Apple Flavor dragged her tired body and knocked on Hyuji’s door with her delicate hand.
Inside was a room as quiet as the Desk Guide had described.
She still hadn’t entered.
“Where are you…?”
It was getting really exhausting.
She was already drained of energy in reality, and now she was also out of juice in Deoen.
At least after spending some time on Kiki Island, her basic stamina improved a little, but it was still at such a low level that it barely made a difference.
‘Let’s go back.’
By now, Autumn and Joah should have informed Lady Lily.
Time to join up…
“Ugh!”
“Huh?”
A light blue wave brushed over Apple Flavor’s head.
The man who suddenly attacked, puzzled, raised the wave again in his hand.
“What? You can dodge this?”
“W-who are you?!”
Why the sudden ambush…
Apple Flavor quickly stepped back, feeling the weight of her unique trait, ‘1-time dodge’ with a cooldown of 50 hours.
‘Even this trash trait has its moments, huh.’
“But hey, I’ve been curious about something.”
But the trait had already finished its effect.
What remained for Apple Flavor was a cooldown of about 49 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds and a frail body at level 30.
“Are you a woman or a man?”
“Ugh…”
“Why are you suddenly mute? Not planning to eat me, are you…”
Swish!
Thorny rose vines instantly bound the man’s wrists and ankles.
The light blue wave vanished as a mesmerizing woman appeared in front of the dazed Apple Flavor.
“Oh my. Customer. No fighting allowed here.”
“Queen.”
Zreeeek…!
The Queen’s red eyes immediately ensnared the man.
His eyes briefly relaxed, but as the light blue wave enveloped his body, he quickly returned to normal.
Tch. The Queen sounded disappointed.
“To cast an illusion on your own body? Impressive, Blessed One.”
“I’m not here to meet you.”
“Then who?”
“That guy behind you. No, that girl.”
The Queen turned her head.
A woman with a neutral-looking face was trembling.
A little too extreme to call her an Outsider.
Has she already cast a blessing?
“Ugh?!”
As the Queen’s allure wrapped around Apple Flavor, her dazed expression shifted to something more intense.
Heh. Heh. Apple Flavor breathed deeply.
It felt a bit strange, but the allure was probably better than the blessing over there.
“Why is this Outsider here?”
“No idea. If you let her go, nothing will happen.”
“Oh my. Something’s happening at my resort, and you want me to just watch it unfold?”
“It’s Kler’s order.”
She flinched.
The confident smile shattered in an instant.
Not letting the chance slip, the Blessed One once again conjured an illusion.
“What did you just say…?”
“I found a way to collect all the blessings. And that woman is the link.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s true.”
“……Really?”
“Did you really find a way to gather all the blessings?”
“Kler, who seemed uninterested during all that time?”
The Blessed One nodded.
“Yes. You probably have a wish to ask for as well.”
“……”
“So hurry up and hand over that woman. If the plan gets delayed, gathering everything might become impossible.”
Especially since Lily is the Blessed One.
“……”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
The Blessed One passed by the Queen.
Just like that, the Blessed One took the apple flavor and was about to leave…
Crash!
…but ended up getting caught in a thorny vine and fell down.
The pressure was much stronger than before.
“Ugh! What the hell!”
“No. This woman…”
“What? Why is this woman any of your concern…?”
“Oh my. Why wouldn’t it be a concern?”
Thump.
Alice hid her flushed face with her hand and chuckled.
Imagining her even at this moment.
“She’s close with my darling. If I just hand her over, how would I face darling?”
“…?!”
“Consider yourself lucky that I’m not taking your blessing. I would have killed you otherwise.”
Using the vines, Alice forced the Blessed One to kneel and lifted his chin with a captivating smile.
As expected, the same mental-type blessing won’t work.
Alice tossed his chin aside and freed the vines.
“Ugh!”
“Go on. If you need to collect blessings, you’re always welcome.”
However.
“The moment you touch anything related to our darling, there will be no cooperation. So find another way.”
“…This is absurd. Is the owner of allure actually under a spell of allure?”
The Blessed One asked sarcastically, but Alice just smiled, seemingly unfazed.
“If you don’t leave, I might just kill you~?”
“Fine. I’m leaving…”
Already touched, after all.
Drip, drip…
“What?”
“Tell Lily. If she wants to find the two men, come to the banana statue on Kiki Island.”
See you there.
“Wait a second!”
Crash!
“I missed…”
■
“Darling! Darling!”
“Alice?”
Alice rushed into my room.
I was about to leave.
I approached her.
