Chapter 86: It Has Always Been-
My five-minute timer ran out.
I recoiled into Hilda's docile embrace and silently endured the reduced impact of the backlash. It was around...
100 times weaker? Than the backlash of 6 hours.
It did come with its downsides, though:
I've overused the Book of Heresy.
A vague sensation of weakness linked me to my Manifestation. It wasn't enough to debilitate me, but it was a warning that if I pushed myself any further, I'd have to suffer severe consequences.
Consequences far beyond what I am currently capable of enduring.
"Uweee~"
Hilda was still in her green-eyed form, but I subdued her enough that she wasn't acting out inappropriately.
I wonder how long it'll last.
I wasn't sure.
I knew she had two Curses, one that applied sun-kissed golden eyes and another that applied emerald eyes, but Hilda herself wasn't familiar with their effects, so I didn't have any useful information.
Well, I certainly know the side effects of the emerald eyes now.
...Anyways.
We had less than half an hour before our arrival.
I could only pray that Hilda would awake from her stupor before then.
-----
"Uuuu..."
Shame flooded Hilda's face, her cheeks flushed bright red and her ears steamed up. Covering her face with both hands, she held her head down and to the side, facing away from me, who was still in her lap.
"I'm sorry!" Her voice was frantic, but certainly apologetic.
Don't think you can hide it from me, though.
Hilda was secretly happy.
I could kind of sense it in her voice.
She enjoyed every second of her perverted actions.
Clicking my tongue, "Oy. Hilda."
"Y, yes...?" Her voice hiccuped.
"Stop faking it. I know you secretly enjoyed it."
"N, no..." She turned into a mute, gulped, and, "...okay, maybe I did. I liked it."
Peeking through her fingers, she gazed down at me, "I loved the taste."
Wow.
Shameless.
"Kyaaa!"
Hilda swivelled her head aside with literal steam coming out of her scalp. I could only sigh with exasperation.
This is the girl I love?
This dumbass?
Saying so...
"Pft."
I happily chuckled at her antics; that's exactly what I love about her.
"What's funny!" Puffing her cheeks, she glared down at me sideways.
"Absolutely nothing~"
"Hmph!" Furrowing her brows, she swivelled her head to the other side this time. Her antics didn't have an end in sight.
But, the most adorable part of it all, in my not-so-humble, love-coated opinion:
She's keeping hold of me, preventing me from swaying or falling from her embrace, even as she messes around. She's taking care of me throughout it all, attempting to reduce the volume of pain I experience at all times.
"Okay, okay... That's enough messing around. We're almost there."
My words pulled Hilda back to reality. Her eyes lit up with realisation and a sense of remembrance, "Oh yeah! Don't use that power, don't hurt yourself."
Hilda remembered what she was initially trying to tell me before her Curse took over and almost turned the scene R18.
Nervously turning me around so that we sat face-to-face again, "Please, don't use it." Her gloomy eyes flashed with anxious nerves; she's worried that her Curses might take over again.
"What do you want to do then? Carry me around? I don't have a wheelchair like Yulei."
Pursing her lips, they twitched, then, nervously, "I, I can carry you... I've already been doing it all the time..."
"But not in front of others."
"T, true! But I'll do it!"
Her eyes focused up, her right hand pushed under my armpit and gripped my shoulder, her left hand planted gently on my face, "I'll do it for you. Okay?"
...I stared at Hilda for a moment.
Perhaps even a moment too long, because her stern face cracked with nerves again.
But, in the end...
"Okay. I'll let you."
...I accepted.
She exists for me, after all.
-----
The South-Western border of the Domain of Light.
A land presiding beneath the dominion of House Creston, Vanessa's family.
With my body tucked on Hilda's back, and my neck resting on her shoulder, I gazed silently at the vast land before me.
Oh.
I momentarily shut out all other noise;
I shut out the noise of the teenagers.
I shut out the noise of Esme's voice hurrying towards me.
I shut out the noise of the countless voices hissing and whispering madness in my ears.
It all drowned beneath the insanity of what lay in front of me. My pair of pure-white eyes was crushed underneath the pressure of what I was seeing; of what was curling around the word, capturing it all beneath its grasp.
At the edge of the Domain, veiling over the distant Uclidian Mountain Range...
Black and White.
