“...Kkamani?”

Tie stumbled over the word.

Strange scenes continued flashing before her eyes.

Through her blurred vision, eerie whispers echoed from every direction.

[Kill them.]

[Crush every last one of them.]

Tie was seeing Lucarion’s memories.

He had said she would never believe him if he only explained it with words, and so Lucarion truly showed her everything directly.

Fear suddenly filled Tie’s eyes, as if she had realized something.

‘...He’s hurting.’

In those memories, Lucarion was suffering.

Tie could clearly feel his emotions and feelings.

“Kkamani...”

[Destroy everything.]

[You can end this pain.]

Human screams rang out from somewhere far away, and just as her ears began to ring—

Boom—

Everything burst into bright light, and something appeared in her vision.

A small child stood before Lucarion.

‘...Tie?’

A newborn baby wrapped in cloth.

Her nose scrunched as she cried bitterly, and it was unmistakably Tie.

“Look.”

Lucarion spoke beside her.

Tie slowly turned her gaze forward again.

Light spread around the tiny Tie lying there.

As though, in Lucarion’s colorless world, Tie alone possessed color.

“Even after I sank into the resting place, it was still the same.”

Everything around them sank into darkness.

The bright space turned completely black, as though someone had extinguished the light.

“...Papa!”

Tie’s voice echoed from somewhere far away.

Her bright laughter.

The way she coughed softly before hurriedly continuing to speak.

A day, a week, a month—time rushed forward.

The voice of Tie that Lucarion heard piled up more and more with each passing day.

And the tenderness in his heart only continued to deepen.

“Kkamani...”

At some point, along with Tie’s voice, colorful flower petals began swirling through the darkness.

They spun through the air, forming rings, and sometimes burst apart like fireworks, filling everything around them.

Reacting only to Tie’s voice.

And then, in a single instant—

“...They disappeared.”

All the petals vanished.

And in their place, an incredibly warm heat spread everywhere.

The black world lit up with golden light, and someone appeared.

A child crouched down, rummaging through a box.

Frightened eyes, trembling hands, tightly pressed lips.

It was Astie on the day she arrived in Tallocium.

The day the papa she had waited for never came, and only a rain soaked box of relics arrived instead.

The day Astie found the stone where Lucarion slept.

“Why are you crying?”

Tie slowly turned her head.

Instead of the small dragon she had seen back then, Lucarion stood beside the crying Tie and asked,

“Why are you crying?”

Tie parted her lips in shock.

Where Lucarion’s gaze rested—

she saw another version of herself.

‘So... that’s what Tie looked like back then...’

Eyes overflowing with sorrow.

Shoulders and back slumped helplessly.

A sharp pain stabbed through her chest.

‘My heart... hurts so much.’

Even though it had all happened long ago.

It even felt strange to her that simply looking at herself could make her feel such pain and sadness.

But soon she realized why.

“Tie, Papa...”

The moment she saw herself sobbing as she said those words, she understood.

‘These are Lucarion’s feelings.’

The emotions she was feeling right now did not belong to Tie.

All of them were Lucarion’s feelings.

“I understand now.”

Back then, during their first meeting in Jongno, she had not ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) known.

“That man is dead.”

She had not known Lucarion had spoken those words with such a sorrowful expression.

“Do you want me to bring him back to life?”

And beneath Lucarion’s voice, another voice overlapped.

‘For your sake, I would do anything.’

“If you want, I can turn everything back.”

‘When you cry, it hurts me so much I can’t endure it.’

Tie covered her mouth.

A wind gradually began to blow, and the world slowly returned to normal.

“...It was never about him.”

Lucarion’s eyes looked at Tie painfully.

“The only reason all this happened... was because you are you.”

Silence fell.

Countless emotions layered themselves within Lucarion’s eyes.

“But...”

Tie sniffled.

“The World Tree said that you helped Tie because inside Tie, in Tie’s heart, there’s a seed...”

“You foolish child.”

Lucarion stepped closer.

His straight brows lowered, and sorrow filled his red eyes.

“I know that because my memories returned! That’s exactly why I can be even more certain of it.”

The World Tree Lucarion had met not long ago surfaced in his mind.

‘Child.’

Inside the dream from which it was impossible to awaken,

Lucarion had finally found the last fragment of his memories.

‘You are part of me, and the leaf I cherish more than anything.’

The thing he had forgotten.

The final gear in the endlessly turning mechanism of time.

‘The seed has become deeply attached to you. Only you can change those feelings.’

‘...’

‘Please, move for my sake. Create the path once more, Lucarion.’

The World Tree was an absolute existence.

And there was only one thing it had commanded.

Convince Astie.

Make Tie willingly abandon her sense of self and become part of the World Tree.

‘But I couldn’t.’

He could not accept that command.

Even after recovering all his memories, he still could not obey.

“...I don’t want to lose you.”

Lucarion lowered his head.

“I have lived long enough to watch the stars travel the same path more than seven hundred times. But...”

Not a single moment in all that time had been happier than the moments he spent beside Astie.

Looking at the child’s stunned face, Lucarion continued.

“When my memories returned, the very first person I thought about was you. Even though there are countless things I should be worrying about and thinking about.”

Lucarion wiped away the tears gathered around Tie’s eyes.

“What worried me most was the thought that you might cry like this.”

Lucarion pulled Tie tightly into his arms.

“...I will not let you disappear. No matter the reason.”

“...”

“Astie. Things are different now from when you first arrived in Tallocium.”

Pulling back slightly, Lucarion looked at Tie seriously.

“Your papa’s memories have returned. Because of that, we now have strong ties to the Luminel family. Right?”

Tie fiercely wiped her eyes and nodded bravely.

“Yeah.”

“And now no one can ignore the influence of Agavert anymore. On top of that, we have nobles we’ve gradually built connections with. And most importantly.”

“...”

“Your mama is an imperial princess.”

Tie swallowed hard.

Lucarion was right.

Mama was a princess of Tallocium.

Tie knew the imperial palace was complicated, but that did not change the fact that Mama was a princess.

“Listen carefully, Astie. In this timeline, we already surpass Luciano.”

“...”

“And the only reason is because you exist here.”

Lucarion’s eyes blazed.

“He. No, even the World Tree is rushing because of that. It also understands how precious this opportunity is.”

Just as Lucarion explained, Tie had returned to this moment after crossing twelve years of time.

Compared to the original timeline, everything was inevitably progressing faster and more favorably.

“You purified Krazar, one of the six great spirits. You freed Seradin. And you awakened your family.”

“Awakened...?”

“Now they would do anything for your sake. To speak coldly, they will become a tremendous force.”

While Tie tried to understand what he meant by “force,” Lucarion took her hand.

“There is incredible potential hidden inside you, Astie.”

“...”

“Don’t think about where that power came from. Think only about how to protect yourself.”

Tie lowered her gaze.

“The Pope summoned us to the Central Continent, which means they have already begun suspecting something as well. And what Luciano wants to confirm is obvious.”

“What is it?”

“You. Whether you have a connection to the World Tree. And whether you truly possess a weapon capable of leading him to destruction.”

Lucarion’s eyes shone brilliantly.

“Before he can confirm it—we strike first.”

Tie lifted her eyes.

“When we arrive on the Central Continent, open the world of the dead like you always have. Then I will seal him.”