse.
The ancient numbers signifying time engraved on the ring plummeted at breakneck speed.
In an instant, blood pooled across the railing once again. It matched the exact moment of Odette's demise.
Despite conjuring the sight with his own ability, Karl flinched instinctively.
The thick scent of blood belonged to his master. That indisputable fact sent his heart plummeting.
Bang.
The phantom image of the pistol piercing his master's skull replayed vividly before him. A lacerating agony tore through his chest, shredding his heart into pieces.
Cold sweat drenched him, yet he locked his eyes on the railing. He wheezed through the pain and issued a command to the ring.
[Karl] "Let time flow...... again. Faster than its original pace."
Following his mandate, the ring tilted rapidly clockwise. The railing's timeline accelerated.
At a specific point, the pooled blood vanished instantly, like magic.
[Karl] "......!"
An incredibly unnatural erasure.
Karl verified the ring's time constraint. The blood disappeared abruptly, exactly three hours after her death.
Only the intervention of a supernatural force could produce such a result. A magic tool, for instance.......
Karl finally understood. Odette had utilized a magic tool to fake her own death. Her plunge off the cliff served as a theatrical performance to complete the disguise.
The exact methods she employed and whether she had planned this scenario upon acquiring the tool remained a mystery.
Regardless.
Master is alive.
Color finally returned to his ashen face.
[Karl] "Haa......"
His legs gave out. He collapsed onto the balcony, leaning heavily against the railing.
He had plunged into a swamp of emotion unlike anything he had experienced in his entire life.
The lingering aftershock stripped every ounce of strength from his body.
A profound relief washed over him as he slowly crawled out of the horrific despair.
[Karl] "Haha....... Master."
A hollow laugh dissolved into the deafening rain.
He had maintained a state of absolute tension for so long that his limbs tingled with numbness.
A truly pathetic display for someone who had just awakened as a Transcendent.
[Karl] "Master, you are genuinely......."
Her agonizingly tragic final farewell had been an absolute lie.
Recognizing his role as a pawn in her scheme brought objective clarity to the remaining facts.
Facts like Odette stopping by the bank to withdraw all her funds before arriving at the villa. Or the fact that she moved freely while a bizarre force bound the Transcendents in place.
Karl lowered his gaze to his own ankles.
What exactly was the force that gripped the Transcendents' ankles?
He knew with absolute certainty that a mere magic tool had not restrained him. The energy felt entirely too divine to be standard magic. It mirrored the authority of a god. An energy remarkably similar to the Transcendent power he had just inherited.
If I had to compare it, it closely resembled the divine energy radiating from the Master's locket necklace.
He recalled Odette's silver locket. Come to think of it, he had seen that exact necklace in his earliest memory.
During that fateful moment in the Fenrir Royal Palace, his eyes locked with Odette's teal gaze.
It seems an entertaining power resides within that necklace. Odette had utilized it to evade the Transcendents.
[Karl] "I took a solid hit. I was completely played."
He erupted into a dark chuckle and gripped the lower section of the railing.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the metal railing warped and buckled like a piece of paper.
[Karl] "But isn't this an exceptionally bad habit?"
The corners of his mouth twisted upward.
[Karl] "You should have taken me with you, Master. How could you even think of abandoning me?"
Ditching the other Transcendents mattered little. But did he not belong entirely to her authority?
Karl, her fiercely loyal slave, had followed Odette's directives regardless of Viktor's barking. Her commands superseded all else.
[Karl] "I behaved so perfectly for you. This reward is completely unacceptable."
Every trace of amusement vanished from his voice.
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