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chapter 255




Fran Page had been Ian’s father, his original, and the reason for every problem that had happened. Ian had given him eternal rest and therefore did not belong here.
“Is this an illusion?”
Therefore, Ian decided to treat him as an illusion, as it was common to hear and see such things during sleep.
“Of course, I am an illusion. Do you want me alive after killing me yourself?”
Fran agreed with Ian as he shrugged his shoulders.
“I had told you this before, but you are not too bright considering you’re my son.”
“……”
“The way you fought that giant, and that spell you used for protection…”
“……”
“I should have taught you more. Well, I guess we can say that it’s my fault.”
Everything from his voice to his expression was oily. Ian always did find him disgusting.
“What do you want to say?”
“Nothing much.”
“Why are you saying nonsense than in my dream? You irritate me.”
“That is a misunderstanding. I have been here for a long time, but you just came rushing in.”
“What are you…”
“Did you forget that you’re my son and also my psychological clone? While you did become stronger…you’re still me, and I’m you.”
“So?”
“Deep inside, very deep, this fragment of me goes with you.”
Ian grimaced at Fran’s words.
“I cannot hear any more of this.”
“Should I disappear then?”
“Yes.”
“You can order me to, but aren’t you curious?”
Fran Page smiled and spoke up.
“Ian, you thought of those lizards and me when you first understood that giant’s words.”
Ian had to listen, as that was true. The giant’s words exactly matched the power of language.
“It was heartening to see that you thought of me first instead of those lizards.”
Ian ignored most of Fran’s words, but some interested him now.
“Cut to the chase. Do you know what that giant is?”
“No.”
Ian glared at Fran, who raised his hands in mock surrender.
“I was surprised, too. I had always been curious about where the power of language had come from.”
Fran was sincere, as he had always wanted to know the origin of the power of language. He had searched for it, but the results had been futile.
“I had given up knowing, but the curiosity I had felt during my younger years sprang up.”
Fran’s expression looked alive and realistic.
“What is your conclusion?”
“I will help you.”
“What?”
“So you can defeat that giant, and I can destroy that personality.”
“Why? How? You’re an illusion.”
“While I am still a fragment, I do have some things to teach you.”
Ian scoffed at Fran’s words.
“Don’t you remember me beating you one-sidedly? Yet you still have something to me?”
During Ian and Fran’s fight, Ian had absolutely crushed Fran. However, Fran was still confident.
“My original form was the one who lost and has nothing to do with me.”
“Answer me.”
“You know, I have absorbed everything you had learned and experienced just by sitting here.”
“…What?”
“With my intelligence, I am now stronger than you.”
This Fran, a fragment, had absorbed everything Ian had, which had resulted in him becoming stronger than Ian himself here.
“Why, you don’t believe me?”
“How can I when you always lie?”
“It’s been a long time since I heard that.”
Fran waved his hand, and their surroundings changed. They were now in a wide plain under a clear sky. Ian had trained with Fran here when he had experienced Fran’s past.
“Test me if you can’t believe me.”
“Test?”
“Check if I am stronger than you.”
There was no need to say anything more, and the victor, after a long fight, was Fran Page.
“Do you believe me now? Your expression says so. Just get up, son.”
Fran reached out with his hand.
“My teachings are just the beginning.”
**
“…Father.”
It was a deep cave, and a woman’s shaking voice rang the darkness.
“I am going to see the end.”
She was recording her voice in an old voice recording orb.
“I cannot endure this any longer. Mother passed away this morning. She worried about me to the end and said to me that you would come back after a little while. She told me that while you had taken time, you had always come back and that I should wait somehow.”
The woman hesitated for a second.
“Mother was stupid, wasn’t she. We’ve waited for twenty years.”
What had made her and her mother wait for twenty years?
“If I look back, I believe she was talking not out of faith but out of hope. Grandfather, Grandmother, Cousin Douglas, His Majesty, Sir Oliver, who all died, had always thought Ian Page as their last hope.”
She closed her eyes.
“Our resistance against the giant had been futile, and as everyone died out, we’ve all tried to bank our hopes on you, Father. That you, trapped in that ice, will come back and end our sufferings.”
When people meet the end of their rope, they try to find something to hold on. It may be their family, a lover, or a religion. The survivors of the giant’s attacks needed that, and Ian Page had become their last hope. He had been called the savior from some time ago.
“I think I believed this until I was seven, but I don’t know now. We’ve been separated too early for me to know anything about you.”
She never knew her father, which meant her faith in him was weaker than others.
“After learning magic from Mother and fighting against the monsters the giants created to hunt us down…I forgot about you.”
She added some more mana to the orb.
“But…you’re the only one I can say my last words. Everyone else died.”
There may be another survivor, but there was no one to Yohana and her deceased comrades’ knowledge.
“Father, I am going to fight. I cannot remain hiding against a monster who took everything I loved away from me.”
The woman with the light brown hair lowered the orb and took out her staff and the cape she had received from her mother. She placed the few remaining elixirs and potions on her belt.
“If you ever hear this, please kill the giant as painfully as possible.”
The woman’s anguished words ended here. She came out of the cave to see the world burning in red fire. It had been so for the past two decades.
“Let’s…go to my death.”
Yohana Page used the teleport spell only those over 8th class could use to disappear from the cave.