Epilogue

“Grace.”

“Huh.”

After leaving the office, Grace headed to the courtyard. Then Kibishi, who discovered her, stopped talking with Harkan and immediately ran over.

“That guy is just like a d*mn puppy!”

Harkan spoke loudly as if for him to hear, but Kibishi ignored him and asked Grace.

“Are you…alright?”

“I’m fine. What about you?”

“I’m fine too.”

But a strangely awkward atmosphere flowed between the two. Harkan watched them from afar then approached and smacked Kibishi’s back with his palm, saying.

“Don’t postpone what you need to say right now. Don’t regret it later.”

Then he suddenly pointed to the top of the castle wall. Casper was there.

“That guy up there also didn’t speak and just accumulated regrets. He was afraid that if he brought up the wrong topic to Melvin and me, things would get complicated. Well then, this old man will clear out so you little ones can work things out.”

Harkan spoke and headed to the warehouse. Then Kibishi said.

“Grace, I have something to tell you……”

“Wait. Can I listen after going to the castle wall for a moment?”

“……Okay.”

Kibishi nodded with drooping eyes. At that sight, Grace smiled and placed her hand on his cheek.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t worry.”

Kibishi smiled and nodded while placing his hand over hers.

Casper was leaning against the castle wall looking outside. He heard Grace’s footsteps and opened his mouth.

“You came. I’m sorry, but would it be okay to talk like this?”

“……”

“It’s still painful to look at your face.”

“Just once, could you look this way? You don’t have to look directly at me.”

At those words, Casper turned his head toward Grace with his eyes lowered. And at that moment.

Smack—

His head whipped around after being slapped on the cheek. Casper raised his hand to caress his cheek, whether from pain or disbelief at the situation.

“Rachel…… No, mother asked me to deliver this.”

“……I see.”

He made a bitter smile and muttered to himself.

“Compared to the sins I committed against you all, this is too cheap.”

“Then do you want to burn to death again because of me?”

“That was the third life, wasn’t it? What expression was I making then?”

“……You were crying then.”

“……I would have been. Like now.”

Casper was shedding tears while making eye contact with Grace.

“When I look into your eyes, I become like this. When you left this place, I ended up seeing you and Eunhye overlapping completely.”

“……”

“I don’t know what I did to you in all the time that was turned back. But at least I know it was something unforgivable.”

He spoke quietly.

“I don’t have the right to say I’m sorry…… But I’m sorry.”

Grace had no intention of understanding or forgiving Casper.

But perhaps because she had seen him as a child through Rachel’s eyes… Perhaps because he was still family…

“……It’s fine. Say those words to my brothers. Their lives were twisted because of you as their father.”

He had been shedding tears all this while, yet he nodded his head, and Grace felt so sorry for him. She just wished he wouldn’t cry, whatever happened.

“What will you do now?”

After calming Casper for a moment, Grace asked. He carefully took out an ice chunk the size of his palm from his chest.

Inside that ice chunk, a golden light was trapped and shining.

“It’s Eunhye’s soul.”

“……What?”

“Eunhye’s soul that had been attached to you since you were a baby.”

Casper explained everything step by step.

He had seen the language of Eunhye written in the notebook and realized that Grace was repeating regressions. Could it be that Eunhye’s soul was attached to Grace, turning back Grace’s time? Just as Eunhye had lived as Rachel while carrying another soul together.

For Casper, whose every thought flowed toward Eunhye, this was a hypothesis he couldn’t ignore. That’s why when Saint Adrian, who would know well about souls, appeared in the duchy, he made contact with him.

And Adrian found the answer for Casper.

To break Grace’s meaningless repeated regressions and stop her meaningless repeated deaths, two conditions had to be met.

Grace herself had to realize where she was born, and Eunhye’s soul attached to Grace’s body had to be removed.

Adrian wanted to prevent Grace’s death, and Casper wanted to obtain Eunhye’s soul.

Their interests aligned perfectly.

He continued speaking.

