Chapter 141
"Excuse me."
I called out to them, but they didn't react, as if they couldn't hear me.
When I lit up the surroundings with a torch, I saw Red Tentationem Flowers densely covering one wall. Was that there before? Until just now, it was too dark to check the wall.
-Are you okay?
The silver-haired woman asked Yuanna. Yuanna, with reddened cheeks, barely nodded. It seemed she was addicted to the Tentationem.
Judging by the silver-haired woman's lack of reaction, I guessed she might be immune.
-Sorry, Zenas made those flowers, so I can't get rid of them. But where's the Key?
At the silver-haired woman's words, I looked at the Red Flowers again. Zenas probably planted the Tentationem here to make it difficult to access the two Gates.
Yuanna took out the Key from her pocket. It was the same shape as the Key she had shown us in the cabin on the Southern Island.
Yuanna asked the silver-haired woman,
-You're really going to save everyone, right?
I felt puzzled by Yuanna's words. Save? Everyone? No one among us had died yet.
The silver-haired woman asked with a puzzled look at her question.
-Everyone? Weren't you on bad terms with Lady Flone? She treated you like a maid. And even tried to kill you. I saw it all.
She must be Anata. The words 'I saw it all' might mean she saw it through the eyes of a Monster, just like Zenas.
Besides, treating her like a maid. An attempt to kill Yuanna. This was the content of the novel <More Important Than Survival>.
Yuanna gave a bitter smile and lowered her eyes for a moment, as if recalling the past.
-It was Margaret who hated me. I kind of liked Margaret.
-Why do you like someone who hates you? Are you a pervert?
-I guess so. It feels like love-hate.
But her eyes didn't waver. As if there were no lies in what she said. I could see her eyelashes fluttering.
-I thought all nobles were two-faced and hypocritical. But Margaret is honest about her desires. She's the same inside and out. I liked that about her.
Then she quickly put on a nonchalant smile. Perhaps because her cheeks were flushed from being addicted to the Tentationem, she looked very alluring.
Strangely, Yuanna's assessment of Margaret was excessively generous. Whether Anata, the silver-haired woman, had the same thought as me, she asked Yuanna.
-You're more magnanimous than you look?
-Me?
-It's amazing that you don't hate someone who tried to kill you for that reason.
-Well, I just think Margaret is a little better than those damn people who stab you in the back.
Yuanna added with a slightly bitter face.
-If I go back to the past, I won't let Margaret and the others die so meaninglessly.
The silver-haired woman, who had been listening quietly, nodded as if respecting her words.
-Okay. Do that. That's why I'm helping you.
-…….
-In that sense, let's talk about Margaret's Soul that disappeared beyond the Dimensional Gate. Only Zenas can open the Dimensional Gate. And he can't just open it... it's only possible after all the experiments are over, after gathering the Mana of the dead. It's not a Gate that can be opened with the Mana of one or two people.
Was the purpose of this experiment to gather Mana and open the Dimensional Gate? I couldn't hide my shock at Anata's shocking words.
Wait, what's this story about Margaret disappearing beyond the Dimensional Gate?
-I don't know how only Lady Flone's Soul was ejected into another dimension before the experiment was even over. There might be a defect in the island. This island has become very flawed while continuing the experiment for a thousand years.
Anata pointed to the Gate labeled 'Return'. Then she pointed to the left Gate with the Magic Circle drawn on it.
-That doesn't mean there's no other way to open the Dimensional Gate at all. If you open the Regression gate with that Key, the Dimensional Gate will also open. I'll bring Margaret back then. Zenas doesn't know we're in league yet, so we have to move quickly.
Yuanna had opened the Regression gate.
My legs gave way, and I ended up collapsing on the spot.
-But the Lady Flone you bring back might not be the Lady you know. There's a very high possibility that she'll be a different person with the same Soul. And you won't be able to remember your current life anyway.
A different person with the same Soul. That was clearly referring to me, Lee Jin-joo.
'Then who am I?'
Am I Margaret, or Lee Jin-joo?
So I am……
I am…….
I felt like my thoughts were freezing due to the continuous shock. I gripped the book I was holding tightly with my trembling hands.
Was the reason I was the only one who could use Mana, unlike the others, because I was Margaret but not Margaret at the same time?
Then I heard Yuanna's voice.
-It's okay. Everyone is dead now, and I'm the only one left, but we can go back to the past. Then we can see everyone alive. That's what's important.
