Read Novel Full Chapter 511: Abyssal Reckoning? [6]
Chapter 511: Abyssal Reckoning? [6]
She then paused for a second before adding:
"Lillian, on our short journey together, I have been able to gather these things about you.
"You’re both knowledgeable of everything and yet ignorant of everything, especially about your feelings and state of mind.
"You’re surrounded by others, but always appear so lonely inside, even if you managed to hide it well. It’s as if you aren’t used to being around people and are just trying to fit in as best you can.
"You’re so physically strong but so mentally weak at the same time, as if you’re just putting on a facade so that you wouldn’t make people think you are a burden.
"You’re both extremely mature but also comically childish at the same time, something that I usually find in people who didn’t have the best of childhoods and needed to grow up fast... Did I get any of that right?"
Lillian, who continued to be pulled along by Viesta, fell silent at what she heard. As much as she might want to deny it... Viesta was right.
Noticing that Lillian didn’t have anything to say in response to what she said, Viesta kept silent as well, continuing to pull her along to gods knows where.
After a kilometre and a half... They soon came to a stop.
Turning back around, Viesta faced the still silent Lillian, who was avoiding her gaze.
She sighed, scratching the back of her head before lowering her hand. She then asked after a moment of pause:
"Lillian... Tell me, what is death to you?"
"Huh...?" Lillian, raising her eyes to meet Viesta’s serious gaze. Surprised and unprepared for the question, Lillian spat the first thing that came to her mind, "Pain...? End?"
"Mhm... Pain and end, huh?" Viesta rubbed her chin with a curious look before nodding, "How about birth, then? What’s birth to you?"
"B-birth...?" Lillian, now a little bit more prepared, answered, "I guess... A beginning of a new life?"
"Uh, huh... Well, do you want to know my opinion on the two of them?"
Without waiting for Lillian to answer, Viesta released her hand from the girl’s wrist and placed it on Lillian’s shoulder.
"In my eyes... They’re fundamentally the same. Sure, conceptually, they’re two completely different things, but... At the end of the day, there is one thing that they are connected by..."
"And that thing is...?"
"People, Lillian. People. When we die, at least a single person will spare us a thought. It could be in a negative way, or a bad way... Same with birth. Some people might see our birth positively or negatively, depending on the situation, but they are still thinking about us.
"Now answer me this, Lillian, and think really hard... Who would remember you? It could either be fondly or negatively."
"..." Lillian widened her eyes, "Well... A few people, I don’t really spend much time with pe—"
"Yeah, that’s fine. But that means there are people who would still think of you, right? Now then, next question... Who do YOU think would think about you the most?"
"That... It would obviously be my family and—" Lillian’s mind then lit up as the image of a certain Assassin flashed through her mind, "And... Marionette..."
"Good... Now, if you had to choose... Which one of them would you be fine with forgetting about you entirely? Moving on."
"Moving... On?"
The most obvious and thoughtful answer would be all of them... She wouldn’t want her death to affect either of them, especially her family, who had raised her.
But... She couldn’t help but feel pain in her chest whenever she thought about Marionette. Why does she...
Feel so hurt inside?
Holding a hand over her chest, Lillian felt her heart throb harshly against her ribcage... She didn’t want Marionette to forget about her.
Was it selfish of her to think this way...? Was it wrong for her to want to keep Marionette to herself...?
She wanted to keep everyone happy, especially Marionette, so why... Why does she want the person she loved so much to grieve and only think of her...?
Viesta, noticing that Lillian’s eyes became reflective, pinched her hat and lowered it, causing it to cast a shade over her face that made it hard for the girl to see.
She then asked one last question as the final nail into the stump that was Lillian:
"Lillian... If you were given one last chance at living, what would you do with it?"
"What... I would... Do with it?"
"Mhm. Let’s say, you managed to get out of this place alive, what would you do?"
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Lillian’s heart beat rapidly as her mind began to enter several scenarios of this hypothetical situation. If she were given one more chance at living, and managed to get out of this trial... What would she do?
...
"Marionette..."
Drip... Drip...
Viesta, raising her eyes, gazed into Lillian’s, which had begun to spill with wet and regretful tears.
Lillian’s face hardened, becoming ugly, which she tried to hide by firmly placing her hands against her face.
She then thought about Viesta’s question... But with more thought compared to the last ones.
When Lillian first died that day, all those months ago, by that truck, she originally didn’t have much motivation to keep on living, especially in such a dangerous world like this...
In fact, in her old life, she was even looking forward to dying, but was too scared to go through with suicide... She wanted to be free from the pain of loneliness...
But now... Now it’s different...
"I-if I had one more chance..."
At this moment in time... Outside of the influence of adrenaline, the need to complete missions, the desire for victory...
"I would go see Marionette..."
She wanted to live! A genuine need to live...!
