Chapter 331: Epilogue [Illenia]
"...Ugh?"
Margaret groggily opened her eyes.
Her head felt strangely heavy, and for a moment, her thoughts struggled to catch up with reality.
The last thing she remembered was falling from the sky while tightly holding Vanitas in her embrace, refusing to let go even as the world beneath them disappeared from view.
Slowly, she pushed herself upright.
"...."
What greeted her was not the ground, nor was it the afterlife she had imagined.
Books.
Books everywhere.
Towering shelves stretched in every direction, rising so high that their upper limits vanished into darkness. Entire mountains of books occupied the landscape, stacked upon one another in arrangements that seemed to defy both logic and architecture.
"...."
Margaret stared blankly.
The sight before her was so vast that it took several moments for her mind to properly process it.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say there were more books here than there were people in the world.
This place did not merely resemble a library, but as if the concept of knowledge itself had been given physical form.
"Where...?"
The memory returned immediately.
"...V-Vanitas."
Margaret’s eyes widened.
She abruptly stood up.
"Vanitas!"
Her voice echoed throughout the endless library. Genuine panic surfaced on her face.
She immediately began looking around.
"Vanitas!"
"Ah." A voice answered her. "You’re awake. Uhm... hello?"
Margaret immediately turned toward the source.
Standing a short distance away was a woman draped in dark robes. Her hair was a deep onyx black that fell just above her shoulders, while her equally dark eyes calmly observed Margaret’s reaction.
For a brief moment, Margaret froze.
Something about her seemed familiar.
"S-Saintess?"
The woman looked remarkably similar to Selena, the Saintess.
It was so uncanny that Margaret’s first instinct was to assume they were the same person.
"Uh." The woman scratched her cheek awkwardly. "That’s not entirely wrong, I guess."
"...."
"Though it’d probably be more accurate if you called me Eunah... sister-in-law..."
"H-Huh?"
Margaret blinked.
Then blinked again.
For several long seconds, she simply stared.
"Sister-in-law?"
"Yep."
"Sister-in-law?"
"That’s what I said."
Margaret stared even harder.
The woman nodded confidently as though she had just introduced herself in the most normal way imaginable.
Meanwhile, Margaret’s mind was struggling to keep up.
Indeed, the last thing she remembered was cutting down Vanitas.
And now a woman who looked suspiciously similar to the Saintess was casually calling herself her sister-in-law.
"What?"
"Fair reaction."
Eunah nodded as though Margaret’s confusion was the most natural thing in the world. Rather than elaborating further, however, she simply turned around and began walking away.
"Follow me."
Margaret hesitated for only a moment before doing exactly that.
The two walked through the endless library, eventually arriving at a vast cylindrical chamber.
Unlike the rest of the library, this place felt alive. Countless pages drifted through the air like leaves, while magic circles Margaret had never seen before continuously shifted, rotated, and interlocked with one another in an endless sequence.
The sight alone was enough to leave her speechless.
Every magic circle appeared vastly more complicated than anything humanity had ever created. Entire layers of symbols folded into one another, separated, then merged again, operating according to principles Margaret couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
And there, at the center of it all, floating silently in midair with his eyes closed, suspended amidst the countless pages...
"...V-Vanitas..."
It was Vanitas.
The moment she saw him, Margaret rushed forward without thinking.
"Don’t get too close."
However, Eunah immediately reached out and stopped her.
Margaret struggled against her grip. "N-No... I have to...!"
"He’s okay." Eunah’s voice remained calm. "I’ve stabilized him enough."
"...."
Margaret’s gaze remained fixed on Vanitas.
Even from this distance, she could see how peaceful he looked. There was no pain on his face, no signs of suffering, and none of the exhaustion that had followed him throughout his final days.
Yet somehow, that only made her more anxious.
"W-What exactly happened?"
"Well... I guess you could say you fell for my brother’s schemes."
Margaret immediately turned toward her.
"What?"
"You are aware of your ability, correct?"
Eunah gestured toward Vanitas.
"The moment your blade cut through him, I took advantage of that opening and pulled both of you here. Your power allows reality itself to be bypassed, so it created the perfect opportunity."
Margaret stared blankly.
The explanation only raised more questions.
Yet before she could interrupt, Eunah continued speaking, slowly explaining everything about how she had intervened at the final moment.
How she had utilized the unique properties of Margaret’s ability.
How she had brought them to this place beyond conventional reality.
And most importantly... what had happened to Vanitas afterward.
