“Really? Are you really alright? But… but Young Master looks like, like he’s crying?”
“I… cried?”
Will hadn’t even realized it himself. He touched his face and indeed felt “droplets,” but he knew they weren’t “tears.”
They must have been cold sweat dripping down his cheeks. Because he was wearing sunglasses and the lighting was dim, Iaar mistook them for “tears.”
The moment he fell from the darkness, he felt a trace of fear. On one hand, it stemmed from the accident of him carelessly going too far.
He didn’t like accidents. While he could accept them now, he still preferred to be in a situation where he had complete control over Zero Dreams.
On the other hand…
It came from a familiar “chill” he felt from the environment, perhaps belonging to Iaar.
It was very similar to the chill he felt months ago before Iaar dragged him to the basement of the Hysterm Family.
That was the first time he felt a bone-chilling fear in this world, closer to the despair of “being unable to do anything” and the fear of “what he used to trust being broken”…
“This must be… Young Master’s tears, now that I think about it, Iaar has never seen Young Master cry.”
Iaar reached out and wiped his cheek with her thumb.
Then, Will heard a sound like Iaar licking and even tasting his sweat drops.
“It tastes a little… too salty?”
“Tears are salty, of course. And also, don’t do that. After wiping, you lick it, isn’t that very unhygienic?”
Will sighed. He thought, since Iaar had already tasted it with her tongue, it was better not to tell her what it really was.
Although tears and sweat have similar tastes and compositions, there must be some difference…?
“Mmm… then, then, then, then, this is bad!”
“What’s bad?”
“Young Master is clearly very strong! He never cries no matter how he falls, if he’s crying from the pain, then, then, then… it proves…”
“I think I should be really fine…”
Immediately after…
He felt a soft, yet extremely agile tongue lightly lick his left cheek.
Iaar had indeed licked him with her tongue occasionally before, especially when healing him, she always liked this action.
“Will this make Young Master feel better? After all, Iaar heard Young Master say before that Iaar’s saliva can heal.”
“…You. Even so, shouldn’t you apply it to the wound? Licking the wound, right?”
“Then…” Will felt Iaar’s hand seem to grab his collar, but she didn’t take any further action. “Then where is Young Master hurt? Can this really heal it?”
“Alright, I was lying. That was sweat.”
“It’s… it’s sweat?!”
“Cold sweat from being scared. After all, in complete darkness, it felt like I was falling into an abyss of unknown depth…”
Will chose to be honest. After all, compared to “crying from severe pain due to serious injury,” “getting scared and breaking out in a cold sweat” wouldn’t make Iaar overly worried.
“I see…?”
Will felt Iaar reach out, hug his neck, and pull him towards her body.
She spoke in a voice that sounded like she was coaxing a child—
“Don’t be scared anymore, it’s okay, it’s okay.”
She even patted his back.
“This is like coaxing a child.”
“Because… because even when Young Master was little, he never showed such fear. He completely fell into Iaar’s blind spot.”
“You were the same age as me back then, don’t talk like you’re the older sister.”
“The willful Young Master back then was even more like a child!”
“Mmm… don’t hug me so tightly, I’m starting to feel more suffocated.”
Will felt Iaar hug him even tighter, pulling him closer.
But this tightness was less about “fearing he would disappear” and more like Iaar wanting to get back at Will a little.
“Mmph! Sorry, sorry! I get overly happy every time I can successfully save Young Master.”
“…Successfully save me… Wait, wait, wait, that’s not the point. Iaar, how did you suddenly appear here? I remember your position was behind me?”
“Behind me?”
As Iaar asked this, Will could imagine her classic action of tilting her head, with her ears on top, tilting in the opposite direction of her head tilt.
“Yeah! Wasn’t your position… outside just now? Look, I fell down the basement, so you should have been behind me, not like now, being pinned underneath me…”
Even as he asked, Will recalled the similar “chill” that appeared in the “environment” just now.
And he remembered that on that day, the day Iaar kidnapped him, he seemed to have felt the same chill on his body for a moment.
“Eek!?”
Iaar didn’t seem to have considered this question at all, and let out a strange cry.
“Iaar will think, Iaar will think hard…”
She began to mutter as if recalling something.
“Iaar was watching Young Master push his wheelchair forward, and then… the first thing Iaar saw was Young Master ‘flying’ off his wheelchair.”