But as soon as she finished speaking, Yuanna bit her lower lip and closed her mouth. As if hiding the resentment that welled up in her throat.
-You said that if I open the Regression gate, only I will return to the past. Then will the Anata I meet also be the Anata of the past?
-No, I'll be the current me. The cabin Zenas made is like the main body of this island, so it's not affected by the flow of time. However, if you open the Regression gate, Zenas will find out. And then I might be Sealed.
-Why did you make something like the Regression gate...?
-It was made as a last resort to restart the experiment from the beginning when all the test subjects suitable for the experiment died. To repeat it infinitely until the desired result is achieved. ……I'm sorry.
Anata apologized with a painful expression. Guilt was deeply etched on her face.
-I'll go save you. Together with Margaret.
At Yuanna's words, Anata burst into a chuckle.
-I'm already someone who has committed many sins with Zenas, I can't be saved.
Anata looked down at the Magic Circle drawn on the floor. When she touched the Magic Circle with her hand, it glowed.
-It's the same for you. You know how to open the Regression gate, right? It's not just about using the Key. You're violating causality, so you're using your Soul as collateral.
Using her Soul as collateral? I looked back and forth between Anata and Yuanna in surprise.
Yuanna's eyes were shaking violently. She kept moving her lips to answer, but eventually gritted her teeth. She was silent for a long time.
Anata, who had been waiting for her answer, said firmly.
-Do you know what it means to use your Soul as collateral? It means you have to give up your life to open the Regression gate. Even if you go back to the past and find a way to escape, even if everyone can escape this island. You can't leave. You're going to die alone on this island. Because your Soul is mortgaged to the island.
-…….
-Even so, are you going to turn back time for everyone?
Yuanna's nose turned red as she heard those words.
She frowned as if in pain, then finally raised her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
It wouldn't be an easy decision.
Soon, she roughly wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, swallowed her sobs, and stared blankly at <More Important Than Survival> that had fallen on the floor.
-Anata. You said it, Anata. What's more important than survival is not forgetting that I am me. So I tried to leave a record of what I've experienced so far. I couldn't finish it in the end. I couldn't write because of the poison of the Tentationem. But thanks to that, I realized. I really haven't been helpful to anyone so far. If I'm given one more chance, I must save everyone then.
Yuanna now looked straight at Anata with a completely determined face.
-I'm going to die here alone anyway, even if I don't go back to the past. In that case, I'll save everyone and die. I have a duty to take responsibility for everyone.
A duty to take responsibility for everyone.
It was a duty too heavy for Yuanna to bear alone.
Anata nodded with a complicated face.
-Lady Flone, whom we'll open the Dimensional Gate and bring back, will be the key. I hope she becomes everyone's hope, I hope everyone can make different choices in the past they return to…….
Anata muttered like that and picked up the book <More Important Than Survival> that had fallen on the floor.
-I'll finish this record. I'm thinking of using this as a medium to bring Lady Flone back. It'll be better to add elements that will attract the Lady's interest to some extent so that she'll read it to the end.
Unfortunately, the hallucination disappeared at the end of Anata's words. The torches that had been visible with the hallucination also disappeared, and the light flowing from the Magic Circle was also extinguished.
I was standing alone in the dark underground.
I had suspected that <More Important Than Survival> might be Yuanna's record-keeping notebook. That's how it started, but in conclusion, it was a novel that Anata had seasoned to hook me.
The illusion I just saw was not something from the novel, but a record that Anata had left with the Magic Circle before regressing.
Now everything feels right.
Yeah. Somehow, I thought Yuanna's personality in the 'novel' was different from her actual personality.
The fact that Monsters appeared differently from the 'novel', and that the Key had fallen by Yuanna's bedside, must be the influence of the Regression.
My mind was blank.
I couldn't do anything but stand there blankly.
Thinking about the existence of Anata and the information she had spat out was a secondary problem.
Me, who had become an existence that was neither Margaret nor Lee Jin-joo.
Yuanna, who had her Soul mortgaged and had become a voluntary terminally ill patient.
Yuanna, whom I had seen so far, didn't seem to remember what had happened before the Regression. But there must have been remnants of the past that were unconsciously reflected. The fact that she was talking nonsense to me, and that she wanted control, was also due to that influence.
My mind was in a mess in the face of the shocking truth.
Actually, I don't know. What meaning her sacrifice has. Can I dare say that I understand it?
Why she is a Saintess with great Divine Power who appeared after a hundred years. Why God gave her such sacred power.
Now I think I know.