“When you entered the erosion, you and Eunhye’s soul were separated. Your body and soul were also about to separate from each other, but your friend in the yard prevented that, and the separated soul of Eunhye was collected separately by the Saint, which I then froze.”

“Then what do you intend to do with Mother’s soul now?”

“……I’ll send her back to her homeland. By carrying Eunhye’s soul and crossing through various worlds via erosion until she someday reaches her homeland.”

“That’s……!”

Wasn’t that impossible? Grace was about to speak but closed her mouth tightly.

“Eunhye wanted to return to her homeland. This is all I can do for her.”

He stopped speaking and this time took out the notebook from his chest and handed it to Grace.

“For that someday.”

“……For that someday.”

Casper departed the very next day. Grace and Kibishi saw off Casper as he fell into the erosion, holding Eunhye’s soul preciously while freezing his own body.

Even after hearing Casper’s apology, Dius really decided to remain alone at Endworth Castle and continue Merseden.

According to Armon, for Dius, Endworth Castle was a place filled with memories of his mother, so he couldn’t bear to abandon it.

Grace settled in Devon with Kibishi, Armon, Melvin, Marian, and Harkan. The situation there had all been sorted out by Saint Adrian beforehand. While Grace was wandering in the erosion, he had apparently treated those in Devon who were suffering from contact with the black rain and restored the sea in front, which had been covered with swampland, back to its original state.

She wanted to find him to express her gratitude, but his whereabouts couldn’t be found afterward.

“Noah, I heard from Kibishi belatedly…… You were a woman……?”

“……You really didn’t know.”

It was when Grace was rebuilding the orphanage together with everyone. Noah answered with a bitter smile.

“I am indeed a woman.”

“Wait, what?! You were a woman?!”

“Do you have a complaint, attendant?”

“……No. I’m sorry……”

Philip decided to manage the newly built orphanage. Living with Jacob, it seemed like his later years would be fine.

The kitten that the mother cat had brought was cared for by Noah while they were away. And several months later, that kitten became a mother cat and brought her kittens into Kibishi and Grace’s house.

It seemed she intended to settle there completely.

It was several years later when Adrian, who hadn’t shown himself and had no news at all, came to find Grace.

“It’s been a long time.”

It was when Kibishi had briefly gone to Saulrich Castle in the south.

“Your parents will arrive safely at their desired destination. Soon that notebook will be written in the language of the three of them.”

When asked why he appeared only now, he answered.

“Since I jumped through time periods haphazardly, there was quite a lot of cleanup I had to do. There’s still some left. Trying to block the erosion in advance isn’t an easy task either.”

He continued.

“I’m curious about something. Before returning from the erosion, you must have been asked the question ‘Why must humans die?’ What did you answer to that?”

Grace answered.

“To beautifully face the farewell we must someday meet……?”

Like stars that still sparkle in our eyes even after death.

“……You gave exactly the same answer as the man you married.”

And just before Adrian left, Grace barely managed to stop him and ask.

“The number of times I killed you…… You know it was twice, don’t you?”

A lie.

“Haha, I won’t answer that. I’m just earnestly hoping. Not to harm you. To be able to save you. And it seems I’ve accomplished that. Then lastly…… Grace.”

He asked.

⁕⁕⁕

When was the last time he came to this place? Adrian fell into thought as he crossed Devon’s gates.

‘After meeting Grace, going back into the tree, and hunting down a total of eight Saints by visiting each of their time periods……’

The time there and outside flowed differently, so he couldn’t gauge at all how much had passed. But it surely wasn’t just a matter of a few years.

Adrian climbed up to the hill where Devon’s sea could be seen at a glance.

There were two graves side by side that hadn’t been there before. And Adrian’s gaze was captured by the red-haired girl standing in front of them.

“……Were they happy until the end?”

〈Then lastly…… Grace. Are you happy?〉

The girl stared at the graves for a while, then nodded her head.

〈……Yes, I’m dying to die.〉

“Then, that’s enough.”

Adrian smiled bitterly as he descended the hill.

“Ellie, come here.”

Behind him, those who appeared to be the girl’s parents were calling the girl’s name.

〈End〉