[Vol. 7] Chapter 271: The Silver Moon Rises to the Sky
"Do you remember what I told you before? There’s a very strong and mysterious power inside you. It’s part of you, hidden on the other side of your true self, like your reflection in a mirror. The lucky moments and so-called ‘coincidences’ you’ve had were just tiny traces of its influence..."
"Back at the hotel, you managed to call on a bit of that power, which miraculously helped you gain the support of those swordsmen. But that was still far from its true strength. Now, even though your body has died, you are actually closer to its true form than ever before."
"If you can find it, awaken its real power, and you can overturn your death. And maybe even save the friends you couldn't protect because of your mistakes."
"There’s only one chance. If you can’t awaken it here, then Carinvega Frederick’s death will become a permanent fact. That little girl, Orluk, and many others dragged into this will be trapped in lifelong suffering because of it. This time, it’s no joke."
"Lifelong suffering... that sounds really scary… I understand! I’ll do everything I can to stop the worst from happening! But Miss Violet, even if you say that... how am I supposed to do it? I have no idea where to even start..."
The princess still wanted to ask for more hints, but the priestess’s voice, which had been using some unknown way to talk with her, started to fade away. Only a soft, meaningful laugh was left behind.
"Don’t ask me. Ask your own heart. Remember, even gods have souls, they are called a Divinity. It holds the god’s powers and consciousness, and is the most important part of a god’s true nature..."
"Turn fate in your favor. Rewrite the ending that is about to fall apart, Carinvega Frederick. This miracle... is something only you can create~"
"Miss Violet? Miss Violet?! Hey! Now’s not the time to be speaking in riddles!!"
No matter how much she called out, there was no more response. The endless white space around her fell silent again. The girl tried calling out a few more times, but she finally had to accept that Violet was really gone.
"Damn it… She said a bunch of confusing stuff all of a sudden… Saying that I can come back to life by my own power… No matter how you put it, that sounds way too ridiculous! Even if I want to try, what exactly is this so-called ‘power’ or ‘true self’? I still don’t have the slightest clue..."
After a short moment of feeling lost and frustrated, Carinvega slapped her cheeks hard, then pulled herself together once again.
Although Violet’s sudden disappearance and reappearance made the princess feel a little uneasy, like Violet might be hiding something, she was still the one person in this world who truly understood her, someone with whom she shared a special bond and could speak freely.
So instead of doubting, Carinvega chose to believe in what the priestess had said and whatever hidden reasons she might have had.
Since Miss Violet had made the effort to show up and tell her these things, there must still be some hope left.
Besides, she was already dead, how much worse could things get? She might as well give it everything she had!
With her heart now clear and her thoughts more focused, many things that Violet had mentioned before started surfacing in her mind. Soon, Carinvega found herself making some connections.
"Two souls... different-colored eyes… If that's the source of my so-called ability, then here, in this space so close to my true self, maybe this me..."
She instinctively looked around.
"Hmm, it would be nice if there were a mirror here. At least I could check... Waaah!"
Although she was just talking to herself, right after she spoke, a bright light suddenly gathered out of nowhere in the white emptiness, forming a small hand mirror!
Startled, Carinvega hurriedly caught it and inspected it with a strange look on her face.
"Things really appear just because I think about them? Violet said only I can reach this space… Could it be that in here, I can make anything happen?"
"Um... but why did the mirror turn out looking like a little fox?"
The mirror she now held was shaped completely like a fox. The long, curled tail formed the handle, and the material felt a little strange too, making the whole thing look a bit weird.
Getting more curious, Carinvega decided to test it a bit more:
"Give me a [Graeme]!"
"Uh... nothing happened. Okay, how about a sword!"
"Come on, even a little flower would be fine..."
Unfortunately, it seemed she couldn’t create anything she wanted after all.
"Ugh..."
After trying and failing a few times, the girl, now half-collapsed, finally gave up on the idea. She turned her attention back to the mysterious "Little Fox Mirror" that had somehow appeared.
Even though the mirror looked odd, at least it worked properly. When she looked into the clear, polished surface, it reflected a beautiful face almost exactly as she remembered, although the mouth was pouting miserably.
But after she looked more closely and noticed some small details, Carinvega’s playful expression slowly turned serious.
Right now, both of her eyes were the same shade of golden brown, the eye color passed down through the Frederick family. The same as her brother, her father, and every other royal family member.
But the natural heterochromia, the two different-colored eyes that belonged to Carinvega Frederick, was gone.
The silver color she had grown used to, the one that had been with her all her life, had completely disappeared in this space!
"I knew it...!"
Back in the hotel room, Miss Violet had once made a detailed guess about Carinvega’s different-colored eyes. She had said that inside Carinvega’s body, there were actually two souls, like two sides of a coin, or a reflection under the surface of the sea, existing side by side.
That was why her eyes were two different colors, the famous [Empire’s Two-Colored Lotus].
Normally, two souls in the same body would end up merging together eventually. Even another traveler from another world hadn't shown the same extreme condition as Carinvega.
So Violet believed that the other soul inside her wasn't really a normal soul at all. At least, not one of the same kind.
Or maybe it was a soul, but something much higher, much more unique. Something that could never truly merge with a normal human soul, only exist side-by-side like this.
That silver color in her eye was not from the Frederick family bloodline, it came from something else.
It looked like a soul, acted like a soul, carried thoughts and consciousness like a soul. But it was something different, something more.
It was just like what Violet had mentioned before she left, even though it had sounded like a riddle back then.
At the moment she truly understood what Violet had meant, a completely unfamiliar name. Yet one that somehow felt like it had always been a part of her, rose from deep within Carinvega’s heart like a spring bursting out of the ground. And in that instant, she understood everything.
"You can't see the true shape of the mountain because you are standing inside it."
It had always been there, by her side, guarding her destiny like a twin lotus.
She had simply never been able to see it, just like a person can’t see their own back without help. This hidden side of her, this place where her soul now rested. Everything here was a part of it.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
The white, empty world suddenly shattered, and under a silver moon’s shining light,
[Fate]… awakened.