NOVEL WEB Chapter 103
103.
There are only a few places that are harder to forget if you’ve ever set foot in the Claire Empire.
For instance, the Winter Island that Kalen visited with a noblewoman.
Or, right now, the enormous waterfall right in front of us.
Latia Waterfall.
The mostbeautiful yet simultaneously the deadliest scenery.
If one knows the entangled stories behind this place, they would likely not dare to head to the Latia Waterfall on a whim.
They would merely assess it from a distance.
The solemn yet majestic sound of the falling waterfall itself inspires awe.
The thick mist below the waterfall makes it impossible to see even a foot in front of you.
Such turbulence, combined with the mist, poses a threat to life; even if you somehow manage to reach the end, its sheer size is too massive to take in at a glance.
As stories passed down through word of mouth indicate, the true face of the Latia Waterfall lies upstream of the fall.
That is, the view from atop the cliff.
Hence, even reaching the end is not enough; one has to climb up the cliff.
There is, of course, no path built to ascend the cliff.
The mist obstructing the vision, the steep rapids flowing alongside,
The dizzying height of the cliff, and the heavy waterfall falling beside it.
Not to mention the tales of fear that incessantly remind you of the dangers.
Many admire its beauty from afar, but none dare to get close.
The quiet flow of mist.
Amidst it, three silhouettes appeared.
*
“…”
“Mother? Why are you like that?”
The three who emerged through the mist of the Latia Waterfall included a woman—Beribit Plache, whose situation was almost unbelievable.
Beribit lowered her head to look at her hands.
No matter how many times she clenched and opened her fists, it felt unfamiliar.
Even when she reached out to touch the pearl of her necklace, it all felt no different.
The fact that she could be standing outside the cave like this still seemed like a dream.
It felt so surreal to her.
The instant she sensed it when her daughter Laris and the boy came with her necklace.
At that moment, she instinctively felt that it was finally possible to step out of the cave.
Since being confined to the cave, Beribit had never stepped outside again.
It was an incredibly rare moment to face the sunlight.
For just that brief moment of sunlight, she was filled with gratitude.
Beribit gently stroked her daughter’s hand, which she held.
What came to mind was the event that had just occurred.
– Let’s go out.
The boy, who casually spat blood and calmly suggested leaving.
Beribit looked up and gazed ahead.
There he still was, the boy.
The boy who had helped Laris get the necklace and ensured Beribit’s reunion with her daughter.
Even with those deeds alone, he was already more than deserving to be called their benefactor.
However, the boy’s actions did not stop there.
Completely beyond comprehension, even upon death, it remained a mystery.
According to Beribit’s guesses, the boy had absorbed the defective illusionary space she herself had created.
He had turned that world, akin to a hellish dark domain, into his power.
Thanks to this, the once-bound illusionary space had been transferred to the boy. Now she could survive properly beside him.
Technically speaking, her existence might still fall short of being called “alive,” but what did that matter?
“Mother, if you feel any strange sensations, you must let me know immediately…”
“I will, Laris.”
To be able to face this bright and warm sunlight with her beloved daughter by her side.
Even more so, the boy had mentioned that the absorbed illusory space could be overlaid onto another location so that she could even survive separately from her daughters.
If she could meet Laris again, and even her other precious daughter, Karis.
Moreover, the boy had even escorted her through the mist.
Beribit truly smiled.
The long wait inside the cave.
If the ending awaiting her at the end of it all was something like this, she could wait ten years, a hundred years, whatever it takes.
Beribit, with a smile on her face, quietly turned her head toward her daughter.
There, holding her free hand to her chest, was a girl staring intently at the boy’s back as he walked ahead.
The girl.
Literally, just a girl.
More specifically, a girl in love.
Had she herself been like that once?
She didn’t really want to think about it.
Having lost both her precious daughters to a man who tossed away their sacred fruits of love, she didn’t want to have ever made that kind of face for him.
Her cheeks tingled with a strange flush, her breath quickened without her realizing it,
And while her heartbeat was unconsciously suppressed, her eyes sparkled with a kind of innocence.
Meaning she wasn’t even fully aware of it herself.
What was causing her daughter to hesitate?
She’d sensed it even in the cave, but now she couldn’t deny it anymore.
The fact that her daughter had brought home a potential son-in-law.
A man who’d done her an immense favor, a perfect son-in-law in every way.
As a mother, she had only one hope:
That he wouldn’t become like other unfaithful men who rationalize and abandon what’s theirs.