I was going to say something, but she came in such a hurry that her face was all flushed and she was breathing heavily.
Moreover, as I got closer, her condition seemed more serious.
“…What happened?”
“That! Darling’s friends have been kidnapped!”
“…What?”
“It seems like another Blessed One and K-Kler are up to something…”
“Is it the same…?”
“Where’s the apple flavor? Where is it?”
“Lady Lily…”
The apple flavor quietly approached behind Alice.
With a frailer appearance than usual, I tilted my head.
“…Are you transforming or something?”
“Uh, not really… um, anyway, that’s not important.”
“Right. Darling. It seems like both of your companions have been kidnapped. It’s likely that darling is the target.”
“Are you out of your mind? The resort owner is kidnapping guests?”
White Autumn was fuming, ready to spill the beans on this situation at any moment.
Joah was the same.
I pondered deeply and asked.
“But why did they kidnap them? Do they need my blessing? That seems way too reckless.”
Alice hesitated and took a step back.
She looked like a young child who had done something wrong and was anxious.
Something’s up.
“…Darling, please don’t get angry.”
“Let’s hear it first.”
“…Kler and I have a contract. Kler promised to gather all six of my blessings in exchange for the right to serve as the island’s owner.”
“Huh? So it was because of that, huh?”
At White Autumn’s sharp question, Alice shook her head vigorously and shouted, as if truly innocent.
“That’s not it! I definitely asked to gather them, but I never said to hurt darling’s guests! I never even thought of doing something like that!”
“Really? Then why did Kler kidnap our companions?”
“…Kler usually doesn’t capture or steal the Blessed One. He deliberately lets them go for profit or manipulates things so that I can’t get the blessings.”
“But if he’s intervening now, does that mean a situation has arisen where collecting the blessings is possible?”
“You’re right, darling. It seems he might have found a way.”
From the beginning, Kler was serious about finding the blessings.
However, there was something unsavory mixed in with that intent.
“If he really wanted to give me the blessings, he would have sought my cooperation. But he acted without my knowledge. Moreover, he even harmed darling’s companions. This is definitely…”
“How can I believe that? You could still be pretending to take us somewhere strange right now.”
Joah shot a sharp glare at Alice.
Joah’s suspicions were justified.
In fact, Alice’s goal was the blessings, and she was still tied up in an unknown contract with Kler.
No one knows if she would betray us when all the blessings are gathered.
I turned to Alice.
Even when cornered, she maintained her charm to the end.
I realized that even if I couldn’t reach her, those two could still charm her just as they had before, but they didn’t.
“Darling, I really…”
“Alice, let me ask you one thing.”
I approached Alice, getting up close.
Just like back then, her face had turned bright red.
I bowed my head to meet her gaze.
“Da, darling?”
“Something I want to achieve so much.”
The reason why I must obtain six blessings.
“What is your wish?”
■
Wish.
A wish that must be fulfilled, a wish that must be realized.
The wish I’ve longed for so much since a long time ago is…
“The past.”
“?”
“I’m going to turn back time and return to the past. If it’s a wish, it must be possible…”
“Nonsense.”
At my words that spread coldly like a blizzard, Alice’s mouth momentarily shut.
I know better than anyone about the race that handles time and space.
The ability to slow down time or completely stop it.
Or the ability to predict the distant future or travel to another dimension… and so on.
There are quite a few abilities related to time.
However, there is one absolute law that even those great two races cannot defy.
“The past ‘can never’ be returned to.”
“…Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
I’m certain.
I have wished for it so much, and have experienced it countless times, painfully for a long time.
And I realized.
‘Time cannot be turned back.’
Not even the Eight Seats or the Six Demon Kings can do anything about it.
The absolute time created by the gods and rooted by demons cannot be changed by anything.
Even if it were possible, it would be a ‘virtual’ dimension created based on the history of the past. Or just an illusion.
A soul that has once perished never returns.
“The past is an illusion. Current or future can somehow be interacted with, but the past is just water that has flowed away.”
It cannot be caught, nor should it be caught…
“Why shouldn’t it be caught?”
Alice looks at me with a serious gaze as she hears my mumbling.
“What’s wrong with catching it? It’s disappointing. I’m so disappointed that I want to die, I have to catch it with all my might.”
“…It’s meaningless.”
“I find it meaningful, darling.”
Alice grabbed my hand.
“So I will catch it. But I won’t give up on the present either.”
“……”
“Because now is as precious as the past.”
“Alice.”
“Darling…”
Huh?
KWAANG!
I knocked Alice over just like that.
“Everything is great, but what if you cast a spell?”
My hand moved first, after all.
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