An enormous veil of black and white covered the world.
From the edge of the horizon on my left, to the distant mist to my right. For hundreds of kilometres, it walled off the Domain of Light.
But not just to the left and right, it also shot upwards.
The wall towered up into the sky. It tore through the skies and far beyond what my eyes could capture.
It was an enclosure.
The Domain of Light-
A cage.
It's a cage.
I cut my connection with the vast wall and quickly captured the eyes of everyone around me; no one is looking at it.
Either they already know about it and are ignoring it...
Or they can't see it.
They definitely can't see it.
Hilda would have thrown a fit had she been able to see it.
"Alora?"
...Nevertheless, the inevitable arrived.
Pushing my gaze to the left, "Hilda, turn." Hilda followed my order and twisted to the side, allowing me a full view of the girl who could send my heart running like a wild horse with one gaze.
Bathed in swaths of her long, snow-white hair, Esme stared at me with a tense smile. Her golden eyes flickered with a sense of hope, despair, and an inevitable sense of loss all at once.
"...What happened?"
Her tense voice cracked with an underlying, seemingly faltering prayer.
A prayer that I would be fine;
That the truth that she arrived at would be incorrect;
That it's all a lie;
That I, her twin sister, am fine.
But that would be a lie.
And I don't want my sister to hate me, I don't want to hurt her, I would rather not lie...
Staring back into Esme's eyes from my high height, a brand-new sensation I haven't had the chance to experience in a long, long time, I responded with:
"I Ascended."
The truth.
"My sickness got worse and I can't move anymore."
"...Then when you were walking before?"
Instinctively, I attempted to shake my head, only to run into a dead end in that regard, "That was with my power. I can't do anything anymore without the aid of my power."
Esme solemnly nodded, then, carefully and cautiously, with worry that she might hurt me, she asked, "You can't use that power often? It would be convenient-"
"The little dummy can't!"
Hilda's panicked voice shut down Esme, "Eh, erm, I mean, no, she can't use it often..." Quickly realising that she had just had an outburst to the Lady Esme of Light, Hilda's head drooped, and I felt the fingers that were wrapped tight behind my back fiddling.
Esme gave Hilda a measured smile, one tinged with profound sorrow, "Okay."
But then she turned towards me, she gestured at me, "Can I have her?" Esme didn't use her authority as the daughter of His Majesty and the Mistress; instead, she asked, politely, from none other than a mere Sword Maid, for me.
"B, but..."
Hilda hesitated, and I knew what she was hesitating about.
She's my Sword Maid; she devoted her life to me, and, just minutes ago, I had allowed her to be the one to take care of me.
A part of her is feeling guilty, while the other half is...
Jealous.
Hilda wants to be the one to care for me, so having Esme enter the scene as a contender likely set her possessive alarms off.
Alas...
"Pass me over to Esme."
...This is Esme.
I can give anything to Esme, so, sorry, Hilda, this time around, Esme wins. Even if just temporarily, before I have her pass me back to you.
"Hng..."
Pouting with tender, jealous lips, Hilda, slowly, carefully, untangled me from her back and into a princess carry. The pain of the transfer was as annoying as a sting to the arm to the average person; of course, the pain was many, many, times worse.
But I digress.
With Hilda pushing me forwards and into Esme's extended arms, I stared up at her side profile through the mask's holes.
Perfection.
Her round chin was covered with tender, glowing skin; snow-white eyelashes fluttered above a sizzling pair of mesmerising golden eyes, and, behind it all, cascading like waterfalls to her waist was snow-white hair pulsating with a soul-enchanting shimmer.
Her smile; her face; her skin;
Perfect, my sister, my love, she's perfect.
Ba-dump.
My heart pounded with no rest, with no chance to recover from the erotica that had occurred moments ago in the carriage.
My love for my sister was unrefutable; it was too strong for my own good.
I love her; I adore her. She's my world.
"Alora." Cradling me, Esme wrapped her fingers over the back of my head.
"How are you feeling?"
I shrugged internally, "It could be worse."
Thump.
A knuckle landed on my mask right above my nose. She playfully knocked at the sleek mask.
"Don't say something sad like that."
Esme pressed me with her warmth; she pressed herself with my warmth. Her embrace pulled me deeper into the heat of her body.
It feels so nice.