Chapter 476: [ Lime's Request ]

Maria Makiling let out a sigh as she turned and looks at the big flower. She said in a soft and surprised voice. “Well, doesn’t really matter. As long as you are fine and safe, then all things can be ignored but… aren’t you always too reckless…?”

“If you aren’t confident of victory, then please don’t push yourself too much and run away. It’s not your life anymore—the people around you, will not hesitate to throw their lives for you as well. Being reckless like this, it will only cost unnecessary lives…” Mari Makiling sighed. She pushed the Crimson Orb towards the flower in which, the Tulip once again blossomed and devour the orb as well.

“Though I wish for you learn this lesson this time but judging by your personality, I might as well feed those words to a dog…Oh well, let’s go—This world wouldn’t last long without the Monster King’s support…” Maria Makiling said this in her mouth, but her legs didn’t move a single inch.

“... Fine, whatever—let’s just treat this as if I indeed have a huge debt in our past lives as well,” Maria Makiling sighed helplessly. She waved her hand and a small light ball appeared floating on her palm. “This should be enough nature energy to heal your wounds in just a short time…” After saying that, Maria Makiling pushes the light ball towards the large Tulip flower.

As she was leading the light ball towards Allen’s body within the Tulip flower, a light suddenly came out from within and appeared in front of Maria Makiling, almost startling the latter.

“You—!!?”

“Hello, Sister Maria, it should be correct to say it’s nice to meet you,” A girl appeared in front of her. Though calling her a girl isn’t really the correct term since her entire body was made up of a translucent jelly mucus.

A Slime…

“You are, ah, if I’m not mistaken, Sister Mireya told me a bit about you, Lime, is it not?”

The girl, Lime, showed a smile. Her eyes glistened as if she were looking at a blood relative, and she emitted an excited cry, “He he, that’s right, my name is Lime… Master’s number one loyal beast—well, actually, it should be guardian now.”

“Ho~” Maria frowned when she suddenly realized something wrong—“Your body, it’s not material—is it not?”

“As expected of Sister Maria, a former goddess… your eyes are clear and bright.” Lime gently bit her lip and smiled. Her eyes flickered with a bizarre light as she looked at Maria Makiling.

“Indeed, I am not a proper existence—or should I say, I’m just a ghost, a parasite at this moment.” Lime sighed with a bitter smile.

Paying the price, her soul didn’t fade away into complete death; Lime had merged her own life soul into Allen, creating a sort of symbiotic state of existence between them.

“What are you trying to say? How is it possible for you to become like this?”

Lime raised her head and starde at the Tulip, her gaze penetrating yet somehow gentle. She carressed the Tulip bud, looking at the figure within.

“In the previous life, when the master died… I heard a voice of death. I called out, wanting to follow my master in death… I don’t want to live in a world without my master… The death had probably pity me and answers my pleas. However, the death told me, master will return back to where he should belong and if I want to follow, there would be consequences I would pay…”

“Consequences…?” Maria asked in bewilderment.

“Yeah, consequences…” Lime nodded. “Rebirth is not just a simple magic without any repercussions. It has sacrifices as well…”

“… …”

“Those who had come from the previous world, they call themselves returnees if I’m not mistaken… they didn’t know this but, due to it, they paid a price without realizing it…”

For example, Mia Bianchi. She had lost a part of her emotions—emotions towards love—a cursed to be alone forever.

Probably she had not noticed it but it wasn’t a trauma but a curse—a curse of fate. Fortunately, she had met Allen who was innately immune to a curse, changing her fate--or probably it was her destiny sicne teh beginning the moment she had desired him.

Mireya Icefang—familial bond. She had lost her affection to her clan in which, it shouldn’t have been possible as wolves has the strongest familial bond. In the previous world, what she desires the most apart from Allen was the prosperity of her clan but now she had become a lone wolf…

Tang Yu—she should have died after meeting the Arachne; Raya Idoria but Allen appeared and disturb their fate.

Celty whose obsession was akin to a curse--losing Allen would be her losing her sanity.

… And many more in which they still haven’t realized yet.

