Arc 1 - Epilogue – Unhappy Birthday

The sun's rays gently caressed Yu Valarfin's skin unlike the flames in the tower, telling him that August thirty had come.

He thought he was dead because he felt no pain. The gentle breeze and the sunlight felt nice on his skin, but he was still afraid of the concept of death after all he had been through.

"I failed... Again... Again... I am happy to be alive... I'm happy."

He was happy to be alive again, just like before, but his happiness made him angry. Yu didn't want to be happy, he didn't deserve to be happy.

"Wake up! Get up! You disgusting thing!"

Neko kicked Yu violently in the stomach, forcing him to face her.

Yu looked at Neko with watery eyes. The little girl's sweet clothes were covered in blood, sweat and soot. Her face was also black from the smoke and her hair was sticky from the combination of blood and sweat. Fortunately she was not injured, she must have healed herself when she woke up.

The same was true for Yu. His clothes, skin and hair were the dictionary definition of filthy, but there were no burns, no swelling, no wounds of any kind. Neko had healed him too.

But even though she had healed him, she was not kind.

"We are alive," Yu said. He was both sad and happy to be alive. His eyes were dirty and dark as tears streamed down his sooty cheeks.

As he breathed in and out, a painful smile settled on his lips. He couldn't even understand what he was feeling because of his jumbled emotions, but a kick to his stomach left Yu breathless.

"DON'T SAY WE'RE ALIVE! DON'T SAY YOU'RE HAPPY! MURDERER!"

Neko was in a rage, kicking Yu repeatedly, not giving him a chance to express himself.

Eventually he vomited blood from his crushed organs. Although Neko had the body of a child, she was stronger than an adult because her body was filled with mana.

In the cat-eared girl's eyes were emotions tasted for the first time. Anger, grief, regret, hatred, she was drowning in all these negative emotions. She swallowed hard as she wiped her tears with her sleeve.

"Because of you..." The same word spilled from her trembling lips as she tried to regulate her breathing. "Murderer..." She needed someone to blame and right now Yu was the only one. "Because of you, murderer..."

The word was etched in Yu's mind. Yu couldn't refuse to blame. Neko had tried to join the fight between Rie and Sorrow, but Yu had held her back, wouldn't let her. Even though she was up against Sorrow, somehow Neko used magic. That case she could even save her mother.

"...Because of me... My..." His mind was trying to finish the sentence that she couldn't finish.

Yu Valarfin held Neko and Rie died because of him.

Yu Valarfin killed Rie.

Yu Valarfin killed Neko's Mother.

Yu Valarfin left her orphan.

"I thought she couldn't do magic, I thought the Sorrow would kill her if I let her go..." Yu couldn't speak and defend himself. "No, it's a lie. That's a lie. I was just scared. Rie is dead because of me. It's my fault, it's my fault, IT'S MY FAULT!"

Yu had killed Sorrow. Alone, without help. If he had gone to help Rie, if he had confronted Sorrow instead of Rie, Rie might be alive today.

"I'm sorry," he said. He had no choice but to admit his guilt, but his apology earned him a kick as he slowly got to his feet.

Neko kicked him in the jaw. "You're apologizing? You're apologizing to me? What I'll do with an apology!"

The wind spell she sent at him dragged him through the grass. Frightened by the girl coming at him, Yu tried to crawl on his elbows to get away from her, but Neko caught up to him and gave him another kick in the stomach.

"You'll bring her back..."

Neko mumbled, Yu couldn't quite understand what she was saying. Neko's lips moved and words came out that Yu couldn't hear.

"...You will bring... You will... You'll bring her back... YOU WILL BRING HER BACK! I'M TELLING YOU TO BRING HER BACK! BRING HER BACK! BRING HER BACK!"

Neko lost her composure again. The girl's voice rang in Yu's ears and he could do nothing but watch her without understanding what she was saying.

"What?" What did she mean by bring it back?

"DON'T SAY WHAT! BRING HER BACK! GIVE ME BACK WHAT YOU STOLE!"

Another wind spell was sent through Yu's body, this time sinking him into the ground. Hearing his bones crunching, Yu's eyes welled up with tears.

What exactly did this girl want from him? What did she mean by bringing her back? It didn't take Yu long to realize.

"If it wasn't for me, her Blessing would have allowed Rie to live."

He was ashamed of himself, ashamed that he didn't want to die, ashamed that he was happy to be alive. If he had not been there, Rie would not have wasted his blessing and would have survived. "It's because of me," his mind threw his guilt back in his face. "I killed Rie."

"Don't look at me with that pathetic expression..."

How could he look different when guilt settled in his chest like a black hole sucking the life energy out of him? No matter how much he apologized, it was unacceptable, his regret was useless. There was no way to make up for his mistake.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!"