By the time she finished, Margaret’s face had already gone pale.
"His cancer..."
"Yeah." Eunah nodded. "It had already progressed too far."
"He was dying."
"Yes."
"And you knew?"
"Yes."
"And you could save him? This whole time?!"
Eunah merely shook her head.
"Not exactly."
"What does that even mean?" Margaret’s voice rose. "You treated him, didn’t you?!"
"I stabilized him."
"That’s basically the same thing!"
"No. It’s really not."
The countless magic circles continued rotating.
"He’s currently in a form of cryogenic hibernation." Eunah looked toward him. "His condition reached a point where conventional treatment became impossible. The only thing I could do was stop it from progressing any further. From this moment on, he’ll have to fight for himself."
The more Margaret learned, the less she understood.
Eventually, frustration overwhelmed her.
"W-Why didn’t you save him back then?!" Her voice echoed throughout the chamber. "W-Why now?!"
"Because it’s not what my brother would’ve wanted."
"What...?"
Margaret took a step back.
"Who even are you? Brother? Why do you keep calling him brother?"
"Huh?" Eunah blinked. "Because I’m his sister."
"...."
"...?"
Margaret stared at her.
Eunah stared back.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Finally, Eunah tilted her head.
"I’m sorry, sister-in-law, but I’m not really following here." She crossed her arms and frowned. "It’s been a very long time since I’ve interacted with another person, so I’m genuinely confused about why you’re so agitated."
Margaret could only look at her in disbelief.
Because from her perspective, absolutely nothing about this conversation made any sense.
At this point, Margaret was beginning to question reality itself.
Eunah, meanwhile, appeared completely oblivious to her suffering.
"So..."
She clasped her hands together.
"Where would you like me to start?"
Margaret stared at her.
Eunah stared back.
The silence stretched on for several seconds before Eunah continued speaking anyway.
"Who I am?"
She raised a finger.
"What this place is?"
A second finger joined the first.
"Or perhaps how my brother somehow managed to create an even bigger mess after supposedly dying?"
"...."
Margaret pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Please... just explain everything."
"Ah. That’s fair."
For a moment, she seemed to think about where to begin. Then she casually gestured toward the endless library surrounding them.
"I call this place the Library, obviously. I mean, look at all the books here. But from what you know, I believe it’s more commonly referred to as the Archives of Haven."
"...."
Margaret felt like she was losing her mind.
* * *
"Basically, this place exists outside the bounds of time."
Eun-ah spoke as though she were explaining something completely ordinary.
"Countless realities coexist. Countless possibilities, countless outcomes, and countless versions of people all exist simultaneously."
She casually gestured toward the endless shelves surrounding them.
"I just happen to be a result of one of those realities."
Margaret listened in silence.
Or rather, she tried to.
The problem was that every sentence coming out of Eun-ah’s mouth somehow raised more questions than answers.
"You could say I belong to a reality where every single one of us made different choices."
Eun-ah smiled.
"A different route, if you prefer."
"...."
"I don’t know how things played out in your reality."
Eun-ah glanced toward the sleeping Vanitas suspended within the countless magic circles.
"But in mine, my brother and I came up with a plan."
Her gaze shifted toward the endless sea of books.
"A plan to preserve everything."
"Everything?"
"Knowledge. The history of the world. Its cultures. Its discoveries. Its stories. Its mistakes," Eunah said. "We knew Araxys would descend eventually. And when it did, we knew humanity would lose."
For the first time since meeting her, the usual lightheartedness vanished from her expression.
"The world ended. Or at least, my world did."
Margaret remained silent as Eun-ah continued discussing an event that had happened yesterday rather than the extinction of an entire civilization.
"I guess you could call me the result of a bad ending." A bitter smile appeared on Eun-ah’s face. "When Araxys descended, everything was swept away."
"...."
"To protect me, my brother created this place. He built Haven, a place that could survive even after the world itself disappeared."
The floating pages continued drifting around them.
The countless magic circles continued their endless movements.
And at the center of it all, Vanitas remained asleep.
"We spent years preserving everything we could." Eun-ah crossed her arms. "Because we believed that somewhere out there, another reality would exist."
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"A reality where humanity wins and Araxys loses, where our efforts weren’t meaningless.
Her gaze shifted toward Margaret.
"And it just so happened to be yours." Eunah smiled. "Congratulations. You got the good ending."
"...."
Margaret wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
Meanwhile, Eun-ah glanced toward the sleeping Vanitas once more.