“… Most of them should have died without even meeting Master again but Master had changed their fate without realizing it.” Lime sighed. “Rebirth doesn’t come easily—because of Rebirth, a fate that was once weaved would be entangled again, some snapped while some will change into a new course…”

“That is why Rebirth is a forbidden thing in any kind of world… but some Gods just went and disturb this kind of system, turning everything into a mess…”

“Then, you’re saying that the price you pay…”

“Yeah, it’s my physical body…” Lime shrug. “The Gods who had disturbed fate knows of this aftereffect before they did something like this. Thus, they had already prepared things beforehand. There might be consequences but it was randomized and was pushed to least possible sacrifices they could have—those things that are difficult to have an effect in life and hardly noticeable… but mine was different. I don’t want to just return… I want to become one with my master that is my dearest wish. To be able to help him when needed, protect him just as he had protected me all those years… I want to repay the favor…”

“And so, I paid a huge price and that is my physical existence…!” She cocked her adorable cute head as she looked at Maria Makiling. Then, she suddenly flashed a bitter smile. “I was actually wrong—”

“What?” Maria Makiling looked at Lime, startled. What did she mean?

“At that time, I was just a monster with little intelligence and so I made a mistake. I wished for something I couldn’t revert back… see? Without my physical body, how could I protect my master and save him whenever he needed it?” Lime looked at her translucent body. Right now, she was using her magic power to materialize but it wouldn’t last long. Tears suddenly began to roll down her cheeks—though calling it tears would be somewhat strange as it was just a liquid that would be absorbed in her body the moment it fell down.

This was not the first time she regretted the past.

However, now that things had gone like this, there was nothing Lime could do but sigh and bury her bitterness deep within her heart.

“I only exist in master’s soul realm—of course, with this I have much power to protect him from inside. And had even learned some new things, a revelation for all of this happening…”

“What do you mean? Talk clearly…” Maria Makiling frowned and confusion appeared on her face.

But Lime shook her head. “I can’t say too much. Master Solomon had warned me not to because he said that—the more master or the people around him learned of it, the more the impending fate would occur. Right now, I couldn’t make another fatal mistake that I had made… all I can do now is do everything I can and could…”

“Solomon…?”

“Un, before he had disappeared, Master Solomon had taught me everything and even, in the end, passes me all of his memories, even those that he couldn’t give back to master… Thus, my intelligence had somewhat grown…”

“Then why are you telling me all of this…?”

“Because I choose to have fate in you—!” Lime said with a determined expression.

“… …”

“I can’t protect my master outside, but you can…”

“Why me? There are many people wanted to do the same thing for that man. They were even willing to throw their lives away without hesitation just for him! Of course, I would do the same but not because of affection but because I had a debt I wanted to repay—not love, not whatsoever.” Maria Makiling frowned and said with a cold voice.

“I know…” Lime was unfazed and walked towards the flower holding Allen. Gently stroking the surface, Lime’s lips curled into a beautiful smile. “However, that is also the reason why I can leave master to you…”

“What?”

Lime turned around and faced her again. “They love master just like me… I am not saying that it was bad but that is also not good all the time. I can’t say much to the others but I can also understand because I’m certain that what I would do, they would also do with just a second of hesitation.”

“For Master, even if it meant destroying the whole world, killing millions of people, destroying every life in the Thousand Worlds—we wouldn’t hesitate to accompany him—till the depths of Hell! We wouldn’t care what other people think; morals? Principle? Good? Bad? Evil? We won’t care because our lives depend on him. Our happiness depends on him.”

“… …??!”

“If he was hurt, we would rage because it was similar to hurting us. If he was sad, then we also fell down and cried, sobbed and wail. If he was happy then our lives will also be feeling complete and content… “

“You’re depending on him too much! That I can’t agree. You also have your own life—why rely on him?”

“… …”

“Besides, how can you be sure that the others would also feel the same?!” Maria Makiling admonished with a cold icy voice. She really can’t accept how foolish it was.

“Because we love him…!!” A relaxed smile appeared on Lime’s face.

There was love in her eyes, and it was clearly very strong.

Maria Makiling’s eyes widened in shock. Lime’s expression doesn’t answer the question but as if stating a fact—a logic!

But how?

But why?

Maria Makiling had never trusted love. She had given her heart once but in the end, everything of it was just her fake reality, a delusion that love can be so sweet when it was in fact, a massive cauldron of pain. The heart you gave could be torn apart when you wanted it back.

When you hold it again, it wasn’t whole anymore but just a piece of it!

What’s there to love when you received in return was nothing but pain…?

Lime didn’t care about Maria Makiling’s expression as she looked at her directly without flinching a bit. “That huge part inside of us, souls or whatnot, all of them had his existence within it. We lost concern about the world a long time ago, with all of its complexity, pain, problems, troubles, we already throw them all away."

"What we wanted was just one single thing. We just want to be remembered in a way where we can mean everything to a single person we cherished the most.”

