Chapter 530: Chapter 530: Always forward
Chapter 530 – Always forward
He didn’t know how long he stayed there, in that position, telling a love story to a person who could no longer hear him. A person who was now dead, her soul shredded and burned away like a used candle.
Noah truly didn’t know, time had become meaningless to him as he said everything that came to mind, just like those Bards who performed for the masses to keep them listening and earn their coin.
So he did it. And knowing people loved a love story full of drama, Noah Vaelgrim let his imagination run wild in every direction.
He gave the princess of the Celestial Empire a love of singing, the one thing in her beautifully gilded cage that was hers and hers alone.
He went even further, making sure the Warborn she fell for would be someone her family wanted dead...purely to sharpen the dramatic edge.
At some point...
[This is supposed to be a love story, husband.] Providence chimed in, her voice soft and gentle. [Not a tragedy.]
Noah smiled calmly, his face now dry of tears. "Not at all." He said. "The ending is a beautiful one. Why not let me finish? I have something wonderful in store for both of them."
[Oh, sweetheart. Is that a story you wish you could read?]
"Why ever not?" He whispered, looking at the Frozen Hell stretching around him. "Someday, Providence. When I am done with fighting and fighting and fighting...yes, someday I want to just sit somewhere with my family, free and untouchable by all, and be for once the reader of a beautiful story."
Providence fell quiet for a short moment.
She, more than anyone, could see the accumulated fatigue slowly creeping through Noah’s existence.
It was no wonder, truly, that beings who lived long and went through enough always ended with something broken loose, or losing entirely what had made them who they were.
Time was a harrowing thing.
It flowed and flowed and flowed, pulling you alongside it into event after event, each one demanding survival. Not merely physical survival. That was, as most high-level beings knew, the easiest part to protect.
But the mind? The philosophy at the core of one’s life? The dreams and the aspirations?
Those were what Time stretched past their limits, pulling them like a bloody ribbon until they could no longer hold without crumbling into dust.
With everything Noah had already survived, and the dark, angry cloud looming over him still, he knew he needed to consolidate his mind far more than he needed to improve his power.
[You know, husband, you are not alone.] Providence said, her true body appearing behind him, wrapping her arms tenderly around him, chin resting on his shoulder. [You have all of us. Honestly, don’t you see? We are all your wives. Ready to do anything for you. One even abandoned a man who loved her more than anything...for you.]
"And that’s exactly what keeps me together, darling." He smiled, kissing her cheek softly. "You are my anchor. You are the ones who keep me going. So going forward, I shall."
[Always forward?]
He grinned. "Like Odysseus. Always forward, always onward, never left nor right."
[And like him, you will reach your destination, my darling. With us at your side, watching all of Existence unfold like a story. A story you can read. A story you can enjoy.]
"But to read another story," Noah whispered, tilting his head upward, "I need to finish my own first, don’t I?"
Providence smiled. [Oh yes, husband.]
"And tell me, do you see its ending?"
[No.] She shook her head. [But you don’t see an ending. It simply happens, at the moment, when the time is right.]
Noah nodded slowly. "I suppose so." He rose from the ground, Providence’s true body fading back. "Then I suppose I have to stop doubting so much."
[It’s alright to doubt.] She said soothingly. [Just don’t let the doubt stop you.]
"Aye, darling." Noah breathed out softly, looking at the spot where Marigold had drawn her last breath, her fire extinguished forever.
"Well," he said, smiling, "your soul is destroyed, mother-in-law. But I hope you find peace somewhere in this boundless realm of existence, and find what you were always seeking."
He swept his hand downward, gathering every last residual trace of Marigold and compressed it into a small golden-white stone.
’Apollonia might want to see her mother’s final moments.’ He thought, hoping his wife would be able to bury her properly, and take from it a lesson of compassion and forgiveness. One Marigold had not necessarily earned. But one that could be given regardless.
Forgive, so that you might be forgiven. Have mercy, so that mercy might be shown to you.
One could not receive what one refused to give. That was life, simple and plain. And Noah understood it plainly at that instant.
He exhaled, stored the stone — the Stone of Melancholy, as he named it in his mind — and steadied himself.
"Ah, well, well, well." He said brightly. "Marigold’s affairs are settled, sad as it was. Now, shall we move to the next ones? Providence, darling, bring me Shadow and that cannibal Queen of the Elves."
[At the same time?]
"Oh yes, darling." He cracked his neck, grinning. "One by one is tedious. Let’s finish this fast. Besides, how are my wives holding up against Diatah?"
[On the verge of death.]
"Oh my." He broke into a loud laugh. "Must be rough on them. Diatah’s not going easy, it seems."
[She is actually going easy, husband. Diatah is simply a Desdemona.]
"You say that name as if you know them."
[I don’t.] She chuckled. [But you know my nature, I am your Personal Records. I have a more sensitive feeling toward the matters of Existence itself. And I tell you, my dear husband, every time I say the name ’Desdemona’ I unconsciously shudder.]
"That serious?" He arched an eyebrow. "What are they, exactly?"
[From the little Diatah has let slip, it seems they are one of the Four Main Races of... Existence.]
"And I have one of them as a wife." Noah grinned, smug and entirely pleased with himself. "I think I am simply too good, Providence. You should all stop me, you know? Otherwise, next time you blink I’ll be marrying Existence itself."
[Well, you have already married and fucked with your own System...] her tone carried the weight of a careless shrug. [Nothing else can surprise me.]
"You said the forbidden word. Now I have the urge to indulge."
[Ah, darling.] Providence’s voice shifted into something distinctly sultry. [The others are all working so hard. Shouldn’t we work hard too?]
"What kind of work?"
[The kind that would leave us debating what to name our children.]
Noah burst into laughter.
And right at that moment, the space in front of him shimmered, and two women appeared, their expressions confused by the sudden teleportation.
"Ah, that’s the kind of work I like." He answered his wife. "But first, let me finish this. Then let’s do some deep meditation in the Way of Degeneracy. I might develop a whole new Path of Power from it."
[The worst part is I know you would dare.]
"Of course I would." He chuckled, then turned his full attention to Shadow and Fatima Zaynab Worldborn.
The Elven Queen had a green-coloured bone between her teeth. A bone of an elf.
Noah’s lips twitched.
"How about you introduce yourselves, lovely women?" He said. "Except you, Fatima. You are not lovely at all. Why don’t you stop eating your own race? Not that I mind, honestly, but this is deeply disturbing."
The Queen snorted. "A coward as my new progenitor after having a whore? Ah, Lord above, I must be cursed! Cursed, I say! And where is Arbre? Where is my servant? My faithful servant! Cursed! Cursed!"
Shadow and Noah both watched the theatrical display with identical blank expressions, eyes completely dead.
After a moment, seeing no reaction whatsoever from her audience, Fatima clicked her tongue.
"Bad audience. Cursed, indeed."
—End of Chapter 530—