“Um… and then?”
“Then, Iaar was very anxious. So, Iaar took a step and ran hard towards Young Master—”
Iaar’s hand touched the area of her heart.
“At that moment, Iaar’s heart clenched. Also… also for the first time, Iaar truly realized that Young Master had become more fragile, more easily hurt, and needed Iaar more. Iaar should be by his side every step of the way… That’s right.”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“If he fell from there, he might get very, very seriously injured, not just unable to stand up again, but possibly worse…”
Even though she was just recounting a scene where the crisis had been averted, Iaar’s tone made it seem as if the scene had reappeared before her, re-enacting her worry and fear.
“So, Iaar ran with all her might. Iaar just wanted to catch you…”
“This distance, even running would be far, unless…”
“During this process, Iaar seemed to remember the feeling of the most beautiful past, when she hadn’t seen Young Master return, the feeling of it being further away… If Young Master left again, would he go back?”
“…”
Will listened to Iaar’s words, filled with “guilt” and a hint of regret, and didn’t interrupt her.
“So, what changes the beautiful past is always a moment, a mistake, an oversight… As long as I stop this step, I can continue the past… right?”
“…And then?”
Will felt that the “ability” Iaar had unleashed was related to this feeling.
“Then… the surrounding scenery became quiet, I couldn’t hear any sounds, my sense of smell seemed to fail, I couldn’t smell anything, and what I saw was like a scene covered in snowflakes. I only knew that I had to keep moving forward and couldn’t let Young Master fall into the basement…”
“Snowflakes, and almost no hearing or smell, hmm…”
Will finally understood. That intense chill he felt just now originated from Iaar.
Or rather, it originated from a part of a magic within the “Ice Array (Attack)” that Iaar mastered.
This must be the ultimate Ancient Magic within the “Ice Array (Attack)”…
“When Iaar reached in front of Young Master, everything seemed to stop. It stopped at the moment it was about to get worse…”
“It was as if the whole world was waiting for Iaar to do something to rectify a past mistake…”
“So, Iaar stood in front of Young Master, so she could block all the damage for him.”
Iaar was still lying on the ground, looking up at the sky. She had finished thinking, but it seemed she hadn’t reached a conclusion.
“Thinking about it this way, it feels like… something is wrong everywhere. What’s going on?”
Compared to the lost Iaar, Will couldn’t calm his racing heart.
He had tried for so long, using this act of his to stimulate Iaar, to make Iaar realize he was incapable of anything, to force Iaar to learn something—
But in the end, he achieved it with an “accident”…
This was what he wanted to see Iaar learn. In… in the latter half of the original work, by… by an Adventurer on the opposite side, theoretically, the ultimate magic within the “Ice Array (Attack).”
It was also the magic mentioned in that piece of paper.
“Iaar… Iaar, Iaar, you learned it! This… this is probably the part of the ‘Ice Array (Attack)’ that we didn’t understand!”
“Huh?! So, with this, I can… defeat that annoying little fire dragon?!”
“In any case, remember this feeling. As expected… as expected, I really can’t teach you anything.”
This time, what Will said was the truth. This time, Iaar relied entirely on her own comprehension.
“I see, so those incomprehensible words inside were… this kind of mindset?”
“The reason for reminiscing is that the act of ‘stopping’ time must be to change a certain moment… and the ‘Ice Array (Attack)’ captures this mindset of ensuring good things are not disturbed by accidents…”
“As the magic of a Shield Saint, it naturally starts from ‘protection’ to stop time, not… not from changing the starting point?”
Perhaps Iaar had already reached the door to unlocking the final magic much earlier. After all, Will could feel that it was very similar to the magic that brought him to the basement months ago.
…The bitter stratagem was successful, even overly successful.
“Mmm… Iaar doesn’t understand, but… does this mean… Iaar learned it on her own?”
“That’s right! You learned it all on your own. Both realizing its meaning and using it…”
Grumble.
Just then, a louder stomach growl echoed in the basement.
“Young Master?”
“It’s, it’s you who’s hungry!”
“Mmm… No!” Iaar quickly denied. “Just now, outside, when Young Master wasn’t paying attention, I secretly ate the biscuits on the table, so I definitely wouldn’t be growling from hunger!”
