IBVIAAN Ch 54 — It’s Been a While, Daughter

In the end, I confessed everything to Alion. That I was someone who lived in a completely different place, but had died in an accident a few months ago, and that I had suddenly woken up in Meliara’s body. After that, I had tried to sever my ties with the Darchez family to survive, but then I had suddenly become a saintess and subsequently had to return. And then shockingly meeting Meliara in the temple, and even the reason why she had to leave this body. Naturally, the part where this was a novel was also excluded.

It wasn’t a great story to hear. At first, Alion tried to argue that he had heard it all wrong, but it wasn’t very convincing. The biggest problem in the first place was that Alion also felt that I didn’t seem to act like how his younger sister used to before. 

“I just wanted to think that your personality had changed a little after encountering a big incident.” Alion let out a long sigh and rubbed his thin face. There seemed to be a darker shadow than before on his face. 

“You seem… to believe it easier than I thought you would.”

“Because I can’t help but believe it. Everything you do is different from my younger sister.”

You can even see those tiny differences…?

“I don’t know what you think of me, but… I’ve been watching over my younger sister for a longer time than you think.”

“…”

“Honestly, before you told me all of this… I had wondered if you were really my younger sister. I don’t know if this will sound arrogant, but…” He smiled bitterly. “Meliara, that child’s heart is quite weak, so if I had already pleaded with her this much, she probably would’ve already returned to the Duchy.”

Rather it was my determination that convinced him that I wasn’t actually Meliara.

“So my actual younger sister… is standing right here?” he asked, pointing to the seat next to me. He let out another deep sigh at the sight of me nodding my head.

“I’m sorry.” There wasn’t much I could really say about this situation. 

He turned his face that was filled with mixed emotions from the space where Meliara was to me and shook his head. “What exactly have you done wrong? You, too, only opened your eyes after your life was unfairly ended, and that place just ended up being here.”

Oh…? I hadn’t expected this. I had naturally thought that he’d blame me or get angry. But to my surprise, he simply calmly accepted the situation as it was. 

“And the fact that my younger sister… haa… my younger sister chose to give up on life was also my fault in the end.”

—Huh…? N-No. It’s not like that at all, Brother.

“She said that it isn’t though? It could never be.”

He gave me a slight smile when I told him what Meliara had said. “If it’s that kid, then that’s what she’d think. I can even imagine what sort of voice she had said that with.”

“…”

“But you know. That I’m too late.” Then, he put down the gift box he had shown me earlier. 

After examining Meliara’s face, I opened the box. There was a small hairpin in it. It was a cute and prim hairpin that suited Meliara’s timid personality perfectly. Although it was just a hairpin, it felt as if Alion was telling Meliara just how long he had been watching over her. 

“Just by seeing me only do what I should’ve done for you all along now, it’s obvious just how l…”

“It isn’t too late.” Perhaps it was because his voice was filled with so much pain. I uttered something that could’ve been too meddlesome. “At least you’re here now.”

I turned my head to look at Meliara. She looked at the hairpin with a heartbreaking expression on her face today as well, and raised her head to look at her older brother. 

“Your words, your actions, everything you do; she’s watching it all. Although she can’t come back… at least your feelings are being conveyed.”

Alion looked shocked at my words. As if he had never thought of it that way. He slowly began to breathe again after he caught his breath. But he inhaled deeply, as if he were trying to calm down his excitement. “Is there really… no way for us to meet?”

Oh, this is why I had tried to be cautious with my meddling. Hope was like a weed, so even if you only left a little, it would spread in an instant.

“Saintess. If you’re the saintess…”

“I can’t. If I knew how to do it, I would’ve done it already.”

“Whether it’s donating or anything, I’ll do it all. The official religion for the Duchy will also be changed to the Lunar religion. If I can just have five minutes… no, just one minute. Please, is there no way for us to talk face to face?”

“You know it’s not that sort of problem, Little Duke.”

“…”

This is why it’s harder to pluck out the hope that’s already spread. 

Alion bowed his distorted face. His clasped hands trembled. There was a silence where only his breathing could be heard, and then he rose from his seat.

“Pardon me.”

“Are you leaving now?”

At my question, rather than at me, he looked at the spot next to me. Gazing at the spot where nothing could be seen for a long while, he sighed with a complex look on his face. 

“I’ll take my leave.”

“Little Duke.” I called out to Alion, who was leaving after that greeting. As he was turning the doorknob, he turned his head.

“Although they’re invisible to the world, a lot of them are important.”

“…”

“Apart from the obvious love and hate, we can’t see the changes in scent, or the wind that changes the seasons either.”

“…”

“Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.” I said this since I knew he hesitated because he couldn’t see Meliara. 

His gaze returned to where Meliara was once more. “I’ll be back.”

I smiled and nodded at the slightly different reply.

—Thank you.

Although Alion had left and Meliara had said that, I couldn’t do anything else but shake my head with an awkward smile on my face.

* * *

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

I couldn’t sleep until late at night because of my turbulent feelings after meeting Alion. After tossing and turning for a while, I finally got up from the bed. 

I had wanted to go for a walk, but instead of going very far, I ended up only sitting by the window after I put on my robe. A cool autumn breeze blew in when I opened the window slightly.

‘Or should this be called the winter wind?’

Seeing that there were more leaves that had fallen than on the trees, it seemed that autumn was now coming to an end.

‘Seasons. Wind. And relationships…’

Relationships were so mysterious in the way that they would brush past like the passing wind, yet they would return like the returning seasons. A relationship that was thought to last forever could be cut off at some point and become irreversible, while there were also times where a relationship that seemed to amount to nothing would become a long lasting relationship. 