Yu's pitiful expression made Neko even angrier and she attacked Yu with another spell. Yu, who vomited blood as the spell hit his body, thought for a moment that he was going to die, and with the same fear of death, he uttered the sentence that made him hate himself in his mind.

"I don't want to die."

That's what he thought all the times he came close to death, and he was happy after those moments. He didn't want to think like that, he hated himself. He hated himself for being happy.

"I'M TELLING YOU! I'M TELLING YOU YOU'LL BRING HER BACK! I'M TELLING YOU YOU'LL BRING MOTHER BACK!"

If there was a way to bring the dead back to life, he would have done it for his sisters, but there wasn't, the dead don't come back. When you died, it was over. There was nothing behind death. Did Neko know how many nights after his sisters' deaths he cried because of the realization?

"She must be talking about the Blessing. Does she want me to give it back? Will Rie come back if I give up the Blessing?" But the most important question was, "Do I have the courage to do it?"

"My mom told me," Neko lowered her voice and forced herself to speak in a calm tone. "She said it is possible to turn back time. If we turn back time, if we go back before her death, we can save her. You will save her! I say you will save her! She died because of you, you will save her!"

Depending on Yu's answer, what Neko would do would change. She began to build up wind to use when she heard an answer she didn't want.

"That's impossible."

Rie had managed to bring her back from the dead, but she also pointed out that she could only defeat death once. "Is it possible to save her by returning the Virgo Blessing?" That was the only method that came to mind instead of thinking about turning back time.

"I don't have the courage to do that..." Without letting Yu think any longer, Neko sent another spell and the wind hit the side of Yu's head, lifting the ground into the air.

"You are not fit for my mother's Blessings. If I do not heal you, the Blessings will continue to cause you pain and eventually kill you. You have no choice but to do as I say."

He was being threatened.

"If you go and tell others that you have the Blessings, then they will kill you to take them away from you. You have to do what I say, you have to give me back my mother to get rid of the Blessings forever."

So it was confirmed that the things that went into his body were Azer's Blessings. Yu had taken the Virgo Blessing and the Orion Blessing together.

"I can't bring her back with the Virgo Blessing, can I?"

"Stupid creature! Don't you understand anything? If you could use them you wouldn't have suffered, they hurt you because your vile body was not suited for them."

So it was zero, he had no power.

"There are so many questions to be answered."

He knew nothing, so he had to believe what Neko said. He stood up and covered his eyes with his hand so he could look at the sun. The sun burning his eyes reminded him of the reality of the world.

If he objected, he could be killed by Neko. Even if he was not killed by Neko, Neko told him that the Blessings he had received would kill him. He needed Neko's healing magic.

Yu had to accept the mission, even though he didn't know how he would succeed. He was not sure he could succeed and his faith in success was very weak. "But apart from the healing spell, I don't want to regret this time." Regret and guilt were the main reasons that made him stand up.

"The clowns were there to kill Rie. Why did they want to kill Rie? What's behind what happened? Why did the Sigma Tower burn down? What's the relationship between the clowns and Rie? What was Rie actually? But what we really need to find out is," He turned to Neko, looking into the red eyes of the cat-eared little girl. "How do we turn back time?"

Going back in time was a subject that had been dealt with in many works before. Even on his own world, Yu Valarfin knew that it was impossible, even though theories had been made about it. "But it was not a fantasy world. Maybe in this world, maybe a way..."

If it was possible to have a chance to make things right, he would like to try, but he found it hard to believe, even unbelievable. "I know it's not possible, but I am still guilty!" The guilt was forcing him to walk a path he didn't believe in.

"There is a place called Nekoverine, my mother told me about it."

The name included Neko's name. Was there a meaning in her name?

"Where is it?"

"I don't know."

They had a mysterious place to find. How to find it was a mystery.

"What do we do?" Neko had already started talking with 'we'.

"First, we need to get cleaned up and take care of our basic needs. Do you have a home? Does Rie have a friend? I see you have a relationship with an academy."

"We've lived in two different places so far, the first in Mora, the second at the Wizarding Academy. My mom... I can't say she has friends. That's all I know about all your questions."

Given the limited information they had, the difficulty of the task was far greater than Yu had imagined.

"I don't think this is going to be a great adventure. We need money, we need a lot of money. I don't even know what we're going to do, but we're definitely going to need money. There are things we need to learn, but first we need money and a place to stay."

"I don't have money."

"Neither do I."

So he was going to sell his phone and get enough money to support himself for a while. "I'm smart. I'll figure it out."

It was not an empty boast, Yu was confident in his intelligence. If it is possible to turn back time, he can somehow find a way to do it.

"But I don't have the strength to walk that way."

Still, he wanted to try. If it was possible to reduce his guilt even a little, he would try.

"What I got for my birthday is a terrible day and an impossible task. My worst birthday ever."