Drip... Drip...
With tears leaking through the gaps in her fingers, Lillian choked:
"I-I want to see her... I-I want to see her so b-bad..." Lillian quickly lowered one of her hands to her heart, struggling to breathe because of how much it was beating.
Despite how frustrating and irritating she was, Marionette still wanted to be with her... No matter how weak she was, Marionette still thought past it for her...
"I-I want to see her... I want to hold her... I want to be with her, V-Viesta... I want to be with her more than ever!" Lillian cried as she tried to wipe her tears.
Not once in their relationship had she expressed how much she loved her, how much she truly meant to her...
So...
"I want to tell her ’I love you’. I want her to hear my confessions so m-many times to the point that will be what she remembers when she thinks about me!"
With a red and tear-streaked face, Lillian cried before looking towards Viesta and asking:
"A-am I... Weird for asking that? Is it weird? I don’t know anything about these sorts of things... Please, tell me..."
Without a form of guide, Lillian was lost... A lost little girl still trapped in the past...
Without her knowledge about the game’s future events, she wouldn’t even know what to do on her own besides trying to get by on her own...
She needed to be told that she was doing something right, she needed to be told that she was working towards the right direction... She needed—
"There’s nothing wrong about that."
Confirmation...
"I would want to do that as well, if I had someone I was interested in. Viesta placed a hand on the side of her left hip and smiled brightly. She then asked:
"Ya sure do love her a lot, huh?"
Lillian gulped and nodded, her throat parched. But she still managed to get out a response:
"I love her... I love her so much, more than anything in the world, even money! In fact, if I had to give up all of my prized possessions to be with her, I would do it in the blink of an eye!
"I have hundreds... Thousands... Hundreds of thousands of semis, maybe even millions...! Enough for someone to live a peaceful life without having to work a day in their life... And yet I would give them all up for her... Even if I were to lie bedridden because of some sickness and in poverty for the rest of my life, I would still do anything to be with her...
"And I want her to know that... All of—" Lillian choked again as tears poured more, her face turning ugly again.
"A-all of that... I just want her to know how much I love her before I go..."
Viesta, watching as Lillian continued to break down into tears, nodded with a smile as she gestured to someone behind Lillian.
Lillian, unaware of who was behind her, became startled as the faces of Jon and Emilio appeared behind her, holding onto her shoulders.
Had they been there the entire time...?
Right as Lillian was about to quickly wipe her tears away to hide her pathetic state, she listened as Viesta called out her name.
"Well, you’re in luck, Lillian, because you aren’t dead. Well, half-dead, but enough to arrive in Purgatory temporarily."
Viesta turned towards the white void and held a hand out, clutching onto something that resembled a doorknob, which should’ve been impossible, and pulled open what looked to be the exit out of Purgatory.
Lillian, stunned by what she heard, felt like she had been tricked into spilling out all of her feelings!
Slightly embarrassed, Lillian felt both Jon and Emilio begin pushing her towards the open doorway.
"You got someone out there for you, Miss Lillian!" Emilio commented, "We can’t let you stay here when you have a special someone, right?"
Jon glanced towards his young master, "What about me, then, sir?"
"*cough*... W-well..."
Viesta, annoyed that the two were talking about something completely unrelated to this moment, scolded them before looking towards Lillian, who was looking out the doorway with a bit of hesitation...
But then, she turned around once she felt Viesta’s hand fall on her shoulder again.
"Oh, right! I have one more thing to tell you."
Lillian tilted her head, which signalled for Viesta to continue.
"All three of us, although dead because of you, aren’t disappointed in you one bit, OKAY?!"
Lillian, stunned and surprised by the sudden comment, unconsciously looked towards Emilio and Jon—who stood behind Viesta—and watched as they began to nod firmly.
They weren’t disappointed in her...? Even when she was the cause...?
Lillian’s lips trembled again as she felt emotional again, but unlike when she broke down just a few seconds ago, she held back her tears and smiled brightly.
The light she lost momentarily quickly returned, which brought the three in front of her relief.
"Well, then... I’ll get going now, you guys... See you guys, later..." After wiping her eyes one last time, Lillian waved them off before turning back towards the door.
But then.
"Oh, wait! I got one more thing to say!" Viesta called out.
Lillian, confused, turned back around again, but was then met with—
BAM!
—A punch to the side of her face that knocked her through the doorway.
Time slowed as she listened to Viesta’s reason for this, who seemed to be smiling quite playfully at what she did.
"I guess I did want something for you getting me killed."
After that, time resumed, and she began to fall into a dark void. But like the lighthouse to a rough storm, Viesta’s voice broke through the world of darkness and reached her:
"We’ll be watching both you and the Captain from up here, Lillian! Do your best out there and... Remember to KICK ASS OUT THERE!"