Although my relationship with Lecht was one that took a hundred years, it was a tenacious one that came full circle in the end. Olivia and I had an ill-fated relationship, but in the end, we were just brushing past and would never see each other again. In that sort of sense, the relationship between Alion and Meliara was even more complicated.

‘The relationship that I thought I was holding onto by myself was one where another person was holding onto as well…’

When he had started to pull on the string, she had already been in a state where she had let go of it already. But that didn’t mean she had left the string behind and disappeared forever either. Standing at the end of it, she was watching as the string was being pulled. But she couldn’t grab onto it. Then if that was the case, would she even be happy to see the string being pulled?

‘If it’s Meliara, then she would be satisfied with just that. But with the hope that the other party must be watching him, the one it would be hard on would be Alion, who has to pull on that string endlessly with that hope.’

Since he had given her such a hard time for so long, I wanted to tell him that he should be able to bear at least that much. But at the same time, I knew it wasn’t an easy time for him, so I couldn’t say that recklessly either. Two people who had just missed each other on their journey that I wondered how it could get so tangled. 

“How nice would it be if I could let you meet each other just once, even if it’s for a short while.”

I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes.

‘What’s the point of being a saintess? I can’t even do a miracle like that.’

[I can do it for you though.]

I suddenly opened my eyes widely at the voice that was ringing in my head.

“What? Who is it?”

There was no sign of anyone present, so whose voice was that? 

As I looked around in surprise, Kelber, who was by my feet, also looked up. All three of his heads tilted to one side, as if they were wondering what the problem was. 

“Did you… not hear that?”

[As expected, the power of the red moon is the best! Time and space can overlap even if it’s not a full moon.]

“I really heard it! What the hell!?”

I jumped up from my seat. Then, I soon discovered something strange.

“Kelber doesn’t have any reaction to it…?” All he did was jump up with a ‘kking?’ sound, tilting his head as if asking why I was so surprised. That meant he didn’t think there was a threat. 

However, what was even more flustering was that I didn’t know where I should look to find the source of the sound. At least when I first met Meliara, I was at least able to pinpoint where the sound of her sobbing came from. But the sound I heard now was ringing in my head instead of my ears. 

[But my daughter. Your reaction is just too cliche.]

A voice that was so vague, it seemed too ambiguous to be a male or female’s.

‘They just talked about the red moon… right?’

And referred to me as ‘their daughter’. Even talking about time and space overlapping. 

I naturally remembered what Lydia had said, “The saintess is the only child of god that has been appointed by god themselves.”

Don’t tell me…

“Lunar?”

[Yep! It’s been a while, daughter!]

There was only one word that filled my heart at this moment.

“…oh my god.”

* * *

I was made to suffer for a long time because of that word that came out of my mouth without going through my filter.

[To think that your first word to me is ‘oh my god’… Daughter of mine, that’s just too much…]

“Sorry.”

[If you hadn’t come to the temple, I would’ve just been waiting here this whole time since I can’t even go to meet you…]

“I said I’m sorry already…”

The whining was extremely different to the stern and elegant image of a ‘god’ I had imagined. 

“But think about it too, Lunar. Isn’t it just too absurd for a god to suddenly pop out of nowhere?” 

I had known about it since Lydia had said that the saintess was able to hear god’s voice. Nevertheless, she had clearly only said that I’d be able to hear it on a night with a full moon though?

“Besides, what’s with the timing of your appearance? Thankfully Kelber was by my side, otherwise I would’ve definitely screamed and collapsed.”

Anyone would panic if they suddenly heard a voice when they were alone in their room.

[Still, wouldn’t it be better than hearing my voice while you’re in front of other people?]

It was their own consideration toward me so as to not make me seem like a lunatic. I couldn’t say anything more about the upsetting voice. 

“Are you really Lunar?”

[You don’t believe me? Should I do a miracle?]

“The full moon is obviously tomorrow.”

[I have more energy since it’s the red moon tonight. That’s also why my energy reached you faster. This is all possible because you’re my most precious daughter.]

Listening to the proud voice, I imagined an elementary student who looked down on the world in the form of a god.

‘When Lydia said that Lunar was talkative, I hadn’t thought it’d be to this extent…’

[What? Lydia said that?]

“Heok! You can read my thoughts?”

[Of course I can. Didn’t I say that our time and space had overlapped?]

Although I didn’t really know what they meant by overlapping time and space, I still understood that I would need to be careful with my thoughts now. I couldn’t even gossip in my head. Why did I feel wronged somehow… 

I rearranged my dishevelled gown and swept a hand through my hair. 

“Right. Well, anyhow, the important thing is that we met. It’s nice to meet you, Lunar.”

[Welcome home, daughter.]

“So, about the miracle I was talking about earlier?”

[Yes, what do you want me to do? Lightning in a clear sky? Hail? Or maybe you want a landslide?]

No, why does a human… no, god, say something so scary with such an innocent voice?

“Not that, but what I said earlier about letting Alion and Meliara meet each other.”

[Oh, that one.]

The voice of the excited Lunar slowly subsided.

[As expected of my daughter, you’ve never asked for something easy. Just how difficult is it to connect the space between the living and the dead?] They grumbled, [I’d rather you just ask for a landslide.]

‘Is it that difficult? But I can see both of them and talk to them though?’

[That’s because you’re my daughter.]

‘So there’s no other way?’

[There’s a way. But it’s a rather awkward method.]

‘Tell me.’

Lunar explained it to me step by step. My face couldn’t help but darken when I heard the whole story. 

‘Haa… that’s definitely going to be difficult.’

[Well, miracles don’t happen easily after all.]

It was a concern that started with a long sigh. 

“Then…”

That night, I didn’t end up getting a wink of sleep due as I continued to chatter with Lunar.