In that sense, the boy, Kalen, was a perfect man.
He had already proven it.
He came to the Latia Waterfall just because her daughter had asked him to.
When they were there, he dived in front of her in her very presence to protect her.
He didn’t even need to mention his appearance—it was already perfect.
Handsome, strong, and above all, a man who could protect her daughter.
Beribit, as if herself returning to innocence, smiled purely and moved closer to Laris.
“Daughter.”
“Huh? Mother…?”
Then she whispered softly by her ear,
in a voice so quiet that Kalen couldn’t hear.
“I like Kalen.”
“…What?”
“Just that. He’s nice.”
Beribit kindly pulled away her upper body while smiling innocently, and there was a mischievous twinkle to her kind smile.
For now, that would suffice.
When Laris finally comes to embrace her feelings properly, she hopes this will be a big help to her.
Smiling toward Laris, who was nodding her head in confusion and looking back, Beribit turned her gaze once more to Kalen’s back.
A boy so handsome that if she herself had been a young girl like Laris, she would have undoubtedly fallen for him.
A perfect man as a potential son-in-law, but there was one thing that made her slightly uneasy…
“Women can’t help but be attracted to him…”
It was a voice so quiet that neither Kalen nor Laris by his side could hear.
*
“Let’s stop for a moment.”
At Kalen’s words as he led the way, everyone halted.
“Kalen?”
“Miss. Just a moment, please.”
Latia Waterfall was already far behind them.
At first, Laris and Beribit intended to leave the Plache family forever.
After all, Laris had secretly left with the resolve to turn her back on the family, so even if the Rail Guild knew their whereabouts, it didn’t matter.
What changed their minds was before they left the cave.
Even earlier, at the moment Kalen absorbed the Illusionary Space and spoke.
About not seeking revenge.
About not standing up in front of the man who abandoned his wife and daughters—was that really what he wanted them to do?
His words were imbued with strength.
How could they not be?
Laris, who had witnessed Kalen right in front of her own eyes,
finally understood the confidence Kalen had shown. Now, this seemed like something worth trying.
If they went before their father and the old men of the Rail Guild,
pouring out all the words they’d kept inside so far, how wonderful would it be?
And the sole reason this seemed possible:
Because Kalen would protect them.
“There seems to be someone here already.”
Following Kalen’s words, Laris decided to return to her family one last time.
As they now returned to the family, Kalen suddenly stopped walking.
“Someone who came before us?”
“Yes. And Miss, you were right, too.”
Kalen slowly gathered ice around the dark alley ahead, not around himself, but enveloping the two women behind him.
It was the same sensation he’d felt when absorbing the Crystal Cave.
Perhaps he’d reached the 5th tier, or at least very near to it.
Kalen could now manifest magic not necessarily just around him, but wherever he desired.
And at that moment, as he used a 3rd-tier combat attribute spell in the otherwise invisible path,
Crack.
Kalen naturally ducked, and when Laris and Beribit looked at him curiously, the empty space before them began to quiver, revealing a figure.
The face that emerged was one Laris knew well.
“…Nadil? How did you get here…”
A faithful hunter of the Rail Guild.
One of the so-called ‘children’ of the crazed old man who evaluated even his own blood based on their utility, someone not trusted by anyone.
A card never used by the family to monitor Laris herself.
But despite that, Nadil was here.
Though Laris was surprised,
the greater surprise was on Nadil’s face.
The boy’s perception gap from before, remembered by Nadil from Latia Waterfall.
He had prepared a trap based precisely on that gap.
But somehow, everything became a mere hallucination.
The boy’s senses had sharpened dramatically, and the sudden icy spears had paralyzed all the ambushers, the highly trained combat geniuses just like Nadil himself.
Nadil couldn’t comprehend this strength.
He was just a boy roughly his own age after all.
And yet, despite using the best transparent magic spell for a perfect ambush,
the boy evaded it effortlessly, as if he barely noticed.
Through the lowered posture of the boy, Nadil, face-to-face with the dark gaze beyond it, froze stiff as he extended his dagger in a fatal draw.
The Rail Guild’s training was severe.
Nadil, who followed orders and assassinated countless people, was not so feeble as to be intimidated by just a glance.
Thus, his freeze lasted merely an instant.
An instant, however, was more than enough for the boy in front of him.
“…Rail Guild. Right?”
At the same time, the strap of the boy’s monocle moved slightly.
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