Chapter 42 - Message and Tears (1/2)

”Aren't you going to give me a name?” Aletia questioned Rio. Despite her deadpan, Rio could feel her sadness and disappointment from her quivering red eyes. It said that eyes were the window towards the soul, and Rio agreed with that sayings. However, Rio couldn't speak out his answer.

He decided to take out the recording artifact he found in the chamber before. His action confused Aletia and Liselotte, who was on the verge of giving Rio a piece of her mind from disappointing his girl.

”What are you doing?” Liselotte questioned Rio and stared at him quizzically. However, Rio ignored her and focused on Aletia.

”Do you remember about my previous words in regards to this artifact?”

Rio put aside her troubled mind and recalled Rio's previous world when he showed off the diamond-like artifact before. She nodded and replied, ”You said about clearing my misunderstanding. But, I don't understand.”

”Then, I allow me and this artifact to make you understand.” Right after Rio said that, he poured a bit of his mana into the artifact, triggering it off.

The artifact shined, and suddenly an image was projected. Seeing the person that appeared there, Aletia opened her eyes wide in shock and murmured in a daze.

”…Uncle?”

Rio wordlessly embraced Aletia with one arm while pulled Liselotte into his embrace with his other arm. He knew what would happen next. Aletia would need their support. Hence, he did that.

Despite her confusion, Liselotte kept her silence and watched the recording.

It was unclear whether it was unconsciously or consciously, but Aletia was also gripping tightly the hands of Rio around her waist.

In front of those three, the person in the image recording―Aletia's uncle, Denreed Gardia Wespertrio Avatar slowly began to talk.

[…Aletia. Long time no see, I wonder if saying that is a little wrong. I think that you are surely hating me. No, surely word like hate will not be enough at all. What I did...Hah, that's not it. This is not what I want to say. Even though I have been thinking of various things, now that the time has come to leave my last will I cannot speak smoothly.]

While making a self-deprecating wry smile, Denreed pulled himself together by clearing his throat.

[That's right. First let me say my thanks. …Aletia. Surely, right now on your side there should be someone who you are trusting from the bottom of your heart. At the very least, that person must be a strong person who could obtain metamorphosis magic and able to challenge the true Great Orcus Labyrinth, a person who didn't abandon you from the guardian that I prepared and rescued you.]

Rio's eyes were closed. As though to listen to those words, or possibly to lament the departed.

Aletia didn't even twitch. What Rio could see were only her glittering golden threads that were sparkling from reflecting light.

[Aletia. Surely many questions are flooding inside your c.h.e.s.t. Or else, perhaps you have already know the truth. Just why, that day, I hurt you, and buried you inside that bottom of darkness? What kind of existence are you, and who is your true enemy?]

The story that was talked from there was the facts that only Rio who already knew and speculation that didn't miss from the truth.

Namely, that Aletia was born as a special being, and she was aimed by Ehit. Denreed who noticed that pretended to kill Aletia in his coup d'etat with the disguise that he was blinded by greed, he then sealed her in the Depth of Great Orcus Labyrinth, the room where she was sealed itself was a hidden place that could fool even the god. The sealing of Aletia was also a bitter choice for him so that her presence couldn't be possibly detected even for a bit.

[I was hesitating whether to tell you the truth or not until just before that day. But, for the sake of deceiving those guys with certainty, I judged that I shouldn't tell you. I also thought that if you hate me, then that would be a motivation for you to live.]

Surely Denreed also couldn't stay for long in the sealing room. That was why, after pretending to kill Aletia at the palace, there was no doubt that there was also no time for him to talk with her. Just how filled with bitterness that choice that he made? It was shown by the strength of his hand clutching at the other side of the image.

[Even so, it doesn't change that I had hurt you. I won't say anything like your forgiveness after this late. However, I want you to please believe only this. I want you to know this.]

Denreed's expression changed from anguish, into an expression of smiling while crying. That look was overflowing with gentleness and kindness, at the same time, it was also filled with a hopeless sadness.

[I love you, Aletia. I love you from the bottom of my heart. I have never thought of you as bothersome, not even for once. ―I thought of you as my daughter.]