The playful expression she had worn since the beginning slowly returned.
"Yay, I guess?" She awkwardly scratched her cheek once more. "After all these years, I finally got my brother back?"
"...."
Margaret remained silent.
She wasn’t entirely sure how to react to someone casually saying something so emotionally devastating with the enthusiasm of a person who had just found a misplaced book.
Fortunately, Eun-ah seemed completely capable of carrying the conversation by herself.
"But don’t make it sound like I didn’t do anything. Give me some credit, please."
"Huh?"
"My brother wiped most of his memories." Eun-ah pointed toward Vanitas. "He wouldn’t have been nearly as smart as he appeared if it weren’t for me."
Margaret blinked.
Then blinked again.
"...Huh?"
The explanation somehow managed to raise even more questions.
"What do you mean?"
"Well." Eun-ah casually pointed toward her own face. "The glasses."
"The glasses?"
"The glasses." A proud smile appeared on her face. "I made them."
"...."
"To be precise, I made them for every Vanitas out there."
Margaret stared.
Eun-ah smiled.
Margaret continued staring.
"That’s not helping..."
"Really?"
"No."
"Ah."
Eun-ah seemed genuinely disappointed.
"The glasses are connected to this place." She gestured toward the Archives surrounding them. "That’s how I kept track of him."
"Kept track?"
"Of all of them."
The words were spoken so casually that Margaret almost missed their implication.
Not one.
Not two.
But all of them.
"The glasses allowed me to observe different realities, gather information, and occasionally provide assistance when necessary."
Eun-ah proudly puffed out her chest.
"Honestly, I deserve more recognition." Margaret was beginning to understand where Vanitas got some of his personality from.
"And he knew this?"
"Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"He knew enough."
"That doesn’t answer the question."
"That’s because I’m avoiding the question."
"...."
Margaret felt another headache coming on.
Eun-ah, meanwhile, appeared completely satisfied with her own explanation.
"Anyway." She clapped her hands together. "I guess that’s about it."
"That’s about it?"
"Yep."
"...."
"...?"
"...."
Eun-ah tilted her head.
"Um... was there something else?"
For the second time since waking up, Margaret seriously contemplated whether she was losing her mind.
Unfortunately, judging by the sleeping Vanitas floating in front of her, reality was apparently even stranger than insanity.
* * *
Years passed.
Unlike the world outside, Margaret’s life settled into a peaceful solitude she had never imagined herself living.
Margaret lived alone.
A small cabin stood deep within the wilderness, far removed from cities and civilization. It was neither luxurious nor impressive, yet it provided everything she needed, and after everything that had happened, she found herself preferring the silence.
Occasionally, people would search for her.
Occasionally, rumors would emerge regarding the disappearance of Margaret Illenia.
Yet as the years passed, those searches became less frequent.
Life moved on.
The world continued advancing.
And Margaret quietly watched it from afar.
She never truly remained alone, however.
Whenever boredom crept in or whenever she simply wanted to escape the silence of the cabin, she would make her way to Haven.
With a single cut through empty space, reality itself would part before her blade. Moments later, Eun-ah would detect the disturbance and pull her into the Archives as though welcoming a frequent visitor.
"Ah, you’re back."
"I’m starting to think you’ve become too comfortable with me showing up."
"I’m starting to think you’re here more often than your own house."
Margaret rolled her eyes.
Eun-ah, meanwhile, looked entirely too pleased with herself.
Over the years, the two had developed an odd relationship.
Not quite friends and not quite family, yet somehow existing somewhere in between.
The fact that Eun-ah continued calling her sister-in-law certainly didn’t help.
"You know." Margaret sighed. "You’re still calling me that."
"Well, obviously." Eun-ah looked genuinely confused. "What else would I call you?"
"What was the term you used before?" Margaret tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Noona?"
"Dream on. I’m older than you. Heh."
Eventually, Margaret made her way toward the chamber at the center of Haven.
The floating pages remained. The countless interlocking magic circles continued their endless movements.
And at the center of it all, suspended within the same intricate formation as always, was Vanitas.
"...."
Margaret stared at him, her gaze softening.
An entire decade had passed, yet Vanitas remained exactly the same as the day she had last seen him, with no signs of waking.
And yet, despite that, Margaret continued visiting.
Again.
And again.
And again.
She didn’t believe today would somehow be different, but even so, what she wanted the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes to be was her face.
So, she sat beside him.
Just as she had countless times before.
And just as she would continue doing until the day he finally woke up.
< FIN >
