Chapter 252: You are beautiful enough in my eyes now
Now, in his eyes, she was already beautiful enough.
Behind him, the bright world above the sea of clouds vanished.
In its place was nothing but desolate ruins.
All around were steam and flames, metal twisting under scorching heat, wooden planks falling piece by piece, shattering into fragments upon hitting the ground.
The sky was burned black and red by thick smoke and fire, the air filled with the decaying stench of dust and ash.
In the distance, the broken town was engulfed in a sea of fire reeking of death, only blurred silhouettes remaining.
This was hell, the human purgatory named “Canaan.”
It was also the true mental landscape of Emis.
Just as Rast had said, that countryside girl who had lived on the border since childhood, never once stepping beyond the town’s limits… had never possessed such grandeur or magnificence, nor harbored lofty ambitions of bearing the weight of the world, of bearing the fate of all human civilization.
One might have thought she was a Judgment Angel, gazing down upon the mortal realm from the clouds, able to reign over the world with violence alone—
But in truth, all Emis possessed was that small town of Canaan, and the memories of life with the townsfolk.
And now, even this humble mental image had fallen into ruin—desolate and broken beyond recognition, just like Emis’s heart, which had long since reached its limit, teetering on the brink of collapse.
That was only natural.
Emis was not Shiltina, who could ignore the gaze of the world, moving forward with unwavering resolve even if all doubted her.
Nor was she Grey, the Fate Angel, who, even after severing her angelic status and being eternally exiled to the deepest reaches of the Starry Sea, still pursued her ideal known as the “Shoreguards.”
If it had been either of those two, they might have been able to, by their own strength, overcome the will of the Judgment Grail during their endless slumber… keeping their spirit pure and untainted, never wavering even after an entire epoch, nearly ten thousand years.
But Emis could not.
Even though she wore the appearance of a Judgment Angel, her essence remained that of a little girl who had lived her life in a border town—the town of Canaan, the dense forests behind it, and the Three Sages Mountain Range capped in snow in the distance. That was her entire world.
To force upon such an innocent countryside girl the great deeds that only true heroes could accomplish was far too cruel.
In fact, the mere fact that Emis had endured until this day was already a tremendous miracle.
And the reason for this miracle lay in the promise she had once made with Rast—the promise of “You must, you absolutely must come and save me.”
Since that promise had yet to be fulfilled, she could not allow herself to give up first.
No matter how much pain, no matter how much she had to crawl in filth, hiding away in dark holes unseen by light, she had to cling to life, no matter how wretched…
Perhaps it was precisely this obsession that allowed that little girl to survive those endless years, holding on until this very day.
…
The stream of memories came to a halt.
Rast’s steps also stopped before a house within the town.
The entire building had already been consumed by raging flames, burned into ashes. Through the black-red blaze, only faint outlines of the collapsing wooden frame could be discerned.
Yet Rast still recognized, through the veil of fire, the structure before his eyes.
This had been the home he and Emis shared in Canaan.
At first, when this wooden cabin belonging to Rast and Emis had been built with the help of the townsfolk, its interior was completely empty—not even a proper bed, just a hollow shell.
But later, through their shared efforts, whether by chopping trees to make furniture themselves, or by trading hunted game and handmade crafts with traveling merchants who periodically visited Canaan, the cabin gradually grew filled and lively.
It was a place that carried countless memories of Rast and Emis.
Countless summer days beneath blazing suns, countless winter nights with snow drifting thick as goose feathers, the two would hide within that cabin, talking aimlessly about trivial matters of daily life—plain and simple, yet timeless and ever-new.
And when Rast had been trapped in Deep Blue Port, in that endless cycle of the same day, no matter how desperate, no matter how broken he became, even when thoughts of self-destruction arose—
So long as he returned to that cabin, seeing the familiar wooden ceiling, hearing the bubbling of porridge in the pot, and catching sight of the golden-haired girl humming a rustic tune while cooking in the kitchen, Rast could always find peace. His heart would be soothed, as though he had returned to an Ideal Land, standing apart from the world.
Emis might not have been Shiltina, nor could she ever become Grey.
But precisely because she was “Emis,” that ordinary countryside girl—
She alone could stand beside Rast when he was at his most lost and fragile, even doubting his own existence.
Emis had been willing to join the Shoreguards, to become a “Friend of Justice”… not because she truly resonated with their ideals, but because it was Rast’s dream. And so, she did not mind making it her dream as well.
And if one day Rast abandoned that dream, choosing instead to deceive himself and flee from reality, or even fall into darkness, becoming a heinous criminal… she would still follow him quietly.
Emis would follow Rast, from life until death.
“So… isn’t that enough?”
Rast gazed at the remains of the house amidst the sea of fire. A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he softly murmured.
“There is no need to emulate Shiltina’s brilliance, nor to become Grey—”
“Because as you are now, you are already dazzling enough, beautiful enough.”
“In my heart, no one can ever take your place.”
When he finished speaking, he turned gently away, leaving behind the cabin that had borne countless memories of the two.
Rast knew that within the ruins of the cabin, nothing remained, and Emis herself was not here.
To escape the erosion of the Judgment Angel, to prevent the last fragments of herself from being swallowed whole… at this very moment, that little girl had carefully hidden herself away.
Hidden in a place only she and Rast knew.
Rast took his steps forward, leaving behind the ruins of the town engulfed in flames.
Beside him, the smoke heavy with the scent of death slowly dispersed.
And so Rast walked along the path, toward the forested back mountain beyond the border town.
There, where the boy and the girl had first met.