Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 275

Chapter 275

Acel shouted, his face so moved he looked like he was about to cry. The people behind him couldn’t hide their happy expressions either. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, but I wasn’t feeling cheerful at all. Suddenly, strangers approached, talking about the legend of the Companion Star, which most people didn’t even know about. They even knew that Alisa was the owner of that star. No matter how I thought about it, I could only come to one conclusion.

“Mentioning the Companion Star… are you from the Emperor Star’s side?”

I regretted asking the question as soon as I did. Acel’s eyes sparkled even more. I felt like I already knew the answer without having to hear it.

“Seeing that you can see right through us, you truly are blessed by the earth. It seems we don’t need to explain anything further. Yes, you guessed correctly. The one we serve was born under the Emperor Star. He is the one who will become Alisa’s companion in the future.”

Who decided Alisa’s companion?

My face contorted in annoyance. I had a bad feeling, and it turned out to be true. Heaven was so cruel to bring me into contact with another Emperor Star in a place like this. Moreover, unlike Isana, they seemed to know all about their destiny and the Companion Star. Judging by how they deduced that Alisa was the Companion Star, they were no ordinary people. Their visit here couldn’t have been just a coincidence. After thinking that far, I felt a sense of unease and looked at their group.

“Wait a minute. Just now, you said the one you serve…?”

“Ah, yes. He is currently in another place. Actually, we came to buy food. If we had known we would meet Alisa-nim [term of respect] here, we would have brought him along.”

Acel quickly replied, as if he had noticed my question. He seemed very regretful, but I was very happy to hear that. At least Alisa and that Emperor Star wouldn’t meet here. It was quite mean, but if I used this opportunity well, I might be able to make them completely miss each other.

‘How should I ditch them?’

My head was spinning as I tried to come up with a scheme, something I wasn’t good at. Acel, who knew nothing, was trying to guide me to the Emperor Star. I was tempted to pretend to be Alisa and go on a rampage, when…

“Acel!”

At that moment, someone appeared from the street and shouted. It seemed to be another member of Acel’s group. The man who appeared, calling his name exactly, had his eyes wide open as if a starving person had found food. Acel, surprised and turning around, looked flustered at the sight.

“Serium-nim [term of respect]? Why are you here, Serium-nim? What about… Lazen-nim [term of respect]?”

“That’s what I’m saying! Have you seen Lazen-nim?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lazen-nim has disappeared! He vanished while going to the restroom! I think he went to find you, but you didn’t run into him?”

“Are you even saying anything? If we had met him, he would be with us!”

“Kuh, that’s true.”

“I told you to stay close to him! Did he only take those guys with him?”

“I think so. Ugh, damn it! What is Lazen-nim thinking? I told him not to act alone!”

The man screamed and grabbed his head with both hands, starting to rant. He seemed very scattered, but thanks to him, I understood the situation. The man they served, the Emperor Star, had suddenly disappeared.

The flustered Acel and his group were whispering among themselves, not paying any attention to me. Shouldn’t I just disappear now? And then find Alisa, snatch her away, and quickly return to the unit! I was about to slip away, thinking it was a pretty good plan.

“Huh? But who is this?”

How could the timing be so perfect? Suddenly, the man called Serium found me and widened his eyes. The plan to disappear unnoticed was ruined from the start. To make matters worse, even Acel, who was in shock, reacted to the words and came to his senses.

“Ah, that’s right! Serium-nim! Amazing news! We found Alisa-nim!”

“What?! Then, could this person be…?”

“Yes, that’s right! This person is…!”

“El!”

“El is… huh?”

But the situation suddenly took an unexpected turn. In the same spot where the man named Serium had appeared, someone I knew appeared this time. He was wearing a hood, but it wasn’t hard to recognize him just by his voice. It was Sibelius. He, too, recognized me, who was wearing a hood, as if it were natural.

“El, you were here!”

Hehe, this clueless friend. It’s true that I’m El, but there’s no need to call me El so openly. He’s definitely a welcome person, but given the situation, his appearance wasn’t entirely welcome. I could feel Acel and his group staring at me with strange faces.

“El…?”

“Not Alisa?”

Acel, who had been momentarily stunned, slowly hardened his face. He seemed to be quite quick-witted, as he quickly grasped the situation. Seeing the emptiness and betrayal that began to fill his eyes, I smiled awkwardly. But that moment was only fleeting, and I soon erased their reactions from my mind. Sibelius’s next words captured all my senses.

“I’ve been looking for you! It’s a disaster, El!”

“…What?”

A disaster? Only then did I realize that Sibelius’s condition was a little different from usual. He was breathing heavily, and his anxiousness was obvious. It was unlike him to be in a panic.

Come to think of it, why is this guy alone?

My heart turned cold at the belated thought. At the same time, a thunderbolt struck.

“Alisa has disappeared!”

“……!”

* * *

I have a strange feeling.

Alisa thought she was being possessed by something. She was walking aimlessly, unable to properly recognize what her purpose was or which direction she was heading. Sibelius, who had been with her, had disappeared at some point. It was more accurate to say that she had separated from him than that he had disappeared. However, it wasn’t her will, nor was it due to coercion by someone. She just suddenly felt like going somewhere, and she acted on it before she even realized it.

It was such a familiar phenomenon that she knew what it meant. Since she was a child, there were times when she had a bad feeling or felt a strong urge to do something. When it got a little worse, her subconscious would control her actions, and it was similar to that state now.

‘Ah, my precognitive ability has manifested again,’ Alisa thought calmly. She had too much experience to be embarrassed by such things. Compared to the time when she had to handle it alone without knowing anything, she was now in an environment that was overflowing with blessings. She knew well enough why she had this ability, and she was no longer alone. There was no reason to be anxious or afraid.