“Because of him, he reminded us what it’s like to live in a moment, be happy and be loved. He understands us and protected us not physically but mentally and spiritually as well. From feeling alone, depressed, we became content and filled with love and happiness. And so, in return, what we wanted was also to save him from all the insecurities this world has created for him.”

“In the deepest part of us, we might have already understood loving him was the most painful thing in this world—even still, we grabbed the bullet he offered, loaded the gun in our hands and prepared ourselves to die…for him, and for him alone…”

Liking someone might just be a deception of this world. Reason knows that there is never a reason to like someone because they are just repulsive creatures in actuality.

Someone said before that, if a woman loves someone, their IQ would surely turn zero. And that if your love wasn’t similar, then, it meant that she didn’t really love you at all… it was just a misconception of adoration and worship—sadly, these two things were the farthest thing to love…

But Lime and the others, if what the former said was the truth, then, Maria Makiling was certain that their IQ’s didn’t just become zero, it had already turned into a negative number!

Fools of love.

These women had become demented…!

A disappointment and aversion flashed across Maria Makiling’s eyes, however, for some reason, Maria Makiling also felt a bit envious. Such pure-hearted love—she was once like that but in the end, she fell into the abyss of hate and pain. And then found herself having difficulties in standing back up, no matter how she wanted.

“Just what is it that you wanted me to do…?” Thus, she could only sigh.

Lime smiled. However, her feet were already started to become a blub of water but she didn’t care and start directly at Maria Makiling.

“Please, I’m begging you—no matter what happens; protect master—to any kind of enemies, including us and himself…”

“Why are you always speaking in riddles…?!” Maria Makiling exclaimed in anger.

“Sister Maria, you who were not affected by any kind of outer influences and can think through with clear mind and reason, would know when you will appear or not… just like what you always did up until now."

"You know what you need to do when everything turns awry—you can admonish and scold master, because you might think it was wrong, unlike us who were clouded by love and affection, that always thought what he did and do in the future will always be right--that he would never make a mistake…!”

“If you can think like this, then you can do the same… do you not?!”

“Hmm,” Lime shook her head with a bitter smile. “For me, although I can think logically, my actions will always be the opposite. Because, in my heart, nothing is much more important than the master—everything else is just unnecessary additions… Whatever my reason dictates, my action prevails.”

“… …”

“Please keep looking after my master…”

Maria Makiling’s face was a bit unsightly as she stared angrily at Lime.

The way she looked right now caused her fury to flare up. “I’m not a babysitter…” she said, glaring at her.

“I beg of you…” Lime bowed her head to her causing Maria Makiling’s face to become extremely distorted.

*** ***

“Brother Wolf, Lord Wolf, please don’t come over here. My meat doesn’t taste good, haven’t you heard that human meat is sour…” Mulan continuously backed away on a quivering sword with a slightly pale face. One hand held onto the sword on the side while the other grasped her storage bag.

Obviously, her hands are not shaking because of the cold.

However, it was certainly not because she was terrified and didn’t learn fighting—it was a natural psychological phenomenon.

In fact, she was hailed as a prodigy of her clan-but sadly, this was the very first time she had been in this kind of situation. Besides, her age was just a bit 16 years old.

In her entire life, this would be the very first time she would fight a powerful monster, much less a ferocious one at that.

Her nervous little eyes looked into the giant wolf’s big eyes. That wolf wasn’t small. Probably over two to three meters tall, with a mohawk-like mane composed of blazing flames that extended from its head through its tail.

Several crimson colored spikes can now be seen protruding on its head, while the rest of them were on its neck running till its tail.

It has crimson colored fur on its face and legs which was the same color with the flames emitting from its body. At the upper part of its mouth was a pair of dagger-like sharp fangs like a primeval saber tooth-tiger.

With ruby colored pupils, it radiated despair against someone like her.

It was probably amused watching her silly self, trembling in fear causing her mind to be blank. She didn’t know what to do…!!

She didn’t know what kind of monster it was but she was certain that it would be above Foundation Building Rank. In fact, even if it was below Foundation Building Rank, for someone like her who hadn’t even reach King stage and was still a peak Grandmaster rank, this monster spelled despair for her!

Tears started falling on her eyes as her body trembled when it saw the wolf walked like some friggin cat in a ramp.

Its ruby colored eyes emitted a deep ice cold radiance, its saliva dripped from the corner of its mouth.

Mulan nearly cried but had no tears as her chest unceasingly grieved about how bad her luck was.

Just what did she do to merit this kind of things…?!

Just what did she do to that b*tch for her to plan her like this…?

*** ***