“Ah, that? It’s not strange. It’s proof that you’re a great earth elementalist.”

The image of the beautiful boy who told her with a smile came to mind. Hair like the blue sea and eyes like sparkling blue jewels. The breathtakingly beautiful and kind Spirit King effortlessly solved the worries that Alisa had been holding onto for years. He didn’t see the ability as strange, but rather as precious. He told her that it was a very special thing that not everyone could have, and that it was amazing. He seemed to think it was admirable. It was all reactions that she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

Alisa had been constantly wandering before and after realizing her ability. She knew that she was different from others, but she didn’t know what it was, so she was always in pain.

Her biological mother had passed away too early, and her relationship with the Count’s couple and her stepsisters was strained. She grew up almost neglected in a narrow, chilly room. She was naturally strong and lived without being intimidated, but there was nowhere to confide in her heart. Naturally, she couldn’t even imagine sharing her worries with someone. She kept her mouth shut and suffered alone.

Nevertheless, people recognized that she was strange. Everyone was uniformly reluctant. The softest reaction was only to be amazed. That was the case even when the ability was of great help to them. Even when they thanked her and gave her blessings in front of her, Alisa knew that they were gossiping among themselves behind her back.

「Only that field has a good harvest in this terrible drought. Isn’t it really strange?」

「Did you see the withered crops come back to life without casting a spell? I’ve never heard of such an ability in the world. Honestly, it’s even unpleasant.」

「Whatever that is, it’s definitely not human power.」

「Maybe she’s borrowing the power of the devil.」

Wherever she went, gazes of concern and distrust followed her like a tag. Since that was already the situation, when difficult things overlapped in the village, it could have been easily blamed on her.

「It was the power of the devil after all!」

「Look at that monster! She must be cursed!」

「It’s terrible how she talks like she knows the future! She must have known that our village would turn out like this!」

Even if it was a bustling village, it was a rural area, and most of the members were people who were born and raised in the area and had never left the surroundings. They only knew that there were such things as supernatural powers, but they didn’t have proper knowledge. To them, ‘unusual beings’ were only objects of fear. Even the people who supported Alisa to the end couldn’t hide their discomfort with the mysterious power she showed. Since Alisa herself didn’t know the source of the power, she understood that the surroundings were showing repulsion. But understanding didn’t mean that she wasn’t hurt.

‘Why do I have this ability and be alienated and hated by people?’ She thought about it dozens and hundreds of times a day. Even the beautiful fairy tale that a blue moon rose on the day she was born was regarded as evidence that she was cursed.

At that time, it seemed that the monsters attacking the village, as people said, were all her fault. She wanted to run away, but every time, an unknown premonition grabbed her ankle and she couldn’t. So she didn’t refuse the request to participate in the subjugation and accepted it silently. If she could end her life by dying rather than living being hated for the rest of her life, it would be better.

But she was saved right there.

“We’ll take you. To a place where there are people who recognize your value.”

That there were people who had the same ability as her. That there could be people and a world that would accept her ability without any problems. She learned all of that at that time. She realized for the first time that she was not alone. Just thinking about that day still made her heart tickle and she smiled without realizing it.

The people who are with her now understand her. They wouldn’t think it was strange at all even if she wandered around aimlessly like a crazy person like this. It was okay to say honestly that she felt like she had to. They would worry, but no one would be afraid or send contemptuous glances. In fact, compared to them, the ability she possessed was rather ordinary. When she was inside, Alisa was just a little girl who needed to be protected. That fact felt really good.

‘Come to think of it, this feeling is similar to that time. When I first met Isana-ssi [term of respect].’

Was she walking endlessly like this back then too? While still moving her steps in a daze, Alisa calmly retraced her memories of that time.

That day, her heart had been fluttering all day long since morning. There had been such things occasionally before. When a big incident happened in the village or when a distinguished guest visited, she always intuitively noticed it one step ahead of others. The higher the status of the visitor, the greater the power, the stronger the feeling she received. But that day was the first time she had fallen into a feeling of being drawn as if possessed. When she came to her senses, she was already wandering around the market street, leaving the mansion.

The moment she found Isana, she felt like she had met someone she was supposed to meet. She knew at a glance that he was special. He was a person who couldn’t even be compared to the ones she had seen so far. A strange expectation that something would change because of him grew rapidly. She couldn’t understand at all why she had such thoughts at the time. It was just a strange feeling that was scary and exciting. In comparison, Isana didn’t seem to feel anything even when he looked at her. She was a little upset about that, and somehow felt wronged.

It was natural not to know someone she was meeting for the first time. The people who had visited before had only recognized her unilaterally, and they had never recognized her first. Rather, Alisa didn’t feel upset about it because she was the one who was unusual. But only that time was different. She was unreasonably sulky that Isana didn’t recognize her. An unusually depressed feeling filled her up. ‘How could he not know me?’ Even after returning to the mansion, she had been seething for a long time. After that, she laughed self-deprecatingly. Because the situation she was in was so hopeless. She must have had vague hopes that someone would appear and save her. She thought she was stupid for not giving up her vain expectations yet.

So she was even more surprised when she reunited with Isana in the subjugation battle the next day. She had never imagined that she would meet him again. It was something she hadn’t even guessed with a vague premonition. Her heart was pounding like crazy from the moment their eyes met. She wondered if she had seen it wrong, but it was clearly reality.

“It’s nice to see you again. I’m glad to meet you.”

Moreover, he had really come to save her. The moment she heard his neat voice, she came to her senses. All the scenes that seemed unreal and dreamlike were all real.

Everything changed, and many things changed. That day, she was reborn. Just like the premonition she had received for the first time. He was Alisa’s savior.